Pleasant View and North Ogden chiefs propose interlocal police merger; councils to study details

Pleasant View and North Ogden elected leaders on Tuesday heard police chiefs outline a plan to pool staff and services under an interlocal agreement that could merge administration or fully combine the two cities' police departments.

The chiefs said the proposal aims to improve officer safety, expand detective and specialty-unit capacity and reduce administrative duplication while preserving each city's existing budgets, vehicles and local courts. No formal agreement was adopted; both councils were asked to appoint two members each to a working committee and to return with recommendations as early as May.

Why it matters: Both cities rely heavily on public safety spending, and officials said consolidation could slow budget “bleed” while increasing available patrol and investigative resources. Chiefs and mayors presented staffing, response-time and benefits data intended to show the two departments already back each other up and that a merged approach could deliver faster response and more specialized detection capacity.

What the chiefs presented

Interim Lt. Stetson Talbot of the Pleasant View Police Department and North Ogden Chief Brian Inan described two main structural options: an administrative merge (shared administration while preserving separate departmental operations) or a full merge (one combined department). Talbot said the goal was “to provide a better service for less cost.” Inan described how a larger combined department would increase available officers on priority calls and expand detective capacity.

The chiefs provided these key figures from department records and 2024 data:

- Mutual aid and assistance: North Ogden assisted Pleasant View 1,228 times from January 2020 through August 2024; Pleasant View assisted North Ogden 1,355 times in that period. - Staffing: Pleasant View reported 15 employees (12 sworn officers, one community service officer and one secretary) and was two sworn positions down at…