Rigby Idaho Citizens to Mayor: Don't eliminate the Police Department

RIGBY -- Residents responded with a unanimous and resounding no to the mayor and City Council about eliminating the city police department.

Nearly 100 people packed the gym of Harwood Elementary School in a hearing Thursday night to express their opinions about Rigby Mayor Jason Richardson's proposal.

In an effort to balance the city's budget without raising taxes, Richardson said the Rigby Police Department could be eliminated. The city would contract with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office to provide police services.

The proposal would reduce the budget by 24 percent, or nearly $350,000. The police department currently accounts for 55 percent of the annual budget.

Those attending the hearing, however, had no interest in losing the department, which has served the city for 112 years.

Darwin Dinsdale of Rigby said if the department was dissolved, it could never return.

“We can never get it back," said Dinsdale. "You’d have to reestablish everything, buy new police cars. You’d have to reestablish the whole department.”

Larry Anderson, former Rigby police chief of 34 years, agreed.

“At this point in time you lose control of your police department," said Anderson. "Mayors and councils control the police department. If you turn this over to the sheriff they have no control over it. They are answering to other county officials. And once you do, you’ll never get it back.”

Haley Krumblis of Jefferson County had questions about the initial cost of the contract and worried the savings would be lost in the future if the cost of the contract was raised.

Richardson opened the hearing attempting to alleviate misrepresentations of the contract that had created an emotional division in the community. He reminded the audience that a part of the contract would hire “a new squad, a new metro-division, that would be solely for the city.”

“The city will not be left unprotected,” the mayor said.

Police Chief Keith Hammon, who became emotional during his testimony, thanked the citizens for their support and told the council, “We are police officers for the city. Not support staff.”

The audience responded with a standing ovation when the chief concluded.

Hammon said his department is working on budget cuts, which will be presented to the City Council in its next meeting.

Ken Sharp, who had worked for three police agencies around the country, said the sheriff's office have to allocate its limited resources the best it can, and giving it more to do will be a big bump coming in.

“You don’t get more for less,” Sharp added. “You don’t even always get adequate for less.”

Twenty-five people testified before the council with all but one, who didn’t take a stand, arguing against the change.

Richardson, however, said that a number of people previously spoke to him privately advocating support of the contract, but felt the venue of the hearing with the police department and emotional supporters present was not the proper setting.

As to the contract, which likely won’t be voted on until November, Richardson said the testimonies didn’t dissuade him, but they definitely changed what he want to propose for the contract, which is “what can we have that will give us the services that we want for a price where we are not wasting other people's money.”