Grant to fund new detective post for Shawano

The Shawano Police Department is getting an additional detective position with the help of a grant after the Shawano Common Council voted 5-1 March 8 to approve the position.

The police department received $144,060.80 from the Rural Violent Crime Reduction Initiative so the second investigative officer could be added, but it’s not going to fully fund the position, according to Police Chief Bradley Rabideau. The department estimates the new detective position will cost $73,856.75 in wages and benefits once he or she is on board May 1, and in 2024, the annual cost is expected to be $111,660.12, leaving over $41,900 to be covered by the city that year once the grant runs out.

Rabideau noted that he had requested the position for the 2023 budget, but the funding could not be found, so the department went looking for other funds and came across the RVCRI grant.

“It’s a federal grant for rural areas that covers some of the same concerns that we have,” Rabideau said.

The new detective position will focus on drug crimes, and that will also encompass crimes associated with the sale of narcotics, like thefts, robberies, physical assaults, sexual assaults, human trafficking and domestic abuse. The police department reported 63 drug and narcotics violations in 2021.

From April through July of last year, Shawano police recovered 7.77 grams of straight fentanyl and 54.6 grams of fentanyl and heroin mixed together. The average lethal dose for fentanyl is 2 milligrams, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

“Some of the things that we are looking at addressing are, yes, drugs and daily users, that type of thing, people that supply and peddle in our community,” Rabideau said. “Also, we’re looking at crimes associated with the drug trade in the city of Shawano — theft of catalytic converters, trailers, gun crimes, aggravated assaults.”

Rabideau noted that RVCRI indicated other grant funding could be found to fund the remainder of the position. Also, he said, accepting the federal grant opens the department up to be eligible for other grants that could keep the detective in place.

“It’s like anything — if you show good performance, that goes a long way for when you apply for other grants,” Rabideau said. “Grants are our future. Looking for grants, looking for other ways to pay for things other than coming to the council and adding to the tax burden.”

The department plans to hire from within for the detective position, according to Rabideau, which means that a patrol officer will need to be found in the coming weeks to prevent being short-handed on the streets. He said that being short on patrol is nothing new, as they had a temporary detective position last year working with Shawano County’s drug task force, as well as officers out on long-term leave for various reasons.

Rabideau acknowledged that if other funding couldn’t be found to fund the detective position, his department would have to reexamine what would be priorities in tackling crime.

“We would have to make changes to the department, either through attrition, which may be possible, or through layoff,” Rabideau said.

City Administrator Eddie Sheppard said that the indication that some on the council wanted the position, despite levy limits keeping it from happening, was what prompted the city to pursue the grant.

“We don’t do grant-funded positions because there’s that long-term cost, but the fact that it was tied to a previous discussion, my gut on bringing it here was, there are ways to look at this,” Sheppard said. “If you were supportive of the position, and there was only a financial component that kept us from adding it last year, this would allow you to essentially provide a phase-in system.”

Sheppard noted that the city is doing a revaluation for this year, which means more money could be available for the 2024 budget.

“I’m not promising there’s going to be money at the end of the rainbow, but it is entirely possible you might have an easier process through the next budget to have the reval numbers more closely resemble what our equalized numbers were last year,” Sheppard said. “That could make those budget conversations quite different because it won’t affect our levy limits and will give us more room.”

Alderman Brad Keuschel noted that, if the city ultimately has to pay for the position, he would want to see statistics and reports showing that the new detective position is making a difference in prosecuting and deterring crime.

Rabideau said that wouldn’t be a problem, as the police department will be required to present the same metrics to RVCRI during the course of the grant period.

Alderman John Hoeffs voted against the measure but did not indicate during discussion why he was against it.

lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com