Starting next year, there won’t be any police officers in Morrison.
Instead, this tiny town of 400 residents — home to the busy Red Rocks Amphitheatre and a steady stream of tourists window-shopping on Bear Creek Avenue — will contract with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office for round-the-clock law enforcement services.
The new arrangement is set to take effect on Jan. 1.
Town Manager Mallory Nassau attributed closing the Morrison Police Department, which has nine full-time officers and eight part-time officers, to “financial concerns.” Officers will lose their jobs after this month, though they can apply for deputy positions with Jefferson County.
“It’s a difficult thing for them — it’s difficult news,” Nassau said.
The town will establish a $300,000 severance fund for departing officers, she said.
Mark Techmeyer, director of public affairs for the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, said his agency would not be “absorbing any of (Morrison’s) officers” but they are free to apply for deputy positions with the county.
The closure decision came as part of the town’s 2025 budget, which elected town leaders passed Tuesday. Closing the police department will save Morrison more than $1 million a year, Nassau said.
The town spent more than $1.7 million on its police department in 2024, while a contract with Jefferson County should run no more than $600,000 annually, she said. Contract details still need to be ironed out but there will be a special meeting of the town board of trustees next week to finalize the agreement.
“It will likely be a one-year contract that we will then review,” Nassau said.
The relationship between the county and the town’s cops is not entirely new, Techmeyer said.
His agency has been providing overnight police services for Morrison for the past few years. And last June, several Morrison police officers were deputized by the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, allowing them to respond to calls for service and traffic accidents on the roads leading to Red Rocks Amphitheatre.
Jeffco deputies covering Morrison will largely operate out of the county’s south substation in Ken Caryl, Techmeyer said. There’s another substation up the hill in Evergreen.
“Geographically speaking, the south substation is the closest one,” Techmeyer said. “We could jump on C-470 from the south sub (station).”
The Morrison Police Department made headlines last month when Chief Bill Vinelli was placed on administrative leave. Town officials didn’t provide details about their investigation into the chief and Nassau on Thursday said she had nothing to add.
But Colorado Community Media reported that town officials said the probe of Vinelli had no bearing on the decision to disband the police department.
Morrison is not the only Front Range town to rely on county sheriff’s for law enforcement services.
Less than two years ago, Nederland folded its police department and contracted with the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office to provide law enforcement coverage for the mountain town of 1,500.
Centennial, with a population of more than 100,000, has never had a police department. The city gets public safety services from the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office.
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