APPLETON, Wis. (WFRV) – Even though the NFL Draft is a county over, the Outagamie County Sheriff’s Office will still play multiple roles in protecting visitors and fans in town for the event.
“Between the comm center and patrol, that’s where we’re going to see the biggest increase in staffing,” Capt. Nathan Borman of the Outagamie County Sheriff’s Office. “We’re increasing staffing on patrol, we’re increasing staffing in our communication center and in our jail just in case. We don’t want any surprises to come up, so we have available resources if needed.”
One of the most critical responsibilities the Outagamie County Sheriff’s Office has is fielding surplus calls from the Brown County Communication, in the event that that office receives more than it can handle.
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“Our communication center is a backup to Brown County,” Borman said. “If Brown County were to have an influx of calls where they were overflowing with calls, those would spill over to us. We want to have the staffing here and available should that happen.”
The Outagamie County Communication Center just opened at the beginning of February, expanding the workspaces for dispatchers from 8 to 14.
“This space gives us the ability to really expand out our staff, should we have an event where there’s a higher demand on our 911 system, we have the open spots and availability to staff it,” Borman said.
During the draft, or any severe emergency event, dispatchers are able to be called in from off the clock when needed.
“We have a messaging system, we can send it out to all the dispatchers and say ‘Hey, we need you,’” Borman said. “And whoever’s available comes in, and they’re really good about it, it’s amazing.”
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Even though the bulk of visitors will be staying in Brown County, Borman says a sizable portion will be staying in or at least spending time in Outagamie County. He does not believe the impacts of that are far from out of the ordinary.
“Certainly we expect an increase of visitors to the Fox Valley area,” Borman said. “Certainly we don’t see any problems related to this, we’re accustomed to having large events such as Oktoberfest and other things without issue.”
Deputies will target patrols for specific areas they anticipate to be a hotbed for visitors.
“Mostly on the 41 corridor, but also visitors to our downtown areas, our nightlife areas, also the airport’s expecting to see an increase in traffic flow,” Borman said.”So we’re preparing for all those inevitable elements we’ll deal with.”
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Outagamie County deputies will also have a presence at the draft campus in Brown County in the form of the bomb squad.
“We are part of the joint bomb squad, so some of our bomb technicians will be there, as is normal for any large-scale event in Brown County, we typically have staff there to assist,” Borman said.
Like other agencies, including Ashwaubenon Public Safety, the Outagamie County Sheriff’s Office has had to limit its staff’s time off.
“We have capped our time off, so officers that weren’t already going to be off, they won’t have off at this point,” Borman said. “But that really isn’t too problematic for our staff, it’s a short period of time.”
