SALT LAKE CITY, UT- Just over a year ago, officials in Salt Lake City, Utah’s largest city, as well as state Republicans, expressed their displeasure with what they believed was a spate of crime and homelessness in the city. That prompted the former police chief, Mike Brown, to announce his retirement, according to the Utah News Dispatch.
Now, roughly a year later, arrests are up, and increased enforcement on camping and overall crime has led leaders to express satisfaction with the direction of the Salt Lake City Police Department under new police chief Brian Redd.
Two of those officials, House Speaker Mike Schultz and Mayor Erin Mendenhall, praised Redd’s performance, with Schultz saying he has done “great work” and Mendenhall claiming he has shown “true leadership.”
Despite that, they also took time out to look back on Brown’s leadership after the publication of an inquiry that blamed Brown’s leadership for past problems that plagued the SLCPD.
That audit panel, co-chaired by Schultz and Senate President Stuart Adams, designated the review a priority at last November’s meeting, which took place about a month before they called upon Mendenhall to “restore public confidence, security, and safety” in the capital city.
Mendenhall responded by releasing a “wide-ranging plan,” the Dispatch reported, with Brown announcing less than a month later that he was planning to retire.
The legislative audit released last week noted poor culture and morale within the department, which it attributed to Brown’s “poor leadership.” Brown, who led the agency for 10 years before stepping down this past February, disputes the findings, calling it a “political attack” that “functioned as a vehicle to present a manufactured partisan indictment, not a fair and independent inquiry.”
In an emailed statement, Brown said the legislative auditors never contacted him and did not request a response to their findings.
“That deliberate omission is more revealing than any conclusion they have tried to represent as objective,” he wrote.
In their report, the auditors wrote that “the previous chief’s inability to make decisions empowered civilian risk-management advisors to effectively lead the department,” while noting that oversight and planning didn’t appear to be priorities and claiming some officers were paid for hours they didn’t work and that administrative leave was “misused.”
However, Brown disputes the findings and defended his record leading the department, saying under his leadership the agency delivered “innovative policing strategies, stronger community engagement, and safer streets. Those results are still being felt across the city today and carrying it forward.”
Meanwhile, Mendenhall and Redd said they’re working collaboratively on a new vision for the SLCPD. They noted that funding from the state legislature has been a boon in helping recruit and retain officers.
“We’re going to keep working hand in glove as we undo the challenges that this department faced over the years, and the audit has helped provide great clarity for us,” Mendenhall said.
Chief Redd noted that the department is currently at “full strength” and that crime has declined this year. That said, there has been a rise in violent crime driven by cases of rape and sexual assault reported by people as they’re being booked into jail.
Redd noted that officers who were disciplined for hours not worked before he became chief in March 2025 were disciplined, and the department has changed how officers report their hours, with a new system scheduled to go live in the first quarter of next year.
House Minority Leader Angela Romero, a Salt Lake City Democrat, told Mendenhall and Redd, “With you leading, I fully trust we’re going to get to where we need to.” She noted that, in addition to being a part-time legislator, she is also an employee of Salt Lake City.
House Majority Leader Casey Snider, a Republican from Paradise, Utah, added, “You have stepped up, and it is noticeable.”
Aside from reviewing the police department, the auditors also looked at the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office, the Salt Lake County Jail, and the overall criminal justice system in the county on a global basis, focusing on repeat offenders.
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