CRIME, POLICE + COURTS
Project Safe Neighborhoods successfully lowering crime according to Salt Lake leaders
Dec 2, 2022, 10:45 AM
Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall speaks during a community update on Dec. 1, 2022 in Salt Lake City. (Salt Lake City Police Department)
(Salt Lake City Police Department)
SALT LAKE CITY — Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall and Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown called Project Safe Neighborhoods a success during a community update on Thursday. The project has been active in Salt Lake City for two years and aims to reduce crime in the area.
In a press conference on Thursday, Mendenhall and Brown laid out crime statistics in the city for the past year.
Brown said violent crime dropped 2.9% compared to this time last year.
Additional data released by the SLCPD said that property crime was down 9.4% and the overall crime rate in the city is down 8.7%.
But Amy Hawkins, chair of the Ballpark Community Council, disputed those findings. Hawkins tweeted that based on publicly-available data, crime is up between 3% and 8% percent since November of 2021.
Crime is up this year in Ballpark. Based on publicly-available data, crime is up either 3% or 8%, depending on how you’re defining “this year”, November 2021 – October 2022 or January 2022 – October 2022. https://t.co/owAx2gdVkx pic.twitter.com/Q7y6AqhFcP
— Amy J. Hawkins (@amyjhawkins) December 1, 2022
Brown said that the SLCPD is focusing resources on those who do the most harm to the community.
“If you’re here in Salt Lake City, and you’re going to commit a violent crime. We’re going to track you down, we’re going to arrest you, we’re going to prosecute you and you’re going to serve the time,” Brown said.
Mendenhall noted that in the two years Project Safe Neighborhoods has run, the area saw 260 defendants charged. She added that convicted criminals serve an average of 40 months in prison, which Mendenhall called “serious time.”
Mendenhall said in a Tweet that the city’s work isn’t over despite lowered crime rates.
“No criminal activity will be tolerated in Salt Lake City and we will continue to root out criminals wherever they may try to hide.”
