 Welcome to Sheboygan County Government, working for you. My name is Adam Payne, Sheboygan County Administrator and co-host of this program with Mike Vandersteen, County Board Chairman. And today we're very pleased to have a very important department head with us, Sheriff Mike Helke. Welcome Mike. Thank you. As you know, every month we bring a different department to you, 22 departments in Sheboygan County and our Sheriff's Department is clearly one of our most important and one of our largest. We're looking forward to learning more from Sheriff Helke today. But before we begin, I'd like to turn it over to Chairman Vandersteen to make a special presentation. Mike? Well, we've got a great crew we're working with here at TV8 and Fritz Zank, I'd like you to take your mic off for a minute and please step over here in front of the fireplace. Fritz, we're waiting on you. Fritz celebrated a very significant birthday. We want to honor him for that and we also want to say thank you for all the work that he's done. He issued a special proclamation to Fritz, whereas Fritz Zank was born in July 3rd of 1920 to Otto and Anna Zank in Sheboygan, Wisconsin and whereas Fritz married Veronica Miller on June 14th of 1947, together they raised three beautiful children, Terry Zank of Riverton, Wyoming, Vicki Meyer of Hartford, Wisconsin and Jody Maslaka of Sheboygan, Wisconsin. Whereas he proudly served his great country in World War II in the United States Army as a paratrooper and took part in historic battles such as the Battle of the Bulge and D-Day. Whereas he was employed by the Sheboygan press for more than 30 years and began employment with TV8 star cable vision, now WSCS, City of Sheboygan. As a cameraman in 1984, he remains a dedicated employee to this day and for the past 26 years he's been involved in covering high school events, sporting events, symphony concerts, telethons, coverage of two United States presidents and hundreds of studio shows. And whereas Fritz is retiring from the Sheboygan press in 1986, allowed Fritz to spend more time with TV8 and his favorite hobby, his own film business, referred to as radiant pictures. And whereas what is most important to Fritz and his family is his church, as a member of our Savior Lutheran Church, I, therefore, Michael Van der Seen, Chairman of the County Board of Supervisors, join the WSCS staff and his family in congratulating Fritz Sink on his 90th birthday. Congratulations and thank you for all you've done for the community. There you go, Fritz. Thank you again. Now we'll need you behind the camera to finish the show. Okay. Thank you much. Well, very nice. Something we haven't done before. I was sharing with Mike Kelke, just before the program started, I think we've done over 100 programs, maybe closer to 150. I lose track. And Fritz has been behind the camera, I think, for nearly every program. Steve over my right shoulder. Scott's running the show inside, and it's just real nice to acknowledge somebody like Fritz's 90th birthday. And he's always here and always doing a good job. Thank you so much, Fritz, and thank you TV8 for the work you do. That's all the time we have for our program today. So Sheriff Helpke, thanks for joining us. So with that, back to Sheriff Helpke. Mike, please begin by sharing with our viewers your law enforcement career a little bit, when you started and when you were first elected sheriff. Sure. I started with the Sheriff's Department in February of 1978, so I have well over 32 years with the department. And I was first elected sheriff in November of 2002, beginning my first term in January of 2003. And then re-elected as sheriff for a term that began in 2007. Currently up for re-election this fall for a term that will start January of next year. And you started with the Sheriff's Department, as you said, 32 years ago. You pretty much know this department inside and out with your experience, do you not? I do. I've worked in every aspect and asset of the department. I've started, I worked in corrections. I worked my way into patrol. I was a field training officer, a first line supervisor sergeant, a middle manager as a lieutenant, a shift commander, and eventually was elected sheriff. Very good. And I think most of our viewers have a pretty good understanding of the importance of law enforcement in the Sheriff's Department. But how would you describe the primary role or responsibility of the Sheriff's Department? Well, a sheriff is constitutionally mandated to provide specific services for the county in which they serve. One of those services is a jail that I just mentioned, which is a huge part of our operation. It comprises more than half of our employees and more than half of our budget. When I started at the Sheriff's Department, I mentioned I started in corrections. At that time, the jail was on the sixth floor of the courthouse, just above the county board chambers. And if we had 35, 40, 40 inmates in jail on any given day, we were getting to the point of being maxed out flash forward 32 years. We have three freestanding correctional facilities and the daily population of anywhere between 275 and 290 inmates in jail on any given day. And it's rather remarkable, as you know, if you go to the sixth floor of the courthouse, we've got the county board chambers on the fifth floor, which is a nice chamber room. I think it might be due for an upgrade at some point. The chairs are probably about 50 or 60 years old. But it's a beautiful view of the lake, but apparently they thought the prisoners must have, at that time, maybe a view wasn't so important because above that, the jail, and now it's storage for the courthouse. And they really didn't have access to a view of the lake. It was pretty antiquated by the time we left back in the early 80s when we opened the law enforcement center to the south of the courthouse. But in addition to the jail, the sheriff is also required to provide courtroom and courthouse security. And we do that in our court services division through our bailiffs. Also in that division, we serve civil process, which is also a mandated service of the sheriff. In addition to that, the sheriff is required to provide for the regulation of transportation and storage of explosives and hazardous materials, and we do that through our emergency government division of our department. And then, of course, there's the law enforcement public safety aspect of law enforcement that we provide to the general community. And nearing the end of your second four-year term, you've seen a lot during your tenure, certainly 32 years on the force, as sheriff, what have been some of your biggest challenges and some of your greatest accomplishments? Sure. The challenges now, obviously, with the economic situation and its effect on local, state, and federal government budgets for that matter is a real big challenge, as you know, we're currently in the process of developing our 2011 budget, and we have some major challenges there in order to meet that budget target that we were given by the county board. Jailover crowding, I mentioned before, the number of individuals that we have in jail on any given day were to the point that we're well over 80 to 85% capacity in our corrections areas. And that's the point where the experts in the industry say you need to start looking at either rebuilding an addition or maybe doing something in terms of alternatives to incarceration. So we're looking at this as a multi-prong approach. We've had estimates on jail expansion. We're looking at alternatives to incarceration. So we have a number of different things going on in that area. That's clearly going to be a challenge. And just the changing landscape of the criminal justice system over the years and into the future with technology and the different things, the different types of avenues that that brings to the criminal element out in the community, just staying on top of those types of things is science and it's in and of itself. Those are certainly some key challenges that are ongoing. What about accomplishments? What are some things you're really proud of? Sure, I'm very proud to say that when I ran for sheriff and then when I was reelected, every campaign platform that I had expressed and that I had campaigned on, I accomplished. But just to mention some of them, I've underspent my budget in the last eight years cumulatively by nearly $1 million. We've generated $2.7 million in state and federal grants. I've reorganized the department a couple of different times. We implemented wireless 911 mapping. I reinstituted the K9 unit. We currently have three K9s in our department. I reinstated the special deputies who serve as school security officers assistance to the Sheboygan police officers in the Sheboygan area school district. I instituted an inmate work camp program whereby inmates can go out and work at different either governmental jobs or work for nonprofits and volunteer in those areas in exchange for credit given off of their sentence. And I partnered with the Sheboygan County Fire Chiefs Association to place detectives in their fire investigative unit as well as we have a partnership with the Humane Society in investigating animal neglect and abuse type of situations which can always sometimes be in a very emotionally charged thing with the community. We've had issues with alleged puppy mills and other types of animal neglect that really get the attention of the community. And they are sensitive types of crimes that need to be thoroughly investigated. I know you've got a real good team in place. We're both very proud of what the Sheriff's Department continues to do, the excellent service that's provided. And when you think about your team, whether it's at the management level or the patrol officers, please give our viewers a sense of how many employees do you have? And what kind of budget does it take to support that organization? Sure, we have approximately 180 employees. About 90 of those are sworn, the other 90 approximately are civilian. So we have a mix of civilian and sworn employees. Our budget is, this year's budget is $16.8 million. And it's a huge operation. It requires a lot of work. We have our department divided up into four different divisions, the corrections division which we've talked about already. The court services division I touched upon before. We also have a criminal investigations division. Those are detectives that go out and work major crimes and follow up on other types of crimes that are maybe too time involved for our deputy to handle. And then we have our patrol division which is our deputies that are first responders to emergencies and crimes. Very good, nice overview. Thank you. Mike, as you know, we've got a lot of activities that happen in Sheboygan County during the summer months. Road America, a lot of community picnics and things like that. And also this year, we have a real special event. We're hosting the PGA for the second time in Sheboygan's history. And I was wondering if you could give us a little picture on what your department has to go through to handle a major event like a PGA out at Whistlin' Straits. Sure, in addition to the PGAs that you had mentioned in 1998, we really got our first stab at the Professional Golf Association with the US Women's Open that was held at Black Wolf Run. Which was a little different dynamic because that was down in the village of Kohler and now we're at Whistlin' Straits with the PGA championship. But there's a lot of planning involved in putting something like this together, a planning for traffic security, fire EMS communications, disaster preparedness and planning in the event that you would have a weather-related emergency or something of that nature. So there's an awful lot of planning that takes place and a lot of different players that are involved in this planning process. And ultimately a lot of different partnerships that make this thing come off from our perspective. Mike, could you give us a little bit of an idea on how maybe this event differs from the work that you do for the Sheboygan County Fair or Road America type event? Sure. This is unique in that this is more of a public private sector venture. The PGA and the Kohler Company are the sponsors of this event. And we as the public sector provide all of the security, the traffic, and the emergency planning part of it. So some of the partners that are involved in this are the Brown County Bomb Squad, the FBI, ATF, the Coast Guard, the DNR, the Department of Transportation, Wisconsin State Patrol, local law enforcement agencies in Sheboygan County, the fire departments, the ambulance services. And even our Sheboygan County Health Department is involved because of all of the food and vendor things that go on up there. So there are a lot of players in this that have to come together in a unified way to make this thing work. Is there any other funding that you're able to garner to assist you in providing these resources for this event? Yes. We've been fortunate, the first championship in 2004 and this one this year, where we've had an agreement from the State Department of Administration to reimburse the counties for our deputies over time that's specifically related to the PGA Championship. And we're looking at reimbursement of approximately $110,000 for this year's event. That's great. We really appreciate the work you're doing to make this a safe event and really represent Sheboygan County while switching gears a little bit. I know that your department offers police protection or sheriff's services to some of our local townships and villages if requested. Could you tell us a little bit about how that works? Sure. We've been doing that for quite a few years, providing additional law enforcement presence in the villages of Random Lake, Usberg, Cedar Grove, Glen Bula, and the town of Holland. What this partnership brings to the village is we can enforce their local ordinances. We will pay attention to specific issues that they may have that they want us to watch. And it brings in, it's basically a cost-neutral venture for the sheriff's department. So the advantage is that we're not dipping into our budget to provide this. But in the other advantages is that we have additional law enforcement officers out there in the event that we need them. It's a great partnership. Great. Mike, do you have any other particular areas of concern or you see escalating needs for law enforcement in our community? I mentioned some of the things before, the advent of the internet and technology and how criminals are using the internet to either prey on children or the elderlier, what have you. We have continued issues with drugs and gang issues in the community that we have to stay proactive with. And I think we're doing a good job of that. The jailover crowding I had mentioned before and the budget situations are, I think, some of the most challenging things that we collectively will have to work on together in the future. That sounds great. Thanks for sharing those. Turn it back over to Adam. A lot of emphasis on sharing services with other units of government, as long as I've been in this position the last 11 years and I'm sure you're 32 years on the force, you're always hearing from constituents, how can we share services with other units of government, keep taxes and check things of that nature. And a lot is going on behind the scenes between the sheriff's department and the police department, city Sheboygan police department, as well as the other units of government, as you know. Most recently, the city common council, the Sheboygan County board authorized the sheriff and all the law enforcement jurisdictions really to go forward with this computer a to dispatch records management system, CAD-RMS, as we refer to it. Some of our viewers may have noticed that in the paper recently that the county board just passed that. What is it? Why is it important for law enforcement? Well, we currently have a CAD-RMS system in place now, but that's an antiquated old technology, windows-based system that just doesn't allow us to upgrade and to stay up with technology advancements that will actually make us more efficient and make our officers do more with less. So we're looking at this new system, which is going to be provided by Spilman Technologies out of Utah. And it's a legacy system. There are 60 agencies in Wisconsin that currently use the system. They have a very, very good reputation. As you know, we had an ad hoc committee that worked over two and a half years on exploring this, did their due diligence and really went out of their way to find what I think is just an excellent system that will take us years into the future in terms of those capacities in our computer-aided dispatch and records management area and just enhance our ability to be more proactive in tracking crime, mapping crime, having data more instantaneously available to the deputies out on the street and things like that. So it's a technology advancement that is, time has come. And when you mentioned ad hoc committee, ad hoc committee made up of staff from the Sheriff's Department, from our Information Systems Department, as well as the City Police Department and IS Department. And you did a nice job describing that. What would be a specific example or two where that's going to help an officer on the street? Sure. Well, it'll help the officer on the street in a way that they'll have information more readily available to the current information. Right now we have backlogs on our system because we have redundancy in multiple times. Information has to be entered into our system, which delays it. This system will allow information to be actually entered into the database. Instantaneous, when the officers are dealing with the people, if they have a driver's license, we can swipe the driver's license with the barcode on and that information's in there readily available to an officer that may be working the next shift and have contact with this person. You'll know that you've had contact with this person and under what circumstances. So to the officer on the street, there's that advantage. I mentioned from a clerical standpoint and entering information now physically into a system where the system itself can collect that information and put it in the proper database. It's kind of like a wheel and you have all the different spokes going out to these different areas. We have a database for our corrections. So inmate information will be available. Information from our civil process will be available. Information from the other law enforcement agencies in the county will be available to all of the officers at any given time. Excellent. And as you mentioned, the system we're already sharing but is becoming a dinosaur. It's time to improve upon it. This will significantly improve upon it. Really an investment for law enforcement. Other examples of where the Sheriff's Department is sharing resources with the city police department or other law enforcement agencies. As you know, we have a shared 800 megahertz radio system which is a backbone for all communications in Cheboygan County, whether it be DPW, highway department, transit, police, fire, EMS. That backbone is there where heads and shoulders above ahead of other counties that have multiple communication systems in their county. We have that singular backbone and that's been around for quite some time and that was a great effort on the part of the city and the county and everybody to get together to implement that. We have a shared photograph system, shared fingerprints. The MEG unit, our Drug Enforcement Unit is a collaborative effort with law enforcement agencies. Primarily the police department and the Sheriff's Department but the other law enforcement agencies in the county also contribute to that effort. Our canines and use of special type of investigative services are available to go back and forth to either any department for that matter if that need is there. We back up each other with our SWAT team, our special weapons and tactics teams and things like that. Joint investigative services are available. So our DIVE team is a shared team made up of members from both the police department and the Sheriff's department. So there are many and there are more that will probably go for in the future. And that's quite a list. As you think about the good things that are currently in play and there are a number of them, always opportunities for improvement. Do you envision any, is there anything else there you're hoping to accomplish that will be shared in the future or make your job, your officer's job more efficient? Sure. Actually we are in a process right now of obtaining a grant collectively between the city and the county to buy a total station. That's a GPS type measuring system that can be used for accident or a crime scene investigation. So we're going through that collectively and hopefully then we'll have a team of trained officers because it takes a high level of training to be able to do this type of work and they will be able to share that instead of each having their own and maybe utilizing it in a moment only a handful of times a year. Our dispatch center is an area that the shared services committee has taken a look at. One of the areas that I think we're probably going to maybe look at next to potentially bringing together and combining there was quite a concerted effort or thought process that took place while the police department was building their new police department as to whether or not we should join our communication centers instead of having two independent centers have one and that issue was fairly well vetted and discussed. There's obviously a need for a backup center. So even though there are two independent centers now it doesn't mean that we can't come together and maybe collaborate and have one in the future. And you mentioned dispatch center and as you said, a lot of discussion for a couple of few years there and ultimately the city common council the county board said let's establish a joint dispatch officer. And I know with the tight budget constraints that everyone's feeling that's gonna be in play as part of the overall discussion but it was going to be another incremental step forward to the city and county. Ultimately I think having one dispatch center which will provide a more effective service for the community. What is the status of that? What are the thoughts right now of that joint dispatch center in or joint dispatch officer? Well we were moving forward with the probably an application process and some type of interview process to hire a communication center manager. And I think the timing is good for that because we just discussed we're moving forward with this new cat RMS and you're gonna need a point person that'll be able to work between the two agencies now with that. And I think that this may be a step in the direction to ultimately combining the two dispatch centers under the management of this dispatch center manager. And earlier this year there were as was discussed throughout the process right now when someone makes a phone call it can sometimes trigger two people having to be part of conveying that rather than one. And if we have a joint operation that could stream like that or take one step out of the process isn't that correct? That's correct. Anytime you have to relay information either by transferring a call or just picking up a phone and relaying it yourself you have the possibility of information being misinterpreted, misunderstood, lost altogether. And that will take that concern out of the component. As well as you know in most emergencies time is of an essence. So the quicker you can get the information dispatched to resources the better off we all feel and the more success we would have with this situation. Only have a couple of minutes remaining. Obviously you're starting or in the midst of a reelection campaign you've talked about your experience and obviously your knowledge of the Sheriff's Department a lot of good things have happened during your tenure. As you look ahead if you're reelected sheriff what do you hope to do? What are some of the key goals you have ahead as you look forward? Well, I'd like to see through this computer aided dispatch. This is gonna be probably a 10 month process. So I definitely wanna keep on top of that. I had mentioned the sharing of the accident reconstruction team. I think this is another area that we can come together and share with the police department. I've built a lot of collaborative efforts with other law enforcement agencies the U.S. Marshals, ATF and that that has never been done before in the Sheriff's Department in the time I was there for various reasons. And I look at it that I am not in competition with other law enforcement agencies. We are together in trying to meet the mission of public safety. So partnership building in that is probably something I'm going to continue to pursue. Just trying to keep control of this jailover crowding issue is going to be a huge task ahead for whosoever sheriff. And just a number of different things out there that need to be looked at and you need the leadership and the ability to do that. Well, Sheriff, thank you for your years of service and your ongoing leadership. And certainly that of your staff you've got an excellent department and a lot of people making good things happen and we thank you for that. I would agree. And thank you for joining us on behalf of the Sheboygan County Board and Chairman Mike Van der Steen. It was a pleasure as always to have you with us today. Next month we're going to have the Human Resources Director here, Mike Collard. We're going to be starting the process again of renegotiating eight contracts with 89% of our employees bargaining unit contracts and there's a lot involved with that. A lot of good people who are seeking give and take. And as the sheriff alluded to earlier, budget constraints right now are real and certainly that negotiation process is going to be an important part of our future success. So until next month, again, thank you for joining us.