We'd like to see our Town leaders step up and explore contracting for law enforcement services with the Sheriff's Department like the Village of Waterford, and now the Town of Burlington do.
Not only could we save in excess of $100,000 a year, but we would likely improve the police service we get.
We've noticed that the Town's police chief has a take home large truck for a squad but doesn't even live in the Town and doesn't respond to calls. He apparently sits in his office all day while another full-time cop is out on patrol. Do we really need two cops on duty at a time in the Town -where one of them sits in the office all day.
I hope our Town Board will take a look at this. These are dire economic times and we hope our leaders will step up and save us money while improving service with a law enforcement contract with the Sheriff's Department.
7 comments:
That is a great idea and long over due. We don't need a chief and the clerks, etc. and could save a lot of money.
I agree it is over due, and I think the township would get better protection
I think this is a great idea. There is no reason for the town to have its own force and have to pay for a chief who does nothing. Contract with the Sheriff and be done with it.
Truth is, most communities are offered a "teaser rate" so to speak for the Sheriff's Department to come in and take over services. Once the community disbands their police department, the Sheriff proceeds to over the next few years, raise the price, typically over the amount of the original police budget (for less officers). Ask Pewaukee, Union Grove and the Village of Waterford. Also, the Sheriff Dept. tends to provide less "protection" because they send deputies all over, pulling the deputies out of the communities that pay for the coverage. (By the way, coverage he is consitutionally obligated to provide via tax money.) Not to mention, you'd have deputies that don't know your local roads or residents because they don't work in your community all the time. As far as the Chief with that big truck...yeah, guess it could go.
Dear Anon 10/31.
Nice Try. My Brother-in-law is on the Town Board in Burlington and they researched all of your bogus claims before they signed a contract with the Sheriff. They checked with Union Grove and Waterford about the "teaser rate" you refer to and those claims are ridiculous. The contract costs for the municipalities are all public records. What the Town found was that for Waterford and Union Grove, the costs actually went down a couple of years (with the same protection level). Burlington also found that the Sheriff had more deputies living in the Town of Burlington than the Town of Burlington did. I am willing to be that the same holds true for the Town of Waterford. The Sheriff Department is much more professional than the Town of Waterford and will do a much better job of protecting us.
I hope the town officials are really looking at this.
There is nothing mandating the that Town of Waterford have a police department. I think it would be good idea to evaluate of we need all of those officers. I suspect we could get by with much less.
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