Salt Lake City’s Police Department (SLCPD) will launch the Community Impact Division (CID) to increase officer presence and reduce crime downtown. The CID has three primary objectives: (1) reducing crime through targeted enforcement and rapid response to high-priority areas; (2) improving livability by quickly addressing public nuisances, problem locations, and illegal activities that impact neighborhoods; and (3) building trust between law enforcement and our community through highly-visible, accessible, and community-oriented policing practices.

SLCPD will deploy its Violent Criminal Apprehension Team (VCAT) to aggressively target gang activity and disrupt the spread of narcotics and firearms. VCAT will enhance and amplify the work of the SLCPD’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) and Gang Unit, forming a cohesive and robust law enforcement-directed response to drug and firearm offenses, particularly fentanyl and gang issues. VCAT and SIU will perform undercover and proactive operations and work with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office to ensure offenders are fully prosecuted and sentenced accordingly. Detectives will continue to partner with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Salt Lake Metro Drug Task Force. This collaboration allows SLCPD to leverage the DEA’s extensive resources and authority to dismantle major drug trafficking organizations responsible for bringing narcotics into our community. Recognizing gang crimes, drug use and firearm trafficking leave no neighborhood unharmed, the SLCPD’s crime reduction efforts will span the entire City. However, the strategic deployment of police resources can have a positive impact on reducing crime and enhancing community safety. A concentrated focus will be placed on areas such as Downtown, Ballpark, and the Jordan River Trail—key hotspots where the City knows people are illegally using, possessing, or distributing narcotics.

Enforcement of public order offenses is a priority for the City.

The City Council will be presented with an updated ordinance aimed at addressing the negative impacts of camping, including updates to the regulations prohibiting the use of RVs for camping on streets in the City. These updates will enable the City to focus enforcement efforts and prioritize the timely removal of encampments near sensitive areas like Homeless Resource Centers (HRC), daycares and schools, businesses and homes, and the Jordan River.

Prosecutors will seek enhanced penalties for repeat offenders. Arresting agencies operating in the City will be required to indicate whether an arrestee is a repeat offender in the Downtown Safety Initiative (DSI) area—a step the SLCPD is already implementing. These designations will be communicated to both the City Prosecutor’s Office and the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office. Both the City Prosecutor’s Office and the District Attorney’s Office have implemented protocols to capture the DSI designations and have communicated these enforcement protocols to the line attorneys. Prosecutors will give these cases heightened scrutiny and aggressively prosecute cases filed. DSI defendants may be considered for treatment courts with appropriate supervision, if warranted. If a DSI defendant receives probation, prosecutors will seek to strictly enforce the terms and conditions of probation. Cases that are violent in nature will be aggressively prosecuted and seek either jail or prison as appropriate.

The City will redouble efforts to enforce quality of life laws to improve responsiveness to residents and businesses negatively impacted by crime and homelessness.

The City will establish the Downtown Safety & Activation Partnership. This will be a collaborative partnership with local businesses, community organizations, and residents to gather input, share metrics on key indicators of safety (crime rates, vacancy rates, foot traffic), and refine new strategies based on stakeholder input. The Department of Economic Development will begin work on this immediately with our key partners, and will officially convene the group in 2025.

Salt Lake City will assist The Other Side Village to expedite development of their next phase(s) to add over 200 new deeply affordable tiny homes.

Expedite creation of shelter beds through a temporary emergency shelter. Salt Lake City will allow the use of a City-owned property for a campus facility for up to 24 months if capital and operational costs can be allocated by the State and philanthropic partners, while the state constructs its permanent low-barrier campus. This temporary facility will also include designated occupied vehicle and recreational vehicle (RV) parking. In order for this campus to result in fewer people camping on City streets, people currently experiencing homelessness in Salt Lake City must have priority access. The City will request that the State, through Department of Public Safety (DPS), provide law enforcement services in the immediate area to ensure this new facility does not detract from police presence elsewhere in the City.

SLCPD’s Community Connections Team (CCT), which is composed of highly-trained detectives, behavioral health and licensed clinical social workers, will provide targeted support during planned operations and homeless response calls, emphasizing emergency shelter, receiving center and treatment access, and reducing cycling in and out of shelters. SLCPD social workers and Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) detectives will be present during operations to connect individuals to shelter and treatment resources, with backup information available to officers if social workers are called away. Partnerships with non-profit organizations that can triage individuals for substance use disorder (SUD), residential treatment, and access to beds are key components.

A significant element of the strategy includes encouraging individuals to sign releases of information (ROI) for continued case management, if SLCPD social workers take on the client’s case. To prevent individuals from repeatedly cycling through shelters, the SLCPD’s approach highlights connections to County behavioral health programs that can focus on stabilization through case management, housing, and medication support. Additionally, the approach emphasizes referrals to Mental Health Court (MHC) and partnerships with the legal defenders office to provide supervision and encourage housing engagement, with potential benefits from including legal representation during responses.

SLCPD will implement new requirements to improve the documentation and handling of cases involving individuals who may pose a greater risk to public safety. All officers will now be required to include the DSI (Downtown Safety Initiative) designation, when appropriate, in police reports, probable cause statements, and citations. When submitting cases through the e-Prosecutor system, officers and detectives must also confirm whether the case qualifies as a DSI case before submission. To help ensure the effectiveness of these measures, officers will receive additional training on improving their probable cause statements. This training will focus on including critical information about outstanding warrants and repeat offenses, helping judges and prosecutors assess the potential risk an individual might pose if released from jail. This will better allow county pretrial services, prosecutors, and judges to see important information up front to more effectively steer people into services or hold them in jail.

In FY26, the City will consolidate resources from several departments to create a citywide Clean City Team. This strategy pulls together resources to address conditions that can lead to crime, like graffiti, abandoned property, trash, poor lighting, and neglected public spaces.

The City will work to expand safe storage options in 2025. Having a secure place to store important possessions is critical for unsheltered people. Without a place to store things, many people are hesitant to go into shelter, and are also making themselves vulnerable to theft. Furthermore, the City must expand storage space so that City teams mitigating camps can store important possessions that people have left behind. This is an important element to protecting the constitutional rights of individuals living outside.

The City will add security services at parks at closing hours to make sure people comply with curfew.

The City will improve lighting in crime hotspots and main thoroughfares where homeless populations tend to gather.

The City will more aggressively enforce ordinances on abandoned properties and boarded buildings, which are linked to crime hotspots.

The City will explore funding additional police officers to ensure that effective proactive policing strategy continues to decrease crime. Funded sworn positions grew 3.5% between 2022 and 2024, not quite keeping pace with an increase in calls for service. However, proactive policing efforts, including hot spots, problem areas, and mitigation work, has grown over 65% under Mayor Mendenhall’s administration.

The City will develop an integrated park security camera program at high-volume parks and public squares in 2025 to deter crime.

SLCPD will secure and deploy 10 additional public safety cameras in high-traffic areas. Research shows that with active monitoring, strategic placement, and community engagement, public safety cameras placed in high-crime areas can lead to crime reductions without moving crime into other areas. The SLCPD deploys its marked pole and trailer cameras using crime data, call for service data, and input from community members to determine when and where to immediately mobilize additional public safety cameras.

The City will work with the Utah League of Cities and Towns (ULCT) on best practices for policies and enforcement actions. Such best practices and policies will allow cities across the State to take a consistent approach to these issues.

The City will expand the Rapid Intervention Team (RIT) to respond more quickly to reports of trash, biowaste, camping, and other livability issues, and deep-cleaning sidewalks and other high-traffic spaces more regularly. The City will add workgroups and more effective equipment to this function to carry out sidewalk sweeping and washing of 3-4 blocks per day. The City will budget for these increased costs initially and work with the Salt Lake Chamber and Downtown Alliance to identify long term funding solutions.

The City will release a Request For Proposal (RFP) seeking a provider that can increase hygiene options (restrooms and showers) for the unsheltered. If successful, this funding could be extended by the City Council in the future.

Salt Lake City will continue investments of at least $5 million in FY26 for deeply affordable housing projects.

The City will improve efficiency and effectiveness of its Diversified Response teams. Over the past several years, the City has built out diversified response teams—specifically, positions like social workers, park rangers, and community responders who can resolve issues that often come to the Police or Fire departments but can be resolved without a sworn officer or full fire apparatus, freeing those teams up to do their jobs. These teams have been incredibly impactful, but could work together with the SLCPD and SLCFD more efficiently. The City is embarking on a systemwide efficiency analysis to identify how we can better integrate and utilize these teams to save taxpayer money and have a more effective impact in the community.

If the temporary campus model comes online, City-funded street outreach, and the Justice Court, SLCPD, and SLCFD social workers will coordinate and focus intense engagement with those remaining outside to get them into other options.

The City will work to convene a data and research working group with the SLCPD, Salt Lake County, and the Administrative Office of the Courts. This group will focus on improving data sharing and strengthening the ability to cross-reference agency data.

Adopt and implement the data-sharing goals in the State’s Plan to Address Homelessness:
By 2024: The state of Utah will establish data sharing agreements with at least three systems external to the homeless system of care (e.g., criminal justice, healthcare & human services, workforce, and education).

By 2026: The state of Utah will have a data sharing platform accessible to providers who enter into Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) that provides access to and visibility of system partner data.

By 2028: The state of Utah will develop a generalized protocol for organizational and project performance evaluation across multiple systems that work with people experiencing homelessness. Re-evaluation of these protocols will be carried out in 2030.

Increase and fund Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) teams from five teams to nine so that 400 more clients can be served anywhere in the community, meeting current Salt Lake County needs. ACT teams are mobile psychiatric programs that work with clients with some of the most severe and persistent mental illnesses in our community. Their daily services, wherever a client is living, working, or sometimes being held (hospitals, jail, etc) have documented success in stabilizing their symptoms, improving client functioning over multiple areas, and decreasing medicaid costs by millions of dollars.

Salt Lake County Jail proposed adding 450 additional beds through the recent County bond proposal to meet the current needs. The County should explore currently unused or underutilized government buildings for additional correctional facility space.

If Salt Lake City and the State can launch a pilot emergency shelter with sufficient beds, the West Valley City shelter building on Redwood Road could be considered for alternative needs, including a 150-bed Justice and Accountability Center as envisioned by Salt Lake County.

The State Legislature should identify and allocate a stable, dedicated funding source for homeless services, mental and behavioral health, and affordable housing during the 2025 Legislative Session. Several ideas for funding streams have been discussed in past years, including an alcohol or tobacco tax, a real estate transaction fee, an increase to the local option sales tax, and a boarded and vacant building tax.

The State Legislature should consider requiring all counties to provide some ratio of emergency shelter and housing services in proportion to their population, projected growth, and number of cost-burdened or housing insecure household units. The Point-In-Time Count and each jurisdiction’s Moderate Income Housing Plan could also be considered to determine need.

Salt Lake County and the State of Utah should consider enforcing camping on their properties uniformly with the underlying municipal jurisdictions.

To assist movement of people through existing mental health and substance use treatment programs, a portion of new shelter beds should be developed and set aside specifically for those exiting treatment. 

Corrections facilities in every county could be considered statewide collective assets. Medium and minimum-risk inmates could be relocated to facilities in other counties to immediately open more space in the Salt Lake County Jail for high risk and/or repeat offenders.

The State should consider enabling sheriff’s offices to detain defendants with outstanding warrants from other counties in the State and arrange transport with an automatic hold to prevent premature release. This could function similarly to the extradition system between states.

County Pretrial Services needs additional resources to properly supervise people, as well as additional resources to which people can be referred to seek the assistance they need, such as safe living spaces, to not re-offend.

Salt Lake County has committed to working with cities, the state, and philanthropic partners on funding opportunities and properties to develop housing for those in behavioral health treatment, including group homes and Permanent Supportive Housing projects with appropriate county services included.

The Office of Homeless Services should lead a request for additional FY27 operations and capital funds, and continue to pursue a permanent homeless services campus to open as soon as FY28.  

Implement the Salt Lake County Behavioral Health Strategic Plan by funding and developing acute mental health group homes, permanent supportive housing, and other deeply affordable housing so that people can be more quickly discharged from acute care, allowing more people to move through the outpatient treatment system. 

The State should consider incentivizing other counties to increase behavioral health services.

Salt Lake County identified 300 beds as the goal for this facility to avoid discharges directly to the street due to lack of emergency shelter availability.

The Legislature should consider additional statutory provisions aimed at admitting individuals into medical facilities for purposes of evaluating and treating substance abuse disorders.

The State should support coordinated case management services that operate across agencies and jurisdictions. Without this coordination, there is no mechanism to assist defendants in navigating complex treatment systems, and no mechanism for issues of noncompliance to be quickly brought to the court’s attention so that appropriate sanctions can be imposed. Additionally, if the court could have the option to order defendants to social services and case management plans, individuals could continue receiving services through coordinated efforts even after the court loses jurisdiction.

Fund recommendations in the Governor’s budget for the Division of Services for People with Disabilities (DSPD) to move people through the waiting list. The current waiting list is nearly 7,000 people long, meaning that people wait years.

Increase housing options for where people can go when they are discharged from treatment.

Each entity should devote committed resources to implementing a joint plan within and across our organizations. The Office of Homeless Services, Salt Lake County, Salt Lake City, and the Utah Impact Partners have all identified this as a critical need, but thus far we have not set out to build the process where the partners work together to achieve this integration.

The State should consider evaluating the cost of services and care across sectors for chronically homeless individuals versus the cost of providing permanent supportive housing for that population.

The State could consider establishing a fund administered through the Office of Homeless Services that provides individuals transport to another state where the individual has connected with a support network.

The State could consider adjusting contracts with Homeless Resource Centers to require more stringent or more consistent rules, and/or require tighter security inside shelters. This must be done with consideration for where individuals go if they are exited from shelter for breaking a rule so that they don’t end up camping outside the shelter.