STOCKTON, Utah — The Stockton Police Department no longer has any officers.
Former Chief Travis Romney left his post a week and a half ago after taking a job at another agency. He was the only officer in the department at the time.
When Stockton Mayor Nando Meli took office in January, there were two officers in the department. One of those officers worked part-time and the other was the former chief.
"It's not really dissolved yet until the town board meets and dissolves it, or accepts something else," Meli said.
That "something else" right now, Meli says, is working with the Tooele County Sheriff's Office.
"We have an agreement with the county," he said. "If we have any calls or other needs that need to be addressed, you know, they're filling in for the police department."
He said they are in negotiations with the Tooele County Council about retaining the services of the sheriff's office, where they can have patrols on a part-time basis.
The Tooele County Sheriff's Office sits a little more than three and a half miles from Stockton.
FOX 13 News asked Meli if there were any worries or concerns about depending on another agency to be responsible for patrolling the town of about 700 residents.
"No, I mean... Chief Romney, if he got a call middle of the night for, like, you know, life-threatening, something like that, he'd still have to get prepared to go out and meet the sheriff... so the response time should be somewhere near the same," the mayor said.
Edward Martinez has called Stockton home for 70 years.
The longtime resident said he'd still like to see Stockton hire officers for its own police department.
"We need to hire police, you know, to patrol here," Martinez said. "I didn't know that they were gone, but now I don't feel safe."
Meli said he hopes to have something finalized with the Tooele County Council by early November.
The mayor said they've had at least one full-time officer in the department for the past 20 years.
FOX 13 News spoke with Tooele County Sheriff Paul Wimmer Monday, and he confirmed that they are providing Stockton with a law enforcement response at this time.
As for a standardized patrol, he said they haven't gotten to that point yet while an agreement between Stockton and the county is being negotiated.
