Derrick Van Orden

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (WEAU) - FBI director Kash Patel was in Eau Claire on Monday, speaking to local law enforcement in a fireside chat format with Congressman Derrick Van Orden.

Patel believes that new tactics used by the FBI is working especially well in Wisconsin.

“Everything we do at the FBI is with our state and local partners. Here in Wisconsin, it is actually working better than anywhere else,” Patel said. “We dropped the murder rate across the country 20 points, in Wisconsin it’s down 30. We dropped the violent crime rate across the country ten points, in Wisconsin it’s down 15.”

The director is confident in the work of the newly-created anti-fraud task force.

“We are already seizing hundreds of billions of fraud actors and money from around the world,” Patel said.

He emphasized the value of collaborating with local police departments.

“The state and local community comes together with the federal bureau of investigation, and we are able to put that into one place and defend against it and most importantly, return the money to our elders,” Patel said.

Congressman Van Orden calls for the state governor to release voter registration lists and snap benefits data to the FBI in order to minimize fraud and scams in the state.

“I would implore Governer Evers to put aside his politics because that’s all this is about, and turn over these roles so we can do the appropriate amount from the executive branch enforcement of this because fraud is taking place in the state of Wisconsin.” Van Orden said. “Governor Evers knows it, that’s why he’s not releasing these lists.”

Patel also spoke about cybersecurity, specifically regarding recent attacks on neighboring states’ water systems and how the FBI tries to prevent those attacks.

“Every municipality, no matter how small, the second they have a small indication of a threat, or an intrusion, 1-800 call FBI,” Patel said. “Call state and local law enforcement and call us because we will bring in our entire cyber capabilities, deploy our cyber teams to the field, and make sure we patch up the intrusion and exploit the bad actors, and most importantly, secure the data.”

The discussion was moderated by Altoona Police Chief Kelly Bakken, and it also included Alan Karr, the special agent in charge of the FBI Milwaukee field office.