MIFFLIN TOWNSHIP, Ohio — After 65 years of service, the Mifflin Township Police Department is no more. Trustees have voted to shutter the small Franklin County department effective immediately, after voters rejected its funding levy for a third time — this time by only 80 votes.
The decision, reported Tuesday by WSYX ABC 6, ends local policing in the township's unincorporated area, outside Columbus. ABC 6 reported trustees said they had no other decision than to close the department immediately once the third levy failed. Law enforcement coverage for the township now falls to the Franklin County Sheriff's Office.
Source: Officer.com, reporting WSYX ABC 6
A four-officer department laid off
The department's officers — two full-time and two part-time — have been laid off. Interim Chief Tammy Phillips will stay on to help with closing the department, a wind-down that covers the practical end of a force that had served the township for more than half a century.
"You can disband a police department, but you cannot erase 65 years of sacrifice and service," Brian Steel, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, Capital City Lodge 9, said in a statement. "The FOP will stand firmly with our members, support those being laid off, and help them find their next opportunity in law enforcement. We will not abandon the men and women who stood on the front lines for their community."
The levy voters turned down
The measure on the November 3 ballot was Issue 45, an additional police levy of 6.96 mills for the Mifflin Township Police District in the unincorporated area, for a continuing period. Under the figures published in the Columbus Dispatch's Franklin County ballot guide, approval would have cost property owners $244 for each $100,000 of the county auditor's market value of their property.
Source: Columbus Dispatch Franklin County ballot guide (Issue 45)
Township officials put the cost of providing round-the-clock police coverage at roughly $500,000 to $600,000. It was the township's third levy attempt for the department, and it failed by 80 votes — a margin small enough that a relatively handful of households switching sides would have kept the department alive.
Mifflin Township sits in northeast Franklin County and includes the city of Gahanna alongside a roughly 3.9-square-mile unincorporated area. The township police served that unincorporated portion, while the township's fire service covers Gahanna and the unincorporated area. The trustees' vote abolishes only the police department.
Who answers calls now
With the department abolished, law enforcement coverage for the township falls to the Franklin County Sheriff's Office. No long-term solution has been determined: the township and the sheriff's office plan to discuss a patrol contract or full service for the area, which would decide whether deputies are specifically assigned to the township or whether it is covered as part of the sheriff's wider county patrols.
Residents of the unincorporated township lose a small local force whose officers knew their streets, and gain coverage from a much larger county agency. Fire and emergency medical service in the township are separate from the police levy fight and are not abolished by this vote. The open question is response coverage: whether a future contract buys dedicated patrols or the area shares deputies with the rest of Franklin County.
What happens next
The immediate steps are administrative: Interim Chief Phillips remains to help close the department, the laid-off officers look for their next posts with the FOP's stated support, and the township opens talks with the sheriff's office over a patrol contract or full service. For voters who rejected a 6.96-mill levy by 80 votes, the decision they now live with is who polices their streets — and on what terms — from this week onward.