Salt Lake City’s police chief is stepping down after nearly a decade on the job.
Mike Brown, who took on the Salt Lake City Police Department’s top role in 2015, will retire at the end of the month, Mayor Erin Mendenhall’s office announced in a Wednesday news release.
“Mayor Mendenhall is grateful for Chief Brown’s work over the course of her administration,” the release states, “but has determined that it’s time for the next chapter in the SLCPD’s leadership.”
The announcement of Brown’s departure comes amid intense scrutiny of the department’s handling of homelessness and mounting pressure to crack down on those who live on the streets.
In a Wednesday letter to his department and residents of Utah’s capital, Brown ticked through his achievements during his 33-year career with the department and expressed gratitude for his time on the force. His retirement is effective Feb. 28.
“Being chief has been the greatest honor of my career,” he wrote, “and I will always be grateful for the opportunity to lead, to serve, and to make a difference.”
State leaders and officials in City Hall have long squabbled over a proliferation of homelessness and enforcement of Salt Lake City’s anti-camping ordinance.
In December, Gov. Spencer Cox and legislative leaders told Mendenhall to craft a plan for stricter enforcement or face more interference from Capitol Hill.
“Local law enforcement is the front end of the system to appropriately address the disorder that we are experiencing in our capital city,” the governor, Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, and House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, wrote in a letter to the mayor. “The ineffectiveness of [the Salt Lake City Police Department] has become glaringly apparent.”
The threat from the state’s top elected leaders resulted in the mayor releasing a lengthy public safety plan last month targeting drugs and homelessness.
In 2023, as she was seeking reelection and Cox was growing increasingly outspoken on ending illegal camping, Mendenhall ordered a crackdown on homeless camps. At the time, she projected confidence in Brown as chief but would not commit to keeping him on the job in her second term.
“He has a hard job,” she said then. “Here’s what I want in a police chief: decreasing crime, recognition that change needs to happen in policing and a willingness to implement that change consistently, and relationships with the community of trust, communication and transparency, relationships with different demographics in our community and their unique cultures. And Chief Brown does a good job at all of those things.”
Last month, during a meeting with The Salt Lake Tribune editorial board, Mendenhall reinforced her support for Brown as the city embarked on pulling off its new strategy for greater public safety.
“I have total confidence in Salt Lake City’s police officers,” she said, “and I have confidence in Chief Brown’s ability to execute this plan.”
An early progress report on the plan detailed drug seizures and hundreds of arrests and citations.
Despite those early numbers, Rep. Casey Snider, R-Paradise, released legislation this week that would require the Salt Lake City Police Department to work with state authorities on homelessness and drug enforcement. If HB465 is passed as written, failure to reach an agreement with the state Department of Public Safety would result in the city losing crucial funding to ease the impacts of hosting homeless shelters and, potentially, funding for roads.
