Badger InstituteBadger Institute
  • Home
  • Issues
    • Taxes
    • Education
    • Crime & Justice
    • Spending & Accountability
    • Economy & Infrastructure
    • Licensing
    • Healthcare
    • Civil Society
  • Mandate for Madison
  • Research
  • Magazines
    • Diggings
    • Wisconsin Interest
  • Events
  • Media
    • Podcast
    • Fact Sheets
    • Viewpoints
    • Press Releases
    • Badger in the News
    • Video
    • Audio
    • Testimony
  • About
    • Our Mission
    • Board of Directors
    • Team
    • Visiting Fellows
    • America’s Future
    • Careers
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Contact Us

Subscribe for Updates

Get the latest news and updates from Badger Institute.

What's New

Wisconsin lawmakers in the dark on broadband

March 16, 2023

The underfunded part of Wisconsin public schooling

March 16, 2023

If we don’t pay for roads, we don’t get mobility

March 9, 2023
Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn Instagram
TRENDING:
  • Wisconsin lawmakers in the dark on broadband
  • The underfunded part of Wisconsin public schooling
  • If we don’t pay for roads, we don’t get mobility
  • Assembly Speaker calls for tolling to fund Wisconsin infrastructure
  • Foreseeing the Future of Wisconsin’s Flat Tax
  • Wisconsin voters will be asked about welfare work requirements
  • A state without convictions
  • Why Wisconsin Needs a Flat Tax and Education Reform
  • Donate
  • Newsletter
  • Contact
Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn Instagram
Badger InstituteBadger Institute
SUPPORT OUR MISSION
  • Issues
    • Taxes
    • Education
    • Crime & Justice
    • Spending & Accountability
    • Economy & Infrastructure
    • Licensing
    • Healthcare
    • Civil Society
  • Mandate for Madison
  • Research
  • Magazines
    • Diggings
    • Wisconsin Interest
  • Events
  • Media
    • Podcast
    • Fact Sheets
    • Viewpoints
    • Press Releases
    • Badger in the News
    • Video
    • Audio
    • Testimony
  • About
    • Our Mission
    • Board of Directors
    • Team
    • Visiting Fellows
    • America’s Future
    • Careers
Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn
DONATE
Badger InstituteBadger Institute
Home » Police use of force rare here
Corrections and Public Safety

Police use of force rare here

By Patrick Hughes & Mike NicholsOctober 20, 2020
Share
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest

What happened in Kenosha is an anomaly, defying the critics’ charge that police violence is systemic

The hardscrabble neighborhood where Jacob Blake was shot – a mix of shabby apartment buildings and the occasional pristinely kept home not far from boarded-up stores – looks like hundreds of other places in Wisconsin and the rest of America.

There is a presumption that what happened there after Kenosha police were called to the shooting scene happens everywhere else, too.

“I definitely think it is prevalent elsewhere,” a young woman sitting outside a home nearby said. “It happens all around the world. It happened here. It could happen down on the next block.”

There were “a lot of opportunities” to de-escalate before a police officer had to fire seven shots, said the woman who wanted to be identified only as Kris. “Like if you were a cop, you could have stopped it a different way.”

Questions about better de-escalation by police will go on for months, maybe years (see sidebar). Questions about the prevalence of use of force by officers are more easily answered. 

Force is used by police in Wisconsin’s two largest cities – Madison and Milwaukee – in roughly only one of every 29 or 30 arrests, just over 3%, according to a recent Badger Institute policy brief, “Police Use of Force – How Common Is It?”

No systemic evidence

The vast majority of use of force incidents in Milwaukee, Madison and Green Bay include only bodily force, not the use of a Taser or gun or baton.

So-called officer-involved shootings like the Kenosha incident are rare anywhere. There were 32 officer-involved shootings, 18 of which were fatal, from among the nearly 236,000 arrests in 2019 in all of Wisconsin, according to the Wisconsin Professional Police Association (WPPA). The year before, with over a quarter of a million arrests statewide, there were 25 officer-involved shootings, 12 of them fatal.

Most use of force by police does not involve any weapon at all, the Institute found. More than 70% of police incidents in Milwaukee and Madison involve bodily force. Green Bay defines and reports on use of force differently, but the types of force and frequency during arrest percentages appear to be similar there, as well.

Use of force is most likely to occur during an arrest, the Badger Institute analysis shows. Arrests, however, are only a small subset of all interactions.

“There are hundreds of thousands of contacts between police officers and citizens in a year, from traffic stops to conversations, and the vast majority do not result in a use of force,” said Green Bay Police Chief Andrew Smith. “I personally have dozens of contacts a day with people, it’s hard to quantify it.” Use of force is infrequent enough that Smith says he is aware of every incident.

“I personally receive a notification, an email on my phone whenever a use of force occurs, day or night,” said Smith. “I know what happened, what the circumstance are and can follow up.”

The Institute did not analyze the propriety or justification for using force, which would have required an examination of hundreds of arrests, often with incomplete reports, and drawing inherently subjective conclusions.

A lack of standards and legal requirements for reporting use-of-force incidents make it difficult to know what many departments in the state are doing, and whether officers are being held accountable for unjustified use of force. It is impossible to compare some departments of similar size and similar levels of crime to determine which are outliers deserving closer scrutiny.

Standardized annual use-of-force incident reports from law enforcement agencies are needed, the Badger Institute has concluded. Gov. Tony Evers and State Sen. Van Wanggaard have offered legislative proposals requiring police departments to report all officer-involved shootings and incidents in which a civilian suffers great bodily harm.

The legislation should be amended to require departments to agree on a definition of use of force and report on those incidents uniformly and annually.

Disturbing trend in Milwaukee 

A closer look at the numbers by the Institute revealed that some officers in Milwaukee have used force much more frequently than their fellow officers. In 2018, when more than two-thirds of the 1,900 officers never used any type of force and over 86% never used it more than once, one officer was involved in 24 incidents. Another 39 officers used force five or more times. And fourteen percent of all officers used force more than once in 2018.

The statistics suggest a department rarely using force, particularly in low-crime neighborhoods. In largely impoverished aldermanic districts with much more crime and a greater number of arrests, however, officers use force more than seven times as often as those in districts surrounded by more affluent suburbs.

The disparity makes some sense, but it doesn’t explain why some officers are so far outside the norm or why a small percentage use force much more frequently than fellow officers working the same districts.

It is those officers using force in those povertystricken areas whose actions prompt protestors and other critics to claim the violence is systemic to all police.

“While we do not believe there are systemic problems with the way our officers are doing their jobs, we do believe that we can always improve and that better outcomes – especially with use of force considerations – should always be sought,” Madison Assistant Chief of Police John Peterson said.

Patrick Hughes is a Badger Institute corrections consultant. Mike Nichols is the president of the Badger Institute. Permission to reprint is granted as long as the author and Badger Institute are properly cited.

Related story: Q&A with Kevin McMahill

Share. Facebook Twitter Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr Telegram Email
Patrick Hughes & Mike Nichols

Related Posts

Calls to Police from MPS High Schools Up Dramatically Again

February 20, 2023

A state without convictions

January 12, 2023

MPS Police Ban Detrimental to Milwaukee Students

December 22, 2022
Categories
Top Posts

Local pols filling old budget holes with massive COVID aid

December 8, 20221,449

This is not four years ago

November 10, 20221,287

A state without convictions

January 12, 2023644

Billions in federal spending in Wisconsin unaudited; results never measured

November 9, 2022488
Archives

Sign Up for Top Picks

Our weekly e-Newsletter with the latest items and updates

Connect with Badger Institute
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • LinkedIn
About Us
About Us

The Badger Institute is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit institute established in 1987 working to engage and energize Wisconsinites and others in discussions and timely action on key public policy issues critical to the state’s future, growth and prosperity.

Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube LinkedIn

Sign Up for Top Picks

Our weekly e-Newsletter with the latest items and updates

What’s New

Wisconsin lawmakers in the dark on broadband

March 16, 2023

The underfunded part of Wisconsin public schooling

March 16, 2023

If we don’t pay for roads, we don’t get mobility

March 9, 2023

Assembly Speaker calls for tolling to fund Wisconsin infrastructure

March 2, 2023
© 2023 Badger Institute | Privacy Policy | Disclaimer | Sitemap

Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.

This site uses functional cookies and external scripts to improve your experience.

Privacy settings

Privacy Settings

This site uses functional cookies and external scripts to improve your experience. Which cookies and scripts are used and how they impact your visit is specified on the left. You may change your settings at any time. Your choices will not impact your visit.

NOTE: These settings will only apply to the browser and device you are currently using.

CRM Software

Customer Relationship Management Software

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a web analytics service offered by Google that tracks and reports website traffic. Google uses the data collected to track and monitor the use of our Service. This data is shared with other Google services. Google may use the collected data to contextualize and personalize the ads of its own advertising network.

You can opt-out of having made your activity on the Service available to Google Analytics by installing the Google Analytics opt-out browser add-on. The add-on prevents the Google Analytics JavaScript (ga.js, analytics.js, and dc.js) from sharing information with Google Analytics about visits activity.

For more information on the privacy practices of Google, please visit the Google Privacy & Terms web page: https://policies.google.com/privacy?hl=en

Powered by Cookie Information