Browsing: Law Enforcement

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.

Milwaukee is significantly less safe than it was a short time ago. In fact, compared to 2019, overall crime in Milwaukee is up 22.6%, with violent crime up 15.6% and property crime up 26% from three years ago.

A spokesman for Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson has told the Badger Institute it is “likely that Milwaukee police officers will have a renewed presence in some Milwaukee Public Schools in 2023.” Should Milwaukee Public Schools and the Milwaukee Police Department follow through, it would be the first time officers have been posted in schools since 2016. The School Board allowed officers to patrol around schools for four years after that but voted unanimously to prohibit that as well in June 2020 after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Know what puts a crimp in any effort to fight crime? Not being able to do anything with suspects once the cops catch them.

The cops have had enough, says Kennedy, and the long lines that have stretched across generations in some families, grandfathers to fathers to sons who all were eager to serve and sacrifice – are being severed.

Milwaukee is among the cities that have repeatedly cut law enforcement positions in recent years.

Not only has the city reduced the number of authorized police positions, it has fewer officers to fill them, leading to higher vacancy rates. This inability to fill what remaining positions the city is funding includes leadership ranks: The Milwaukee Police Department is facing a damaging loss of institutional knowledge and practical skills, a loss that could worsen policing just when Milwaukee needs its force to perform at its peak.

Wisconsin’s crime trends in essence reveal two different states: the city of Milwaukee (and other select urban areas) and the “Rest of Wisconsin.” While most of the state is relatively safe in comparison to five years ago, troubling trends in Milwaukee — one of the primary economic engines of the Badger State and home to 10% of its citizens — are undermining the health and safety of the state in general.

The Badger Institute today released four new reports as part of a Mandate for Madison crime and public safety package.

For the people who need it most — poor residents of Milwaukee, families and victims of particularly violent crimes like homicide and aggravated assault throughout the state, children in schools where politicians won’t allow police, and almost anyone awaiting a verdict — Wisconsin’s criminal justice system is failing.

Students in Milwaukee’s public high schools who want a better life and know that school is their only way up are being battered, assaulted and exposed to gunfire or other reckless conduct on a daily basis.

Criminals are emboldened if they think they won’t get caught

Survey solicits opinions on health care, crime, occupational licensing, and other issues.

Unless kids are killed or maimed, gun battles at school are just police blotter items.

Pulling cops out of public schools was a crazy idea.

Four Badger Institute police reform recommendations have been signed into law

A proposal to enhance public credibility

These bipartisan, even-handed measures will provide better data, accountability

Reforms recommended by Badger Institute will increase transparency, work opportunities

The new age of electronic monitoring

Badger Institute Policy Analyst Julie Grace testified in favor of 2021 SB 120, SB 122, and SB 123 before the Wisconsin Senate Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety on March 18, 2021.

2021 SB 120, SB 122, and SB 123 would increase transparency among law enforcement use-of-force policies and incidents.