Sim’s Mission

  1. Return Integrity and Public Trust to the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office
  2. Prosecute criminals, protect families, help victims
  3. Save Tax Dollars by Making the District Attorney’s Office and our Criminal Justice System More Efficient

Sim is passionate about Salt Lake County and the people who live there. That’s why he believes the mission of Salt Lake County’s District Attorney’s Office is to not just create safe communities, but do it the right way.

With integrity. Professional competence. Fairness. Vision. And a passionate commitment to provide a high standard of public service.

Specifically, Sim will lead the office of Salt Lake County DA’s Office in these three distinct and important areas. Over the course of the campaign, Sim will detail plans to:

 

Return Integrity and Public Trust to the Salt Lake County District Attorney’s Office

  • Sim will de-politicize the office and make the hard decisions of who to prosecute based on facts and not relationships. It’s time to stop cheating the taxpayers because the office will not prosecute cases because of personal agendas
  • Sim will create an independent advisory panel of blue chip retired judges whose duty will not be compromised by politics nor controversy in pursuing ethics and political corruption cases. Decisions will be based upon the facts, law, and duty. Nothing more and nothing less.
  • Sim will eliminate the charging of money to produce evidence for those who are accused. It is not the job of the prosecution to profit from prosecution, but rather to insure a speedy and just resolution. It is unethical for the DA to charge money where law enforcement provided copies for both the defense and the prosecution.
 

Prosecute criminals, protect families, help victims

Sim will prioritize resources to focus in the following areas:

  • Violent Gang offenders will be aggressively prosecuted: If you use a gun or a weapon in the commission of a gang related felony you will find no shelter from prosecution.
  • Violent offenders who sexually or physically harm our children will face the full force of the law: If you sexually exploit the most vulnerable in our society, you will be convicted, and you will be sent to prison.
  • Drug profiteers who exploit the addictions of others will not escape the focus of the DA’s office: If you profit in drug transactions, you will profit no more.
  • Violent domestic offenders will be aggressively prosecuted and re-victimizing victims will not be tolerated: if victims are terrorized, we will find support, shelter, counseling and wrap-around-services that genuinely protect them and assure their safety. The Family Justice Center model will be expanded. We will not jail victims to win prosecutions.
  • Concrete example: Sim will create a joint prosecution task force with Summit, Davis, Utah and Tooele Counties. Rather than push criminals out of one county and into another jurisdiction, counties will work together to get the offenders off our streets and out of our neighborhoods
  • Concrete example: Sim will commit the resources needed to create a community outreach program designed to get kids out of gang behavior. We will focus on building community based collaborations that seek to address the needs of the community, law enforcement and the youth at risk.
 

Save Tax Dollars by Making the District Attorney’s Office and our Criminal Justice System More Efficient

  • In his first year in the Salt Lake City Prosecutor’s office, Sim reduced the overall budget by over 15% by identifying waste, saving the city roughly $250,000/year, or over $2,000,000 in all. He’ll apply the same resourcefulness in the DA’s office.
  • Example: cut the communications department within the office from three people down to one and use those funds to keep our neighborhoods safe.
  • Sim will assign a prosecutor to every police department. This prosecutor will serve as the contact point for exchange of information, developing training and identifying areas of focused prosecution. More communication, more education means more effective work in each community. Time is saved. Taxpayer dollars are saved as well and law enforcement trust is established.
  • Sim will consolidate teams within the office and eliminate “boutique prosecutions”. A return to the basics of prosecution not a bloating of management.
  • We will invest in the education and training of all attorneys with quality access to continuing legal education not just for the chosen few. Every attorney deserves the tools, education and support to perform their best. Better-educated attorneys mean better and efficient outcomes.
  • Expand Family Justice Center. Sim, as the Chair of the Safe at Home Coalition and the YWCA, collaborated to open Utah’s first Family Justice Center – a place where victims of domestic violence can get wrap-around services to feel safe and transition away from the abuse of domestic violence.
  • Sim will continue to seek alternatives to prosecution, problem-solving courts and programs.
  • Example: his work in starting the first Mental Health Court in the State of Utah reduced crime and allowed for a better quality of life for offenders, while it reduced days in jail and overall criminal justice costs. These courts now are operational in Utah County, Cache County, and soon in Davis County.
  • Re-Entry Mental Health Court for prisoners. Currently Sim is working with the Department of Corrections in establishing Mental Health Court for prisoners being released from prison. Such an approach with this critical population in one estimate may save as much 5 million dollars annually.
 

The Salt Lake County District Attorney’s office is a public institution engaged in public service.

We need a leader who has the prosecutorial experience to make criminals pay and provide victims the help they need.

We need a leader who is a true fiscal conservative who has the ability to make the office run more efficiently and effectively.

And we need a leader who places justice over politics and can restore the public’s confidence in the office.