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Mt. Pleasant police, fire departments seeing increased workloads
Holly Gilvary
MOUNT PLEASANT — Police calls in Mount Pleasant are “consistently going up,” with the police department seeing a 4.7% increase from 2024 to 2025 and a 7.5% increase from 2023 to 2025.
That’s according to Mount Pleasant Police Chief Robert Botsch, who delivered the Mount Pleasant Police Department’s 2025 annual report to village trustees May 11.
South Shore Fire Chief Dustin Ellis also presented the fire department’s annual report.
"As of today at 3 o'clock, we're about 300 calls higher this year than we were at the same time last year, already," Botsch said.
MPPD received 26,115 calls last year, according to the annual report.
Botsch said the department is focused on addressing hazardous driving, such as speeding and impaired operation, adding that overall traffic accidents increased in 2025 because the volume of traffic is increasing.
"Everything is unfortunately going up in the traffic area because we have a lot more traffic that is in our area," he said. "We've got a lot more construction that's going on."
The department reported 722 wrecks resulting in property damage, 256 resulting in injuries and 134 involving a hit and run.
The number of traffic stops is up as officers conduct more patrols "to try and adjust behavior," Botsch said.
This summer, MPPD will bring back its PROTECT Initiative (Proactive Operations, Traffic Enforcement and Crime-suppression Team) that it piloted in 2025 to provide additional traffic patrols and proactive enforcement from June 1 to Aug. 31.
“(Officers are) in the hotels, they’re frequenting bars, they’re trying to get in front of problems," Botsch said. "They’re a problem-solving group that just gets out and they have time to do other things.”
While all MPPD officers conduct traffic patrols and proactive enforcement during their shifts, they do so in between calls, according to Botsch. The designated PROTECT officers have the time to practice proactive enforcement for their entire shifts.
“People might complain that they've got speeders on their block; we might not have a squad during normal hours that can sit on that block because they're jumping from call to call to call to call to call,” he said. “Now, in the summer, from June 1 to Aug. 31, we might have that capability because now we've got a car that we've pulled out to just do proactive stuff.”
Last summer, PROTECT issued 177 traffic citations, conducted 13 felony arrests, 35 misdemeanor arrests, 15 municipal arrests, 23 warrant-related arrests, 39 narcotics-related arrests, three firearm-related arrests and reported 18 K-9 utilization instances.
No additional hires are necessary to staff the two-person team.
Staffing and recognition
Despite three officers leaving in 2025, MPPD ended the year fully staffed, hiring four new officers. Two of those hires finished their field training this month.
Botsch also highlighted the department’s community engagement efforts and events, such as the Lakeside COP (Community Oriented Policing) House. The Chicago Police Department visited MPPD’s COP House last year to learn more about their community engagement practices.
“We really engage well with the community and a lot of other agencies are trying to model that, and not just have a house in a neighborhood, but model the engagement, the ability to get out there, the ability to interact, the ability to build relationships," Botsch said.
MPPD also gained re-accreditation from the Wisconsin Law Enforcement Accreditation Group through 2028 after an assessment in October. Botsch estimated that about 10% of agencies in Wisconsin have this accreditation.
SSFD calls also up
South Shore Fire Chief Dustin Ellis said the fire department responded to 6,378 incidents last year, with EMS calls accounting for 78% of those.
The call volume is down slightly from 2024, but up overall from 2021 by more than 1,000 calls, according to the department.
Department expenditures in 2025 were about $11.26 million, with a 2026 adopted budget of $12.12 million. The main costs were staffing, overtime, healthcare and equipment.
SSFD will have 64 of its 69 positions filled after the May 29 Racine County Joint Fire Training Academy, according to the department.
Ellis said SSFD’s priorities for 2026 include facility planning, automatic aid expansion, workforce development, policy improvements and the implementation of a strategic plan.
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Wisconsin ranks among the states with the worst roads, report says
Maia Pandey
As Milwaukee officials buckle down on traffic safety measures, a new report has ranked Wisconsin among the states with the worst roads.
Wisconsin has the 14th-worst roads in the country, worse than any of its neighboring states, according to the analysis by ConsumerAffairs, a consumer news platform. To rank the states, researchers used data from the Federal Highway Administration and the Bureau of Transportation Statistics on the conditions of urban and rural roads and the rates of car accident fatalities in each state.
Wisconsin's ranking was, however, improved from its spot as 8th-worst in the same analysis conducted by ConsumerAffairs last year.
In recent years, Milwaukee officials have adopted a goal of reducing the city's annual number of traffic deaths to zero by 2037. That includes implementing hundreds of traffic calming projects citywide, including an additional 60 projects recently announced for 2026.
So far, the efforts seem to be showing returns: Traffic fatalities in Milwaukee hit a six-year low in 2025, city officials announced in March. The city logged 57 traffic fatalities in 2025, compared 70 deaths in 2024 and 77 deaths in the peak year of 2022.
Here's what else the report found about Wisconsin's roads:
About 57% of Wisconsin's urban roads and 15% of its rural roads are considered in "poor" condition by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, per the report. In contrast, about 36% of urban roads nationwide and 10% of rural roads are in poor condition.
Wisconsin has about 4,400 miles of urban roads and about 12,750 miles of rural roads.
Neighboring states Illinois, Michigan and Iowa ranked as 19th worst, 25th worst and 34th worst (or 16th best), respectively. Minnesota, meanwhile, had the second-best roads in the country.
Though the lowest-ranked states were scattered across the country and varied in size, certain climate and weather patterns were among the unifying characteristics in the states with the worst roads. In cold areas, for example, freeze-thaw cycles can increase potholes, per the report. States with heavy commercial truck traffic, such as New Mexico and Oklahoma, are also likely to see increased wear and tear on roadways.
Here are the top five states with the worst roads, per ConsumerAffairs:
- New Mexico
- Mississippi
- Rhode Island
- Hawaii
- Oklahoma
And here are the top five states with the best roads:
- Indiana
- Minnesota
- Vermont
- Georgia
- Kansas
How to track Milwaukee's traffic calming projects
You can keep tabs on the progress of Milwaukee's traffic calming projects with this dashboard maintained by the Department of Public Works. The dashboard includes information for nearly 400 projects the department is currently pursuing.
For completed projects, the city is collecting data on whether speeding and traffic crashes have reduced in the area since the construction was completed. Overall, traffic calming measures since 2022 have reduced speeding by 32% and crashes by 15% citywide, per the dashboard. You can follow the progress here.
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