By Kristin Buehner, Courier Lee News Service
ROCKFORD, Iowa -- All sides agree the community of Rockford needs 24-hour police protection.
How to get to that point, however, isn’t as clear, and the debate has created friction between members of the Rockford City Council, mayor and Floyd County sheriff.
Council members recently rejected a proposed agreement with the county.
“They are jeopardizing the citizens of Rockford, putting them in a bad situation in terms of liability,” Sheriff Rick Lynch said. “I can only say, ‘Citizens, hold your breath, and hope nobody sues you.’”
On March 20, Rockford sent a proposal to Floyd County Supervisors asking for law enforcement coverage from the sheriff’s department. City officials suggested paying $1,000 annually for police service when the city’s officers were not on duty.
Rockford has a part-time officer working about 12 hours each week and a full-time officer, Police Chief Darin Crooks, who has been taking calls 24 hours a day and working on days off.
County supervisors on April 8 accepted the agreement, but that same evening the Rockford City Council voted unanimously to withdraw the proposal.
Councilman Scott Johnson said the deal didn’t guarantee coverage for the city at all times.
“If there weren’t calls, we weren’t going to get service,” he said.
Johnson said the proposal was drafted by Crooks and Mayor Harry White, not by council members.
The mayor, however, said he and the police chief submitted the agreement to the county only after council members reviewed it in December.
“They think they’re going to get a better deal somewhere else, which I seriously doubt,” White said.
Council members are trying to work out an alternate solution, Johnson said.
One possibility might be police protection provided by the Nora Springs Police Department, which has 24-hour service in that community using three full-time officers. The two communities once shared a joint police department.
“Nothing’s official yet. It may be a good thing, it may not,” Nora Springs Police Chief Alex Leu said.
If an agreement can’t be worked out with Nora Springs, the Rockford City Council will look elsewhere, Johnson said.
“We’re going to get an agreement with someone, whatever we think is the best economic package for the city,” he said.
That may, in the end, be the Floyd County Sheriff’s Department, Johnson said.
Either way, Sheriff Lynch said something needs to happen.
“When the full-time officer takes time off, no one’s taking care of (Rockford),” he said. “A municipality has to provide law enforcement 24 hours a day.”
In 1997, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled communities must provide 24-hour law enforcement protection or have a contract with the county to provide it.
Without the agreements, the county agrees only to respond to emergency calls, Lynch said.