MORRISON, Colo. — In early December, the Morrison Board of Trustees decided to disband the Morrison Police Department beginning Jan. 1, 2025.
The small town that Red Rocks Park and Amphitheatre calls home will be policed by the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office (JCSO) for the foreseeable future.
Morrison Mayor Chris Wolfe and Jefferson County Sheriff Reggie Marinelli sat down with reporters on Monday to discuss the new contract they have agreed upon.
“We've been going through our budget since October, and we, you know — just to let you know everybody knows about this — but we did have to let our police chief go in November. But we did have to go through our budget, and we just said it was fiscally a better decision to move ahead with our sheriff here as the partner. And they've been with us for decades," Wolfe said. “Actually, they've been covering for the last four years our graveyard shift, and it was purely fiscal.”
Immediately, reporters asked more questions about Morrison Police Chief Bill Vinelli, who was placed on administrative leave in November.
“We've had some concerns, and I can't say any more about that," said Wolfe. "Everybody should know that there's something in there, but we can't talk anymore about that.”
Denver7's Colette Bordelon asked if those concerns were regarding Vinelli's performance or how he managed the department.
“Little bit of both, possibly," Wolfe replied.
Bordelon then asked if that was at all connected to the decision to disband the Morrison Police Department.
"The decision as a board was made purely fiscally for this, but there are some implications, or, you know, something that could be tied to it. But it was primarily just a fiscal decision," Wolfe said.
- Watch the full press conference in the video player below
Sheriff Marinelli said as they began negotiating this new contract, JCSO looked into the call for service rate within Morrison. According to Marinelli, there is an average of 1.5 calls every 24 hours in Morrison.
"That is not that much of an increase on the sheriff's office," said Marinelli. “Reality is, our deputies can get there rather quickly... It all depends on the day. It all depends on the crime rate or the calls that are going on that day. There is no way to ever say how long it's going to take us to get on scene.”
The contract will be revisited annually, costing Morrison roughly $476,000 a year, according to Wolfe. There is no deadline, or end date, on the contract.
"That's more than 50% savings over our current budget," said Wolfe. "We will see what we can do on allocating those funds, but we've been subsidizing it. So it's really, you know, for the last couple of years, so it's $2 million in the hole kind of thing with that. So we're going to re-look at the budget and make sure that we can allocate things properly.”
An automated radar camera in Morrison issued more than 10,000 tickets in its first two weeks of operation this year. That breaks down to about a ticket a minute. For comparison, Morrison PD issued a total of 1,700 speeding citations in 2023.
Each ticket is $40, meaning the camera brought in more than $400,000 during that two-week period.
Wolfe confirmed that the camera was vandalized and removed, and said it did not generate as much revenue as was anticipated.
"Everybody thinks we're just raking it in, but come to find out, after we took care of all the receivables or not receivables, and handling all the times with the staff taking care of all this and the billing, it turned out to be really, we didn't make that much money," said Wolfe.
Morrison
Morrison officials point to financial reasons for disbanding police department
There are less than 20 employees — both full-time and part-time — within the Morrison Police Department. They will receive severance pay and will likely sign a non-disclosure agreement, according to Wolfe.
“It hurts us to let these people go. It's not a fun decision to make, and especially right now at the holidays. But it is something that we decided as a board to do, and we hope they all land somewhere where they're needed," said Wolfe.
Marinelli hopes those individuals losing their jobs will apply with the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office.
"They know the area already. So we are welcoming to that, but we are always hiring and we will continue to do so," said Marinelli. “We would love to hire more deputies. We are always hiring. We are trying to get our numbers up to our staffing levels that we have on paper. And so, that's our goal.”
JCSO has assisted Morrison in a number of ways over the past few decades, Marinelli said.
“Those contracts have gone at very, very different times throughout the decades, depending on the call loads and depending on their ability to hire officers," said Marinelli. “Right now, law enforcement is having a very difficult time hiring anybody, whether it be a large agency like ours or the small ones. There's just not enough people in society that are interested in becoming law enforcement officers.”
Marinelli said JCSO is hoping to sit down with Denver to renegotiate its contract regarding Red Rocks.
"This has given us the opportunity to go back to the drawing table with Denver when it comes to Red Rocks," said Marinelli. “We will be taking up what Morrison was doing, but we actually handle the crimes at Red Rocks. And so, all felonies that happen at Red Rocks [are] handled by Jefferson County Sheriff's Office, even though it is a Denver Mountain Park. So we will be renegotiating those contracts as soon as possible with Denver.”
In 2024, the Morrison Board of Trustees set aside roughly $1.6 million for the police department. The 2025 budget sets aside $600,000 for policing.
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