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Most Wisconsin law enforcement agencies use body-worn cameras.

The Madison Police Department, despite being one of the largest in the state, does not — at least not department-wide.

That could change, if Common Council members support a budget proposal backed by the mayor and the police department.

Madison’s lack of body cameras has drawn renewed attention in recent days after a Madison officer fatally shot Corey Ruiz, a 38-year-old Black man last Wednesday. Police say the officer was injured after Ruiz pulled a knife. Four officers are now on leave pending a Wisconsin Department of Justice investigation.

Currently, the only Madison officers with body-worn cameras are those on the SWAT team and motorcycle unit.

But at a Thursday press conference about the killing of Ruiz, Madison Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway said she wanted to fund body-worn cameras for the entire police department. She’s backing a three-year phased plan, that would lead to full adoption by 2029.

That comes after years of contentious debate and multiple failed proposals to broaden the use of body cameras.

Ruiz family calls for body cameras

Now, following Ruiz’s killing, attorneys for his family have expressed outrage about Madison’s lack of department-wide body cameras.

“We are in a major metropolitan city in the state of Wisconsin, and Madison is one of the few cities that still does not have police body cameras,” attorney B’Ivory Lamarr said. “In 2026, solving a police shooting should not be a mystery.”

Corey Ruiz’s brother, Adam Ruiz, also said body cameras are needed.

“I believe that system is corrupted and us, as the people, we need to stand up and come together to put a stop to this madness,” Adam Ruiz said. “They need body cameras to stop future incidents to stop future incidents from happening.”

Bystanders took video of the shooting, and Ruiz’s attorneys said, given MPD’s lack of body camera, that footage is essential.

“If there wasn’t video, we can only imagine what the narrative would have been,” attorney Ben Crump said. “Thank God for all of those people who had their cell phones out.”

Mayor says cost swayed her decision

Previously, Rhodes-Conway supported a pilot program that tested out body cameras on a limited basis. But until now, the mayor had not committed to backing a permanent body camera program.

On Thursday, Rhodes-Conway said budget considerations had swayed her decision.

“My main concern has been the cost,” Rhodes-Conway said in response to question from WPR. “When we initially got the estimates from the pilot, there was a very large price tag, and the (police) chief has worked to bring that price tag down in various ways.”

In a budget request submitted earlier this year, Madison’s police department asked for $414,784 over three years to roll out body cameras. That phased approach would start with officers in the city’s north policing district in 2027. By 2029, the cameras would be used across the entire city.

Rhodes-Conway says she plans to back that request from the police department when she submits her own budget proposal later this year. The funding would ultimately need to be approved by Madison’s Common Council.

For more than a decade, Madison body cam proposals have stalled

For more than a decade, Madison’s elected officials have debated whether the city’s entire police force should use body cameras. But efforts to introduce the cameras have been stymied. Over the years, opposition has come from some of the Common Council’s more left-wing members, as well as from some local activists.

Some have questioned whether body cameras would actually change police behavior. Others have raised concerns about privacy and “over-policing.”

The use of body cameras often gains attention in the context of police misconduct. But increasingly, law enforcement officials are using body camera footage as evidence to secure convictions.

During a Common Council meeting in 2023, Madison resident Steve Verburg was among those who spoke out against body cameras.

“What’s happening is this ongoing surveillance ends up worsening over-policing of marginalized communities,” he said.

Another resident, former Common Council candidate Michelle Ellinger Linley, told the council the purpose of body cameras is “not to make our communities safer, but to uphold unnecessary surveillance, tracking and record-keeping of communities at highest risk for exploitation.”

Those remarks came just before Madison’s Common Council voted to approve a pilot to test body cameras in the North Police District. That 90-day trial has since ended.

Council president: Community now wants body cameras

More recently, in November 2025, Alder Barbara Harrington-McKinney introduced an amendment that would have redirected just over $400,000 from the Office of the Independent Police Monitor to fund “staffing capacity needs related to implementing body worn cameras.” That amendment failed 17-3.

The amendment would have eliminated the police monitor’s annual budget. And some alders complained it was introduced too late in the budget process.

On Thursday, Madison Common Council President Sabrina Madison said she believes a body camera proposal will clear the council in 2026.

“The community, for a while, was not wanting to implement body-worn cameras yet,” Madison said. “That has changed.”

The city’s police cruisers are outfitted with dashboard and backseat cameras. And cellphone videos from bystanders have been circulating online after Wednesday’s shooting.

But DOJ investigators have no way to review body camera footage if it doesn’t exist.

In an interview with WPR, Madison said it’s impossible to know whether a body-worn camera would have changed the outcome of Wednesday’s shooting. But she said those cameras could provide additional information.

“Now folks are really having that discussion more often about what is the gap that we’re missing when we don’t have that footage,” Madison said.

Madison Police Department backs body cameras

During Thursday’s news conference, Police Chief John Patterson spoke about tensions in Madison following the killing of Ruiz.

“Everyone in this room can feel the thinness of trust in this city right now,” Patterson said.

He called MPD’s lack of body cameras “another challenge to repairing trust in our community.”

In his budget request submitted earlier this year, Patterson called body camera funding his “No. 1 request.”

Patterson’s predecessor, former Police Chief Shon Barnes, tried to implement department-wide body cameras. Barnes was unable to do so before he left to lead Seattle’s police department last year.

The Wisconsin Professional Police Association, a union representing police officers, has also advocated for body-worn cameras.

“Unfortunately, because Madison officers are not equipped with body-worn cameras, investigators and the public will not have the benefit of video from the officers’ perspectives in this most recent case,” said the association’s executive director Jim Palmer, referring to the shooting of Ruiz. “Body-worn cameras aren’t perfect and don’t always capture everything an officer sees or experiences, but they can provide critically important additional evidence and context.”

During Madison’s last mayoral election in spring 2023, Rhodes-Conway’s opponent, Gloria Reyes, came out in support of citywide body cameras. Reyes is a former Madison police detective, who was endorsed by the city’s police union.

At the time, Rhodes-Conway did not categorically oppose the proposal. But she cautioned that body cameras alone cannot solve police violence.

Rhodes-Conway expressed a similar sentiment in the days after the killing of Ruiz.

“(Body cameras) are part of a solution,” Rhodes-Conway said Thursday. “But they are not the solution.”

If the police department’s latest proposal is approved, Madison would purchase 220 of body cameras by 2029.

This story was originally published by WPR.

Madison revisits police body cameras after years of debate is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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A Madison police officer shot and killed a man after that man produced a knife, Madison Police Chief John Patterson said.

The same officer who fired the shots was injured by the man’s knife, according to Patterson.

The incident happened at about 1:30 p.m. on Wednesday, according to an incident report posted by the Madison Police Department that afternoon. Multiple streets in the area were blocked off Wednesday afternoon — and crowds gathered in protest.

Patterson said officials had notified the deceased man’s family about his death. However, Patterson declined to disclose the man’s race or name during a news conference just before 5 p.m. Wednesday. He said the man was in his 30s.

Patterson said one officer fired shots, although a total of four officers were involved in the incident and have been placed on leave. The Division of Criminal Investigation at Wisconsin’s Department of Justice is investigating the incident.

Patterson said police initially responded to a call about a man who was checking cars in Madison’s Marquette neighborhood. When officers arrived, Patterson said the man fled on his bike.

The chief said the man produced a knife while officers were trying to arrest him.

“This is not a small folding knife,” Patterson told reporters. “It’s a large fixed blade knife that was there and present.”

During the incident, Patterson said, police used a stun weapon on the man.

“A less lethal device, a Taser, was deployed,” Patterson said. “Unfortunately, it was unsuccessful.”

During the incident, Patterson said a second officer was injured, but police do not believe that officer was injured by the man’s knife.

“It’s not clear how that occurred,” Patterson said.

A video posted to social media on Wednesday shows police cruisers arriving at an intersection with sirens on. A person can be seen riding into the intersection and then falling off a bike onto the pavement, before multiple officers are on top of the person. The video shows the person trying to get away. Then, an officer appears to fire multiple shots at the person.

The video was posted by Richard Hegwood, who lives at the intersection and witnessed the shooting. He told a reporter he began recording when he saw police chasing a man on a bike.

“They catch the dude, they have him on the ground. He’s struggling, he’s struggling to get up, and that’s when they shot him. They shot him three times,” Hegwood said. “I never saw a weapon. He never brandished a weapon.”

Hegwood said three officers had been struggling with the person before the shots were fired.

A second video from a closer vantage point was taken by resident Michael Doubek, who said he saw an officer knock the man from a bike.

“He was on the ground, he had nearly been handcuffed, he had already been tased,” Doubek said. “One of the officers says he has a knife, after which one of the officers pulls a taser, yells, ‘Taser taser taser,’ tases him. Then all three, all of them sort of all fall on the ground together, after which one of the cops stands up kind of on one knee and shoots him three times in the head point blank while he is on the ground.”

Doubek said he does not know the details of what led to the confrontation. “But from where I was standing 10 feet away, that looked an awful lot like an execution to me,” he said.

After the shooting, the area was closed off by police tape. The person’s bicycle remained on the ground.

Advocates for Madison’s Black community said the man killed was Black.

“Another Black man is dead on a Madison street, and our community watched him die before we even knew his name,” said Brandi Grayson, the head of the Madison-based Black community advocacy group Urban Triage. “That is the cruelty of state violence.”

Hundreds of protesters gathered near the scene Wednesday evening before marching together to the state Capitol where a Concerts on the Square event was underway.

Protesters chanted and held signs with slogans, including “no justice, no peace” and “Madison police executed a human today.” Some concertgoers showed support by clapping and raising fists.

The concert was eventually canceled by organizers.

During Wednesday’s news conference earlier in the afternoon, Patterson asked Madisonians to “please take a moment to to reflect and offer some support to one another.”

He referenced the man who died, and added, “I want to take a moment to honestly and sincerely offer my my heartfelt sympathies to his family for this loss.”

Wednesday’s shooting took place in the same neighborhood where a Madison police officer fatally shot Tony Robinson, a 19-year-old Black man, inside an apartment building in 2015.

Robinson was unarmed. The Dane County district attorney did not issue charges against that police officer, after determining the officer had reason to fear for his life after concluding that Robinson had physically assaulted the officer at the top of the stairs within the building. 

“I want to start with an acknowledgement that today involves a very traumatic incident,” Patterson said, referencing the Robinson shooting during Wednesday’s news conference. “A traumatic incident that has occurred in a neighborhood that has experienced a lot of trauma in the past.”

In an update sent just before 2:45 p.m. Wednesday, District 6 Madison Ald. Davy Mayer said he was “aware of an officer-involved shooting on Williamson and Baldwin Street earlier this afternoon.”

“My priority is to make sure the community remains safe and that the public receives full details about what happened as soon as possible,” Mayer wrote in the blog post.

A version of this story was originally published by WPR. Information was added from the Associated Press.

Hundreds protest after police officer fatally shoots man on Madison’s east side is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.

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As of this week, animal welfare organizations say they’ve completed the process of getting 1,500 beagles out of a Wisconsin-based facility that bred them for scientific research.

That process has involved a nationwide network of volunteers and veterinary professionals, said Amy Good, the director of marketing and development for the Dane County Humane Society.

“It has been a tremendous couple days so far, going into Ridglan every single day, bringing the beagles back,” Good said. “Then seeing so many staff and volunteers welcoming them with open arms, giving them those first snuggles, taking them out.”

On April 30, two nonprofits — Big Dog Ranch Rescue and The Center for a Humane Economy — announced they had purchased 1,500 dogs from Ridglan Farms for an undisclosed price.

Even after that deal, Center for a Humane Economy CEO Wayne Pacelle estimates there could be about 500 dogs still in Ridglan’s custody, though he said advocates don’t know the exact number. He said the Big Dog Ranch Rescue and The Center for a Humane Economy still hope to buy any remaining dogs in the coming months.

Hundreds of the Ridglan Farms dogs are expected to be adopted in Wisconsin, while the rest will go to homes out of state, advocates said.

The Dane County Humane Society is among the groups caring for some of the dogs. In all, that organization will stage a total of 500 Ridglan Farms beagles before they’re ready to be adopted out.

So far, the level of interest in adoptions has been explosive.

Fifty of the beagles will be adopted out through the Dane County Humane Society. But, as of Friday, roughly 1,300 people had filled out interest forms asking to take in one of the dogs, Good said.

“The reality is, there’s more people willing to adopt and foster these dogs than we have dogs,” Good said. “We’re really grateful for people’s willingness to open their arms.”

Ridglan Farms was the second-largest beagle breeder in the country, and activists have alleged that the facility has been guilty of animal abuse dating back nearly a decade. Ridglan Farms has denied those allegations.

A settlement between Ridglan Farms and the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection will have the facility give up its state-level breeder license by July to avoid criminal charges.

In March, a group of animal rights activists broke onto Ridglan Farms property and took 22 beagles out.

In April, activists attempted another raid at Ridglan, but were met with tear gas, rubber bullets and pepper spray after law enforcement officials said some of the protestors acted violently. That confrontation resulted in more than two dozen arrests, according to the Dane County Sheriff’s Office.

The fate of the Ridglan Farms beagles has made international news and attracted intense interest on social media.

During a news conference at the Dane County Humane Society in Madison on Tuesday, pop star Debbie Gibson and Black Sabbath bassist Geezer Butler each snuggled Ridglan Farms beagles and joined advocates in calling for an end to scientific testing on animals.

Veterinary technian Danielle Fendrich was among the volunteers who traveled from out of state to care for the dogs.

She was part of a team that helped with medical exams on Tuesday afternoon from an area set up in a barn at the Dane County Humane Society.

As Fendrich worked with a wriggly puppy, she gave the dog occasional squirts of spray cheese to make the exam more pleasant.

“I think a lot of these dogs have very little handling,” said Fendrich, who lives in northern California. “So we want to make it as positive as possible for their first experiences around humans. Sadly, a lot of them lived pretty much their entire life in a kennel.”

Earlier this week, the Wisconsin Humane Society held events in Milwaukee and Green Bay, where about 20 dogs each will be rehomed.

Angela Speed is with the Wisconsin Humane Society and was in Milwaukee for the first transport of dogs. She told WPR dogs rehomed from research facilities require patient, quiet households to thrive.

“Some dogs may be very fearful, some may be curious,” Speed said. “But it can take dogs days, weeks, months or even years — depending on their individual personalities — to really learn what it’s like to be a beloved family member.”

Speed said of the roughly 130 dogs the Humane Society plans to transport this week, 90 will be immediately placed in foster homes. The other 40 will stay at Wisconsin humane societies or other shelters. But they’ve had hundreds of inquiries from people interested in adoptions.

“We’re talking about dogs who have lived in cages their entire life,” Speed said. “Everything is new. A toy, a treat, a collar, a leash, walking on grass or exploring with their nose. It’s a beautiful transformation to be part of.”

This story was originally published by WPR.

Welfare organizations complete transfer of hundreds of Ridglan Farms beagles is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.