After forcing out current chief, Mendenhall names her pick to lead SLC Police Department

Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall wants Utah’s top prison system official to replace Police Chief Mike Brown, who is stepping down at the end of the month at her behest.

Mendenhall announced Thursday that she is recommending Brian Redd, head of the state Department of Corrections, to take over the Salt Lake City Police Department. Redd has served in his current role since mid-2023, overseeing the state’s two prisons and other correctional centers.

The City Council will need to approve his appointment as the next chief. Council members are slated to consider his hiring March 4.

“As our city grows,” the mayor said in a Thursday news conference at City Hall, “policing must continue to evolve and become more responsive to the dynamic challenges of our community.”

It’s crucial, she added, “we meet the moment with urgency and with leadership in our Police Department that’s rooted in a deep commitment to collaboration. I believe Redd is that leader.”

That new leadership, the mayor said, would be tasked with establishing and maintaining “safety, trust, communication and transparency with our communities.”

Mendenhall, now in her second term, said Redd, a former state trooper and Goldman Sachs executive, had held a spot on her “short list” for years as a candidate to serve in Salt Lake City.

Before overseeing prisons, Redd worked for the state Department of Public Safety for 21 years — one of several signs in his track record, Mendenhall told reporters, of a prospective ability to collaborate closely with other police agencies.

Redd’s appointment — if he does get the council’s nod — promises to begin “a new chapter in public safety to secure the city’s long-term well-being,” the mayor vowed.

Nomination comes at ‘inflection point’

Brown’s departure, announced Feb. 12 and effective Feb. 28, comes as the Mendenhall administration and the Police Department face tough scrutiny from the Utah Legislature and the public over worsening problems with homeless encampments and street-level drug activity.

Redd, who appeared with the mayor Thursday, said his experience and professional training put him up to the challenge of moving Utah’s largest police force ahead. He said he would emphasize a holistic, responsive and compassionate approach to policing.

“My goal is to come in and listen to all levels of our organization and our community members on how we can best serve,” Redd said, adding that he would use his “established relationships in the criminal justice and social services systems” to tackle what he called “the challenging intersection of crime, homelessness, mental health and addiction.”

Before working as a compliance, surveillance and threat-monitoring expert at Goldman Sachs, Redd saw his tenure with state law enforcement rise from a rank-and-file officer to director of the state Bureau of Investigation.

In announcing his selection, the mayor reiterated that she had sought Brown’s retirement in hopes of fortifying the city’s relationships with other law enforcement agencies, including the Department of Public Safety. Brown’s career has spanned 33 years, with nearly a decade of that at the Salt Lake City Police Department’s helm.

Despite city crime rates at a 16-year low and Brown’s success in recent years at rebuilding depleted police ranks, Mendenhall nonetheless said the city needed a transition in leadership.

The city, she said, was at “an inflection point” in terms of homelessness and cartel-related drug crime, heightening the need for a more cooperative approach by local police with their state and federal counterparts.

‘Not about the Legislature’

Prompted by concerns lodged in December by state leaders over what they portray as deteriorating conditions on city streets, Mendenhall launched a 27-point public safety plan in mid-January, enacting strategies for stepped-up enforcement, added police patrols and targeted drug busts focused on downtown, along the Jordan River and in the Ballpark neighborhood.

Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, said he and other leaders were surprised by the nomination. He said the mayor had not run the name past him before the announcement.

“That is the most bittersweet pill I’ve ever swallowed in my life,” he told reporters at the Capitol. “[The Department of] Corrections is running better today than it’s ran in decades, and Brian has done a really, really good and amazing job. He leaves some big shoes to fill.”

For his part, Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, said Redd is the right person to lead Salt Lake City police.

“His extraordinary efforts to improve the Utah Department of Corrections will have a lasting, positive impact, and he will be greatly missed,” Adams said. “I’m excited to see him take on this new opportunity and improve public safety in our capital city.”

Thursday’s announcement also comes as state lawmakers are advancing HB465, which would require Utah’s capital to sign an interagency pact with the Department of Public Safety — or face losing crucial state funds to ease impacts of homelessness or gas-tax money for roads.

The measure also would allow state authorities to deploy their own rapid-response teams to city trouble spots to enforce public safety, break up camps and make arrests — while making the city pay for it.

In testimony last week opposing the bill backed by GOP leaders on Capitol Hill, Mendenhall said her public safety plan invited city collaboration with state police, but she called the sanctions in HB465 “coercive” and “unnecessary.”

She said Thursday, however, that picking Redd was not a signal to Capitol Hill, but rather a move focused on enhancing the Police Department’s collaborative approach in solving issues with vagrancy and cartel-driven drug trafficking.

“This,” Mendenhall said, “is not about the Legislature. This is about Salt Lake City.”

— Tribune reporter Addy Baird contributed to this story.