Hello world, welcome to WFHR's Rapid Support, probably brought you by Crockett Septick for
this Wednesday October 1st, 2025.
Have your host James behind the mic.
We are joined today by our great friends from the Wood County Sheriff's Department.
We got Sheriff Sean Becker with us right now.
Sean, always good to see you.
Great to see you.
Always a pleasure.
Appreciate the time from you.
And our great friends over at Wisconsin Rapids Community Media, big shout out to the gang
over there.
And if you're in favor, go to YouTube, subscribe to their page, just type in your search
bar, Wisconsin Rapids Community Media, and keep up to date and all the cool things that
they are doing over there.
Sean, I got a couple of places and a couple of things I wanted to get to with you.
But we do this thing on our show where we get into our National Day of Calendar.
And today is National Coffee with a Cup Day.
Does this count?
Does that guy take a drink of my coffee right now?
Does that count?
Yeah, let it rip.
I didn't know that.
Obviously, I didn't pay attention to the National Calendar.
Little cool.
Is he understandable?
Yeah.
But you know, periodically, we've done coffee with a cop, and I know the last time I think
we partnered with Porge County Sheriff's Department of the Calinary, which is great.
I'll have to get on the phone with Sheriff Lucas, and we'll have to set something up like
that again.
So he's nice to do community events like that.
We're out in the public just, you know, sitting down and just having conversations with people.
So appreciate you bringing that up if I didn't know that.
I would have brought some coffee.
We could have done a toast.
Next year.
Next year.
We'll do that.
Yeah.
You kind of see where I was going with that a little bit, because I remember those kind
of events.
And certainly, we just got done with one that I ride a cop ride along where I had the bike
ride.
Yeah.
I wanted to hear how that went.
Yeah.
That went really well.
Great weather.
Thanks for bringing it up.
You know, a handover at, just out of the blank here, at the University of New York.
Extension?
Yeah.
Thank you so much.
Yeah.
She does a nice job putting together that event every year and includes us.
Next year.
I've been told that we need more deputies there, so I think I've got some, an in there.
And try to get in a, a cheese or a food to come and help us out.
It's a good idea.
Yeah.
It's kind of the plan.
So, but no, it went really well.
Great weather.
A few people joined us.
And yeah.
It was fun.
It's good to hear.
You've been busy lately.
And I want to do, I didn't want to start here, but I'm, I, I, wait, I don't know if
I've ever been cross with you, sir, but I have a little on edge, a little on edge.
You know I'm an actor.
You know I've been active for a long time.
And here you get a popular TV show that comes to town and you know that this could help
my IMDB page.
I got nothing on my page, man.
I have no correcting credits out there.
Cops comes to town.
Here's a perfect opportunity for me to just show up and act a little bit, but I don't
think that's so worth.
No, no, no.
I don't think you want to.
No, no, no.
Don't want to be on that show.
It's the one show I don't want to be on.
We did have this popular TV show that is being brought back.
They, they came to town.
Before we get to them being in town and filming, how did this come about?
This actually came about out of state, didn't it?
Yeah, it's a great story.
I went to a training over in Georgia.
I was put on by Homeland Security and it was just a leadership training course that people
from all over the country have gone to and even outside of the United States and tweak
like I said, focus on leadership for people that are, you know, probably mid-level management
all the way up to the top and we've had an opportunity to send people for several years
and I was the fourth person to get the opportunity to go and great training and especially with
the networking opportunities that you get with those kind of trainings with people that
are all over the country where you can, you know, talk to them about whether it's policy
driven things or, you know, what's going on in your communities and compared to ours.
How are you handling them?
That kind of thing.
So, those relationships, you know, kind of build through that timeframe of the training.
And afterwards, they still, you know, remain in contact with some of the people that I went
to that training with.
And one of them just reached out, we had a group message going and saying, hey, Cops just
filmed a TV show, you know, over in our area in Georgia, anybody, you know, interested in
doing that and especially on a jail side of things and I'm like, wow, two things jumped
out of me.
One, the personal side of it, you know, with the TV show Cops is going back to the early
90s when I was finishing college and figuring out what direction that, you know, I wanted
to go, you know, where those opportunities were and, you know, I had interest in law enforcement
and kind of started going that way.
So, the TV show, I think, was on every Friday at seven.
If I remember, you have to ask my wife because it was something that we watched.
And, you know, so that built the interest about me wanting to get into this career.
So, the personal side of it is like, oh, I'd be really cool.
I mean, I had no idea what it takes to connect with the TV producers to get them here.
And I just said, yeah, I'd be really interested in having them, you know, come here to Wood
County and on the bigger part, not just because we have a new jail.
I think, you know, with the focus on the jail gave, I looked at it, the opportunity to
see what our corrections officers are doing here, you know, and not just local level, but
a national level.
And I thought that was like really the biggest push from me.
Yeah, you had the personal thing I kept.
But, you know, I'm not in a squad car every day, patrolling, so they're not going to
ride with me, but they're going to get the opportunity not just to see a new facility,
but to work with our corrections officers.
So, that's kind of how it came together, a big shout out to Lieutenant Jean, I'm just
drawn of blanks.
It's one of those warnings.
Can we start over?
No, Jean Harley from Chantham County Police Department in Georgia, he's the one that
had given the contact, and cops had rolled with them.
So, that relationship, you know, all important is that it's not only learning something when
you go to a training, but that opportunity in that work is huge because you get, you
know, some, you know, opportunities like this, and I didn't realize once we did the press
release how much attention it would get, you know, a lot of sharing that on social media,
which is great.
It's a great awareness thing, and shows the popularity of the cops TV show.
Right now, we've got a weekend already, and the camera crew's been awesome, and they've
got some footage so far.
They'll be here for probably at least a month if not longer.
It's fairly open, and I think what they do is they build up footage that we review,
and then they, you know, then they'll use it in a future episode.
I can't say exactly when, it'll be used probably sometime next year, but I don't know
exactly when, they'll let us know.
That's a popular question that I've been asked several times.
I couldn't say exactly when, but I would say probably sometime next year.
They're usually really good about letting people that were a part of the episode know,
and I think there's even some legality to that that they have to, so we'll be certainly
as a community knowing the hell of time.
Oh, yeah, I'll do some more press releases on it.
I think I was, you know, you look at some of the comments that are on social media,
so I might ignore.
But some, you know, you look at, and, you know, this didn't cost the county anything.
You know, some of our county board members have gotten there for me.
Oh, this is costing wood county $200,000 and make no.
That's really good.
Where do they get these numbers, too?
I just said I'm straight.
No, there's no cost to the county at all.
So yeah, and even with the staff, they've been awesome.
You know, I think there's a little bit of apprehension with it right away.
But the film crew has been just phenomenal, just fitting in and, you know, working with
everybody and they've got a weekend and then it's been going over really well.
One of the things that I could see, I could see you getting into the show and I could see
you being pulled into it like a lot of people are.
I think that I didn't watch it routinely, but I saw enough episodes and I've had enough
times since then, those original episodes in the 90s look back and see some of that.
There's some things here and there about it we could go on and talk about.
But one of the things that stood out to me was for every scene that there is of other
chasing the, you know, a possible criminal and he's hiding under, you know, a pool, a
kiddie pool or something for every scene like that, there are heartfelt ones.
There are ones where you see officers helping, you know, an unhoused person or, you know,
talking to somebody who could be arrested, but they talk it through and they figure it
out and something and maybe they're not arrested or something like that.
You saw so many stories that you'd never see in TV or movies.
You know, you never see those and there's a billion, there's been a billion cop shows,
you've never seen stories lines that like you would on cops and they were actual like
individuals, you know, real police officers.
Boy, I cannot think of a day and age where we could use that more than right now and
having that.
There's going to be those scenes where you're going to, they're chasing the guy around
and then everything that does some cookie or knucklehead or whatever and everything.
But along with that, I hope and I imagine, you know, them bringing this back and especially
it sounds like they're taking time inside jails and like that.
They're not doing that just for that type of footage.
They're doing it for that homegrown footage, that stuff that really humanizes our officers,
something you and I have been trying to do from day one.
Yeah, a great point again.
If you look at the consistency and the treatment of law enforcement throughout the country,
you know, so many might get arrested, but you're going to see the professionalism and
that's again, cops films all over the country and, you know, what I've learned, it's not
just the large, you know, law enforcement agencies where you have a high volume of calls
to service, it's everywhere, you know, that they're at and here, you know, we're a smaller
department.
They reached out.
Obviously, the show is still popular, but I think the biggest point of what you just
said is how you see the professionalism throughout the country, you know, and you're going
to see that with our correction staff, you know, and how they treat people, how they
treat, you know, our inmates that are in custody with professionalism and respect.
And no, it's, again, the personal end of it is kind of cool for me, but it's not about
that's not why they're here.
They're here to show what our correction staff does and to highlight them and so people
can get the opportunity, not just locally, but nationally to see, you know, how good
we are.
That full circle moment for you is, is very organic and that seems to be how it happens.
I've had some moments like that and some others out there and I love when that happens,
it's just cool to hear that happen for you on a personal level.
That's awesome.
It is also just great to have something like this going on in our community and to be
able to highlight that jail, to be able to highlight these officers and these individuals.
It's a great thing.
We'll be keeping an eye on that and certainly looking for that episode down the line.
That's going to be exciting.
I'm looking forward to it.
I probably might ask you next month a little bit more about how the last bit of filming
went and stuff might touch on this again.
Yeah, maybe we'll get one of the filmmakers to come in and talk to if they're still
around if they're up to it.
Sure.
We know that as we are getting into October here, there's a couple of things we want to
highlight that are unique about October.
Yeah.
Domestic Violence Awareness Month.
It's for the month of October, just a highlight our partnership with the Family Center here
in Southwood County and thank you for what they do in working with us and helping victims
get through really tough situations.
So a huge thank you to them.
You'll see many of our deputies wearing a purple pin in respect or more or less an awareness
for domestic violence awareness month of October.
But quite honestly, we've talked about this every month, every day is domestic violence
awareness and just always remember, people are out there in tough situations that we've
got to work through with them and then working through not only the person that is going
to be held responsible, but remember the victims, the victims, the spouse, the children, and
the impact that it has, it affects everybody.
So yeah, we'll be thinking of everybody this month, but it's really every day, it's
something especially in our profession.
Then they're doing its breast cancer awareness month and we also have pink patches we've
been doing that for quite some time.
So you'll see deputies also wearing the pink patch throughout this month, but we didn't
make it a requirement, just that you only can wear this one month, you can wear it anytime
because it not only represents people going through breast cancer, but anybody that is
going through cancer, it represents that tough situation, that health situation that somebody
is going through and cancer takes away too many good people from our lives and it's a way
to honor, represent them as we have the last several years.
So yeah, two big things this month to consider, please think about the victims and people
that are going through those situations with domestic violence and the people going through
not only breast cancer, but cancer itself, it affects so many people, family, friends,
and thoughts and prayers to everybody that are going through that right now.
Want to thank you and the team being with us at the Family Center, being on the right
side of history for that matter with this topic.
And certainly the amount of purple that we see out there in the community is appreciated.
You're going to see a lot of porch lights that will go purple, encourage others to do that
as well.
Not only does that mean something as far as the cause and certain things like that and it
absolutely means something to the members over at the Family Center who, you know, especially
working at a nonprofit and you get this better than I do, sir, the grind of the week, the
grind of the month, the grind of the year and those things and what gets you through
that. And oftentimes it can be that little thing, that tiny thing that gives you that
extra push or that extra motivation or just energy and seeing, oh, you know, sometimes
you're working at the Family Center and things can feel like it's you against the world
or something like that.
And then you see a community of three houses in a row with purple porch lights and you
realize, oh, I'm not alone in this fight.
You see our Sheriff's Department wearing purple or something like that.
No, I'm not alone in this fight.
I've got others with me on this.
It goes so much farther than we can really put into words.
And then there are, they're not just victims out there, but the possible ones.
There's statistically, we know there are many, many individuals out there that are in
this situation right now and we want them to get help.
So when they see more and more people, more and more, almost a whole community on the
same side on this topic, they're going to be that much more likely to come forward.
They're going to be that much more likely to see that.
These days of talking about this subject in a quiet voice are over that we put in a
genie back in the bottle.
We're not going backwards on this topic.
We encourage you to do these things and to be a part of this and certainly keep them
in mind every month of the year.
My family, I lost my grandmother to breast cancer, I almost, you know, my mom had a touch
and go moment there and worry about my daughters.
I am saying this because I know there are hundreds and thousands of people out there that
know exactly what I'm talking about and been through exact same thing.
It's the same stuff I was just saying when it comes to this and seeing that purple
bat or that pink badge and seeing the support there and the cause and when we have people
out there who are going through chemo or struggling right now or family members of members
of that, they see that pink badge.
They know they're not alone in that fight.
They have another person that's right there with them on that.
We see these colors and we talk about this stuff.
I don't know that we stop enough to really just appreciate this and we've normalized
some of these things so much and it's not a bad thing necessarily, but life goes forward.
We don't stop very often to just take a moment and like, man, this is pretty cool.
We have a Sheriff's Department backing these causes.
We have a Sheriff's Department of Cares.
We have the individuals in this community to do and go out of their way to show that
care and that support.
Yeah, no, very well said, and that's, you know, when those, you look at those initiatives
that are out there that touch people's lives, it's just, it's, why not?
I hadn't said anything in a while, so I felt like I had to talk for that, not kidding,
I was trying to light things up a little bit, but they are important topics and they're
very appreciated, sir, and really do appreciate the fact that we take time to talk about
them as well.
Got some other things you wanted to touch on as well?
Shout out to my daughter, Jordan.
She had her birthday yesterday, so she's back to work over at the night economy Sheriff's
Department dispatching for them.
She was on family leave for a bid.
She had my grandson, River, he's doing great, he's over 15 pounds, gained a lot of weight,
he's started to look like me more and more, balding and heavy, you know, so we're good
with that.
No, he's healthy, you know, things are good, but yeah, big shout out to Jordan up in
Crandon, so other things, I want to bring up Sarah McCormick, I know she was on the
show last night, and I just, her last day is this Friday, and just, you know, getting
almost 30 years in the career, like they talk about it, all dedicated to accounties is
pretty special, and wishing her the best as she moves forward in the next step of life,
and you know, you look at a legacy, and I talked about, you know, Doug Christensen when
he, before he retired, and you know, what's part of that legacy that's going to be there
for probably ever, you know, with Doug as the mental health side of things, and Sarah,
you know, a couple of things just jump out of him, and again, we did talk about him,
but, you know, Project Life Saver, who are taking that role in making, you know, overseeing
Project Life Saver, and now how sustainable is, and how that program, you know, I'm biased,
but I'm going to tell you, it's the best one in the state, if not in the Midwest, and that
really falls on, you know, teamwork and ability for somebody to lead like Sarah did, and
jumping on it, and getting out in the community, and connecting with, you know, at-risk people
to make sure we don't go through a tragedy like we did many years ago, you know, that's
legacy right there, because you've got a program that is going to continue with the
Sheriff's Department, no matter if I'm part of it or not, or it's there, and, you know,
there's so many people that are part of that, they're going to make sure that that's going
to continue, and that's, you know, that's on her, you know, and also, you know, you look
at the unfortunate circumstances that keep coming up in the country, and those active
shooter situations, and what we've been doing at the department is many presentations about
how to prepare for those potential tragedies, you know, how can we, as people, being taught
from law enforcement officers, to keep us safe, whether it's a church community, a school
or a business, you know, Sarah, again, did many presentations out in our community in
Wood County that are going to help people be safe, you know, hopefully we never have to
go through a situation like that, but now that we've taught you and how to react to a
tragedy like that, maybe not in Wood County, but somewhere else, that's another part of
that legacy, you know, and then the last thing that just jumps out of me is Lavon's
downer, you know, that bridge that, you know, we talked about last month, I mean, it was
really her, you know, pushing that, you know, and going through that with her and how much
it took just to name a bridge, a state highway, you know, after somebody that so deserved
it and all the hoops that you had to go through, and that's going to be, you know, there
forever, you know, and I think that really fits, you know, with somebody that great person,
you know, going to miss her, but look at the impact that you left here on the department
and the community that's going to last forever, and that means a lot, I think, for all of
us, you know, when you could, you know, put, you know, that much time into a career and
really give yourself to the community and people see that and come around it and then,
you know, it builds from there. So, you know, congrats to Sarah, I'll miss you, you know,
but I'm really excited for you to, for the next phase of your life and she knows that
she's always going to be welcome at the Sheriff's Department, even after she retires, we'll
try to coax her back in for something.
I have no doubt. I want to shout her out again, thank her for the time and I have to do this.
My mom, she is a gigantic fan of Sarah's and she had not certainly known much about her before
the interview, listening to the interview, just came out of it and she was raving about her,
what I thought it was one of her kids, the way she was raving about Sarah, just how amazing
she thought her career was and the legacy that she had in this area and my mom, I thought
brought up a really solid point of, you know, we, we, it's a legacy just on its own important,
all the things you said, sir, the fact that it is a female officer that we're talking about
here, you know, can't be kind of taken lightly and I know you don't or anything, but just to
note it one more time, not, not because it really matters necessarily to the scheme of things,
I think, especially for you as officers and everything, the way you look at each other and all
that, but to young people out there and especially young women out there and understanding that this
is an industry that, you know, you can flourish and you could do good and stuff, we need good
individuals in and explaining that, I just, so she saw angles on it, I did not see in the interview
and I really appreciated it and I really appreciated the time from Sarah. Yeah, I'm really happy
that she had that pretty come in, you could let her be on the show. We got some good events
coming up in the area, did you want to get into those? Yeah, we've got, you know, Arcadia
and you know, as we always talk about the can, you know, we're so lucky to have the community
support. Tonight, we have the Wisconsin Strapist, Kwanis meeting and very recognized us once,
but there was an anonymous donor that wanted to match all the donations that had done many,
many community projects or groups and we again were selected for that off of a golf outing and
then somebody wanted to anonymously match all those donations. So we're going to the meeting
tonight to just to hang out with them and they're going to recognize us with another donation,
which is really cool, you know, it's every year, you know, I'm just astonished by the support
for not just the Kina unit, but you know, our special response team, this fitness equipment
for the new facility and we're really blessed to have the amount of support that we do, so that'll
be tonight. Also, you know, we had to reach out from the youth football program, the Raptors,
they throughout the season have been fundraising for Wisconsin Strapist Police Department and
the Sheriff's Department's K9 unit. So on the 11th is their last game, they could play at the
the big stadium and we'll be there with some of our our K9s and then they want to present us
a check later too on the donations that they have been collecting throughout the season. So again,
they thought of us and and reached out. So, you know, another really really awesome thing that,
you know, the community and you know how I feel about football. Yeah, so this is kind of a
cool thing. So a big shout out to Sean Klingforth for, you know, reaching out and other people
in the community, you know, from parents that are supporting their kids playing football and
again, thinking of us to donate to. And then another thing for, we've got bingo night coming up
on October 9th at the Elk's Lodge. It starts at 5.30 p.m. We'll probably we'll do at least 10
rounds of bingo. Something that, you know, we've done golf all of these that were really awesome,
great people organizing those that event and then we thought, okay, let's try something different.
So we're going to do bingo night. $20 suggested donation when you get to the door and then we'll
have 50-50 raffles and then bingo cards will cost two bucks and like I said, we'll do at least
10 games and you know, food will be provided. So we'll have many of our canine units there as well.
So please push that out and hope to see as many people as we can for that event.
4 to 9 on October 9th over at the Wisconsin Threats Elk's Lodge. Just had Tom and the gang in
from the Elk's Lodge. Just a little bit ago on the morning show we were talking about their
super bingo event and some of the other fun things they got lined up. Appreciate our great
friends at the Elk's Lodge. Support the things they got going on over there. Keep in mind
every Wednesday got bingo over there. Find it, get there early. It is, I drive past their every
Wednesday night. Just jam packed, man, every Wednesday night. They got their busy over there.
Should be sure to check that out, everyone. So did you have anything else you wanted to touch on?
Shell from Mike Weiberg. Representative Scott Crude had reached out and every year does
first responder of the year. And so I thought, you know, this is a good way to recognize Mike.
He's our rescue director. Donates a lot of time. We've had him on the show before and I thought,
well, you know, we were at a crash recently and he got there and people were trapped in the car
and just he's just a machine boom right on it knows what to do, you know, and gets people out
and get some to, you know, get some out safely and so that, you know, they can get some medical
attention immediately and, you know, just with that and then, you know, 25 plus years giving back
the community. I felt, you know, I'd nominate him. And thankfully, the office of Scott Crude's
office selected him. So this coming up, I don't think it believes it's October 14th. He'll be
done at the Capitol being recognized. So something just well deserved for Mike and thank you to
Representative Crude for number one, having the opportunity to recognize somebody and number two
for selecting Mike. Yeah, there's something going on right now. Shout out to Marchfield Clinic.
We're doing my crash up at Pitsville High School right now. It's going on. You'll see that pop-ups,
you know, periodically at our high schools and thank you to the clinic for pushing that through.
Those aren't easy events to organize with so many different first responders coming there and
and how the mock crash works at a really moment. It's like an end result of a crash. And then,
you know, you have all your emergency services working together as they, you know,
if whether it's a very serious injury, fatality, you know, going through what that impact is on the
the whole entire school. So thank you to the Marchfield Clinic for pushing that through. We've
got many of our staff out there right now working on that. And then probably the last thing to bring up.
You know, it's basically official. We have a school resource officer up in Auburndale, you know,
the partnership that we have been talking about for several probably years and months. But this
happened, you know, Jesse Nells, one of our deputies was selected for that spot. So he will be our
school resource officer for the village of Auburndale or the school district of Auburndale.
For those that may not know, what kind of work will he be doing? What kind of what will he be in
charge of and doing there? You know, a lot of planning, safe events, you know, being at the school,
dealing with any, you know, issues that come up within the school, you know, whether it could be,
you know, policy issues or law enforcement issues. Great partnership that you look at and I'm
very proud that Auburndale, you know, wanted to do this, you know, because you always, that's a
pretty big school district and it's all rural and we are completely responsible for it.
You know, without Jesse and we were still spending as much time as we could during the day during
the school year. But, you know, it'd been nice just to have somebody there on staff throughout
the school year and just a great partnership that I'm really proud that it worked out for
not only Auburndale, but the Sheriff's Department as well. Big shout out to our county board, you know,
Auburndale's paying for part of the position and we had to stop up for the rest of it. So it's a
nice partnership between the county and the school district to make something happen for, you know,
safety. It's not only good to hear about, it's something that I think we might be hearing about
things like that more going forward and that's encouraging, I think. That's a great story, great
to hear about. You'll get his opportunity to be on the show, I promise. Right, that's a baby,
it was going to go there next, it's going to go next, but always good talking with you, sir.
Really appreciate the time. Thank you so much for that and I encourage you to, you know, you
squeeze the spread out to the team and everything, safe travels out there and we'll talk again next
month. Sounds like a plan. Thank you. Thank you, Sean. And a big thank you to our friends at
Wisconsin Rapids Community Media for joining us as always. Go to YouTube, type in your search bar,
Wisconsin Rapids Community Media and subscribe to the great work that they are doing. A big thank you
to Crockett Sceptics sponsor in this hour for us to be able to talk with our Wood County Sheriff's
Department. And thank you, everybody, for joining us for another edition of WFHR's Rapids Report.
