You're listening to Perspective on WFHR 1320 a.m.
97 5 fm.
I'm Melissa K bringing you news in our community during this interview I'm talking with Wood County Sheriff Sean Becker on June 3rd, 2026 Thank you for joining me Sean to bring the community an update from the Wood County Sheriff's Department.
Oh, it's a pleasure being here.
Thank you
It's a lovely day.
I'm glad to have you have you here.
You're well rested this time
I am.
Last month, yeah, I didn't have much sleep.
But no, I had a few days off, took a vacation.
It was our grandson, River's birthday over the last weekend.
He's one year old now.
Oh,
yeah.
So it was awesome to spend that time with him.
And then, Julie and I celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary.
Congratulations.
Thank you.
35 years.
Yeah, she hasn't figured me out yet.
Well, you still managed to hang on to her, so that's an accomplishment in itself.
Yeah, just, you know, you reflect on the time and the life together and, you know, all the changes and it's a long time, but she stuck by me and I'm very, very proud of it.
That's awesome.
Well, congratulations to both of you.
Thank you.
Well, let's dive into some...
This is sad news.
Let's let's talk about the passing of Robert Bodette, who was the former Wood County Sheriff from 1977 to 1989.
If I've got my dates, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I was notified yesterday of my family, um, that he had passed.
Um, Bob had retired in 2000.
So I had the, the pleasure to work with them for about three years.
I started in 97.
And at that time he had transitioned back to a patrol deputy, but you know, many decades, uh, years of
service.
Um, he was elected sheriff in 1977 and had that title until 1989.
And then like I said, went back to patrol, but a lot of very well known person in the community.
Um, so, um, and he had a great retirement, um, you know, in 2000 until now, um, that's many years of, uh, you know, stepping back from the career and then, you know, doing something different on whether it's really just, um, being retired or, or whatever.
He had a great career, and I know he's going to be missed by friends and especially family.
He still has a lot of family in the area, so thoughts and pairs are with the Baudette family and his friends.
He had a great career with us.
I'm grateful for all those years of service to the county.
Yeah, absolutely.
Thanks for bringing it up.
Yeah.
Another thing that I wanted to touch on briefly, I was looking through the meeting notes from the Wood County Board Supervisor meeting.
And one of the things that is always reported in there are the tips that come in through the Crime Stoppers line.
And I thought it would be a good opportunity to just talk about that briefly.
A great reminder that, you know, we've had crime stoppers for many, many years.
I remember it started with retired deputy Bev Galloni.
She was a big part of that.
You know, as it started, you know, like this has got to be.
well over 20 years ago where the program started and throughout the course of the program it's evolved obviously with technology where you don't have to call in now, you still can but
you can
text tips in.
And we've been very fortunate with that community partnership where if you see something or you know of some information and you want to remain anonymous, you're more than welcome and we hope that you let us know and this is a way to do that and get paid
you know, once we take that information in, no matter what it is, and if it works out to be where, you know, somebody's held accountable or arrested or whatever that information that might be, and we verify it, you know, the person that calls in or texts in can, you know, get paid for, but just a great community partnership, you know, my personal experience with it, when I was a investigator, a tip came in on Chris Reeveck, who was responsible for, for Deidre Harms homicide.
And that was part of that whole investigation and driving us in that direction that we need to look at Mr. Revac a little bit more than what we had been.
And part of that information came from there.
And that's happened from...
You know, many different crimes being reported.
It could be a theft or burglary drug information all the way up to what I just said, a homicide.
So that community partnership is just a great way for people to share information that's going on to keep our community
safe.
That's wonderful.
And what is that number?
Do you know it off the top of your head?
Not right off the top of my head, but it's pretty easily
you could find it.
Yes, I bet you can.
I'm sorry, I didn't look it up beforehand.
No, no worries.
Well, another thing I wanted to briefly touch on is the canine training that goes on.
These dogs go through an extensive amount of training every month.
Yeah, the expectation is, you know,
you know a deputy it's not an easy position you know a lot of people you know have the desire to be a canine deputy or a Kenyan officer with any law enforcement agency but you really have to do a lot of you know thinking and searching about that if that's something that's a good fit for that individual law enforcement officer
because it's not just their own training they also train with the dog and train the dog right
yeah and you know that dog goes home with them
So, the expectation is, you know, our deputies, our canine deputies, you know, will train 12 hours a month and then they go through a recertification process yearly as well.
So, I mean, there's a lot, it's not just okay, I have the dog, you know, all right, let's just go on patrol.
No, you have to continue to train, you know, depending on what that, you know, canine's expertise is,
you
know, whether it's a drug focus.
or an explosive focus.
And we're very fortunate to have both on the canine side.
Now, the other therapy dogs, it's a little different.
There's a certification process that they go through, but the train is not as extensive
as
it is with the other canines that are specific law enforcement dogs.
Because their interaction with the public is vastly different.
Definitely.
I mean, if you look at a therapy dog and
you know, in comparison to a canine working dog for law enforcement, way different.
You know, the therapy dog is going to be a dog that's very friendly and approachable.
Um, you know, going down that line where the canine, you know, working dog is much different where their focus is, is working, you know, trying to detect something or find something or search for somebody or article searching.
Um, there's all a vast, um,
There's so many things that a canine can do that we can't.
That's why we have that big investment in them.
And that's, you know, always, I always like to circle back when you talk about, you know, the expectations that we have from that deputy and that dog is the support from the community.
You know, I mean, we've been very, we are so blessed to have, you know, people in the community that support our canine unit.
Nothing really comes out of our budget at all to support all of our dogs.
It's all done through donations.
Grants that we've been very very lucky to have and that's why we have so many docs You know and there's a lot of interest for it to be in that program.
So
I'm very fortunate to have it
And I always like to say we we just really don't deserve dogs.
They're just fabulous.
They
are Well, now let's talk about everybody's favorite thing road construction.
Oh, it's time of year We had a briefing this morning.
We were just talking about the you know, so many and it's all over everywhere,
you
know, especially in our state, but locally just okay what?
What's happening?
All right.
What are we going to prepare for as a sheriff's department?
But, you know, just a couple of highlights that people need to be aware of, you know, a big one on 73 and 80 in Pittsville.
They're putting a roundabout there.
So that project is starting.
Another one, County Highway F and double H. Another roundabout is going there.
Just that's near Vesper, 34 and County Highway C and Rudolph.
There's some intersection work being done there.
And those are just some big projects.
And we're starting to get the complaints on the side roads, which I, we totally understand that people, drivers want to avoid those areas.
Um, we're getting more traffic on highway 66 where we have before, and we've had a few crashes come up lately.
I really feel it's a lot to do with the volume of traffic increasing because of the road construction.
So we, we're looking at, okay, where are we going to put some extra patrol areas?
And that's one of them.
on highways you know on county highway i'm sorry state highway 66 but our town roads you know are going to see an increased amount of traffic just because people are trying to avoid that area which is understandable but the biggest thing to remind people of is the rules of the road speed limits can change
You know, you're in a rural area, car deer accidents, you know, those kind of things people need to be aware of when you're, you know, trying to get around the road construction areas.
So we're going to pay more of a focus on those side roads, those town roads that are in these areas just to try to make sure that those areas are safer as well.
Well, and another area that you've increased coverage on over the last quite a while now is
Highway 10, US Highway 10 between Marshfield and all the way towards Wausau, that's a dangerous area, especially that intersection of 186 and 10.
Yeah, we've stepped up.
extra patrol for quite some time now and it's unfortunate that a tragedy occurred at that intersection that you mentioned that led us to what can we do as a Sheriff's Department to do our part and the expectation of the patrol division is to spend extra time out on Highway 10 not just that particular intersection but that whole area from Marshfield to the Porch County line and I feel that that stepped up patrol has made a difference on our end.
The Department of Transportation is looking at our, I don't know the exact timeline for that particular intersection.
But from what I understand is they're going to do some modification to that and make it a J turn.
Um, very similar to the one on highway state highway 54 and, uh, coming highway, you ADS street at the Portagewood County line here just outside of Wisconsin rapids.
So that's the vision it sounds like for the department of transportation.
I don't know the exact timeline, but I think it's probably going to be a, you know, a few years out.
Um, but I know that there will be a change there to make that intersection safer.
Um,
you know, better than it is now.
Well, to cross, that's four lanes of traffic.
You have to cross with a very big median in the middle.
It's intimidating.
And especially for young drivers, that intersection, a lot of the school traffic goes through there to get to Auburndale.
Yeah, with Auburndale, the school district there, there's a lot of traffic there.
Semis, you know, getting across there.
You know, I wish it was a different intersection, you know, personally, it'd be great to see an overpass there or right away if that would have been done or thought of, but, you know, that's me, you know, and I think a lot of people would agree with that, but
we're not money going to come
from.
Exactly.
And we're not the decision makers, but, you know, if you want to make that intersection as safest as possible, that's what, you know, the consideration be, but you're exactly right.
When you look at funding, you know, for me, though, it's like, all right, how many lives is it going to take?
You have to look at it that way,
you
know, and yes, there is a money cost factor to it But there is you can't put money on somebody's life, you know, and you have an environment that could be changed to make safer
That's something that we should work together and do.
So there is going to be a modification there.
I just couldn't say exactly when.
But
in the meantime, you are stepping out.
We're going to continue
our effort there.
That expectation with patrol is to continue to work highway time to, you know, the goal is to make it safer.
Well, and looking at the data, it seems like it's helping because the number of crashes have gone down, the number of wrong way drivers, at least for the data that I saw for March.
No, I would agree with you 100%.
Wonderful.
Well, let's take a brief pause here and hear from our sponsors.
I'm Melissa K talking with Wood County Sheriff Sean Becker, and you're listening to Perspective on 1320 a.m.
975 FM WFHR.
Welcome, you're listening to Perspective on WFHR 1320 a.m.
97 5 fm.
I'm Melissa K bringing you news in our community I'm speaking with Wood County Sheriff Sean Becker and where we left off we were talking about road construction and Some of the projects that we're talking about to increase safety on on us highway 10 there now I'd like to tell you a little story.
Oh I have to admit I I would not make a good car thief
because I managed to lock myself out of a van.
Actually, right before we had our talk last month, and I had to call locksmith because we couldn't get someone from, it was in Marathon County, and they just straight up said, we don't have lockout kits in our patrols.
We can't help you.
And I even called twice.
Honestly, Sheriff Becker, I had
I almost called you.
But I would not have done that on a holiday or used my anything.
But it was really desperate.
How I managed to get it into the back window was open a little bit, those wedge windows.
And I got a stick in there.
Oh, nice.
And managed to get the door knob.
pulled just enough
to
get the door wrenched open, but my goodness.
So that's not something that officers care
anymore.
Yeah, not a lot of agencies.
Some municipalities, well, we have some emergency kits.
Not every squad has them.
I have one of my car though, so you could have called me.
I
could have come and help you out, but.
Well, it was a Saturday and I assumed you weren't working, so.
I'm always working,
but
anyway.
You know, it really depends on the department.
You
know, I think back in the day, you saw many, you know, departments, whether it's a sheriff's department or municipality, you know, have them, but it's just something that, you know,
Main departments have gone away from is
it a liability?
Concern
liability, you know time that kind of thing
and then you
have another service out that can do it Unfortunately, there's a cost to it
and I
feel your pain because we were talking off-air Not that long ago.
I was heading out to do go to a train in Denver and I brought my squad to the airport in Madison I did the same thing
and
then I wouldn't I talked to and I'm not knocking
the Dane County Sheriff's Department.
I just went up to one of their deputies because they oversee the security, you know, a detail at the airport.
I said, Hey, this is why I'm not looking for any favors or anything like that.
I'm like, uh, do you guys carry these kids?
And they said, no, we don't.
We can't help you out.
I'm like, but they had the number.
to provide, you know, four locks
that came
out and I had to pay for it.
Yeah.
So
I feel your pain.
And the worst part was we, we tried, we tried, we called lock and we're getting nose every
time we get
nose.
So that's when I called Marathon County back again.
I'm like, okay, we can't get somebody out here to help us.
We're in the middle of Wood County Park.
What do we do?
Well, it was big old plane.
Um, but
Then they were like, well, unless there is a child
or
an animal in the vehicle, and if we were to come out, we would have to damage your vehicle to
get in.
But we did eventually get in, but I guess my career as a car thief is not, you know.
But it's not a bad
thing.
Okay, good.
You know what I mean?
I don't think that's
quite
a terrible
thing.
Well, cause you know, that might land me in jail,
but
we don't want
that.
Your jail programs are doing well.
They're doing
wonderful.
The inmate programming that we've been investing in is, you know, we're growing and a lot of the programs that we've been, you know, implemented, um, have been doing a great job.
You know, one of the big highlights, uh, you know, that partnership with the mid state technical college.
you know, allowing inmates to, you know, work on their HSCD.
You'd be surprised on how many inmates that, you know, are in our facility that do not have their, you know, they did not graduate from Cal, I'm sorry, from my school.
And that partnership allows that.
And we've done several classes and we just had five inmates graduate recently.
And I'm proud of that.
You know, when
you look at
People have made mistakes in the community and they have the willingness to look at what we offer while you're in custody to better themselves.
Like I said, I think that's a win.
A
lot of people that are incarcerated are suffering from mental health issues.
or addiction issues, or most likely both.
And we've established that partnership that I've talked about numerous times with Wood County Human Services.
It's been working out great.
Your MAP program, medication assisted, I knew I would slaughter
that.
But it's helping people with addiction.
Yes, absolutely.
And we've been doing that for several years under a grant program.
Um, you know, just working with, uh, our chaplain programs,
um, there's a selection program with Sheriff DiFabio.
Yeah.
With, uh, yeah.
Sheriff has done a phenomenal job.
She came out of our jail as a sergeant and we got a grant position for that.
And we're, we're deflecting people that were, um, nonviolent defenses can go through that program instead of, uh, coming into jail or something, but there are requirements and things you have to do to, you know, get into the program and work through it as well.
You know, I.
it's very similar run like a treatment program like drug court.
There's accountability through it and if you go through everything then that offenses won't be on your record.
And then they can be productive members of society even through the treatment of the program.
And like I said the medic medication assisted
I knew I'd say it again.
Is it treatment, medication assistance treatment?
I'm sorry.
It's okay.
I don't have an
excuse today.
I'm sorry.
But anyway, but no, I do like that.
And I appreciate you bringing up the programs that we do have in our jail.
I'm really proud of the opportunities, the stakeholders in the community with so many people that, you know, want to come in and help.
It's really nice to see that.
That is wonderful.
Community involvement is helpful every step of the way.
Yep.
Another thing I noticed is the dedication of the Wood County Veterans Memorial at the courthouse that happened in May.
We had the former and the current district attorney there.
That was great to see both of them.
Craig Lambert coming in and he's been a part of that program for many, many years and it's nice to see both of them there.
Jonathan Barnett.
Yeah, I'm Jonathan.
Both of them, you know, speaking on behalf of what Memorial Day really is.
And I
think that's what people just seem to forget sometimes.
You know, it's a long weekend.
Remembering the people that gave their lives, you know, so we are free.
You know, and I did get to do a speech out at Forest Hill on Memorial Day, which I was very honored to do.
I'm not a veteran.
Explain that right away, but you know, I have a lot of people in my family that are or were veterans
and
it gives me an opportunity to talk about them and and brag about them
and remember
absolutely so It was a nice event that we have at the courthouse every year and Craig does a great job helping organize it
wonderful Now let's talk about some exciting events that are coming up here in June.
We've got the back the badge
best bench press meet.
See now I'm screwing it up.
It's not even an action.
Is it catching?
I'm sorry.
That's happening on June 13th.
If you're listening to this on Monday, today is the deadline to enter the competition.
You have until 4 p.m.
on June 8th to enter.
The event is on June 13th from 11 to 2.
I got to watch your commercial that you made for it.
That was fun.
I enjoyed it.
I giggled.
Good.
That's why we did it.
was fun.
Herman Oliver is one of the detectives at Scott's Rapids Police Department.
just, he's awesome with that stuff for the cell phone.
And he does a lot of the, the videos and the thing.
And I,
I just say,
I got
an idea.
What do you think?
And then it was nice to see the, you know, the people that, Hey, let's get involved.
Brandon Christensen, Justice Sarn, um, Nick Brockman.
And then of course, uh, Dylan West,
uh,
um, uh, a rap.
It's all
the hardware.
Yeah.
And he was so cool with that.
Um, so I'm like, Hey, can we do this commercial?
And, you know, everybody agreed.
And, and yeah, so it was, uh,
It was fun doing that.
We'll see what.
I won't give any spoilers, but you should head over to the Wood County Sheriff's Facebook page and watch it, because it's funny.
Yeah, and that's what the whole intent was, just to kind of do something funny and get some involvement.
But hey, we've had a lot of sponsorships come in, one being WFHR.
Really appreciate reaching out and partnering for the event and getting it out there on
June
13th out at Anchor Bay.
This is the third year we've done it.
Um, so yeah, we've got a lot of lifters coming back.
Um, so it'll be a entertaining lot of raffle prizes, gun raffles.
Uh, we'll have a 75 inch TV donated by spectrum.
Uh, we had Jordan love sign a full size helmet and the inscribed on it back the batch.
So yeah,
we'll have a lot of cool, uh, cool items to raffle off and raise some money for the special response team and the Wisconsin law enforcement memorial.
Nice.
And that's not the only thing happening on June 13th.
There are so many others.
Bluegrass at the lake.
Yeah.
We that's another, um, you know, it's,
that's a full weekend event, right?
It is.
I think it starts on Thursday or Friday.
Yeah.
I think it's
Saturday night
or maybe.
Yeah.
Um, but great group of people that, um, they look at ways to donate to the community.
And
the last couple of years they picked our, our SISM group, um, and help fund CIT.
Um, so it's a great partnership, um, where they sought us out where, um, you know, we didn't go to them and it just shows the, the group of people or the great people and they just look at what are the community needs.
And I know that just, that changes periodically.
And that's cause they're, they're looking at, you know, what's
important.
Yeah.
It's not just picking one thing all the time.
It's
like, all right, look, what else, where can we spread this out to have an impact on, on the community?
So great music.
I didn't know much about honestly about bluegrass until I went to you know, some of the concerts and No, there's some bands that they're really good.
Oh, yeah make it make your feet
dance.
Yeah, family friendly And there's there's other activities and things going on there.
I'm sure they have food vendors of sorts on different days.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah full
the days around June 13th, sorry, I don't have the exact dates, but one other thing that is happening on June 13th is the Andrew Mueller car show.
Yeah, I'll add a Golden Sand Speedway.
You know, I can't say enough about the Mueller family and what they've done to raise money to make sure that, you know, law enforcement officers throughout, I mean, their goal is the whole state, but just in central Wisconsin, they've, they've raised, you know, all of our squad cars have the EPI.
And
their goal is to epinephrine for an allergic reaction because that is for those who don't remember or didn't know that is how Andrew Mueller died and he was young.
Yeah, 20 years old, you know, and that's way too young and You know with unfortunately that tragedy now brings, you know the awareness, you know and the opportunity
to fund raise which the Mueller family has been doing and they just equipped Adams County.
They're in talks with Marathon County Sheriff's Department and the Porridge County Sheriff's Department and even reached out to the Dane County Sheriff's Department.
So Andrew's death wasn't that long going for the Mueller family to continue to push forward to equip everybody.
I'm gonna bet that they're gonna probably get the entire stay at some point.
At least funded to start the program.
And
how many lives that will save is just a phenomenal testament to the Rapids?
Already one.
You know when
Wisconsin Rapids had one shortly after they were equipped with it.
Wow.
Yeah, so that'll be out of Golden Sand Speedway on the 13th.
So lots of events out there, but they're all not too far from each other.
So you can kind of enjoy all of them.
You know, we're gonna try to get our armored vehicle out at Anchor Bay and at Andrews event as well.
Bop it over to the next one.
Yep, I'll surround.
All right.
Well, I appreciate you taking the time to talk with me today, Sheriff Sean Becker.
I'm Melissa Kay talking with the Wood County Sheriff's Department.
Again, thank you for the time today,
Sean.
Appreciate being
here.
And thank you to listeners joining us for news in our community on Perspective 1320 AM, 97-5 FM WFHR.
