News & Commentary

Police agencies in Wisconsin use civil asset forfeiture laws to seize – and then keep or sell – property they allege is involved in a crime.  Even if the owner of the property is innocent or never charged, they may never get their property back.  From the moment police seize the property until the courts act, owners are harmed, and may be deprived of their vehicle or the funds they may need to hire an attorney.

Over the past several months, the ACLU of Wisconsin has heard from people concerned about public schools around the state instituting random drug testing of students in sports and extracurricular activities and those who park in school parking lots. For example, schools in Crivitz[1] and Oconomowoc[2] recently joined a national trend in which the proportion of public high schools that randomly tests students grew from 14% in 2006 to 18% in 2012.[3]

A coalition of Milwaukee Community Groups sent the following letter to Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett today, asking him to nominate two additional, qualified members to the city's Fire and Police Commission.

Today, the Madison Police Department announced that Officer Matt Kenny has been exonerated following the internal investigation of his actions in the fatal shooting of Tony Robinson on March 6, 2015.  The ACLU of Wisconsin has been following the criminal and internal investigations in the killing.  Chris Ahmuty, the executive director of the ACLU of Wisconsin, has made the following statement:

On July 24, 2014, Milwaukee's Fire and Police Commission (FPC) approved Standard Operating Procedure 755: Recording Police Activity.  The policy provides guidance to the Milwaukee Police Department for situations in which they are being recorded by members of the public or media, which is a constitutionally-protected activity.  This right has been upheld by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals as recently as 2012 in ACLU vs. Alvarez, a case in which individuals and organizations that wanted to monitor police activity in order to detect police misconduct were prosecuted under the law.

On March 24, 2015 a panel of the Milwaukee Board of Fire and Police Commissioners (FPC) sustained Chief Edward Flynn’s decision to terminate former Milwaukee police officer Christopher Manney.  Manney is a white officer who shot and killed an African-American man, Dontre Hamilton, on April 30, 2014 in Red Arrow Park. The commissioners determined that Manney violated department rules and training when he frisked Dontre Hamilton prior to shooting him.  The ACLU of Wisconsin believes the commissioners’ decision was correct.  But it is only a first step among several needed to improve the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD). 

March 18, 2015

The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin, along with 11 other community organizations and leaders, have asked for greater public input and transparency in the confirmation process for nominees to the Milwaukee Board of Fire and Police Commissioners. We believe that regardless of the nominee, the FPC will be better able to carry out its important oversight and auditing functions if the nomination process enhances public confidence in the Commission.   The text of the letter sent to the Common Council's President and Public Safety Committee Chair is below.

This is the enduring image of Scott Panetti, a severely mentally ill man on death row in Texas: a paranoid schizophrenic wearing a TV-Western cowboy costume; on trial for his life; insisting on defending himself without counsel; attempting to subpoena the Pope, John F. Kennedy, and Jesus Christ; and raising an insanity defense. At one point, he cross-examined his own alter-ego, Sarge, answering his own questions on-stand, in a different voice.