WAUPUN — The City of Waupun and the Police and Fire Commission held the first of two public forums Tuesday afternoon at the Waupun Senior Center.
The listening session was designed to give potential candidates the chance to meet members of the Police and Fire Commission, City Council, and locals who wanted to be informed about the process.
Deputy Chief Jeremy Rasch, who currently serves as the Interim Chief of Police, is the only candidate currently in consideration for the role. Deputy Rasch was appointed as Interim Chief following the resignation of Chief Scott Louden in December.
Police and Fire Commission president Mike Thurmer gave a bit of background about the process before beginning the session, explaining why they structured the process the way they did, and why they stuck with an internal process. It primarily rested on the decision of the PFC and internal staff at the Department, and if they had gone through an external hiring process they would have needed to hire a consultant.
They also believed that public forums would be an important part of the process in choosing the new Police Chief, which is why the listening sessions were held this week. This would also allow the community to ask questions about what they wanted from the new Police Chief.
The listening session began with Deputy Rasch being given some time to introduce himself before being asked a series of questions about the position. The questions revolved around Deputy Rasch’s qualifications and his vision for how he would run the Department if hired as the next Chief.
Rasch grew up in Theresa and attended Lomira High School before attending Waukesha County Technical College for an Associates Degree in Police Science, followed by police recruit school which he graduated from in December 2001. During this time he worked in Waupun through a program, and was officially hired as a patrol officer in 2002.
On his qualifications in the Waupun Police Department, he said, “I’m the longest tenured officer in the city and I’ve held every position at this point besides the detective and school officer positions, but I have worked closely with them at many points of my career, guiding them, supervising them, and leading them along the way.”
Throughout his time in the Waupun Police Department, Rasch was heavily involved with the community. He was promoted to lieutenant in 2010 and to Deputy Chief in 2017, expanding his responsibilities on the force.
One of the major questions Thurmer asked was about Rasch’s leadership style.
“I think the first thing we have to do is define leadership,” Rasch said. “Leadership is the ability to influence others for a common goal. There are a lot of different leadership styles but in law enforcement these days you really have to be more situational. Every employee is different, every person is different, every incident they respond to is different.”
“You might deal with different generations and they might need you to tell them more, you might have an individual that you might have to sell them more—or you might have to participate more and help out,” he said. “And then you might have to rely on those employees that are high performance, high quality employees and delegate to them.”
“You have to be open to communication, be able to listen and adapt to change,” he said. “Be community oriented, build trust with your team, build trust with the community—and they have to have trust in you. If they don’t have trust in you, then it’s gonna fall apart.”
One thing that Rasch touched on was the difference between the law enforcement industry when he joined and today, with the extreme drop in potential candidates from a hundred applying for a position to a half dozen. While it isn’t exclusive to Waupun, one thing that the new Chief will have to deal with is how to bring new talent in.
“When we talk about leadership we have to make our Police Department a sought after place where people want to work at,” he said. “We need people. People make our Police Department run, and we need the people in the community and all of our other partners to be successful.”
“I’m proud we’re consistently ranked in the top 20 safest cities in Wisconsin and I hope we continue going down that path,” he said. “It isn’t just our Police Department, it comes down to our working relationship with the community, and it comes down to people.”
“We need to continue to grow our service as the community grows,” Rasch said. “Our Police Department hasn’t grown since the mid-90s, and we’ve been short staffed for a few years here. Right now we’re doing more with less than probably ever in the past.”
The forum concluded with a few final statements from Rasch.
“I’ve been a loyal and dedicated employee to the city for 22 years, plus an internship on top of that, and I’ve enjoyed it along the way,” he said. “I’ve been given a lot of opportunities over the years, and that’s why I want to give back as well and why I’m applying for the position of Police Chief.”
Following the forum, those in attendance were asked to fill out a survey about what they expected of the new Police Chief, the results of which would inform questions in the formal interview.
A second session will be held Wednesday evening at 6PM for those who were unable to attend the first.
