Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Local Policing topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Fredonia Marshal Eric Leet explains how a village marshal differs from a police department
Summary
Fredonia Village Marshal Eric Leet told a podcast audience the marshal's office has the same duties as a police department under Wisconsin law, and said the difference is largely a title; he noted the office is part-time and sometimes leans on the county sheriff for detective work.
Eric Leet, Fredonia's village marshal, said the marshal's office performs the same core functions as a police department but that the difference is mostly a matter of title under Wisconsin law. "We have the same rights, duties, and responsibilities as a police department," Leet said.
Leet, who began at the City of Port Washington in 1994 and started serving in Fredonia part time in 2006 before accepting the marshal position, told the podcast host that Wisconsin statutes do not present a separate category called "police department" in a way that materially changes local authority. He added a statutory curiosity: "apparently I have some expanded authority to, confiscate livestock," a power he said he has not needed to use.
Leet emphasized the practical limits of a part-time agency: cases requiring extensive detective follow-up are often referred to the Ozaukee County Sheriff's Department, the agency he described as the primary investigative body for larger or longer investigations. The marshal's office, he said, focuses on local enforcement priorities such as ordinance violations that a county agency may not have resources to pursue.
