Emmet County, IA Considers County-Wide Law Enforcement

I'll be watching this with a great deal of interest. The toughest job in law enforcement is small town police work when community leaders insist on having their own PD, but aren't willing or able to fund it properly, often because they want control, but don't have a clue as what a department really needs.

The small towns want control...and when they
have that control, they can control their law
enforcement officer, ie....leave these kids
alone, their parents are important people in town,.
Then the cop they choose is about as young or
same age as some of the offenders with their
autos...ie....loud mufflers, radios that are
so loud you can hear from one end of town to
the other. with there sound is not even music.

You ask the cop to take care of it, and they
say well the noise ordnance does not go into
effect until 9PM. And. if you correct the
loud noise offenders, you have to go to the
churches and tell them to not ring their bells,
were they get that conection is beyond me.

Iowa actually has some sensible laws in place to facilitate the creation of law enforcement districts, etc. Unfortunately, most people don't know the possibility exists to improve the delivery of police services. Putting law enforcement under the control of the sheriff can be a mixed bag, as well. If he/she is competent, great. But, anyone who can get elected can be a sheriff, as opposed to many police chiefs, who have to show they have some experience, education and training.
I agree with Tom about the "control" issue. I'll wager there is "real" crime in your community, but good luck getting your city council to care about that......

when there is power there is greed, why else would one want power over people. one should ask is county wide law in the interst of small towns or the county.

Power is not of itself, a bad thing. Power can work to the good of all or to the detriment of all. We're not talking Cook County populations here, we're talking about a few thousand residents and a combined police department of a few dozen, perhaps. Residents deserve a staff that's well-trained, well-equipped and well-supervised; things that can't be done on a shoe string budget.