SALT LAKE CITY, Utah — Response times within the Salt Lake City Police Department are still among the worst in Utah, but they have improved.
The department has also quietly lowered their standards for Priority 1 response times, despite hiring more officers.
According to data provided by SLCPD, the agency’s average response time for a Priority 1 call from September 2021 through September 2022 was 11 minutes, 58 seconds.
Priority 1 calls are the most urgent cases handled by the department. According to SLCPD policy, both Priority 1 and Priority 2 calls require “immediate attention.”
Late to the Scene
An investigative report first published by FOX 13 News in Spring 2021 revealed the department consistently responding too slow to the most urgent 911 calls as SLCPD felt the strain of being understaffed.
In August 2020, the department had an average Priority 1 response time of 18 minutes, 36 seconds.
“It’s a direct relationship to our staffing,” said SLCPD Chief Mike Brown. “I think, at the high-water mark, we had 92 officers leave the department.”
Some of those officers blamed Brown for their departure. In 2020, the union representing SLCPD officers took a “vote of no confidence” in the chief.
SLCPD has since hired additional officers and has dozens currently going through training.
Lowering the bar
Sgt. Keith Horrocks, the highest-ranking officer within the department’s public information bureau, stated SLCPD’s goal for a Priority 1 response was 4-5 minutes on May 15, 2021.
More than a year after our report, FOX 13 News received a series of emails from the chief’s new spokesperson, Brent Weisberg, accusing us of fabricating that number.
“We do not believe your reporting on this matter is accurate,” Weisberg wrote. “This is offensive to our officers who are out every day working to respond to calls for service as quickly and as safely as possible.”
Andrew Wittenberg, a spokesperson for the mayor, was also confused.
“Where do you get the 4-5 minutes?” he asked. “Can you justify where you have this? On tape?”
FOX 13 News met with Brown to show him an unedited copy of the May 15, 2021 interview with Horrocks.
“We’re looking at Priority 1’s in March (2021) under eight minutes, but I think we’d like to see them closer to five – even four minutes. That’s a good response time,” Horrocks said. “I know that Chief Ewell quoted, and he’s a smarter man than I am, but he quoted the national average response time, and it was somewhere in the neighborhood of five minutes for a Priority 1 call, and I think that’s acceptable. That’s something that, when you call, and you’re in the worst situation that you’ve ever been in in your life, five minutes is a long time even. But it’s still better than looking at eight minutes or even ten minutes, because each second that clock ticks, it just seems like an eternity”
“Because a Priority 1 can be life or death, right?” asked FOX 13 News investigative reporter Adam Herbets.
“Right,” Horrocks responded. “Yeah, yeah.”
Brown said he could not explain the discrepancy between Horrocks’ statements and his current goal.
“Did he misspeak?”
“I don’t know. I don’t know if he did or not,” Brown said. “That is the first time I’ve heard that in its entirety.”
Brown claimed SLCPD’s goal for a Priority 1 response has “always” been 10 minutes.
“That’s just been something that we’ve always looked at,” Brown said. “It’s a good average.”
When asked why the goal changed, Mayor Erin Mendenhall said it was because of the “reality that we’re dealing with.”
“That is not a politically directed (goal), but it was arrived at by the chief,” Mendenhall said. “We’ve turned the tide in Salt Lake City, but we are far from done.”
Comparing data
Chris Bertram, the former deputy chief of Unified Police Department, said he was disappointed to watch SLCPD backpedal from its previous statements.
“Disingenuous. It seems disingenuous, because here’s the thing: That’s not an expectation that the public should have,” Bertram said. “I understand they may not be able to hit a goal of five minutes right now, and it looks better to say, ‘Well our goal is ten.’”
“It’s just kind of fake... One of my children lives in Salt Lake City, and it scares me.”
FOX 13 News has compiled a statewide database to track response times and response time goals for all Utah police departments.
SLCPD’s goal for a 10-minute Priority 1 response is among the least ambitious in the state.
The department’s average Priority 1 response of 11 minutes, 58 seconds from September 2021 to September 2022 is the slowest in Salt Lake County.
“It’s unfortunate because I think (what Horrocks said) was the real answer, and what you’re getting now is an adjustment to make it look like they’re only a minute off of their goal,” Bertram said. “Somebody is kicking in my front door, right now at 1:00 in the morning, and you’re expecting that a 10-minute response time is appropriate and within reason of what the expectations of the public are? No!"
Brown said he was not aware of response times for neighboring cities.
“I don’t want to compare somebody else’s standards to ours,” Brown said. “Salt Lake City is a safe community. It’s a great city... This is a great police department.”
“There’s not another city that our police department can be compared to,” said Mendenhall.
Bertram disagreed. He believes the best comparison is UPD, which had a 5 minute, 1 second average response time for Priority 1 calls over the same time period.
Brown and Mendenhall both talked about how Utah’s capitol city faces unique challenges. They also noted how “violent crime” is down 3.6 percent over the past year.
According to their own report, “...violent street crime increased approximately 20 percent over the past two years.”
“The truth is, nothing’s changed in Salt Lake,” Bertram said. “It was unique in 1990. It’s unique today.”
Matt Evans, a retired SLCPD sergeant, said the city’s high crime and inability to respond quickly caused him to leave.
“I lived in Salt Lake, but as soon as I was going to have a family and kids, I moved out,” Evans said. “Crime is what it is. Most of the time, it’s generated by people that you can’t control, but trying to put a glossier coat on it doesn’t do any favors for anyone.”
In response, Brown said he was disappointed to learn some officers do not want to live in the city they represent.
“At first blush, that concerns me,” Brown said, “because I want people to work here, to live here, to recreate here, and to feel safe.”