Draper voters weigh DA race shaped by ICE debate, audit

SALT LAKE COUNTY — Draper ballots carry one countywide contest for prosecutor: the Salt Lake County district attorney race, listed on the county's certified sample ballot as Sim Gill (DEM) and Kent Davis (REP) 3.

Gill is seeking a fifth term after 16 years in office, and is a first-generation immigrant from India 1. Davis was a deputy district attorney under Gill from 2017 to 2021 1. Two developments since both candidates set out their platforms have shaped the contest: a December 2025 performance audit of the office, and Gill's summer presentation to a national group of county prosecutors on charging federal immigration agents 1.

State legislative auditors published Report 2025-31 on Dec. 9, 2025, an audit of the district attorney's office requested by the Legislative Audit Subcommittee as part of a series on Salt Lake County's criminal justice system 2. The auditors found the office received about 23,000 case referrals in 2024 and filed charges in approximately 77 percent of them 2. Of 50 felony case declinations selected at random, approximately 48 percent lacked detailed reasoning for why the case was declined, the report states 2.

The report's first finding is that the office did not have adequate policies to guide screening and filing, that informal written guidance had been poorly communicated and implemented, and that leadership should implement policies and regularly evaluate a sample of decisions 2. Its recommendations include expanding and implementing standard policies in the office's updated screening handbook, training all staff on them, and establishing policies requiring adequate notes and documentation on each case, including plea deals 2. Auditors reviewed 100 plea deals that involved a two-step reduction in charges and found most mentioned the terms of the deal but lacked documentation of the rationale or of whether a supervisor reviewed it 2. The report also states that office staff did not provide the information auditors requested on the county's alternative-to-incarceration programs, which limited the auditors' ability to evaluate them 2.

Davis has said the audit inspired his candidacy, and that its most important finding for him was that the diversion programs Gill created as alternatives to incarceration do not track recidivism among participants who later reoffend 1. "I want written standards, documented decisions and regularly published performance metrics," he told the Deseret News 1.

Gill points to outcomes. He says Salt Lake crime has fallen to the lowest level in a decade, while acknowledging that some violent crime is up, and says his office has a higher than average filing rate and does not refer violent offenders to pre-filing diversion 1. The audit records the office's own response: a request in its 2026 budget for more than 60 additional full-time positions, 28 of them line prosecutors, and a plan for a public-facing performance dashboard 2.

Gill delivered a presentation in July to the Major County Prosecutors Council, with legal guidance on holding Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents accountable for alleged infringements of citizens' rights, the Deseret News reported 1. The workshop addressed when immunity applies to federal agents carrying out administrative functions, and the question of whether an officer acted on an objectively reasonable basis 1. Gill is not a member of the Fight Against Federal Overreach, a group nine progressive prosecutors formed after two protesters were shot by federal agents weeks apart in Minneapolis, but he said he plans to continue the discussion at a January meeting of county prosecutors 1.

The backdrop is a rise in federal immigration arrests. Utah apprehensions reached a record 613 in June, after a December high of 511, according to totals the Deportation Data Project published, and the 548 arrests in Utah in July were roughly five times the average monthly figure under President Joe Biden; nationwide the monthly count rose from 8,603 in December 2024 to 49,571 in July 2026 1. About half of July arrests were of immigrants with no criminal charges; in Utah, where a dozen police agencies hold 287(g) agreements with ICE, the ratio was closer to one-third 1.

Gill says he does not seek to obstruct deportations, and that his concern is a chilling effect among immigrant residents, including citizens, who he says are now afraid to report crimes 1. "My fundamental concern is the safety of my community," he told the Deseret News 1. In a statement to the same paper, Davis said ICE agents should be treated equally under Utah law, and that the district attorney has no place in civil immigration enforcement 1.

Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall told the Deseret News that Gill has been instrumental in rethinking the city's approach to "high utilizers," individuals who are often chronically homeless and who take up the majority of police resources 1.

The audit also carries the office's response plan: training for staff, reporting to executive leadership at each monthly division meeting on how that training is progressing, and a public dashboard the office said it believed would go live by the date the report was released 2. The same document states that full compliance with note-taking standards "has proven problematic" 2.