As chair of the Public Safety Review Committee I’m still struggling to figure out how to be effective in this moment. There is so much to be done . . . and where can have the impact?
Here’s a summary of what is going on – which is likely not complete.
IT’S COMPLICATED
There are so many moving pieces and players who are now involved.
Mission
The mission of the Public Safety Review Committee is as follows:
(4) Duties . The work of the Public Safety Review Committee shall be advisory to the Mayor and the Common Council to assist them in the performance of their statutory duties regarding the police and fire departments. The role of the Public Safety Review Committee shall in no way interfere with the lawfully prescribed powers and duties of the Common Council, the Police and Fire Commission, the Mayor, or the Chiefs of the respective Police or Fire Departments. The Public Safety Review Committee may, in the performance of its duties:
(a) Review service priorities and capital budget priorities of the Police and Fire departments;
(b) Serve as liaison between the community and the City on public safety issues;
(c) Review annually and make recommendations to the Mayor and the Common Council regarding the annual work plans and long-range goals of the departments.
It seems pretty broad and comprehensive to cover budget, community safety issues and annual recommendations to the Mayor and council on work plans of the departments.
Tradition
However . . . the police department says they have no work plans for us to comment on. And the committee hasn’t played a role in listening to the community or the budget in the past.
Other committees, powers and work-arounds
Police and Fire Commission is clearly the personnel committee and in charge of hiring, firing, discipline, etc.
The Finance Commitee and Council are clearly in charge of the final decisions on budget.
Body-worn camera committee was created to look at that issue.
The police chief doesn’t have to listen to us at all on policy recommendations if he doesn’t want to and then we’d have to get the council to create orders.
The council has created so many other committees to avoid sending things to the Public Safety Review Committee – Alder workgroups on policy, Ad hoc committee on policy and now the Alder workgorup on community control.
Other factors
The Police and Fire Commission is in the middle of hiring a new police chief.
Schools will have to figure out what they are doing without police in the schools.
Budget cuts are going to be needed, they are projecting a (likely inflated) $30M deficit in our city budget for 2021.
Arvina Martin is investigating the issue of medical ambulances.
Sheri Carter is creating a task force to hear from the black community.
Some of the things we want to do or look at are dependent on county, state and federal laws and actions and we risk per-emption by the state legislature if they don’t like what we do.
We’re in sometimes murky legal territory over who has what authority.
The police department is notorious for not sharing information. At the last PSRC meeting I was told if I wanted information on the number of people taken to jail by MPD I had to do an open records request. The people who regularly staff the PSRC are not very helpful, mostly because they don’t have the authority and information needed or support to get it. And, I don’t think this is seen as a major function of their job description.
COMMUNITY SUGGESTIONS AND LISTS OF DEMANDS
The State Journal had a great article listing the actions and demands of various groups.
The mayor’s office created a spreadsheet with the community demands – Copy of Black Lives Matter Movement Demands 62420 – it has 95 different demands and over 50 of them fall into the policing/criminal justice realm. Here’s the one’s I picked out.
| 8 Cant’t Wait | National Community Demands | Use of force policies |
| 8 Cant’t Wait | National Community Demands | Demilitarization |
| 8 Cant’t Wait | National Community Demands | DOJ conset decrees |
| 8 Cant’t Wait | National Community Demands | Police union contracts |
| 8 Cant’t Wait | National Community Demands | Divest from police |
| 8 Cant’t Wait | National Community Demands | Dramatically reduce jail & prison populations |
| 8 Cant’t Wait | National Community Demands | Restorative justice |
| 8 Cant’t Wait | National Community Demands | Fund community safety |
| 8 Cant’t Wait | National Community Demands | Fully defund police |
| 8 Cant’t Wait | National Community Demands | End the carceral state |
| 8 Cant’t Wait | National Community Demands | Ban chokeholds & strangleholds |
| 8 Cant’t Wait | National Community Demands | Require de-escalation |
| 8 Cant’t Wait | National Community Demands | Require warning before shooting |
| 8 Cant’t Wait | National Community Demands | Requires exhaust all alternatives before shooting |
| 8 Cant’t Wait | National Community Demands | Duty to intervene |
| 8 Cant’t Wait | National Community Demands | Ban shooting at moving vehicles |
| 8 Cant’t Wait | National Community Demands | Require use of force continuum |
| 8 Cant’t Wait | National Community Demands | Require comprehensive reporting |
| City of Madison Staff Engaged in Racial Equity Work | Local Community Demands | Divest from the Police Department and invest in community solutions (second place in poll at 62% placing in top three). |
| Freedom Inc/ Urban Triage Rally Demands | Local Community Demands | Defund the Police: community control |
| Freedom Inc/ Urban Triage Rally Demands | Local Community Demands | Police Free Schools |
| Freedom Inc/ Urban Triage Rally Demands | Local Community Demands | Remove police officer who killed Tony Robinson from the police force. |
| Freedom Inc/ Urban Triage Rally Demands | Local Community Demands | Use transformative justice |
| Black Leadership Council | Local Community Demands | Drastic Police Reform: We demand unified use of force guidelines throughout the state by law enforcement. We demand an empowered community oversight committee for the police, a reduction in the over-policing of Black communities, a reduction in arrests and incarceration of Black people. We demand intensive re-training for police and law enforcement to improve their ability to interact humanely and justly with the Black community. We demand a more inclusive approach to recruiting and hiring police officers. Coupled with these demands we want to see parole reform that allows those who have completed their sentences to have a real chance at life after prison and funding for a civil rights division at the Department of Justice. |
| NAACP | National Community Demands | A ban on the use of knee holds and choke holds as an acceptable practice for police officers. |
| NAACP | National Community Demands | The Use of Force Continuum for any police department in the country must ensure that there are at least 6 levels of steps, with clear rules on escalation. |
| NAACP | National Community Demands | Each State’s Open Records Act must ensure officer misconduct information and disciplinary histories are not shielded from the public. Recertification credentials may be denied for police officers if determined that their use of deadly force was unwarranted by federal guidelines. |
| NAACP | National Community Demands | Implementation of Citizen’s Review Boards in municipalities to hold police departments accountable and build confidence. |
| Impact Demand Youth Group | Local Community Demands | Community Control |
| Impact Demand Youth Group | Local Community Demands | Breonna’s Law |
| Impact Demand Youth Group | Local Community Demands | Hands Up Act |
| Impact Demand Youth Group | Local Community Demands | Transparency – Public documentation of when recordable force is used. |
| Impact Demand Youth Group | Local Community Demands | Transparency – MPD Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) change, making ‘pointing a firearm at a suspect’ a recordable use of force. |
| Impact Demand Youth Group | Local Community Demands | Civilian Oversight – Specifically people with diverse experiences |
| Impact Demand Youth Group | Local Community Demands | Conduct Town Halls – Regular quarterly meetings |
| Impact Demand Youth Group | Local Community Demands | Conduct Town Halls – Community meetings after all officer-involved deaths and major officer-involved incidents |
| Impact Demand Youth Group | Local Community Demands | Scenario-Based Training on mental health for officers and dispatchers |
| Impact Demand Youth Group | Local Community Demands | Enforce at least two-week period of public engagement during officer training |
| Impact Demand Youth Group | Local Community Demands | Accountability of officers with punitive consequences |
| Impact Demand Youth Group | Local Community Demands | SOP on not shooting at moving vehicle |
| Impact Demand Youth Group | Local Community Demands | Advocating for the firing of Matt Kenny |
| Young People Organizing Juneteenth | Local Community Demands | Removing officers from schools |
| Young People Organizing Juneteenth | Local Community Demands | Getting rid of Matt Kenny |
| Young People Organizing Juneteenth | Local Community Demands | Defunding police |
| Young People Organizing Juneteenth | Local Community Demands | Community control over police |
| Transformative Action Network and Freedom Inc. | Local Community Demands | We want public institutions to engage in 360 degree accountability through abolitionist restorative justice. |
| Transformative Action Network and Freedom Inc. | Local Community Demands | Support and fund a Black-lead committee with decision making and implementation power to remedy the deep patterns of harm caused by racist violence in all of its forms. |
| Transformative Action Network and Freedom Inc. | Local Community Demands | Using recommendations of said committee, invest in a campaign to decriminalize and humanize Black people. |
| Transformative Action Network and Freedom Inc. | Local Community Demands | Create a truth and reconciliation process to replace the punitive criminal justice system with abolitionist restorative justice. |
| Transformative Action Network and Freedom Inc. | Local Community Demands | Adopt the demands developed by the Movement for Black Lives |
| Michael Johnson Open Letter | Local Community Demands | 1. Divert $8.6M or 10% of MPD’s budget to community policing, mental health services and community policing strategies to be managed by black led organizations who are culturally competent, including grass root groups and other communities of color. |
| Michael Johnson Open Letter | Local Community Demands | 7. Create a Public Safety Officer position that will report to a community policing oversight Board that would manage resources and work with community organizers and MPD on issues that impact local neighborhoods; |
| Michael Johnson Open Letter | Local Community Demands | 8. Release non violent offenders in Dane County jail on signature bonds and seek other forms of rehabilitation; |
| Michael Johnson Open Letter | Local Community Demands | 10. Meet with the youth organizers, MPD and bring philanthropist together to finalize a plan and move Madison Wisconsin forward in an effort to close and fund racial disparities in our community. |
| MPSEA Letter | Local Community Demands | City of Madison elected officials work with the Police & Fire Commission to: Update the Commission’s discipline guidelines and ensure that they are enforced in such a way as to hold the Police Department to the highest accountability for officers who commit violent acts or serve as passive bystanders during acts of police-perpetuated violence. |
| MPSEA Letter | Local Community Demands | City of Madison elected officials work with the Police & Fire Commission to: Set up procedures and systems (such as mediation) for residents to report police abuse so accountability can be brought to the scene of police brutality. If someone in authority were called within a three-minute timeframe, George Floyd would still be breathing today. |
| MPSEA Letter | Local Community Demands | City of Madison elected officials work with the Police & Fire Commission to: Open discussions on other reforms related to police brutality, including abuse of authority and the maintenance of officers on the force with a track record of abuse. Create trainings to require officers to volunteer, work in and learn from many of our diverse communities, to help remove their fears and perceived bias. |
| MPSEA Letter | Local Community Demands | City of Madison elected officials work with the Police & Fire Commission to: Remove police officers from schools while advocating for alternatives such as providing schools with an appropriate complement of social workers, mental health specialists, and other related professionals trained in addressing/assisting children affected by trauma or any other adverse event. |
| MPSEA Letter | Local Community Demands | City elected officials take a strong stance against expanding the county jail and advocate for the use of alternatives to jail and prison, including fines, restitution, community service, probation, house arrest, and government-sponsored work training programs. |
WEDNESDAY’S PSRC AGENDA
3. Updates from budget and protest policies workgroups
4. Data on police impact on jail population
5. Mayor’s request for us to review “8 can’t wait”
6. Our response to other community demands and initiatives (Breonna’s law, 8 to abolition, NAACP and WSJ article) – I am also adding the mayor’s list which I just discovered this weekend.
7. Setting committee priorities. What role should the Public Safety Review Committee play in this moment? What are your priorities?
WHAT WOULD YOU PRIORITIZE?
Where would you begin?
We started budget – because we know you have to get started early on that and we can be a public venue for discussions to start happening so they don’t being on October 1st when the mayor released here budget.
We also started with the protest policies – partially because it was timely and I have experience in that area over that past 24 years including Mifflin Street riot (’96), U.S. Conference of Mayors incident at the Union (2000? 2002?), the clearing of E Washington Ave during Tony Robinson protests and more. And nothing. ever. changes. Well, except the new toys the police department obtains.
Given the council will jump on other ideas, other committees are formed and will be formed, where else can the Public Safety Review Committee have the biggest impact?
