Rumor mill is churning up in Northern-most California
Small town Mayor John Mercier of Yreka is looking for a big change, relatively speaking.
On Tuesday, Mercier told local news outlets that he would like the Yreka City Council to discuss the possibility of exploring options for dissolving the local Yreka Police Department.
He says the move could have both economic and public safety benefits. Moving to a contract-based system with the Siskiyou County Sheriff’s Office (SCSO) could save the city money. It might also lead to better law enforcement, Mercier posited, as the Mayor feels the YPD leadership is impeding officers’ ability to stop crime.
The city is home to less than 10,000 and has been hit with a string of thefts targeting at least nine local businesses in recent months.
There is a lot of talk on the annual price tag for the contracted services. SCSO already contracts with six of the nine cities in the northern county, with services to other cities ranging from ancillary operations costing roughly $10,000 annually ($7,600 in Tulelake), to enforcement services seeing the bill jump to just shy of $400,000 ($396,000 in Dunsmuir).
Mayor Mercier wants to get the public’s opinion at next week’s council meeting and has acknowledged that his idea might not get off the ground, “If I’m out of line, I want to hear it from the public,” later adding that the city owes the constituents a discussion on the matter in the least.
It should be noted that the SCSO is based in Yreka, for what it is worth.
More on this potentially big change for a small town can be found here.