Morrison selects new police chief

The new Morrison police chief has done something many in law enforcement haven’t: She created a police department from the ground up.

Misty Siderfin created the Severance, Colorado, police department, before moving to become the head of Morrison’s department. She said the work in Severance was incredibly rewarding— a task that even included designing the badges. Before Severance, she spent most of her law enforcement career in Silverthorne as a patrol sergeant, commander and interim chief.

Misty Siderfin started her job as Morrison’s police chief on July 6.

“What I like about Morrison is the small-town approach,” she said. “People wave at you and are excited to see you. It’s a neat place because there’s so much history here. Each chief that has been here has put their personal touch on making the agency better, and I’m looking forward to doing that as well.”

Read more here: www.canyoncourier.com/stories/morrison-s...-police-chief,380116 ?
Photo by Deb Hurley Brobst
Posted Friday, July 30, 2021 5:50 pm

Morrison police chief resigns after just 3 months, cites limited resources and officer vacancies
Misty Siderfin's last day is Oct. 21
By Olivia Jewell Love, The Colorado Sun
Oct 10, 2021

In her Oct. 7 letter of resignation, Siderfin said that she is “unable to continue within this role due to the limited resources, lack of financial stability and budgeting for the Police Department, demands for the police department to support its own budget, lack of transparency, and extremely low numbers of quality applicants for the current vacancies.”

Morrison PD chief resigns days after conceding ticket revenue would fall $800K short of expectations
Money from fines and forfeitures makes up nearly 50% of revenue for the Town of Morrison
Author: Marc Sallinger (9 News)
Published: 9:01 PM MDT October 20, 2021

MORRISON, Colo. — The town of Morrison has a reputation for being a ticket trap, and that’s because it is. A report prepared for the town this year found that 98% of all calls initiated by officers in Morrison were traffic stops.

Police Chief Misty Siderfin leaves the job Thursday, resigning just three months after she was hired. The pressure to keep up that infamous ticket trap may have played a big role.

Earlier this year, Morrison commissioned a report from a Denver consulting firm, KRW Associates, to evaluate the department.

In-part, the firm found officers were pressured to write traffic tickets to subsidize the town’s budget. In 2021, nearly half of the town’s $2.6 million budget came from fines. The other half came from taxes along with other smaller sources of revenue.