By Jalen Maki
Tomahawk Leader Editor
TOMAHAWK – The Tomahawk Police Department (TPD)’s 2020 annual report was submitted by Chief Al Elvins to Mayor Steve Taskay, the City of Tomahawk Common Council, members of the city’s Health and Safety Committee, members of the city’s Police and Fire Commission, members of the police department, and “citizens and visitors of the City of Tomahawk” earlier this month.
The report laid out budgetary information as well as incident and crime data.
The department provided a list of needs and changes for consideration. Among them was the safety of the police department building, which was described in the report as “horrific.”
A “narcotics report” described drug activity in Tomahawk last year and provided a summary of the department’s Drug Take Back Program.
The 52-page document also featured the department’s annual financial report, reports from Sergeant Steven W. Buckwalter and Detective Matt Gorell, data on citations and arrests, a breakdown of department vehicles, and reports on calls for service, evidence and property, squad maintenance, and the department’s K9 unit.
Budget
TPD’s 2020 budget was set at $1,272,733.56, Elvins said in the report. Elvins said the department expended 97.78% of its allocated funds and returned $28,214.38 to the City of Tomahawk’s General Fund.
“It should also be noted that we spent $5,174.60 on providing the members of the police department with valuable training opportunities,” Elvins stated. “Our revenue also exceeded the budgeted amount. We budgeted projected revenues at $69,783.63.06. We were able to generate $81,183.941. This means that we returned an additional $11,400.30 to the general fund.”
The department returned a total of $39,614.69 to the city’s general fund in 2020, and returned $31,489.16 in 2019, $1,017.43 in 2018, and $19,361.76 in 2017.
Elvins said that although the returned funds are “not a large sum of money, the department is “fiscally responsible with the money that is provided by the taxpayers of Tomahawk.”
“In the prior four years, the Tomahawk Police Department has returned a total of $91,483.04,” Elvins stated.
The budget was also supplemented by numerous grants, Elvins noted. The department has obtained $456,373.52 in donations and grants since 2012.
Incident, crime data
The number of incidents handled by the department in 2020 decreased drastically from 2019.
Elvins said the department handled 1,956 total incidents last year, a 26.5% decrease from the 2,659 incidents it handled the year prior.
Elvins broke down TPD’s clearance rates compared to the national clearance rates provided by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 2014, the most recent year the information was published.
Cases can be cleared by “arrest, warning non-criminal investigation, or unfounded,” Elvins noted.
No homicides, rapes or robberies were reported to the department in 2020, Elvins said. The national average clearance rates for such cases are 64.5% for homicides, 38.9% for rapes, and 29.6% for robberies, according to the FBI.
TPD received eight violent crime reports in 2020: three aggravated assaults and five other assaults. 13 violent crimes were reported in 2019, compared to seven in 2018, 16 in 2017, 24 in 2016, 15 in 2015, 20 in 2014, 12 in 2013, nine in 2012 and 2011, 12 in 2010 and 19 in 2009, the report said.
Although the FBI does not provide data for simple assault cases, TPD cleared 100% of such cases, which were usually cited as disorderly conduct and referred to the Merrill and Tomahawk Municipal Court.
“The utilization of the joint municipal court has afforded the police department the opportunity to reduce overtime and create a convenience for the community as well as the officers,” Elvins stated.
Elvins said TPD did not clear either of its two reported burglary cases last year. The national average for such cases in 2014 was 13.6%.
“Burglaries and aggravated assaults are always an area of contention,” he stated. “Most burglaries occur while the home/business owner is away from the location. These are very difficult cases to solve. … Cooperation of victims is a key factor in solving any case.”
The department exceeded the national average in larceny theft and motor vehicle theft cases, clearing 38% and 100%, respectively. The 2014 national averages for those cases were 23% and 12.8%, respectively.
Mental health calls
Elvins said the department continues to see “mental health related calls as one of the largest areas of response” that it is tasked with.
“We have committed training hours to completing mental health related training,” he stated. “It is difficult to quantify the amount of calls that we respond to that have some underlying or even present link to mental illness.”
TPD was one of seven police departments in the state and 499 worldwide to join a campaign started by International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), which challenged all police departments to have 100% of the staff trained in mental health first aid and 20% of the sworn staff trained in CIT (Crisis Intervention Team), Elvins explained.
TPD was the first agency in the state to complete the campaign. At the time the report was submitted, only two other agencies in Wisconsin had done so, Elvins said.
Needs, changes: Safety of police department building ‘horrific’
The report featured a list of roughly 20 “needs” and “changes” requested by the department.
The safety of the police department building, which is located at 219 W. Somo Ave. and also serves as City Hall, was described in the report as “horrific.”
“The front of the facility must be protected against vehicular impact,” the report stated. “The entrances should be secured and dispatchers should be located behind closed bulletproof glass.”
The report requested additional office, conference, training, equipment, inventory, interview, squad room, and evidence storage space, as well as a shower area for officers, additional restroom facilities, video surveillance of all department-owned property, and additional office equipment.
Elvins said he anticipates an increase in vehicle seizures due to the department “aggressively enforcing drug laws,” and added that he believed that if the building were “properly designed, many features requested by the police and fire department can be shared.”
Narcotics report
Officer Michael D. Krich prepared a “narcotics report” that described drug activity in Tomahawk.
“Throughout the year of 2020, the opioid threat which includes controlled prescriptions such as hydrocodone/Vicodin, oxycodone/oxycontin, fentanyl and other synthetic opioids including heroin have reached epidemic levels and have significantly impacted our area, as well as all portions of the United States,” Krich stated, adding that there were 846 overdose deaths involving opioids in Wisconsin in 2018, the most recent year statistics were made available.
Krich said methamphetamine use “is still a continued growing concern across Wisconsin and our small city” and called the drug “the largest and most problematic drug” that the department sees.
Drug activity from TPD decreased “substantially” in 2020 due to the retirement of the department’s full-time drug detective in 2019, Krich said.
Krich highlighted two drug cases that occurred in Tomahawk last year.
In one case that took place at SARA Park, three males were detained, and $2,786.00 in cash, 70 packages of edible prepackaged THC infused candies (4.1 pounds), 67 grams of marijuana and 46.76 grams of psilocybin mushrooms were seized.
After being called to a garbage dumping complaint at a Tomahawk gas station last March, Krich said he and another officer found hundreds of used needles that were “just loosely thrown away by a female party who has had a long history of methamphetamine use.”
“With that information, I started a drug investigation of possible methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin use at a residence in the city,” Krich stated. “As the search warrant was being written, the spread and the seriousness of the coronavirus had made officers all over the state concerned. Due to officer safety, the search warrant was not executed but the drug problem was still monitored.”
Krich said 64,580 dosage units, totaling 43.75 pounds, were collected as part of the department’s 2020 Drug Take Back Program. 1,516 milliliters (0.4 gallons) of liquids, 172 grams (0.38 pounds) of ointments and salves, 1,045 grams (2.3 pounds) of powders, 28 medicated patches, and 4,885 syringes were collected.
Full report on City of Tomahawk website
To view the full report on the City of Tomahawk’s website, visit www.bit.ly/3eq62HS.