SLCO Sheriff’s Office requests budget increase to improve wages

SALT LAKE CITY — The Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office asked for a bigger budget on Tuesday in order to raise wages for deputies and other employees.

The SLCO Sheriff’s Office told the Salt Lake County Council that it needed to offer better wages because the office has been losing deputies to better-paying positions with other law enforcement agencies around the state.

SLCO Sheriff Rosie Rivera said the office is struggling to keep people right now and currently has 58 vacancies.

“Salt Lake City, Unified Police Department, West Valley, Sandy, all those are where we’re losing folks to. So we want to make sure we’re at least comparable to that,” said Rivera.

Rivera said retention has been a problem for multiple sheriff’s offices.

“We just did a recruitment video across the board for all sheriffs. But it’s still a challenge, trying to get people to want to do this profession again.”

According to the sheriff’s office budget presentation, the county’s HR Compensation Team completed a study and suggested a 4% increase to the current pay plans.

That brings the total budget to over $4 million. Those include employees in the correction, public safety and law enforcement bureaus.

The SLCO Council pushed back and said the sheriff’s office should readjust the current budget or consider which department needs it the most before considering an office-wide raise.

No final decision has been made.

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