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Law enforcement cost analysis crucial© St. Petersburg Times published March 10, 2002 The idea has been kicked around since the mid 1980s. Yet, it has never been examined in detail because the people who could make it happen -- Crystal River City Council members -- have been unwilling to let taxpayers hear the probable truth. It would cost significantly less for the city to hire the Citrus County Sheriff's Office to handle law enforcement and prevention than it does to employ its municipal Police Department. The costs for the city Police Department have increased consistently over the years. Today, police protection makes up more than one-third, or $1.4-million, of the city's total budget of $3.4-million. The 21-member Police Department accounts for practically all the money the city collects in property taxes. That is an incredible outlay for a city that has a population of only about 3,500 people. The time has come for the council to commission a comprehensive analysis of what services residents are receiving for their money and to ask Sheriff Jeff Dawsy to provide a detailed estimate of how much it would cost him to replicate those services. In the late 1980s, a task force appointed by the City Council recommended that the option of disbanding the Police Department had sufficient grounds to merit further study. The council rejected the committee's recommendation and that is as close as the issue ever came to a full airing, although the discussion has been resurrected briefly a half-dozen times since then. Crystal River voters deserve the opportunity to vote, in a citywide referendum, on this very important issue. Council members should not be afraid to authorize placing it on the ballot, possibly this November. But before residents can make an informed decision, they need thorough and objective information on which to base their votes. Will hiring sheriff's deputies to take over law enforcement save money? If so, how much? And would the savings from abolishing the city Police Department be enough to translate into a small property tax cut? The council could provide that information, possibly by early summer, by assigning the city manager and police chief to immediately compile a list of tasks the department's employees perform, and to assign a cost to each. The list also should include salaries, benefits, training, equipment inventory, insurance costs and the price of prevention programs. With that information in hand, the council can ask Sheriff Dawsy to do a comparative analysis, and the debate about the advantages and disadvantages of question finally can begin in earnest.
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