Dealing with Injured Suspects Pulls Deputies Off Patrol

The process of police taking a person into custody seems to be, and usually is, fairly straight-forward. But things get a bit more complicated when the suspect is injured and needs medical treatment. After a high-speed chase in Fond du Lac County ended in a crash on Friday night, the suspect needed medical attention for minor injuries. 

Captain Ryan Waldschmidt says dealing with suspects at the hospital is not a simple task. He tell us “it’s manpower intensive, it took – in this case – multiple deputies because of his resistive behavior. So we had to pull patrol deputies off the road and place them at the hospital to secure him and maintain the peace and order in the emergency department there.”

Waldschmidt adds that “fortunately, when we have to take someone to the jail, we have
correctional deputies in the jail that maintain the peace and order there and
we can get our patrol deputies back on patrol, but in this case when you go to
an unsecured facility like the hospital, we’ve got to staff that arrestee with
deputies and make sure we keep ourselves safe and others in that emergency room
safe.”

The suspect in Friday’s pursuit faces charges for OWI and Eluding an Officer, with additional charges likely in connection to his resistance while at the hospital.