It's called the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office, and it is only a history of local political games and empire building, not necessarily the fault of any current office-holder, that keep it from providing maximum service at minimum cost.

Thus it was good news that the Taylorsville City Council - already in possession of 50 police cars and one police chief - is pausing to rethink its plan to give up that city's police protection deal with the sheriff's office and form its own police department.

Sheriff Aaron Kennard is to meet with council members tonight and give them the first look at his proposal for a unified police authority. That's a hopeful-sounding title reminiscent of the new, and long-overdue, Salt Lake County Unified Fire Authority.

A handful of the smaller cities in the county have long contracted with the county to provide one sort or other of municipal service. For Taylorsville, Bluffdale, Herriman, Holladay and Riverton, that includes paying the sheriff's office to act as their local police force. The city of Draper was also under the protection of the sheriff until it formed its own police department last year.

In theory, such arrangements should provide the most efficient service for everyone. Separate police departments for separate cities mean a patchwork of bureaucracies with limited jurisdictions and lesser economies of scale that can't afford bidding wars for the best officers or managers. A unified police authority should better be able to cover all the territory involved with a modern law enforcement agency, complete with crime labs, SWAT teams, hostage negotiators and, any more, anti-terrorism specialists.

The question has always remained, though, whether the individual cities were getting a better deal by paying for those service contracts or by forming their own department. There was concern about whether county offices would be tempted to low-ball their prices in order to win the deal, sticking the taxpayers of the unincorporated areas, who have nowhere else to go, with a disproportionate cost. And the simple pride of any city operating its own police department, even if more emotional than practical, can't always be ignored.

But to follow the fire authority model, and create a multi-city/unincorporated county police authority, with a unified tax levy and a supervising board representing the member jurisdictions, could equalize cost, oversee service and be a better deal for all concerned.

So much better, in fact, that it might someday serve the entire county.