Chaplains

The police department has an outstanding group of 7 volunteer chaplains. Chaplains provide services like making death notifications, providing assistance to victims, and providing counsel and support to members of the department and their families. Each chaplain comes with a background, training, and experience that enables them to properly serve, support, and strengthen others, even in the midst of some of life's more significant trials.

Community Outreach Specialist

In 2022, the City of Wausau hired a Community Outreach Specialist who is tasked with assisting our unhoused population and connecting them with resources to enhance quality of life. She identifies persons in need, provides support and advocacy as well as assist with services and housing needs for unsheltered individuals in the City of Wausau.

The Community Outreach Specialist meets people where they are, and has established scheduled hours at various locations in the City, to include the Marathon County Library, The Open Door and Community Partners Campus, to foster consistent contact and stability for clients.

Community Resource Unit

Crisis Assessment Response Team (CART)

The Wausau Police Department strives to be a leader in utilizing innovative programs in an effort to bring increased assistance to those in need and to reduce the frequency of contacts between those in crisis and our officers.

All of our officers are trained in Crisis Intervention (CIT), which gives our officers techniques and skills to use in their contacts with those in crisis. In addition to that, we entered into a partnership with the Marathon County Sheriff's Office with a team called (CART).

If you or someone you know if struggling with a mental health crisis, it is important to know you are not alone. There is hope and we are here to help you.

IF YOU NEED HELP, CALL OUR LOCAL CRISIS HELPLINE.

715-845-4326 / 800-799-0122

As a community, it is important we are always evaluating the needs of our community and how we respond to them. One obvious need which has been growing in our community, and across our nation, is the need for more help for those in crisis and with mental health disorders. Every single day, usually multiple times per day, our officers are responding to calls for those in crisis.

In 2018, we entered into a partnership with the Marathon County Sheriff's Office and North Central Health Care Center to create the Crisis Assessment Response Team (CART). The team is composed of two non-uniformed law enforcement officers, two crisis professionals and a therapy dog. The team works hand in hand with our patrol bureau and is housed at the Wausau Police Department, Monday through Friday.

Downtown Assignment

Honor Guard

Animal Control

The Animal Control program supports the Department’s responsibility and capacity to respond to a variety of calls-for-service 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The program utilizes non-sworn staff (i.e., Community Service Officers) as additional first-responder resources applied to animal-related calls-for-service, to mitigate the overall call volume otherwise resting upon the on-duty patrol shift of Police Officers. With active presence in the community as non-sworn personnel, Animal Control staff strive to impact quality of life and responsible pet ownership through the following means:

First-responder priority for calls-for-service regarding stray animals, animal bites and quarantining, animal noise complaints, concern for animal welfare and other complaints of ordinance non-compliance
Proactive ordinance compliance and enforcement activities, with focus on pet licensing
Supporting the criminal investigations of Police Officers, in handling any needed animal removal and placement at the Humane Society.

Citizens seeking personnel response to an animal-related concern should contact the Department’s non-emergency number: 715-261-7800 (select option 1 to be connected to Dispatch).

For a printable brochure regarding the animal control program click here

Other questions about animal-related ordinances and concerns may be emailed to:

animalcontrol@wausauwi.gov

Please see below links for more information about pet licensing and permits!

Lt. Jill Kurtzhals | Administrative Lieutenant

E-Mail: jillian.kurtzhals@wausauwi.gov

Important Links:

K-9 Unit

We first formed a K-9 Unit within the Patrol Bureau in 1997, with the addition of our first dual-purpose patrol dog, K-9 DaJana. The program was an immediate success and found to be an obvious need for the city. Since then, the unit has continued to grow and evolve with the addition of additional dogs and services available. We now have four dogs assigned in our Patrol Bureau, one for each patrol team.

Our K-9 teams are assigned the same normal patrol duties as other officers and are on patrol in our city every day. Each year they account for over 1,000 deployments for various needs. These range from narcotic-odor detection, officer assistance, tracking, apprehension and more. Over the past 25 years, 18 different dogs have served the City of Wausau.

If you have any questions about the K-9 Unit, or would like to donate, please let us know!

Lt. Luis Lopes Serrao | K-9 Unit Supervisor

E-mail: luis.lopes@ci.wausau.wi.us

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Patrol Bureau Teams

Our Patrol Bureau currently has four K-9 Teams. One team is assigned to each patrol rotation, to provide us with 24 / 7 coverage. Our 4 teams are trained as Dual-Purpose Patrol / Narcotics.

Dual-Purpose: Narcotics Detection, Tracking, Building Search, Area Search, Evidence Recovery, Apprehension and more

Patrol Dog Teams

K-9 Max #K14

Belgian Malinois

Officer Dennis Peterson

K-9 Astor #K15

Belgian Malinois

Officer Jason Pacey

K-9 Lokey #K16

Belgian Malinois

Officer Shawn Fritsch

K-9 Kaedo #K17

Belgian Malinois

Officer Kathryn Cross

Retired K-9s

Badge #	Dog Name	Handler	Service	Image
K1	DaJana	Dave Jordan	1997-2006
K2	Sander	Mark Jaeger	1997-2005
K3	Foster	Dave Landretti	2005-2014
K4	Pluto	Mark Jaeger	2005-2015
K5	Mabel	Dave Jordan	2006-2015
K6	Zanto	Shawn Fritsch	2013-2022
K7	Bak	Dale Zander	2015-2016
K8	Zander	Luis Lopes Serrao	2012-2019
K9	Rex	Mark Jaeger	2015
K10	Layla	Mark Jaeger	2015-2020
K11	Rio	Mark Kurtzhals	2017-2024
K12	Badge	Nick Stetzer	2017-2024

Major K-9 Sponsors

	The Norman Bradfish Fund, which is managed by the Community Foundation of North Central Wisconsin, helps cover major costs associated with the replacement of each of our dogs.
	Marathon Town & Country works with dog food vendors to provide us free dog food for each of our K-9 Teams.
	VCA Animal Hospital in Wausau provides donated and low-cost veterinary services to all of our K-9 Teams.

Therapy Dogs

The Wausau Police Department Therapy Dog Program was formed in 2017. Officer Nick Stetzer was working to find a way to help those in need while dealing with mental health crises. He believed the use of a therapy dog could be beneficial for those struggling. Officer Stetzer and his personal dog, Badge, underwent training, and in October 2017 officially started at Wausau East High School. The program was so successful that in 2018 a second dog, K-9 Theo, started at Wausau West High School. In 2024, K-9 Badge retired and was replaced by K-9 Timber.

Coming

Soon