Residents have offered to take Commissioner Dean Minnich to breakfast, stopped him at the grocery store and called him at his home.
They all want to talk about policing Carroll County.
So even without a public hearing, commissioners said they were in tune with residents before they voted in October to create a county police department with an appointed chief.
“I have never had any second thoughts about moving people from one uniform to another,” Minnich said.
The county hopes sheriff?s deputies will switch to the county force as their office is scaled down to make way for the new department.
Dozens of residents who fought the countywide force say commissioners ignored them.
But Minnich said just because some residents are vocal doesn?t mean they represent a majority.
Expanding the sheriff?s office as the county?s primary law enforcement agency could make the sheriff more worried about winning an election than protecting citizens, Minnich added.
Sheriff Kenneth Tregoning has pushed for the state delegation to take the decision out of commissioners? hands by taking it to a referendum.
But Commissioner Julia Gouge said a county force would reduce friction between the state troopers and sheriff?s deputies who have shared police duties in the county for about 30 years.
“Each of us has heard from the public that they?re not getting the service from the police departments that we?ve had, the state departments or the sheriff?s department,” Gouge said. “People are not getting their calls answered for 30 minutes or an hour or more.”
And Commissioner Michael Zimmer said most people expect the government to run the police departments.
