SAFETY FIRST House Bill 28 grants U Police Department the authority to remove threatening individuals from campus

U Police Department keeps a close watch over campus, responding to emergency calls and escorting uneasy students back to the dorms in the dark. One bill that recently passed through both the Utah Senate and the House of Representatives is designed to help police make campus safer.
HB 28 was sponsored by Rep. Don Ipson, R-St. George. He has been working on the bill since the legislative session last spring. The bill amends laws currently governing campus law enforcement. This gives university and college presidents and those they appoint, such as campus police forces, the authority to order offending individuals off campus.
The bill defines university campuses as private property, and once it goes into effect, threatening individuals can be charged with a class B misdemeanor on first or second conviction. On repeat offense, the charge is increased to a class A misdemeanor.
Ipson said the bill will fill a gap in the existing law.
“Higher education campuses have had issues of trespass,” Ipson said. “We didn’t have the statute and the tools that law enforcement needed to move these people off the campus that were creating potential harm to students.”
Persons can be ordered off campus if law enforcement has reasonable cause to believe that they intend to injure another person, damage property, commit a crime, disrupt the university or its operations or recklessly endanger others.
Though the bill seems straightforward, supporters had to add amendments to appease gun activists, who feared that the bill as originally drafted might infringe on gun owner rights.
Ipson put a hold on his own bill on the third day of the session to address these concerns.
“It’s not a gun bill,” he said. “We just need to clarify that.”
The added amendments clarify that persons cannot be ordered off campus merely because they are carrying a firearm.
Ipson said that the final wording of the bill satisfied both gun activists and campus security personnel.
“We’ve worked on it … with the gun rights people, the shooting council, the NRA,” Ipson said. “They’ve signed off. All of the campus chiefs of police have signed off on the language of this. It’s a bill that simply gives them the tools to make our higher education campuses safer.”
Rep. Curtis Oda, R-Clearfield, voiced support of the bill in House debate.
“I think it’s going to be a very good bill,” Oda said.
Once the amendments were approved, the bill passed easily through both houses on the Hill. A draft of the final bill is being prepared for the governor’s signature. Once approved, the new law will go into effect May 13 — 60 days after the end of the session.
Keith Sterling, communications director at the U, said the bill will give U authorities more clout.
“While our campus is generally very safe, these changes will give additional authority to our administrators to ensure the security of students, faculty, staff and visitors,” he said.
Campus police declined to comment.