The decision to cut ties with the Broward Sheriff’s Office and create a standalone police department for the first time in decades is too important to rush, and Pompano Beach’s city manager is urging the City Commission to extend the relationship for a year while the facts are considered.

Pompano Beach, the second-largest city served by the Sheriff’s Office, commissioned a study last year to determine whether it would be better off continuing to pay the Sheriff’s Office for police services. Or, whether it’d be better to re-form the Pompano Beach Police Department, which merged with the Sheriff’s Office in 1999.

The results were complicated. Independent researchers found the city would spend more with its own department but have more say in how it’s run, while it would cost less to stay the course with the Sheriff’s Office, which controls its own agency. The study was presented to commissioners last month.

But the study cannot account for what’s happening in Tallahassee, warned Pompano Beach City Manager Greg Harrison.

“To complicate our municipal dilemma of financing a stand-alone police department, the State of Florida House of Representatives and the Senate have a $1.4 billion budget gap,” he said in an email to commissioners last week. “The biggest threat looming over us now is that the State is considering removing property tax revenue, which would create huge funding breaches for municipal services.”

Those uncertainties make now a bad time to make a long-term decision, he said.

“Given the unclear path ahead, I am endorsing a one-year extension of the BSO contract, effective October 1, 2026,” he said. “If and when the Commission feels secure in our financial footing, and it is the Commission’s will, we can explore funding alternatives to secure $160.5 million to establish a stand-alone Police Department in year one.”

Under the current contract, Pompano will pay the Sheriff’s Office $64.9 million for police services. The city runs its own fire-rescue service.

One of the consultants that worked on the study for Pompano concluded last year that neighboring Deerfield Beach would save between $250 million and $900 million over a 20-year period by cutting ties with BSO, which the city ultimately decided to do.

Rafael Olmeda can be reached at rolmeda@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4457. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @OlmedaNews.