Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall’s new choice for police chief has the official backing from the City Council and is now on the beat.
The council voted unanimously late Tuesday under its powers of advice and consent to approve Brian Redd, former head of the Utah Department of Corrections, as the replacement for longtime Police Chief Mike Brown, who stepped down on Friday at the mayor’s behest.
The vote followed a week of private discussions with Redd, also a former top official with the state Department of Public Safety and one-time Utah Highway Patrol trooper, whom the mayor had nominated amid pressure to improve public safety.
In a hourlong Q&A before the vote, council members probed Redd with themes of community engagement, transparency, accountability, officer support and new ways to pursue justice as the department shifts toward restoring lives.
Using the word “proximity” several times in terms of building community trust, Redd reiterated his intentions to be close and responsive to residents, business and property owners, and all those in need on the streets.
“When you have proximity, when you get to know people,” Redd told the council, “you get to know a community or an individual — that changes everything. So we have to come at the work in a compassionate and empathetic way, understanding the very difficult challenges out there.”
The mayor has portrayed Redd’s hire as part of a turning point for the city while she presses a new plan enacted in mid-January to more effectively combat homeless encampments and drug trafficking on downtown streets, along the Jordan River and in the Ballpark neighborhood.
Brown, a 33-year veteran of the Salt Lake City Police Department with nearly a decade as chief, will remain under city employment while placed on administrative leave until Aug. 29, public records show. He will be paid his normal pay rate until his final day. He will then receive $205,000 in severance, according to his separation contract with the city.
Mendenhall has made clear she sought the change in leadership, saying the Police Department needed to take a more collaborative approach with other law enforcement agencies.
Kim Shelley to head Public Lands
Also Tuesday, the council approved Kim Shelley, former head of the state Department of Environmental Quality, to lead the city’s Department of Public Lands.
The mayor, in recommending Shelley for the post, said the former DEQ head “has spent her career ensuring Utah’s natural resources are well cared for and thoughtfully managed, and I know she’ll bring that same dedication to every acre of our city’s green space.”
Shelley brings over 20 years of experience in environmental and natural resource management, the mayor said, along with leadership rooted in collaboration.
The top public lands post has been vacant since late 2024, when Kristin Riker retired after holding the job since the department’s inception in 2021.
The Public Lands Department oversees the city’s parks, trails, natural lands, urban forests, golf courses and athletic facilities, with responsibility over more than 2,385 acres and the country’s largest city-owned cemetery.
Since 2022, the department has deployed more than a dozen uniformed park rangers in select parks, meant to ensure visitor safety.
