Wausau Policing Task Force members Pat Peckham and John Robinson take part in a use of force training simulation with Wausau Police Detective Jim Martin. MWC file photo by Liz Holbrook
WAUSAU, WI (WSAU) — After nearly two years of meetings, dialog, and training sessions the Wausau Policing Task Force has come up with over a dozen recommendations to help improve the department and its relationship with the community.
Two main areas of discussion included the mental health of officers and what a police officer’s role is when they are called to assist with a mental health crisis. Chair John Robinson said in the case of the former, they just want the officers to have access to the best mental health care so they can continue to protect the community with a clear mind.
“I think the goal was we didn’t want to create financial barriers to police officers seeking necessary mental health services,” said Robinson.
Wausau Police Chief Ben Bliven agreed, saying his department does have a budget for that but many officers are still caught dropping down a co-pay to speak with a professional. “We can access a lot of counselors through our health insurance network, but there is a deductible cost.”
Bliven adds that his department does have a line item in their budget to pay for counselors for certain situations, but they don’t have enough to make the services available on a wider scale at this time.
Both Bliven and Robinson added that the role of an officer who’s dealing with a person in a mental health crisis is a point of frustration not only in Wausau but statewide as well. The current state statute is unclear about when the transfer of the individual from the officer to another professional should take place, and isn’t always executed universally.
“The process is not streamlined, and the individuals responsible for making that decision do not do so in a timely manner,” said Bliven.
He says that can result in an officer being taken off the street for several hours, and can even mean transporting the patient to another area of the state if the situation warrants. Robinson agreed that is not the most efficient use of the officer’s time while on the clock.
Changes in that area would require legislative action, meaning the task force’s recommendation would involve a letter to local lawmakers to support changes in state statutes.
The group is also recommending that officers be trained in how to give some commands in multiple languages and initiate dialogs with groups such as the Hmong, LGBTQ, and new refugee communities to break down barriers.
They are also recommending a community survey every two years, similar to the one that was conducted in 2021 as part of the task force.
Monday’s meeting was spent going over the final language of the recommendations, or “wordsmithing” as the committee referred to it. While a quorum was present, the whole group was not together for the meeting which led Robinson to put off the process of ranking the recommendations.
You can view the entire list as part of Monday’s agenda packet by clicking here. Over the next week, the Task Force will work to rank the list of items by priority, while Mayor Katie Rosenberg finishes the final presentation on the work the group has done. The finished product is set to be revealed in Mid-February at the group’s final meeting.
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