APPLETON, WI (WTAQ) – As a partial government shutdown continues into its third week a local law enforcement official is saying it has effects that reach beyond just Washington.
Residents in Northeast Wisconsin won’t see any noticeable changes when they call 9-1-1 or require law enforcement services, but rather the shutdown presents challenges for departments internally, according to Appleton Police Chief Todd Thomas.
“Local law enforcement, we rely a lot on federal partners and on federal funding for both programs and for equipment that we need,” explains Chief Thomas. “Now I’ve been notified that that is on hold.”
Speaking on a National Immigration Forum on Tuesday, Chief Thomas says a hold in federal funding can set them back not just months, but years.
“It’s going to be more the long-term impact and the recovery from the shutdown,” he explains. “The longer the shutdown goes, the longer it’s going to take us to recover from it.”
For some insight into what those long-term challenges might look like, he went back and drew from last January’s government shutdown.
“That was a year where we didn’t have money to fund heroin and methamphetamine investigations,” he says. “Also, a year we didn’t have money to provide some equipment for our officers.”
So while the typical citizen won’t notice any interruption with law enforcement services throughout the government shutdown, there are concerns that important long-term investigative and preventative services will be negatively impacted by a lack of funding.
“The impact won’t be an immediate impact that will be noticed by someone that needs the police,” says Chief Thomas. “It’s going to be more of the long-term impact and the recovery from the shutdown.”
He went on to add that government workers are the individuals receiving the short-end-of-the-stick throughout this entire process.
“It’s disheartening to think about those families, those employees who are serving and protecting going out to work every day, still putting their lives on the line every day and not getting paid for it,” explains Chief Thomas. “While Congress is sitting back and truly not doing their job and getting paid.”
And those individuals often time aren’t in a position to go weeks without pay.
“Most of the people in law enforcement that I know live paycheck to paycheck and most of them have families,” he says.
As the partial shutdown continues and lawmakers remain seemingly distant from a bi-partisan agreement, Chief Thomas and law enforcement officials are growing increasingly concerned as the days pass.
“I think there are areas where compromises can be made that can strengthen our border and points of entry and there’s common ground that we can find,” he explains. “But it’s not going to happen as long as each side refuses to compromise.”
