Chief Matt Pennington has served as a police officer since 2004, beginning his career with the Weber County Sheriff’s Office where he worked as a deputy sheriff in patrol until he left in 2007 to join the South Jordan Police Department. During his time with the South Jordan Police Department Chief Pennington worked in the Patrol Division, the Traffic Unit as a motor officer, the Investigations Division as the sergeant, and was a member of the South Valley SWAT team from 2008 – 2018 and 2021 – 2023, holding positions of Scout, Team-leader, and Commander. Prior to leaving South Jordan he was the Division Commander of the Special Services Division, where he oversaw the department’s Training, School Resource Officer, and Traffic Units. In addition, he was tasked with planning security around the city’s special events. He previously was the Division Commander of the Patrol Division and the Investigations Division. In January 2024, Chief Pennington was appointed as Utah’s first State Security Chief by Commissioner Anderson with the Department of Public Safety, where he is responsible for overseeing safety and security for schools and other statewide infrastructure.

Chief Pennington has received numerous awards throughout his career, including; multiple letters of commendation and excellent work awards, the Supervisory Excellence award, a Distinguished Service Citation for his work helping Jordan School District implement a new violence action plan for staff and students, a Multi-Unit Citation for his involvement in the MicKenzie Smith kidnapping case, a Life Saving Medal, and two Officers’ Cross medals for the actions he took to prevent a possible active shooter situation at the Oquirrh Mountain LDS Temple on Christmas day 2010, and for confronting an armed gunman in a South Jordan neighborhood in 2020.

Chief Pennington holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Sociology with a certificate in Criminology and Corrections from the University of Utah, a Master’s Degree in Management and Leadership and an MBA from Western Governors University. In addition, he is a graduate of the FBI Command College and is certified as an instructor for Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events (CRASE) by Texas State University’s Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training (ALERRT) program. Chief Pennington has been a keynote speaker at several conferences, including the 2025 Florida National Summit on School Safety, 2025 University of Utah Campus Safety Summit, 2023 Utah Safety Council Conference, 2022 Utah Violent Crimes Conference and 2021 Utah PIO Conference where he was awarded Communicator of the Year During a Major Incident for his involvement in the Ryan McManigal case from July 2020.