SALT LAKE CITY — The past six or seven weeks have been unbelievably challenging for Salt Lake Police Chief Mike Brown, both personally and professionally.
His world began changing quickly on the afternoon of May 30, when Salt Lake City experienced one of its most violent riots in recent memory.
What had started off as a peaceful protest by those calling for police reform on the heels of the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis shifted to a Salt Lake police car being overturned and burned, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage to structures all around the city, including the Salt Lake City Public Safety Building, the state Capitol, the Matheson Courthouse and the Salt Lake City-County Building.
“We were painted with the broad brush of what happened in Minneapolis,” said Brown, adding that for all the years he had spent working hard to build public trust, “in an instant that public trust was eroded, which is really devastating for us.”
It was also the start of weeks of daily protest marches in Salt Lake City, forcing officers to be on duty 24-7 for crowd control for those demonstrating peacefully and to be ready in riot gear for those who got out of hand. The week immediately following the riot, in which a citywide curfew was enacted, was particularly intense.
“That was a week for the records,” Brown said.
By June 2, there were cries nationwide, including in Salt Lake City, to “defund the police” and slash police department budget to reallocate money to other social services.
It was on that day that Brown was going into a meeting with Black community leaders to discuss hot topic issues such as chokeholds and kneeling on suspects’ necks — two techniques that Salt Lake police have never used — when he got a call on his cellphone.
“And I got a call from my mother who said, um, ‘Your dad is not going to make it,’” a somber Brown told the Deseret News.
Two days later, while Brown was giving interviews in front of the police station — and just one day after a news conference with U.S. Attorney for Utah John Huber and several other of the state’s top law enforcers condemning the city’s riot — Brown received another call.
“I remember I was out on the plaza doing an interview and my phone rang. I didn’t pick it up, but I picked it up shortly after. My mom said my dad had passed away,” he recalled.
Brown sat down on the curb after learning the news.
“Somebody said you need to go home and be with your family. And I said, ‘I’m with my family,’” recalled Brown, who was visibly choked up as he told the story Wednesday. “I really was. The men and women with this police department, they are my family. And I love them.”
Reid Andrus Brown, 87, passed away after spending about a month in a care facility following surgery. During that time, Brown said he could only speak to his dad on the phone and wave to him through a glass window because of COVID-19 visiting restrictions placed on the facility. When it was clear that the end was near, Brown and his family were able to visit with his father in his room, two people at a time.
On June 2, the day Brown got the call that his father wasn’t going to make it, he was able to spend a few hours with him to say his final goodbyes.
“That was really nice, just to say my last goodbye,” he said.
But the chief said what happened isn’t exclusive to him. And he’s not looking for the public’s pity. Many officers have had to make sacrifices since May 30. And they’ve done it without fanfare in order to serve the citizens of Salt Lake City.
“This was nothing different than many officers … I mean during these hard times, there were probably five, six, seven, eight officers that lost loved ones — parents, grandparents — during this difficult time. And they came to work every day, too. Many of them couldn’t go to funerals because of COVID. So, they have stood in the ranks, put on this patch, this badge every day, and come to work to serve. I’m only doing what many officers are dealing with and have done without one complaint at all. They never said a word.
“It’s been really hard. But I’m not just talking about me. It’s been hard for everybody here at the department. We have worked tirelessly,” he said of the past month. “Things that we never thought we’d see in Salt Lake City led to almost 45 days in a row of protests. And that takes a lot of staffing, that’s a lot of hours and a lot of people are really tired, almost exhausted.”
Brown added that while a lot of resources are used for watching the protests, officers still have to respond to regular calls for service throughout the city.
“Officers have been denied their days off, they’ve been extended in their shifts, we actually suspended any days off for vacations,” he said.
In his 30 years of policing, Brown says he’s never seen conditions so tough — including morale — for officers. But he said he “couldn’t be prouder” of how his officers have responded.
“These officers truly only want to serve the citizens of Salt Lake City,” he said.
Brown also has made it through the tough times with the lessons he learned from his father. Reid Brown was with the Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office for 30 years. At 6-foot-2, he was known as the “gentle giant” because of his ability to bring calm to a chaotic situation.
“He was a very kind individual. But never mistake his kindness for his weakness,” Brown said. “I think my dad did de-escalation before there was really de-escalation.”
As a kid, Brown said it was exciting to have a police officer for a father.
“Because I always had the cool stories to tell the kids, and they’d come over and look at the police car, and things like that. So I was really proud of my dad. He was a great mentor and a great example to me throughout my whole life, not just in my law enforcement life,” he said.
Both the senior Brown and his son were graduates of Jordan High School. After high school, Mike Brown was in pre-med and one class away from the next step in his career when he decided to switch careers altogether and go into law enforcement. At one point, there were three Browns serving in Utah as police officers, including the chief’s brother, Eric Brown.
From his father, Mike Brown said he learned compassion, kindness, character, how to be a good example, and that “your word means something.”
And for all the cries of “defund the police,” Brown said his department has also received “hundreds if not thousands” of cards and dinners and other tokens of support from members of the community during that same time.
“It is a difficult time, but we know the community really does support us,” he said.
And Brown said he is optimistic that despite this trying time, the Salt Lake Police Department will come out of it better than ever.
“Law enforcement is going to change. It’s going to be different when we come out of this. It will probably be different in a good way. We embrace the ability to sit and listen, to learn, to have good conversations, to base the change in best evidence and practices. It will change. But if you’re ever coasting in law enforcement, you’re going downhill. So you’re always looking at how you can better serve your community.”
For now, the chief said he and his officers have their “Big Blue Family” to get them through.
“Even though it’s been a very difficult time for me personally, it’s be difficult for all of us. So together, we’ve stood and supported each other through these very troubled times,” he said.
“We are family. We have each others back.”