April 19, 2022

Sheriff Dale J. Schmidt is Running for Re-Election

Protecting Lives, Property, and Constitutional Rights!

Protecting the Lives, Property, and Constitutional Rights of the Citizens of Dodge County has been the focus of my entire law enforcement career.  Today, I, Sheriff Dale Schmidt, announce my candidacy for a 3rd term as your Dodge County Sheriff.  I am proud of the progress our team has made at the sheriff’s office over the last 7+ years and there is still so much to do. I ask for your support and your vote this coming August 9th during the primary election and on November 8th during the general election.

Many in our community know my family and our dedication to our community.  My beautiful bride Cassandra is a Financial Representative for Modern Woodmen of America and I have 2 amazing children, Caitlyn (age 8) and Collin (age 6).  We currently reside in the Town of Beaver Dam with our 2 dogs and 3 cats.  Our Christian values and beliefs grow each week as we attend St John’s Lutheran Church in Juneau.  My roots are here in Dodge County as I was born in Beaver Dam and raised in Waupun.  I graduated from Winnebago Lutheran Academy in Fond du Lac and subsequently attended UW-Fond du Lac, Fox Valley Technical College, and Moraine Park Technical College.  I have attained an associate’s degree in Police Science and have a wide variety of other college and educational courses.

As a lifelong Republican and conservative, I believe in fiscal responsibility.  Fiscal responsibility is not just cutting expenses at the cost of operations, but fiscal responsibility means being good stewards of the resources made available to us.  During my time as sheriff, I have always budgeted conservatively, and in 6 of 7 years, the sheriff’s office has ended our budgetary years significantly in the black as we have minimized expenditures and maximized revenues to offset the cost of sheriff’s office operations to the taxpayers.  In fact, as discovered in multiple finance department and independent studies, the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office has a lower cost to the taxpayers per capita than most sheriff’s offices in Wisconsin.  

I have a total of over 21 years of law enforcement experience, including 18 years with the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office, all of which I fully detail in my curriculum vitae (CV) on my website and Facebook page listed below.

I have a history of community service to my community including but not limited to: 

• 2004-2021 – Participation in the Annual Dodge County Shop with Cops Program
• 2008-2022 – Organized and operated the Dodge County Law Enforcement Explorer Post, now known as the Dodge County Sheriff Cadets.  This program is aimed at developing the leadership skills of youth with an interest in a career in law enforcement.  This program is highly successful and has developed youth into employees of our sheriff’s office and other law enforcement agencies. 
• 2009-2010 – Elected to the Waupun City Council and subsequently elected by the council to be the Waupun City Council President serving the city for 2 years. 
• 2015-2022 – Beaver Dam Rotarian – Board Member and Service Project Chair
• 2016-2017 – Participation in the Beaver Dam Chamber of Commerce Leadership Beaver Dam Program
• 2017- 2022 – Championed an effort to bring a Christmas Light Display to the City of Beaver Dam.  That Christmas light display eventually received the name Beaver Dam Rotary Lights.  Our holiday display has been highly successful as it has brought holiday cheer to Swan park for each of the past 5 years; each year making it bigger than the year before.  As the chair, I donate hundreds of hours each year to make this display a reality. If you have never seen this beautiful Christmas Light display, you won’t want to miss our biggest show ever in late November and December of 2022.  

Professionally, I am a nationally certified Drug Recognition Expert (DRE) and have been since 2010.  I am also a Master Standardized Field Sobriety Test (SFST) instructor; not only instructing law enforcement officers on how to conduct SFST but also teaching SFST Instructors how to be instructors.  I am an Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Education (ARIDE) instructor.  Reducing the number of traffic fatalities, particularly as a result of impaired driving, has been a focus of my career. In fact, 2018, 2019, and 2020 in Dodge County have had the 3 lowest years of traffic fatalities in all of Dodge Counties’ recorded History. 

During my tenure as Sheriff, our staff has worked very hard to protect our children and family members against those who would recruit, groom, and terrorize them in what we call human trafficking.  We have made the investigation of human trafficking, sex crimes, and internet crimes a priority with the limited resources we have available.  We have collaborated with state and federal law enforcement agencies resulting in significant charges and convictions.  It also has resulted in the closure of 2 strip clubs in Dodge County that were directly involved in human trafficking, drug trafficking, violent control and abuse of women, and rampant prostitution that was occurring in these clubs.  As your Sheriff, I will not tolerate this behavior occurring in Dodge County, and we will continue to strictly enforce this behavior to protect our children.

Additionally, I have worked hard as your sheriff to protect your constitutional rights which have faced challenges from those in our state and federal governments.  The oath of office that I took was to uphold the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Wisconsin.  Those documents are the highest laws of our land and shall not be infringed upon by politicians, regardless of their opinions.  When faced with mandates which were highly questionable as being constitutional, we conducted investigations while waiting for the Wisconsin Supreme Court to rule on constitutional issues.  In the end, the Supreme Court held that the mandates in question were illegal. We stood by the rights of our citizens and business owners, and I will always stand up for the constitutional rights of our citizens.

As we move forward, it is my intent to continue to serve our citizens in the most professional and ethical approach possible.  I am extremely proud of the culture we collectively have built within the office.  That culture is one of positivity, recognition of our staff, and holding ourselves accountable.  We have set and strive to meet very high expectations, and while no one is perfect, our goal is always to strive for perfection. We made staff leadership a priority by inviting them to attend a variety of leadership courses including a 3-week course called Leadership in Police Organizations.  Subsequent to attending this course, I adopted it as standard law enforcement leadership training in the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office.  We do not simply attend the training, we live it and put it into practice every day.

The next step in our growth is the Accreditation of your sheriff’s office, comparing our standards to national best practices and adopting national best practices if we would fall short in any area.  Once accreditation is achieved, it will then be a continual process of re-evaluation and improvement; ensuring that we will always maintain best practices.

I am honored to currently serve as the Badger State Sheriffs Association (BSSA) 1st Vice President.  I was elected to that position by the other 71 Wisconsin Sheriffs in a huge vote of confidence from our state’s sheriffs.  If the Citizens of Dodge County re-elect me as Sheriff this fall, I will serve as the President of the BSSA in 2023 and 2024.  I previously served as BSSA’s 2nd Vice President in 2019 and 2020.

I was recently elected by a unanimous vote to be the Dodge County Executive Law Enforcement Association’s Vice President.  This is an association made up of the Dodge County Sheriff, Dodge County Police Chiefs, Wardens of Prisons in Dodge County, the District Attorney, and other Dodge County executives.

Finally, as your sheriff, we will continue to hold criminals accountable for crimes that they commit.  Those who violate the law will be arrested. Those who exercise their constitutional rights will be allowed to do so, as long as they do so lawfully. 

A vote for Sheriff Dale Schmidt is a vote for a fiscally responsible approach to protecting your family’s lives, your family’s property, and equally important, your family’s constitutional rights.  We will do this by holding ourselves accountable to the highest standards in law enforcement and by holding criminals accountable to the laws that have been set by our legislatures.  I ask for your support so we can continue to make Dodge County a great place to live, work, and visit.

If you would like to learn more about me, please visit my webpage www.sheriffdaleschmidt.com or find me on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/SheriffDaleJSchmidt. 

Serving the Citizens of Dodge County,

Sheriff Dale J. Schmidt