POSTED: Wednesday, February 22, 2012 --- 6:20 p.m.

Madison Police say a cut in services at the Dane County Detox Center is putting the public at risk.

Police say they're being forced to either leave dangerously drunk people on the street or bring them to Emergency Rooms.

Madison Police alone brought almost 1800 people in to detox last year.

MPD Captain Joe Balles says, "The demand is certainly there."

But this year Dane County cut 200-thousand dollars of funding to the center for budget reasons and almost completely shut down the center to police on weekdays by cutting way down on the number of beds available.

Dane County Human Services Manager Todd Campbell says, "We were spending that money on chronic alcoholics who repeatedly came through those doors and were not making that link to treatment."

Dane County's argument is that detox had become a revolving door for many of the same people and they want to focus on alcoholics who are ready to enter treatment.

Campbell says, "The shift in the focus of our treatment dollars makes sense."

Dane County says it's already working, cutting way down the number of people waiting to get into county funded drug and alcohol treatment programs.

But police aren't happy and just last night at a committee meeting it became clear some board members are split.

Madison Police say they can't just leave incapacitated drunks on the street when they find them.

Officers have been forced to bring people who are a danger to themselves or others to hospital emergency rooms and sit there while they sober up.

Balles says, "This is more than just Dane County's budget. This is all about how we treat people who are inflicted with alcoholism in the community."

Tellurian President Kevin Florek says, "We're stuck in the crossfire right now."

Tellurian runs the detox facility and has been put in the position of turning officers with drunk people away.

They'd like to see the 200-thousand dollars in funding restored.

Florek says, "In my mind that's not that big of a line item issue in today's world."

There is also a legal argument about what level of care the county is required to provide.

The arguments don't stop there. There is a fight over defining incapacitated versus intoxicated, which determines who police should be bringing in to detox in the first place.

At an unrelated press conference yesterday we pulled aside Dane County Executive Joe Parisi who to this point hasn't said much on the issue.

He said the county has made compromises and tweaked the model along the way and said he thinks the new plan is working.