MADISON — Madison is the latest community to move toward consolidation of its police department with a county sheriff’s office, and residents will get their chance to be heard at a public hearing at 6:30 p.m. Monday at the Madison Area Junior High School auditorium.

The proposal, which was developed by the Madison Police Department and the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office at the request of selectmen, would eliminate local control over police services while maintaining the same level of law enforcement, according to town officials.

The police department would no longer exist and there would be no police chief, but officers from the department would have the opportunity to be deputies for the sheriff’s department, which is based at the county jail in East Madison.

“There are certain pros and cons,” said Robert Schwartz, executive director of the Maine Chiefs of Police Association. There is no statewide law providing that towns must have a police department, according to the Maine Municipal Association, which advises that communities evaluate what is best in the eyes of town officials and residents on whether to operate a local police department or rely on county law enforcement.

“The way we view it is, these kind of collaborative ideas are good,” said Eric Conrad, spokesman for the Maine Municipal Association. “The questions that need to be asked are, ‘What does the town want?’ and ‘What do its citizens want?’ What do the town leaders want? Does it save money? Will it increase or decrease service and what are the citizens’ expectations? Do they want someone around the corner or not? The best decisions tend to come from the community level. The leaders and the citizens will know better what they want rather than any kind of statewide mandate.”