CROWN POINT | The sheriff's office is disputing a claim by a county council committee that the sheriff could save $700,000 by restricting police patrols to areas outside cities and towns.

Marco S. Kuyachich, county police chief for Sheriff Rogelio "Roy" Dominguez, said this week his department "does not and never has routinely 'patrolled' areas within any city or town in Lake County which has a municipal police department."

Kuyachich said county police patrol the Town of Winfield because that town doesn't have its own force. He also said the county police drug interdiction unit occasionally patrols interstate highways and that the department enters Gary and East Chicago when those city police departments request assistance.

"However, the county police department has always and will continue to restrict its patrol duties to the unincorporated areas of Lake County," Kuyachich said.

The finance committee suggested patrol restrictions as one of 44 ways to cut $15 million from the county government's spending before the end of the year because of a shortfall that will be created by state-mandated property tax cuts.