“Given the fact that the small number of troopers were sent, and the likelihood that videographers will be utilized, there should still be adequate means for the State Patrol to effectively identify and investigate any matter involving a trooper while they are there,” Palmer said. “That strikes us as a good balance of the competing interests here.”

The State Patrol is in the process of revising its policy on officers wearing name tags, Wisconsin Department of Transportation spokeswoman Patricia Mayers said. She said name tags aren’t being used in North Dakota “to protect the privacy of the troopers/inspectors working there.”

The State Patrol’s current policy is for officers to wear name tags, but under a “a verbal directive specific to that deployment” the officers in North Dakota “have been directed to remove their name plates from their uniforms,” according to State Patrol Col. Charles Teasdale. They are still wearing other agency identifiers such as patches and badges.

Replacing name tags with identifying numbers in protest situations is one of several recommendations that came out of an after-action report from a similar State Patrol assignment patrolling the Dakota Access Pipeline protests in October.