After several months of study and public deliberation, elected officials in Cottonwood Heights will decide whether to break away from the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office to launch their own police department.

Cottonwood Heights is among a handful of cities still under the sheriff's umbrella; deputies also provide law enforcement services to Holladay, Riverton, Herriman, Bluffdale and unincorporated areas of the county.

In recent months, Sheriff Jim Winder has battled to hold on to the east-side suburb - and lure other departed cities back into the fold.

"I have so many concerns about the decision by Cottonwood Heights to self-provide - concerns for the citizens of this county," Winder said Friday. "It makes no sense at all."

Draper, to the south, went independent in 2004; west-side Taylorsville followed suit a year later.

The change proved beneficial, officials from those cities say, but brought added responsibilities.

"We used to just wake up every morning and there were sheriff's deputies patrolling our streets," said Taylorsville Mayor Russ Wall.

Then, one day, city officials realized they had to hire officers, buy patrol cars and fill them with gas.

"It adds to your workload," Wall says.

Taylorsville separated from the Sheriff's Office - not for service dissatisfaction but to gain more budgetary and employee control, Wall recalls.

With a city-run department "we could chart our own emphasis," he says.

In December 2004, new police cruisers had been delivered to Taylorsville in preparation for the new force. Even so, Wall - on the City Council at the time - urged one last look at an option offered by former Sheriff Aaron Kennard.

A week later, in a 3-2 vote, the City Council approved Taylorsville's new department.

"I was one of the last to make up my mind. We worried about whether the public would embrace the new department," notes Wall.

It has, Wall says.

"It's more personalized. There's a car that says 'Taylorsville' that comes to your house."

By March 2005, at least two dozen sheriff's employees had left the county to take jobs with Taylorsville's new force. That exodus did not occur when Draper launched its department in July 2004.

For some reason, no deputies from Salt Lake County applied, recalls Draper Chief Mac Connole.

"They certainly would have been welcomed," Connole says.

Winder says he has no worries about losing deputies to Cottonwood Heights, should the council choose to go that route.

Draper's decision to self-provide police services, like Taylorsville, stemmed from a desire for more local control, improved response times and acquiring federal cash that could flow directly to the city.

"In the last four years we've been able to secure $1 million in grants," notes Connole.

With Draper's rapid population growth, Connole increased officer ranks from 24 to 34. At the startup, he says, his focus was to hire personnel with extensive experience.

"We wanted to be a very important part of the community, to establish quality service, openness and accountability," Connole says.

Answering directly to the mayor and city manager is also a plus, the chief believes.

This is what appeals to Cottonwood Heights Mayor Kelvyn Cullimore.

"One of our main considerations is the ability of our elected officials to have more direct influence on how law enforcement is implemented in the city," Cullimore says.

"We get the complaints, but have no say in what the sheriff decides to do."

cmckitrick@sltrib.com

* If Cottonwood Heights sticks with the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office, it would pay $3.8 million for 29 sworn deputies this year.

* If the city chooses to form its own police department, annual costs (July 2008 to June 2009) for 32 sworn officers would run $4.2 million. Startup costs are estimated at $1.7 million.

Source: Bonneville Research's final feasibility study