Black activists, Dems blast Wisconsin police reform bills

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Democratic lawmakers and Black activists on Thursday blasted the first police reform bills proposed by a task force the Wisconsin Assembly’s top Republican formed last year after a spate of police shootings, saying the measures would accomplish little of substance and that legislators should start over.

The Assembly’s criminal justice committee held the first public hearing on the proposals on Thursday. Committee Republicans praised the task force’s leaders, Assembly Majority Leader Jim Steineke, a white Republican, and Rep. Shelia Stubbs, a Black Democrat, for reaching consensus on what they called difficult issues.

But Democrats on the panel questioned whether the bills go far enough. Black Leaders Organizing Communities, a nonprofit that works to improve Black people’s lives, held a simultaneous rally in Milwaukee to lambast the proposals as “crumbs.”

“These bills are simply a blanket,” said Keisha Robinson, the organization’s deputy director. “They are just warm and squishy thoughts to keep police warm. When are there going to be actual bills that are going to be put in place to help the community?”

The seven-bill package includes measures that would require annual reports on the number of no-knock entries executed each year and resulting injuries and deaths. The package would also require the state Department of Justice to develop a training program for officers stationed in schools.

Officer applicants statewide would have to undergo psychological examinations before they could be hired and officers would have to take four hours of crisis management training annually. Officers who shoot at someone or are involved in an incident resulting in a death or injury would have to get drug tested.

Other bills in the package would create a grant program to purchase body cameras for patrol officers and expand eligibility for a $250,000 grant program to help people in rural areas deal with crises. Currently, only counties or regions are eligible for such grants, and the legislation would also make them available to municipalities.

Pressure to overhaul police practices has been building nationally since George Floyd’s death in May 2020. The spotlight turned to Wisconsin in August when a white Kenosha police officer shot Jacob Blake, who is Black, during a domestic dispute. Blake was left paralyzed from the waist down. That shooting sparked several nights of chaotic demonstrations.

Democratic Gov. Tony Evers called special legislative sessions to pass police reform bills after both incidents, but Republican leaders refused to convene. Assembly Speaker Robin Vos instead created the task force to examine racial disparities.

The task force released its recommendations in April. In addition to the proposals before the criminal justice committee Thursday, the task force’s recommendations include a statewide prohibition on officers using chokeholds and the creation of an independent board to develop best use-of-force practices. But lawmakers have yet to introduce any bills that would make those recommendations law.

GOP members of the criminal justice committee gushed over the new bills, calling them historic.

“This is a really good day for the state of Wisconsin, a really good day for America,” said Rep. Shae Sortwell. “I fully expect we’re going to pass these bills, probably unanimously.”

Committee Democrats said the bills represent minor steps forward. They demanded to know why the task force didn’t ban no-knock warrants, funnel more money toward body cameras and require annual psychological evaluations for officers.

“There is no act that government can do that’s bigger than taking the life of one of its own citizens,” said Rep. Tim McGuire, a Kenosha Democrat.

Steineke and Stubbs said they couldn’t find any data on no-knock warrants to inform policy decisions. They also said the Legislature’s budget committee can find money for the grants and that officers dealing with problems unrelated to work could fail annual exams and lose their jobs.

Rep. David Bowen, a Black Democrat from Milwaukee, tried to ask Steineke why he called leading the task force a “political loser” in an email to Vos in August. The committee’s chairman, Rep. John Spiros, cut Bowen off.

“I’m trying to respond to what he said,” Bowen shot back. “This was supposed to be a non-political process. It seems there was a goal politically.”

Steineke replied that if all Bowen cares about is politics, then he could see how he got that impression from the email. He said he meant that the task force would have to work to find consensus and not focus on highly political ideas. He chided Bowen for not observing any task force meetings, to which Bowen responded “pandemic.”

Although Steineke and Stubbs called the bills starting points, Bowen wouldn’t have it.

“(Killings by police) probably is the most controversial issue in the country right now and we have a ways to go,” Bowen said. “People really want to see something substantial so everyone can make it home at night.”

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