Why Local Police Matter in La Plata: Cost and Local Control of Policing

By: Paul Guttenberg, Candidate for Town Council Ward I

This week, all candidates running in La Plata’s 2025 general election were invited to a Candidate Forum hosted by the 4th & 5th District Democratic Club. One of the questions posed to each candidate was:

"Do you support maintaining the Town of La Plata Police Department or contracting with the Charles County Sheriff’s Office to ensure the town’s public safety?"

I strongly favor retaining the significant investment our town has made in its Police Department over the decades. My assessment that the La Plata Police Department is the best way, going forward, to ensure our town’s public safety is based on two primary reasons: Cost and my preference for Local Control of community policing. Please continue reading to understand my reasoning on this question.

Cost Assessment: Deploying a Sworn Officer

I approached the question of whether the County Sheriff or La Plata’s Police Department would be more cost-effective for our town’s taxpayers with an open mind. While I have reviewed both the Sheriff’s Office and La Plata Police budgets in the past, this is the first time I have attempted a direct cost comparison.

The initial challenge, as one might expect, is the significant difference in scale between these two organizations. La Plata’s Police Department is one of the smaller police agency’s in Maryland, while Charles County operates the largest Sheriffs Department in the State. This disparity adds to the challenge of direct budget comparisons for an average person, like me.

It is also of note that both of these police forces have been awarded national accreditation by the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, Inc. (CALEA). I say this as evidence demonstrating that both the Sheriff’s Office and La Plata’s Police Department meet professionally recognized criteria for excellence in management and police service delivery.

To simplify the cost comparison, I decided to use the number of sworn officers identified in their budgets as a way to get to a simple common measure of each police agency's output for its cost.

Here’s how I approached the cost question:

If a Police Department’s total budget is $2 million and it employs 11 sworn officers, the cost per (1) sworn officer is calculated as ($2,000,000 / 11) = $181,818 per sworn officer.

Total Annual Department Budget / Number of Sworn Officers = Average Annual Cost to Deliver 1 Sworn Officer

This method of evaluating the cost per sworn officer includes all budgetary expenses for that department, such as contracts, maintenance, facilities, administrative (or non officer) labor, benefits and all equipment.

This approach is particularly useful because the Charles County Sheriff’s Office has approximately 12 times the number of sworn officers and a budget more than 20 times greater. Boiling down these two very different scale police agencies to a comparison of their costs to deliver a single sworn officer is the best solution I could come up with to address this question.

To start, I pulled publicly available budgets from the web sites of Charles County and the Town of La Plata. Using this information and the method described above, I calculated each police agencies’ average cost to deliver a single sworn officer derived from their total budget. The three tables below summarize what I found.

It's important to acknowledge that my cost assessment is a simplified, layperson's approach. An accountant or consultant would likely use more sophisticated methods to break down and compare the departments' expenses. However, I believe this analysis provides a quick and valuable perspective on whether contracting with the Sheriff's Office would likely result in cost savings for La Plata taxpayers.

My approach shows the Charles County Sheriff’s Office generally costs twice as much per sworn officer when compared to the La Plata Police Department using this total budget approach. Therefore, I do not see a likely opportunity for La Plata residents to save money by replacing our existing Police Department with a contract for Sheriff’s Office services as the sole provider of public safety within our town.

Advantages of Local Control of Community Policing

I think policing is intimate to a community. Its affects us personally when policing is done poorly, and also when it’s done well. In either case it serves a community better when there is local control of the law enforcement function so it can be managed to serve the local community, as it is done in La Plata today.

I believe local issues are best solved by local solutions. Today the Mayor and Town Council ensure our law enforcement policies and enforcement efforts are not dictated by broader county-wide considerations that may not fully align with La Plata’s specific character and challenges.

Currently, residents with serious policing issues or concerns can directly contact the police department or the Chief. If their concerns aren't adequately addressed, they have recourse through the Mayor or Town Council, who can ensure a local response and that appropriate action is taken. This direct line of communication and local accountability offers, in my opinion a far greater chance of resolving issues within our community than if we lacked our own town police department.

It is common for municipalities as they grow to form local police departments, as La Plata did decades ago, where local control lets us tailor policing strategies and priorities directly for the unique needs and concerns of residents.

Maintaining this local control ensures greater responsiveness to public safety and police policy concerns as they arise within our community. The La Plata Police Department's established history of engaging in community policing has cultivated a local sense of familiarity and I think trust between officers and many residents. This good relationship, in my opinion, would likely diminish if La Plata became simply another patrol zone for the county sheriff's department, the largest in the state. And I don’t say this as a negative to the Charles County Sheriff’s department, but as a simple reality that they have a much larger jurisdiction and should not be expected to provide the level of local dedicated officers within La Plata that we enjoy today and certainly not for the same cost.

Final Thought

Advantages of Continuing to Support La Plata’s Own Police Department:

• La Plata’s Costs Per Sworn Officer to the tax payer are better than what we would likely pay the County Sheriff’s Office

• Local Control and Responsiveness directly benefits residents of La Plata

• Community Focus is proactive and adds to our sense of “town”

• Dedicated Resources better know La Plata, its residents, and how to support our communities needs

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  For better town government we must increase La Plata’s voter turn out for our local elections.

  Please Vote on May 6^th. You can find contact and candidate information for all the general election candidates on the town website. Please also share this information with your friends and family, and encourage them to vote.

  Many candidates are also active on Facebook especially within the La Plata Community Group.

  A “Vote Local” Plan For Town Council & Mayor

  

  1. Plan To Vote:

  • Please Verify Your Voter Registration Status. If you are not a registered voter, please let this town election be your first! Links for first time Maryland voter registration are on this page.

  2. Share Election Information:

  • Please Share Election Information with Your Family, Friends & Neighbors Who Live in the Town of La Plata. www.voteguttenberg.org/vote-local/

  3. Cast Your Ballot On Tuesday, May 6th 2025.

  • Voting occurs in person at the La Plata Town Hall, located at 305 Queen Anne Street.

  Voting hours are 7 am to 8 pm on election day, Tuesday May 6th.

  I ask that you consider voting for me as your Town Council representative from Ward I.

  More than anything I hope you take the time to vote, and that you encourage others to do the same. When residents vote in larger numbers, it increases the emphasis for elected town leaders to engage and respond to concerns expressed by the public.

  Thank you.

  Respectfully,

  Paul Guttenberg, Candidate for La Plata Town Council Ward I