Georgetown left without local police department amid wave of resignations

The Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Office is stepping in to help after Georgetown, a small mountain town about an hour west of Denver, temporarily shut down its police department.

After a series of resignations following the fatal police shooting of 22-year-old Christian Glass, where two Georgetown officers were charged with failing to intervene in the excessive force of another officer, the police department has no officers left, sheriff’s officials said.

“Due to the loss of its law enforcement officers, the town of Georgetown currently cannot adequately provide its own law enforcement services,” Clear Creek County Attorney Peter Lichtman wrote in a memo for the board of county commissioners on Tuesday.

Georgetown’s news comes just a week after Morrison announced it would be closing its own police department in 2025, citing “financial concerns.”

The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office will take over law enforcement in Morrison, a tiny town of 400 residents that’s home to the busy Red Rocks Amphitheatre and a steady stream of tourists window-shopping on Bear Creek Avenue.

Georgetown officials asked the Clear Creek Sheriff’s Office to temporarily provide law enforcement services until they can hire new police officers or work out a long-term agreement with an outside agency, according to the memo.

The sheriff’s office, which is based in Georgetown, already has a record of supporting the police department through mutual aid, such as providing emergency coverage for law enforcement, sheriff’s officials said.

As part of the new intergovernmental agreement, which overrides the mutual aid agreement, Clear Creek sheriff’s deputies will patrol Georgetown three days a week for a total of 18 hours.

Deputies will respond to 911 calls; enforce Colorado law, town ordinances and traffic codes; and file incident reports, sex offender registrations and body camera footage, according to the agreement. They are not required to enforce town building codes, fire codes, plumbing codes or electrical codes.

“Our mission of ‘Public Service First, Public Safety Always’ is not just lip service,” Sheriff Matthew Harris said in a statement Tuesday. “The Sheriff’s Office provides police services in unincorporated Clear Creek County to ensure the public’s safety, quality of life and peace of mind. But when we have a local community that needs our help, we will also be there to deliver public safety services for its residents and visitors. Right now, that community is Georgetown.”

Sheriff’s officials will determine an official schedule for the town and said the days and hours deputies will work will vary based on call volume.

Deputies will also respond to emergency calls outside of that schedule, but sheriff’s officials said the town will be billed on a per-call basis at an overtime rate.

The agreement is set to expire on May 1, 2025. Both parties are expected to meet by Feb. 1, 2025, to review the sheriff’s office’s coverage and decide whether to terminate or extend the partnership.

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