1 A BLUEPRINT FOR OPPORTUNITIES TO EVOLVE POLICING IN WISCONSIN WISCONSIN PROFESSIONAL POLICE ASSOCIATION 20202 TABLE OF CONTENTS BLUEPRINT FOR OPPORTUNITIES TO EVOLVE POLICING IN WISCONSIN 03 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY INTRODUCTION 03 OPPORTUNITIES FOR CHANGE 03 06 BLUEPRINT FOR CHANGE REPORT TRAINING AND STANDARDS 06 OVERSIGHT AND ACCOUNTABILITY 08 COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT & INNOVATION 11 OFFICER WELLNESS 12 13 APPENDIX A3 INTRODUCTION “A Blueprint for Change” outlines a detailed series of proposals that fall into one of four categories, or opportunity areas: Training & Standards, Oversight & Accountability, Community Engagement & Innovation, and Officer Wellness. As the state’s largest law enforcement group, the Wisconsin Professional Police Association (WPPA) is dedicated to contributing to the public dialogue that surrounds policing in a meaningful way. Since the tragic death of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25, and other high-profile cases around the country, the topic of police reform has been elevated to the forefront of the American consciousness like never before. Following the August 23 shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, the national reckoning over policing has become even more intense and polarizing. As a result, there has been very little progress made relative to the proposals that have been offered at nearly every level of government, and our collective ability to engage in a reasonable discourse on these issues appears severely impaired. This dynamic is detrimental to everyone – including police officers. Addressing the systemic racial disparities that exist in society requires an effort to identify a systemic set of solutions. We firmly believe a Governor’s Blue Ribbon Commission should be established to examine our economic system, educational system, health care system, and our criminal justice system. But meaningful action must be the end result. A Blueprint for Change is our attempt to compile and advance those ideas that we believe will benefit the public and law enforcement alike. We intend to utilize this document as a catalyst for discussion and action. We hope this initiative reflects our commitment to be a part of the solution to the challenges that we collectively face, and that it can help lead to the types of changes needed to lift up our communities, as well as the officers that work tirelessly to keep them safe. OPPORTUNITIES FOR CHANGE • Training & Standards • Oversight & Accountability • Community Engagement & Innovation • Officer Wellness EXECUTIVE SUMMARY BLUEPRINT FOR OPPORTUNITIES TO EVOLVE POLICING IN WISCONSIN4 TRAINING & STANDARDS OVERSIGHT & ACCOUNTABILITY USE OF FORCE (page 6: #1) Codify and establish uniform statewide policies on use of force. DE-ESCALATION TRAINING (page 6: #2) Establish uniform statewide policies and requirements for training in de-escalation tactics. CHOKEHOLDS (page 7: #3) Require law enforcement agencies to develop policies prohibiting their use except in “life or death” situations. WHISTLEBLOWER PROTECTIONS (page 7: #4) Establish a law against disciplining a law enforcement officer who reports a violation of use of force policies. SCHOOL RESOURCE OFFICERS (page 7: #5) Create uniform education and training standards for SROs. PROFESSIONAL TRANSPARENCY (page 7: #6) Require all use of force policies to be made available to the public online. LAW ENFORCEMENT STANDARDS BOARD (page 8: #1) Expand the authority to regulate the training and certification of law enforcement officers. BODY-WORN CAMERAS (page 8: #2) Establish a three-year grant program to support expansion of their use statewide. “POLICE & COMMUNITY SAFETY BOARD” (page 8: #3) Create a statewide nonpartisan professional conduct entity to research, review, and report annually on use of force incidents. USE OF FORCE REPORTING (page 9: #4) Require the DOJ to publish an annual report detailing use of force incidents including demographic information. PFC: COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT (page 9: #5) Increase community involvement in Police and Fire Commissions (PFC), strengthen roles and responsibilities of civilian oversight. DISCIPLINARY ACTIONS – DATA COLLECTION (page 9: #6) Expand the Wisconsin Department of Justice’s (DOJ) data collection to include disciplinary complaints and outcomes. “NO KNOCK” WARRANT TRACKING (page 9: #7) Require all law enforcement agencies to submit annual reports to DOJ.5 OVERSIGHT & ACCOUNTABILITY CONTINUED COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT & INNOVATION OFFICER WELLNESS “RIOT” PENALTIES (page 10: #8) Establish criminal penalties for persons that intentionally participate in public violence and destruction. DISCRIMINATORY CALLS FOR POLICE ACTION (page 10: #9) Develop a law to punish unnecessary, racially-motivated calls to police that are intended to humiliate, harm, or harass others. “FRIVOLOUS” COMPLAINT PROTECTIONS (page 10: #10) Establish criminal penalties for knowingly filing false complaints against officers’ actions. BRADY LIST LEGISLATION (page 10: #11) Pursue new legislation to inject procedural justice and transparency - for both officers and the general public - to the manner in which district attorneys designate officers as untruthful. COMMUNITY POLICING (page 11: #1) Establish a funding mechanism (grant program) to expand community policing in Wisconsin. CRISIS INTERVENTION TRAINING (page 11: #2) Increase state funding for crisis intervention training program and increase the number of officers who undergo that training. STUDY ALTERNATIVES TO POLICING; “CRISIS MANAGEMENT TEAMS” (page 11: #3) a. Create a legislative study committee to develop models and alternatives to police responses (e.g. teams of police, social workers and mental health professionals) b. Establish a pilot program and funding source to develop, test, and evaluate the efficacy of crisis teams. CIVIL COMMITMENTS (page 11: #4) Expand final care and locations options for those in need of emergency health detentions. Winnebago Mental Health Institute (Oshkosh) is only certified drop-off for patients. POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER (page 12: #1) Provide worker’s compensation coverage for public safety officers diagnosed with PTSD because of their employment. STATE WELLNESS COORDINATOR (page 12: #2) Create a DOJ position dedicated to officer wellness and expand funding for wellness training and suicide prevention. OFFICER CONFIDENTIALITY PROTECTIONS (page 12: #3) Create privacy protections for officers who seek assistance through “peer support” programs with certain key exceptions.6 BLUEPRINT FOR OPPORTUNITIES TO EVOLVE POLICING IN WISCONSIN TRAINING AND STANDARDS 1. Codify and Establish Uniform Policies on the Use of Force. Require each law enforcement agency to ensure that its publicly available policy on the use of force incorporates the following principles: that the primary duty of all law enforcement is to preserve the life of all individuals; that deadly force is to be used only as the last resort; that officers should use skills and tactics that minimize the likelihood that force will become necessary; that, if officers must use physical force, it should be the least amount of force necessary to safely address the threat; and that law enforcement officers must take reasonable action to stop or prevent any unreasonable use of force by their colleagues. [See 2017 AB 438 and 2019 LRB 6273, as supported by Gov. Evers.] COMMENT: The principles set out in the above-referenced legislation are already well-established in Wisconsin.1 Some of them are currently mandated by statute or the administrative code, and others are accounted for in the curriculum that governs law enforcement training in this state. Nonetheless, codifying these principles into a single statute to ensure statewide uniformity would benefit both law enforcement and the general public. 2. Establish Uniform De-escalation Training Requirements. Require each law enforcement officer to annually complete a uniform amount of training on use of force options and de-escalation techniques. [See 2019 LRB 6274 and 2017 Assembly Bill 439, which would establish an eight-hour annual requirement, in addition to providing additional funding for law enforcement training.] COMMENT: “De-escalation tactics” are taught all throughout Wisconsin’s law enforcement training curriculum, which are integrated within what is referred to as the “Disturbance Resolution” framework, which trains officers to apply a wide variety of tactics in considering their responsive options, including, among others, a range of verbal communication strategies, crisis assessment and intervention methods, and disengagement. The Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), an independent national police research and policy organization, has publicly recommended that agencies throughout the country utilize the type of integrated, scenario-based training that already exists in Wisconsin.2 While it is our belief that the continuing law enforcement training that officers currently receive from their agencies successfully incorporates de-escalation training, some uniform standard (the specific amount of time to be required should receive further examination) would ensure consistency across the state. 1 See Appendix A. 2 Police Executive Research Forum, Guiding Principles on Use of Force, Critical Issues in Policing Series, 2016, at 9, 7 3. Require law enforcement agencies to develop policies prohibiting the use of chokeholds, except under exigent circumstances. [See 2019 LRB 6338 by Sen. Wanggaard. See also LRB 6276, which was recently proposed by Gov. Evers, though it failed to include any considerations for officer safety.] COMMENT: Chokeholds are not included within the curriculum that governs law enforcement training in Wisconsin, and some agencies in the state have adopted policies that prohibit them, except where their use is necessary to protect an officer’s life. As such, and in light of the fact that such a ban was included in an executive order issued by the Trump Administration,3 we support a ban on chokeholds, provided that any such restriction allows officers to use them in order to save their lives. 4. Establish protections to support an officer’s duty to intervene. Establish a statutory prohibition against disciplining a law enforcement officer who reports a violation of a law enforcement agency’s policy regarding the use of force. [See 2017 AB 438 and 2019 LRB 6273, as supported by Gov. Evers. See also 2019 LRB 6341 by Sen. Wanggaard, which would require each law enforcement agency to state when and how a use-of-force incident must be reported, and require that officers report when they engage in or observe use-of-force incidents. This legislation would further provide “whistleblower” protections for officers that report use-of-force policy violations. COMMENT: Currently, law enforcement officers in Wisconsin are required to intervene and report the excessive use of force by officers. This is not only generally mandated by departmental policies, but by state law as well. The excessive use of force by an officer constitutes a crime, such that an officer that witnesses another officer committing a crime has an absolute duty under the law to intervene and report the conduct. Failure to do so can result in a variety of criminal charges, including the felony of Misconduct in Office under Wis. Stat. § 946.12. Providing officers with clear and specific guidance on how to report potential misconduct related to a use-of-force incident and establishing whistleblower protections for those officers will help reinforce these existing obligations. 5. Establish uniform standards for school resource officers. COMMENT: Establishing uniform minimum standards governing the training and education of school resource officers would help ensure uniformity, promote best practices, and help enable the Office of School Safety within the Wisconsin Department of Justice to provide training resources to school resource officers and the school districts that utilize them. Ensuring consistent training would also help promote positive outcomes and reduce legal liability. 6. Require each law enforcement agencies to make its use-of-force policies publicly available online. [See 2019 LRB 6277, which was recently proposed by Gov. Evers.] COMMENT: While many agencies in Wisconsin already satisfy this requirement, a statewide uniform requirement would help advance legitimate interests in transparency. 3 Exec. Order No. 13,929, 85 Fed. Reg. 37,325 (June 16, 2020).8 OVERSIGHT AND ACCOUNTABILITY 1. Expand the authority of the Law Enforcement Standards Board to regulate the training and certification of law enforcement officers, and to require background checks of candidates for employment as law enforcement officers. Make certain changes to the responsibilities of the LESB, including requiring LESB to also regulate jail and juvenile detention officer training standards and regulate recruitment standards for the recruiting of new law enforcement, jail, and juvenile detention officers; require each law enforcement agency to maintain an employment file for each employee; and require each potential candidate for a position in an agency, jail, or facility that is or has been employed by a different agency, jail, or facility to authorize their previous employer to disclose his or her employment files to the hiring entity. [See SA 1 of 2017 AB 506, or 2019 LRB 6282 by Rep. Ott and Sen. Testin.] COMMENT: Wisconsin’s Law Enforcement Standards Board does not possess the same decertification authority as that which is exercised by the majority of its counterparts throughout the country. In addition to increasing that authority, the legislation referenced above would require law enforcement agencies to conduct thorough background checks for individuals that have applied for law enforcement positions. While we believe this is widely done at present and that agencies in this state posses numerous resources in order to do so, this legislation would mandate it, which we believe promotes the interests of the law enforcement profession and its service to the public. 2. Establish a three-year grant program to support law enforcement agencies in implementing and maintaining body-worn camera programs. 3. Create a statewide nonpartisan board to research, review, and report annually on the causes and contributing factors of certain use-of-force incidents by law enforcement officers in the course of their duties. Modeled after the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), this board would analyze and investigate use-of-force incidents and serious injuries to police in order to determine the root cause of the outcome and its contributing factors. [See 2019 LRB 2964 by Sen. Wanggaard.] COMMENT: Fields such as aviation have adopted a “sentinel-events” approach to learning from error with measurable success. In these fields, a sentinel event is a significant negative outcome that signals underlying weaknesses in the system or process; that likely is the result of compound errors; and that, if properly analyzed and addressed, may provide important keys to strengthening the system and preventing future adverse events or outcomes. The research arm of the U.S. Department of Justice, the National Institute of Justice has long advocated for the application of sentinel event reviews to outcomes involving the police.4 The legislation referenced above would represent a significant step in establishing this innovative type of review and help provide a platform that promotes improvements for officers and the public. 4 For a discussion of this approach to learn from error more broadly in criminal justice, the National Institute of Justice Sentinel Event Initiative has issued several publications, see, e.g., NAT’L INST. OF JUSTICE, U.S. DEP’T OF JUSTICE, NIJ STRATEGIC RESEARCH AND IMPLEMENTATION PLAN: SENTINEL EVENTS INITIATIVE (2017), 9 4. Require that DOJ publish an annual report on use of force incidents, including incidents where there was a shooting, where a firearm was discharged in the direction of a person (even if there was no injury), and where other serious bodily harm resulted from the incident. Further require certain demographic information to be collected about each incident and reported annually by DOJ on its website. [See LRB 6283, which was recently proposed by Gov. Evers.] COMMENT: Since 2014, the WPPA has been the only entity in Wisconsin to collect data relative to the officer-involved shootings that occur in this state, and to report that data publicly.5 We have long- supported the broader collection of use-of-force data, which we believe can help to inform both law enforcement and the general public. 5. Increase community involvement in the police and fire commissions in Milwaukee and Madison and make other changes to strengthen their effectiveness. [See, e.g., 2019 LRB 6339 by Sen. Wanggaard and Rep. Brandjten, which would expand the size of the police and fire commissions in Milwaukee and Madison, and provide that the mayor must select appointees from recommendations by NAACP, Centro Hispano, and local police and fire associations. The measure would further provide that the commissions appoint an independent director, require two public meetings before chiefs can be appointed/reappointed, and other measures to reduce the potential for board vacancies. COMMENT: Wisconsin’s police and fire commissions represent one of the strongest forms of civilian oversight in the United States. The above-referenced legislation would significantly strengthen the effectiveness of the commissions in these two municipalities. 6. Expand DOJ’s existing data collection efforts to include information related to disciplinary complaints and outcomes. Currently, the Wisconsin Department of Justice collects data related to the employment status of law enforcement officers, including whether an officer was terminated, forced to resign or resigned before the completion of an internal investigation. Under this proposal, DOJ would additionally collect data related to disciplinary complaints regarding specified serious misconduct, regardless of how initiated, and their outcomes. Such an effort would need to include mechanisms to allow officers to challenge the inclusion of certain records in the DOJ database, just as provided for in the comparable tracking systems for doctors and teachers. COMMENT: Some law enforcement critics have asserted that the unions representing law enforcement officers help protect the employment of officers that should be fired. For a variety of reasons, including the fact that the vast majority of officers in Wisconsin cannot arbitrate their discipline, there is no basis for such an argument. The collection of additional data as outlined above would increase the level of transparency in police discipline. 7. Require each law enforcement agency to submit to DOJ an annual report detailing the number of search warrants issued that specifically authorized entry without knocking and the total number of search warrants issued. Under current law, a law enforcement officer executing a search warrant must knock before entering a building unless, at the time the warrant is executed, the law enforcement officer has a reasonable suspicion that knocking and announcing will be dangerous or futile or will inhibit the effective investigation of the crime. This proposal would require agencies to report certain data relative to the use of these warrants to DOJ. 5 See. e.g., Briana Reilly, Wisconsin DOJ started collecting police use-of-force data in 2020, THE CAP TIMES, June 13, 2020 Next >