# Salt Lake City Police Department

The Salt Lake City Police Department (SLCPD) is the municipal police force of Salt Lake City, Utah, United States.
The current Chief of Police, Mike Brown, was appointed by Mayor Jackie Biskupski on May 3, 2016, and previously was the Interim Police Chief from June 11, 2015.

## History

The SLCPD was founded in 1851 under the newly created City Charter, when the Mayor authorized a police department to be created. Forty men were appointed, earning 25 cents per hour.
The SLCPD is headquartered in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah, at 475 South and 300 East, one block east of the Salt Lake City Public Library. This headquarters is called the Salt Lake City Public Safety Building and is shared with the Salt Lake City Fire Department.
The Salt Lake City Police Department is divided into two bureaus, which are directed from the Office of the Chief. They are the Administrative Bureau and the Operations Bureau and each is commanded by a Deputy Chief of Police. The bureaus, in turn, are divided into eight different divisions. Four of those are geographical, where the city is split into Central Patrol, Pioneer Patrol (west) and Liberty Patrol (east), and the Salt Lake City International Airport, whose police merged with the SLCPD on December 31, 2018. Additionally, staff are also allocated to the Special Operations, Investigations, Support and Professional Standards divisions.
The Salt Lake Police Association represents over 350 rank and file officers. The association began life as The Salt Lake City Police Mutual Aid Association, established in 1911. After a few iterations, in 1984, the Salt Lake Police Association was formed as an independent union, and won recognition by the City as the exclusive bargaining agent for the officers. Since 2014, the Association stands with the Utah State AFL-CIO in legislative issues to preserve retirement, collective bargaining and other labor issues although presently not an affiliate. The current president is Joe McBride.

## High-profile cases

The SLCPD has handled several cases in recent years, most notably the Elizabeth Smart kidnapping in 2002, the murder of Lori Hacking in 2004, the kidnapping and murder of Destiny Norton in 2006, and the shooting spree at Trolley Square in 2007 that resulted in 5 deaths and 4 serious woundings. The department also took part in the Salt Lake City Public Library hostage incident in 1994.
On August 13, 2017, officer Clinton Fox fatally shot Patrick Harmon, an African American man they attempted to arrest for riding a bicycle without proper lighting. Later that same month, footage released on August 31, 2017 show an emergency room incident between the police detective Jeff Payne and the nurse Alex Wubbels at the University of Utah Hospital. Payne asked Wubbels to provide a blood sample from an unconscious patient, and she was arrested when she refused. Payne is no longer working for the department. Wubbels was later released and no charges were brought against her. In September 2017, the Salt Lake County District Attorney's Office and Unified Police launched an independent criminal investigation into the arrest.
In 2019, the Salt Lake Police Department garnered international attention surrounding the murder of Mackenzie Lueck, a University of Utah student.
In 2020, the Salt Lake Police Department garnered controversy when an officer named Matthew Farillas non-fatally shot an unarmed 13-year old boy named Linden Cameron.

## Ranks and Insignia

| Title | Insignia |
| Chief of Police | |
| Deputy Chief | |
| Commander | |
| Lieutenant | |
| Sergeant | |
| Detective | None |
| Police Officer | None |
Recently, the rank of Captain was eliminated and replaced with the rank of Commander.