Utah
Utah’s top law enforcer says parents need this tool in case their child gets abducted
LEHI, Utah — The kidnapping of a kid is a mother or father’s nightmare.
When a kidnapping does occur, each minute and hour that passes “might be very a lot the distinction between bringing somebody dwelling or not,” Utah Lawyer Common Sean Reyes mentioned.
That’s why the state reinstated a program that helps dad and mom hold figuring out details about their kids available if the worst-case situation happens and so they go lacking. The Nationwide Youngster ID program offers kits to take a baby’s fingerprint, hold a DNA pattern, photograph and essential medical details about them in a single place.
The nationwide program started about 25 years in the past after 9-year-old Amber Hagerman was kidnapped and murdered in Texas in 1996. The case additionally prompted the Amber Alert system’s creation. However the federal authorities stopped funding the Youngster ID program just a few years in the past, Reyes famous.
Utah and different states have seen a have to deliver it again, nonetheless, and now the Beehive State is main in its work to get the kits into the palms of each Okay-12 mother or father.
“And if one thing, heaven forbid, occurs to their youngster, they will pull this out and supply it to regulation enforcement,” and regulation enforcement can use it to doubtlessly discover the kid, in response to Wealthy Piatt, spokesman with the Utah Lawyer Common’s Workplace.
Youngster abductions by a stranger are “comparatively uncommon” within the regulation enforcement world, however once they occur they’re “horrific,” Piatt mentioned as he met with others on the Lehi Police Division to rejoice town’s efforts to offer it to each scholar.
With the assistance of faculty useful resource officers, town distributed the kits to each Okay-12 youngster, Lehi leaders mentioned.
Lehi Police Lt. Chad Ray mentioned his division is happy to entry this system.
“It’s one thing that we imagine shall be actually helpful,” he mentioned, including that even firefighters will have the ability to use the data once they get referred to as to assist with lacking kids instances.
Piatt mentioned Weber County has additionally distributed tons of of the kits. Mother and father can log on to request the kits by visiting attorneygeneral.utah.gov/protect-kids-with-child-id-kit/, or discover them at their native sheriff’s workplace.
“This instrument is barely nearly as good, as a lot as dad and mom take the time to fill it out with their kids. In any other case, we will move out as many of those youngster ID kits and never fulfill the mission, which is to empower households,” Reyes mentioned.
“As a mother or father myself, I’d do something to guard my six kids from even the slightest menace,” he mentioned.
Final yr, 165 kids had been reported lacking in Utah, in response to Reyes. As of immediately, 16 of these instances stay energetic.
The data included within the youngster ID kits doesn’t get entered right into a database, as dad and mom are inspired to maintain it in a secure place of their dwelling and replace it as their youngster grows.
Officers mentioned the state funded roughly 50%, and companies — together with Johnson and Johnson, Vivint and Rocky Mountain Energy — helped complement the funding. The state spent $860,000 to get this system kickstarted. That first spherical of funding was sufficient to produce each present Okay-12 scholar, and the Utah Legislature handed a invoice that gives $139,000 annually to maintain this system going.
Reyes mentioned because the program was reinstated final yr in Utah, regulation enforcers to date haven’t used the kits in any instances but — and authorities hope they don’t ever have to make use of the kits.
However they might make a distinction. With out the package, it may take minutes or hours for police to entry a DNA pattern from an merchandise within the youngster’s dwelling — and so they may by no means discover data that may be saved contained in the package, Reyes mentioned.
Ray mentioned when police arrive at an kidnapped youngster’s dwelling, the very first thing they do is get a photograph of the kid. The package can save police that point, as dad and mom would have that image simply accessible, he mentioned.
Reyes and different leaders mentioned they need to promote this system to communities throughout the state — and throughout the nation. Utah can be serving to Mexicali in Baja California, which Reyes says has a excessive charge of abductions, by donating 50,000 youngster ID kits to the federal government there.
Utah
Utah family creates 'Giving Gallery' to spread joy of art
COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS, Utah — You might have heard of little libraries in neighborhoods, but have you heard of Giving Galleries?
A family in Cottonwood Heights is using their love for art to bring joy to those around them.
On the corner of Promenade and Camino is Abigail Bradshaw.
“I’m standing next to an art gallery, my art gallery. That’s my house,” she proudly said.
Abigail is showing her tiny art gallery filled with pieces made by her family and others who want to contribute. This home used to be her great-grandmother’s.
“She was an artist, and so, I wanted to continue that legacy,” said Katie Bradshaw, Abigail’s mom. They found a box, painted it, propped it up, and filled it with tiny art. Anyone can just look at the art, pick up something they like, or put their own piece inside.
Miles Jacobsen is a friend who saw what the Bradshaws were doing and added his artwork to the box.
For people who want to make their own masterpieces, there is also a box of free art supplies in the gallery box. You can come by to pick up paint, paintbrushes, and tiny canvasses to create your own art, which you can drop off at the “giving gallery” to bring joy to someone else.
“I feel really glad that people come and get some art and put it in there,” said Abigail.
Filling the box is something Katie does with her kids.
“I hope that they can carry this with them, that they continue sharing art, no matter where they are,” she said.
Spreading joy to everyone who walks by, and letting the cycle continue.
“I want them to feel happy and glad that they got some, so they could return some back here,” added Abigail.
Utah
Amid traffic, Utah walked to Leafs’ arena pregame
TORONTO — The Utah Hockey Club said players were forced to walk to their game against the Maple Leafs after their bus got stuck in Toronto traffic Sunday night.
The team posted a video on social media of team members walking to Scotiabank Arena, with player Maveric Lamoureux saying the bus was “not moving at all.”
Several city streets had been closed during the day for an annual Santa Claus parade.
The Maple Leafs earned their fourth consecutive win by defeating Utah 3-2.
The viral incident prompted Ontario Premier Doug Ford to call the congestion “embarrassing” and “unacceptable,” highlighting his government’s plan to address the city’s gridlock through bike lane legislation.
It wasn’t the first time a Toronto visitor had to ditch their vehicle to make it to an event on time.
In June, former One Direction band member Niall Horan had to walk through traffic to get to his concert at Scotiabank Arena.
Utah
Utah Highway Patrol responds to your suggestions on making Utah roads safer
SALT LAKE CITY — FOX 13 News is Driven to Change and that includes bringing you reports on important topics like road rage, construction, and wrong-way drivers. During our coverage, we continually ask for any questions or concerns you may have along Utah’s roadways.
The feedback has gotten an enormous response, so FOX 13 sat down with Lieutenant Cameron Roden on Good Day Utah to help address input we have been getting, from the perspective of Utah Highway Patrol.
Speeding in Utah, there’s so much of it, and then you can sometimes say that that leads to tailgating, which may lead to road rage incidents. What are you seeing out there in terms of speed and what can we do to lessen the effects of that?
Lt. Cameron Roden: Speed is our number one thing that we see. That’s our number one traffic stop that we make, and we know that it leads to the majority of crashes in the state of Utah. So we definitely put an emphasis on speed and it does lead to other things. Not just crashes. It leads to road rage and other things .So, as far as what changes can we make, we need to start with ourselves, and really say, ‘Hey, do I have a problem?’ You know, we just need to start with ourselves and not think that it’s something else’s problem. If we slow our speeds ourselves, and then it’ll start to to catch on and people will do that speed limit. So, but the legislature has definitely taken some steps to help us address, especially the the speeds that are those excessive speeds where we have that one zero five law now that addresses those speeds and increases fines and and hopefully discourages people from those extreme speeds.
Some of our viewers talked about maybe capping some of the speed limits for truck drivers. Is that something that’s even feasible?
You know, that would be something that would have to go through that, that legislative process to see whether we that would be something that would help. But ultimately, if we we start with ourselves, hopefully that will make that change and reduce crashes and fatalities.
There are things being done to try and intervene and stop wrong-way drivers before they happen. But some of our viewers propose things like spikes. What are your thoughts on implementing something like that?
We’ve had over the last several years, a rash of wrong-way drivers, and it’ll come in onesie twos, and then we’ll go for a period of time without that. And so, but this spike over the last couple of years has caused us to to create a task force to look at wrongly driving what things can be done. And so getting all these stakeholders together between UDOT and Highway Safety, looking at what technologies and things that could be implemented, and and things like, wrong way detection cameras. Those are some things that are being actually used in the state of Utah right now to help us spot those and and advance signage, getting people to realize they’re going the wrong way and turn around. The the spike strips have actually been talked about in our task force a little bit. And if something like that would even be, it is that technology available right now. And as what we could actually implement in the state of Utah, there’s nothing that really fits the bill right now because of our environment. We have our snow plows. We have snow and things like that. Something like that really wouldn’t be practical right now.
Probably the most talked about topic that we’ve received was distracted driving, texting while driving. You went out, I saw on the UHP social media page, that you guys just driving and you look to your right and left and you can find someone texting. What kind of enforcement do we have against distracted driving specifically on your phone?
This is something that we like you said, we see it every day. We go out to crashes,and and we may suspect that a driver may be distracted. And so, it’s something that’s definitely under-reported. It’s it’s a bigger problem than than the numbers really show.And so not only do we address it during our normal patrols.Our officers are seeing it, and addressing it while they’re out there.But we’ll also do targeted patrols where the highway safety office actually gives out additional funds for that targeted enforcement, where we’ll get an unmarked vehicle. We go out driving down the roads where we try to spot these vehicles and and get them stopped because those are those are a big danger on our roadways where our attention and our focus needs to be on driving.
If you have ideas or suggestions for how to make Utah’s roadways safer click here to be taken to our Driven to Change form. There you can share your ideas or suggestions.
DRIVEN TO CHANGE
Share your ideas on how to make Utah’s roads safer
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