Vacancies at the Natchez Police Department are creating a public safety concern, the police chief said last week, but those vacancies also provide an opportunity to create a smaller, leaner local law enforcement group as well.

Last week, approximately 1-in-4 budgeted positions at the Natchez Police Department remain unfilled.

City leaders have a wonderful opportunity to consider a change in how the city operates, if it simply takes advantage of the situation.

Natchez needs to use some of the money it is saving from the vacancies and hire an expert to take an unbiased look at how the city might merge its police department into the Adams County Sheriff’s Office, what the cost to the county may be and what the city could save in the process.

That study may reveal the city needs to divert funds to the county to offset the costs. It may show the effort would not save any public funds and may provide a lower quality of law enforcement.

We understand merging together a city department with a county one will not be easy. They operate under different structures, which is why we need someone from the outside who will come at the problem with fresh eyes to consider how it might work.

Taking a serious look at this potential solution, while the need is high, just makes good sense.

The result may be less redundancy and a more efficient law enforcement entity. But we’ll never know until we study it.