Enterprise city government was prudent in its decision to hire an expert to review current functioning of the Enterprise Police Department. With the recent resignation of chief Wes Kilgore, who served in the post for 13 years, the city has a somewhat rare opportunity to undertake such an evaluation when circumstances are least burdensome to employees: at a time of transition, and when there’s one job fewer immediately at stake.

Currently the department has only three full-time employees, but that’ll bump back up to four if the city hires a new chief. Michele Young, the city’s administrator, says the Oregon Association Chiefs of Police (and no, there’s not an “of” missing from that), the organization the city has turned to for advice and referrals, doesn’t even recommend hiring an interim chief until the city has results back from its planned departmental review. Fortunately, that review, to be conducted by someone the association recommends, shouldn’t take longer than several days to complete, once it begins.

The possibility of course looms that Enterprise officials will learn the city hasn’t been getting the most bang for its public safety buck. If such is the review’s outcome, it’s easy to imagine a lively debate ensuing, especially if it appears the easiest fix is to scrap the city department and beef-up the county sheriff’s office.

But we get ahead of ourselves with these imaginings. Not only are we not there yet; “there” we might never be.

Regardless of whether the upcoming assessment spotlights the EPD as a wise bargain or a troubling waste, however, we hope city officials and their consultant strive mightily to educate the public well on this issue at every juncture. For starters, we’ll want to know something about any important yardsticks that are applied to reach judgments about the police department. For example, the Center for Public Safety Management (CPSM), an entity under the umbrella of the International City/County Management Association (ICMA), concerns itself with public safety staffing models and applies what it calls its “Rule of 60” in evaluating police departments. The rule stresses the desirability of having approximately 60 percent of sworn officers assigned to patrol.

Is the Rule of 60 the most appropriate evaluative tool for a very small department? Search us, but whatever the tool the city’s hired expert deems most useful, we’d like to understand exactly how it works and why, exactly, it should be prominently factored into any decisions.

And while we’re issuing this request for helpful spoon-feeding from the city’s hired gun, we should add that it’s imperative the city itself takes pains to clearly draft and communicate any price comparisons between city police services and whatever might be on offer from the sheriff’s office, assuming that’s solicited (and we rather assume it will be).

What if the county’s policing service appears the better buy, but not by a wide margin? Here’s where the really difficult part could begin — the self-searching, the probing of less tangible values.

This could turn into a difficult slog. Everyone, please keep all channels open.