Oakland weighs future of its police force; deputy would cost $210,700
With one town officer, Oakland's council asked the Sheriff's Office what it would cost to cover the town. No decision was made.
Oakland's leaders told the Garrett County Sheriff's Office on Tuesday that the town is "at a crossroads" with its police department and asked how the county could help cover the town.
"Quite frankly, we have one right now, and it's not adequate," a council member said at the Oct. 20 Mayor and Town Council session. The town's police department has one officer. "How do we ramp that up to make it adequate, and how do we pay for it? We don't have an answer to that."
No decision was made. Sheriff Bryson Meyers and Sheriff's Office staff laid out what the county already does in Oakland and what the options would cost.
What the Sheriff's Office handles now
Sheriff's deputies handled 2,655 incidents in Oakland in 2025 and 2,228 so far in 2026, Meyers said, ranging from abandoned vehicles to assaults and death investigations. Deputies served 636 civil and criminal papers in town over the past year and answered alarms 106 times this year. Major crimes in town go to the Sheriff's Office, the sheriff said.
Meyers named thefts at Walmart and traffic and speeding as the town's biggest issues, and said serious crimes such as sex assaults are rare. Oakland is "not any worse than any other" town, Meyers said.
The options discussed
- Pay for a deputy. One deputy assigned to Oakland would cost $210,700 in the first year under this year's budget, including the car, training, uniform and equipment, the Sheriff's Office said. That is up about $35,000 from $173,077 when the town looked at the idea in fiscal 2024, mostly because of salary increases. After the first year, the cost would drop to around $112,500 a year by the office's figures, with the sheriff estimating $115,000 to $120,000. The deputy would likely work 3 to 11 p.m., the town's busiest hours.
- Buy patrol hours. Mountain Lake Park pays the Sheriff's Office for set patrol hours and tells it what to focus on, such as speeding. "So far that's working really well," Meyers said.
- Get out of the police business. If Oakland dropped its department, Meyers said the office would try to get more deputies from the county. "I can't let this town fail. I won't let this town fail," Meyers said, but coverage could suffer when deputies are tied up elsewhere in the county.
One council member said a single officer doesn't really put the town "in the police business." "If we don't have at least two full-time officers, yours or ours," the return on the money is minimal, the council member said. The sheriff agreed.
Another council member, who said they had been "100% for getting in the police business," is now weighing the cost against other needs: "How do you build a new sewer plant? How do you fix your water plant? How do you hire three more policemen?"
Hiring is hard everywhere, Meyers said. The Sheriff's Office starts deputies at about $58,000 and probably needs to reach $70,000 to keep up with other agencies. Meyers said the state's police reform laws have made it harder for small departments to find and keep officers.
The Sheriff's Office said it would send the town its figures by email.
The full meeting recording is in the Town of Oakland's Public Meeting Archive on OaklandMD.gov.
