Browsing: Corrections and Public Safety

A Milwaukee County judge lambasted the Milwaukee School Board in a rare broadside aimed at finally getting cops back in MPS high schools.

In 2023, the drug most often identified in samples sent by law enforcement to the State Crime Lab was meth, which accounted for 1,378 of the 4,805 samples tested — more than cocaine or heroin or fentanyl or even THC, the active ingredient in cannabis.

While Milwaukee continues to struggle putting sworn officers on the streets, the police departments in Wisconsin’s other largest cities are at or fast approaching full staffing.

The median time it takes to close out felony criminal cases is down 5% from 2022 to 2023, and the median misdemeanor criminal case is reaching a conclusion 2% faster, according to figures from the Wisconsin Court System.

While Wisconsin rarely prosecutes possession or sale of larger amounts of marijuana, some municipalities are much more likely than others to prosecute less serious violations.

In the 2023-24 school year, MPS schools called police 1,245 times for help with allegations of everything from armed robbery to sexual assault to felony theft.

MPS may regret its ongoing resistance to the state’s resource officer requirement the next time it comes to the Legislature looking for tax money.

There will be no police officers in Milwaukee Public Schools when classes begin this Tuesday, violating a requirement that is part of the current state budget.

The average potency of cannabis products – illegal and legal – is higher today than it was in past decades both domestically and abroad. The current data and research available do not conclusively indicate that such trends are driven by cannabis legalization, but there is initial evidence indicating that part of this trend is being driven by consumer preference for more potent forms of cannabis which appear to be more readily available in legal markets.

The Badger Institute summarizes relevant findings related to medical marijuana given the arrival of legislation that would allow its use in Wisconsin.

Cannabis legalization might be a policy that many would assume is a negative for a state’s workforce, but Badger Institute analysis of the limited available research paints a much more complex and positive picture.

The research shows that more adults will use cannabis if it is legal to use in any form. When it comes to youth use of cannabis, the research is still highly disputed, but the available research and data indicate there have not been dramatic increases in youth use of the substance when it becomes legal.

There is a real possibility for cannabis reform to result in public safety gains for the Badger State but the tradeoffs that must be accepted are a significant reduction in safety on the state’s highways and roads and an increase in minor property and nuisance crimes near cannabis dispensaries if the state were to establish a commercial market for either medical or adult-use products.

According to a Marquette Law School poll last fall, 64% of registered Wisconsin voters, and 43% of Republicans, favor full legalization. Thirty percent of Wisconsinites and 50% of Republicans think it should remain illegal. Only 6% of registered voters say they just don’t know.

Many counties in Wisconsin have essentially decriminalized the possession or sale of marijuana, or cannabis, as it now often is known, and the relatively few people who are charged criminally in other counties are ever incarcerated.

Governor Evers signed a budget passed by the Legislature that includes a more than 30% starting pay raise for assistant district attorneys and assistant public defenders and more flexibility for merit-based pay raises for attorneys currently in those roles. This makes the compensation for these roles more competitive and should reduce the high rates of turnover currently existing in District Attorney and public defender offices. 

The Badger Institute on Wednesday praised action by the Legislature’s budget writing committee to raise pay for prosecutors and public defenders, a move the Institute has been advocating for nearly a year.

Progressive city councils across the country are being forced by violence in and near their public schools to rethink their bans on stationing police officers on those campuses.

Assembly Republicans have proposed a sales tax plan for the city of Milwaukee that would put police officers back in Milwaukee Public Schools for the first time since 2016. The plan would allow the financially hobbled city to levy a local 2% sales tax with the promise of state shared revenue to help pay down on its ballooning pension debt.

Public safety is a foundational requirement for prosperity in our communities. This means that fully funding the various systems that ensure public safety is a requirement, not a political preference. That’s why individuals from the most progressive to the most conservative agree these agencies should function effectively.