City council decides a merger of city and county law enforcement recordkeeping is not practical

The Decorah Police Department's staffer who handles police records is retiring this summer.  That led Decorah City Council members to hold a committee meeting Thursday morning at City Hall to discuss a proposal to merge the city's and county's law enforcement record keeping.

Decorah Police Chief Bill Nixon didn't favor the proposal, however, saying, "I don't see a practical way of doing this."  He told city council members both the city's and county's record keepers are busy in their jobs, so there's no good way to combine the jobs into one position.

After further discussion, city council members agreed with the police chief.  However, Nixon himself will be retiring in a few years, so city council member Steve Luse told his fellow council members that if they want to consider a combined city-county law enforcement organization in the future, it would be wise to start some of those discussions now.