Oneida County chief deputy retires

After 33 years in emergency services and law enforcement, Oneida County chief deputy Dan Hess has hung up his badge.

His retirement became effective yesterday, Jan. 8.

In 1991, Hess worked in dispatch for the Rhinelander Police Department. Then, in 1993, he started working for the county sheriff’s office. 

Born and raised in Newbold, Hess decided to pursue a career in law enforcement at the young age of 16.

He said he chose to attend Nicolet College and received an associate’s degree in police science from that institution before receiving his bachelor’s degree in public administration from Upper Iowa University.

Later, around 2011, he attended the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI’s) National Academy on Leadership.

During his time with the sheriff’s office, Hess has worn many hats. He worked patrol, as an investigator with the Northcentral Drug Enforcement Group, a detective sergeant running the sheriff’s office drug unit, as a lieutenant running the 911 center and court services division, and as a lieutenant of the investigative division. He has served as chief deputy, the department’s second-in-command,  since 2014.

Two areas of his career that stand out to him the most are his time working to keep drugs out of the community and his work improving the county’s 911 center, he said.

Improving the 911 center was a collaborative effort and included adding to the county’s radio infrastructure around the end of 2008, he said.

“That’s probably one of the biggest accomplishments, I would say, that was completed,” he shared. “If we’re looking at bigger accomplishments, that was big because we had typically 40 percent radio coverage throughout the county. So as far as a public safety aspect goes, it was low. And after the completion of the infrastructure upgrade, we were at about 94 percent radio coverage throughout the county.”

Hess said the upgraded coverage helped the county’s emergency medical services, fire departments and law enforcement when it went from one radio tower to nine radio towers.

Law enforcement is always evolving, Hess noted, especially with regard to technology. 

“I think everything continues to grow and improve as you go through your career,” he said. “I believe the next chief deputy will continue building on (what) I’ve built on from the last chief deputy. And I think it’s really important that we keep evolving as society changes.”

Hess is the Newbold town chairman, and now that he’s retired, he plans to focus more of his time on that. 

He has also filed candidacy papers and will be making a run this spring to serve on the county board. 

It’s not all work for the Northwoods native though. 

Now that he’s retired, Hess said he also looks forward to spending a lot more time with his grandchildren, fishing and getting back into hunting like he used to. 

Speaking to the state of the sheriff’s office, he said he believes it does a good job retaining high quality personnel and continuing to hire high quality personnel. 

“There were a lot of great people that worked here (at the sheriff’s office),” Hess said. “Most of the people that I worked with have retired … and I could thank every one of them because everybody’s got a different aspect on how to do something. And as a young officer, you continually learn throughout your career. If you don’t continue to learn throughout your career, you should get out of law enforcement, because it’s always evolving.”

Trevor Greene may be reached via email at [email protected].