SALT LAKE CITY — Morale within the Salt Lake City Police Department reached the lowest levels state auditors say they’ve ever seen before swift changes were made this year.

The poor morale stemmed from multiple “poor leadership” practices under the city’s former police chief, Mike Brown, which led to several “department inefficiencies,” the Utah Office of the Legislative Auditor General wrote in a scathing 48-page report released Tuesday.

Brown, who abruptly retired in February , rose through the department’s ranks before he was named police chief in 2015. Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhal l later said she asked him to retire amid mounting pressure from state leaders, who called out the police department’s “inadequacies.”

Brian Redd, former director of the Utah Department of Correctio

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