Report finds issues with Milwaukee's Fire and Police Commission

Yahoo

26-02-2025

Protesters march in Milwaukee calling for more community control of the police. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
What has become of the city of Milwaukee's Fire and Police Commission (FPC) since the passage of Act 12, which traded its policy-making powers over the police department for a fiscal deal with the state? That's the question the Milwaukee Turners' – described as Milwaukee's oldest civic group – sought to answer with hard data.
From June to December 2024, the Turners' 'Confronting Mass Incarceration team' monitored the FPC – itself one of the nation's oldest civilian-led oversight bodies for police and fire departments. The team monitored the FPC's meetings, who attended, what attendees did, and how commissioners engaged in the meetings. A white paper published earlier this month, detailing the team's findings, noted among other things that:
The FPC spent 81% of its time discussing personnel matters, and often discussed these during closed sessions which the public cannot view. The Turners noted 359 minutes were spent discussing personnel matters, whereas just 49 minutes were spent on public comment.
The Turners noticed what they described in the white paper as 'an overall lack of active engagement and participation from commissioners.'
Law enforcement personnel attended FPC meetings more frequently than members of the general public. During the monitoring period, 30 police personnel attended meetings whereas 20 members of the public attended. Of those members of the public who attended the meetings, half engaged in public comment and of those, only three received a direct response from commissioners.
The report states the FPC 'appears to serve as a rubber stamp' and that the commission 'has failed to secure public trust.' Dr. Emily Sterk, a research and advocacy associate with Milwaukee Turners who worked on the project, explained why the numbers looked the way they do. While citizens can discuss whatever they want during public comment, commissioners can't discuss anything that isn't on the agenda due to open meetings laws. 'So therefore they just have this practice to, you know, have public comment but then not even address the public that is there,' Sterk told Wisconsin Examiner.
While she understands the legal reason for this practice, Sterk said, 'that is, for us, subjectively very troubling when a member of the public makes the time and effort to get themselves down there, go to this meeting which – as we alluded to in the white paper – the regular sessions are very frequently heavily delayed because of the closed sessions that are taking place.' As a result, the commission ends up engaging in back-and-forth discussions with city officials and law enforcement more frequently than the public, whose comments may be left unheard.
Leon Todd, executive director of the FPC, told Wisconsin Examiner that personnel matters such as promotions, hiring or setting recruitment standards 'are extremely important.' Todd added, 'I don't think it is necessarily problematic that the FPC spends a goodly amount of time on that. It is part of their core functions. It's been part of their core responsibilities for more than 150 years…Since 1885 no person has been appointed or promoted to any position in the police or fire departments without the express approval of the FPC board.'
Yet even this function of the FPC has come under fire. In January, the commission was criticized by conservative elected officials, right-wing media outlets and the Milwaukee Police Association after an officer was denied promotion. WISN12 reported that the FPC considered promotions for seven officers, and only denied officer Jason Daering. A couple of weeks later in early February, the FPC reversed its position and voted to promote Daering to sergeant. Prior to the final vote, FPC co-chair Bree Spencer said that the police department didn't provide a full file, that Daering did not appear for an interview and was unprepared. 'So we really encourage, going forward, that people take this process seriously,' said Spencer.
The commission's voting record was another issue for the Milwaukee Turners. In their report, the group noted that over its monitoring period last year, the FPC took up 122 agenda items, of which 120 received unanimous approval. Only two agenda items – one involving the promotion of a detective and another concerning reappointing a former police officer – received No votes, with both items receiving two No votes. 'Given the current practices of the FPC, including closed sessions and lack of Commissioner participation during regular sessions, the public is left unaware of why these aye or no votes were made,' the report states. 'We observed an overall lack of transparency when it comes to Commissioners' voting records. Even if Commissioners are actively participating in deliberation and debate during closed sessions, the public has no way of knowing this.'
Todd also pushed back against the Milwaukee Turners' claim that the FPC has become a rubber stamp. Harkening back to the pre-Act 12 era Todd, who was appointed by former mayor Tom Barrett in November 2020, recalled the FPC's record of pushing for police reform measures 'that the [police] department did not agree with.' From a ban on chokeholds and no-knock warrants, to approving a policy of publicly releasing video of incidents like police shootings within 15 days of the incident. Those decisions – made when the FPC was led by Chairman Ed Fallone and Vice Chairwoman Amanda Avalos – were 'probably, if not the reason, a big reason why the Legislature took away [FPC's] policy-making authority, because they were acting independently and listening to community members from Milwaukee,' Todd told Wisconsin Examiner.
After the passage of Act 12 in 2023, Fallone and Avalos resigned their positions in protest. Stripping the FPC of its decades-old policy-making powers emerged as a bargaining chip in negotiations between Milwaukee elected officials and the Republican-controlled Legislature. In exchange for targeting the FPC, reversing the Milwaukee Public School district decision to remove school resource officers from its facilities at the request of students and community members, and agreeing to never reduce the police force, Milwaukee was allowed to raise its sales tax which allowed the county to avoid a fiscal catastrophe. Act 12's law enforcement aspects had previously been proposed as bills favored by Republican lawmakers and the Milwaukee Police Association, which failed to pass.
For the FPC, it seems that many roads lead back to the shared revenue and sales tax deal codified by Act 12. In its report, Milwaukee Turners recommended that Act 12 be amended to return the policy-making powers of the FPC. This state-level solution, however, relies on cooperation from the Republican-controlled Legislature which helped craft, negotiate, and implement Act 12.
In the meantime, the Turners recommend that the FPC bring ideas for policy changes to the common council. 'We recommend that the FPC dedicate less of their regular sessions to closed door personnel matters, and instead publicly engage in discussions about new and amended [Standard Operating Procedures] that are brought forth by the [Milwaukee Police Department],' the report reads, adding that 'the Common Council might actively invite policy recommendations from the FPC, especially as it relates to the concerns of their constituents.'
Todd told Wisconsin Examiner that the commission adopted a new rule requiring that the police department provide copies of any new or amended policies to the FPC within 48 hours, and no less than 30 days before the policies take effect. When that happens, a communication file is created by the FPC which goes into the regular agenda, and thus becomes public. Todd said that so far, the commission has not sent policy recommendations to the common council.
Todd is considering other ways to beef up the FPC's oversight capacity. Specifically, he wants to encourage a focus on the FPC's audit unit as a way of being 'more proactive' and 'not just reactive.' Todd pointed to an audit on police pursuits, and the police department, Todd said, is also looking to create a vehicle pursuit committee. The commission also continues tracking citizen complaints about officer behavior, as well as progress the department makes in eliminating discriminatory stop and frisk practices as part of the Collins settlement agreement. This year, the audit unit is expecting to do six or seven audits which are unrelated to the Collins settlement, said Todd.
Additionally, an ordinance passed in the common council to ensure the elected body is quickly notified of policy changes.
How the commission attracts more members of the public to attend meetings is another issue. Todd acknowledged that there have been fewer citizens attending public comment after the passage of Act 12. 'I think that's unfortunate,' he told Wisconsin Examiner. 'I think that we welcome people to come and express their views, their input.'
The last major policy he could recall passed before Act 12 was the video release policy concerning police shootings and related deaths. Local activists fought for the reform, as did the families of people killed in incidents involving Milwaukee-area police.
Todd said that the FPC still has 'soft power' such as through audits, which it can use to influence the police department. 'So I'm hoping that we will get more public input going forward,' he said, noting that FPC recently welcomed in a new commissioner, Krissie Fung, from the Milwaukee Turners.
'Our findings highlight the importance of fostering a culture of police and fire accountability within the FPC,' the Turners' white paper concludes. 'By advocating for legislative changes to restore policy making authority, increasing public engagement, and ensuring rigorous Commissioner participation, the FPC can rebuild public confidence and strengthen its capacity to address systemic inequalities in policing.'
'We really hope to continue to provide civilian oversight of the FPC and see what happens over the course of the next few months,' said Sterk, 'especially as we continue our lobbying for the amendment of Act 12, as we hope members of the FPC and members of the public do as well.'
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