If the Village of Johnson City dissolves, police coverage could suffer.

That's according to Broome County Sheriff David Harder.

Monday night, he spoke to the committee studying the possibility of dissolving the Village into the Town of Union, to save taxpayers money.

If it dissolved, Harder says the Sheriff's Office would have to take over police coverage.

"At issue is the fact that you'll probably have less patrols in the Village because we just don't have enough people. Unless the county authorizes the hiring of more people," said Sheriff David Harder.

An expense taxpayers county-wide would be responsible for.

In April, Johnson City's fire chief told the committee that response time to emergencies like a fire could also lag if the village dissolved.