Wednesday, April 19, 2006

BagMan Jimbo's Personal Police Force

Sykes brings up an interesting little item:

At the same time that the Wisconsin Law Enforcement Association (WLEA) is continuing to fight for a fair contract for its members, including State Patrol Troopers and Inspectors, UW and Capitol Police Officers, Driver’s License Examiners and Police Dispatchers, Governor Doyle rewards his dignitary protection troopers with promotions and hefty pay raises. In November 2004, Governor Doyle handpicked three State Troopers to serve as his drivers. The new supervisor of the unit, already a State Patrol Sergeant, got a pay raise and became the highest paid Sergeant in the State Patrol. The other two troopers received 14.5% pay raises upon becoming his drivers, not including earning an average of more than 640 hours of overtime each in 2005.

Am I the ONLY blogger in the State that thinks the State Patrol's highway-patrol function is, ah, redundant, expensive, and close to useless?

The highways can be patrolled by Sheriff's Departments, as is the case in Milwaukee County. In Waukesha County, the Sheriff patrols I-94, and so does the Town of Brookfield (another case of misallocated resources...)

Inspections, yup. Capitol Police--well, OK. Highway patrol? Nope.

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