At its Tuesday night meeting, the Dallas Center City Council discussed doing away with the town’s police department and contracting with the Dallas County Sheriff’s office for its law-enforcement services.
The proposal to dissolve the police department was recommended by the city council’s public safety committee in response to the impending retirement in April of Dallas Center Police Chief Michelle Leonard and the departure later this month of Officer Dustin Runge, who has accepted a position as chief of the De Soto Police Department.
Leonard and Runge are the police department’s two full-time employees, and they are assisted by two part-time reserve officers. The department has an annual budget of about $200,000.
Dallas Center Mayor Michael Kidd, who along with Chief Leonard and Dallas Center City Council member Curtis Pion make up the public safety committee, outlined the committee’s deliberations leading to its recommendation.
Kidd said the committee’s goals when considering Dallas Center law enforcement included maintaining:
- current levels of patrol time
- properly trained officers
- cordial community relations
- efficient services within a context of limited funds
He said the committee’s concerns included the police department’s officer turnover rate, the increasing costs of training and equipment, the challenge of maintaining consistency in the chief’s position and the duty to keep in step with national trends in policing.
“The thing that has worried me since becoming a member of the council,” Pion said, “is whether we as a council are able to do enough to protect and support these folks that are doing this job for us. Are we doing it to the best of our abilities? I think we are, but I think that’s going to get more and more difficult.”
Kidd said the committee recommendation “would be to have two sheriff’s deputies to be assigned on a regular basis for their full-time shift to be in Dallas Center patrolling.”
The mayor said he entered the committee discussion more inclined to hire a new police chief, “but as soon as we started talking about contracting with the sheriff, it became clear the sheriff’s office would dedicate the equivalent of two people, just like what we have, but they would be dedicated to our community. They would be in our community. They would be patrolling our community very similar to the shifts that are covered by Michelle and our officer, so it wouldn’t be a rotating person. It wouldn’t be somebody unknown. It would be somebody that comes to do their 40-hour shift every week in our community.”
The city council will hold two public meetings in coming weeks — on Jan. 24 and Feb. 7 in the council chambers at 7 p.m. — in order to give local residents a chance to air their opinions about the proposed changes and to explore the options and implications for the city.
Dallas County Sheriff Chad Leonard, who was himself the chief of the Dallas Center Police Department from 2001 until his election as county sheriff in 2007, attended Tuesday’s council meeting and explained how cities go about contracting with the sheriff’s office for public-safety services.
The details of possible contracts will be fully explored at the public meetings, the council said. Current estimates suggest the city could contract annually for 4,000 hours of patrol time by two full-time deputy sheriffs for about $200,000.
Sheriff Leonard is married to Chief Leonard, who is leaving law enforcement in order to assume the ministry of the Panora Church of the Brethren.
Dallas Center Public Works Director Brian Slaughter raised a question about animal-control responsibilities. Dallas County does not enforce any animal control ordinances.
“We are a growing community,” Pion said, “and our needs will continue to evolve. I believe the sheriff’s office provides us with the best option to maintain our focus on community policing while also addressing our concerns in regards to stability and continuity, training, experience, equipment and resources moving forward.”
