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State Police Union Gives High Marks To Legislature For Its Latest Session

Report Specifically Applauds Bill That Reformed How Police Shooting Investigations Are Conducted

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The chambers of the Wisconsin State Senate in Madison. Photo: Richard Hurd (CC-BY).

A biennial legislative report card from the Wisconsin Professional Police Association gave high marks to both Democrats and Republicans for their support of bills meant to improve public safety and defend the union bargaining rights of law enforcement officers.

Among the 41 legislators that the statewide police union gave a top ranking, 19 were Democrats and 22 were Republicans. The highest score among state representatives went to State Rep. Garey Bies (R-Sister Bay) who sponsored the bill that requires police agencies to use outside investigators to review incidents in which police officers use deadly force.

So far this year, there have been seven fatal police shootings and several incidents where police shot and wounded a suspect who survived.

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Union executive director Jim Palmer said the new law is working well. He noted that some police departments, such as Madison’s and Racine’s, had previously conducted investigations in response to police-involved shootings themselves.

“Now they’ve had to comply with the new law,” said Palmer. “That has been done very successfully, I think, from everyone’s perspective.”

All of the investigations completed so far this year found that police were justified in using lethal force.

On the collective bargaining front, Palmer said the union is pleased that the Legislature rejected a bill aimed at stripping Milwaukee’s police union of most of its bargaining rights.

“We thought that was a pretty egregious legislative proposal, and interestingly enough it was one that was sponsored by a Democrat, (state Sen.) Tim Carpenter,” said Palmer. “There seems to be little interest on either side of the aisle in sponsoring collective bargaining legislation one way or another.”

Palmer said that’s a good thing, because it allows the union to focus its efforts on public safety legislation instead of defending their bargaining rights.

Correction: The broadcast version of this story said that on the Wisconsin Professional Police Association scorecard, 15 Democrats and 16 Republicans were given top marks. Actually, 19 Democrats and 22 Republicans were given top marks.