Savannah City Council Cancels Police Merger with County

In a special Savannah (GA) City Council meeting Friday morning, members voted 8-0 unanimously to end the controversial police department merger with Chatham County.

A six-month notice of termination will be sent to Chatham County, effective February 1, 2018.

“This is a meeting none of us wanted to have,” says Mayor Eddie DeLoach. “Since the county hasn’t responded we are forced to take a vote to end the police merger.”

Mayor DeLoach and City Manager Rob Hernandez sent letters to the County on June 29, 2017, requesting to meet with and resolve several outstanding issues concerning the future of the Savannah-Chatham County Police Department.

This comes after the City commissioned an independent study of costs and services. The Berkshire Study found Chatham County owed the City of Savannah up to $7,000,000 for services.

“The Berkshire Study told us exactly what we needed to do to have a modern, functional, good police department.” says Alderman Julian Miller of District 4. “We have to deal with the realities of the situation.”

The County has expressed dissatisfaction with those finding and indicated it would not pay all those costs, WSAV reports.