The Village of Dexter will not see an increase in the cost of contracting for three Washtenaw County sheriff’s deputies in 2012.

And with that in mind, the Dexter Village Council unanimously approved a contract for three Police Service Units, for a total cost of $451,782. According to the sheriff’s department, a PSU is defined as “the services of one sheriff’s deputy plus all the necessary support to keep that deputy on the road.”

“The contract does state that if direct costs undergo an unforeseen cost increase,” for things like salary, fringe benefits, uniform, gun or fleet allowances, the county reserves the right to adjust the prices in 2014, according to the contract.

The cost of one PSU is $150,594 in 2012. In 2013, the cost for a PSU will increase to $152,100.

In 2014, that cost is expected to increase to $153,621 and to $155,157 in 2015.

The village is also responsible to “pay for all overtime incurred by its contracted PSU’s while working on village-related matters, including, but not limited to, testifying on court cases involving village cases,” according to the contract.

Also part of the contract is a provision that a command officer will inform village officials if there’s a homicide, a traffic fatality in the village, major criminal events, major citizen complaints regarding performance of PSU’s in the village, discharge of a firearm by a sheriff within the village excluding incidents with animals or of a village PSU acting outside the village, requests for news media interviews regarding operations with the village, motor vehicle accidents involving village PSU’s while on duty in which there is personal injury, or any significant change in the sheriff’s operations within the village.”

There are also provisions for a 60-day notice of increases in the contract as well as provisions for failure to pay monthly charges including overtime, which include, but are not limited to “complete stoppage or all contract services to the village until the amount owed is completely paid.”

The village also has a say in the selection of which officers are assigned to the village and there is a process in place to have an officer removed from the village.

The sheriff’s department maintains a substation in downtown Dexter that serves officers that patrol the village, Dexter and Webster townships.

“The Village of Dexter participates in a successful collaboration with Dexter Township and Webster Township that allows us to provide 24-7 coverage with the lowest per capita cost for police services in the county,” a letter from Shawn Keough, village president, states.

“To keep this statistic true, however," the letter states, "It will be necessary to address the cost of the benefits associated with deputies, which according to the documents provided to the Police Services Steering Committee, are currently 58 percent of the salaries.”

Lisa Allmendinger is a regional reporter for AnnArbor.com. She can be reached at lisaallmendinger@annarbor.com. For more Dexter stories, visit our Dexter page.