BATESVILLE -- After 33 years of relying on Independence County sheriff's deputies to patrol their city, Batesville leaders will soon form their own police department.
Mayor Rick Elumbaugh said he hopes to hire an interim police chief early next year who will oversee creation of a law enforcement department with a staff of 25 that will begin work in the city of 10,248 by July 1.
"We will be able to put more officers on our streets for the same cost we're paying the county," Elumbaugh said. "We owe that to the citizens of our town."
County Judge Robert Griffin said the city's annual payment of $1.2 million covered costs of several officers, including a domestic violence officer, two sergeants and four investigators. He said the city could have requested moving deputies from one of those assignments to street patrols if it had wished.
"It was an a la carte deal," Griffin said. "They are paying for what they use. All they had to do was reconfigure and give the sheriff a list of what they wanted."
City Council members voted 8-0 Wednesday evening to end an agreement with the county sheriff's office to provide police services, terminating a contract that the city entered into with the county in 1981, when it disbanded its police force.
The city payments to the county provided at least one deputy in the city limits at all times. The city owns its police cars, weapons, bullet-resistant vests and other supplies. It also provides dispatching services for the county and for area fire departments.
"I look at this as an opportunity to increase the number of officers in the street with the same money we are already paying," Alderman Chris Poole said. "The same money will get us at least four officers. At times [with the county agreement], we've had just one officer."
Batesville is the largest Arkansas city to use county deputies to patrol its borders, the Arkansas Sheriffs' Association has said. Tontitown in Washington County, Newark in Independence County and Melbourne in Izard County also have interlocal agreements with their counties to provide police services.
Last summer, Horseshoe Bend disbanded its six-member Police Department and now contracts with Izard County Sheriff Tate Lawrence's department for police protection.
It's not the first time the City Council has discussed creating its own police force. In 2010, Elumbaugh discussed doing away with the agreement, saying then that he wanted more officers for the city. Aldermen did not take action on his proposal at the time.
But earlier this year, Batesville hired an independent Northwest Arkansas firm to study breaking away from the county's agreement. The firm surveyed nine Arkansas cities of comparable size to Batesville about police departments and gave Elumbaugh the findings in October.
The mayor did not release those results until now because the county and city were recently battling over land in Southside, a community just south of Batesville. The city wanted to annex the land, but residents of the area incorporated it instead -- with support from the county -- and voters turned down Batesville's annexation proposal in the November general election, blocking the city's bid for the land.
Elumbaugh and Griffin said they don't believe the termination of the city's contract with the sheriff's office is a result of that land squabble.
Still, aldermen mentioned it during Wednesday evening's council meeting.
"There is a perception that we are trying to throw the county under the bus," Alderman Douglas Matthews said. "Our intention is to give our citizens the best police protection money can buy.
"I hope we can eventually quit pointing fingers and start working together," he said.
Griffin said the loss of the $1.2 million won't hurt the county, because the county will no longer spend the money in the city once Batesville creates its own force.
"It's a push," he said. "It only impacts the cohesiveness of law enforcement in Independence County. We will no longer have the same uniformity of justice. There will be different types of law enforcement management and different focuses on who is locked up in our jail."
Elumbaugh said he hopes he can negotiate with Sheriff Steve Jeffery to pay fees to jail Batesville's prisoners in the county jail.
The city expects to hire an interim police chief early next year and then begin staffing its new force. Elumbaugh said the city has two potential facilities it can lease to house its Police Department.
"By July 1, our police will be ready to roll," he said.
State Desk on 12/19/2014