In its first major budget rewrite of 2026, Salt Lake City is considering whether to shift nearly $5.8 million toward several big-ticket items for its police force, including $1 million for a new mobile command center.
The largest of these new asks is nearly $3.8 million to pay for police overtime, used to cover extra shifts over the busier summer months and during special events through the year, along with stepped-up enforcement under Mayor Erin Mendenhall’s year-old public safety plan.
The City Council has given an initial look at the new spending, with public hearings and final approval scheduled for sometime in early February.
Total police overtime for the current year is not likely to exceed last year’s total figure of $8.24 million, police analysts say — but those costs are likely to reach at least $7.8 million, creating a potential shortfall. What’s more, the department is no longer saving money as it has in past years by having lots of vacancies on staff, as the force continues to fill empty positions.
Staffing for what is Utah’s largest police force is now up to about 784 full-time positions in the most recent budget cycle, with 630 sworn officers and 154 in civilian support staff. That’s about 10% higher than in 2020.
As the force continues to boost hiring under new police Chief Brian Redd, it expects those overtime costs to decline in coming years, according to city documents. For now, though, it faces a potential $3.8 million gap for the budget year, which ends June 30. It also has an additional $977,286 this year in unforeseen retirement costs, which it is proposing to cover with the same budget amendment.
The spending change-ups come on top of a total of nearly $135 million devoted to the Police Department in the city’s most recent budget cycle, up nearly 64% from the department’s spending in 2020, when Mendenhall first took office.
The city is also needing to replace a $292,833 shortfall in funding from the state to cover the salaries for 19 police officers and a supervising lieutenant, deployed near the city’s homeless resource centers. Replacing that state shortfall will keep staffing on that team at its current levels.
And in addition to amendments for staffing, overtime and retirement costs, Redd, who replaced former Chief Mike Brown last year, is seeking an additional $1 million for a new high-tech mobile command center, deployable in emergency and large-scale events.
The customized operations and communications hub on wheels, the department said, will help coordinate responses to major natural disasters, infrastructure failures, mass-casualty events and large gatherings or civil disturbances.
The city’s police force currently borrows a mobile command center when it needs one, usually from the city Fire Department. Redd recounted recently having to appropriate the mobile center on back-to-back nights, first for a shooting outside a Latter-day Saint meetinghouse in Jordan Meadows, followed the next night by a barricaded subject.
In a major disaster or critical event, both departments will need on-scene command capabilities, police say. Not having its own command center, according to budget documents, limits the department’s ability “to respond swiftly, communicate effectively, and manage resources efficiently in dynamic environments.”
“This is just a tool that a capital city police department does need to have,” Redd told the City Council. “It will be deployed on a number of occasions through the year.”
Police are asking for $1 million for the command center from the city’s general fund now, Redd said, to ensure it is outfitted, delivered and available for large events scheduled in 2027, including a public open house for the Salt Lake Temple, expected to draw millions to downtown.