Starting next year, the Town of Morrison will no longer have its own local police department.
The Morrison Town Board of Trustees voted earlier this week to disband the department citing financial unsustainability and will instead contract with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office for law enforcement services.
“I think that the time is now, the town has got a lot of obligations coming,” said Trustee Sean Forey, who made the first motion to disband the department at a public meeting this week. “You've heard not only from the town manager about the costs that have been increased, but you're also talking about some of the people that even spoke this evening about what's going on and it's time to take this and try this.”
The police department’s proposed budget for 2025 was $1.7 million which accounted for 41 percent of the town’s budget. Traffic control fees and court fines are the department’s two sources of revenue; they are estimated to raise $510,000 this year. Next year’s budget proposed $660,000 in revenue, which includes $100,000 from a speed radar camera. The budget also proposed funding for a full-time police chief, a full-time administrative assistant, nine full-time police officers and eight part-time police officers.
The future agreement with the JeffCo Sheriff’s Office is more of an adjustment to an existing partnership instead of something new. JeffCo Sheriff spokesperson Mark Techmeyer said deputies have been providing overnight law enforcement services in Morrison for the past four years.
“We have been providing services like this to Morrison, just not 24 hours,” Techmeyer said. “We have worked with Morrison many times over the last decades when they need assistance in some form or another with their law enforcement services. So, it's not anything really strange or new to us. It's just a change in the scope of work.”
In June, JeffCo Sheriff Reggie Marinelli deputized 17 part-time officers in Morrison to the Sheriff’s Office. They assist deputies with traffic incidents primarily at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre during concerts. Traffic accident investigations are handled by the Colorado State Patrol.
Techmeyer said the JeffCo Sheriff’s Office won’t be absorbing any of the current Morrison Police Officers into their force or station any deputies in town as part of the new agreement. He said the town is close to its South and Mountain precincts and deputies will respond from there. But, Techmeyer said the Morrison officers are welcome to apply for deputy positions with the Sheriff’s Office.
“Any calls for service in Morrison will most likely be taken care of by our deputies that are out on patrol already working in South Jeff or some in the mountains if they're down towards the east side of their boundary that they can respond to any calls for service in motion,” Techmeyer said.
The details of the new agreement are still being worked out between Morrison officials and the JeffCo Sheriff’s Office due to the configuration of staff and researching data and call history in Morrison to arrive at a financial agreement. Officers let go will receive severance pay.
Morrison officials did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
