Feb. 27, 2023 2:15p
(WGTD)---Drug interdiction, prevention and treatment highlighted Dave Zoerner’s first appearance since becoming Kenosha County Sheriff on WGTD’s Community Matters program over the weekend.
For one thing, Zoerner was pleased to report that the department’s drug unit will be beefed up with the addition of two new positions. The increase was made possible by the county board’s decision last year to pay for two new detectives.
Also, Zoerner said he’s proposing to use some of the county’s share of the national opioid lawsuit settlements to fund the ability to follow-up with formerly drug-addicted jail inmates upon their release. "We have to be able to treat that person all the way through," Zoerner said. "Some people don't understand that the situation is so complex that once they leave custody it's so easy to fall back," he said.
Zoerner is also interested in expanding the K-5 DARE program to include older students. Zoerner made clear, however, that he’s not interested in tampering with the curriculum as it exists in the elementary grades. DARE is an acronym for Drug Awareness Resistance Education.
In other news generated by the program:
A proposal that was pushed last fall by Kenosha County Board Supervisor Dave Geersten to examine what went right and what went wrong in law enforcement’s response to the 2020 riots in Kenosha is still on track.
Zoerner said that a contract with a consultant is in the process of being finalized. Experts will not only examine the riots but will look at other crisis-level events that occurred over the years in the county.
The goal will be to improve the county’s readiness to deal with such emergencies in the future.
One thing that could hamper a thorough examination of the county’s handling of the riots, Zoerner said, are lawsuits that are still pending on the topic.
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