'We Will Be There': Deputies Patrolling City after Arcadia Wisconsin Police Force Resigns

By Rachel Mergen

Source Winona Daily News, Minn.

While Arcadia might not currently have a police department beyond an interim chief, members of the community don’t need to worry about whether law enforcement will be available.

“We will be there,” said Trempealeau County Sheriff Brett Semingson. “We just can't guarantee the response times like a local police department can.”

The sheriff’s office is helping respond to more calls in the city after its entire police department resigned within only a few months earlier this year.

Deputies already were accustomed to helping out.

“It's not unusual that we are getting called into the city of Arcadia to take calls," Semingson said. "It's just we're getting a few more of them now because they don't have their own police force to take those calls. It hasn’t been overwhelming.”

Response times

Semingson said residents can expect response times between 5 to 25 minutes from the sheriff's office, as the drive from the county's seat of Whitehall normally takes 20 to 25 minutes.

When the sheriff's office has a fully staffed shift, a patrol vehicle is assigned to cover the central part of the county, including Arcadia.

Other times though, it might be longer before help can arrive as the drive from more distant parts of the county can take up to 45 minutes.

Even with lights and sirens, that can be a 30-minute drive.

“Folks might be feeling a little bit nervous, wondering if law enforcement is going to be there when they need them, and I can assure you, in Trempealeau County that a police officer will respond and if it's an emergency we'll get there as fast as we can," Semingson said. "We'll drive as fast as we can down the roads to get there in an emergency.”

Arcadia city officials are developing a contract with the sheriff's office that would dedicate deputies to cover Arcadia on a temporary basis.

“We're very, very close to having that contract in place," Semingson said.

To handle the extra work, the sheriff's office plans to put its off-duty employees to work in Arcadia on overtime. The overtime rate would be paid by the city of Arcadia and remain in place until the city rebuilds its department.

While the sheriff's office routinely contracts with cities to provide law enforcement services, the overtime arrangement is unusual. The service contracts typically are used for cities and villages that have no police force and the sheriff's office hires staff to accommodate.

The sheriff considers the upcoming agreement with Arcadia to be an emergency contract, which he said "is the first of its kind" in the county.

“Right now, it's taken so long just because we're going back and forth with attorneys and just trying to make sure that it's a rock solid contract," Semingson said.

Rebuilding a department

In a statement, Arcadia Mayor John Kimmel said the city is working to rebuild its police department.

“Policing is a very honorable yet difficult profession. Many departments face staffing shortages or other issues, ours just happened all at once,” Kimmel stated. “Our situation in Arcadia is unique in that our former officers moved on to new careers in a relatively short time frame, which has presented us with both a challenge and an opportunity. The challenges are obvious. The opportunity is to build the Arcadia Police Department from the ground up based upon the needs of today and our shared vision for tomorrow.”

The city has hired Nicholas Scholl as its new police chief.

Scholl is a former part-time Arcadia police officer. He also previously worked for the Buffalo County Sheriff's Office.

While Semingson hasn't worked with Scholl a lot in the past, he is confident he will benefit the Arcadia community.

“I do know that there's a lot of respect for Nick in the law enforcement community, and that'll go a long ways for him and the community when they're recruiting police officers to come there and work," Semingson said.

The new chief is expected to start in the role "very soon," according to Kimmel.

The city has sought ways to help the police department retain employees, including by increasing pay.

“I'm confident that they are going to have a police force that is there for the right reasons, and that that they're going to be sticking around," Semingson said.

Crowd management

Until Arcadia's police department is back at full force, the sheriff's office is helping plan for some of the city's large upcoming gatherings.

The sheriff's office plans to stage deputies in the city for the event, but Semingson hopes to have a contract with the city done by then to help cover those costs.

The sheriff's office is already working to prepare for the major Ashley for the Arts event in August.

The office is working with the festival's organizers and members of its team who have worked security in the past to prepare a plan.

By August, Semingson believes the city's own department will be in a position to tackle some of the work.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Semingson said he's struggled to hire officers, jailers and dispatchers.

Local police departments also have struggled to find officers as the pool of applicants for jobs has grown smaller.

“2008 is when I was promoted to sergeant, and one of the first things I did for the sheriff at that time was go sift through a pack pile of 124 applications for one road position," said Semingson. "Today, we're lucky if we get 10 people apply for four road positions.”

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