Ouray’s interim police chief will explore implementing around-the-clock police coverage, a significant change aimed at nullifying a new policy the city council adopted last week that could otherwise make him ineligible to become the permanent police chief.

City councilors unanimously approved a resolution that requires the police chief and newly hired police officers to live within 45 miles and a 45-minute drive of the city for their first year of employment. After that, they must live within 20 miles and a 20-minute drive of the city. Officers unable to meet that requirement would presumably lose their jobs with the police department.

The city currently requires officers to live within a 10-minute drive of the city.

Councilors debated implementing a strict 20-mile, 20-minute mandate but relented after Interim Police Chief Daric Harvey noted he would be eliminated as a candidate for the permanent job.

Harvey, who has been the interim chief since March and is the only person currently being considered for the permanent, full-time position, recently bought a house on Log Hill Mesa. He told councilors online maps place him 22 miles and a 42-minute drive away from Ouray, though he said he once drove from his home to respond to a call in Ouray in 24 minutes.

“Forty-two minutes is too long,” Councilor Tamara Gulde said.

Under the new response time requirement, Harvey would have to move closer to Ouray to stay with the department.

During last week’s meeting, he offered another option that appealed to councilors and could render the new policy moot: Instituting 24-hour police officer coverage, ensuring someone is always on duty and available to respond to calls in the city.

The response time policy change stems from lengthy, tense public conversations between councilors and then-members of the police department over the last year in the wake of the June 2024 firing of Police Chief Jeff Wood. As part of an effort to help police, councilors at the time discussed relaxing the required response time from 10 minutes to 30 minutes. The council, though, never formally adopted a policy, and all the officers who worked for the department last year have since left.

Public Works Director Joe Coleman, who served as the interim city administrator late last year when the city first attempted to hire a permanent replacement for Wood, said the council and residents made it clear to him during that hiring process that 30 minutes was too far away.

“It was beaten into my head by this community that that wasn’t acceptable,” he said.

Councilor Peggy Lindsey agreed a 30-minute response time was too long.

“Do you think a 30-minute response time is reasonable if someone is in your house?” she asked.

Councilors at one point during last week’s meeting appeared to be moving toward requiring officers to live within 20 miles or 20 minutes of the city. But Harvey noted neither the Ouray County Sheriff’s Office nor the Ridgway Marshal’s Office has such a strict policy.

Only Ouray County Sheriff Justin Perry and one deputy live in Ouray County, while Ridgway Marshal Shane Schmalz is the only member of the marshal’s office who lives in the county.

“We’re creating something here that isn’t consistent with peer agencies,” Harvey said, adding that there is currently no law enforcement officer on duty in the county between 2 and 7 a.m. each day.

Ouray residents Kevin Schiffer and Paul Smith asked if any flexibility could be built into the response time policy, such as requiring the police department as a whole to meet response time requirements rather than individual officers or considering mandated response times on a case-by-case basis.

Smith said he’d prefer that over having to launch yet another search for a police chief.

“I’d rather have a great police chief that lives 22 miles away than go through the process of saying, ‘Oh sorry, Daric, see you later,’” he said.

Harper Powell, an attorney with Karp Neu Hanlon, a Glenwood Springs-based firm serving as the city’s contract attorney, recommended the city adopt a uniform policy. She said she wasn’t aware of anything in state law that offered guidance on whether the city could impose response time requirements arbitrarily.

Harvey said 24-hour police coverage would negate the need for a response time policy because an officer would always be working and available to respond. It would also expand the pool of potential officer candidates, he said, because they could live in Montrose, where housing is significantly less expensive than Ouray County.

Harvey has hired three full-time officers — all of whom live in Ouray or Ridgway — since his arrival and has two more positions to fill. He interviewed a woman from Kansas last week in the hopes of filling one of the openings.

A shift to 24-hour coverage would require at least some officers to work 12-hour shifts, Harvey said. Ouray officers currently work 10-hour shifts. It’s unclear what impact the change would have on the police department’s budget.

Gulde encouraged Harvey to expedite researching 24-hour coverage.

“We’re doing this right now as a Band-Aid, pretty much,” she said, referring to temporarily allowing longer driving distances and response times for officers.

“… To be honest, I’m really uncomfortable with this.”