The Town of Grand Chute is an urbanized community with a permanent population of approximately 24,294, most of whom reside in multi-family housing units. Our daytime population far exceeds our permanent population, due, in part, to the many attractions that draw visitors to the Town. For example, the community is home to the Fox River Mall, one of Wisconsin’s largest shopping centers; Fox Valley T
echnical College; the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, a Class A minor league baseball affiliate of the Milwaukee Brewers; and the Community First Champion Center, a 164,000 square-foot sports complex featuring a yearround ice rink, fieldhouse, and seasonal area that transitions between an ice rink and hardwood courts. These attractions, and many others, make our community a popular destination and explain why the Town also contains the largest concentration of hotel rooms in the Fox Valley. The popularity of our local amenities, a strong commercial and industrial base, and a permanent population that ranks Grand Chute as the largest town in Wisconsin, all combine to make traffic in Grand Chute a major area of concern. Main highway arterials converging in the area include Interstate 41 and State Highways 125, 15, 47, and 96. In addition, several major county trunk highways and regional traffic corridors also carry high volumes of traffic through the Town. Beginning in late 2024, and continuing for the next few years, this area of concern will be exacerbated by a substantial construction project intended to improve safety and traffic flow on the Interstate 41 corridor running through Grand Chute. These various community characteristics serve to drive many of our policing priorities. The high daytime population results in a disproportionately high demand for police services, primarily between 8:00 a.m. Coupled with the high traffic volume, many of these service demands are traffic-related, such as vehicle crashes and motorist assists. Additionally, the high concentration of retail businesses brings an increased incidence of retail theft. Finally, the transitory nature of a significant portion of our population—those in hotel rooms or apartment complexes experiencing frequent tenant turnover—lends itself to disputes, disturbances, and other crime trends not as common in neighborhoods with more stable populations.
