LETTER: It’s time to say thank you for all police do for community

To Ozaukee Press:                                                                                                        

 I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the members of the Port Washington Police Department for their extraordinary dedication and service, especially these past four months.

Covid 19-has stressed everyone close to a breaking point. Calls for assistance have increased dramatically for both our fire department EMS and the police, and this has required new protocols to keep everyone safe. When responding to 911 calls, our first responders do not know what to expect, but prepare for the worst. So far, all their extra precautions have paid dividends and no personnel have contracted the virus from on-duty contacts.

 Lately, our police department has been tasked with an additional demanding responsibility of keeping everyone safe during the BLM marches and protests. Several times there has been little advance notice of a protest scheduled for our city. Yet they have responded in their usual professional and dedicated manner. We thank them for giving up their Friday nights and Sunday afternoons to protect everyone.             

Thank you especially to those men who left their families on Father’s Day to serve downtown. Thank you also to all the other law enforcement agencies that have helped us maintain law and order when we needed extra support: Cedarburg, Grafton and Mequon Police Departments, Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Office and Highway Patrol.

We should be very proud that under former Chief Dick Thomas’ leadership Port Washington was one of the very first police agencies in the state to receive accreditation from the Wisconsin Law Enforcement Accreditation Group. This is the gold standard for policing. Chief Kevin Hingiss and his team have now successfully been reaccredited three more times.

 The hours of extensive training that the Port police undertake include such specialized classes as crisis intervention, child abuse investigation, dark web investigations and social media and open-source intelligence and cyber crime. Two of our officers are trained drug recognition experts and can help other agencies when requested. Additionally, Sheriff Jim Johnson has just arranged for all Ozaukee County law enforcement to attend a class at Concordia University for implicit bias training. Port police are participating in this program the first week of August.

 Somehow, despite 18,409 calls for service in 2019, these same Port police have time for community service. They hold a bike rodeo in June, attended by over 200 children last year, hold an annual “shop with a cop” in December, participate in Safety Town for children entering kindergarten, have an open house in conjunction with the fire department in October, take kids from the inner city of Milwaukee on fishing trips. The list goes on.

We appreciate what they all do and too often don’t take the time to say thank you.

Rick Nelson
Port Washington
The letter writer is chairman of the Port Washington Police and Fire Commission and a member of the Ozaukee County Board.