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Why couldn’t they
block reform before hiring the consultant? Two commissioners resign, chief quits, clerk skips out and
trustees falter amid demands for police reform By DAVIDA AMENTA and ShorewoodNewsroom
Staff SHOREWOOD, WIS. (Sept.
11, 2021) – Consultant Alexander
Weiss presented the findings of his $50,000 Shorewood police organization
study last November. Ten
months later, many of his most important recommendations are getting short
shrift.
Yet costly as it was, the
village manager, village board, police department and police commission are
pushing back on most of the meaningful reforms, while citizen groups have
actively sought to put teeth into citizen oversight and accountability. Since
receiving the $50,000 report, the Public Safety Committee of the village
board has met four times and the entire board has considered the issue twice,
once in December and once in August. During that time, the police
department has updated policies as recommended, stopped using a police
officer to make bank deposit runs and has begun to collect data on stops by
race. This data is posted on the website monthly. Two of Weiss’ recommendations
involved citizen oversight of the Shorewood PD and improvements in the complaints
process. Efforts to
implement both policies have centered on the role of the Police Commission.
Shorewood’s Police Commission, when all seats are filled, is a five-person
board, each appointed to a five-year term directly by the village president.
[According to State Statute, the duties of the Commission are to appoint
the Chief, to set examination rules, and to approve any subordinate
appointments made by the Chief. The Commission is also empowered to
adjudicate suspension and other discipline of officers after charges are
filed by either the chief, the commission itself, or “any aggrieved person.”
In that situation, the Police Commission acts as an independent body,
like a civil service commission, and judges the reasonableness and fairness
of any charges before acting.] However, in the past two weeks Commission
President Michael Y. O’Brien and Commissioner Chuck Carlson have resigned. Shorewood has adopted rules and regulations
for the Police Commission that further define its role. Section 504 states that the commission may, in its
discretion, hear informal citizen complaints and may either refer these
complaints to the police chief {when there is a police chief) for
investigation and possible disciplinary action, or cause its own
investigation of the matter to be conducted. Village ordinances also
reference Section 66.312 of Wisconsin Statutes, allowing aggrieved
persons to file a complaint about the conduct of law enforcement officers
with the Shorewood Police Chief.
Municipalities because our longest-serving
trustee, Tammy Bockhorst, is a former president of the association. Trustee
Bockhorst works as an aide to Milwaukee District 4 Alderman Robert Bauman,
whose colleague on the common council, Chantia Lewis, is a candidate for U.S.
Senator Ron Johnson’s seat. Ald. Lewis is also on the board of directors of
the Wisconsin Municipal League. However, after she was charged Sept. 7 in a five-count criminal complaint with misconduct in office, embezzlement, theft by fraud,
intentionally filing false reports or statements, and accepting unlawful
disbursement. In short, she is accused of defrauding the city of Milwaukee
and her campaign of at least $21,666. Ald. Lewis was stripped of her
committee assignment duties,” including her role as vice-chair of the
Public Safety and Health Committee. In his meeting with
Shorewood officials, Attorney Zach was not asked to discuss procedures for
dealing with trustees who violate the public trust. In a limited
presentation, he said an informal complaint may compromise the impartiality
of the Police Commission if that complaint rises to the level of a formal
complaint. Zach also stated that in his opinion the Village Board could
not give additional powers to the Commission, such as a role in police
oversight. While what remains of
the Police Commission has now been effectively ruled out as an option for
either informal complaints or civilian oversight, no one in Village
government has proposed an alternative for either of these important
functions. Weiss suggested that the HRC could provide an annual report
and review use of force and internal investigations. His recommendation
was that the Village use the Police Commission for informal complaints.
As regards data collection,
Weiss and the HRC both cited lack of data as an obstacle to monitoring police
operations. Weiss also noted that data is important to general
management, focus on particular types of crimes, etc. The SPD is
stymied in its ability to collect more meaningful data because our data is
controlled by Bayside dispatch. The Department has proposed hiring a
crime analyst, a suggestion which may be throwing good money after bad.
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