A Wisconsin village is eliminating its police department in an effort to cut costs.
The Big Bend Village Board voted 5-2 on Thursday to disband its police department and let the Waukesha County Sheriff's Department handle law enforcement services, The Waukesha Freeman reports. A new contract with the sheriff's department would move its southeast district office into the Big Bend's police station, and two full-time deputies would be responsible for the village and neighboring Vernon.
"The shared services contract also brings the backing of the sheriff’s office resources for any incidents requiring specialty enforcement on a 24/7 basis," a village news release stated.
Once the deal is finalized, the sheriff's department would start the new coverage arrangement Jan. 1.
The Big Bend Police Department employs a chief, three full-time officers and nine part-time officers. Eliminating the department will save the village over $250,000 annually, the release stated.
“It’s a mistake. You just can’t cut your way in to fixing any debt problems in the village when it comes down to it,” Village Trustee Josh Grover, who voted against disbanding the agency, told The Freeman.
“Once you get rid of it like this there is no going back," he added. "Once those police officers are gone and you liquidate all the equipment it’s going to cost you three times the amount probably to come back from that."
The decision to eliminate the police department upset some residents, who felt the move was sprung on them. The agenda for Thursday's meeting listed a closed session to discuss police services. When trustees returned to open session, they held the vote concerning the fate of the department.
"We got the agenda on Wednesday. It mentioned the closed session and it just said police services," said Grover. "During the meeting, it came out that it had to do with accepting a contract using Waukesha County Sheriff instead of using our own police force and disbanding our police force and liquidating all of our equipment."
