In the News
The Salt Lake Tribune reported on fierce backlash against Salt Lake City’s proposed camping ordinance expansion, which would ban sleeping overnight in vehicles on public property. The debate captures a tension cities across Utah are navigating as they try to address genuine public disorder without overcriminalizing the people caught up in it.
Here’s My Take
Drug use, harassment, and obstruction are already illegal, and no camping ordinance removes those behaviors from public spaces. What overbroad ordinances do instead is add citations to write, cases to process, and people to cycle through an already strained system. When I helped draft Provo’s camping ordinance at the City Attorney’s office, that was always the core question: does this tool address the harm, or just the person? I’d already seen it from the other side, having lived out of my own truck while interning at the Washington County Attorney’s Office. I wasn’t harming or bothering anyone, but a criminal charge for trying to save money would have derailed my future career.
Broad laws give broad discretion. The hope is always that enforcement will stay narrow and targeted, but after a decade in prosecution, I can tell you that what the law captures, the law eventually charges—regardless of original intent.
Closing
Public disorder concerns are real, and residents deserve effective responses. But overcriminalization is at its most counterproductive reaches people not causing harm while leaving the underlying disorder untouched. The criminal code should not be used as a substitute for thoughtful public safety policy.
Libertas is constantly working to find and promote solutions that address genuine disorder without broadly criminalizing victimless conduct.
