Public safety emerged as one of Salt Lake City’s top challenges over the past fiscal year.
However, implementing parts of Salt Lake City’s public safety plan — something Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall released in January amid pressure from state leaders — could run into issues as city leaders deal with inflation and economic uncertainty as they piece together the city’s next budget.
“We understand that this is a flat budget year and a challenging year,” said Salt Lake City Police Chief Brian Redd as he presented his department’s proposed budget to the Salt Lake City Council on Thursday.
He’s seeking a budget of just under $135 million, nearly $15 million above what was appropriated last year. It represents a 12.5% year-over-year increase, while the proposed amount takes up about a quarter of what Mendenhall recommended altogether.
Proposed increases
About $13.4 million, or nearly 90%, of the increase would go toward salaries and benefits, including an 8.7% wage increase after the city struck a deal with the Salt Lake City Police Association on a new three-year collective bargaining agreement earlier this year. This includes about $1.5 million in overtime increases.
There are also 12 new positions included in this year’s request, but the change only accounts for positions added over the past fiscal year, and no additional hires are being sought right now. The department currently staffs 630 sworn officers and 149 civilian employees.
The rest of the proposed increases would go to various projects, such as $545,000 for social worker and mental health response programs to account for salary adjustments and “inflationary cost.” Another $127,000 would go toward the cost increase for body cameras.
Other projects include deploying drones to assess certain scenes before police arrive, following a pilot program launched at the start of the year. It’s been tested over 400 times, starting with reports of suspicious activity and other lower-priority calls.
“This model also helps preserve officer availability for high-priority emergencies and reduces the number of officers needed on-scene in certain cases,” the city wrote in a report.
The drones figure to play a role in the new Real Time Crime Center, which takes all sorts of data from other sources like cameras and license plate readers to create “smarter deployment decisions, more effective threat assessments, enhanced response times and and improved patrol planning,” per the city.
About $35,000 in ongoing funds and $520,000 in one-time funds are being requested as part of the projects. Redd said it would help purchase 18 more cameras and 11 more license plate readers, adding to the dozens of cameras and readers the city already has from previous grants. Some could go in parks or along the Jordan River Trail, where crime issues have been brought up in the city’s safety plan.
“(It) will help us reduce crime (and) respond to crime more quickly and efficiently when it occurs,” he said. “It’s just allowing us to utilize technology to be more impactful in our operations. … These cameras being deployed around the city are helping with hot spots.”
These types of technologies, Redd explained, were pivotal in making an arrest in a case involving a series of hit-and-run crashes across the city. The department may make additional funding requests in the future. The department is looking to find a balance between public safety and not violating civil liberties, which is an issue that the state is also exploring, he added.
The next steps
Members of the City Council, who have final say on the budget, say they see the benefit in the emergency technology, but they said they also want to make sure they’re used responsibly. It’s why City Council Vice Chairman Alejandro Puy proposed adding a legislative intent that outlines privacy and transparency concerns about how data is collected and used.
“If not, we’re probably walking ourselves into a problem waiting to happen in hopes of (solving) a very important issue,” he said. “I really feel like we should approve this request, but I also really think we have to have the legislative intent policy discussion.”
Meanwhile, Councilwoman Victoria Petro proposed adding an “efficiency audit” to see what items are and aren’t working as the city rolls out its public safety plan, as well. That’s something Redd expressed interest in, although he said the state is also working on an audit of practices.
Overall, he says his department is gearing up for growth, which will likely lead to more calls and other challenges.
“We have a growing population. More residents are coming; there’s more activity coming to Salt Lake, so that’s one thing that we have to think about,” he said.
The City Council has until the end of June to finalize its budget before the 2026 fiscal year begins in July.