Which brings up my confusion on of the issue. Does this mean that Salt Lake County no longer has a Sherriffs Department? Are they going to new Badges and Patches?
The Sheriff's Department still exists.
However, the road deputies will indeed have a new badge, patch, uniform and vehicle logos. Their uniforms will be a blue similar to SLCPD and WVC from what I hear. You should start seeing those changes in June and July.
They've done something similar to the switch from SL County Fire to the Unified Fire Authority. The main reason for the change was to allow each township/city that contracts for service to have say on a police commission.
The Sheriff's Department just doesn't have enough unincorporated areas of the county left to really make the Sheriffs Dept work without some contracts (Thank the legislature for their law requiring townships or annexation)....so they're trying to keep the contracts they do have by allowing greater control of those cities.
You won't see anymore of the township/city logos on the vehicles either.