Kemmeter column: Check helped build professional law enforcement
By Gene Kemmeter
Nick Check, the longest-serving sheriff in Portage County history, died Saturday, Nov. 16, 2019. He presided over the sheriff’s office for 14 years, from 1965 to 1979, serving seven two-year terms in the office during a period of significant changes.
Check, a town of Sharon native and Rosholt High School graduate, began in law enforcement as an officer with the Milwaukee Police Department from 1951 to 1961. He then joined the Portage County Sheriff’s Department as chief deputy under Sheriff Emil Meshak. His time with the Milwaukee police would prove to be extremely valuable to Portage County in future years.
Sheriffs in Wisconsin at that time were limited to serving two consecutive two-year terms before stepping down, and then the chief deputy usually ran for the office after which the sheriff usually ran again. That law was changed after Check was elected, allowing the sheriff to hold office for an unlimited number of terms to bring more continuity to the office. The term was also later changed from two years to four years.
As sheriff, Check emphasized the need for education and training of deputies, such as he experienced in Milwaukee, and he set up training sessions and promoted more professionalism in the department. He worked to move detectives’ and other deputies’ desks from the corridors of the jail to more secure and private areas by having the county purchase more space.
The 1960s and 1970s were a tumultuous period on university campuses, and the Wisconsin State University at Stevens Point – now UWSP – was no exception. The local campus had its first taste of the stormy period in May 1967 when then-Governor Warren Knowles was here to speak at the Whiting Hotel. A group of students and others were protesting a proposal to raise the legal age for drinking beer from 18 to 21. “The Beer Riot” broke out with the group throwing eggs and turning over a beer truck trying to make deliveries in the downtown area.
The group then marched to the intersection of Division and Main streets, setting a bonfire in the center of the intersection before dispersing as more law enforcement officers arrived. Check called nearby counties in for support the following night, and officers patrolled the campus area to keep groups from forming. Students were also taking finals at the time, and no further problems developed.
Check worked with students in future years, developing a rapport with them, and other student protests during the Vietnam War, including a sit-in at Nelson Hall, avoided the disruptions many other campuses experienced.
His ability to work with people also helped to reduce the impact of the Iola Rock Fest in the town of New Hope in 1970 where an estimated 100,000 people congregated during a weekend. Unfortunately, there were reports of assault, other incidents and traffic problems, but no deaths.
The rock fest, one of several in the nation inspired by Woodstock in 1969, led Check and other local officials to develop an ordinance to address problems experienced locally to govern future events. That ordinance was written to govern large public gatherings and was adopted by many other counties in the state.
Check also believed in access to public records. To ensure reporters had access to deputies’ written reports without having to call deputies in from patrol on weekends, he gave reporters from the Stevens Point Journal and radio station WSPT keys to the County Annex so they could read those reports and report on them. I was one of those reporters, and I’ve never found another reporter in the state who had keys to the sheriff’s office.
Check served on numerous state committees and boards dealing with a variety of law enforcement issues, including eight years as chair of the Wisconsin Council on Criminal Justice, which distributed federal funds to improve the criminal justice system in the state. He was also a co-founder and past president of the Badger State Sheriffs’ Association.
Check had a distinct influence on law enforcement in Portage County and elsewhere in the state, by emphasizing the need for education and training. He helped to raise the professional quality of law enforcement dealing with safety education, mental illness, emergency preparedness, and drug and alcohol policy. Wisconsin is better because of him.
I was one of those reporters, too, when I worked for WSPT/WXYQ in the late ’70s and early ’80s. It was my first job in journalism, so I didn’t know how rare it was to have keys to the sheriff’s annex. Doing the morning “police beat” meant arriving at the annex around 3:30am. I would let myself in an have complete run of the place. I thought it was normal to have total, unfettered access to everything with nobody around to keep an eye on me! Thanks, Gene, for recalling how special those times were, when law enforcement and the media had mutual trust and respect.