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The chief of police for the city of South Salt Lake has announced his retirement.

Chris Snyder will step down as chief on Jan. 31, he wrote in his Twitter feed Wednesday night.

Deputy Chief Jack Carruth has been appointed the new chief, Snyder said.

Snyder has been with the South Salt Lake police for 23 years, the past seven as chief, he states in the Tweet.

Over his time in the department, Snyder served four years with the Drug Enforcement Agency Task Force, was a member of the SWAT team, investigated white collar crime and helped to train the public order unit for the 2002 Winter Olympics.

Snyder also managed the internal affairs unit, recruitment and hiring and served as public information officer. For a year, he was assistant chief under Chief Beau Babka.

Snyder served as chief over some of the county's highest-profile murder investigations, including the deaths of 7-year-old Hser Ner Moo in 2008 and Sherry Black, 64, in 2010. Black was the mother-in-law of Greg Miller, the CEO of the Larry H. Miller Group, which owns the Utah Jazz. The trial of Esar Met, the man accused of killing Hser Ner Moo, is underway; Black's murder remains unsolved.

Snyder oversaw investigations into other child homicides, including the 2010 beating death of a 5-year-old by her mother and a 2008 murder-suicide by Peter A. Perez of his girlfriend, Tracie Williamson, her 10-year-old daughter, Linzie, and his 1-year-old daughter, Jessica.

He also was chief over more controversial cases, such as the kidnapping case against David "D.J." Bell, who was acquitted after neighbors beat him upon finding their children in his house; Bell later said the neighbors beat him because he was gay and accused police of a lax investigation into what he called a hate crime. Snyder's department made national news after a resident was charged with stealing a city animal trap when the man in fact moved the crate to care for a skunk that had been trapped and unattended for multiple days.

Snyder is a board member of the Elizabeth Smart Foundation.

Snyder and a department spokesman did not return calls for comment.