Salt Lake City anticipates changes after Utah leaders call out policing ‘inadequacies’
Dec 23, 2024, 11:00 AM | Updated: 8:59 pm
FILE: Salt Lake Police officer tapes off crime scene March 22 (Laura Seitz, Deseret News)
(Laura Seitz, Deseret News)
SALT LAKE CITY — Leaders of Utah’s capital city say they’re willing to work with the state on solutions to crime and homelessness after Utah leaders called on the city to address policing and criminal justice “inadequacies.”
However, they’re also concerned that new state policies could be passed next year without additional resources they believe are needed to address the situation.
It all started earlier this month when Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, Utah Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, and Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, sent a letter to Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall expressing their concerns and calling on her to present a public safety plan to the state by Jan. 17, 2025, days before the next legislative session.
Cox, Adams and Schultz wrote about “escalating public safety challenges” in Salt Lake City from residents and business leaders daily. The letter specifically references frustrations brought to them by Clark Ivory, CEO of Ivory Homes and chairman of the Utah Impact Partnership. He relayed to them that he was concerned that Mendenhall had explained that the existing system essentially allows criminals to “walk free” within an hour of an arrest.
“Local law enforcement is the front end of the system to appropriately address the disorder that we are experiencing in our capital city. The ineffectiveness of (the Salt Lake City Police Department) has become glaringly apparent,” they wrote in the letter, obtained by KSL.com.
They included a recommended “journey map” outlining the information they’d like to receive in that presentation, including the city’s law enforcement and criminal justice processes. The document, they said, should also highlight “obstacles, delays and inefficiencies” tied to homeless, substance use and disorderly conduct, among other items.
State, county and city officials have largely shared policies on how homelessness is handled since Operation Rio Grande began in 2017, but state leaders say the city should “do its part to restore public confidence, security and safety.”
Get the full story at ksl.com.
