It wouldn’t be cheap, requiring perhaps $10 million in start-up costs, perhaps implementation for the first time of a municipal property tax. Call it one of the potential growing pains that comes with the sort of quick growth West Haven has experienced. The city’s population grew from 10,272 in 2010 to 16,739 last year, 63% growth, which is the fastest in the county.

At any rate, as city leaders sort through the finer points of the study, it’s not appearing that immediate change is in the offing. The Weber County Sheriff’s Office now provides protection in West Haven, and Sheriff Ryan Arbon maintains that his office can provide coverage at a better price than what it would cost to create a new department.

“I think it’s going to take a lot more delving into the study,” said Kim Dixon, a member of the West Haven City Council.

The city’s contract with the sheriff’s office for protection expires on June 30 and Dixon foresees an extension into 2022-2023 at least given the complexity of the issue. It’s been a big topic of on-and-off discussion over the years in West Haven, “but in no way do I think everyone’s ready to make a decision for the next fiscal year,” she said.

For starters, Nina Morse, also a member of the City Council, said debate needs to wait until two new council members elected last November take office next week, Ryan Saunders and Ryan Swapp. She suspects generating the revenue needed to operate a police department would require a property tax, so she also wants to make sure the public is involved. If the debate progresses far enough, she went on, the question should go to West Haven voters as a ballot initiative.

“I think the residents should have a say in it,” Morse said.

Rob Vanderwood, elected to take over from Sharon Bolos as mayor of West Haven, said it’s too early to know which way the discussion is headed.

Morse, though, has reservations, saying that the sheriff’s office protection “very much” has the feel of a contracted service. Moreover, the cost of service, earlier estimated for West Haven at $1.58 million for 2021-2022, always seems to rise. Who knows when, but she suspects West Haven ultimately will get its own police department.

That said, Morse also noted that a survey conducted by the city showed that most West Haven residents are fine with protection from the sheriff’s office.

West Haven officials in the past have debated the notion of creating their own police department, generally coming to the conclusion after their own informal studies that it would be a more costly proposition. This time a consultant, Lewis, Young, Robertson and Burningham, was picked to take a more comprehensive look into the matter and officials budgeted up to $10,500 for the effort.

Fred Philpot went over the highlights of the findings at the West Haven City Council’s Dec. 15 meeting, but as of Monday he had not yet supplied a hard copy of the report to city officials.

West Haven City Manager Matt Jensen, however, provided a few of the highlights from the study.

Creating a new department would have initial startup costs, including construction of a new police department building and acquisition of police cars, of around $10 million, according to the study. The city would need at least 16 sworn officers.

As is, the city pays the sheriff’s office around $1.6 million a year. Creating a new police department would boost that to around $2.1 million a year, factoring bonding costs that would probably be necessary to cover the cost of the new police department structure.

The consultant also investigated the notion of creating some sort of policing district with other locales to pool resources in creation of a regional law enforcement agency.