By McKenzie Romero | Editor
Utah’s lethality assessment law seems simple. Police responding to a domestic violence call ask 11 questions to determine whether there is risk of greater — potentially deadly — violence. If the answer is yes, the officer refers the victim to resources like advocates and shelter.
But data from the Utah Domestic Violence Coalition show thousands of Utahns deemed to be in danger aren’t being connected to help, leaving them vulnerable and possibly discouraging them from seeking help a second time.
In today’s Dispatch we examine the holes in Utah’s domestic violence assessment law, how much the federal government wasted in its push to detain more immigrants, and a lack of monitoring for absenteeism in schools.
“It’s also going to back up a lot of the things that their abuser has told them, which is, ‘no one’s going to believe you, there’s not really help out there for you, I don’t know what you think you’re going to do, but you’re stuck.’” — Ashley Daniels, a victim advocate with the YCC Family Crisis Center in Ogden, on what can happen if domestic violence survivors don’t receive promised services.
A display of purple flags raises awareness for domestic violence outside the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office in Salt Lake City on Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
By Annie Knox
Over a yearlong period ending in June, domestic violence organizations received 6,458 referrals from police for victims deemed at high risk, according to the Utah Domestic Violence Coalition. Of those, about 28% included a phone call from the scene to an advocate. Similarly, in each of the program’s first two years, the “warm handoff” call did not happen most of the time.
When a call doesn’t come in, organizations learn of the cases from emails generated by a state portal where officers must submit the assessments right away or “as soon as practicable.” They are not required to include a phone number for survivors of abuse.
People protest outside a planned ICE detention facility in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, March 18, 2026. (Photo by Spenser Heaps for Utah News Dispatch)
DC BUREAU
By Ariana Figueroa
The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office has released a report that found the Department of Homeland Security wasted more than $20 million in federal funding in its rapid expansion of immigration detention, including warehouse purchases strongly opposed in numerous U.S. communities.
The report also looked at $1.07 billion spent buying up 11 warehouses. DHS officials confirmed in court filings they no longer intend to convert a Salt Lake City warehouse into a massive immigration detention center. The department purchased the industrial facility for $145.4 million earlier this year, one of its most expensive purchases in the push for more detention space.
Fourth graders sit at their classroom tables in Oklahoma City. (Photo by Nuria Martinez-Keel/Oklahoma Voice)
STATELINE
By Robbie Sequeira
The U.S. Department of Education’s suspension this year of a comprehensive monitoring process puts billions of K-12 dollars at heightened risk of undetected waste, fraud and abuse, according to a new report by the nonpartisan U.S. Government Accountability Office.
Officials from the Department of Education told GAO the department suspended its consolidated monitoring of Elementary and Secondary Education Act requirements while it develops a new approach. But as of August, the department had not provided a timeline for resuming the reviews or details on an alternative for making sure states comply with federal requirements.
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