Barron County is a busy place with 10 Cities, or parts of Cities, included in the 863 square miles it encompasses. With almost 46,000 people to protect and serve, the Barron County law enforcement community remains busy.
And most of all, the Sheriff, Chris Fitzgerald, is the busiest.
Chris’s father served as a Barron County Sheriff’s Reserve Officer for 33 years, so it was no wonder that by the age of 5, Chris knew what he wanted to do for the rest of his life.
After graduating from Rice Lake School and then the UW Barron and UW Superior colleges, plus employment with 4 different police departments within the county, he was ready to take the position of Sheriff in 2008 when the Sheriff who was serving left to teach.
After being appointed to the position by then Governor, Jim Doyle, he’s been excited to serve ever since.
This from the man who is involved with a dozen non-profit organizations and works with the eight police chiefs in the county and who has 78 people to be responsible for in the department. These include patrol deputies, jailors, dispatchers, detectives, and office and administration staff. His annual budget is 7.53 million dollars, which leads him to comment that they are in a “good financial position.”
“Because there are great people who work here, I’m able to work outside the four walls,” he says. “I can be outside in the community to see what’s going on.”
Chris and his wife, Holly, have two children and one of Chris’s passions is to support and help better the county for youth. “We might not be able to fix the life choices older people have made already, but we can work together with our youth to educate them early about their life choices.”
Barron County works with Burnett County when it comes to the Restorative Justice initiates, sharing in their battle against drugs. “I speak about youth and drugs to any group that cares to listen, no matter how small the group is.”
And what he could he possibly share that hasn’t been shared a thousand times before? Plenty.
Grandparents often play a very important role in the lives of their grandchildren for the good. Frequently kids are closer to their grandparents than their parents, and the more grandma and grandpa know about drugs, the better to help their grandkids with the temptation.
This is why Chris speaks to grandparents about drugs. They probably don’t realize it, but Grandma’s basement may be a safe place for grandchildren to do drugs. After all, grandma has to struggle to get down the stairs, so she would never know that when a grandchild comes over with a few friends to “visit”, they’re really downstairs getting into trouble while grandma is thinking it’s so nice to have their grandchildren still wanting to come over.
And grandma’s medicine cabinet, or the prescription bottles on her kitchen counter or bedside table can hold an endless supply of assorted free drugs.
This is a drug war and this Sheriff has usable tools so parents can fight on equal grounds for their children’s future. For instance, he shares information on how parents, for $39.00, can get a program that receives every text their child sends or gets without their knowledge.
Currently in Barron County there is a problem of middle school kids who are actively sexting. This is one of the reasons why the Sheriff’s Department hosts tours of the SO for kids. They show them that even though the sex/texts ‘disappear’ from their own phones, the images can magically reappear when their phone is connected to an electronic device that brings everything back up. “There should be absolutely no reason to ever send that kind of picture, ever,” he emphasizes.
This April there will be eleven counties gathering at Heartwood Conference Center for a meth summit. Attending will be the Attorney General and representatives from Marshfield clinic as well as law enforcement. Part of the conference will introduce new ways to get the information about drugs out to everyone and lots of new, practical ideas to help eradicate this scourge on our nation.
Meth is at the top of their 2017 goals list, involving public relations, increasing criminal punishment and treatment options.
Also on their list is to continue to build relationships with Fire, EMS and Police Departments in their county; upgrade the Emergency Response Team with new equipment; bring their staffing to 100 percent in all the divisions; and make sure all employees go home safe.
The Sheriff’s Office has 27 squads, all with cameras for both the car and the officer, a drug unit van, a SWAT bus, mobile command center, emergency management vehicle, school/spare car, motorcycle, 2 snowmobiles, 2 UTV’s and 2 boats and a drone. Their jail holds 192.
The Sheriff’s Office is in talks with the city of Chetek to become their law enforcement personnel instead of the town’s police department, thereby eliminating $50,000 from Chetek’s budget, a decision many small towns are making.
“We need to take care of each other,” says Chris. And if there’s a county that demonstrates that, it’s Barron.
The photo on their Annual Report is one of a Sheriff’s vehicle and a police squad nose to nose with the Life Link helicopter behind them. On either side behind them is an ambulance with two fire trucks with their ladders raised and touching behind the ambulances with the Stars and Stripes waving proudly at the apex of the ladders.
It’s a perfect photo depicting a county that works together to make Barron County a safe place to live, much due to Chris Fitzgerald, Sheriff.
Diane Dryden has been a feature writer for twelve years and is the author of two novels. Order your copy of the Accidental King of Clark Street and Double or Nothing on Foster Avenue today!
Last Update: Mar 10, 2017 9:04 am CST
