GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ) – Should all Green Bay city council meetings be staffed with an armed police officer?
Green Bay Police Chief Andrew Smith is among those who thinks it’s a good idea.
“Made the recommendation to the Mayor (Schmitt) and Mr. DeWane that we have one of our regular community police officers come in on their regular duty day and be in the back in case anything would happen,” Smith explained to the city’s Protection and Welfare Committee on Monday. “For the past 2 meetings we’ve had a police officer sitting in the back.”
Smith added that the particular officer assigned to the council meeting are asked to pay attention to what’s going on, but they can also perform administrative duties while they’re there.
The request by Alderman Andy Nicholson on the agenda sought to, “review the reason why there is a police presence at City Council meetings.” Nicholson briefly said he wanted to hear Chief Smith’s thoughts on the idea.
Smith said he not only spoke with the Mayor’s office, but consulted with former interim Green Bay Police Chief James Lewis about the matter. It came about in the wake of a rise in the number of active shooter incidents nationwide, some of which have occurred at local government meetings.
“The police department may be only a block away, they wouldn’t get there in time,” said Alderperson Barbara Dorff, who’s gone through similar active shooter training as law enforcement. “Many of these active shooting situations are over within less than 2 minutes.”
Dorff also said that during her time on the Green Bay School Board, they requested a police officer be present just in case things got out of hand.
Alderman Guy Zima was the lone dissenter on the plan, questioning why a police officer wouldn’t be staffed at all committee meetings as well. Zima also mentioned the fact that there is no imminent threat made against council members.
“Most of these other incidents occurred without any known threat being made,” replied Ald. Bill Galvin, a former Green Bay Police Captain.
Committee members approved receiving the item and placing it on file.
