(McCluskey family photo)
SALT LAKE CITY – The police detective who was assigned to investigate the harassment claims made by University of Utah student Lauren McCluskey is no longer on the job. McCluskey was later murdered by the very man she had called police about.
The University of Utah is not allowed to confirm if Detective Kayla Dallof was fired or if she left on her own, but, they can confirm she is no longer with campus police.
“She worked for us from March of 2016 to March 6 of this year,” according to University Spokesman Chris Nelson.
Why weren’t McCluskey’s claims investigated immediately? Nelson says a review of the aftermath of the shooting showed the claims were assigned to Dallof when she was off-duty. By the time she returned to work, Nelson says the case was just one of several in Dallof’s growing workload.
However, since the results of the review were released, Nelson says they’ve made some big changes to make sure future claims are looked into, right away.
“When a person comes with an issue, if a detective is unavailable right then, there’s a sergeant or another officer that can take that. That’s one of the 30 recommendations that came out from our review,” Nelson says, adding, “We need to make sure we have other folks available to take on these, as well.”
Also, they’re increasing the number of people who work for their police department.
“We’re in the process of hiring a victim advocate. We’re in the process of hiring a new detective, a new patrol officer and a new community relations person.”