First and foremost: OUR Community

Long before deciding to run for Sheriff, I have always been dedicated to helping others in my community. I have put in thousands of hours in volunteer time, with one goal in mind – to serve others and to make and maintain positive relationships within our community.

If honored to be elected as your next sheriff, here are my thoughts on how to keep engaged with our communities:

• Social Media Engagement - Social media would be used to its fullest potential. It has the power to reach so many of our citizens in a positive way.

- First and foremost, public comments will be turned on. If a post obviously entails a sensitive matter, such as a press release, then we can always opt to turn them off. However, when it involves needing help identifying people, seeking information, highlighting our wonderful employees, or engaging with our community members - comments will remain on.

- Next - AI (or ChatGPT). There will be no asking ChatGPT to write Facebook posts or comments. Posts and comments will be written sincerely by the authoring staff member. Along with this one, I will authorize whichever staff member who authors the post, to use their name at the end of the post. Currently, an authoring staff member is writing a post and then concluding each post with "Sheriff Timothy R Wilz". Two things with this. 1. If Sheriff Wilz (or I in his position) did not physically write/create the post, then our name shouldn't be on it. 2. It empowers our staff to allow them to receive credit for posting certain things and responding to our citizens’ questions and concerns. IE if my dispatch captain writes a nice post highlighting a retirement or milestone, I don't want to take credit for that. My Captain should get the credit for writing something from the heart on behalf of all of us... not just one person (the Sheriff).

- At least once per week, I will do a Facebook live event detailing important topics that I feel the community should be made aware of. At the end of each live session, I will open it up to Q&A. Every citizen should have access and the opportunity to ask their Sheriff questions, share concerns, etc. I will make this easy - simply tune in on your phone, stay up to date, and ask questions or voice your concerns! Pretty easy!

- I will highlight certain incidents that happen and recognize staff who do an amazing job day in and day out. IE a deputy stops a 6th offense drunk driver. I may create a post talking about the great job he/she did getting that person off the street and ultimately saving lives. This does 2 things: 1. It allows you, our citizens, to know how your tax dollars are being spent in regard to quality and quantity of work. 2. It empowers our amazing staff members to want to do more great things for our community. Being recognized does wonderful things to a person (it actually causes a chemical release of dopamine in your brain). All staff will be treated equally regarding this - just because you didn't vote for me or support me, doesn't mean you won't be recognized and praised for doing a damn good job out in the field. Period.

- All of these things will consistently take place, regardless of if it is an election year.

• Continue Shop with a Cop Program - I have been a part of this wonderful program for several years. Let me say, there is no better feeling than watching a kid smile while he's able to shop for his/her family for Christmas. This program has taken place annually for the past decade. It is funded strictly through community donations. Every year it takes a whole team of people to make happen - deputies to shop with the kiddos, dispatchers, jail, and record staff to help decorate, wrap presents, serve food, etc. Fleet Farm in Waupaca also dedicates their staff. (Huge thank you to them!) Each of the kiddos get their picture taken with their deputy next to Santa. We also do group and individual photos. We hand out food, beverages, and Christmas goodies. We hand out free hats & gloves. It's an absolute amazing experience - for both the kiddos and our staff.

• K9 Unit - Currently there are 4 working K9s on the department. When they aren't sniffing out drugs, tracking people, and protecting their handlers - I want them involved in the community as much as possible. These dogs are funded strictly by our community so they should be out in our community. At the end of 2024, the K9 account was at $113,825.71. I personally don't think there is a need to have over $100,000 kept in this account. My ultimate goal would be to see some of these future donations put toward other community programs. Ultimately, this is up to the individual donor, but I hope once they see the other wonderful programs that need funding, they will donate toward them as well.

- One idea that has been presented to me several times now is the possibility of having a K9 unit of support dogs/therapy dogs. These dogs have been proven to assist in our schools, crisis type situations involving mental health, domestic violence incidents, and many others. Personally, with having my own dog named Emma, I have taken her to nursing homes in Waupaca County and you can physically see the effect they have on humans who are struggling. If this helps keep our community safe, and our officers safer, then why not give it a try? Community – what are your thoughts?

• Meet the Fleet event – This was an event that we created at the Sheriff’s Office in 2021. I approached Sheriff Wilz with the idea of having this big annual event, where our youth and their families could come out and meet those who serve and protect them. I then thought, “Let’s include area businesses as well!” We then asked some local businesses to participate. It was a huge success from year one! We had a squad car, ambulance, and fire truck from almost every department throughout the county. We had multiple tow trucks, public works vehicles, Faulks Brothers, Swiderski Equipment, Spiegelberg Inc., Go Green, the US National Guard, and ThedaStar medical helicopter. We then invited other county programs to be present by having them set up booths, including: Waupaca DHHS, CAP Services, ARES radio, Dive team, and others. We also had an ice cream truck, a DJ service, and a dunk tank! This event has continued since I left the Sheriff’s Office and if elected as your next Sheriff, it will remain a high priority to continue for years to come.

• Citizens Academy - this is a pretty popular engagement program and it's a great way for our citizens to build positive relationships with our staff, become familiar with how the public safety system works and all comes together, and to have a better understanding of what our staff encounters and have to deal with on a day-to-day basis.

- How does it work? We would take applications from our community members and then ultimately pick a certain number (let's say 24) for a class size. The class would meet once a week for several weeks and participate in a different topic/activity each week. I.E. first week could be a tour of the law enforcement center, 2nd week could be conducting traffic stops, 3rd week could be firearms and shooting at targets on the range, so on and so forth. There could be some topics that the class comes up with! Each student would get a "uniform" which could be a T-shirt that says "Waupaca County Citizen Cadet" on it, or something similar. Everyone could have their own duty belt. There are all kinds of ways to get creative with it. At the end, everyone gets a certificate and "graduates" from the academy. Several agencies across Wisconsin do this and it's a hit! It is a real eye-opening experience for our citizens.

- I would open this up to my amazing staff members to help plan, organize, and run with this idea. Again, this is just me thinking out loud.

- How will this be funded? My hope would be for this to not affect the budget. It would come from volunteer time, community donations, etc.

• Bicycle Rodeo - this one is geared toward our youth community. This, too, is a pretty popular one! What is it? It is an event that teaches our kiddos bicycle safety. It could be set up in the Sheriff’s Office parking lot. It could include a safety course, a skills course, a bike raffle, bike accessory raffle, etc. It would be funded through community donations and volunteer time. My Wife and I would be the first to volunteer in providing/seeking donations to get this started.

• Other Community Programs/Engagement – the idea and possibilities are endless with what we can do to connect with our youth and their families. Some events that I have planned and organized with other departments include: Movie nights, Ice cream cone with a cop, Easter egg hunts, Read with a cop, Halloween parties, Safety events, Christmas light events, amongst many others.

- One idea, which I believe came from Capt. Yewer-Jones, was to create trading cards for the Officers to hand out. IE each deputy could have their own card that they could hand out to kiddos. On one side, it could be a photo of the deputy. On the other side could be their position, why they are a police officer, their favorite sports team, their favorite hobby, etc. We could get really creative with this idea! We could even get the dispatchers, jailers, and clerical staff involved with this too! Thoughts?

• Drug Court – This is a program that exists in Waupaca County that helps those who are struggling from drug addiction and who currently have pending drug charges. If the person qualifies, and indeed wants help, they are accepted into this program in which they can avoid incarceration by getting the necessary treatment. If run correctly, it can be a HUGE success. I have seen several success stories out of other counties who do a great job at running this program. It does take a collective team effort though – including Sheriff’s Office personnel, local Police Department personnel, the Judges, DA’s, social workers, counselors, therapist, drug treatment specialists, and others.

- There is very little information available in our County about this program. If elected, this will become a huge priority of mine. People who want help to get clean, need to be provided with the proper resources to do so. In return, we will see less recidivism, less crime, and ultimately safer communities.

• Training for the Community – I want to be able to offer certain types of training for our community members, either at a low cost or no cost at all. A trained community is a safer community. Some classes I would like to offer are CPR, first-aid and choking, self-defense, and fraud prevention. I am a certified CPR instructor, and the Sheriff’s Office has several members who are well-trained instructors in defense and arrest tactics.

• Collaboration with Community Partners – Last but certainly not least, I would like to see more collaboration with other services that are offered through the county. Mental health is very important and I, among other officers, have seen our citizens in moments of crisis and they are offered little to no help. Whether its because of lack of resources, no transportation, insurance coverage, financial, etc. – we need to do better! CAP Services is a big resource for victims in Waupaca County. Their budget was recently cut a few years back and now they are struggling to come up with the proper amount of funding to provide the necessary help to our victims. The way money is distributed in Waupaca County is backwards, and quite honestly, it is wrong. In monies saved through wasteful spending by the current administration, that money can then be allocated to much more important resources, such as CAP Services.

- I have been asked if I would be willing to support/advocate for a community responder group. This would entail a small group of trained individuals, who specialize in mental health support, trauma informed care, drug & alcohol recovery, etc. When the situation arises and warrants it, a member from this community team would be dispatched to meet with the community member in crisis and offer them comfort, support, and resources. This is in addition to an officer being dispatched and a social worker being contacted. This would NOT replace having a law enforcement response. Many people have stated to me that they would rather talk with someone other than an officer – which sometimes you can’t blame them for that! This would bridge that gap between the officer arriving and making the situation safe and the social worker referring them for services.

- Currently, once they talk to the officer, the officer detains them for safety, then they contact a county social worker through DHS, and then the person talks over the phone with a social worker. The social worker then makes a decision on whether or not they meet the criteria for a mandatory mental health evaluation or if they should be referred for other services. This almost always happens over the phone. Just that alone is a big piece of the puzzle that I believe is missing. We need an in-person human element to help with these types of situations.

This concludes my plan with regards to community involvement. Over the next several weeks, I will be sharing my plans regarding:

Patrol Operations & Public Safety

Criminal Investigations

Jail Operations and Inmate Considerations

Recruitment, Retention, Training, and Employee Wellness

Technology & Innovation

Emergency Management & Critical-Incident Planning

Fiscal Responsibility & Budget Priorities

Transparency & Accountability

Partnerships with Local Agencies, Businesses, and Community Organizations

As always, please let me know if you ever have any questions, comments, concerns, or feedback you would like to provide. Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

- Officer Justin