Logo for the Wausau Police Department. Image courtesy: Wausau PD/Facebook
WAUSAU, WI (WSAU-WAOW) – The Wausau Police Department will be facing staffing issues in the near future.
At Monday’s Police and Fire Commission meeting, Chief Ben Bliven said their situation will likely get worse before it gets better. The department is expecting to be down several officers in the next month, because some are leaving or will be on lighter duty, with other officers still in training.
The department is still trying to attain balance between what they need and what they can afford. “Give us another dozen police officers, I’ll put them to work. There’s work for them to do, for sure. But I think there’s a balance that has to be struck in terms of can we afford more police officers and more positions,” Bliven said.
Going forward, they will continue to focus on retaining their current officers. “When we have other agencies that are paying more, that’s an issue for us, so we’re trying to work through that and trying to fix that issue for our staff as well,” Bliven said.
The department currently has 79 sworn officers, a number it has maintained for multiple years.
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