Lead Officer Jorden Nissen (left) and Lt. Joe Johnson from the Stevens Point Police Department talk with witnesses at a Nov. 8 fire on Second St. North. (Metro Wire photo)

Note for readers: Where are the daily police blotters?

February 4, 2022

By Brandi Makuski

Since its inception in late 2017, the Point/Plover Metro Wire has provided a daily police log, commonly known as a “blotter,” Monday through Friday.

The blotter contains all the police and sheriff’s calls for service, including traffic collisions, arrests, fires, OWIs, and other incidents or alleged crimes observed by, or reported to, local law enforcement.

Early in my career at the Stevens Point Journal, the blotter was handwritten and located in the dispatch room at the city’s police department, located in the basement of the downtown courthouse. In those days, we had a newsroom of five trained reporters who would thumb through the pages, copy pertinent details into our reporter notebooks, then head back to the Journal building on Third Ct. to type it up.

Reporters were trained to know what pieces of such reports they should and should not report. Some details, such as the names of victims or minors, or victim addresses, were visible to us on the officers’ handwritten reports but were not subject to publication for the sake of decency and the safety of those involved.

There was also an understanding that just because an individual had been arrested, it didn’t mean they were guilty of having committed the crime, so suspects’ names were never reported until later, and then only if they were charged in criminal court.

This is why the daily blotter reads something like, “A 23-year-old man was arrested from the 900 block of Michigan Ave. when a 19-year-old woman called police to report an assault.”

We provide this information as a public service, so residents remain aware not only what types of crimes are being reported in Portage Co., but also that the men and women of local emergency services are constantly on the move, and what kind of resources law enforcement, fire, and EMS are utilizing.

But times change, and many years ago the three law enforcement agencies, police departments in Stevens Point and Plover, and the Portage Co. Sheriff’s Office, all began working more closely together. The Stevens Point police dispatch center was absorbed by the sheriff’s office (even though the county likes the call it “combined dispatch”), and the daily blotter became computerized.

Previously, collecting this information was always the responsibility of the news reporters. It created an extra layer of accountability and required interpersonal communication with law enforcement officers on a daily basis.

Today, the blotters are sent to the press via email, even though most news agencies don’t even report them anymore. The Metro Wire alone has been bringing you these reports daily, until recently.

It was a good system and worked fairly well, but the software became outdated and was no longer supported. This brings us to today.

In mid-January, local law enforcement agencies switched to a new software system. This always means customizations to install and bugs to work out. Obviously, the three agencies comprise a very large animal with dozens of more important matters to address before customizing the daily blotter it sends to the press.

We have been receiving reports from the three agencies daily, but they don’t currently include enough information to report information to the public. We’ve been assured by local law enforcement that they are working on the issue, and are hopeful we can resume bringing you the blotter within the next week.

Until then, rest assured that Metro Wire staff members are regularly watching what information is coming out, and paying attention to watch happens in Portage Co. Court every day. So while the blotter is temporarily benched, we can promise you won’t miss any important crime news.