Mayors, councils, chiefs and even voters across time and space have blocked unification of public services, even in the face of unrefuted arguments of improved efficiency, out of a desire to retain local control. In order to get such plans off the ground, someone has to be willing to give up something.

Salt Lake County Sheriff Aaron Kennard has, in the interest of efficiency, volunteered to give up enough turf to exhaust several racehorses. It's not something one sees every day. It is an opportunity that the county and the handful of cities already involved should not pass up.

And, if their plan for a Salt Lake County Unified Police Department takes off, maybe other cities now operating their own police departments will also pitch in. And that should not only unite the lawful in their efforts against the lawless, it could also save everyone involved some real money.

With, so far, the active participation of only the unincorporated portions of the county and the cities that already contract with the sheriff to provide police protection, nobody is selling the UPD with the promise that it will save a lot of money, at least right away. The sheriff and those cities - Cottonwood Heights, Holladay, Riverton, Herriman and Bluffdale - have already squeezed available savings from sharing administrative and support functions.

But the sheriff hopes a real unification of law enforcement services, managed by a board of the participating jurisdictions and headed by a chief hired by that board, will end the coming and going of cities that rely on the sheriff for their service, improve planning and remove personalities and politics from the mix.

Specifically, Kennard's move to reduce his own day-to-day duties to a few state-mandated ones - the jail, security at county facilities and serving legal papers - and cede the rest to the UPD is intended to quash any fear that he is trying to expand his own empire.

The outline of the plan is to be presented today to interested city and county officials, and the County Council is to vote Tuesday on the enabling resolution to move the process along for activation at the beginning of 2007.

That's not much time. But it is a worthy effort and a goal that is within reach.