In keeping our communities safe, the Kewaunee County Sheriff’s Department relies on a close relationship with many other local state and federal agencies. On a daily basis, we interact and support our local law enforcement agencies within our county through mutual aid requests, sharing of resources and combined training events. In a time of concern over budget limitations and an ever-increasing demand on the services we provide, there is no room for territorial pride or agency exclusion.

The Wisconsin State Patrol is one of the organizations that we work closely with and rely upon for the unique skillset and resources they are able to bring to the table. For many years, we had not been provided with an assigned trooper specifically for Kewaunee County through the Wisconsin State Patrol, but recently that has changed. In 2016, we were fortunate to have Trooper Bryan Ashenbrenner assigned to Kewaunee County. We welcome Ashenbrenner’s presence here in our county and appreciate the focus that he brings to our local traffic enforcement. While the deputies and officers of Kewaunee law enforcement do write traffic tickets and repair notices for defective equipment, we also respond to the many calls for service and are involved in investigative work as follow to those calls, which limits our ability to provide the attention to traffic law that is paramount in maintaining safety on our roadways.

Because there has not been a consistent and sustained focus on traffic law, the arrival of a resource which can focus their attention on speed, failure to yield right of way, failure to stop at stop sign and the many other traffic laws has been met with some apprehension. In addition to trafiic law, Ashenbrenner also brings with him a wealth of knowledge on motor vehicle code, which has resulted in attention to issues such as tinted windows, defective exhaust and the many other vehicle equipment code statutes which we must all abide by and which again has not gotten the attention it requires because of the limited availability of our local officer’s time. Bottom line is that you might be asked to correct things on your vehicle that have been deficient for years but have not been the subject of a traffic stop until now.  

We are fortunate and grateful to have Ashenbrenner as part of our law enforcement family, and he has our full support in all that he does to keep our roads safe. I have had many opportunities to visit with Bryan, and I am impressed with his approach to law enforcement and his appreciation for the type of community policing that is the foundation of our local law enforcement mission. Welcome to Kewaunee County Bryan!

Matt Joski is the Kewaunee County sheriff.

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Kewaunee sheriff: Trooper welcome in county