With me, our special guest is Henry Perez.
He is running for the Republican nomination for Racine County Sheriff.
The election is tomorrow.
Early voting started.
Are you going to make it?
Yeah.
Okay.
Early voting started what the other day, right?
A couple of weeks ago, actually.
A couple of weeks ago.
Yeah.
See, I'm not an early voting person.
I like to vote on election day.
It's just something about it.
I used to go with my mom and dad on election day, especially my mother.
She voted earlier than my dad.
Back then, they had the old voting booth with the big lever on it.
She just let me pull the lever and everything.
It's a great experience.
If she voted for somebody she didn't like that much, she had me push down the lever.
She couldn't bring herself to do it.
She would pull that down there like it was going to change anything.
But I used to, I love going on election day.
They changed my voting place this year.
Used to be the school.
Was it Red Apple or something?
They closed it and they moved me now.
Where are you at now?
Some trailer on...
poor side of town.
I've got a postcard.
I think it's a John Bryant community center.
They have a tent set up over here.
You can vote there now.
Just move the tent flap up.
Okay, so you're running for Racine County Sheriff and before we get to why and everything, let's talk a little bit about your past here because you've been involved.
You've had a lot of jobs.
First of all, you were born in Cuba.
Yeah, I was.
You and Desirenez.
Yes.
I was born in Cuba.
Uh-huh.
Uh, Xavier Cougat was born in Cuba.
Oh, I didn't know that.
Yeah, I saw him in concert once.
It's a whole big story.
Okay.
And you were born in Cuba, and how was life there?
You were a little kid, though,
right?
Yeah, I was... You don't remember?
I grew up in Miami.
Okay.
Yeah, that's all I remember of Miami.
Okay, how was Miami?
Well, I went there in November, and what usually would take me 20 minutes to drive took me over two hours, and I just gave up.
It's just become super crowded.
Like New York City.
Yeah, probably worse.
No, trust me,
it wasn't worse.
I think
the public transportation in New York City is a lot better than in Miami.
So what brought you to Wisconsin?
I took a job as the associate pastor at Racine Christian Forum Church about, well, in 2005.
So a little 20 years ago.
Now, it must have been future shock because in Miami, they don't know what the word snow is.
They never heard of it before.
Oh, they have, they have.
Yeah, northern, northern Florida.
No, no, it snowed in Miami when at 1977, I think it was.
Oh, good.
I remember that.
Good.
You can remember the date of the snow.
No, I don't remember the date.
I have it in one of my pictures,
though.
But yeah, and it gets cold, because I lived down in Georgia, and it gets cold in winter, but I lived in the mountains in Atlanta, but not like it's here.
No, actually, my mom would call me and say, Henry.
The homeless people are dying on the street at 69 degrees.
I'm like, mom, 69 degrees.
We're at the beach here.
We're 69 below zero wind chill, mom.
OK, so you're here in Wisconsin.
What did you do when you first came here?
You were the pastor.
I was a pastor at the church.
I did that for two years.
And then I went over to Kenosha Christian Forum Church for the next 18 years.
I was the pastor there, the associate pastor.
What did you get into police work?
Because, well, first of all, you were in school.
You still teach special ed.
I do.
Yeah, middle school, sixth, seventh, and eighth grade in Spanish.
Oh, that's bad language.
Middle school, bad age, 13, 14.
That's horrible.
That's a lot of fun, but you know what?
That's a bad age.
When they get that aha
moment, makes it all worthwhile.
I know, but I, 13 and 14 year olds, they're just starting to feel their oats there.
They got
to deal with
you.
That's good.
Okay, so when did you, you worked with, did you ever work with police before?
You did that.
Yeah, of course.
I was a police in Miami for 18 years.
Okay.
I started as a police explorer when I was 14.
Ah, I was an explorer.
Yeah.
Radio.
I was an explorer post on Long Island.
Yeah.
So it's been a lot of fun.
I got to do an amazing, you know, amazing bunch of things as a kid.
I got to
Be at a couple Super Bowls always at the Orangeville parades and events.
We did security for the dolphins in the end zone as a kid.
So it's kind of fun.
I got to ride with on the street with the crime unit, you know, saw a lot of dead bodies
and stuff.
Here's all you have to know about being a police over.
Just keep moving.
Just
keep
moving.
So you got to
know those words.
Just keep moving.
Yeah.
So that's great.
So you got you worked with the police.
I did.
And when you came to Wisconsin, you were a pastor.
When did you get into the special ed teaching?
About seven years ago.
One of the I was subbing and one of the teachers was like, Henry, why don't you become a regular teacher?
I mean, it's you could do the job, obviously.
And I looked into the program and I went through an alternate training program and was certified.
I now have a special ed certification from 12 from 12th grade to kindergarten.
And I have a regular first through eighth grade elementary education certification.
Both lifetime licenses.
13 year olds.
Oh, I couldn't deal with 13 and 14 year olds.
It is
fun.
No, it's not.
I went to middle school.
I know it's not fun.
OK, so you are a firearms instructor as well, right?
I am now.
Currently, yes.
I never held a gun in my life.
Well, we got to change that.
A water pistol I held.
You know why?
I just, I feel very nervous about him.
Back when I worked in another radio station, we had a police officer and I told him that, he said, you want to hold
it?
I said, no.
First, I don't want my
fingerprints on it, number one.
And then I just don't want to.
I just did something about firearms scares me.
My wife wants to get a gun.
And we were all about to buy one and said, COVID hit.
Yeah.
And you couldn't go to the fire or you couldn't go to the
places.
You
couldn't do any of that stuff.
A police officer friend of hers said, I will go with you to help you pick out a gun.
Yeah.
And I said, great.
And then COVID hit and we couldn't do it.
And she kind of cooled on it.
But if she wants to get one, I don't care.
I just don't want it near me.
That's all.
Yeah.
Accidents happen.
A lot of people who are not familiar with guns are scared of them.
But once you realize it's a tool and how to use it, a lot of that fear goes away.
It's very, it's very practical.
It's very safe and one of the things I want to do as sheriff is definitely train people in concealed carry as my my teams will do that for free because I think it's that important because when you're in need of help and seconds are important to you There's the cops aren't going to be there.
You have to be able to defend yourself But you also have to know the law and then know how to use a gun if you need to and so that's one of my main goals as I move into the sheriff's office
Well, I hope that if I'm ever in that kind of trouble, I could talk my way out of it.
If you can't talk your way out of it, you run.
Yes,
actually, that is the first thing we prescribe in safety is get away.
The only battle you're really going to win is the one you're not in.
I never got into a fight in my life.
I did once.
I was in the sixth grade.
in grammar school, and a kid named Mickey Strange was taunting me all day long.
I even got a picture of him in my class photo on the phone, I can show you.
He was a nice kid, but he just decided he was gonna pick on me.
Now I'm very tall, and he was not that tall.
So I saw him, he, a big crowd of kids on the playground, and he was standing by the fence, by the basketball court, and I charged him.
I just ran into him and pushed him against the channeling fence.
He fell down, lost his wind, started crying, and the fight was over.
Oh, that's good.
Henry Perez is here.
He is running for the Republican nomination for Racine County Sheriff.
So what do you want to be sheriff?
Sit and move closer.
I want to hear every word you want
to say
clearly.
What do you want?
What do you want this job?
Sounds
like a
busy job.
Sounds like a lot of responsibility.
Sounds like for every decision you make, half the people aren't going to like it.
Well, that happens now.
So why would you want to do this job?
Well, first of all, helping people has always been.
what I've done throughout life, right?
Especially when I started as a police explorer, the people that helped me were the local police explorer and the pastor, and that that brought me to a life of dedicated service to others.
But I started my career as a bailiff, then I went to Miami Dade Police, which is a sheriff's office in Miami, and became a deputy sheriff there, police officer.
I was there for seven years as a investigator, school resource officer.
I was a very high intense squad at the beginning.
From there, I went back to college and pastored in inner city church in Michigan, where I after I got my master's degree.
And then I went back to Miami, where I became a state attorney investigator.
I was in charge of developing Miami's truancy intervention program.
I also handled any juvenile calls, any that went to the state attorney and also transported prisoners across the country was certified.
instructor in the college and in the academy and I even certified people to fly on a plane with guns that uh that was very important for the cops because you get
guns on a plane even if they go off by accident that's dangerous it is but i saw the movie goldfinger i know when the gun went off in the plane the plane went down with james bond and goldfinger
at it well the only time really that it goes off is if you hit a hydraulic then that something happens but that's you know hard to do
so sheriff's job
It's an elected jail, unlike the head of the police department, which is appointed.
This is an elected position.
Yeah, that's correct.
It's a constitutional position.
So you have to be involved in one of the parties to be able to move forward.
And the reason that it's an elected position is that the sheriff's office has particular duties under the Constitution.
One of the biggest ones they have is running the local jail.
So in our jail is very popular.
Here to see.
And so a lot of people trying to get in for reservations.
Yeah, right.
And we've had some issues there lately.
We've had some concerns with some inmates passing away.
Some were natural.
Others were not so natural.
And I think that the biggest complaint I've heard as an alderman even was that they're mistreating my family member at the jail.
And I've experienced friends that have been arrested as well and the stuff they've told me about not getting their medication on time, being handcuffed and transported improperly.
I want to make sure those things don't happen.
I understand that they're prisoners.
You know, I get that part, but there's still some dignity left and we need to respect that.
And in the sheriff's role, I'm able to manage or at least prescribe the behaviors and the expectations of the officers that are there.
One of the things that I want to do is I want to make sure that the jail becomes accredited.
There's national and state accreditation.
And so that will show our community of, in the last census, even Racine alone was 77,000 people.
But we're talking a huge community here that we are responsible because we are attaining to the highest standards.
We don't have that certification right now.
Neither does the sheriff's office.
And if you've been watching the news or listening to the news,
You'll notice there's been some significant issues there with officers misusing equipment and officers getting arrested just in the last year alone.
So I think you need someone from the outside that's looking in who has experience as a police administrator and has experience in other areas of life so that you can prescribe, you don't become part of that toxicity that comes with being in a group, especially with police officers.
You know, they're unique individuals.
They face tragedies every day.
They're under a lot of pressure from families.
The expectations from the communities are high.
The expectations from the department are very high.
I was one of the ones that sponsored the therapist for the City of Racine Police Department because that's so important.
I understand that.
I want all my employees to be trained at a minimum in crisis intervention training, stuff that's being put on by NAMI.
And what's NAMI?
National Alliance for Mental Illness.
We have a very good one actually here in Racine County.
And I want to be able, I'm trained, I'm a CIT partner.
I'm trained in that area.
And I was a CIT supervisor in Miami as a police officer as well, as a police sergeant.
And I think it's so important.
You know, our community has a high amount of mental health clients issues.
And so it's important for the officer to realize and recognize that that's who they're dealing with because
If an officer, you don't follow directions, an officer's telling you to put your hands down, put your, you know, whatever.
I watch the
YouTube
videos all the time.
Yeah.
All you do is set the follow directions, you get a warning, you're on your way.
You start arguing, you get handcuffs on, now you're in court with charges of resisting.
Right.
Just do what they say.
It's not a big deal.
Well, but I think that's absolutely true.
But I think it's hard many times for the officer to deal with the persons that are acting inappropriately.
but they may not know that they could have mental health concerns, and these things help them recognize it so that their approach is a little different.
Oh, these cops sometimes have the
patience of a senior.
I couldn't do that stuff.
I'd be carrying the tape, but can I have your license?
Why?
I just couldn't.
They have patience.
They ask over and over and over again.
Even the sheriff's deputies ask over and over and over, and people don't listen.
Just give them your license.
It's not a big deal.
You'll probably get a warning and you'll be on your way.
One of the things that I am forecasting and part of my agenda, my platform is accountability.
And if you're online, you'll you'll see that.
And accountability goes both ways.
You know, I expect the community to respond properly to the police and I expect the police to respond properly to the community.
But
A lot of people lie about the police because of the pressures that they're under, and they know that it's very sensitive on the police side.
So as an internal affairs investigator and supervisor myself, I would read the reports of things that happened, and I would definitely want to look at all the angles.
I'll give you an example.
Sometimes you watch something happen on television, and you're only looking at it from one angle, and you say, oh, no, that.
But then when you look at it from the other side, there's another picture you notice that, for example,
a person had a knife or something which you can't tell from one angle.
So I believe it's very important to get the full picture if we can before anything happens.
And people say, oh, you're trying to protect the police.
Yeah, I need to protect the police if they're doing their job properly.
If they're not doing their job properly, they'd rather be retrained or fired depending on what they do.
And that has to be a constant.
But again, the responsibility also comes into the for the community.
They have to respond well.
It has to go both ways.
You know, I got a tour where the current sheriff years ago gave me a tour of the jail down on the main street there.
The law enforcement.
Wisconsin.
Yeah,
the law enforcement center.
My wife works there all the time.
And he was walking through and some of the inmates in this in the big area where they're all together, they put up a blanket over this cell door.
I told you, get that blanket down.
They took it down.
I was shaking and I didn't do anything wrong.
I was just
taking a
tour.
That's a tough place to work.
Well, it's very tough to be a correctional officer.
Because you're dealing with people who want to get the upper hand over you.
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
And they could be doing stuff illegally behind the cover.
There's always issues.
You know, we do daily inspections of their cell and everything, but they still get away with stuff.
And the remaining two minutes is your chance for a free pitch.
We normally charge people to do
this, but I'm going
to give you a.
three, two minutes here to put your pitch.
Why you want to be for seeing County Sheriff and keep in mind, this is for the Republican nomination, which is today or tomorrow,
actually
tomorrow, early voting today.
Give your pitch, Henry.
OK, well, first of all, I was born in Cuba, came to America as a small child after my mom fled communism in search of freedom and a better future for our family.
We settled in Miami's Little Havana, where I grew up knowing what it meant to struggle.
My family experienced times of housing insecurity and food insecurity.
but we also experienced the kindness of people who believed in us.
Two people changed the direction of my life, a school resource officer and a pastor.
They invested in me, challenged me, taught me that one person can make a lasting difference.
At 14 years old, I joined the police explorers, and from that moment I knew my life's calling would be serving others.
Over the next four decades, I built a career dedicated to public safety, leadership, and community service.
I've served as a police officer, school resource officer, state attorney investigator, police sergeant in Miami area,
During my law enforcement career, I supervised officers, investigated crimes, developed community policing initiatives, coordinated youth crime prevention programs, and trained law enforcement professionals throughout Florida and Michigan.
As a certified instructor, I taught ethics crisis intervention, community policing, leadership, human diversity, helping prepare the next generation of officers.
Working as a school resource officer taught me one of the most important lessons of policing.
Sometimes the greatest success isn't measured by arrests, but by lives changed.
I saw firsthand how building relationships with young people could prevent crime, strengthen families, and create safer communities.
When my family moved to Wisconsin, my commitment to service continued.
I've served as a pastor, teacher, school safety professional, executive director of a homeless shelter, and a security consultant.
I was honored to become the first Hispanic elected to the Racine City Council, where I worked to improve public safety, strengthen neighborhoods, and ensure a responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars.
Throughout my career,
I've earned bachelor's and master's degrees, completed thousands of hours of advanced law enforcement training, and received numerous commendations and awards for service.
But the accomplishments that matter most to me cannot be framed in a wall.
They are the people whose lives have been chained through mentoring, leadership, compassion, and accountability.
As a sheriff, I will bring proven leadership, extensive law enforcement experience, and an unwavering commitment to serving other residents of Rossini County, every resident.
I believe public safety begins with trust.
Law enforcement must be professional, transparent, accountable, and deeply connected to the community it serves.
My promise is simple.
I will lead with integrity, treat every person with dignity and respect, support the men and women who wear the badge, and work every day to keep Christine County safe.
Serving others as of in my life's work would be the honor of my career to serve as your next sheriff.
Good luck to you, Henry.
Henry Perez, who's looking for your vote, he is running for the Republican nomination for Racine County Sheriff.
The general election is one, by the way.
Oh, November.
November, okay.
Yeah.
It's always in November.
First Tuesday in November.
What's the matter with me?
I've been living in this country a long time.
I should have remembered that.
The primary is tomorrow, but early voting is going on now.
Well, not anymore, only it stops and starts in person voting on Tuesday.
All right, this is it, folks.
You
want to
vote, it's got to be tomorrow.
Know your polling place.
Like me, they changed my voting place.
You can actually look that up online as Wisconsin.gov, I think.
And then it'll tell you where your polling place is.
I
think mine's in the back of a Burger King.
I think that's where my new polling place is.
Thank you, Anderson.
Come
again.
Good luck to you, my friend.
Henry
Perez, everybody.
Joining me now is the person running on the Republican for the Republican nomination to be we're seeing County Sheriff Carrie Madrigal.
Thanks for joining us.
Thanks for having me this morning.
I always want to say Carrie Mulligan.
Every time I see your name because she's an actress, Carrie Mulligan.
And I always say Carrie Mulligan.
No, Carrie Madrigal, like the Madrigal singers.
So we are from originally.
Union Grove, Wisconsin.
Oh, my wife.
That's where my wife's from, Union Grove.
Yeah, long time.
My entire life, I've lived in Racine County, so.
Did you sneak into the county fair too?
Like, she denies she did it, but she once told me her and her brother's just to sneak into the county fair.
You know, back in
the day, that was something that people did, absolutely.
She lived right down the block.
She said, we are under the fence.
Now she tells me it was free anyway, so there was no reason to.
Is it the one you tell me you went in?
Actually, I never said that.
I didn't make it up.
I know I heard you say it.
So anyway, it says she used to sneak into the county fair all the time.
She says she didn't.
So you're from Union Grove.
You ever live anywhere else?
Burlington.
I've
lived in Caledonia.
I've lived in Kansasville.
So you were a local yokel, in other words, yeah.
I
haven't left or seen Coney, no.
Well, good for you.
And what have you done?
And you went to high school in what Union Grove?
I did.
I
actually...
I went to three different high schools.
Actually, I went to Burlington High School.
I went to Case High School and graduated from Union Grove High School.
Well, you're trying them all out before you figure out which one you want to
graduate from.
Apparently, it's wild when I see people and I start talking to them.
In my mind, I'm trying to think, which high school did I go to school with them at?
Or where do I know them from?
When I went to high school, the actual town had a high school, the high school was named after the town of Massa Piqua, Massa Piqua High School.
I went to Burner High School.
And when you told people, I go live Massa Piqua, oh, you go to Massa Piqua High?
No.
Oh, you go to the other one.
It was always the other one, because I couldn't remember the name, Alpha G, Burner High School.
Oh, you go to the other one.
Yeah, I go to the other one.
Yeah, that's the one I go to.
That's a big name.
Yeah, which would be in them every year in football anyway.
So it doesn't matter.
OK, so you graduate from Union Grove High School.
Correct.
What do you do with your
life?
I was, you know, 18 years old, wasn't really sure what I wanted to do, and I started going to school gateway for legal secretary and ended up thinking, I don't know if that's really my forte, so I went to Carthage and got my paralegal certification.
From there, I went to Parkside for a while and ended up getting my bachelor's degree from Concordia.
And it took me about eight years to get my bachelor's degree.
I worked full-time at American Roller Company and worked part-time at Fred's, out in Burlington.
I waitress at the Cotton Picker when that was still around.
Oh, so I got married.
Yeah, oh, very nice, very nice.
So, ended up getting my degree in 2000.
I have a double major in business management and communication.
Well, okay, what be I got you into law enforcement?
Literally was driving down the road one day and there was a commercial on the radio, hence, you know, here we are.
And it was saying that Bill McReynolds was in desperate need of female applicants for the position of deputy sheriff.
Now back then the deputies worked in the jail and we had female floors and they had to have so many females working.
And so that was the first time that I went and took the physical agility, took the written test and then went for the interview.
Now, within about six months, they were hiring for both male and female.
So there was two separate lists at the time.
And so I went through the process again and, you know, tested with all the males and ended up ranking, I believe I was number seven or eight on the list that was male and female.
And that was ultimately the list that I was hired off of.
So, um, you heard it on the radio.
You know, McReynolds as a teacher, English teacher.
at Union Grove High School.
I know, my wife Adam.
Yes, yeah.
He
also taught drivers that.
Oh, did he really?
Yeah.
Do you have him for drivers that or English?
No, I did not.
That he, my mom, I believe did, yes.
Yeah, my wife, every time she sees him somewhere, you know, she sees him.
That was my English teacher.
Yeah, yeah.
My English teacher's never amounted to anything except English teaching.
Right, there you go.
Well, that's great.
So you got the job?
Yeah, at the time I was, um,
I was still going to college, so I had a lot of electives I needed to take.
And so I ended up taking a lot of electives in criminal justice.
And the more that I took, the more I learned and was really kind of drawn into it.
And from there, the rest is history.
But you had to work in the jail, huh?
I did.
I was, I mentioned earlier today, I was, the current sheriff gave me a tour of the jail and
I pass the law center all the time on the way to work because I live on Main Street.
And my wife works there too as a bailiff.
And I'm telling you, I would be frightened working in that place because everybody's out to try to trick you and fool you.
And I'm easily fooled.
You know, I guess people will say they have 24 hours to try to figure out how they can get what they want or manipulate you.
But the reality is, you learned very quickly how to talk to people.
Well, that's what the chef
did.
But they had a blanket covering their cell door.
And he said, get that blanket down.
And they took it down.
With me, they'd say, make me.
And they say, OK, you can leave the blanket up.
But yeah, he just, with authority, said, take it down.
And they did.
But they knew they couldn't have the blanket up, covering what they were doing in there.
But they did it anyway.
There's a lot of jail rules.
And I think.
You know, I mean, the toilet is right inside of the cell.
So sometimes they do it for privacy.
I, you know, having worked in
there for a long time.
I couldn't deal with that.
I couldn't deal with that.
No, I couldn't deal with that.
That's why I don't get in trouble with the lock.
I don't deal with anything like that.
Okay.
So then you were on patrol.
Correct.
That's also a dangerous job.
Yeah.
Because you don't know when you talk to somebody if they're out to get you.
You know, patrol is the ultimate.
freedom after working in the jail, I will say, because you get to be in your squad, you get to be out there doing what you want to do, you get to make it your own.
If you want to stop out and check on businesses, see how they're doing, you're enforcing the law, you're watching for people that maybe have
an expired registration on their license plate.
You're looking for, you know, traffic laws that are being broken.
Yeah, but when you pull people over, you never know what their intention is going to be.
This is true.
You always
have to be alert.
And a lot of officers get hurt.
Yes.
Because you don't know what that person reaches in their glove compartment, what they're doing or what they're reaching for.
Are you pulling them over?
You have no idea.
True.
See, I...
I'd walk around with a taser and say, can I see your license?
I'd taze them right away.
And that way they know who's in charge.
Yeah, that's frowned upon, at least at this point.
That's why I couldn't be in that job.
That's what I did.
I'd be tazing everybody, just the minute I saw their eyes.
So you worked in the patrol division, then you went into investigator, sensitive crimes.
Yes, I worked in sensitive crimes.
So during my time in the
detective role.
What's a sensitive crime?
Like a sex crime?
Sexual
assaults of
children, child abuse, elder abuse.
Yeah, that type of thing.
That by far was the best job that I've had in my over 25 year career.
There's no greater satisfaction than putting away a sex offender in prison.
That's your channel sex offender.
And those people talk about predators.
Absolutely.
Innocent people, they can't defend themselves.
Wow.
Okay, so then you went on to Sergeant.
You were proud of the Sergeant.
Now, those are the people.
I watch these YouTube videos when they get pulled over by the police and they don't want, I'm not talking to you, give me a supervisor.
It's always the sergeant comes out and fixes everything.
Was that you?
That is the first line of supervision is the sergeants.
And they're really the first line of trainers as well.
If you think about it, all of the deputies, all of the investigators, you know, the their reports are all being reviewed by a sergeant, sometimes the lieutenant, but they're really the ones that are, you know, holding down the fort.
And just when you thought you had it made, you're going back to the jail.
Going back to the jail as a lieutenant.
Yes, yes.
Did you ever say, don't send me back to the rock.
I
don't want to go into the
rock.
Absolutely not.
All of the different divisions all have their, you know, different positives and negatives and someone has to fill those spots.
And you promoted the captain and just two years ago you were operations division captain.
What's that job?
Operations Captain, that's where I'm at now.
That's our largest division that oversees the three shifts of patrol.
Water Patrol, Detective Bureau, Metro Drug Unit, our Internet Crimes Against Children Division.
And yeah, there's a lot of people.
It's 90-something just because it fluctuates.
I'll say it's between 90 and 100 people that are in the operations division.
We're talking to Carrie Madrigal.
She is running for Racine County Sheriff.
The Republican primary is tomorrow.
And so you understand this thing.
So you're voting tomorrow to see who's going to be the Republican facing off against Democrat in November.
And then you really get to start pushing because I mean, you got a couple of months to go, but still now you're facing off against somebody different right now.
You're facing off against another person.
OK, so you've been in law enforcement looks like most of your life.
Correct.
So why do you want this job?
So, you know, at this point, I'm 52 years old.
I could retire.
You're a baby.
Or I could run for sheriff, right?
I mean, some people are like, are you crazy?
And you know, I still, I still love this job.
And I love the department in which I work.
I have a lot of respect for the people that work there.
And in over 25 years, I've seen this department move on a very positive trajectory.
And I want to continue to see that happen.
I want to be part of that.
I want to make sure that, you know, the people that we have working for us are taken care of.
There's a lot more that can be done, I believe, for the mental health of our staff.
And that's kind of me in a nutshell.
I mean, I'm not done.
You're so in the public spotlight when you're sheriff.
This is true.
I mean, I can handle it.
But a lot of people are in the public spotlight and they can handle it.
Because everything you do is going to be criticized.
You can be doing the best job in the world.
Somebody's going to find out something you're doing wrong or accuse you doing something wrong.
And now you've got to defend yourself.
You have no problem with that, huh?
I have very thick skin and I have an extremely strong faith.
So both of those things have gotten me to where I am today.
I've not been perfect.
I've made mistakes and I've learned from them.
This is something that, you know, it's been probably in the back of my mind for at least the last five years that it was something that I wanted to do.
And, you know, I've kind of made it my, I guess, goal.
to get to this point, and here we are.
And so I'm going to continue pushing forward to see that happen.
So you've never been in the police department.
You've always been in the sheriff's department.
Always at the sheriff's
office.
Because it's a different thing where you're elected sheriff.
Police people are promoted to head of police departments, but you have to be elected.
Correct.
And a lot of these people who are sovereign citizens don't acknowledge police officers.
They will acknowledge sheriffs because they're elected.
Correct.
It is sheriffs, right?
There's not sherifi.
Deputy
sheriff.
Yeah,
but it's not the plural of sheriff is sheriffs, right?
Correct.
It's not like octopi where they just make sure.
Okay.
So this is it.
And once you become sheriff, if you get elected to the Republican nomination and face off against a Democrat and you make the, uh, you get elected, you want to make changes?
You're happy with status quo?
How is it going to be?
You know, the, our department is doing a great job in many, many areas, but I believe that there's always room for improvement.
I want to continue to make sure that our training that we provide to our staff is the finest, which I believe it is right now, but I think there's always ways that we can improve things.
I think that there's a lot of grants that we can look deeper into to see what we can bring back here to Racine County.
I think that there's a lot that can be done in terms of collaboration with other agencies and just...
working together because ultimately when the bad things happen, the really big bad things happen, everybody's coming.
All the agencies throughout, you know, when we had the big flood in Burlington, you had police officers and deputies from throughout the county helping.
When something big like that happens, whether it's man-made or it's a natural disaster, we're all coming and we need to be able to work together.
to make sure that we provide the best service that we can for the citizens of Racine County.
Now, unlike police departments, the sheriff has a lot of real estate involved here.
You got the entire county.
Correct.
That's a lot of people.
How many deputy sheriffs are there?
We have the approval for 144 deputies.
Right now we are at 135, I believe.
So we have nine openings.
We're currently taking applications.
If anybody out there wants to apply, please do so.
What qualifications you need?
You need 60 college credits that needs to be completed.
You have to be 21 years of age and that's pretty much it.
When I got hired, I had a lieutenant at the physical agility told me that you needed common sense to be a police officer or a deputy sheriff and I could not agree more after over 25 years and I think it
This stage of the game, sometimes I think I'm thinking that we need to make sense common again.
I believe
it might be a superpower.
I was told common sense is not common.
No, it's not.
It's,
uh...
But you have to know how to deal with people.
Correct.
I mean, that's number one because, I mean, if you deal with somebody incorrectly, then you're just escalating a problem that doesn't need to be escalated.
Agreed.
Agreed.
See, that's where I would fail you.
Well,
I don't know.
We could train you.
It would be all right.
It would be all right.
I think that there's a lot to be said in, you know, being an active listener and listening to a person that, you know, maybe in crisis, you know, taking that extra few minutes to understand the entire problem before, you know, going hands on with someone, you know, really, I mean, obviously keeping the scenes safe and making sure that we're safe, but understanding exactly what a person's
what their side of the story is, so that you can really, truly identify how to help them.
Now, is it a problem being a woman and being a sheriff?
Some people will say it's a little bit more difficult.
I guess I don't know any other way.
I mean, that's what it's been for me my entire career.
I think there's situations where it's beneficial, and I think that there's other situations.
when dealing with kids.
You know, a lot of times they maybe feel a little bit more comfortable talking to a female, but it depends on the situation.
I mean, if it was a female that assaulted them, maybe not.
But then again, you know, when you get to, let's say, you know, some man that's, you know, six foot seven and, you know, you're going to have to take him into custody for abuse of his wife or something, for an example.
You know, maybe they,
think that you're going to be easily overtaken.
That's
where that taser comes in.
There's
tools on the tool
belt, however.
I'm going to ask
you something.
I see on these YouTube videos, these cops have this vest on.
How do they chase anybody with 50 pounds worth of stuff on them?
It's a lot, and it's heavy.
It
looks heavy.
It does.
I see these cops, oh, he's so fat.
They didn't take it off, and they're skinny.
because these things just there between the bulletproof vest and all the stuff they have in there, little pockets full of stuff.
Yeah, lots of tools on the tool belt, but it's important to be physically fit to be able to do the job day in and day out.
Okay, last two minutes here, I'm going to give you a free commercial.
We normally charge for these things, but I'm going to give you a free two minutes here to do your commercial, why you should be elected sheriff and why you want to win the primary.
I want to win the primary so that I can move forward in the mission of making sure that the Racine County Sheriff's Office continues to be one of the finest agencies in Racine County.
With over 25 years of experience at every level through captain, I believe it's important to recognize the experience that each of the candidates have and the importance of
learning at every stage of the game.
There is something to be learned at every level of law enforcement and whether it's going to the county board meetings, meeting with community leaders outside of here to find out what we can do better and what their issues are and how we can help address them.
There's a lot of experience in my over 25 years and I hope that people will take a look at it.
It's not about
Being the first female sheriff, you'll hear people talk about that, but the reality is putting the right person in the position and that's who I am and I hope that I can get people's vote tomorrow and again on November 3rd.
Your kids give you a hard time and you say, listen to what I'm gonna say to you.
My mother worked for the Department of Consumer Affairs for 21 years.
She was the first woman.
They leave investigators.
And so I know what it's like to have somebody pop.
But she was such a soft-spoken person at home.
My father was in charge.
And she was good at that.
You, at home, you lay the law down with your kids.
You want to
be in
Costco.
I will say, my kids would tell you that I am very strict.
I'm a single mother.
And
they have turned
out.
Very good.
I have wonderful children and they have been extremely supportive through this entire process.
So I'm very grateful, very blessed.
Good
for
you.
Yeah, so far so good.
Good for you.
Yeah.
That's good.
That'd be tough.
Man, I never had it.
I was very lucky.
My daughter was really a sweetheart growing up and never had a problem with her enough.
She just followed the rules.
So I never had to be a disciplinarian at all.
She never got punished to you.
I was very lucky.
I can't say that, Don, but my kids have pushed some of the limits,
but
they've learned from their mistakes,
and
that's what's important.
Kerry Madrigal wants your vote.
She is running in the primary tomorrow, election day tomorrow, and she's running for the Republican nomination, and then you'll face off in November against the Democrat, and then you start all over again.
You got
it.
Well, good for you.
Thanks for coming in, by the way.
Thanks for
having me.
I appreciate it.
I appreciate it.
It was a good talk.