Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes
- Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown will retire on Feb. 28, after 33 years.
- In an open letter, Brown highlights his achievements, including a 16-year low in crime and innovative community outreach.
- His replacement remains to be determined.
SALT LAKE CITY — After 33 years of service, Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown says he will retire on Feb. 28.
"There is never a perfect time to step away from a career that has defined you, challenged you, and given you a profound sense of purpose. Policing has never been just a job for me — it has been a calling and a lifelong commitment to public service," Brown said in an open letter on Wednesday. "Being chief has been the greatest honor of my career, and I will always be grateful for the opportunity to lead, to serve and to make a difference."
The Salt Lake City Mayor's Office released a statement about the same time, saying that Mayor Erin Mendenhall is "grateful" for Brown's work. However, she had determined that it was "time for the next chapter" in Salt Lake City's police leadership.
Brown joined the Salt Lake City Police Department in 1991. He worked in the patrol division, gangs and SWAT and was a motor officer before becoming chief in 2015.
"Over the years, I have seen policing evolve at an unprecedented pace, and I have worked to make sure we remained a leader in crime reduction, community outreach, and innovation," the chief stated.
Brown says he's proud he has helped the city reach a 16-year low in crime, developed one of the first homeless outreach services teams in the country, established a "data-driven, technology-led department focused on results," and developed a Police Community Response Team. He added that no moments were "more defining" than the events of 2020.
"Through adversity comes growth, and I believe those trials made us a stronger, more accountable and a more adaptive organization, better prepared to serve our community with integrity and purpose," the chief wrote. "Scrutiny and change are always constants in this profession, but I have believed in meeting them head-on, leading with honesty, and making our department stronger."
Brown says he plans to spend more time with his family upon retiring.
Mendenhall declined to comment further on Brown's retirement on Wednesday, and his replacement was not immediately named.
The move comes as state leaders have pressured the city on policing and public safety in recent months. House Majority Assistant Whip Casey Snider, R-Paradise, introduced a bill this week that could withhold state funds from cities like Salt Lake City should they not enter into an "interagency agreement" with the Utah Department of Public Safety on "public safety concerns."
Gov. Spencer Cox and other state leaders sent Mendenhall a letter in December, which called on the city to address policing and criminal justice "inadequacies" after they said they had heard regular complaints about "escalating public safety challenges" in the city. Those issues included crime and homelessness.
"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 at the time.
It sparked a new public safety plan that the city released last month, which called on reforms in police, criminal justice and other systems that they believe have combined to create the issues facing the city.
"It's not one part of the system's fault. It is a system as a whole that has to be changed," the mayor said at the time.
City officials said on Monday that three parts of the plan have already been implemented. Other sections are either progress or items that the city has committed to implementing.
Contributing: Carter Williams
