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Riverton and Herriman officially joined the Salt Lake Valley Law Enforcement Service Area on Thursday.
As a result, most of the 60,000 residents of those two municipalities are projected to see their bills for law enforcement coverage go down by about $43 to $59 a year.
The service area is essentially a funding mechanism set up to pay the Unified Police Department for law enforcement services to the 146,000 residents of unincorporated Salt Lake County.
Unless a public hearing next week disrupts current plans, the service area will dump an unpopular police fee on Dec. 31 and start paying for those services next year strictly with property tax revenues.
That funding approach appealed to the councils in Herriman and Riverton, both of which now will get rid of even higher fees that have paid for law enforcement services delivered to the cities by the Unified Police Department.
The mayors of both cities also will become service area trustees along with three county representatives — currently Mayor Peter Corroon and Councilmen Jim Bradley and Michael Jensen — ensuring that Riverton and Herriman will have a say in how revenues are spent.
The cities' positions could have been overturned if numerous residents had submitted protests by Thursday's deadline, but only four Herriman and 26 Riverton residents filed objections, far below the required threshold.
Riverton resident Gary Draper was one who did. While the move may save him money, Draper said he "just didn't want to lose local control. I'd rather keep our community more intact."
Herriman spokeswoman Nicole Martin attributed the limited opposition there to an education campaign mounted in response to public dislike for the old fee system.
"This was a matter of us reacting to the negative feedback we'd received from residents about the fee," she said, adding that city membership on the service area's governing board assured "we can access all of the service we need for our community."
Bradley supported the entry of Herriman and Riverton into the service area, describing it as a means of delivering essential services on a more efficient regional basis.
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