A modest proposal for El Paso County

[Zundfolge]

No, we're not going to feed the children of those in Black Forest to those in Fountain.


I was listening to the radio on the drive in this AM and it looks like Sheriff Maketa wants a sales tax increase to fund the Sheriff's department. We can argue the merits of that later, but it did get me thinking that there is a HUGE waste of city/county resources in having both a Sheriff's Department AND a Police Department.

Why couldn't the CSPD be folded into the El Paso County Sheriff's Dept? Just look at all the administrative redundancies that could be eliminated (along with an over paid PD Chief). Certainly putting all our law enforcement assets under one roof would be a huge cost savings, not to mention eliminating resource wasting interdepartmental rivalries and such.

[roberth]

Stop making sense.

The unspoken first job of government is to grow more government.

[DD977GM2]

I think that the idea of a both a Sheriff and Police Cheif are outdated positions of Authority.

When there was a larger rural population along with less mobility to get to and from the "country"
it was a necessity. With todays modern technolgies such as vehicles,cell phones etc
we can do with just a Police Department and not both.
Have substations that both Sheriff and Police Departments have and then you take
care of covering the rural areas.

[cofi]

i live in elpaso county and am like 35 miles outside of cs it is a different world out here i see a need for both agencys the sheriffs are much more laid back and firearm friendly imo

[birddog]

I think there was probably a time when it made sense to have individual entities but these days consolidation makes a lot of sense, and in more sectors than just police work.

Like you said it would sure reduce some repetitive duties and probably provide better working relationships.

[Cman]

To bad it will never happen. It's a good idea.

[hollohas]

i live in elpaso county and am like 35 miles outside of cs it is a different world out here i see a need for both agencys the sheriffs are much more laid back and firearm friendly imo

Might be able to still get away with just the Sheriff. Jefferson County has multiple offices including a mountain division. The officers from that office are used to dealing with rural issues, the officers from in the metro area are used to dealing with city type issues. Of course there are multiple PDs within that area too. I guess the problem with having only a Sheriiff or PD is that they have to enforce both city and county laws...I can see where that could get a bit problematic.

However I think this idea is very suitable in smaller communities...like Woodland Park.

[jerrymrc]

As long as the Sheriffs dept does not hire any of the CSPD I am all for it.

[Ronin13]

Funny Zund, I think the same could be applied to Golden/Littleton/Lakewood/Arvada... JCSO has a presence in the municipalities (well, unincorporated- which are very small areas). Simply re-drawing where city limits are due to growth would benefit well and cut spending on an overzealous budget. JCSO is a great LE Agency, but it does have a major redundancy in the cities of Jefferson County. I understand their presence and need in places like Genesse, Evergreen, Conifer, etc... but they have little to no presence in Morrison because Morrison has a PD.

I think having two LE Agencies in one location does lead to some problems and issues... Perhaps El Paso County will set the new standard for this if they were to follow your advice?

[ChadAmberg]

I was thinking the same thing the other day, I would like to see CSPD folded into the Sheriff's dept, not the other way around though.