Arrests, citations up ‘significantly’ in Salt Lake City, Chief Redd tells lawmakers

SALT LAKE CITY — Arrests and citations are up “significantly” in Salt Lake City so far in 2025, the capital city’s chief of police told state lawmakers on Wednesday.

Chief Brian Redd, who was sworn in earlier this year, spoke to the Legislature’s Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice Interim Committee just over a month after his department entered into a joint policing agreement with the state at the behest of lawmakers who want to see the city take a harder line on policing.

Total crime in Salt Lake City has fallen this year compared with the three-year average, Redd said, but some violent crime such as rape, robbery and aggravated assault has increased. The chief said law enforcement is “really concerned about” that rise, but he believes some of it can be attributed to increased policing.

“We are enforcing the law now,” he said. “We’re moving people from area to area to area. They’re not able to get cheap drugs and just stay in an area all day anymore, and so that’s creating the need to go burglarize or fight. So, those are some concerns that we have, that we’re addressing, but we think, over time, that will settle back down.”

Jail bookings and citations have steadily increased every year since 2021, which saw recent lows of both, but are on pace to well exceed the totals in 2024. Police booked 5,461 people into jail last year and issued just shy of 3,000 misdemeanor citations. Through Tuesday, they’ve already made more than 6,600 bookings and issued more than 5,000 citations since the beginning of the year.

“Enforcement is occurring by the Salt Lake City police officers that are working very hard,” Redd said. “And I just want to give a shout-out to our officers out there on the streets every day doing the work. Arrests are up significantly.”

Lawmakers passed HB465 earlier this year, which requires the city to partner with state law enforcement or risk losing state funding. Republicans on Capitol Hill have butted heads with city leaders on policing and homelessness and previously called out “inadequacies” in how the city polices itself.

City and state leaders traded barbs again last week over who is to blame after a new report showed homelessness is up 18% year over year in Utah.

During his presentation, Redd highlighted an interagency agreement between the state and city, which took effect June 30 and will remain in place until July 1, 2027. That agreement aims to address illegal encampments and open-air drug markets and establishes a process for deploying Utah Department of Public Safety resources and data sharing between the city and state.

Redd said the department still has concerns with arresting frequent re-offenders often, and it is still working to identify ways to collaborate with lawmakers, prosecutors, judges and others to better utilize jail bed space and move people through the system more quickly.

“We’re looking at: Why do people get released? You know, why didn’t this prosecution happen? Or why did this person get held in jail?” he said. “Sometimes it’s Salt Lake City’s fault. You know, sometimes we don’t get the reports in on time. So, what we’re trying to do … is just come together and really look at the flow of information in the system, the prosecutions, making sure people have all the information that they need.”

He said the policy group he’s working with will continue to make recommendations to lawmakers, with next year’s general legislative session approaching.

“We’re arresting people 16 times, and they’re still on the streets,” he said. “So, it’s not all working, but I also don’t want to point fingers. We’re all trying to solve it together.”