Menomonee Falls police report: staffing at budgeted level, serious crimes decline while weapon offenses rise

Police Chief Mark Waters presented the Menomonee Falls Police Departments 2025 annual (fourth-quarter and year-end) report to the Village Board, saying the department had reached its budgeted sworn strength and that the most serious crimes decreased year to date.

Waters said the department was authorized for 65.1 sworn officers and that, "we reached fully full staff at December 31." He told the board that, because two officers were on military leave, the department was operating with "56.1 sworn officers available for duty." The chief said four new officers were hired during the quarter (one lateral transfer and three academy recruits), and Lieutenant Sanders was promoted to late-shift patrol commander.

The presentation highlighted public-safety statistics: calls for service rose from 31,538 in 2024 to 32,806 in 2025, but Group A (more serious) offenses fell 9% year to date and 15% in the fourth quarter, a five-year low in Waterss charting. He also reported a notable increase in weapon offenses observed during traffic stops and said the department referred 356 criminal charges to the Waukesha County district attorney in 2025, a 19% increase from the prior year.

Waters detailed enforcement activity and operational resources: 143 directed patrols in targeted locations totaling more than 98 hours, over 200 traffic stops, three pursuits in the fourth quarter (two for traffic violations and one assisting another agency) and multiple K-9 deployments. He described community policing efforts such as the Citizens Police Academy (19 graduates) and noted event staffing costs (the Christmas parade required 19 officers and seven police aides, about $3,000 in personnel costs).

On equipment and capital plans, Waters said the department took delivery of three replacement squad vehicles and will upfit them in coming weeks; he also described a department remodeling project (construction expected to start in 2027 and complete in late 2028) and a public safety training center with construction scheduled to begin in late 2026 and finish in 2027.

Waters said the department is exploring new tools and partnerships, including a state grant to trial Paragrind Technologies for two years at no cost to the village to support regional data integration, and early-stage consideration of drone deployments for public-safety uses.

In a brief labor update, Waters reported that the Menomonee Falls Police Association and the village reached a tentative labor agreement that day, subject to ratification.

Trustees asked follow-up questions about vehicle upfitting (Waters said upfitters are regional), population comparisons to five-year crime trends (Waters offered to provide data), the physiological effect of tasers (Waters described training and effects and said tasers can reduce lethal force use) and the ambulance transport fee mechanism for EMS-related costs (Village Manager Mark Fitzgerald and the village attorney pointed to the villages ambulance transport ordinance and transport fees as the recovery mechanism, with many transports billed to Medicaid). Waters closed by thanking trustees and noting he would follow up on requested data.

The board did not take formal action on the report; it served as an informational, year-end briefing and prompted several requests for follow-up details.