- The public safety plan will increase police presence in high-crime areas downtown, in the Ballpark Neighborhood and the Jordan River area.
- The plan includes placing security cameras at parks, enforcing park curfews and improving responses to businesses affected by crime.
- Police Chief Mike Brown committed to enforcing the law, holding offenders accountable and maintaining community-oriented policing.
Police presence would look much different in Salt Lake City areas under a public safety plan the mayor’s office unveiled this week.
And the bold initiative comes ahead of the proposed massive overhaul of a three-block downtown area east of the Delta Center that state leaders have said must include crime and homelessness mitigation plans.
Officers will be “highly visible” downtown and in high-crime areas like the Ballpark Neighborhood and along the Jordan River on the city’s west side, Mayor Erin Mendenhall said Thursday at a press conference announcing the new plan.
The plan came in response to a December letter Gov. Spencer Cox, Utah Senate President Stuart Adams and Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz sent the mayor in which they wrote that the “ineffectiveness” of the Salt Lake Police is ”glaringly apparent.” The Republican leaders invited Mendenhall to create a plan to deal with crime and homelessness or face having the Utah Legislature take oversight of the issues.
‘Fed up’ with the system
Mendenhall said she welcomed the “invitation” because she is “fed up.”
“Our system is fed up. Our city is fed up. And our police officers are fed up,” she said. “The system does not work for the highest need and highest impact individuals experiencing homelessness, and more must be done to control the cartels and the fentanyl crisis that’s on our streets.”
Drug dealing is rampant and in the open along the Jordan River, especially where it flows near the Utah State Fairpark. Homelessness has swelled in the area.
Encampments of unsheltered people come and go along the river between I-80 and 1000 North. Salt Lake City’s Rapid Intervention Team along with police routinely dismantle campsites only to have people return a few hours later.
But homelessness is not the biggest problem.
Organized crime is intermingled with the camps, bringing people into the neighborhood to buy drugs or solicit prostitution. Dozens of people openly dealing and using drugs hang out along a bridge on North Temple at about 1200 West. Drug lords enlist unsheltered people and immigrants living in the country illegally to work for them. They also push them to panhandle to get money to buy drugs.
To combat the crime, the city intends to launch a Community Impact Division in the police department that will redirect patrol squads and bike squads to hot spots. Mendenhall said police will be “highly visible” at the Jordan River, Ballpark Neighborhood and downtown.
The initiative also calls for the department’s Violent Crime Apprehension Team to crack down on drugs, particularly fentanyl, and gun offense, which are often tied to gang activity.
While state Republicans leaders called Salt Lake police ineffective, the Democratic mayor said crime in the city was down 5% in 2024 over the year before, marking a 16-year low in the overall crime rate. Police ended the year with a 50% increase in proactive policing when compared to the three-year average and handled over 8,400 calls related to transient activity. The 8,508 jail bookings were the highest since 2017 and officers issued nearly 5,500 misdemeanor citations citywide.
“It’s also true that the presence of unsheltered individuals, some of whom face severe mental illness, can make people feel unsafe and the impact of unsheltered homelessness can hurt our community,” Mendenhall said.
“Both of these things can be true at the same time: Crime can be statistically down across the city and yet what people see on our streets can make them feel unsafe. It is our responsibility to address both.”
Being unsheltered is not a crime, she said, but public safety matters and homelessness intersect, often as a result of mental health challenges, drug addiction, human trafficking and other issues.
“We cannot police our way out of homelessness but we can make the public feel safer as we expand system resources to meet the needs of our unsheltered population,” Mendenhall said.
But she allowed the city can and must do better.
The mayor said police will enforce public order offenses, and cite people who commit crimes and that they will face consequences to the fullest extent of the law, including jail.
What the police chief says about the plan
Mendenhall didn’t take questions at the Thursday press conference, saying she wanted people to read the nearly 48-page public safety plan first. Police Chief Mike Brown attended but did not speak at the gathering.
In a statement issued afterward, the chief said he looks forward to implementing the public safety plan.
“The Salt Lake City Police Department remains fully committed to its duty of enforcing the law, holding offenders accountable, and practicing community-oriented policing. This plan reaffirms that commitment and expectation,“ Brown said.
“It also acknowledges the dedication of our officers and provides actionable recommendations to other stakeholders to support our efforts in reducing crime and promoting safety. It is clear that we desperately need more services, treatment, and housing to support our commitment to long-term public safety.”
The initiative also calls for:
- An integrated security camera program at select city parks
- Adding security at parks at closing hours to make sure people comply with park curfews
- Better responses to businesses and residents impacted by crime and homelessness
- Expanding the Rapid Intervention team to respond quicker to trash, human waste and abandoned buildings
- Increasing safe storage for unsheltered people’s possessions, making them less vulnerable to theft
Crime, homelessness and downtown revitalization
The public safety plan dovetails with state legislation passed earlier this year allowing the city to create a downtown revitalization zone. The city and Smith Entertainment Group, owner of the Utah Jazz and Utah Hockey Club, signed a participation agreement last fall for a sports, entertainment, culture and convention district, setting in motion a major overhaul of the city center.
The revitalization zone bill, SB272, requires crime and homelessness mitigation plans. The agreement between the city and SEG contains both.
The crime mitigation plan calls for SEG to provide a new space in the district for use by private security personnel and Salt Lake police, including for the processing and holding of arrestees. It also says Salt Lake police will provide “consistent” coverage, including the downtown bike squad for large scheduled events and patrol officers to respond to calls and provide “hot spot” checks.
The homelessness mitigation plan calls for the city to coordinate with the state, Salt Lake County and service providers with the “shared goal of making homelessness rare, brief and nonrecurring.” It also aims to discourage illegal camping in the district, with police issuing citations for people who refuse to relocate to a shelter or elsewhere.
SEG plans to put $3 billion into a sports, entertainment, culture and convention zone covering a three-block area east of the Delta Center. The proposal includes reconfiguring the arena entrance to face east, pedestrian plazas, a residential tower and a hotel. The plans aim to better connect the east and west sides of downtown.
The city imposed a half-percent sales tax increase that started Jan. 1 to raise an estimated $1.2 billion over the next 30 years, $900 million of it earmarked for the project. SEG also will tack fees onto ticket sales for Delta Center events that will go to the city to address crime and homelessness.