Aledo pays the sheriff for the night shift. When does it stop?

What the record shows

The City of Aledo has a police department with a chief, listed in the Ledger's directory, and contracts with the Parker County Sheriff's Office for patrol. On Jan. 12, 2026, the Commissioners Court approved an amendment to the city's patrol contract with the sheriff.

The Sept. 3, 2026 council agenda carried the renewal of the overnight sheriff's contract. The Ledger's Sunday review of that packet recorded the renewal at $18,030.50 a month, with the city's own 24-hour coverage expected in January 2027 per the staff memo. The vote reaches the record with the minutes.

The police chief asked the council to consider golf cart and e-bike rules; the council denied a golf cart ordinance on June 18, 2026, and held a work session on golf carts and e-bikes on Sept. 3, 2026. No ordinance is on the record.

The Aledo ISD police department, with its own chief, covers the schools; the district's minutes record its intruder-detection audits and safety upgrades.

Ask the Ledger: who polices Aledo? · The county's Jan. 12, 2026 contract amendment · The June 18, 2026 golf cart vote · Tracker: golf carts and e-bikes

Assessment

Aledo has a police department and pays the county $18,030.50 a month for someone else to cover the night. That arrangement made sense for a town; it makes less sense every month for a city, and the staff memo behind the Sept. 3 renewal says the city expects its own 24-hour coverage in January 2027. The council should treat that date as a commitment, not an estimate.

The honest objection is cost. Officers, cars, radios and benefits cost more than a contract, and $18,030 a month is a number the council knows exactly while the alternative is a budget line that grows. That is true, and it is the right thing to weigh. But the comparison is not between a contract and nothing. The contract buys a deputy who answers to the sheriff, is dispatched from Weatherford, and leaves at the end of a shift the city does not control. A city officer on the same street at 2 a.m. answers to Aledo's chief, knows Aledo's subdivisions, and is there when the contract is not. Growth has already made the call: a city that adds a subdivision a year is going to pay for policing either way. The question is whether it pays for its own.

So: fund the positions, post the openings, and hold the January date. If recruiting slips, say so in public with the new date, and keep the sheriff's contract only as the bridge it was meant to be. And once the department is on the street around the clock, it should have the rules the chief has already asked the council for on golf carts and e-bikes, which were denied in June and studied in September; a department that patrols at night should not be guessing at what it is enforcing.

The Ledger will report the date 24-hour city coverage begins and the date the sheriff's contract ends, and will publish the department's staffing each quarter until then.

Right of reply: Aledo City Council; the Aledo police chief; the Parker County sheriff received this piece the morning it ran and have a standing offer of the same space to respond. Corrections to the record section run at the top and on the corrections page.