Van Hollen Doesn’t Foresee Change In How Police-Involved Shootings Are Investigated

Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen says he doesn’t think the public uproar over police-involved shootings in Milwaukee and other cities will change the way such incidents are investigated in Wisconsin.

Van Hollen opposed a new state law that went into effect this year requiring independent investigations of all officer-involved shootings. Since the law’s passage, it’s been his state Department of Criminal Investigation that has run those probes. Backers of the law hoped it would prevent local police departments from investigating their own officers.

Van Hollen, however, said state agents have to work with local officers to get the job done.

“If the goal is to distance the investigation from those people, then they have not succeeded,” he said.

The family of a Milwaukee man shot by police in April are still waiting for the district attorney to decide whether or not to charge the officer.