At last weeks Oshkosh City Council meeting Councilmen Esslinger during discussion on Res. 08-158 -Terminating TIF District #15 in the city of Oshkosh. Councilman Esslinger was not concerned about helping out Winnebago County with their financial problems because the charge the city of Oshkosh for services provided by the Winnebago County Sheriff Department even though the city of Oshkosh has its own police department.
With that in mind I emailed Sheriff Brooks to ask him directly what services the Winnebago County Sheriff;s Department provides that city of Oshkosh Police Department does not provide or adds to protection service that the Oshkosh Police Department.
Below is the exact response I received back from the Sheriff as you can see Winnebago County Sheriff Department provides a great deal to the citizens of Oshkosh who also residents and taxpayers of Winnebago County.
Any questions on this or any subject before the Winnebago County Board of Supervisors feel free to contact me at mjn304@hotmail.com
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Supervisor Norton,
You are correct in how the tax dollars come to us but that doesn’t change the fact that they do contribute tax dollars to all county agencies even if they have a like agency. In the case of the Sheriff’s Office the argument is usually why should they have to pay for the Sheriffs Office patrol or investigations when they have their own Police Dept.
But the rest of the story is very long and very complicated. I can not do justice to it in a single email. But I will try to give you the highlights.
The Sheriff’s Office provides additional manpower to the city in several ways.
1) We provide additional manpower to them on Swat call ups, Tactical crowd control, requests for help at special events or on routine calls without any additional cost to the City of Oshkosh. If they were to request mutual aide from any other police agency they would be billed for that time.
2) We provide a second officer when they do transports for a juveniles to shelter care.
3) We provide the second officer when the city detains an individual for a 51.42 mental commitment.
4) We provide dogs to assist in searches in the city and at city schools.
5) We assist the city by providing our trained Drug Recognition experts at traffic crashes. Doing so allows the PD officer to get an idea as to the type of drug the individual is on and that saves them money when it comes to drug testing .
6) We have and continue to provide them technical assistance in accident reconstruction.
7) We provide traffic control and crash investigations for them at many intersections that are inside the city limits.
8) We provide patrol and accident investigation on approximately 7 miles of US 41 that is inside of the city limits
9) We serve warrants for crimes committed in the city.
10) While serving warrants or simply following up on calls we drive through the city and frequently take enforcement action.
11) The Sheriffs office is responsible only for search/rescue and body recovery on the water ways contained inside of the county borders. We provide Water patrol in their rivers and bays. Additionally we provide safety and security and events occurring on the water ways i.e.: July 4th fireworks display etc
12) The Sheriff’s office provides divers for recovery of evidence for the PD.
13) We pick up prisoners from other counties and states for crimes that are committed in the cities.
14) We provide E-911 dispatch for their PD and FD. The Sheriff’s Office also provides the radio infrastructure/maintenance for all public safety agencies in Winnebago County. Also it will be my recommendation that when we update the radio system per the FCC mandates that we include their public utilities to our infrastructure, there by saving them dollars.
15) The law would allow the city to have its own jail but they have chosen not to do so and instead they place their prisoners in the Sheriff’s Office Jail. They currently have 157 inmates( 52 % of our population today) in our jail and 28 inmates( 38% as of today ) on the GPS. This also results in the Sheriff’s office providing transport and security for all city of Oshkosh arrests.
16) As it relates to investigations crime doesn’t have boundaries and we find that often crimes committed in the city are solved by our detectives and the same holds true for the city solving crimes that were committed in the county.
In addition to the above comments I question how much thought that person put into that statement. While in some areas the city gets less bang for the buck in other areas they get more then their fair share i.e.: Jail,E-911 Water Patrol, courts and court related activities. He is also missing the point that their decisions have an impact on their citizens whether it be in higher taxes or diminished services.
I find these type of discussions as disappointing and a waste of time. At a time that quality services are being threatened by budget issues we need to work to together not say to “heck with them”.
Sheriff Michael E. Brooks
Winnebago County Sheriff's Office
4311 Jackson St
Oshkosh, WI 54904
920-236-7330
mike.brooks@co.winnebago.wi.us
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