you
On a morning show today from WRC, we put the spotlight on national women in law enforcement day, which is observed annually on September 12th.
And we are celebrating today and recognizing professionals in our area.
State prosecutor Jennifer Harper is here.
Lieutenant Lauren Mow of the Richland Center Police Department and from the Richland County Sheriff's Department, jail administrator Devin Rupp is in the studio with us.
Jennifer, we'll start with you.
This is an awesome time to spotlight women in that profession.
Sure, great.
Thanks for having us on this morning, Phil.
I was looking.
This time last year and my son started in the police academy at Southwest Tech It's an excellent program and I was asking about his class and how many women were in the class and it was very few and it surprised me a little bit and I thought about all the women I had worked with and 25 plus years as a prosecutor and I've worked with some excellent officers and
I thought, I wonder why more women aren't going into law enforcement.
So I was sort of considering that.
And I ran across this National Women in Law Enforcement Day.
And I thought that would be a great time to maybe extend some appreciation and thanks to this subset of law enforcement.
Of course, we appreciate law enforcement overall.
But this subset of law enforcement and sort of educate the public that this is a good job.
And this is a good job for women.
There's lots of things you can do with law enforcement degree.
We'll hear
from some different options here and then encourage young women and young men to explore the possibility of going into this field, ask questions, maybe contact the agencies and really sort of consider what potentially being a member of law enforcement might mean in their lives.
Why did you choose the career path that you chose?
I just didn't want to do math my whole life.
So I had a couple of different options and one was talk and one was do math.
So ta-da, here I am Phil.
There
you
are.
But I mean your profession, I mean the prosecution, that's changed in the time that you've been along the way,
right?
It's changed quite a bit and it's changed partly because I think we have a more professional law enforcement presence.
Once upon a time you could just get out of high school and
Your friend's dad says, hey, you want to come be a cop, and it's not that way anymore.
Now we have education protocols and standards and continuing education and things like that, which means we have a more elevated group of law enforcement officers which make prosecutors' lives much better, much easier.
I think it makes the public much more safe to have sort of this elevated and better educated group of law enforcement officers.
So, and with that comes better investigations and that comes more cases and that comes more trials.
And so it has changed what it looks like to be a prosecutor.
Unfortunately, not always a best light is shown on people in law enforcement, whether it's men or women these days.
Sure.
And that's because it's the outlier.
If you think about it, you will almost never hear about an OWI first.
on the nightly news.
It's because they're fairly commonplace, unfortunately.
But you will hear the OWI-10.
It's because it's an outlier.
It's because it's something that's unexpected and unusual.
So the things that you see on TV are the things that really are the outliers, the things that are unexpected, the things that don't happen every day.
What you're seeing every day is law enforcement doing a great job protecting and serving our community.
You've
changed your, not necessarily occupation, but your job over the course of the last year.
Could you tell us what you're doing now?
Sure, I'm still a state prosecutor.
So I was hired by Andrew Sharp, who was the DA back in 2000.
I've been a prosecutor since that time.
I was the district attorney here in Richland County for the last 15 years.
And it's a new season and a different opportunity.
So I'm still a state prosecutor, but I'm an assistant district attorney.
It's great not to be the boss in another county.
It's been great.
Cases have changed as well.
What are more of the common cases now that maybe weren't when we started?
Math.
Math.
I can't really say, I know this is on air and we need to fill the airtime, but that's what it is really.
Math is a scourge.
Every crystal of math is a constellation of other crimes that go with it, and that's really something that has happened.
I think since about 2000 and
18 or 19 is when it really started to take over a lot of our caseload.
And law enforcement has to deal with that, and not only the crimes that come from it, but people who are actually on it, and that creates other dangerous situations that law enforcement has to work with.
But these women have the tools to do that, the men of course do as well, and we work through it.
I'm so out of the loop that really surprises me, to be honest.
Well, I'm glad that you don't know about the meth traffic.
So that's really, yeah, that's really, I think, the primary caseload that we have right now.
It's driven by meth and other substances.
You mentioned Southwest Tech.
That's a good avenue for people to go that are interested in the profession.
Sure, it really is.
And I think that we have, so we have Lieutenant Moe and we have jail administrator Rupp now here who took two different paths to get to where they are now and law enforcement.
So we have one in admin and we have one in command staff, which is very impressive and shows that women do have an opportunity to go up through the ranks over the course of their history.
You don't, or course of their career.
You don't have to just come in as a road patrol and stay there.
if you don't want to.
And one of the sort of traditional ways is you get out of school, get out of high school, you decide you want to be an officer or in corrections, and you go get your 60 credits, college credits, which are necessary, and go through the police academy.
Southwest Tech has an excellent program.
Many of the officers who are both on the police department and the sheriff's department have been through that program, have their degrees through that program.
It's excellent.
Hands on.
I've been there.
number of times to work with the students, I think you have to, Devin, have done that as well when we talked about sort of corrections based education.
So it's excellent, it's very close.
I highly encourage anyone looking into that program if they're interested in law enforcement.
Wonderful.
Well, Lieutenant Mo is here as well.
Lauren, good morning.
Good to have you on the air.
Good morning.
Thanks for having us.
When you were in high school back at Ithaca all those years ago, was law enforcement something that you wanted to get into initially?
I had initially thought about law enforcement to go into it.
I always had liked it, but I did go off to the University of Wisconsin lacrosse for four years.
There, I graduated with a biology major and a criminal justice minor.
And before I graduated from there, I got hired by the Richland County Sheriff's Department.
So I started working jail dispatch there before graduating.
And that kind of just got me in the door to move up the line.
And you moved up the ranks.
Yeah.
Right.
I worked for the Richland County Sheriff's Department from 2004 to 2010.
I did six years in the
Jail and dispatch and I wanted to patrol from there.
I actually went to the law enforcement Academy at MATC in Madison and I Worked another year on patrol for the Sheriff's Department and then transferred over to the Richland Center Police Department
How common is it to have women in Sheriff's departments across the state of Wisconsin?
I think like the average is about 10% of females in law enforcement.
Okay
So you're still in the minority, right?
What are some of the challenges you face as a woman?
I think the biggest challenges is just when you go out on a call is just that initial communication with those.
Once they understand what's going on, what you're there for, everything usually goes smoothly.
In Richland County you have a lot of ground.
to cover.
Yes.
In the county, there is a lot of ground to cover in the city.
It's not as much,
but a lot
more people.
Right.
Exactly.
So, and, uh, as we talked about, um, with, with Jennifer as well, um, drugs, probably one of the main things these days.
Yes.
Yeah.
And methamphetamine, like she had mentioned, is one of the most common things we deal with now.
I've seen it change over the years.
We had a lot of marijuana, cocaine.
Uh, we went into heroin and now we're into methamphetamine.
What about laws?
Do the kind of tie your hands a little bit in terms of, you know, seeing, seeing repeat offenders?
I guess that's maybe the
question.
We do see a lot of repeat offenders.
Um, and with the laws, it just, some have changed over the years, but not so much.
A lot of the laws have to kind of catch up to where we're at.
Do you go to some area schools once a while?
I mean, do you encourage young people that might be interested in the profession?
I have gone to some of the schools.
I know that.
Ithaca and Richland Center had done where students would come and then they can walk around to different tables, talk to people about their interests in either law enforcement or other other jobs, and I've been at those gatherings.
And there's been a lot of interest, you know, they'll come and talk to you, but then I don't usually see them in the future.
But what do you tell a young person that that's interested?
I mean, I tell them
that it is a great job to be in every day is different.
Every situation is different.
Nothing is ever the same.
I mean, you are going to see tragic events here and there, but there are a lot of good events that you go to as well and a lot of good contacts you have with people.
I presume you could write a book.
I
kind of wish looking back, I would have started that.
It'd be a very long book though.
Any humorous stories you can share?
I mean, without naming names or any specific things.
I don't
think so.
Well, I'm sure there are some.
Yes.
Maybe you'll have to tell us off the year later or something.
Devin Rupp now is here as well, representing Richland County Sheriff's Department, jail administrator.
Good morning, Kevin.
Good to have you on the air with us here today.
Thank you.
Tell us about the path that you took to this job.
Yeah, so I, when I graduated high school, I really didn't know what I wanted to do.
So I went off to college and I tried a couple of different things and then I landed on law enforcement and it just fit.
So that's where I've been ever since.
I went to Southwest Tech eventually and did the associate's degree program and got my
associates in criminal justice there and did the academy there.
So that's how I started.
And then I got hired with the sheriff's office in 2015 as a jailer dispatcher.
And I did that for a couple of years.
And then in 2017, I promoted and went out to the road as a road patrol deputy.
And then I was with the county until about 2021 when I took a short break when we started our family.
And then I came back to the jail.
in 2023.
So I've been back ever since.
What's a typical day like for yours every day different?
Every day is different.
Yeah.
It's, I mean, it's the same, but it's different.
You deal with the same general tasks, but the people are different.
The scenarios are different.
So that's one of the things I like about it is it's always different.
Do you miss being out on the road
though?
Sometimes.
There's parts of each of them that I miss and there's parts of each of them that I could leave.
But the challenge in the county is you're down by Muscatay and you get a call in Casanova.
I mean, sometimes those are tough days, aren't they?
Yeah.
Lot of driving.
Lot of driving.
So no more.
You don't have to do that anymore.
Not usually.
Do you have to have thick skin?
Yes.
I would say for both working in the jail, honestly dispatched to.
And to be on the road, you have to have thick skin.
So it's not, it's not for the faint of heart.
Uh huh.
Sure.
And do you get a chance to talk to young people from time to time, encouraging?
Yep.
So, um, as Jennifer mentioned, I go down to Southwest tech once or twice a year, um, and talk to the criminal justice students.
They do different programs down there.
So, um, we go down and kind of present about our agency.
And then I also go down and do a presentation about the jail.
So.
And they're pretty receptive to that.
I mean, people getting into law enforcement probably don't always think about being an administrator.
Do they are a jailer administrator?
I don't think so.
No.
Yeah.
What do you love the most about the job
though?
I love the people that make up my team.
I mean, they do a great job.
By the way, we have two openings.
If anyone's looking for a good job.
Put that plug in
there.
We have both a male and a female opening.
It's I love the variety.
So being jail and dispatch combined, people don't realize how much goes into that.
And there
are two very different skill sets.
So being able to combine those and do both of them takes a lot.
And it's great because it's something different all the time.
What shifts do you work like?
What are your typical hours
for me right now?
Um, so I work Monday through Friday, um, office hours.
Typically I do try to stay late one day a week, at least just to kind of touch base with my second shift people.
Um, but for the jail, um, and honestly the everyone on the sheriff's office, they do a 12 hour shift rotation now.
So
somebody always has to be there though.
Right.
And holidays and nights and weekends and everything else.
Is the jail pretty full?
We hover right around 25 people usually on average.
The problem with that is, so we have a 42 bed facility, which to most people sounds like, oh, you have plenty of room.
But the reality is there's lots of different things we have to take into consideration per the state, such as inmate classification.
based on a whole bunch of things.
So people can only be housed with certain people than the gender.
When we have females, we have to house them separately, obviously.
Sentenced versus unsentenced people.
And then we have seen an uptick in mental health stuff.
So there's been times when we have a lot of mental health issues that can't necessarily be housed with other people.
So that takes up some room.
And then do you transport prisoners to other areas too?
Yep.
Other counties?
Yep.
So that comes into play.
Are you going to stick around long enough to see a new jail in Richland County?
I hope so.
I hope so.
That would make life a little bit easier, I'm sure.
It
would.
Yeah.
Both you and Lauren graduated from Ithaca schools.
I got after wonder were you inspired by Mr. Majeski at Ithaca
or?
I didn't get to see Mr. Majeski.
I was after that.
You're a little too young.
Yeah.
Lauren,
no.
Yes.
Yes.
I did have Mr. Majeski and I remember the nose being up against the wall
when you were talking during lunch and it was quiet time.
Really?
Okay.
So he inspired you to get into enforcing.
Maybe just to follow the
rules.
Yeah.
Maybe to follow the rules.
Good to have you both in here.
We'll be back.
more in a moment as we talk about women and law enforcement on today's morning show.
Ahead of National Women in Law Enforcement Day, we're in the studio with Jennifer Harper and Lauren Moe and Devin Rupp talking about what they do and very important to kind of learn behind the scenes stuff from them.
Jennifer Harper is our guest and Jennifer, women in law enforcement, you know, sometimes it's maybe a different skill set than men.
Can you talk about that a little bit?
Yeah, I think that there is a different skill set that women bring
to law enforcement, to being an officer.
I know it's not that popular to talk about, but women do walk through this world in a different way and through that can communicate in a different way.
If you are a hundred pound woman working their way through this world, it's different than if you're a six foot six man, 300 pounds working their way through the world.
So I think
Overall, what I've seen from the women in law enforcement are really excellent communication skills.
And especially when you're on scene or dealing with people who are going through crisis, either mental health crisis or substance abuse driven crisis or something like that, that having really strong communication skills can help de-escalate situations.
When you can de-escalate a situation, it makes it safer for law enforcement, for the person you're talking to, and for the public in general.
And I see on balance
women bring that really strong skill set to the table when they're officers.
That's not to say that men don't have those good communication skills, but I see that it comes just very naturally and is, I think, key quite often.
Most of the time we have contacts with citizens, citizen contacts for law enforcement.
It's usually not all crisis.
It's not crisis every moment we have protect, but we also have serve.
And so those soft skills...
I don't know that I love that it's called a soft skill, but, um, are really great for, uh, for, for citizen interactions.
And I think women really bring that to the table and, uh, in a substantial way.
I, if I'm a guy going up to it, I'm, I'm more likely to get hit, right?
I mean, are the intimidating thing to, to not hit a woman or, or is that, is that a fallacy learn?
Um, it, I think they might be a little embarrassed.
Say if a hundred pound female walks up to them and then they decide to hit them and everything, I think they might be embarrassed, you know, instead of like a six foot guy, 200 pounds going up to them, you know, so I do think a little bit that men kind of just back off a little bit that way with a female presence.
Sure.
And
anything else you wanted
to add,
Jennifer?
I think it's just a, I think it's just a completely.
different dynamic.
And I think it's a dynamic that brings to the table some natural de-escalation, right?
And I think that's very important, especially these days with law enforcement contact with citizens.
I think that better communication skills are always good.
And I just think that it's something that this group of women just brings naturally to the table.
What about going to trial?
You know, lots of times women are called to testify as well as men.
Sure.
And so I have found that across the board, no matter who is testifying, men or women, they are professionals and they all do a very excellent job of testifying.
So they're well prepared to do that.
Sort of what I'm talking about is when you're out on the road and someone gets a call and you don't get to be as prepared as you would be for trial, you just have to bring yourself and your skill set with you and your training that that's where
really see the difference.
So trials on TV are solved in an hour, you know?
I mean, if only life were that easy,
right?
Right.
It's never that tidy.
It's never that tidy.
It takes a long time in terms of research and everything else that we don't see, I guess.
Sure, it does take all those things, but in the federal system, I don't have the stats for the state system, but in the federal system, 98% of all cases resolve.
prior to trial and if you charge cases properly based on the evidence that exists and you can prove up your case reasonably beyond a reasonable doubt and
offenders are willing to take accountability, then 98% of cases don't go to trial.
The real work, it's like seeing the pastor on Sunday in the pulpit.
That's only an hour of his time, but he does have a full-time job.
So it's like the rest of us, just because we're not in trial, doesn't mean that we're not working hard on doing the things that we need to do for our community.
This is probably a tough question, but what laws would you like to see change that could help your job and make it a little easier?
Any ideas?
I'm editing.
Maybe I
stumped you.
No, no, no.
I'm editing on the laws that I think should be changed.
You got to dance with the one that Bronya fills.
So I got to dance with the laws that I have.
So anything that should be changed or could be the changed in the future.
I could fill up a couple of your hours on that, and I don't think we want to hear a dissertation on Chapter 961 or 948.
But certainly anything that helps make the public safer, we do like that Marcy's law was passed as a constitutional amendment a number of years ago, and it sort of elevates
elevates victims' rights to the extent where we really have to take victims into consideration more than maybe had happened a few decades ago when victims were really just treated as pieces of evidence instead of human beings who really do have a stake in a case, so that has certainly changed.
And anything like that that occurs is good for the community, certainly.
Tough for law enforcement, though, when somebody they've dealt with is right back on the streets, though, you know, in a few weeks.
Yes.
Yes, Phil, it is.
That is very difficult and frustrating for all of us.
I mean, there are definitely systemic problems.
I think the challenge that we've seen.
really over the last, I would say, 10 or 15 years.
And colleagues, you can tell me if I'm wrong, but the intersection of mental health and the criminal justice system, we have so many police contacts that are driven by mental health crises.
And really the criminal justice system, which is what I work in, is not well suited to people who have critical mental health needs.
The jail is not well suited or appropriate for people who have
critical mental health needs.
So I think that's really what we've seen an uptick in.
And if there's anything that could change is getting more services for that population would be really beneficial, I
think.
Yeah, I think you bring up a good point because a lot of the crimes are rooted in mental health issues, right?
Yes, that is one of the roots,
definitely.
My son law is in law enforcement in southeastern, Wisconsin.
Um, and a little story about him, how your hands are tied.
So he gets called.
There's a car was stolen.
Okay.
So he's out putting out the stop sticks.
They, they hit him and run over him, you know, nearly kill him.
Um, and then authorities follow this person to an apartment.
Uh, I guess it was people, they found new apartment and take in the guy that.
They assume was driving the keys are in his pocket, but they couldn't prove he was driving.
So he was out in the street then.
Yes.
I mean, those kind of things have to be frustrating for law
enforcement.
Yeah, I think that that happens so often, Phil, that I couldn't think of an example because it's sort of just.
the job.
That's just sort of how the job is, is, you know, it's a system that we work in, but we also live in a country where you're just not going to go sit in the can for years on end without knowing why or without knowing how or without having evidence.
So I think, you know, it's, it's a, it's a tradeoff.
It's a real tradeoff.
And the other thing is, yeah, you, you bring up a good point.
Our prison systems are, are full in the state of Wisconsin, aren't they?
So anything else you want to add?
Today, Jennifer.
No, I really want to highlight the women that are in law enforcement, encourage people to look into law enforcement career, ask questions.
We have some women here who have served quite well for a number of years.
We also had Mary Fish once upon a time and we had Kathy Logan and we had Marsha Mahatka.
And so now we have sort of a new generation of women.
So I appreciate all that they've done for this community.
It's interesting you mentioned those names, you know, I guess because they have been so few.
and we
just like,
oh, okay, we know them.
Yeah, we know Mary.
We know Cass.
We know Marsha.
Exactly.
Good.
Well, thanks for coming in today.
I know you got to get going.
Yeah, it's got to get to court.
Thank you, though.
We'll quiz Lauren and Devon a little bit more.
Lauren, maybe you could talk about the process of becoming an officer and what a young officer goes through when you first start the job.
Yes.
So in order to become an officer, you're supposed to have 60 college credits and go through the law enforcement academy, which is 720 hours now.
In that academy, officers will learn like professional communication skills, emergency vehicle operations.
They'll learn firearms and qualify with their firearms and then just learn about how to handle certain
scenarios.
They'll go through many of those throughout the academy.
Once they complete the academy, then they put out their applications to different agencies.
And then for our department, once they're hired, we put them through, it's 14 weeks of field training, 12 weeks of it, you have an officer with you that entire time.
And then the last two weeks, they're shadowed.
So they're out in their own vehicle doing their own thing, but an officer shows up to help them out.
Okay.
What about you mentioned firearms?
How often do you have to like recertify?
We do that every year.
Okay.
Every year we do that.
We also have to have continuing education 24 hours of that every year as well.
But usually every officer has way more training than that's required throughout the year.
Officers like to specialize in different things such as we have a detective.
He likes to do homicide training, different things like that.
We also have evidence technicians, individuals on our drug task force.
We have our special response team.
So there's always different trainings going on that officers are attending.
What's your favorite area of your job?
Just communicating with different people in the public, actually, just meeting new people and talking with them is my favorite part of it.
And you get that every day?
Yes,
exactly.
Do you have a typical shift then as lieutenant?
My shift as lieutenant is
7 in the morning till 3 30 in the afternoon, but I work six days on three days off just as the typical officer So I'm in a rotation with them I answer calls with them and then I also do commands to have stuff on top of that
And the county and the city I mean you share a lot of the resources don't you?
Oh, yes, definitely And we all work together very well if there's a large incident going on in the city or if we only have one officer on the deputies are coming to assist us But if they also need assistance with something we'll go assist them too
What about safety?
What are some some things that you do in that regard or with equipment or whatever?
Right?
Well, we're equipped with many things.
Obviously, everybody knows we have a firearm, but we carry.
OC spray, we have a baton, different things, a taser that we carry with us as well.
But the biggest thing for safety is officer presence and then their communication with those that they're in contact with.
And if they need assistance, we'll request assistance.
But usually there's another officer on scene with you if we can make that work.
Are
there
openings in the city?
Right now we're hiring for part time.
So we're hoping to get a couple part timers to fill in and then eventually down the road, we might have some retirements.
So that could lead into full time positions.
And how valuable are the canine units?
Very valuable.
We have one, well two.
canine units, but one that Lucy is for searching for people, lost people, things like that, and articles where then we have Officer Deneen who has canine teddy, which usually does drug and article searches.
And the other thing that I've noticed is you're using the drones a lot.
How valuable are they?
Those are very valuable.
The police department does not have a drone, but the sheriff's department does as well as the fire department.
So if that's needed, we request assistance from the sheriff's department or the fire department for that.
And that has been very helpful, especially recently.
Yeah, definitely.
Devin, some things that you want to add here this morning.
I guess if somebody is interested, you still do ride alongs?
Yes, the sheriff's office will do right along.
Some people just have to contact.
You can just call dispatch and ask and they'll get you set up with who you need to talk to.
Same for the jail and dispatch.
If somebody doesn't know, most people don't really know what all goes on there.
So if people are interested or think they might be interested, they can certainly come and sit in for an hour or two and just kind of see all of the different things that happen and see if it might be a good fit for them.
Did you do that
as a youngster?
Um, we did during school, we did a bunch of different tours, but I, I just knew once I, um, I did ride along for, uh, law enforcement.
And then once I did that, I knew that's what I wanted to do.
So.
Did you visit the jail?
Cause lots of times, uh, civics classes, I believe.
Yep.
We did in high school.
And so you didn't know at that time that someday it'd be.
You'd be working there.
So is this kind of the dream job?
Is there something else you would aspire
for?
Right now, this is the dream for me.
This works great for me.
I really enjoy what I do.
And having a young family, it's a good fit for me.
We talked to Lauren about it too, but as a woman, are there challenges with your job and being a woman?
Yeah, I mean, I think in general, you just have to
sometimes earn respect a little bit more.
But like Lauren said, just communicating with people is the biggest thing.
Especially in the jail, speaking specifically to that, they're just people.
You just have to be able to talk to them like they're people and remember that at the base, we're all just people.
So you can earn a lot of respect that way and just making sure you treat them respectfully.
Yeah, I think that's a that's a good point.
You know, you're going to get further that way.
Right.
Well, we thank you both for what you do.
It's amazing to have you in here together.
Great opportunity.
And we just salute you.
If anybody has any questions, you're both very approachable, right?
Yes, they can contact us anytime.
Contact anytime.
Great.
Thanks for coming in here.
National Women in Law Enforcement Day coming up on Saturday officially, State Prosecutor Jennifer Harper here earlier, Lieutenant Lauren Mow, the Richland Center Police Department and the Richland County Sheriff's Department jail administrator, Devon Rupp on this portion of the morning show.