SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Salt Lake County Sheriff Jim Winder said Tuesday he’s planning to leave for the small city of Moab amid disagreements over how to tackle homelessness in downtown Salt Lake City and problems with jail overcrowding.
Winder said he’s also been worn down by a recent series of unconnected officer deaths.
The head of one of the largest police forces in the state has been offered the job as police chief in the small southern Utah city of Moab, which would have him overseeing a 17-officer department in a tourist destination popular for its red-rock vistas.
If the Moab city council approves his appointment, Winder plans to step down this summer. He’ll recommend a replacement who’s not planning to run for sheriff in 2018 because preparing for an election could distract from day-to-day duties, he said.
Winder, a Democrat, has been with Salt Lake County Sheriff’s Office for 31 years, 10 of them of them as sheriff.
Winder unveiled a sweeping plan in March to crack down on panhandling and establish a campground to ease overcrowding at Salt Lake City’s overcrowded downtown homeless shelter. The plan drew pushback from the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah.
Winder said he also doesn’t see eye-to-eye with city leaders on how to deal with the crowds on the streets in the gentrifying area near the arena where the Utah Jazz play.
“I won’t kid you, it’s been draining to a certain extent,” he said, adding that he hopes his departure will help.
Salt Lake City Mayor Jackie Biskupski, who was a policy adviser for Winder before resigning to run for mayor, said in a statement that she supports his choice to leave. Her spokesman Matthew Rojas declined further comment.
Messages left for Salt Lake City police weren’t immediately returned Tuesday.
Winder has also dealt with persistent jail overcrowding, and he declared that people arrested for misdemeanor crimes won’t be held behind bars.
But Winder said his outlook on the job began to change when Officer Douglas Barney was fatally shot by while responding to a traffic accident. Barney was working overtime to pay for cancer treatments when he was shot in the head by a parolee who walked away from a halfway house, police said. The suspect was killed in a shootout with authorities.
“It changed me a great deal,” said Winder, who said the day Barney died was his hardest during his decade-long tenure as sheriff. After it came a series of unrelated officer deaths, including three in a span of 18 days earlier this year.
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This story has been corrected to say Winder has been with the sheriff’s office 31 years, not 30 years.
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