SPPD, State Patrol Arrest 13 During Major Joint Operation
“The word should be out for those who travel through our community or participate in crime, we’re out there on the streets- and we’ll find you.” -Police Chief Kevin Ruder
By Brandi Makuski
A large- scale joint task force Friday night brought down some large- scale criminal activity.
In partnership with the Wisconsin State Patrol, the Stevens Point Police Department cast a wide net over “problem areas” of the city, including the Michigan Avenue/Patch Street and Franklin/Division Street intersections to crack down on criminal activity.
Assistant Police Chief Tom Zenner, who initially reached out to the State Patrol to assist with the operation, said the detail ran from 6 PM to midnight and cost some $1900 in overtime for five Stevens Point police officers, not including Zenner who works on salary. The State Patrol officers were on regular paid time.
“We made 78 traffic stops, but there was a total of 81 contacts that night because we had some open intoxicants, bicycle violations, things like that,” Zenner said.
Police made 13 arrests Friday night, Zenner said, including six criminal arrests for crimes such as drug/ paraphernalia possession and criminal obstruction. Seven warrant arrests were made, four of them felony arrests and two for OWI.
“At one point, it was like someone had lit up Division Street like a Christmas tree,” said State Patrol Sgt. Rhae Stertz. “You could look in the rearview mirror at all the (police) stops and just go, ‘wow’.”
Stertz runs the Highway Criminal Interdiction team for the State Patrol. She was the initial point of contact for city police and has worked with a team of more than 10 troopers in several communities across the state in similar operations.
“We also wrote several citations including texting while driving, several traffic warnings, and we had 10 K-9 requests using the State Patrol K-9 dog they brought with them,” Zenner said, but he added one arrest in particular highlighted the evening.
“One of our warrants that a State Patrol Trooper stopped was from a 1993 warrant,” Zenner said.
The State Patrol pulled over over Salvador Villalobos, 37, from Dane County at the Patch Street/ Michigan Avenue intersection for a burned out taillight. After verifying his identification, police discovered Villalobos had been on the run for 20 years on three felony warrants- 1st degree sexual assault, 4th degree sexual assault and false imprisonment.
Zenner and Stertz said they aren’t sure why Villalobos was in the area or if he lived nearby, but he was transported to jail to await transportation to Dane County.
Beyond saturating the problem areas of the city and stopping criminal activity, Police Chief Kevin Ruder said the department needed to show what could be accomplished on the streets were the department fully staffed.
“We used to have 45 officers- now we’re down to 42,” Ruder said. “During this detail, we showed by example what can be done if only we had the bodies.”
Ruder put in a request for additional personnel for the 2013 budget but was denied. For next year’s budget, Ruder is requesting three additional officers, two of whom would be used for street patrol and one for Internet Crimes- a growing concern for local law enforcement.
“We’re in over our heads when it comes to that,” Ruder said. “With the increase in reports of attempted computer crimes, child pornography and scams and other Internet crimes, we need an individual who can devote his or her full attention that not only the crimes themselves, but to educating the public about them- especially kids.”
Ruder said the joint operation Friday was a huge success because it highlights the department’s relationship with other law enforcement agencies, but it also shows a darker side of Stevens Point many would rather ignore.
“People sometimes don’t realize our community grows and is so large because people travel through here; we’re at the crossroads of I-39 and highway 10 and we have people come through that do have records, that have experience in crime. We ended up taking some of those people off the roads of the community. It makes for a great ending, but this is not an ending; the word should be out for those who travel through our community or participate in crime, we’re on the streets and we’ll find you,” Ruder said.