Good Evening Everyone,

 

The Board and I understand the disappointment and concerns that were raised at last

night’s meeting. We hope this letter will help clear up the confusion and address repeated

comments and concerns that were made.

 

Questions were raised about how contracted policing will work for the Village of Brooklyn.

We intend to contract with the Dane County Sheriff’s Department initially for one full time

deputy who will serve a shift each day here in the Village. This deputy will only patrol the

Village of Brooklyn with the exception of mutual aid requests (Brooklyn PD also currently

responds to mutual aid requests). This Deputy will be present in the Village and drive in

the Brooklyn squad car just like the existing police department. Of course, in any

emergency situation you should always call 911, no matter where you are. If our Sheriff’s

deputy is not on shift, then your call will be routed to the correct county agency to respond.

This is exactly the same situation that currently occurs when the Brooklyn Police are not

available.

 

In terms of selection of the full-time deputy, Dane County will provide a pool of applicants

for the Village to interview. From that pool of applicants, we will select the best person to

serve our community.

 

One of the reasons for this important change is the liability risk for our small Village due to

the changes to the climate surrounding policing incidents. Lawsuits can have a huge

financial impact on small municipalities like ours. Contracting with Dane County relieves

the burden of potential liability from the Village because the County is the service provider

and is legally responsible for those services and insures against them.

 

By contracting with Dane County our community will enjoy the benefit of the extensive

resources available to Dane County Sheriff’s Department. Our patrol deputy will have at

their disposal detectives and specialists who collaborate with other officers and other law

enforcement agencies to solve crimes such as computer and cybercrimes, drugs, gangs and

missing persons, etc.

 

Dane County deputies are backed up by their administrative group which includes

attorneys and senior police management. Their administrative group creates detailed

policies and procedures and continually evaluates and re-evaluates them against the

constantly changing laws and situations in our country. The value of this to the village is

immeasurable. Recreating the resources that support and surround a Dane County Sheriff’s

Deputy is beyond the village’s financial resources.

 

Because of these included benefits our patrol deputy is able to spend their time in the field

interacting with and protecting our community. The administrative burden on the Sheriff

patrol deputies is minimized.

 

These factors weighed heavily in the Board’s decision to contract the Village’s policing with

the Dane County Sheriff’s Office. We are confident that our decision is the best one for our

community going forward as the administrative burdens and potential liability concerns

play an ever larger role in policing.

 

Village of Brooklyn Board