New Salt Lake City police chief sworn in

SALT LAKE CITY — Nearly two weeks after Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall recommended Brian Redd for the city’s new police chief, the city council approved his appointment.

Former Salt Lake City Police Department Chief Mike Brown stepped down in February at Mendenhall’s direction. The mayor said she made the decision as the city is at “an inflection point” with crime and homelessness.

Addressing homelessness and drugs in Salt Lake City

KSL legal analyst and Inside Sources host Greg Skordas told Dave & Dujanovic that the incoming police chief will have a difficult task of addressing homelessness.

“It’s not so easy to just say that it’s against the law to be homeless; there has to be some underlying crime,” Skordas said. “And so, when the cities don’t provide homeless shelters and then they try to arrest people for trespassing or for camping without a permit … Those aren’t so easy to prosecute.”

Skordas said a lot of people think jails are the solution to the problem, but it’s not.

“It’s a revolving door. And if you put somebody in jail for 10 days, they come out and they’re doing the exact same thing they were before,” he said.

However, putting people on a different path and connecting them with resources takes a lot of money.

“I don’t know whether we’re quite ready to start making those kind of expenditures,” Skordas said.

The new police chief will also need to address an influx in fentanyl and increase in overdose deaths in the state, Skordas said.

 “It’s a drug that’s just insidious and I don’t know what we’re going to do about it,” he said. “But the new chief has got to figure something out because these overdose deaths can’t just continue.”

What the community wants from its new police chief

Ballpack Community Council Chair Amy Hawkins said she hopes to see continued support for community-level resources.

“I’m really hoping to see our community-level responsiveness, like our homeless resource center squads and our community liaison officers, be maintained and even strengthened,” Hawkins told Dave & Dujanovic. 

Hawkins said those resources have helped combat crime and created trusting relationships.

“If you know who to call when you’re experiencing something and you trust that they will show up for you, it’s a big deal,” Hawkins said.

Those resources have already been a big help, according to Hawkins.

“We have noticed a huge drop in our area since the spike that our city experienced in 2021 and 2022. I … chalk some of that up to the intense service that we got in the area around the ballpark,” she said.

Follow @samanthagherr