Utah Department of Public Safety — six requests on the UVU homicide investigation, all denied (P014181, P014497, P014498, P014531, P015658, P015659)
What we asked for: six specific records from the investigation of the September 10, 2025 shooting at Utah Valley University. P014181 (Aug 4): the evidence records for the backpack, jacket, and gloves picked up near the Fulton Library bus stops; any message from the State Bureau of Investigation to the FBI lab about whether those items were connected to the case or whether testing should stop; any finding about who owned them; and, if they were given back, to whom and when. P014531 (Aug 7): any report reconstructing the shot's path or origin, and any sound analysis of recordings of the shot — or written confirmation that none exists. P014498 (Aug 7) and P015658 (Aug 24, re-filed): the police report of the interview with the homeowners whose Nest doorbell camera recorded a vehicle parked on their street overnight September 10–11, 2025 (names could be blacked out). P014497 (Aug 7) and P015659 (Aug 25, re-filed): not the doorbell video itself, but the records of how police got it, the file details (resolution, length, timestamps), and any editing or re-encoding before the version played in court.
What we got: a denial of all six, and no records. DPS sent the denials one after another on the evening of September 14, 2026. Each request drew two emails. The first is a letter signed by Records Manager Tina Rodriguez that says the records are exempt "for the following reasons:" and then lists none. The second gives the reason, word for word the same for all six: the records "have been classified as private and protected pursuant to Utah Code Ann.§§ 63G-2-305(10)" (the rule for records whose release could interfere with an investigation or a fair trial), because the matter "is still under active investigation" and release "could reasonably be expected to interfere with investigations and enforcement proceedings, as well as the prosecution of the subject, and would create a risk of depriving the subject of a fair trial or impartial hearing." P014531 got the second email twice. The same wording was used for the two requests that asked only for processing records about the doorbell video (P014497, P015659), not the video.
Appeal: each notice says the decision can be appealed within 30 days to DPS Commissioner Beau Mason. Each file below holds the DPS acknowledgment, which quotes the request in full, followed by the denial emails.
P014181 — bus-stop items P014531 — shot path and sound analysis P014498 — homeowner interview P015658 — homeowner interview (re-filed) P014497 — doorbell video processing P015659 — doorbell video processing (re-filed) six PDFs, 4–5 pages each