As the Spy reported in our interview with Talbot County Sheriff Joe Gamble last week, the Town of Oxford is debating whether to continue maintaining its own police department or shift to coverage through the Talbot County Sheriff’s Office.
What emerged at the last Commissioner’s meeting was not just a discussion about cost, but about town identity.
Town Manager Holly Wahl laid out the numbers clearly. The town operates on roughly $1.5 million a year while providing full municipal services. Within that, policing stands out.
The sheriff’s model would cost about $341,000. A local department—even at modest staffing—would range from $700,000 to $900,000.
Closing that gap would likely require a significant tax increase.
Wahl also noted that the sheriff’s option would provide about 70 hours per week of patrol coverage, backed by county resources.
“You’re going to maximize coverage for the cost,” she said.
For some residents, however, the issue goes beyond coverage.
During public comment, Steve Tull, a relatively new full-time resident on Bonfield Avenue, argued for keeping a local force.
“Are we a town, a community, or just an HOA providing services to a group of property owners?” he asked.
He described local policing as part of the town’s fabric—officers who know residents and notice when something is out of place.
“Someone who knows us as individuals… someone who knows who belongs and who doesn’t,” he said.
The response from the room was immediate and blunt.
“I don’t want to pay eighty thousand dollars, so I could sit on their ass for forty hours a week,” one resident said.
Another objected to the comment, briefly disrupting the discussion.
The exchange captured the divide: the value of local presence versus the limits of the town’s finances.
Wahl’s broader budget overview added context. The town carries significant long-term debt tied largely to water and sewer infrastructure, and officials acknowledged that expenses have begun to outpace revenues. Even under the less expensive option, the budget remains tight.
No decision has been made.
But Oxford is now facing a choice many small towns eventually confront—whether to pay more to preserve something familiar, or rely on a larger system that may do the job more efficiently.
Either way, the trade-offs are now clear.
2 Responses
Thank you for publishing excerpts of my comments. For the record my name is spelled “Tull”. A full text of my comments follow;
Shelley and I would like to thank the Commissioners and Town Administration for their hard work in keeping Oxford the special place that it is. Since becoming full time residents two years ago, Shelley and I have enjoyed a quality of life and sense of community that is beyond anything we experienced in our other homes.
But, as you may have guessed, we have some suggestions..
As the Commissioners struggle with the 26 – 27 Budget, one thing is clear, our Town in “running on empty”. In an effort to get 10 pounds out of a 5 pound bag, so to speak. We are tempted to save some money by “outsourcing” our Town’s policing, We believe that would be a mistake.
We have to ask ourselves the question, are we a Town, a Community, or just an HOA providing services to a group of property owners.
The personal contact that Local Policing brings is something which in an increasingly digitized age is more important than ever. Someone who knows us as individuals and can recognize the little things that suggest something is amiss in a home or business. Someone who recognizes our children. Someone who knows who belongs, and who doesn’t.
We live in one of the safest zip codes in the Country, Many of us leave our homes without locking the door and our keys in the car. We have to ask ourselves, can that happy state continue without local police officers who are an integral part of our community.
But the question of course is how to pay for it.. No successful organization ever penny pinched it’s way to success.. Of course funds must be spent wisely, but to achieve a result.. we must pay for it.
How to obtain those funds.. Here are some suggestions.
1) Create an Authority to move the expenses and debt of water and sewer operations off the Town’s books
2) Create a stormwater utility and Institute a Separate User Fee for stormwater mitigation… a $200 annual fee would raise over $100,000
3) Raise Taxes.. while Never a popular option Shelley and I would be happy to pay another few hundred dollars a year to contribute to the quality of life in Oxford
For our Police Department, Let’s recruit “outside the box”. Let’s leverage all the amazing attributes of our Port of Oxford Community to recruit from the pool of thousands of officers retiring from major metro departments. The 25 and out policies of many metro departments mean that there are many experienced police professionals in their 40s and 50s. Certainly there are a few of these officers who would like to work another 10 years in a low stress community policing environment and would find life here as appealing as we all do.
We need to bring in officers who become not just municipal employees, but community members who are just as dedicated to Oxford as we all are.
Will it be easy, No.. It will require some real effort.
We believe that before a decision is made to dismember our local police department, the benefits of which cannot be reduced to a budget line item. Our Commissioners should come up with a plan to fully fund the Oxford Police Department and place that question on the ballot.
Let us, the citizens of Oxford decide if we want to pay for it.
I appreciate your thoughtful ideas, Mr. Tull, and I agree that we all want to see our towns have their own police, but unfortunately, you are not aware of what it is actually like to hire officers at this time. None of them make enough money to live in the county. If they are old enough to retire, they get out. Being an officer has never been an easy job, but it certainly has gotten worse in the last five years. The cost of operations is far beyond salaries, it is training, equipment, vehicles, certifications, pensions, benefits, and more. Officers also don’t just sit in a car all day, they have make court appearances, do paperwork, go to trainings, etc. The three officers Oxford had weren’t really enough to allow them adequate time off and to handle duties. Oxford has to face it isn’t Mayberry in 1940 anymore…and it isn’t a fun little vacation/retirement town for people. It is a place people have called home their entire lives. There are costs…and no offense, but the influx of 2nd and 3rd home people into the town has made it all that much harder and costly.