Big Bend, WIS – On Thursday, five officers in the Big Bend Police Department simultaneously resigned from their positions. The exact reasoning for each resignation isn’t clear, but there has been resentment towards the Village Board from Big Bend’s law enforcement community.
On December 7th, Big Bend police officer James Soneberg stormed out of a board of trustees meeting saying “I am tired of the harassment of this village board and all the crap that I’ve been dealing with throughout the years.”
Bryan Bindel is a Big Bend resident, and told our partners at TMJ 4 News he feels the village board does not respect police officers.
“Every time you turn around, the village board has been going after them,” Bindel said. “And you have everyone coming to public comment, telling you they want to keep the police and fire department.”
In the fall of 2023, the Big Bend village board planned on not keeping either entity. They announced plans to disband the police department and rely on the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Office for public safety. Then a few months later, the Big Bend Professional Police Association announced the department would not disband after the village’s finance committee approved a police budget for 2024.
And according to village board president Jeff Goodman, this reversal shows a commitment to police in Big Bend.
“I don’t even know why they’re talking about it,” Goodman said when asked about community members concerned about policing. “The board voted to keep the police, it’s not going to go away at all.”
But Bindel decided enough is enough, telling TMJ 4 News he wants to run for local office to address the issue.
“The last thing I’ve wanted to do is be involved in politics,” Bindel said. “But I’ve got the time so I figured I better run and try to fix the problem.”
Goodman said there are enough police officers to adequately run the department.
“We have plenty of officers to run all the shifts,” Goodman said. “We have an excellent person that has taken charge of the department. Citizens should not fear there is not going to be police protection. They will be safe.”
Big Bend Police told WTMJ there is 1 full time officer and 6 part time officers on staff.
Big Bend has a population of nearly 1,500 residents.
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