Where I stand

Transparency and Real Oversight

When the public had questions about Ridglan, our Sheriff posted a video and disabled the comments. When his office planned a welfare check of the facility, it was announced in advance, a “scheduled” walkthrough that gave the facility time to prepare. When county supervisors sought information after April 18th, the department went quiet behind its lawyers, and the County Board’s oversight has been largely frozen ever since.

And when his office needed to explain April 18th, the Sheriff went on camera citing “preliminary reports” that demonstrators had jumped his deputies, struck them with their own batons, and tried to take their weapons. The public security footage does not support those claims, his own office’s same-day statement said no one was seriously injured, and he has never substantiated or corrected them.

That is a pattern, and the pattern is the problem. A public official who shuts off public comment, telegraphs his inspections, stonewalls the elected board that oversees his budget, and leaves unsubstantiated claims of violence standing is telling you exactly how he views accountability: as a threat to be managed.

The pattern is also a prediction. God forbid Dane County ever has an officer-involved shooting: that night, the first account the public gets will come from the same podium. An account of a protest that could not survive the public footage is the account we would be asked to trust about a shooting. We have seen where that leads, over and over, around the country. No county has to accept it. Ours gets to vote.

And that test is not one I made up. For a decade, federal civil rights work on policing has rested on a single premise: a department’s account of its own use of force has to survive the evidence. It is the minimum a county like ours should expect.

I see it differently. Accountability is the job description.

As Sheriff, I will:

Keep public comment open. You do not get to mute the county you serve.
Publish use-of-force data and policies on a regular schedule, in plain language.
Cooperate with the County Board and independent review, including making senior staff available to answer oversight questions.
Conduct real, unannounced welfare checks where the law allows, instead of scheduled photo opportunities.
Answer records requests promptly instead of treating them as a nuisance.
Tell the truth, especially when it is inconvenient. No unsubstantiated claims broadcast as fact, and when the office gets something wrong, a public correction, not silence.

If a department is doing its job well, transparency costs it nothing. If it is not, transparency is how we find out. Either way, you deserve it.

Sources

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