In their latest attempts to make Wisconsin's congressional voting map more favorable to Democrats ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, liberal law firms are pushing for an untested process first created by Republican state lawmakers in 2011.
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The village of Sturtevant is considering disbanding its police department and outsourcing services to the Racine County Sheriff’s Office.
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The mother of the 15-year-old girl who opened fire at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison, killing two people before killing herself, has died by apparent suicide.
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Members of the State Building Commission unanimously approved millions of dollars’ worth of projects Wednesday, covering everything from routine maintenance around the state to new lighting at the Circus World Museum.
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An 18-year-old inmate who pleaded guilty to charges related to the death of a guard at a Wisconsin juvenile prison was sentenced Wednesday to five years in prison.
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Italian archaeologists discover a woman with pearl earrings and gold in one of Pompeii’s richest homes.
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A push by Texas Republicans to redraw congressional maps to secure five more GOP seats in the U.S. House has kicked off a no-holds-barred battle between blue and red states, each threatening to redraw their own House seats.
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A federal judge has ruled in favor of more than 50 homeowners and the town of Lac du Flambeau in a longstanding dispute with the Lac du Flambeau tribe about access to roads crossing tribal lands.
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The archaeologists complete the excavation of a wealthy residence, bakery and laundry, discovering details about what people were doing in the city during its final hours.
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Exploring Costa Rica’s biodiversity through its hummingbirds.
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A student draws with chalk on an outdoor court at a New York City public school in 2022. If states didn't receive billions in congressionally approved funding for K-12 education that the Trump administration had been withholding, officials said programs for migrants, English-language learners and kids in need of after-school care would be at risk. (Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)
It’s been a troubling summer for anyone who cares about children, families and the thousands of students who rely on summer and after-school programs across Wisconsin. In early July, without warning and without sound legal authority, the Trump administration’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) announced it would withhold billions in federal education funds — including money that had already been appropriated by Congress months earlier.
Among the frozen funds was support for 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21st CCLCs) — the only federal program dedicated exclusively to after-school and summer learning. In Wisconsin, more than 18,000 students across over 150 programs rely on this funding for safe, enriching places to go when school is out. These programs aren’t extras. They are essential for student success and family stability.
Also caught in the freeze were other critical federal programs, including Title II-A (teacher professional development), Title IV-A (student support), Title III-A (English learners), Title I-C (migrant education), adult basic education, and English literacy and civics education. These dollars support some of our most vulnerable students.
There was no clear explanation. No legal justification. And no warning to the schools and organizations already planning for the 2025–26 school year.
But the response from the after-school field was swift. National networks like the Afterschool Alliance, local providers, parents and state advocates mobilized. Tens of thousands of letters and phone calls poured into congressional offices. The Afterschool Alliance organized a briefing for the bi-partisan Senate Caucus and then within days, 10 Republican senators sent a letter demanding the OMB release the funds. That pressure worked. The administration reversed course. For now, the 21st CCLC money is moving.
Why did we have to fight so hard for funding that was already signed into law? Why was it even legal for the administration to delay disbursement based on a vague “review”? And what’s to stop it from happening again next year?
This experience exposed a dangerous truth: Wisconsin has no backup plan. We are in the minority of states without any dedicated state funding stream for after-school and summer learning programs. That leaves our kids — especially those in rural or under-resourced areas — completely dependent on federal dollars. And when federal dollars get caught up in politics, Wisconsin kids lose.
We can’t afford that gamble.
Because 21st CCLC programs are not just child care; they are proven, high-quality learning environments that deliver real results.
In fact, students who regularly attend these programs see improvements in their grades, attendance, engagement and even standardized test scores. A national study of low-income, ethnically diverse students found that regular attendance in a high-quality afterschool program like 21st CCLC led to up to a 20-percentile gain in math scores. Students also showed better behavior and were less likely to be chronically absent. In Wisconsin, where absenteeism has surged post-pandemic, this is exactly the kind of support our students need.
After-school programs work because they meet kids where they are. These programs offer hands-on STEM projects, arts and music, physical activity, service learning, leadership development and workforce readiness. They give students new experiences, expose them to future career paths, and build skills like communication, collaboration, and critical thinking. They engage the whole child and they engage families, too.
They’re also essential for working parents. A recent survey found that nine in 10 voters agree that after-school and summer programs are vital to the economic well-being of families. Employers rely on them to ensure parents can work full hours. Yet today, two-thirds of Wisconsin families who want after-school and summer programs can’t access them. There simply isn’t funding to support the need.
And demand is growing. In 2024 alone, more than half of 21st CCLC providers reported having waitlists. Nearly 90% said they are worried about long-term sustainability. And while the cost of operating these programs has gone up, federal investment hasn’t kept pace with inflation — meaning we’re doing more with less every year.
Affluent parents have long understood that learning opportunities outside of school hours are essential to their children’s full development. All of Wisconsin’s children deserve the same chance to thrive. These programs are a vital part of our state’s education and workforce infrastructure, and it’s time Wisconsin started treating them that way.
Yes, restoring the 21st CCLC funds was a victory. But it came only because thousands of people raised their voices. We shouldn’t have to beg to protect something so fundamental. And we shouldn’t leave our kids’ futures up to the whims of politics in Washington.
If we want every student in Wisconsin to have a chance to succeed, not just in school, but in life, we need to invest in these programs. Not just when there’s a crisis, not just when federal funds are threatened, but every year. With reliable, sustainable state funding.
Our kids and our communities deserve nothing less.
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Melissa Ludin, state board member at Ex-incarceraed People Organizing (EXPO) (Photo by Isiah Holmes)
Two Wisconsin non-profits involved in addressing the criminal justice system, Ex-incarcerated People Organizing (EXPO) and LIFT Wisconsin, were recently recipients of a grant from the Catalyst Grant program, funded by Microsoft and administered by the Urban Institute to support non-profits using data and technology to “advance racial equity and reform in the adult criminal legal system.”
EXPO and LIFT Wisconsin were among 25 grantees nationwide that received the awards.
The two organizations will share a $40,000 grant to support their joint work with Legal Tune Up, an app that uses public databases to help with such issues as reinstating driver’s licenses, removing eviction and criminal records (such as dismissed cases on the record for two years), changing child support orders, and helping with debt collection issues.
A press release from EXPO and LIFT Wisconsin said that Legal Tune Up helps “people navigate unresolved legal issues and help prevent minor infractions from snowballing into life-altering consequences.”
The Catalyst Grant program notes that it “supports the efforts of nonprofit organizations to use data and technology to advance racial equity and reform in the adult criminal legal system.”
The Catalyst Grants are meant to address “racism and racial biases” in the criminal justice system that often result in “disproportionate harm to communities of color.”
The grant funds project cost and implementation assistance, peer learning and “access to technology and related support.”
“We aim to mitigate the harms of unresolved legal issues, advance racial equity in civil legal barriers, improve the delivery of the tool, and analyze data from the tool to inform advocacy,” said a press release for EXPO and LIFT Wisconsin. “Together, the partnership between EXPO and LIFT will empower those who are vulnerable to involvement in the criminal justice system to resolve legal issues independently, analyze data to determine where outreach efforts need to focus next, ensure evidence-based recommendations for reforming civil legal processes to reduce racial disparities, and hold community forums to present findings and advocate for policy changes.”
Erica Nelson, LIFT Wisconsin’s Executive Director, added, “This partnership and grant help us elevate people and expand justice for those too often left behind by the system with no resources to navigate it. Thanks to Microsoft and the Urban Institute, we are one step closer to a future where everyone, not just those who can afford an attorney, has access to justice.”
“Our goal at EXPO is to transform lives and reshape the justice system,” said Jerome Dillard, EXPO’s executive director. “In partnership with LIFT, the Catalyst Grant allows us to do just that.”
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Robert Manning-Harris, shown in a mugshot taken Aug. 2, was found dead in his cell in the Eau Claire County Jail.
On Wednesday, Aug. 6, Eau Claire County Sheriff Dave Riewestahl identified the man who was found dead Monday in an Eau Claire County jail cell as Robert L. Manning-Harris, 39, of Eau Claire.
Riewestahl said Manning-Harris had been arrested on Saturday, Aug. 2, on an outstanding warrant, just two days before he was found unresponsive in his cell. .
Manning-Harris had been charged May 13 for bail jumping, a misdemeanor, and operating a motor vehicle while revoked. He missed a court appearance on July 21 and on July 22 a bench warrant was issued.
Sheriff Riewestahl said an autopsy was completed on Manning-Harris by the Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office in Minnesota, and the autopsy “did not reveal any traumatic injuries,” and he added, “results of toxicology testing are pending.”
Riewestahl also noted that neighboring Dunn County Sheriff’s Office is conducting the death investigation.
Mannin-Harris is the second resident in a little over two years who has been found unresponsive in the Eau Claire County Jail.
On March 12, 2023, Silver O. Jenkins, 29, a homeless woman, was also found lying unresponsive on her cell floor.
The St. Croix Sheriff’s Office conducted a death investigation that was submitted in August 2023 to the Eau Claire County Sheriff’s Office, and then for well over a year, the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) reviewed the results of the investigation before the report was released on June 9, 2025.
Sheriff Riewestahl announced in June that the DOJ would not be pressing charges in that case against any of the jail staff or medical personnel working with residents.
Jenkins’ death was attributed to her refusing to eat or take adequate amounts of liquids.
Even though Jenkins appeared “emaciated” before her death and raised concerns among the jail and medical staff, no interventions were taken to save her life because the sheriff’s office didn’t believe it had the authority for drastic measures, including forcing her to eat, and instead continued to offer Jenkins food and water and monitor her condition.
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Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, left, and Texas Rep. Trey Martinez Fischer, right, listen as Texas House Democratic Caucus Chair Gene Wu speaks to reporters during a press conference at the DuPage County Democratic Party headquarters on Aug. 3, 2025 in Carol Stream, Illinois. Wu was with a group of Democratic Texas lawmakers who left the state so a quorum could not be reached during a special session called to redistrict the state. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — Fueled by President Donald Trump’s aims to bolster the U.S. House’s razor-thin GOP majority in the 2026 midterm elections, a rare mid-decade redistricting fight in Texas grew increasingly bitter in recent days and engulfed other states.
As Democratic legislators in the Lone Star State fled to block a new congressional map, a handful of both blue and red states eyed their own redistricting plans, lawsuits cropped up and members of Congress pledged bills to curb redistricting wars.
While Texas is the only state that has so far taken formal action to redraw its U.S. House lines, a full-blown arms race could be imminent.
Here’s a breakdown on the redistricting battle as the drama unfolds:
Republicans in Texas drew a new congressional map at the urging of Trump that could give the GOP five crucial new congressional seats in 2026.
Midterm elections typically lead to the loss of congressional seats for a president’s party.
Meanwhile, the GOP currently holds 219 seats in the House, while Democrats hold 212 spots, with four vacancies. That extremely narrow majority has created immense challenges for U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, as he tries to enact Trump’s sweeping agenda and cater to the president’s demands as well as factions in the GOP conference.
Though congressional districts are typically redrawn every decade following each U.S. Census, the move, particularly in Texas, is not unprecedented and is allowed.
Texas Republicans unveiled a draft of the new congressional map in late July, which looks to reshape and flip major metro areas’ districts held by Democrats.
According to The Texas Tribune, the Department of Justice sent Texas’ leaders a letter in early July that said four of its districts violate the U.S. Constitution. The proposed map would dismantle those districts, per the Tribune.
More than 50 of Texas’ Democratic legislators left the state to try to block the legislature from adopting the new map, according to the Tribune.
This move has drawn the ire of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who went so far as to file a lawsuit asking to remove the Texas House Democratic Caucus chair, state Rep. Gene Wu, after Wu left the state.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton also said Tuesday that he will pursue a court ruling that declares the seats vacant for the House Democrats who do not return by Friday.
Texas GOP U.S. Sen. John Cornyn has also called on the FBI “to take any appropriate steps to aid in Texas state law enforcement efforts to locate or arrest potential lawbreakers who have fled the state.” Trump on Tuesday, asked by a reporter if the FBI should “get involved,” said, “Well, they may have to.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has been among the most vocal Democratic governors in suggesting retaliating against Texas Republicans by redrawing his populous blue state’s own lines before the 2026 elections.
State laws in California and other Democratic states make mid-decade redistricting tougher than it is in Texas.
While pro-democracy groups have praised California’s nonpartisan commission as the “gold standard” of independent redistricting, Newsom has indicated he would ask state lawmakers to temporarily scrap it to join the arms race he says Trump started in Texas.
At a Monday press conference, Newsom justified his exploration of mid-decade redistricting in the Golden State by describing Trump’s recent and historic record as anti-democratic.
“These folks don’t play by the rules,” Newsom said. “If they can’t win playing the game with the existing set of rules, they’ll change the rules. That’s what Donald Trump has done … Here is someone who tried to break this country, tried to light democracy on fire on Jan. 6. He recognizes he’s going to lose in the midterms.”
Vice President JD Vance is slated to visit Indiana Thursday in an attempt to push redistricting, according to the Indiana Capital Chronicle.
Indiana GOP Gov. Mike Braun said that as of now, no commitments have been made, when asked about redistricting efforts in the Hoosier State, per the Capital Chronicle.
Leaders of large Democratic states, in addition to California, are considering their own redistricting in response to Texas.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul wrote in an op-ed published in the Houston Chronicle Tuesday that she would “not sit on the sidelines” and watch “Republicans dismantle democracy.”
“What Texas is doing isn’t a clever strategy, it’s political arson — torching our democracy to cling to power,” Hochul wrote. “The only viable recourse is to fight fire with fire.”
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker appeared alongside Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin and a group of exiled Texas Democratic lawmakers at a news conference Tuesday. Pritzker said it was “possible” the state would pursue redistricting, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.
Other Democratic governors — even including Laura Kelly of ruby-red Kansas — raised the prospect during a Democratic Governors Association meeting in Wisconsin last week of pursuing mid-decade redistricting if Texas follows through.
Republican states are also considering jumping in the fray.
Missouri Senate President Pro Tem Cindy O’Laughlin, a Republican, told a news radio station last week that it was “likely” lawmakers would convene in a special session to redraw district lines after pressure from Trump.
And Rep. Don Bacon, a Republican who holds the most competitive of Nebraska’s three U.S. House seats but plans to step down, told the Nebraska Examiner that Republicans in the state were having conversations about potential redistricting.
An arms race to shorten the cycle for redrawing congressional lines could come at a cost for efforts to overhaul the redistricting process.
Common Cause, a national pro-democracy group that advocates for election reforms including nonpartisan redistricting, urged Democrats not to respond to Texas.
A redistricting arms race would only result in “rigged elections across America,” Emily Eby French, the policy director for Common Cause Texas, said on a press call last week. It was wrong for Republicans to put “a thumb on the scale” through redistricting, she said, but also wrong for Democrats to do the same.
“The real solution is for Democrats to help us lift the Republican thumb off of the Texas scale and every other scale in America until we reach free and fair elections for everyone.”
Trump, whose urging appeared to prompt Texas Republicans to action, has consistently pushed lawmakers in that state to reinforce the GOP advantage there.
Tuesday, he said on CNBC that Republicans were “entitled” to five more House seats in Texas.
Martin, the DNC chair, responded in Illinois.
“No party is entitled to any district,” he said. “We have to go out and earn the votes.”
Still, Martin advised Democrats in blue states to do the opposite by responding in kind to Texas Republicans.
In an interview with States Newsroom last week, Martin suggested Democratic states drop any commitment to nonpartisan redistricting in response to Texas.
“We’re not here to tie one of our hands behind our back,” he said. “We can’t be the only party that’s playing by the rules.”
At least two GOP House lawmakers — representing blue states looking at retaliatory redistricting efforts against Trump — are taking it upon themselves to introduce bills in Congress that bar these initiatives.
GOP Rep. Kevin Kiley of California introduced a bill in the House this week that would ban mid-decade redistricting across the country.
Kiley said Newsom “is trying to subvert the will of voters and do lasting damage to democracy in California,” in a statement earlier this week.
“Fortunately, Congress has the ability to protect California voters using its authority under the Elections Clause of the U.S. Constitution,” he said. “This will also stop a damaging redistricting war from breaking out across the country.”
Rep. Mike Lawler, a New York Republican, also said he plans to introduce legislation to prohibit “partisan gerrymandering and mid-decade redistricting.”
The New York Republican told CNN on Tuesday that “this is fundamentally why Congress is broken,” adding that “you do not have competitive districts and so, most members are focused on primaries and not actually engaging in a general election.”
A Flock camera on the Lac Courte Orielles Reservation in Saywer County. | Photo by Frank Zufall/Wisconsin Examiner
Across Wisconsin, a vast camera network is tirelessly photographing and identifying vehicles and license plates, storing that information on a central platform that can be searched at will by law enforcement. With just a few keystrokes, including a reason for the search, officers in local departments across the state can uncover where a vehicle has been and who it belongs to. The network, known as Flock, logs these searches, a feature Flock Safety’s CEO says “underscores accountability” and allows for increased oversight. Still, residents and advocates have raised questions about who is using Flock and why.
Analyzing Flock audit data, Wisconsin Examiner found that no less than 221 Wisconsin law enforcement agencies used Flock from Jan. 1 to May 31. Although officers logged reasons like drugs, shootings, or traffic violations, many also entered vague reasons such as “investigation” or no clear reason at all.
Wisconsin Examiner obtained the audit data through open records requests to the Wauwatosa Police Department (WPD). The data was then analyzed using computer coding programs.
The public deserves to know who is deploying these technologies, under what policies, and with what accountability.
– John McCray Jones, policy analyst for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Wisconsin
While favored by many law enforcement agencies nationwide, Flock cameras have also attracted controversy. CEO and Flock co-founder Garrett Langley stressed the importance of audits in an extensive June 2025 statement. “As the Founder and CEO of Flock Safety, I take nothing more seriously than the values we built this company upon — to give cities tools to uphold public safety, while enabling accountability and transparency,” Langley wrote. “I spend time with my team thinking about these issues every single day: how to build our search interface, audit records, compliance tools, and data policies to allow individual agencies to police in the best way for their community — not as prescribed by us, a private technology company, but by the elected officials and individuals the tools actually serve. Public safety does not need to come at the expense of community values.”
The statement was released as Flock faced controversy over the platform’s alleged use for immigration and abortion-related surveillance. According to investigative reports by 404 Media, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers have used local law enforcement to access the nationwide AI-enabled camera network to track immigrants, and a Texas sheriff’s office conducted a Flock search with the reason for the search recorded as “had an abortion, search for female”. Langley denounced the abortion report as “misinformation” and “unequivocally false,” citing law enforcement statements and internal checks by Flock.
Although Wisconsin Examiner’s analysis found that 11 of Wisconsin’s 13 county sheriffs which partner with ICE through the federal 287(g) program appeared in the Flock audit data, it’s unclear thus far whether any of those agencies used Flock for immigration-related reasons.
“Once this level of surveillance is normalized, it becomes incredibly hard to roll back,” Jon McCray Jones, policy analyst for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Wisconsin said in a statement to Wisconsin Examiner. “Today it’s license plates — tomorrow it could be forced search and seizure or checkpoints on the road. We need to draw the line somewhere. Flock cameras track the movement of millions of cars, often without a warrant or your knowledge. That’s a profound erosion of your right to move freely and privately in your own community. Flock cameras aren’t targeted at individuals but mass surveils the movement of all residents.”
A breadcrumb trail is left behind whenever Flock is used. “Everytime a search is run on the Flock System, that search and search reason is preserved permanently in the audit trail of every agency whose camera was included in the search,” Langley wrote. “Those searches are viewable in an agency’s ‘network audit’ and available for regular oversight: to command staff, to elected officials, to communities. This is part of our commitment to transparency and accountability from the beginning of the design process.”
According to an Examiner analysis, the top Wisconsin-based law enforcement agency was the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD). When the agency first established a contract with Flock, a spokesperson told Wisconsin Examiner, it was attached to MPD’s intelligence-focused fusion center known as the Southeastern Threat Analysis Center (STAC). Fusion centers were formed to bridge intelligence gaps between agencies after the 9/11 attacks, and consolidate resources across local, state, military and private sector entities. STAC partners with the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force and Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and shares information between local police departments across eight counties in southeastern Wisconsin. Although the Flock contract was later modified to cover the entire police department the name “milwaukee wi pd – STAC” remained in the dashboard.
Nearly 40,000 searches originating from MPD alone appeared in network audit data from the Wauwatosa Police Department.
After MPD, the second most frequent user of Flock in Wisconsin was the Brown County Sheriff’s Office, with just over 13,000 searches between Jan. 1 and May 28. West Allis PD and the Fond Du Lac County Sheriff’s Office each conducted nearly 12,000 searches. Wauwatosa PD, was the fifth highest user of Flock with10,372 searches.
A Milwaukee PD spokesperson said it makes sense that the department, including STAC, are Wisconsin’s biggest user of Flock. “Milwaukee is the largest city in the state, and the eight county area of operations also falls under STAC.”
McCray Jones feels there needs to be more oversight. “That’s not happening now,” he said. Local elected officials and the public deserve to know how this data is being used, stored and shared — especially with their data being shared with an oppositional federal government who will weaponize this information against our community members.”
Fears about federal law enforcement rose dramatically this year after high-profile immigration-related arrests in Milwaukee, including of a man who was falsely accused of writing a letter threatening President Donald Trump and Circuit Court Judge Hannah Dugan, who was arrested for not cooperating with immigration officers who came to her court room to arrest a man who was appearing before her.
In May, Wisconsin Examiner reported that STAC used Flock for a “classified” investigation, which MPD said was not immigration-related. Residents have called for independent oversight of police surveillance. In late July, Michigan Advance reported that the Grand Rapids PD used Flock to monitor protesters who participated in pro-Palestine, LGBTQ+ and anti-Trump protests, although the department denied using Flock to surveil protesters.
McCray Jones called the spread of Flock cameras in Wisconsin “concerning, especially with the sprawling violation of civil liberties, rights and privacy by the federal government.” He specifically cited “ICE obtaining side-door access to the Flock network through local law enforcement for immigration enforcement.”
“We have not seen a complete list of Wisconsin police agencies with access to Flock,” he added, “and that is concerning considering the long history of surveillance being disproportionately targeted at the most marginalized of communities, especially when layered on top of existing disparities in traffic stops and interactions with law enforcement suffered by Black and brown communities in the state.”
The term “wanted” was MPD’s top reason for using Flock in the data the Examiner reviewed. An MPD spokesperson explained that the term “wanted” “does not mean that a warrant has been issued for a person. ‘Wanted’ refers to people, vehicles, investigative leads related to an investigation. This also includes investigative purposes that are not criminal in nature to include missing critical persons and Amber alerts.”
“Robbery” and “Shooting” were MPD’s second and third most frequent reasons for using Flock. Other categories included “res,” which could be an abbreviation for Reckless Endangering Safety and drug dealing. “Homicide” ranked as MPD’s ninth most frequent reason. Among all 221 Wisconsin agencies using Flock, violent crimes do not appear among the top 10 reasons for searches. MPD’s spokesperson said this aspect of the Examiner’s audit data review was misleading. “I would say that the vast amount of usage would be related to violent crime,” the spokesperson wrote in a statement. “This would include homicides, shootings, armed robberies, carjackings, batteries, and sexual assaults.” Although the reason column is intended to document the purpose of a Flock search, information in that column was often not detailed enough to determine whether violence was involved.
In our time using Flock, we have found it extremely beneficial in helping solve crimes and increasing public safety in our communities.
– Capt. John Rouseau, Brown County Sheriff’s Office
The discrepancy between the reasons for using Flock cited in the audit data and law enforcement claims about using Flock to fight violent crime raise doubts, says McCray Jones. “This directly contradicts how agencies like MPD have sold this technology to the public,” he told Wisconsin Examiner. “They say it’s about violent crime — but in practice, that doesn’t appear to be the case. It also begs the question of what is the technology and data being used for? If this tool is mostly being used for minor offenses or vague investigations, then we’re creating a mass surveillance infrastructure to enforce petty infractions — usually disproportionately against Black, brown, and poor residents. Is it being used to track protesters and dissidents?”
MPD’s fifth most frequent Flock search term, with over 1,000 searches, was simply “investigation” with no other context. MPD’s spokesperson said that this “denotes that the search was related to a legitimate investigative purpose.”
“Investigation” was also the most frequent reason Flock was used by Wisconsin law enforcement agencies. Unlike entries including “stolen,” “drugs,” “warrant” or “homicide,” it’s unclear what the “investigation” entries meant. The audit data included categories for case numbers and licence plates, but these were redacted upon release to protect ongoing investigations and citizen privacy.
Wauwatosa PD led all 221 Wisconsin law enforcement agencies in using only “investigation” to denote the reason for Flock searches. More than 1,900 searches by WPD used that term. WPD’s next most frequent reason was “stolen” with 871 searches. Spokesperson Det. Lt. Joseph Roy, Ph.D, said WPD Flock use is guided by a formal written policy.
“The system is a critical investigative and public safety tool that supports a wide range of legitimate law enforcement functions, from stolen vehicle recovery to identifying suspects in violent crime investigations,” said Roy. “While officers are expected to document their searches clearly, the department continues to refine training and oversight to ensure transparency, consistency, and proper use of the system.”
MPD’s spokesperson said that “the system requires a generic input to conduct a search and will include a case number. We require monthly audits to ensure that the system is utilized for legitimate investigative purposes.”
Not every agency in Wisconsin uses Flock under a specific policy. Capt. John Rousseau, spokesperson for the Brown County Sheriff’s Office, told Wisconsin Examiner that the office does not have a Flock-specific policy. “We have policies and audits that dictate our use of law enforcement databases and tools generally, but not platform specific,” Capt. John Rousseau said in a statement.
Brown County’s Sheriff’s Office, Wisconsin’s second most frequent Flock searcher, added, “We conduct regular training on all law enforcement tools, Flock included.” Wisconsin Examiner’s audit analysis found that “1410” was Brown County’s top reason for using Flock. This was a badge number, the captain explained.
The Examiner’s analysis “is not capturing Flock usage completely,” he said. “It is aggregating the reason code, but we primarily use specific case numbers in our search. That would be the largest category of our usage, but it will not be captured in your analysis.”
Flock’s system always records a search reason, and provides a dropdown menu of search terms, as well as a case number category. “Agencies should prescribe, in their [License Plate Reader] policies, how users should populate that search field,” the company’s CEO wrote in a statement.
This level of opacity is unacceptable.
– John McCray Jones, policy analyst for the ACLU of Wisconsin
Clear reasons for using Flock were sometimes lacking in the audit analysis. West Allis PD led all of Wisconsin in using only a dot in the reason field when recording Flock use. Just over 1,200 searches were conducted using the dot. Only six other agencies used a dot to indicate the reason for Flock use, including the police departments of Waukesha, Ripon, Elm Grove, MPD, and the sheriffs of Columbia and Portage counties. MPD – STAC and Portage County’s uses of this reason code was so infrequent that they barely appeared when graphed.
The dot was also West Allis’s top overall reason for using Flock. Others included “sus,” “investigation,” “stolen” and “theft,” as well as “mvth,” “pd”, “dea,”, “s,” and others which the police department did not define when asked, nor did it explain why the dot was so often favored by its officers.
West Allis PD Deputy Chief Robert Fletcher said in a statement that the department’s officers “receive training on the proper use of law enforcement databases.”
“This training includes training that the use of law enforcement databases, whether FLOCK, department records or information received through NCIC database can only be queried and used for law enforcement purposes,” Fletcher said.
Fletcher added, “Any allegation that a department member is obtaining information for a non-law enforcement purpose would be investigated by a member of the WAPD Command Staff and corrective action would be taken by the WAPD if warranted.”
WAPD’s policy states that personnel “must have an articulable law enforcement reason to access and/or perform any query in the Flock system,” and that regular audits may be performed to ensure the system is being used correctly.
Waukesha PD, the state’s second biggest user of the dot — also the department’s top reason for using Flock — suggested that this use was improper. Capt. Dan Baumann told Wisconsin Examiner that, when it came to this vague use for Flock, “we isolated this to a specific officer and have readdressed the [Standard Operating Procedure] and have provided that officer with extra training…This is being addressed through training with the officer. The Flock administrator ran an audit specific to your request and isolated this to only one officer. This has been corrected.”
Waukesha PD’s Flock policy states that officers should “enter the primary reason” for conducting a plate search “i.e. burglary suspect, robbery suspect, vehicle pursuit,” when an incident report number is unavailable. The Columbia County Sheriffs Office, Wisconsin’s third biggest user of the dot as a reason for its Flock use, didn’t respond to a request for comment for this story.
McCray Jones found the Flock audit searches using only “investigation” or “.” to be “incredibly concerning.”
“Vague entries like ‘investigation’ or a period provide no meaningful oversight and violate the spirit of transparency and democracy. This kind of documentation undermines any public trust or accountability,” he said.
But police departments using Flock stressed its versatility and usefulness in netting investigative leads. “Flock has proven instrumental in criminal investigations and does help increase public safety,” MPD’s spokesperson told Wisconsin Examiner, adding that the platform has aided investigations of car theft, homicides and kidnappings.
Capt. Rousseau of the Brown County Sheriffs Office said, “We use Flock during a host of public safety activities that can range from locating missing/endangered people to wanted persons,” as well as looking for criminal suspects. “In one example, we investigated a fatal hit and run car crash where a pedestrian was killed and the vehicle fled the area,” said Rousseau. “Analysis of Flock data identified the suspect vehicle and allowed investigators to follow up on the information. That’s a significant example, but we also use Flock daily to identify and locate persons that have outstanding warrants for their arrest, known drug trafficking suspects, and many other uses.”
Capt. Bauman of the Waukesha PD said, “Our agency’s deployment of FLOCK reflects a commitment to public safety that is deliberate and respectful of civil liberties. We believe that transparency, policy integrity, and community engagement are essential in maintaining trust while responsibly leveraging technology to protect the community.”
Regarding the Examiner’s analysis of Flock audit data, McCray Jones said, “What stands out is how many agencies are using this tool with little to no transparency around the justification for its use. That kind of vagueness makes it difficult to know whether Flock is being used in ways that respect people’s rights or whether it’s enabling a dragnet approach to surveillance. We need guardrails, third-party audits, and standardized reporting across jurisdictions. It’s not enough to trust that agencies will use Flock responsibly — we need mechanisms to ensure they are.”
The ACLU and local activist groups have pushed for Community Control Over Police Surveillance (CCOPS) ordinances, which can be passed at the local level and would require public hearings and annual reports on surveillance technology. “Given the lack of safeguards and history of abuse, we believe there should be a moratorium on expanding Flock use until real oversight structures are in place — if ever,” said McCray Jones.
With concerns around surveillance, however, Capt. Rousseau cautioned that “there may be a fundamental misunderstanding about what Flock is and isn’t.” He explained in a statement that, “Flock is not facial recognition. It does not track any personally identifiable information. It is not used for traffic enforcement. Flock cameras perform the same actions that an officer could do if we were to assign a police officer to sit at an intersection recording license plates. We don’t have the resources for that kind of a deployment, so we supplement it with technology. Cameras are used everywhere.”
Wisconsin Examiner’s analysis found that “traffic enforcement” was the top reason entered by the Fond Du Lac County Sheriff’s Office for its Flock use. Fond Du Lac didn’t respond to a request for comment. Fond Du Lac County also led the state in using Flock for school-related reasons, followed by sheriffs of Kenosha counties, Milwaukee PD, the Sheboygan County Sheriff’s Office, and others. Most of those uses involved school bus violations or complaints, such as cars passing in front of a school bus. Several searches were also for school-related threats.
Rousseau said that Flock must be considered in a societal context where cameras are everywhere. “A police officer wears a body camera inside of a patrol car that’s equipped with a camera driving down a highway that’s covered in cameras conducting traffic stops on cars that also may have dash cameras. Flock is but one of a handful of law enforcement tools that we use on a daily basis to improve public safety through the proactive and efficient delivery of law enforcement services. Proper data safeguards are in place to protect against abuse.”
McCray Jones agrees there are cameras everywhere, but says no surveillance network should be underestimated. “Surveillance creep is real — and Flock is just one piece,” he told Wisconsin Examiner. “Communities need to decide if this technology has any place in public safety, and if so, under what strict and democratically accountable conditions. The public should demand hearings, insist on transparency and support local ordinances that put the community — not private corporations or law enforcement — in the driver’s seat.”
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany speaks to voters on Jan. 27 at a listening session on the campus of UW-Eau Claire Barron County. (Henry Redman | Wisconsin Examiner)
U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany painted a rosy picture of how the budget reconciliation law recently signed by President Donald Trump will affect Wisconsinites and pushed for state and federal policies that encourage the growth of extractive industries in the state during a telephone town hall hosted by the right-wing organization Americans for Prosperity on Tuesday evening.
Tuesday’s event struck a far different tone from the in-person town hall hosted by U.S. Rep. Bryan Steil last week and the tour of in-person listening sessions Tiffany made across his northern Wisconsin district in the early weeks of the second Trump administration in January.
At Steil’s event, in the much more politically mixed 1st Congressional District in southern Wisconsin, he faced a hostile crowd. And at one of Tiffany’s events in January, the crowd was made up of a mix of supporters and opponents worried about what the first weeks of Trump’s term meant for the country’s direction.
But on Tuesday, all six questions Tiffany took came from people who expressed broad support for the Trump administration and the policies in the “One Big Beautiful Bill” passed by congressional Republicans and signed by Trump.
Tiffany has been flirting with running for governor next year. He recently told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel he’d make a decision about entering the Republican primary by the end of September.
During the phone call, the moderator, Americans for Prosperity-Wisconsin’s Megan Novak, noted that she was “seeing a lot of questions” in the queue about Medicaid but instead of letting a constituent ask the question, Novak asked if Tiffany could “clear up some of the information about what the bill actually does related to Medicaid to help protect it for the most vulnerable members of our society.”
The Medicaid provisions in the law are among the most controversial. In an effort to cut federal spending and partially fund the cost of expanding the tax cuts passed by Republicans in 2017 during Trump’s first term, the law imposes strict work requirements on people seeking to qualify for Medicaid coverage. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the law will cause 10 million people to lose health care coverage.
Tiffany said he doesn’t believe the estimates and added that only people without legal documentation to be in the U.S. and lazy people will lose coverage.
“Let’s say there’s a 30-year-old young man sitting on his couch each day collecting $50,000 in benefits from you, the taxpayer,” Tiffany said. “Should you pay for their health care? I say no, and I think most people agree with that, that we should not, as taxpayers, be paying for someone’s health care when they’re able bodied and they can work.”
There is no evidence that a large subset of 30-year-old Americans who are not working are enrolled in Medicaid. Research has shown that many Medicaid enrolled adults work for low wages at small companies and in industries with low rates of employer-provided insurance coverage.
In his opening remarks, Tiffany said that the provisions of the Republican reconciliation package that will most benefit Wisconsinites are those that increase spending on air traffic controllers, codify a number of Trump’s executive orders and increase mineral drilling and logging in Wisconsin and across the country.
Throughout his career as a state legislator and member of Congress, Tiffany has been a major supporter of extractive industries. Several times during the town hall, he said the country and Wisconsin had to do more to use natural resources while deriding energy from sources such as solar and wind.
In an answer about passing policies to bring energy costs down, Tiffany said Wisconsin had to stop “sidelining baseload power” from sources such as coal and oil. He said that the country has devoted too much effort trying to move to intermittent power sources like solar and wind and complained that China is selling wind turbines to Americans while continuing to build coal plants.
China has continued to build coal-burning power plants and remains the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, however it is also the biggest installer of green energy technology. Last month, the country installed 100 solar panels every second, the Guardian reported.
“I believe you have to be able to utilize your natural resources to be prosperous,” he said. “You know, whether it’s forestry, mining, oil, gas, and, of course, agriculture. And I would say to you, tourism, also … and if we get rid of that red tape, we are going to be able to see more businesses created, especially in these regions where we get to utilize our natural resources.”
With the largely friendly lines of questioning, tight controls that prevented constituents from speaking and the relatively short 40-minute duration, Tiffany was under far less pressure than other Republicans at recent town halls, giving him room to promise that “we’re going to do more stuff around these lines” as the budget reconciliation package and to compare its provisions to those passed under President Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.
“I think much like the 1980s when we saw the seminal changes that President Reagan led with the Reagan Revolution, I think you’re going to see the same thing as a result of the ‘One Big, Beautiful bill,'” Tiffany said. “This is going to kick off a decade, a decade of prosperity if we continue to move in the direction of free markets and free people.”
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
Nominations are open through the month of August for alternative student transportation company EverDriven’s Modern Student Transportation Awards, a national program created to celebrate school district leaders who are setting new standards in how students are transported to and from school.
Finalists will be notified in early fall, and the winners will be formally announced at the Modern Student Transportation Awards Celebration in Dallas, Texas, Nov. 6. Winners will receive a $2,500 college scholarship to benefit a student in their district who qualifies under the McKinney-Vento Act or for special education services.
They will also be awarded a full conference pass and paid travel to attend the TSD Conference, a customized award plaque, and a digital winner’s seal for use in their organization’s communications and marketing efforts.
With this initiative, EverDriven said it hopes to spark a movement across the country by celebrating those who are going above and beyond for their students. To submit a nomination, visit here.
The inaugural awards seek to spotlight those who are not only meeting the evolving needs of student mobility but leading the way with innovation, equity and safety at the forefront. In a press release, EverDriven expressed its belief that every student should have access to safe, dependable and forward-thinking transportation, as it serves as a gateway to learning, personal growth and opportunity.
The Modern Student Transportation Awards were born from this mindset, the company added, and they are designed to honor school districts that are transforming traditional transportation models into modern, student-centered systems.
“Modernizing student transportation isn’t just about safety, it’s about expanding access to education for every child, every day,” said Mitch Bowling, CEO of EverDriven. “We’re launching these awards to celebrate the bold thinking and innovation happening in school districts across the country. These leaders deserve recognition for creating systems that improve outcomes for all students.”
Nominations are accepted until Aug. 28. Submissions must include details about the nominee, school district, transportation initiative, and the demonstrated impact of their efforts. Individuals can be nominated in multiple categories, such as safety and reliability, equitable access to education, innovative use of technology, and humanitarian efforts in student transportation.
A panel of expert judges from across the student transportation and education sectors will review the entries based on specific criteria for each award. EverDriven said it will announce the judges in the coming weeks.
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The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) warns blackouts could increase by 100 times in 2030 if the nation “continues to shutter reliable power sources and fails to add additional firm capacity.” The forecast is a driving factor for school transportation departments seeking to incorporate cleaner alternatives for fueling buses.
The DOE report “Evaluating U.S. Grid Reliability and Security” released July 7, fulfills Section 3(b) of President Donald Trump’s Executive Order “Strengthening The Reliability and Security of the United States Electric Grid,” designed to deliver a uniform methodology to identify at-risk regions and guide federal reliability interventions.
“Though demands on the electric grid are increasing, we do not foresee a meaningful logistics problem for school transportation directors,” noted Michelle Levinson, the World Resources Institute’s senior manager of eMobility Finance and Policy. “The report headline averages numbers across the whole of the U.S. The risk of additional outages is low and is brought up by high assumed data center demand in Electric Reliability Council of Texas and in PJM South (Virginia and Maryland).”
Levinson commented that the most recent data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration indicates electricity customers on average experienced approximately 5.5 hours of electricity interruptions in 2022.
“Even if all these outages occur on school days, which is unlikely, outages would account for only 0.19 percent of the hours when a bus is in the yard and potentially charging,” she added. “Luckily, transportation directors are already accustomed to navigating the impacts of electric outages on their fueling capabilities through their experience with liquid fossil fuel pumps, which also needs electricity to function.”
Levinson acknowledged change can be “scary” and the transition to electric school buses requires a shift in logistics but should not be a problem in and of itself and as with all logistics comes down to planning.
Overnight and midday down times of most school buses offer substantial opportunities for directors to charge batteries in advance of any conditions that might indicate higher grid risks, such as extreme weather events, she added.
However, others warn that even a short outage will greatly disrupt transportation operations. The DOE’s predicted blackout rate “introduces serious questions about how to keep buses moving in the face of growing grid instability,” noted Joel Stutheit, senior manager of autogas business development at the Propane Education & Research Council (PERC).
“The school day is built around a routine,” he continued. “Imagine what happens to that routine if the grid goes down as often as this DOE report suggests. If a transportation director is relying on an electric school bus fleet, blackouts could leave them unable to charge buses and reliably transport students. Even a short-term outage could introduce last-minute scheduling changes, rerouting [of] buses, and adding extra pressure on drivers and operations teams.”
Transportation directors need to shift from thinking about the electric grid as a guarantee to thinking about it as a variable for which they must plan, Stutheit said.
Ewan Pritchard, the chief subject matter expert on school bus electrification for consultant Energetics, said he believes the intent of the report was to make electric vehicles look bad.
“The DOE’s report is politically charged,” he shared. “My company is the evaluator for the electric vehicle infrastructure program for the state of California. My team is collecting data from all the vehicle charging stations across the state of California that are put in by the electric utilities. We track the time of usage of all of those stations, and we issue a report annually on the progress.”
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The team’s work, he said, demonstrates electric school buses can benefit the utility grid — a shoring-up effect in the sense that it depends on when a school bus is plugged in.
For example, it can be a problem if school districts charge electric vehicles between 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., actively drawing power from the utility grid during peak demand times when usage and prices are highest, he noted.
Instead, Pritchard recommended school transportation departments would do well to use charge management systems, which essentially keep track of the strain on the utility grid, the cost of electricity and carbon production.
Doing so saves districts money, he added.
“We’re seeing tremendous change in the way people are charging vehicles, especially when it comes to school buses, because school buses have a very predictable schedule,” Pritchard said. “There’s plenty of time between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. to recharge their vehicles.”
A Back Up Plan?
The challenge of student safety is “likely not as extreme as the report makes it seem,” Levinson agreed.
“If operators have not charged their vehicles ahead of a significant outage event, battery capacities may be low or zero, meaning this particular type of transport would not be able to run its typical route,” she pointed out. “School may not be in session in the event of such a significant outage.”
Alternatively, schools districts may find that electric buses can provide an additional level of safety and resiliency for students and communities during extreme events when the larger grid is out, Levinson said.
“Localized microgrid capabilities that connect bi-directional buses and essential school or community facilities are especially relevant in situations where extreme weather conditions isolate people and businesses,” she added.
PERC’s Stutheit, who previously was the director of transportation for Bethel School District in Washington, noted students are immediately impacted if buses can’t operate due to a power outage as “many students rely on transportation to and from school not only for their education, but to access meals and other essential services.”
If the grid goes down due to severe weather, the stakes are even higher for transportation directors to provide evacuations or emergency transportation, Stutheit said, adding student transporters need reliably-powered school buses that can respond quickly to keep students safe.
“Propane autogas buses provide that layer of resiliency,” he argued. “These buses can operate and refuel even when the grid is down. In the event of an emergency evacuation or shelter-in-place situation, propane autogas buses allow districts to respond without waiting on fuel deliveries or power restoration. That kind of reliability supports student safety.”
Pritchard noted most schools have backup generators if power goes out. He said the real student safety issue is when the tailpipe of a combustion vehicle is putting out emissions at that student’s height, adding studies show the concentration of pollutants inside of a vehicle are worse than the concentration outside of a vehicle when it comes to school buses.
“I think it’s more of a student safety issue to not electrify your fleet,” he added.
And then there is the possibility of using electric school buses to power microgrids available to provide surplus power to school buildings.
Getting Smart
To mitigate challenges, school districts should implement smart charging strategies and familiarize themselves with charge management tools and capabilities, Levinson said, adding it is best to charge when the grid is least constrained, such as overnight or midday when there is the most solar production.
“School districts can also create standard operating procedures and emergency management procedures. They can also conduct emergency preparedness drills to practice for such scenarios and identify places for procedural improvements,” she added.
Other steps include identifying additional charging locations beyond the primary charging yard and installing site-level resilience via batteries, solar and/or generators.
Stutheit shared that propane also complements EVs as part of a multi-fuel strategy, as it can be go-to energy in emergency situations when the grid is down. It can also provide transportation directors with an affordable option that won’t need infrastructure updates to keep up with grid instability.
There are ways to lessen the risk from outages that apply to both diesel and electric school buses, involving alternative power from outside the grid, Levinson said, adding grid outages affect all functions, not just charging buses.
“In cases in which electric school buses are vehicle-to-load or vehicle-to-building capable, they can be a potential asset to provide site power to run phones, computers, and HVAC systems during an outage. Increasingly electric vehicles, such as electric school buses, can be part of the grid support solution.”
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