| PERSPECTIVE |
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[Apr. 9, 2003] -
As the Armed Services prepared for war in Iraq, they turned to their National Guard and Reserve units. A number of those called to active duty also wear a uniform at home. Police, sheriff's deputies, and State Troopers are now serving their country. Some departments are affected more than others, but quite a few have had to adjust to smaller staffs. Statewide's Brad Penner looked at the impact on the State Patrol, where 19 Troopers are now on active military duty. We also visited Crawford to see how a small town department handled a big loss.
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Watch the Perspective:Transcript of Police Call-ups
[Brad Penner, Reporting] In a small town like Crawford, police officers like Mike Wiegand do a little bit of everything.
[Officer Mike Wiegand - Crawford Police Department] You get, I think, a little more experience starting out than you would in a bigger department where you have an officer that arrives on the scene and then turns it over to an investigator or something like that.
[Brad Penner] Officer Wiegand is one of three officers on the Police Force in Crawford. That includes Chief Rick Thompson.
[Chief Rick Thompson - Crawford Police Department] When there's some critical things going on here in Crawford we're all involved, we're all called out and we're all working on it together, so you get pretty close.
[Brad Penner] Chief Thompson says his department is like a family. Last January, one of their brothers, Officer Buck Frietag, left for military duty.
[THOMPSON] You know, Buck had hinted that there had been some talk and approximately a week later, I think it was the third week in January he walked into my office and I could tell by the look on his face. And I said it first, I said you got called up didn't you and he said yes.
[WIEGAND] I consider him one of my really good friends and it's kind of hard to see him go, but I hope that everything's going ok for him, and I can't wait for him to come back.
[Brad Penner] Officer Frietag's activation had a personal and professional effect on his co-workers.
[THOMPSON] When you're talking about a department of this size, when you lose one man, that's one-third. And it makes a huge difference.
[Brad Penner] In Crawford, an officer is always on call, 24 hours a day.
[THOMPSON] That's difficult as it is with three people, take that down to two people, that's extremely difficult and it wears people down quickly.
[WIEGAND] With two guys you kind of felt guilty going out of town when you had a day off because you know, the other officer was basically by himself. If something major happened, that's a pretty big burden.
[Brad Penner] Counties and communities across Nebraska count on the State Patrol for help when they're short-handed. But so far, 19 troopers have been called to active military duty.
Trooper John Esser patrols highway 2. He's based in Nebraska City.
[Trooper John Esser - Nebraska State Patrol] Basically I got that southeast area, the southeast counties down here. So you kind of stay in this general area all the time.
[Brad Penner] Trooper Esser knows what it's like when a fellow officer leaves for military service.
[ESSER] Trooper Bohaty out of Syracuse was called up. He's in Army. He was called to service. He and I worked together the same shifts out here. He was my partner on that end of it.
[Brad Penner] So far, Trooper Esser says they've been able to pick up the slack.
[ESSER] Just more stuff you gotta be aware of, exactly. Little more travel to different areas than normal. There's enough backup deputies in the area, there's always someone around to help you. It hasn't really affected it that bad.
[Brad Penner] Colonel Tom Nesbitt says the public won't go unprotected while troopers are on military duty.
[NESBITT] I mean we're covering all duties. Absolutely. And we're ensuring of that with our current resources because that's the number one thing that we're responsible for is public safety and to ensure all of our duties that we're responsible for are covering. So we're handling those and doing a very good job of that. Again, and there might be some additional time involved which would be overtime monies. We might have to do things a little differently than what we had because of coverage-wise, but we're gonna continue to do those duties so there's no duties that's gonna go undone.
[Brad Penner] Fewer Troopers doesn't mean it's easier to get away with speeding. But the State Patrol now has additional homeland security responsibilities because of a heightened terror alert level. There's also the possibility that more officers could be called to military duty.
[ESSER] No real indication other than it's day to day. I'm on a day to day basis.
[Brad Penner] That includes Trooper Esser. He's a firefighter with the Air Force Reserves based in Missouri. His ten years of active duty included service during the Persian Gulf War. He comes from an Air Force family and he's ready to serve again if he gets the call.
[ESSER] The active duty right now is so strung out, there's so many deployed everywhere, that they need help. They need us to come in and relieve them and give them a break. We come in and do our job just like them.
[Brad Penner] If Trooper Esser leaves, Colonel Nesbitt would probably move another Trooper from the Lincoln area to cover southeast Nebraska. More call-ups would lead to other adjustments.
[NESBITT] You know, we have approximately 50 uniforms that could be called up to active duty. And if that happens, like I said, we'll talk about contingency plans and to be quite honest with you, I'll probably be part of that contingency plan myself because they're gonna need people, and I'll have administration that currently are doing other duties that we're gonna have to get them out and be active in the communities and doing those responsibilities.
[Brad Penner] If the Patrol loses more Troopers to military call-ups, some work may have to be put on hold for a time.
[NESBITT] And one thing that comes to mind is off the top of my head is we've got community service officers in the state. And they are out there to help issues and communities and try to address those. Well, you know what, we might have to take those for a time here and put em in a Unit and assign em to something else for the time-being. That comes to mind. Another thing comes to mind is that we have approximately a little over a hundred investigators you know that we investigate drug crimes and criminal crimes and all sorts of different things within there. When we have to juggle some of those folks and put em back in a uniform and put em in a marked car to perform those duties as well.
[Brad Penner] It takes a lot of training to become a State Trooper. So hiring temporary replacement officers isn't a very realistic option. Col. Nesbitt says some States have brought in retired officers to help out. One even has an established reserve trooper program to call on in emergencies. Nesbitt says those are ideas worth exploring, but for now they'll have to work with what they have.
[NESBITT] I mean that's something about cops and in our agency especially since I've been here 25 years, I've seen this happen more than once, we're able to adapt to things and be able to move to the different areas that are necessary to ensure that we're carrying on our duties and responsibilities for the public.
[Brad Penner] In Crawford, they got along with two officers for awhile, then they got a break.
[THOMPSON] We did hire a young man named Jeremy Fisher who I feel we were fortunate to get.
[Brad Penner] Officer Fisher actually graduated from Nebraska's Law Enforcement Training Academy several years ago. He eventually left the state, but he and his family wanted to come home.
[Officer Jeremy Fisher - Crawford Police Department] I'm kind of fond of Nebraska. I was born and raised in Sidney, Nebraska. Just kind of a place I feel more comfortable at.
[THOMPSON] He's a good young man, he shows a lot of promise as an officer, we've been happy with him to this point.
[Brad Penner] Chief Thompson knows it's not easy to find someone with the necessary training who's also willing to take a temporary job.
[THOMPSON] This is Buck's job, Officer Frietag's job. When he returns from his duties with the military, we expect him to return back to uniform in Crawford and he'll be welcomed back, and where does that leave Officer Fisher.
[Brad Penner] Officer Fisher knew Officer Frietag as well. They went through training together. He says he doesn't mind the temporary status of his job.
[FISHER] I'm doing something to help out a community and help out a friend.
[Brad Penner] Chief Thompson says he wanted the National Guard to make an exception for Officer Frietag, and allow him to stay on the job in Crawford. But he also understands the commitment his friend made to the country. It's a commitment many others in law enforcement share.
[NESBITT] There's just a lot of patriotism in those people, you know, that they want to protect their country, and they want to ensure that it's protected, and I think that has a great deal to do with it. And I applaud them for it. I sincerely do. I think it's vitally important that we protect this country, as well as the state and infrastructure and if they need these young men and women to come up and be activated, then that's what needs to take place. That's a priority obviously.
[Brad Penner] Officers like Trooper John Esser can only wait to see if they're called to military duty. In the meantime they'll keep doing their duty here at home. Reporting for Statewide, I'm Brad Penner.