On Wednesday, a family in Wisconsin filed a lawsuit against the video game giant Roblox, alleging that it failed to protect their child from abuse. A researcher focusing on adolescent internet use gives advice for parents on how to navigate platforms like these.

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Rallygoers hold a sign that reads “Free Kilmar” during a rally Friday, Oct. 10, 2025, outside the U.S. District Court in Greenbelt, Maryland. (Photo by William J. Ford/Maryland Matters)

GREENBELT, Md. — A federal judge in Maryland seemed inclined to order the release of  Kilmar Abrego Garcia from immigration detention after oral arguments in court Friday, a potentially major development in the high-profile case.

After a more than six-hour hearing, District Judge Paula Xinis said a witness provided by the Justice Department showed little evidence that the Trump administration made an effort to remove Abrego Garcia to the southern African nation of Eswatini, and knew nothing about Abrego Garcia agreeing to be removed to Costa Rica. 

The witness tapped by the Department of Justice was John Schultz, a deputy assistant director who oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement removal operations.

After hearing from him, Xinis said keeping Abrego Garcia detained indefinitely would likely be unconstitutional. She said she would issue an order soon.

Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran immigrant whose wrongful deportation from Maryland put a spotlight on the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown, is currently detained in Pennsylvania. 

His attorneys have argued the Trump administration is using detention to punish Abrego Garcia because officials are not trying to remove him, even after Abrego Garcia agreed to be deported to Costa Rica.

‘Three strikes, you’re out’

Xinis expressed her frustration with Department of Justice attorneys for not providing a witness who would give clear answers on how immigration officials were handling the removal of Abrego Garcia. 

“We’re getting to the three strikes, you’re out,” Xinis said. 

Andrew J. Rossman, an attorney for Abrego Garcia, argued that if Immigration and Customs Enforcement is making no plans to immediately remove him, he should be released from detention. 

He also argued that since March, when the Trump administration erroneously deported Abrego Garcia to a mega-prison in El Salvador, to the present, Abrego Garcia has been “in continuous containment” way past the six-month limit set by the Supreme Court regarding the detention of immigrants.

“The real aim of the government… is punitive, which is just to keep him incarcerated,” Rossman said. “It’s an overtly political purpose.”

Rossman told Xinis that he has not received an answer from the federal government as to why they will not remove Abrego Garcia to Costa Rica, after he agreed to that proposal in August.

Xinis asked DOJ attorney Drew Ensign why Abrego Garcia hasn’t been removed to Costa Rica.

Ensign said that it was not clear to the government until Friday that Abrego Garcia had agreed to be removed to Costa Rica, because Abrego Garcia had previously expressed fear of being sent there. 

Abrego Garcia changed his position after Costa Rica assured him he would be given refugee status.

“That is a new development that I will report back to people,” Ensign said.

Supreme Court ruling

A 2001 Supreme Court ruling does not allow for immigrants to be detained longer than six months if the federal government is making no efforts to remove them. 

After 90 days without efforts to deport an immigrant, a challenge can be made because detaining that person any longer than a maximum of 180 days, or six months, would likely be unconstitutional, the high court found in Zadvydas v. Davis. 

Earlier this week, Xinis seemed likely to order Abrego Garcia’s release from Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention, where he has remained since late August. 

Xinis, who also ordered the Trump administration to return Abrego Garica to the United States after she found his removal to El Salvador unlawful, is overseeing his habeas corpus petition, which challenges his detention.

Protesters rally outside the courthouse

Ahead of the hearing, dozens of supporters from the immigrant advocacy group CASA gathered in front of the District Court for the District of Maryland, chanting, “Somos todos Kilmar,” or, “We are all Kilmar.” 

Rallygoers also chanted “What do we want? Justice!” “When do we want it? Now!” 

Some also held signs urging the Trump administration to free Abrego Garcia.

Two Maryland state legislators, Dels. Nicole Williams and Bernice Mireku-North, both Democrats, joined the rally.

Williams sponsored legislation during this year’s General Assembly session to prohibit local police from entering into certain agreements with ICE. On the last day of the legislative session in April, lawmakers passed a watered-down version of a bill that does not include the ban, the biggest loss for Maryland immigration advocates this year.

“We are going to be working on legislation with regards to masking by law enforcement officers,” Williams said. “We need to start treating everyone, I don’t care where you’re from, in a humane and decent way. And that’s what we’re going to be fighting for every single day until Kilmar is free and Kilmar comes home. So stop using Kilmar for your own political gain. Bring Kilmar home.”

White House involvement

Schultz, the DOJ witness, revealed that the White House had direct involvement in picking Uganda as a potential third country of removal for ICE’s deportation of Abrego Garcia. 

The move was unusual because the State Department typically coordinates third-country removals for the Department of Homeland Security.

Schultz said the Homeland Security Council, which operates within the White House, notified ICE of Uganda as a third country of removal. The Homeland Security Council works with the National Security Council of the White House. 

While Uganda is no longer a third country of removal for Abrego Garcia, ICE is trying to now remove him to Eswatini. 

Schultz said Eswatini has not agreed to take Abrego Garcia, but discussions, which he said started on Wednesday, are underway. 

“The discussions are continuing,” Schultz said. 

Schultz said he is not aware if ICE has not made any efforts to determine if Abrego Garcia would face persecution or be tortured or confined in Eswatini, or be removed a second time to El Salvador.  

Eswatini has previously agreed to accept third-country removals from the U.S. and the two countries have a memorandum of understanding, he added.

Ghana another potential destination

Schultz said that ICE has also identified the west African country of Ghana as a potential nation for Abrego Garica’s removal. Schultz said once a third country has agreed to accept Abrego Garica, he could be removed by ICE within 72 hours.

However, Ghana’s Foreign Minister, Sam Okudzeto Ablakwa, wrote on social media that the country will not accept Abrego Garcia. 

“This has been directly and unambiguously conveyed to US authorities,” he wrote. “In my interactions with US officials, I made clear that our understanding to accept a limited number of non-criminal West Africans, purely on the grounds of African solidarity and humanitarian principles would not be expanded.”

Schultz said that ICE “prematurely” sent a notice of removal to Abrego Garcia with Ghana as the designation.

The Costa Rica alternative

One of Abrego Garcia’s attorneys, Sascha Rand, grilled Schultz about why DHS would not remove him to Costa Rica, despite Abrego Garcia agreeing to go.

Schultz said he was unaware of the letter from Costa Rica’s government saying it would accept Abrego Garcia.

Another attorney for Abrego Garcia, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said that the Trump administration offered to remove Abrego Garcia to Costa Rica in August if he were to plead guilty to criminal charges in a federal case in Tennessee. 

Abrego Garcia’s attorneys in his criminal case in Nashville said in court filings that the Trump administration is trying to get him to plead guilty to human smuggling charges by promising to remove him to Costa Rica if he does so, and threatening to deport him to Uganda if he refuses. 

Rand asked Schultz if anyone from DHS was in contact with Costa Rica.

Schultz said he was unaware if there were conversations between the federal government and Costa Rica about removing him there. 

Rossman said based on Schultz’s testimony, it was clear the Trump administration was “holding hostage passage to Costa Rica.”

“They aren’t presently intending to remove him,” he said. “They have spun the globe and picked various (African) countries… to fail on purpose.”

William J. Ford of Maryland Matters contributed to this report.

By a party-line vote Thursday, Milwaukee prosecutor Rebecca Taibleson was approved by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to be the next judge for the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals — a high-profile federal position reserved for a Wisconsin jurist.

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Jerome Dillard, executive director of Ex-Incarcerated People Organizing (EXPO) (left) holds book discussion with author and activist Bianca Tylek (right). (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)

“We’re talking about a major, major industry in our society today,” activist and writer Bianca Tylek told a group of about 20 people who packed a room at Madison’s Lake City Books Monday night. At the Q&A and book signing event, hosted by Ex-Incarcerated People Organizing (EXPO), Tylek — described as a leading expert in the prison industry — discussed her new book The Prison Industry: How It Works and Who Profits, offering her insights into what she called a $80-90 billion industry in America. 

“This is just a massive industry of folks who are using the correctional system to essentially extract either wealth or resources either from public coffers, or from low-income … communities that are directly impacted by incarceration,” said Tylek, who also founded and leads the non-profit organization Worth Rises, which works to confront and reform the prison industry. Tylek’s book delves into multiple aspects of the prison industry from food distribution to telecommunications and examines privatization, who profits and the lives of the people who are directly affected. 

The discussion was moderated by Jerome Dillard, EXPO’s executive director, who sat beside Tylek asking  questions. Dillard called Tylek “my daughter in the movement,” and spoke of his admiration for her work and her spirit in fighting for change within the prison system. 

Dillard described attending an event in Appleton last week with Tylek where he was invited to receive an award, “not knowing what we were going into,” and realizing it was a Wisconsin Correctional Association conference. 

“I just couldn’t believe all the industries that were there with tables, and tabling the event with new devices and all this,” said Dillard. “I left there really broken and heavy. These conferences opened my eyes to how big this industry is … that individuals are capitalizing on human misery.” Conference tables displayed new kinds of spit masks and shock gloves to prospective correctional customers, some of whom made joking comments about using the devices on the job. “It just blew me away, you know, that she’s bragging about punishing and torturing people in their care,” said Dillard, recalling a woman who made such remarks. 

Tylek said that there are over 1,400 manufacturers of correctional and policing equipment nationwide. “Every single state has a correctional conference,” said Tylek. “Every single state has a sheriff’s association,” as well as conferences and associations dedicated to jails, parole and other aspects of the correctional system. Tylek recalled attending the American Correctional Association conference, one of the largest in the nation, where she saw an exhibit hall “with hundreds of corporations” with their own exhibit tables. 

“And not just tables,” Tylek told the crowd. “Probably the wildest thing I saw was one company drive a full bus into the convention center, where staff from correctional institutions could step onto the bus and play with all the equipment and trinkets that they were selling. And they gave out free raffle tickets and all these things, and probably the grossest thing that I experienced was all the tickets to private events. And I made my way up to a private event for Securus.” Tylek said that the company is one of the nation’s two largest prison telecommunication companies, and was one of the largest sponsors of the conference that year. “And they had a happy hour that involved a full open bar,” said Tylek, “a full swing dance performance, everyone just having the most joyous time of all. All while on the walls there were the kiosks, the tablets, the phone devices that you could go and speak to a Securus representative while you have your cocktail. And all of this built on about 2 million people who are sitting in a cage somewhere who will never see this, who don’t get to enjoy these luxuries in any of this. It’s heartbreaking, and it’s repulsive, I think, more than anything.”

Later, Tylek elaborated more on how companies use things like gifts and luxury vacations to grow their relationships with correctional and law enforcement leaders. “At conferences, you would get these private event tickets,” she said. At one such event, she recalled, attendees were given hand-rolled cigars. “That’s just the legal stuff that looks gross,” said Tylek. There are also “questionably legal” practices, such as offering “training cruises” in the Caribbean for prison and sheriff staff in brochures distributed during contract bidding processes. 

On the dark end of the spectrum is bribery, such as the case of a Mississippi prison commissioner who was involved in a bribery and kickback scheme with private prison companies. Tylek highlighted how in Mississippi, a prison commissioner went on to work for a private prison company as a lobbyist. Similar revolving doors exist between the prison industry, especially private prisons, Homeland Security and immigration agencies, said Tylek.

Tylek described the rise of  the prison industry as a relatively new phenomenon in America. Prior to the abolition of slavery, she said, the prison population was predominantly white, and only shifted to being predominantly Black in the decades after abolition — a move  to “re-confine and re-enslave” Black people. Prison populations continued to grow into the 1970s and 80s, leading into the War on Drugs. “Really around the 1980s is when you start to see industry recognize a potential opportunity,” said Tylek. 

That’s the  era during which most of the private prison companies featured in her book began to emerge. Private prison industry representatives helped craft some of the nation’s most punitive laws such as three-strikes laws, truth in sentencing and mandatory minimums, which helped grow the prison population. “Those three pieces of model legislation were drafted by the prison industry, and specifically by private prison executives,” said Tylek. 

The consequences have been devastating for individuals and families, and also ripple out into society. “The impact of the prison industry bleeds far beyond prison walls,” Tylek said. Among those ripple effects are the cost borne by families that put money on the books for incarcerated loved ones to have food and hygiene supplies or simply to communicate, incarcerated people who work long hours for 14 cents an hour on average, missed child support payments from incarcerated parents and victims who don’t receive restitution. In addition, many small towns which once saw prisons as economic saviors now see them as burdens. 

“In the end, all of us are impacted,” said Tylek. “When we exploit people who are incarcerated, or we have a system that wants to put more people behind bars and for longer because a few stand to benefit, then socially we are all harmed by that.” 

Yet a space ripe with so many problems also invites solutions. In several states, Tylek has been involved in movements to make phone calls to incarcerated people free and in more than one of those places, that effort succeeded. “Something that everyone can understand is what’s the importance of a phone call home,” Tylek told her bookstore audience. Families of incarcerated people often face significant financial challenges, including debt, income loss and unemployment. 

In 2017, Tylek began to focus on the prison telecommunications industry. “We led the first successful campaign to make communication completely free in a jail system,” said Tylek. That was in New York, and affected the infamous Rikers Island jail. From 2019 to 2023, Tylek’s organization Worth Rises pushed for free jail calls in San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Massachusetts, free prison calls in Connecticut, California, Colorado, Minnesota. Free prison calls were enshrined in the CARES Act as a result of that work. “We’ve been able to save families $600 million to date,” Tylek said, “and generate over 3 billion additional call minutes between people who are incarcerated and their loved ones.”

Dillard recalled celebrating some of those victories with Tylek, but the fight continues. “We’re in a dozen more states trying to fight for the exact same legislation to make communication free in our prisons and jails,” said Tylek. “The outcomes that we get are life-changing. In Connecticut we saw phone volume increase by over 120% overnight. In New York just recently, first data’s coming back and we are north of 40% increases in calling.” Some of that difference is also due to inconsistent call rates across different states, with incarcerated people being charged 2.8 cents per minute in New York versus people in Connecticut who were paying 32.5 cents per minute. 

“No matter where it happens, the change is substantial,” said Tylek. “These are real people with real lives. We have talked to families whose autistic child stopped speaking when her father went to prison. And when phone calls became free and he could call home again she started speaking again, her child development changed, she started engaging more in school, and now she’s flourishing, all off a simple phone call.”

Those kinds of victories can be replicated elsewhere. A campaign was launched earlier this year to make jail calls free in Racine County, and La Crosse became the first Wisconsin county to provide free jail calls earlier this year. 

“What I love about the examples in Wisconsin is that we had nothing to do with them,” Tylek said, drawing laughter from the audience in Madison. “My biggest goal has been for this movement to take itself.” 

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Men exercise in the maximum security yard of the Lansing Correctional Facility in Lansing, Kan. The prison population in Kansas rose nearly 5% between 2022 and 2023. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)

The nation’s prison population grew for the second consecutive year in 2023, reversing more than a decade of steady decline.

A new prison population report from the federal Bureau of Justice Statistics, released before the federal shutdown, shows that 1,254,224 people were incarcerated in state and federal prisons on the last day of 2023 — an increase of 24,081 people from the year before, or about 2%. 

It follows a rise in 2022, which marked the first uptick since 2010, when prison populations began a gradual decline after peaking in the mid 2000s.

Even with recent increases, the prison population in 2023 was still about 20% below the 2013 level.

The latest figures show that women remain a small share of the prison population, but their numbers are growing faster than men’s. 

Between 2022 and 2023, the female prison population rose nearly 4%, from 87,800 to 91,100. The male population increased by nearly 2% during the same period. Thirty-eight states saw growth in their male prison populations, while 41 states reported increases among women.

New Mexico, Maine and South Dakota recorded the highest growth rates in their prison populations. 

Seven more populous states — Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, New York, Ohio, Texas and Wisconsin — added more than 1,000 people to their prison rolls during the same period. New Jersey, Alaska and Hawaii had the largest decreases in rates.

The growth comes as prisons are grappling with another demographic shift: a rapidly aging population. In 2023, nearly 1 in 4 prisoners were 50 or older. That trend is expected to continue, some experts say, with projections that by 2030 as much as one-third of the U.S. prison population will be over 50.

Correctional systems, many of which already face staffing shortages and overcrowding, are under growing pressure as prison populations rise. In recent years, some prisoner advocates and state legislators have pushed for measures such as “second look” laws or expanded parole eligibility that would release people deemed low risk for reoffending. Those could include older adults, people with serious medical needs and those convicted of nonviolent offenses.

The idea has gained traction as a way to lower prison operation costs and ease strain on correctional staff, but it remains controversial. Supporters say targeted decarceration can improve safety inside prisons and save taxpayer dollars, while opponents argue it could jeopardize public safety and that such releases may not significantly lower taxpayer costs. 

Stateline reporter Amanda Hernández can be reached at ahernandez@stateline.org.

For the first time since 2017, Wisconsin's troubled youth prisons are fully compliant with 50 court-ordered reforms aimed at improving how staff treat young inmates.

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The case against a Madison priest who's accused of attempting to sexually assault a child is moving forward.

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Child abuse, neglect or endangerment laws were used to charge hundreds of pregnant people with crimes in the two years after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, underscoring the rise of fetal personhood laws, according to a new report. (Getty Images)

More than 400 people were charged with pregnancy-related crimes during the two years after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned federal abortion rights, research released Tuesday shows.

Prosecutors across the country often charged people with some form of child neglect, endangerment or abuse based on allegations of substance use during pregnancy, according to an annual report from the nonprofit Pregnancy Justice. 

Nearly three dozen cases were brought against people who miscarried or delivered stillborns, and in nine cases, pregnant people were accused of obtaining, attempting or researching abortion. 

“Prosecutors are wielding criminal laws to surveil and criminalize pregnant people, their behavior and their pregnancy outcomes,” Dana Sussman, Pregnancy Justice’s senior vice president, told States Newsroom.

Although charges against those experiencing pregnancy loss are less common, Sussman said she fears they could lead people to avoid seeking miscarriage care. 

For instance, a woman who miscarried at home was charged with abuse of a corpse in September 2023, Ohio Capital Journal reported. 

Brittany Watts was around 21 weeks pregnant when she went to the hospital but waited for hours and didn’t get help, according to the Capital Journal, and after she miscarried at home, she returned to the hospital, where staff called police. She was never indicted, and she filed a federal lawsuit in January against the city of Warren, police, hospital officials and hospital staff. 

“Rather than being able to grieve her loss, she was taken away in handcuffs. She was interrogated in her hospital bed while she was still tethered to IVs, and so she wants compensation for her own trauma, but most importantly, wants to make sure that this doesn’t happen to anyone else,” Rachel Brady, Watts’ attorney, told States Newsroom in June.

Watts’ lawsuit alleges local law enforcement and the hospital violated the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment and the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act (EMTALA), which requires hospitals that receive Medicare funding to provide stabilizing medical treatment regardless of a person’s ability to pay or insurance status. The defendants denied liability and the plaintiff’s claims, according to court documents filed in September. 

In this year’s report, pregnancy-related cases cropped up in 16 states, and states with strict abortion bans topped the list again: Alabama (192), Oklahoma (112) and South Carolina (62).

“If you are doing anything that exposes your pregnancy, your fetus to some real risk, perceived or assumed risk, in certain parts of the country, that is a felony,” Sussman said. 

Fetal personhood — the notion that fetuses, zygotes and embryos should have the same legal rights as human beings — comes into play when pregnant people struggling with addiction are drug tested during checkups or at labor and delivery units, Sussman said. 

“In several states, it’s become relatively common practice for people to be charged with a felony for child endangerment or neglect for simply testing positive” on toxicology tests, Sussman said. “And that carries years in prison, and of course, immediate family separation from your newborn and even from your other children in your home, in your family.” 

An investigation by The Marshall Project, Mississippi Today and three other news outlets in 2023 found that local law enforcement and prosecutors in Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma and South Carolina applied child abuse and neglect laws to fetuses when pursuing charges against pregnant women. 

Lawmakers in a few states have pitched legislation seeking to curb punitive approaches to addiction among expectant and new mothers. 

A bill advancing in the New York Legislature would require informed consent for drug testing and screening pregnant and postpartum patients unless it’s medically necessary. Legislation took effect in Washington state this summer that prevents the criminalization of pregnancy loss, and requires officials at jails, prisons and immigrant detention centers to report miscarriages and stillbirths to the state annually. Massachusetts legislators passed a law in December that prevents medical professionals from automatically referring substance-exposed newborns to the state Department of Children and Families. 

Prosecutors obtained information about pregnancy-related crimes from health care facilities in 264 out of 412 cases, even in incidents that did not allege substance use, according to the Pregnancy Justice report.

“If people are worrying about losing their children because of family separation through the child welfare system or by going to jail, they are not going to get the care that they need,” Sussman said. “Pregnancy is seen as a moment and a window of opportunity for people to get care. People are motivated, uniquely motivated, and we really squander that opportunity when we turn health care into a place of reporting.” 

A man is being held in the Dane County Jail after being accused of threatening to blow up the Wisconsin state Capitol.

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An incarcerated person sits inside a housing block at California’s San Quentin State Prison. People 55 and older make up about 19% of the state’s prison population. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

America’s prison population is growing older at a pace that some experts say is unsustainable. As of 2022, the latest year with available data, people 55 and over made up nearly 1 in 6 prisoners — a fourfold increase since 2000 — and their numbers are projected to keep rising.

A new report from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab at the University of Texas at Austin warns that this trend is straining correctional systems that were not designed to care for older adults.

If current trends continue, the authors estimate that by 2030 as much as one-third of the U.S. prison population will be over 50.

“It puts it into perspective how bad that this has gotten,” said Alyssa Gordon, the report’s lead author. Gordon is an attorney and legal fellow with the ACLU National Prison Project. “People don’t realize that prisons are woefully equipped to handle this crisis.”

The findings are based on data from public records requests to all 50 state corrections departments, publicly available state prison population datasets and the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics. Some data, however, were not available for every state, limiting the authors’ ability to make extended state-by-state comparisons.

The report’s findings come as states face competing pressures: a nationwide crackdown on crime and public safety, tightening corrections budgets and severe overcrowding and staffing shortages.

The aging prison population is largely a product of the “tough-on-crime” era of the 1980s and 1990s, when lawmakers at both the state and federal level enacted a wave of punitive policies under the banner of public safety, according to the report. These policies, including mandatory minimums, “three strikes” laws and “truth-in-sentencing” statutes, led to significantly longer sentences and fewer opportunities for early release. Experts say many of those policies remain in place today.

The report also highlights the growing price tag of incarcerating an aging population. Corrections spending data shows an upward trend in medical costs across some states, according to the report.

Prisons often lack accommodations for older adults, including accessible showers and beds, dementia care and hospice services, putting them at greater risk of injury or premature death, according to the report.

Emergency protocols also are frequently inadequate, the authors found, leaving older prisoners particularly vulnerable during natural disasters, disease outbreaks and other emergencies.

Some experts say that the costs of incarcerating older adults could create common ground for policymakers, as reducing this population may lower prison spending without significantly affecting public safety.

“If you want to figure out which population to target where it doesn’t have a public safety implication, this is the population to turn to,” Michele Deitch, one of the report’s authors and the director of the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab, told Stateline. “This is an issue that can gather bipartisan support.”

The report’s authors estimate that more than half of incarcerated people over 55 — more than 58,000 individuals — have already served at least 10 years, with nearly 16,000 behind bars for more than half their lives.

Older adults are less likely to reoffend, with recidivism rates reported at 18% in Colorado in 2020, 12% in South Carolina in 2021, and 6% in Florida in 2022. These rates are far below the national three-year rearrest rate of 66% for the general prison population, according to the report.

In recent years, more states have explored measures to address the aging prison population, including legislation commonly called “second look” laws or policies that expand parole eligibility for older or seriously ill inmates.

Most recently, a new Maryland law, which is set to take effect on Oct. 1, will allow certain incarcerated people to apply for geriatric parole. The law applies to those who are at least 65, have served at least 20 years, are not sex offenders, are serving sentences with the possibility of parole, and have had no serious disciplinary infractions in the past three years.

Stateline reporter Amanda Hernández can be reached at ahernandez@stateline.org.

A Milwaukee PD "critical response vehicle", or surveillance van. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)

The Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) is pursuing upgrades to technology used to track phones during investigations. Known as cell site simulators, the formerly murky equipment tracks phones by mimicking cell towers. Once connected to a targeted phone, cell site simulators are able to track the signal, allowing police to locate people. According to city purchasing division records, MPD aims to upgrade and acquire new components and extend a contract for the phone tracking gear by three years. 

The city’s contract with Tactical Support Equipment will be extended until 2028 and increase by $165,000 to $1.45 million. “MPD operating funds will be used,” according to records obtained by the Examiner explaining the purpose for amending the contract. The amendments will cover funds and coverage for two cell site simulators purchased in 2022, the records state. 

A separate section of the purchasing division records explains “this equipment is used on a regular basis to locate suspects and in exigent situations such as critical missing incidents.” It also states, “MPD used this equipment to help support other law enforcement agencies in Wisconsin, law enforcement in other states such as Texas, Ohio, and Michigan, and federal agencies such as FBI and DEA. At this time, MPD is seeking to upgrade the existing equipment, add additional equipment, and add warranty, support and maintenance for the new and upgraded equipment beyond what the department currently has in place. Tactical Support Equipment, Inc. is the only vendor that can support the equipment as the equipment and software is proprietary.”

MPD has used cell site simulators since at least 2010, according to logs the department uses to catalog its use of the gear. For years, the technology was used by MPD’s Fusion Center, an intelligence unit originally created for Homeland Security operations. A group of officers known as the Confidential Source Team – or CS Team – operates the cell site simulators. Logs of the technology’s use show that it’s mostly used to investigate crimes including homicides and shootings and for investigations related to overdoses or firearms. The logs also show the technology is used to locate material witnesses, kidnapping victims, but also for vague reasons like “drugs”, “long term”, or are redacted entirely.

By 2022, when Wisconsin Examiner first interviewed a member of the CS Team, both the team and its gear had been moved from the Fusion Center to MPD’s Special Investigations Division (SID), which focuses on fugitives, felonies and violent crimes. The team’s name invokes the technology’s secretive history. 

The Milwaukee department once signed non-disclosure agreements in order to acquire the technology leading to controversies in 2016, when MPD was accused of hiding use of Stingray-type devices from judges during court proceedings. When asked during a trial about how a person was located, officers used “oddly vague language,” the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Wisconsin said, even stating that they “obtained information from an unknown source.” Things have changed over time, however. Today, the Milwaukee Police Foundation, which funnels private donations to MPD, publicly lists cell site simulators as among the technologies it helps MPD to purchase.

Like many other law enforcement agencies nationwide, for years MPD utilized phone tracking equipment produced by the Harris Corporation, a multi-billion dollar defense contractor. Harris’ devices were so common that one of its brand names, Stingray, became a common shorthand for all cell site simulators, which are also sometimes called “IMSI catchers.”   

In 2019, MPD purchased a new model from Tactical Support Equipment, a North Carolina-based veteran-owned company which sells everything from K9 camera systems to cables and night-vision cameras. The company does not appear to advertise its cell phone tracking systems on its website. 

Tactical Support Equipment, which did not respond to requests for comment for this story, sold MPD a single cell site simulator in 2019 for $498,900, according to purchasing division records from the time. Later that same year, MPD purchased a C-Hostile Emitter Angle Tracker (C-HEATR), which is a remote handheld mapping device that works together with the cell site simulator. 

Three years later in 2022, MPD upgraded the cell tracking gear by adding a four-channel “5G enabler solution” for $328,700, and a 12-channel portable base station with full 5G coverage (as well as insurance, training, and supporting equipment) for $951,750. 

Responding to questions from Wisconsin Examiner, MPD said that the most recent upgrades will be to “support devices operating in 5G.” The department added that “MPD is the only agency in the area that has a [cell site simulator]. When an agency needs assistance with an investigation and their request falls in line with our operating best practices, we try to provide that agency with assistance.” 

Although cell site simulators are less of an enigma than they used to be, many questions still remain. While MPD states that its technology can only track location, cell site simulators as a family of devices are known to be capable of intercepting calls and text messages, and even more exotic abilities like sending fake short messages to a target phone. In Milwaukee, local activists have long reported strange phone malfunctions and service disruptions which they suspect may be caused by law enforcement surveillance. 

MPD has repeatedly denied responsibility for the claims, and has said in the past that the department’s cell site simulators do not cause malfunctions to target phones. When the Wisconsin Examiner reached out for this story, however, MPD said for the first time that “the equipment already will disrupt service to the target phone when the target phone is located. That disruption is limited to the time it takes for the operator to narrow down the location of the device.” 

The department has also repeatedly stated that its cell site simulators cannot intercept calls or text messages. A different technology known as PenLink is used by MPD for Title III investigations, which involve intercepting content of communications. In responses to Wisconsin Examiner, MPD cited Department of Justice policies and U.S. law which state that “cell site simulator technology must be configured as pen registers, and may not be used to collect contents of any communication.” Wisconsin Examiner reached out to the Wisconsin Department of Justice for more information and has not received a response. 

From 2021 to 2023, Republicans introduced bills that would have changed  how pen registers are defined in Wisconsin. Supporters of the bills, which did not pass, said that they would allow law enforcement to pursue pen registers for social media. Telecommunications experts, however, warned that the bills could open a “back door” for police to use cell site simulator devices in ways not well understood by judges or the public. 

There have been more calls for more oversight of police surveillance in Milwaukee recently, with local activists pushing for  Community Control Over Police Surveillance (CCOPS) ordinances. Over two dozen U.S. cities have already passed such ordinances, which provide more transparency about the purchase and use of surveillance technologies by police departments. MPD stresses that it uses cell site simulators in accordance with DOJ policy “and only after a court order is granted in cases that are not exigent,” the department said in a statement. “There is a process in place in which utilization of the equipment is only done with supervisory approval and oversight.”

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The Palmyra public safety building. (Photo via Palmyra Fire Rescue Facebook page)

Under a proposed partnership with federal Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE), the Palmyra Police Department would focus on criminals — not on people simply because they might be immigrants without legal status, the department’s interim police chief told the Wisconsin Examiner in an interview last week. 

Interim Police Chief Paul Blount also said that partnering with ICE would allow department officers to get access to databases and resources to better fight serious crimes, such as drug trafficking and human trafficking.

Along with the proposed partnership deal, the Palmyra department has the potential to receive payments for its involvement. According to CBS 58 News, Blount said last week that the agreement might “be the difference in this next year of having officers on the street during the daytime and nighttime.”

Blount spoke with the Wisconsin Examiner for about 40 minutes Thursday about the village’s proposed ICE partnership. The arrangement, under the ICE task force model, would grant officers limited authority to enforce immigration law while performing routine police duties. The department would also receive reimbursements from ICE. 

Task force agreements with ICE were discontinued in 2012, but the government has revived the program in President Donald Trump’s second term, Stateline reported.

The 287(g) program allows participating local law enforcement to enforce certain aspects of U.S. immigration law in partnerships with ICE. While 13 Wisconsin counties have a sheriff’s department partnering with ICE, Palmyra would be the only 287(g) partnership in Wisconsin between a police department and ICE. 

The Palmyra partnership would also be the only 287(g) partnership in Wisconsin using the task force model. Other models focus on people who are already in custody. 

The proposal still awaits approval by the Palmyra village board. 

The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin issued a press release last week criticizing the potential partnership, saying the department is “partnering hand in glove with ICE to carry out this regime’s plan to deport our immigrant neighbors and loved ones.” 

Chief: Little change for police operations

In his interview with the Wisconsin Examiner, Blount said that under the arrangement with ICE, the village police department would not be operating much differently than it does now. 

In addition to cooperating with the federal government, Blount said,  “Obviously the financial incentive that was newly added that goes along with it was another reason why we looked at this program, and said, ‘We’re already doing a majority of what this involves. So why would we not collaborate with them, and then we could have the financial incentive that goes along with it.’” 

The ICE website says officers may also exercise limited immigration authority as active participants on ICE-led task forces. 

In its statement, the ACLU said that the task force model “gives officers the green light to stop people they think might be immigrants on the street, question them about their citizenship status, and even take them into custody.”

Blount said the department will not go door to door to check individuals’ documentation or profile people who they think may lack documentation. Palmyra police will collaborate with ICE when someone is involved in criminal activity, wanted on a warrant or facing criminal charges, he said. 

Blount, who is also the director of public safety for the village, said he is one of three full-time officers in the department, along with five part-time officers. 

Asked whether a Palmyra Police Department officer might ask people about their immigration status if they are pulled over for traffic violations — rather than something that would lead police to take a driver to jail — Blount said he didn’t think that was likely. 

 “For a simple traffic stop, that is something that we would be allowed to do,” Blount said, “and I would say that I haven’t made a final decision on that yet. If it involves criminal traffic, the answer to that would be yes, if it’s criminal traffic. So there are certain things that rise to the element of criminal traffic law…but basic traffic [offenses] like a speeding ticket, probably not.”

Blount said that distinction would potentially be detailed in a policy if the village moves ahead with the partnership.  

In its statement, the ACLU of Wisconsin raised concerns about racial profiling. A 2011 Department of Justice investigation found widespread racial profiling and other discrimination in an Arizona task force. 

The ACLU also called for “a balanced approach to immigration that includes both humane border management and a pathway to citizenship.”

If Palmyra moves forward with the partnership, Blount said he is leaning “towards establishing policies and procedures to prevent any type of profiling that the agreement has the potential for.” 

ICE now lists Palmyra Police Department as a participating 287(g) agency with the task force model, with a signature date of Monday, Sept. 22. Blount said the department received federal approval on Wednesday. 

The department’s application for the task force model is pending review by the village board, Blount said, and the board’s vote will be posted on a meeting agenda before it takes place. 

Officers who will be involved must take 40 hours of training and education, which has not started yet, Blount said.  

A financial boon

Blount said the program would come with significant financial incentives from the federal government. 

At the time of his interview with the Wisconsin Examiner, Blount was unsure of the exact amounts that Palmyra would receive. He later sent the Examiner a press release from the Department of Homeland Security dated Sept. 17, which includes details about reimbursement opportunities that will begin Oct. 1. 

A 287(g) fact sheet on ICE’s website contains a section titled “Task Force Model Reimbursement Plan Benefits,” which include $7,500 for equipment for each trained task force officer, $100,000 for new vehicles, salary and benefits reimbursed per trained task force officer and overtime funds up to 25% of salary.

Agencies will also be able to receive quarterly performance awards, up to $1,000 per eligible task force officer, based on “the successful location of illegal aliens provided by ICE and overall assistance to further ICE’s mission to defend the homeland,” the ICE press release states.

In an email message, Village Board President Tim Gorsegner said the board hasn’t discussed the proposal yet, has no official position and will set up a future meeting to hear comments from the public.

In his interview, Blount said he believes he and the board are listening to community questions.

“We’ve had a fair amount of support and a fair amount of, lack of a better term, negativity and pushback for the potential pending agreement,” Blount said. “So we’re listening to both sides and listening to that feedback, and I think obviously the board then will make their decision based on that.”

Blount said he didn’t think the village board would weigh in on the specifics of how he participates in the agreement. 

“They usually don’t get involved in my operations per se,” he said.

This report has been updated with a response from the village board about the proposal. 

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A Madison-area school district continues to face fallout after a top administrator was charged with multiple counts related to child pornography that police say involved students at a school.

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A city administrator and his sister are facing criminal charges in northwestern Wisconsin related to an alleged attempt to record a closed session county board meeting last month.

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The Palmyra police department is the first municipal department in Wisconsin to sign a 287(g) agreement with the federal Immigration Customs Enforcement agency. | Photo via Palmyra Public Safety Department official website

A village police department in southeastern Wisconsin has pursued a type of 287(g) agreement with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that is not held by any other agency in the state.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin criticized the Palmyra Police Department in Jefferson County, saying it is “partnering hand in glove with ICE to carry out this regime’s plan to deport our immigrant neighbors and loved ones.” 

In a statement to the Examiner, interim police chief Paul Blount said the department’s focus is on criminals who threaten public safety and that this is “not a blanket immigration enforcement program.” Blount was not immediately available for an interview. 

“If we find out that we have to participate in that aspect of it, where we’re actually going out, actively enforcing immigration policy and procedure and door to door, looking for undocumented individuals, then I would go on record on saying that we won’t participate in that,” Blount said, according to WISN 12 News. 

He said that the agreement could be what keeps a local police department in the village, due to financial challenges, according to WISN 12 News. He also said there is a $100,000 incentive for the first arrest of an undocumented person that has been involved in a crime or is wanted, and $7,500 for each subsequent arrest. 

According to WISN 12 News, Blount said that if the federal government approves the agreement, he would not move forward without approval from the village board. ICE’s online list currently shows Palmyra as a participating agency and includes Monday, Sept. 22 as the date of signature. 

The Task Force Model serves as a “force multiplier,” according to ICE. It allows officers to enforce limited immigration authority while performing routine police duties, such as identifying a person who is not a U.S. citizen or national during a driving under the influence stop and sharing information directly with ICE. Agencies can carry out immigration enforcement activities under ICE supervision and oversight. 

The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin said the department is “even taking it a step further than other agencies, instituting the most aggressive 287(g) model that gives officers the green light to stop people they think might be immigrants on the street, question them about their citizenship status, and even take them into custody.”

The 287(g) program allows a local law enforcement agency to enforce certain aspects of U.S. immigration law. According to ICE’s online list,  Palmyra is the only police department in the state with a 287(g) agreement. There are 13 Wisconsin counties with a sheriff’s department partnering with ICE. These partnerships use the warrant service officer model or jail enforcement model, which are focused on local jails. 

In the statement to the Examiner, Blount said that if the program is approved, it would allow officers to work in closer partnership with federal authorities. He said officers would gain access to databases and resources that help investigations and help combat serious crimes, such as narcotics trafficking and human trafficking. 

“This is a tool, not a blanket immigration enforcement program,” Blount said. “Our focus is on criminals who threaten public safety — not law-abiding residents. The core mission of our department remains unchanged: responding to emergencies, enforcing traffic safety, and preventing crime in our community.” 

The ACLU of Wisconsin also raised concern about racial profiling. Stateline reported that the task force agreements with ICE were discontinued in 2012 after a Department of Justice investigation found widespread racial profiling and other discrimination in an Arizona task force. 

“This program tears apart communities and instills fear, and we must reject it in Wisconsin and everywhere else,” the ACLU said. 

According to WISN 12 News, Blount said he will ensure there is a policy or procedure in place if the village does move forward so that residents “are protected from being profiled.” 

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Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson's proposed budget seeks to fund the maximum number of police recruit classes next year as the state has placed pressure on the city to hire more cops. 

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A former Green Bay school board member is facing felony election fraud charges for allegedly using a false home address in campaign filings ahead of the April 2024 election.

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An Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer's badge is seen as federal agents patrol the halls of immigration court in New York City on June 10, 2025. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)

ICE arrests in Wisconsin from January to the end of July this year increased 22% compared to the same time period last year and most of that increase has come from federal authorities arresting people who have been charged with but not yet convicted of a crime, according to federal data compiled by the Deportation Data Project. 

Advocacy groups say the increase in arrests has sown fear and confusion among the state’s immigrant communities, and the intensity of ICE’s tactics have drawn attention and controversy across the country. But Wisconsin has thus far avoided the full brunt of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown compared to the state’s four midwestern neighbors. 

Iowa, which of the five states had the lowest number of ICE arrests last year under President Joe Biden, has seen arrests increase 293% this year under Trump. 

Illinois, where Chicago has become a focus of federal law enforcement and ICE activity, has seen ICE arrests increase 46% this year. 

Minnesota, despite its similarities to Wisconsin in  total population and number of Hispanic residents, has seen ICE arrests increase 95% this year. 

Last year, Michigan and Wisconsin had nearly equal amounts of ICE arrests. But under Trump, Michigan ICE arrests increased 152%. 

Luis Velasquez, statewide organizing director for Voces de la Frontera, told the Wisconsin Examiner that the administration’s tactics have caused fear to spread through immigrant communities across the state — even if the total number of arrests hasn’t increased as much as in other places. And while the numbers haven’t increased substantially, local law enforcement across the state has shown an increased willingness to devote resources to the federal immigration crackdown. The number of county sheriff’s offices participating in a federal collaboration program with ICE has jumped from nine to 14 this year. 

“In many ways it is like a psychological warfare that this administration has launched,” Velasquez said. 

Tim Muth, a staff attorney at the ACLU of Wisconsin, said the data can’t be used to predict future ICE activity in the state, but in the first eight months of the Trump administration, ICE is working with local law enforcement in ways that have terrified immigrants. 

“We don’t want to speculate on individual statistics or on what the future plans of the Trump regime may be, but we can say that increased collaboration between local law enforcement and ICE is instilling a sense of fear and instability in Wisconsin’s immigrant communities,” Muth said in an email. “We know they are ramping up their deportation agenda, and they are relying on local authorities to make it happen.”

Trump was elected after running on a platform of “mass deportations” and taking advantage of a backlash against a spike in the number of people making claims for asylum at the U.S./Mexico border under President Joe Biden. But Velasquez said it feels like ICE’s increased role is doing nothing to address the real challenges of immigration policy.

“There isn’t this thoughtful, strategic conversation, to really solve these issues,” he said. “It has been very radical, the way that it’s been enforced. So on the ground people have lost that kind of sense of let’s talk about solutions. It feels very reactive. People are not shopping, with school started again, there’s fear about ICE going into schools. It’s charged with anxiety and fear. It’s unnecessary suffering that is being caused statewide.” 

He points to instances in which people living in the country without legal authorization  have been arrested after showing up for court dates or been accused of bizarre crimes by the federal government. 

“What people are sensing in one way is this is a system that doesn’t make sense. It’s not working for us,” he said. “And then, on the other hand there’s people who are saying, ‘Well, I can be accused of any crime, and then I could just be detained.’”

The Trump administration and Department of Homeland Security officials have regularly claimed ICE is targeting “the worst of the worst,” rooting out violent criminals and gang members. But NBC5, a Chicago TV station, reported this week it could find no criminal record for people the department arrested on immigration charges, claiming they were violent offenders. 

Across the Midwest the increase in ICE arrests has been driven by targeting people who have been charged but not  convicted of crimes — a tactic that experts say violates due process and makes communities less safe. 

In Wisconsin, under Biden, 56% of those arrested by ICE were convicted of a crime and 9% had pending criminal charges. This year under Trump, 60% of those arrested have been convicted of a crime and 24% have pending criminal charges.

That data includes cases such as Eduardo Flores-Ruiz, the Mexican immigrant who had appeared for a court date in Milwaukee County in a misdemeanor battery case when federal agents from ICE, the FBI and DEA arrived at the courthouse to arrest him. That arrest led to federal authorities charging Milwaukee County Judge Hannah Dugan with a felony for allegedly obstructing the arrest. 

Nationally, 70.8% of people in ICE custody have no criminal convictions, according to data compiled by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. 

“ICE will continue to prioritize the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens who have committed violent crimes, ensuring our children are protected and justice is served,” the agency, which did not respond to a request for comment, said in a news release on Wednesday about its arrests of six individuals without legal documentation convicted of sex crimes in six different states. 

While the administration emphasizes justice when it says it is targeting dangerous criminals, Muth said arrests of people not yet convicted damages the criminal justice system. 

“Picking up persons on ICE detainers while charges are still pending subverts the criminal justice system and deprives persons of their right to trial,” he said. “We also remain deeply concerned about the ongoing erosion of due process, as immigrants across the country have been abruptly rounded up by masked agents, detained and arrested without explanation, all while their families are kept in the dark about what’s happening to them. These horrifying scenes point to the federal government’s willingness to ignore the rights of immigrants and betray fundamental principles of our immigration system.”

Luca Fagundes, a Green Bay-area immigration attorney, says ICE operating in courthouses is the “easy road” for rounding up immigrants because people have little choice to avoid a court date — even if the crime is as simple as driving without a license, which immigrants without legal authorization to live in the country are unable to obtain in Wisconsin. 

“People are showing up to traffic court, and when their case is called their identity is confirmed, which makes it very easy for an ICE officer to detain them after leaving the courtroom,” Fagundes said in an email. “That person, who showed up for court (again, for perhaps something as simple as driving without a license) is now being arrested and detained by ICE. They will then be transferred to an ICE facility where they wait weeks or months for a bond hearing with an immigration judge. While in ICE custody waiting to see the immigration judge, they typically then miss the next court appearance they may have on their traffic court matter, and that results in a warrant for their arrest on that simple traffic matter.”

“It’s a domino effect of catastrophe for that individual,” she added, “and, if applicable, their family.” 

Velasquez said the modest increase in arrests here in Wisconsin has triggered fear. But he said successful organizing efforts to protect migrant farm workers and prevent more law enforcement from signing agreements with ICE may have helped stave off raids on farms and, for now, helped keep Wisconsin’s immigrant workforce safer than workers in other states. 

“There’s people who are being detained, so people are feeling it, regardless of the data,” he said. “But I do agree [about] the power of local communities being able to reject and say that we know  what’s best for our local communities. We’re not going to be seduced by money, by this administration. … We know our local communities better, and we don’t want our workers to suffer.”

“I think that there are powerful alliances that are being built across Wisconsin,” he continued. “That may be the reason why we haven’t gotten hit. But who knows — that could dramatically change tomorrow, right? So we do recognize the small victories, and this is good news, right? But at the same time, I think we need more dialogue. We need more common sense policies. We need more conversations of what we agree on.”

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The Oconomowoc Police Department (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)

Earlier this summer, the city of Oconomowoc sought to purchase new protective gear for its police officers by reaching out directly to local residents with a private fundraiser, an approach that has grown in popularity among police departments in recent years.

“Oconomowoc is a great place,” Kevin Ellis, an alderman on the Common Council and a member of the private fundraising committee, told Wisconsin Examiner. “It’s a great city. It’s one that I’m glad that I found 21 years ago.” 

While Oconomowoc — the city’s name is derived from a Potawatomi word meaning “where the waters meet” — isn’t known for gun violence, a member of the city’s fundraising team compared the purchase of the gear to buying insurance. During an incident in July, for example, a Shorewood officer’s ballistic vest reportedly prevented serious injury by gunfire. 

By the end of its fundraiser, Oconomowoc’s police department had far exceeded its $40,000 goal, according to a column in the Oconomowoc Enterprise by council president Matt Rosek.

While the new body armor has the potential to be lifesaving, some remarks about crime and unrest made by supporters of the fundraiser weren’t supported by data, records and past reporting reviewed by the Examiner.

Oconomowoc gun crime claims lack data support

Oconomowoc city officials announced their ambitions to augment protection for officers by fundraising for rifle-rated body armor inserts and pistol-rated ballistic helmets in early June. According to a budget priorities memo in May, Police Chief James Pfister said that with the right equipment, Oconomowoc officers can confidently respond to dangerous situations involving an active assailant. Officers could quickly assist victims, perform life-saving evacuations and effectively manage threats, “ultimately saving lives and reducing risks.”   

As the fundraiser was announced, however, members of the public took to social media to question the department’s efforts on Facebook. 

“I think more people would be happy to donate to the cause if we could have some background information,” one commenter, Morgan Murphy, wrote in a June 5 post. She asked what situations call for the new gear and how frequently those situations arise.

“If it’s a common occurrence shouldn’t there already be some on hand?” Murphy posted, wondering whether concern about such situations is increasing, and if the public should be concerned. 

City officials described the present moment as a “time of continued unrest and potential for escalated violence in our community and those around us” in a letter to potential donors, which the police department provided to the Examiner in June. 

“Over the last five years, communities have seen a variety of incidents of unrest,” said Lou Kowieski, fundraising team member and former council president, when asked about the letter. He said he didn’t know if this would happen again, but that he wants the police department to be prepared. 

In a separate letter posted to Facebook, Police Chief James Pfister said the department had been responding to more gun-related calls over the past three years and that this was “a stark reminder of the growing challenges our officers face in keeping our community safe.”  

Wisconsin Examiner reviewed gun call data from the department’s dispatch center for June 2022 to June 2025, which did not show a definite increase in calls involving a gun. The number of “10-32” calls — police shorthand for gun-related calls — stayed the same from June 2022 to June 2025 at just under 40 calls or less. In order to give a more complete picture, the police department also provided data on all calls in which the word “gun” was mentioned, which rose slightly from 108 calls annually in the 2022-2024 years, to 119 in 2025. It is not known whether a gun was found at the scene in any of these calls. Neither data set includes information on the types of guns referenced in the calls.

Oconomowoc PD Captain Brad Timm said Pfister’s statement referred to the chief’s personal knowledge of “major gun calls specially from Target and Roundy’s,” and Timm said the equipment would be used for those types of calls. 

A shooting at the Roundy’s distribution center in Oconomowoc left the shooter and two co-workers dead in 2021. In a separate incident, a Milwaukee man was charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide earlier this year. The man reportedly pulled a gun out of his pocket and pointed it at a co-worker and a security guard at the Target warehouse in Oconomowoc, later telling police that he pulled the trigger and his gun jammed.

Wisconsin Examiner also requested crime data from the police department for June 2020 to June 2025. As requested, the data appears to break down reported crimes into 13-month periods, from the beginning of June of each year  through June of the following year.

The department reported more aggravated assaults recently, up from two in 2022-2023 to five in 2024-2025. An aggravated assault involves either the offender using a weapon, the offender displaying a weapon in a threatening way or the victim suffering obvious severe or aggravated bodily injury. It was unclear how many of those assaults involved a firearm. The department reported seven aggravated assaults in 2020-2021. 

The most recent data reported fewer weapon law violations than in past years. The weapon law violation definition involves the offender breaking a rule relating to a deadly weapon, such as a rule about the possession, manufacture or use of the weapon. The department’s data reported no murders or non-negligent manslaughters after two incidents that occurred in June 2020-June 2021.

 

 

According to the Wisconsin Department of Justice, if a murder or assault involved a deadly weapon, it could also be counted as a weapon law violation. However, a murder, for example, would not be also counted as an aggravated assault. 

 

By comparison the police department for Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s most populous city, reported 132 homicide offenses in 2024 and has seen multiple gun-related officer deaths since 2018. The Milwaukee Police Department declined to provide the rating for officers’ standard body armor due to security concerns. 

Ricky Burems, who retired from the Milwaukee Police Department in 2014 with 32 years of experience, told the Examiner over text message that he used a vest that was resistant to AR-15 rounds. 

“A vest doesn’t make you impervious to gunfire,” wrote Burems, who worked as a plain-clothes drug unit officer and as a homicide detective. “It really hurts to get shot even if you’re wearing a vest. I recall a couple of officers who were killed when bullets went between the panels of their vests. But vests definitely help.” 

Oconomowoc’s Capt. Brad Timm said the rifle plate inserts the city was fundraising for are rifle rated, while the ballistic helmets are pistol rated.

In July, Timm said that most officers had a level-two bulletproof vest that protects against pistol-caliber firearms. He said at the time that when officers are hired, they are given a level-two vest, and the cost of more resistant level-three body armor would be the officer’s responsibility. Police departments in Madison and Milwaukee also allow officers to purchase more protective equipment on their own. 

Why did Oconomowoc pursue the gear this summer?

Wisconsin Examiner asked Timm what led to the fundraising push for more protective gear this summer. Timm said that “it was brought up to better equip our officers with higher rated ballistic head protection and vests, essential gear for high-risk situations.” 

In his June 5 column Rosek, the Common Council president who also recently announced he is running for mayor, said the fundraiser’s goal was to protect officers from high-power, large caliber rifles. While Oconomowoc is a safe place to live, there had been “several significant tactical situations over the last several years,” he wrote.

Rosek mentioned a bank robbery, a shooting at a Kroger’s, and a shooting incident on the overpass at Interstate 94 and Highway 67. Since Roundy’s is a subsidiary of Kroger’s, Rosek, who did not respond to the Examiner’s requests for comment, might have been referencing the 2021 shooting at the Roundy’s distribution center. Waukesha County court records show that the bank robbery incident involved suspects with pistols, which the department’s standard body armor should be rated to withstand. 

In the May 6 budget memo, Pfister said that “recent events, like those at the Oconomowoc industrial facilities, sadly underscore the urgent need for advanced gear to keep our officers safe.” 

While the Target distribution center incident took place earlier this year, it appears the bank robbery, overpass shooting and Roundy’s shooting occurred prior to 2022. Lou Kowieski, a fundraising team member and former council president, told the Examiner that he didn’t think there was a correlation between the incidents mentioned by Rosek and the police department’s request for protective equipment. Kowieski said he thinks “those incidents help provide, unfortunately, the real-world scenarios of where those are needed.” 

Kowieski also referenced the July shooting that injured a Shorewood officer, and said that “in general, not just in Oconomowoc but in multiple communities, that threat level of use of firearm power is there.”

“You’re going to get insurance for tornadoes,” he said. “That doesn’t mean that you’re going to have a tornado tomorrow. But if it happens, you need to make sure you’re covered.” 

Timm was unable to give an exact number of the calls or incidents the department had responded to that involved a type of firearm their current gear wasn’t rated for, and for which the new gear would have provided sufficient protection. Asked whether or not he could say this type of situation had occurred at all in the last several years, Timm only replied “Yes.” 

Supporters cite mutual aid, 2020 unrest and protests

Rosek’s column also mentioned the potential for Oconomowoc officers to be deployed outside of Oconomowoc, without mentioning any specific city or situation.

“We also know that our police officers will respond to situations outside of our community if called upon,” Rosek wrote. “Violent situations put our officers at greater risk than we have seen before.”

Asked if Oconomowoc has sent officers to assist other communities in need of additional officers for an incident in the last several years, Timm replied “Yes.” 

Kowieski said that not too long ago, officers from Oconomowoc helped support situations in other communities, such as Wauwatosa, Racine and Kenosha “when the social unrest became a challenge for all police departments.” Kowieski said this connects to the fundraiser because it helps prepare the department to provide mutual aid when requested by other communities in various scenarios, including civil unrest or school shooters. 

Wisconsin Examiner reached out to the Wauwatosa Police Department about whether OPD had assisted them since 2020. A spokesperson said that to the contrary, Wauwatosa officers assisted OPD in 2021 during an incident at Roundy’s, but that there are no records showing Oconomowoc officers assisting during situations in Wauwatosa. 

If concern about protests and unrest are causing the city to procure the equipment, John Norcross, who lives in the nearby village of Lac La Belle, thinks “we ought to have a public conversation about that.”

A community Facebook page, “Oconomowoc Supports Our First Responders,” also suggested the gear would help keep officers safe during protests and unrest, specifically mentioning civil unrest that took place in Kenosha during a summer of nationwide protests over police violence and misconduct. The post mentioned Black Lives Matter protests organized in Oconomowoc’s Fowler Park and stated that “5 years ago this summer the threads of our community fabric were at a breaking point.” 

The Fowler Park protest, however, was peaceful, as were most Black Lives Matter protests across the country, according to a 2020 University of Connecticut study.

Norcross thinks the reference to the Black Lives Matter protest feeds an unfounded fear that any kind of protest has the potential to create social unrest. 

“I was at the BLM protest in Oconomowoc,” Norcross said. “There was absolutely no fear, no fear of any social unrest from that. But I do sense that [there is] rhetoric of using Kenosha for years as a keyword for, ‘Hey, we need to be careful. We need to be armed. It could happen at any moment.’”

Mutual aid documents from the curfews in Kenosha and Wauwatosa do not list the Oconomowoc Police Department. Although records from Wauwatosa documented a single Oconomowoc police captain as being present in or around the command center, it does not appear that the department had an on-the-ground presence during Wauwatosa’s curfew. 

Two people were killed and another severely injured in Kenosha after heavily armed teenager Kyle Rittenhouse fired an AR-15 style rifle at protesters. No gun violence or deaths occurred during the curfews in Wauwatosa or Milwaukee. (Rittenhouse was acquitted of charges related to the shootings in a jury trial.)

Fundraisers ‘freed up’ tax dollars for other needs

In a column on Aug. 28, Rosek wrote that he was asked why the city hadn’t added the purchase of body armor to the 2026 budget. 

Rosek’s June column praised the police department for providing “24/7 patrolling,” a citizen’s academy, and other services. “There is no question we are a safer community because of their commitment to our citizens,” he wrote. “Our police department is completely funded by our property tax dollars and is the largest single spend we have in the annual budget.” 

Rosek wrote about previous fundraising, stating that “most of the funding for the body cameras ($150,000) and for the K-9, Gabo, ($125,000) was privately fundraised.”  

In memos from May 2025, where various parts of the Oconomowoc city government shared budget priorities, the police department included about $37,000 in body armor inserts and ballistic helmets. 

Rosek’s column, published a month later, said that the department is funded by a tax levy which comes with restrictions. Sometimes, this means “certain initiatives need some help to get over the finish line,” he wrote. 

But when Wisconsin Examiner asked Oconomowoc police captain Brad Timm in July if he believed the city would still buy the equipment if it could not fundraise in the community, he said yes. Community fundraising is the quickest way to obtain the equipment, Timm said, and without a fundraiser the equipment would have been requested in the 2026 budget. 

The police department didn’t respond to some of the Examiner’s questions, including whether donors were informed that the city could afford to purchase the body armor inserts and ballistic helmets through the budget, and that private fundraising was chosen because it was quicker. 

Jerry Wille of the Oconomowoc Lions Club, which donated $10,000 to the fundraiser, said that “budgets are very difficult in today’s world. So we don’t really worry about that. We know if there’s a need, as a Lion we’re there to help.”

Timm said he believed the city would have made the body camera purchase without the donations from the community, but was unsure about the K-9. He said that the body camera and K-9 fundraisers freed up taxpayer money for other city budget items.

In his column on Aug. 28, Rosek wrote that the city could have funded the protective gear, the body cameras and the K-9 officer through the budget, but that fundraising for one-off purchases “frees up more tax dollars to commit to other critical needs.” 

Part of a trend

Oconomowoc’s use of donations when purchasing protective gear for law enforcement is not unique. In 2018, the Green Bay Press Gazette reported that 50 law enforcement officers in Oconto County had gear providing protection from long guns, using donations from businesses, organizations and individuals. 

Purchases for protective gear were also made by the Milwaukee Police Department and Dodge County Sheriff deputies. The Milwaukee Police Foundation, which has operated since 2019, has also raised private funds to upgrade surveillance cameras, technology used to track phones and body cameras. 

Large donations were also made by the Green Bay Packers and PESI, Inc. toward body cameras and other equipment for the Green Bay Police Department and for Eau Claire police officers and sheriff’s deputies.

Fundraisers also help build relationships between the community and the police, said Lou Kowieski, the fundraising team member and former council president. “You can’t put a value on what the relationship between a community and a police department is,” Kowieski said. In communities without that strong bond, “You feel less safe living in those communities,” he said. “In Oconomowoc, we’re very fortunate and very blessed to have a strong sense of community that is outwardly and proudly supporting our police department and all of our first responders.”

In a statement to Wisconsin Examiner, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Wisconsin highlighted issues with police fundraisers for equipment. 

“When police acquire new tools through private funding, it raises serious transparency and oversight concerns,” the ACLU stated. “Equipment purchased with private donations receives less scrutiny and examination into whether that technology is appropriate and necessary in a community. Private donations bypass public discussion and necessary public notification about why law enforcement needs the tools and how they will be used.” 

The ACLU statement added that, “with the rapid rise of new, high-tech police and surveillance technologies, it’s never been more critical for people to know how they’re being policed. However, when private donors pay for that equipment, the public is completely cut out of the process. Police should be beholden to the communities they are sworn to serve and protect, not the interests of private donors who may pledge the money with strings attached.”

With the exception of Kevin Ellis, members of the Oconomowoc Common Council did not comment for this article. 

As of Aug. 28, the fundraiser had raised $53,000, with additional funds still coming in. The team said it plans to use the extra funds to equip community resource officers. 

Rosek said the next fundraising event will be for Western Lakes Fire Department, which he said has critical needs in the next year. In 2022, seven Waukesha County communities considered a referendum that called for nearly doubling the annual budget for the Western Lakes Fire District. The referendum failed, but the city of Oconomowoc was one of the two municipalities where voters supported it.

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The American Civil Liberties Union is suing five Wisconsin sheriffs over their practice of holding people in jail at the request of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

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