As Goodhue Police Chief Josh Smith struggled this summer to fill vacancies in his small department, he warned the town’s City Council that unless pay and benefits improved, finding new officers would never happen.
When nothing changed, Smith quit. So did his few remaining officers, leading the Minnesota town of 1,300 residents to shutter its police force in late August.
America is in the midst of a police officer shortage that many in law enforcement blame on the twofold morale hit of 2020 — the coronavirus pandemic and criticism of police that boiled over with the murder of George Floyd by a police officer. From Minnesota to Maine, Ohio to Texas, small towns unable to fill jobs are eliminating their police departments and turning over police work to their county sheriff, a neighboring town or state police.
Small town in Ohio, we disbanded our local Police, and instead have county police here now
Which is the way. Or even just state troopers.
The only “benefits” to local police are faster response times in emergencies and the ability to enforce nuisance ordinances. The former is not something you want from Bill’s Drinking Buddies and the latter would be better handled by county workers anyway.
Generally speaking: The vast majority of what cops do would be better handled by social workers and bureaucrats with a clipboard. And it reduces the likelihood of a noise complaint resulting in the ritualistic sodomy and execution of a dog and its owners.
And it reduces the power of “sheriffs”
Yeah, if they’re going to stick with traditional US law enforcement, county police are the best way forward. Sheriffs offices should be abolished nation wide
this is the reality, we have several overlapping forces who compete for staff leaving some places overflowing with officers and some completely empty.
the whole county vs city vs state police forcing inefficiency needs to be addressed.