The Selma City Council is considering pulling back its police and fire jurisdiction to the city limits. The city currently covers a three-mile radius outside the city limits but the discussed changes would alter that to 1.5 miles.

This isn’t a decision the council should take lightly. It would affect many residents and businesses that fall in the 1.5 mile window that would no longer be covered.

So far, the council has done its fair share of digging into what the change would mean. Selma Police Chief John Brock spoke about why he’s for the idea and Selma Fire Chief Toney Stephens and Dallas County Sheriff Harris Huffman had a chance to say why they’re against it.

All three make fair points.

Brock wants to pull back so that his police force, which is still not fully staffed, can focus on covering just the city limits. When major crimes occur outside of Selma, it often leaves only one officer or two officers to cover the entire city of Selma.

That’s obviously not an idea situation.

On the other hand, Huffman makes a good point as well. The sheriff’s department has only 17 deputies and three of them are part time. If the police jurisdiction is changed, the sheriff’s department will have to patrol even more of the county than it already does — about 976 miles. Huffman said the Selma Police Department currently covers about 13 square miles and also has more officers.  Stephens was concerned that a change might jeopardize the city’s ability to get grants.

The discussion is still in the early stages, but last week’s meeting was a good starting block, whether the police and fire jurisdiction gets changed or not.

If the idea gets past this stage and because a more serious consideration, there’s already been discussions about public hearings so that concerned citizens could voice their opinions as well.

We appreciate the city council’s willingness to get as many opinions as possible on something this important and hope to see it continue if this issue gets discussed further.