This week’s featured question was asked of Merrill Police Chief Corey Bennett and was forwarded on to the Wisconsin State Patrol’s Northcentral Region Post in Wausau, and was subsequently answered by State Patrol Lieutenant Richard Reichenberger.
The question reads:
“I’m curious why there seems to be an awful lot of state patrol around town lately? I have nothing against police but it just seems odd to have them around town when we have our own police department and the sheriff in town. Don’t they have their own responsibilities like our officers are responsible for the city and the sheriff is responsible for the county? Thank you for helping me understand how this works.”
Answer as given by Lieutenant Reichenberger:
“I can give you a little background on State Patrol jurisdiction. State Troopers and Inspectors have statewide jurisdiction within Wisconsin. We generally patrol U.S. and State highways, but certainly will patrol other areas for traffic and safety violations. State Patrol Troopers and Inspectors both focus on safety and enforcing traffic and criminal laws. The Inspectors’ primary focus is on commercial motor vehicle (CMV) traffic for safety and weight compliance. Ultimately the goal is to have people operate their vehicles in a safe manner obeying all traffic laws thus reducing crashes, injuries and fatalities, but unfortunately that is not always the case. We pride ourselves on being as pro-active as we can; working towards a common goal of highway safety.
“Currently there are two troopers assigned to patrol Lincoln County so they could be in the area quite often. With Merrill being so close to Marathon County, which has seven troopers and two inspector assigned, many officers may drive into Merrill for various reasons since it is a large municipality near the county line. It is also the county seat, so each time traffic court is held a trooper would need to attend as well as any individual trials on other dates.
“Another of our duties is to assist local agencies when necessary. This could be at a domestic disturbance in the county or a crash within the city limits, or vice versa. With the limited number of resources each police agency has we must assist each other whenever possible to ensure the continued safety of the public.
“Answering the particular question at hand is somewhat difficult without a specific time frame to address. We normally don’t patrol municipalities, but if troopers are driving through and observe a violation, the officer would likely make a traffic stop. Then of course it would depend on what the officer observes during the contact and whether other officers are called to assist. Other factors to consider would be how long the traffic stop lasts, and whether or not someone is arrested for a criminal offense, cited for a traffic violation, or just warned. These could lead to a longer period of time being visible within the city.
“So overall, there are several reasons for an observed increase in our presence, but it may mostly be due to getting two troopers assigned to Lincoln County and having the State Patrol squad cars passing through more often than the previous few years.”
Have a question or concern you would like to address? Simply send your question or concern to [email protected] along with an indication of which entity your question or concern pertains to. Current participants are the Merrill Police Department, Merrill Fire Department, Tomahawk Police Department, Merrill City Administrator Dave Johnson, Merrill Area Housing Authority Director Paul Russell, Lincoln County Clerk Chris Marlowe, Merrill Area Public Schools (MAPS) Superintendent Dr. John Sample, Wisconsin State Patrol and DNR Conservation Warden Curt Butler. Please note: Those who submit to the ‘Ask an Official’ feature remain anonymous.