County, state law enforcement individuals discuss disagreements Law enforcement agencies say cooperation, not policy changes, is the key By Anna Krejci News-Chronicle In a closed meeting on Thursday, Brown County Sheriff Dennis Kocken met with Wisconsin state troopers and Wisconsin State Patrol District 3 Capt. David Pichette to reinforce a general policy of cooperation between the two levels of law enforcement. During the meeting, law enforcement officials discussed minor disagreements in regards to how traffic accident reconstruction responsibilities are divided among officers of the two agencies, both law enforcement leaders said. Pichette said the disagreements were rooted in conflicts between individuals and not departmental policy. No policy dictates which level of law enforcement reconstructs accidents, and Kocken and Pichette said creating one will impede the agencies' operations. Reconstructions are best dealt with on a case-by-case basis, Pichette said. "There are no written policies anywhere in my 12 counties, it just happens," he said. "These areas are too hard to set policy on." Providing the best response to accidents depends on the location of law enforcement officers at the time of the accident, and asking county and state law enforcement officers to respond to accidents on an every-other-one basis is not practical, Pichette said. Kocken is taking steps to smooth out future disagreements by issuing directives to county department staff that the State Patrol is available to them as a resource. He said communication will improve circumstances. "We need to work together to solve problems, come up with solutions," Kocken said, adding that the two agencies were doing that but are looking at how to do it better. Pichette said he is informing State Patrol officers to assist county law enforcement by letting the Sheriff's Department know when and where they are available to respond to emergencies. The Sheriff's Department receives emergency calls and acts as the primary law enforcement agency. By statute, the State Patrol aids the Sheriff's Department as reinforcement, Pichette said, and added that, generally, it is the sheriff's responsibility to notify families and the community of accidents or deaths because they are more familiar with the area. The State Patrol's decision to reduce service to Brown County by 29 shifts was not linked to staff conflicts discussed in Thursday's meeting. The reductions were made in response to a Winnebago County sheriff's request for help in patrolling highways and to a budget cut that eliminated 36 state trooper positions statewide, Pichette said.