Mayor Mendenhall says she forced SLCPD Chief Brown to resign

SALT LAKE CITY — The mayor of Salt Lake City confirmed that it was her decision to make the city’s police chief step down earlier this week.

Related: Mendenhall recommends Brian Redd as new chief of police in Salt Lake

After a media event about the 2034 Winter Games on Capitol Hill, Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall spoke to media about Wednesday’s announcement of Salt Lake City police chief Mike Brown’s upcoming resignation.

When asked if she forced Brown to resign, Mendenhall said, “Yes. This was my decision.”

Mendenhall explained that in the past five years, the Salt Lake City Police Department had been going through “incredible change,” citing that the department bounced back from an increase in crime and a low number of police officers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Chief Brown and his team turned that around for Salt Lake City. We have total crime at the lowest point in 16 years, and we are basically fully staffed as a large department in this state,” she said.

While Mendenhall continued to praise the work that Brown and the department have done, she decided it was “time for us to make a change with new leadership in the Salt Lake City Police Department.”

Pressure from the Legislature?

Mendenhall said one of the main reasons why she forced Brown to resign was the lack of communication with other departments in the state.

“I think we’re at an inflection point about homelessness and cartel-related drug crime in the city and in the state of Utah,” she said. “We hear departments across the state grappling with some of these crimes, playing out in places that they hadn’t quite seen it as intensely before.”

Mendenhall explained that the city wants to partner with the Utah Department of Public Safety and other state departments, but that process “highlighted some of the difficulties in relationship that our police leadership had.”

“We need strong relationships across the system, and that is my primary area of focus that was being … sufficiently met,” Mendenhall said.

Unmet goals on crime and the homeless are the reason behind a new bill in the state legislature, HB465.

The bill will require cities receiving homeless mitigation funds to coordinate effectively with Utah’s Department of Public Safety or lose certain state funding. The bill’s author said Salt Lake City hasn’t delivered for decades and needs accountability.

“I don’t think there’s any individual in their right mind that can look at Salt Lake City and feel that it’s better than now than it was 5, 10, 15 years ago,” said Rep. Casey Snider, R-Paradise.

However, Mendenhall said that the political pressure was not the reason for Brown’s departure, but admits that lack of coordination with the state was a factor.

“Those relationships are not as strong as they need to be,” Mendenhall said.

So, what does the mayor want in a new police chief? She mentioned the need for transparency and accountability.

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This is a breaking news story. It may be updated.