DesotoExplorer.com / Sheriff's contract remains good deal for De Soto

Archive for Thursday, July 17, 2008

July 17, 2008

The proposed 2009 city budget again illustrates how good a deal the Johnson County Sheriff's Office provides the city of De Soto.

Although gas prices have skyrocketed in the last year, the sheriff's office is only asking the city to pay 1.8 percent more for law enforcement services in 2009. It is our guess few police departments were able to offer that kind of increase for the next year without layoffs or service cuts.

De Soto is surely one of the largest cities in the state without a police department. But at $452,000 it could also have the most affordable law enforcement in its class. Obviously, the sheriff's office in the state's most populous county is able to realize savings from economies of scale while having access to specialization far beyond that of most cities of 5,000 to 10,000 in population.

The arrangement also rids the city of any of the political bickering that too often surrounds the local police chief. The one-step removed law enforcement should reduce any tendency for favoritism and remove the pressure to increase the city's revenue picture through ticketing.

If there is a concern, it would be one of responsiveness to resident and official concerns from deputies with other bosses headquartered half a county away. But we have observed the deputy liaison assigned to De Soto has been a regular at city council meetings and the communication between the council and the sheriff's office seems to closely mimic that in towns with their own departments.

At some date in the future, De Soto will outgrow the arrangement. But for now, the city enjoys the protection of well trained and professionally led law enforcement agency at a bargain price.