Troutdale Policing Showdown City Flirts With Revival as County Cries Foul

Troutdale is quietly teeing up one of its biggest public safety decisions in years, weighing whether to scrap its decade-long contract with the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office and bring back a hometown police department. Supporters see a chance to reclaim local control and possibly cut costs. County leaders see a risky move toward a tiny force that could struggle to cover the city.

City staff have floated a startup blueprint that would begin by hiring a chief and a lieutenant to write policies and build out a lean municipal department of about a dozen people: a chief, a lieutenant, two sergeants and eight patrol officers. City projections say the shift could save roughly $1 million a year, according to KGW. In the early stages, those initial hires would focus on patrol and basic investigations, while records, dispatch and training would be phased in later. That sketch has already drawn internal letters from deputies and fresh concern from county officials, who argue that a slimmer lineup would mean fewer services for roughly the same price.

County says coverage could shrink

Multnomah County budget documents show the sheriff’s office has historically budgeted about 18 full-time deputy positions for Troutdale. County leaders argue that a much smaller city-run roster would not match that presence and would lack specialized investigators and true round-the-clock depth.

The documents describe Troutdale’s current contract as buying into economies of scale: consolidated investigations, centralized dispatch and shared support units that serve multiple areas at once. County officials say replicating all of that for a single small city would be costly and slow going for any brand-new department. Those staffing figures and program details appear in county materials outlining police services for Troutdale, including a program offer that lists roughly 18 FTE assigned to the city’s contract Multnomah County.

Local politics and budget tradeoffs

Behind the scenes, Troutdale’s Public Safety Services Delivery Working Group has been meeting for months to run the numbers on multiple scenarios, from rebuilding a municipal police department to exploring annexation into a fire district. A city polling packet notes explicitly that annexing into a district could free up general-fund dollars that might help restart a Troutdale police department. Meeting minutes show staff and councilors treating a possible police revival as one of several levers they could pull to balance services and the budget while they test residents’ appetite for changes City of Troutdale.

Contract timeline and a short decision window

According to reporting, the county and city agreed to a transition schedule in June 2025 that sets a three-year window. That framework gives Troutdale until June 30, 2028, to make a formal call, and it also lets the city end the transition early with 90 days’ notice, as reported by KGW. The clock, in other words, is not infinite. City councilors and the Budget Committee have a limited runway to sort out recruitment, equipment and the legal mechanics of splitting services if they decide to go in-house.

Why the sheriff’s office pushed back

Sheriff Nicole Morrisey O’Donnell and her team have been clear about what they think Troutdale risks walking away from. The Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office centralizes specialized investigative units, corrections-related support and other countywide operations that would not automatically follow Troutdale into a stand-alone department.

The sheriff’s FY-2026 transmittal letter and related program materials spell out the office’s broad scope across the county and highlight the fiscal and operational tradeoffs between keeping county-level consolidated services and rebuilding separate departments for individual cities Multnomah County.

What’s next

The Public Safety Services Delivery Working Group is scheduled to wrap up its assignment by July 1, 2026, and the city council has ordered monthly progress updates from staff as the budget process moves along, according to the resolution that created the group and set its scope. The Budget Committee is reviewing options this spring and summer, and the earliest firm decisions are expected to surface during budget hearings and any formal council vote to change Troutdale’s intergovernmental agreement with the county.