This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
The Utah House passed a bill Friday designed to resolve arguments between federal and local, rural law officials over who has jurisdiction on public lands.
"We've had a lot of problems with that. I believe this is coming to a head. I want to make sure we don't have any blue-on-blue actions," said Rep. Mike Noel, R-Kanab, sponsor of HB391.
It passed on a 65-8 vote, and was sent to the Senate.
Noel earlier told a committee that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has become an unbearable police presence in southern Utah, encroaching on the authority of local officials.
"It is a problem brought to me numerous times by the Utah Sheriffs' Association," said Noel, whose son is the Beaver County sheriff.
"This jurisdictional issue needs to be resolved. I don't believe they [federal officers] have the right to be out there except as a proprietary officer for protecting their own resources [such as timber and artifacts]. I definitely don't believe they have the right to arrest you or me for traffic citations or violations on county roads."
The bill outlines a process in which county commissioners or sheriffs need to document whether federal law officers are violating federal and state law, including federal laws saying agencies such as the BLM are supposed to contract with local law agencies for law enforcement where possible.
It requires consultation with the state attorney general over the findings. If local leaders determine that federal agencies have exceeded their authority, the bill requires that they write to them and demand that they cease such actions.
If the federal agency does not agree to do so within a set time, the bill would require the local official to "pursue all available legal remedies."
Two years ago, a federal judge invalidated another law Noel had sponsored that went further and essentially would have handcuffed federal land agencies' law enforcement functions.