Focus is on building bigger, better relationships in community
By Michelle Price
Special to the UCBJ
SPARTA – The Sparta Board of Mayor and Aldermen have chosen Sgt. Doug Goff as the city’s next police chief.
The board voted unanimously to approve Goff at a board meeting held on Wednesday.
Goff is a 13-year veteran with the Sparta Police Department with 31 years of experience in law enforcement. He has served as an investigator for the Sparta PD since 2015.
A field of 14 candidates applied for the position. Three finalists were interviewed for the position including Sparta Lt. Allen Selby and former sheriff Mark Roloff of Wisconsin.
Sparta Mayor Jeff Young was pleased with the selection process for police chief and about Goff’s selection.
“We’re excited about that,” Young said. “We had 14 candidates for that. Some very good, very qualified applicants. I think after we interviewed them all, we tried to select who we felt like would be the best fit for us as far as training, personality, demeanor and what each one brought to the job. Each one had different qualities. They all had several qualities, but the board felt like Doug Goff was going to be the best fit for us long term and I supported that decision. Hopefully he’ll do a good job for us, I’m sure he will.”
Goff was excited about being selected for the position.
“I’ve really not let it sink in yet,” Goff said Thursday morning. “I’ve thought about things, but you know, all of a sudden, it’s happened. I look forward to actually taking office Sept. 1 and I have a lot of training to go into before then, but I’m very excited.”
After working closely with current chief Jeff Guth for several years, Goff didn’t see any major changes in the direction of the department.
“There’s a lot of things that I would like to continue from the fabulous job that he (Chief Guth) has done and try to enhance on that,” Goff said. “We’re living in pretty perilous times, and we’ve got a lot of things going on, but I plan on maintaining what we’ve got and building on top of that.”
Goff does have a few ideas of where he wants to take the department already.
“I think that we are probably going to build bigger and better relationships with everybody in the community, possibly start a citizen’s academy if we can at all,” shared Goff. “Just being more out in the public and in the public eye.”
