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Dillon and Keystone agree to form joint police department to serve both towns along U.S. Highway 6

Both the Dillon Town Council and the Keystone Town Council voted unanimously to approve an intergovernmental agreement creating the Dillon Keystone Police Department

The town of Dillon is pictured from above in 2023. Dillon has decided to partner with Keystone to provide police services to the newly incorporated town.
Ian Zinner/Courtesy photo

The towns of Dillon and Keystone have agreed to form a joint police department.

The Dillon and Keystone town councils both voted unanimously at their meetings Tuesday, Jan. 28, to approve an intergovernmental agreement outlining the new joint Dillon Keystone Police Department.

The intergovernmental agreement spells out plans for the existing police force in Dillon to expand to provide coverage in the town of Keystone, with the costs of operating the department split between the two towns. The initial agreement is for three years and will automatically renew for another three years unless either town moves to end it.



“This is a great thing for Dillon and Keystone,” Dillon Mayor Carolyn Skowyra said. “… For Dillon to be expanding into a greater portion of the north end of the county, I think that is great for our police. I really respect what our police do.”

Keystone became Colorado’s newest town in 2023, after residents of the area voted to incorporate. The new town has since approved a town charter and elected its first Town Council.



Keystone Mayor Ken Riley said in an interview that forming a joint police department with Dillon is among the “most consequential action’s we’ve taken as a council since we’ve been incorporated.”

“I believe it’s a really major step forward for both communities,” Riley said. “… It allows us to leverage the police department to support both communities and to provide outstanding support to these communities while sharing the cost of that.”

The joint police force will be known as the Dillon Keystone Police Department, according to the intergovernmental agreement. The new police department will “ramp up” to providing full law enforcement services in Keystone by June 1, the document states.

All police officers will be sworn to serve and protect both towns, and the agreement states that the police department will provide law enforcement services 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. 

In fiscal year 2025, the town of Keystone will be responsible for about $1 million to be paid to the town of Dillon in equal monthly installments, according to the intergovernmental agreement. Dillon will be responsible for the remainder of the police department budget.

Dillon will serve as the managing agency for the joint police department, according to the agreement. All employees of the department would be considered Dillon employees, and Dillon would pay all police department bills as well as manage payroll and employment benefits, the agreement states. Under the agreement, Dillon will provide Keystone with yearly accountings of expenses.

The police chief of the joint department, currently Chief Cale Osborn, will report directly to the Dillon Town Manager and will be “responsive to input” from the Keystone Town Manager, according to the intergovernmental agreement. The Keystone Town Manager will have a role in the retention, removal, selection and appointment of a police chief, and the selection of a new police chief or removal of an existing police chief will require the consent of the Keystone Town Manager, the document states.

For now, the police headquarters for the department will be located at 275 Lake Dillon Drive, though the document acknowledges that the police headquarters may require a new location in the future. The capital costs to acquire a site and construct or lease a new facility would be apportioned between Keystone and Dillon in a separately negotiated intergovernmental agreement.

Dillon will prepare an annual proposed police department budget for consideration and approval by each municipality’s governing bodies no later than Sept. 1 each year, according to the intergovernmental agreement. The budget will include all anticipated costs and expenses of the police department.

Keystone’s percentage of the operational and capital law enforcement budgets shall not exceed 33% unless both parties agree to a higher apportionment in the 2026 and 2027 budget years, the document states.

Each year no later than April 30, the agreement states that Dillon will prepare an accounting of all the total police department expenditures for the previous year and will reimburse Keystone for any overpayment of the previous year’s payment.

Under the agreement, any expenditures beyond the total approved in the annual police department budget will have to be approved by both town managers or town councils, but either party may unilaterally make a police department expenditure if reimbursement from the other party is not expected.

The intergovernmental agreement also creates a combined municipal court for Dillon and Keystone.

Skowyra said at the Dillon Town Council meeting that the new joint police department should consider hiring school resource officers to staff the Dillon Valley Elementary School and the Summit Cove Elementary School. She said she feels it is important to have a school resource officer in every school in the county, and though that is the jurisdiction of the Summit County Sheriff’s Office, the towns could help out with funding the positions.

Dillon Town Manager Nathan Johnson said that the new police department will aim to make its presence known in Keystone and along U.S. Highway 6, which connects the two towns.

He added, “It’s a win all around.”


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