The state spends a significant amount of money advertising its many attractions to would-be tourists, inviting them to visit Utah. Yet, for some unfortunate tourists, their first “Utah experience” is a meeting with a Salt Lake City police officer.
This is because these tourists are some of the thousands of Utahns using Turo, a peer-to-peer car sharing app, essentially renting a vehicle directly from a local resident. And the police, with the airport’s assistance, are currently targeting and criminally charging these individuals.
Utah is one of the first states to apply criminal charges to these transactions; those involved are being charged with misdemeanors for simply conducting “unauthorized business at the airport” — even though they are merely picking someone up at curbside, just like a taxi, Uber or a friend.