Public concerned with plan to drop police department

People we talked to are concerned, even shocked that city leaders would entertain the idea of taking away their police department. They want things to stay exactly how they are now.

“Our police department is always there when you need them, always there.”

Larry Kitchen lives on a busy street in Lisbon; one that kids cross all the time. He sees police in action, watching for speeding drivers.

“I think we say we're going to save 60 thousand dollars, is that the value of a child?”

Sheila Bergemann says if Lisbon's police department is taken away, she'll no longer feel safe in her own home.

“Probably wouldn't change where I live, but I sure wouldn't like it.”

Many people are upset about the possibility of losing their police force; they say nothing good can come from it.

“If we go to letting the county run it, we're not going to have the police force in town when we really need them.”

City leaders say this decision isn't something they take lightly, which is why they wanted the public's input. Leaders are running out of options, they've cut costs where they can, and it's just not enough.

“Sign of the times, you can't keep raising taxes all the time just to pay for things. We've got to try and make some cuts.”

But slashing this service is something people aren't ready to support, saying its mistake to put this in the county's hands.

“I don't think that they could ever compare to our police department. We have a very, very good police department in our town.”

If police are contracted out to the county, there will be three officers assigned to Lisbon, but only one would be on-call at a time, which means each officer would patrol for a 12 hour shift, and then switch out. No matter what, there would always be one officer on the streets. The city council will make its decision on the matter at its February meeting.

Tags: your city, christina vaughn, lisbon, news