The Brooksville City Council officially voted Monday evening to dissolve the city's police department in favor of contracting with the Hernando County Sheriff's Office for its law enforcement needs.

  • Only one dissenting vote on city council
  • Opinion on change mixed among residents, business owners
  • Change takes effect June 1

The transition is something that's been talked about for awhile, and it was a decision council members stressed was not easy.

Some residents and business owners, however, welcomed the change.

“I really feel a huge relief," said Gregory Kirshy. "I own a restaurant within the city limits, as well with my father, and [the Sheriff’s Office] responded to that restaurant as well in a quick time.”

Others don’t think it was the right choice.

“Here we have our city government, it seems like they are working against us in this situation, because we’re trying to grow revenue, we’re trying to grow a city at the same time that we’re dealing with a city government who is trying to cut back on everything,” Jason Sager explained.

Councilwoman Natalie Kahler was the only dissenting vote on the plan, which will bring two full-time sheriff’s deputies into the Brooksville city limits 24 hours a day. It will cost the city around $1 million. 

The city will get some of that cost reduced with some money coming in from the Sheriff’s Office. They plan to buy over $200,000 worth of equipment from the city, and also will be paying rent when they turn the old Brooksville PD Office into their District 1 site.

With these reductions, city leaders say they will save around $1.7 million compared to what they were paying for Brooksville PD. 

As for the remaining Brooksville PD officers, some will be taken in by the Sheriff’s Office, while others have already lined up positions at other agencies.

But some residents still worry about what’s next.

“It’s going to be upsetting for the long term, and it’s going to be interesting to see what happens in the city of Brooksville over the next several years,” Sager explained.

The change goes into effect on June 1.