About 80 percent of those who are incarcerated in Utah suffer from some sort of addiction and a third of inmates are sex offenders, state corrections officials told Utah lawmakers yesterday. And Mike Haddon, Deputy Director of the Department of Corrections, says since 1982, the incarceration rate has grown by 408 percent. He says typically, the state contracts with county sheriffs for additional beds, but they anticipate the prison system will occupy all of them by 2015. So what does the state do after that?

Law enforcement officers are getting more serious about enforcing the rules at Parley’s Historic Nature Park. Beginning Monday, Salt Lake County Councilman Steve DeBry, who is also a Unified Police Department Deputy Chief, says the UPD will begin writing tickets to visitors who don’t follow regulations, rather than just issuing a warning.

This week police officers interested in joining the Salt Lake City Police Department’s SWAT team are attending SWAT school. Fifteen officers from seven different agencies are being tested physically, emotionally and academically to see if they have what it takes to join the unit. Tactical Commander Rich Brede says the candidates are doing drills 15 hours a day and they’re not easy.

Salt Lake City leaders are in the midst of discussions about the growing problem of panhandling. Downtown Alliance Executive Director Jason Mathis says several downtown business owners, social service agencies and Salt Lake City Police Chief Chris Burbank met earlier this week to discuss panhandling laws, how to help stop it and what services are available to those in need.

Nearly a hundred people filled a room at the Weber County Main Library in Ogden last night to support Mathew David Stewart, the Ogden man who faces the death penalty after he shot and killed a police officer and wounded five others during a January drug raid at his home. As KCPW’s Whittney Evans reports, supporters say the tragedy is a result of violent drug policies and aggressive law enforcement tactics that need to change.

After having an open records request denied, the Salt Lake Tribune made its case before the West Valley City Council this week to have the city release all its documents regarding the investigation into the disappearance of Susan Cox Powell, who was last seen in December 2009. Her husband, Josh Powell, who killed himself and the couple’s two young children earlier this year, was the only person of interest in the case.

Restoring self worth and value to victims of sex trafficking is a common theme at the 2012 Trafficking In Persons Symposium being held in Salt Lake City this week. As KCPW’s Whittney Evans reports, law enforcement leaders, educators, advocates, survivors and other experts are talking about why it takes more than locking up perpetrators to solve the problem.

Law enforcement leaders and victims’ rights advocates from across North America are gathering in Salt Lake City today. The 2012 Trafficking in Persons Symposium will look at how to bring more awareness to the problem and hold traffickers more accountable. Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, who will speak at the event, says trafficking happens in Utah every day.

West Valley City Police Chief “Buzz” Nielsen still believes he made the right decision by not arresting Josh Powell after his wife Susan’s 2009 disappearance. Nielsen says there was probable cause to make the arrest, but he feared there wouldn’t be enough evidence to win the case, especially considering his wife’s body has not been recovered.

The Salt Lake Branch of the NAACP hosted a forum last night to educate the public on interacting with law enforcement and support justice for Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old who was shot and killed by a neighborhood watch captain in Sanford, Florida. KCPW’s Whittney Evans reports on what the organization and local law enforcement had to say about the case.