Marco Island weighs replacing city police with Collier County Sheriff's Office

MARCO ISLAND, Fla. (WINK)—Marco Island City Council is exploring whether to replace its police department with the Collier County Sheriff's Office as local governments across Florida grapple with potential revenue losses from a property tax proposal that voters will decide in November.

At a city council meeting Monday, members asked the city manager to research the cost of contracting law enforcement services with the sheriff's office. The discussion comes as municipalities try to determine how the state's property tax proposal could impact their budgets.

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"Reach out to the Collier County Sheriff and find out what it would cost to contract MIPD police services, and this would be for informational purposes only," Marco Island City Councilor Bonita Schwan said.

Homeowner Michael Quinn said the city faces difficult financial decisions.

"We are in a crunch for revenue," Quinn said. "We have to find ways to save money, and this might be one of them, or maybe it is not one of them."

Quinn said the sheriff's office previously patrolled the island years ago. He said the service wasn't bad, but he has concerns about response times if the change were to happen.

"It'd be like saying Collier County is going to cover us with fires, not a lot of fires on Marco Island, but if it's your house that's on fire, you want the fire truck here," Quinn said.

Not everyone supports the potential change. Chairman Darrin Palumbo recalled slower response times when the county handled law enforcement on the island.

"I remember what it was," Palumbo said. "We, you want to, about noise enforcement, go back to the county. It took 45 minutes to get an officer here, unless it was something really, really important."

Quinn said he hopes the city considers more than just cost when making a decision about who will protect the island community.

"I don't think the first answer should be to go back to Collier County in light of how big the island has become, and it's a very, very safe place," Quinn said.

The council voted 4-3 to direct staff to research the potential change in law enforcement. The city council and Collier County Sheriff's Office did not respond to requests for comment.