President Donald Trump speaks at the Justice Department March 14, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON — In a rare appearance by a president at the U.S. Justice Department, Donald Trump delivered a meandering speech Friday promising a “proud new chapter in the chronicles of American justice” and drumming on his campaign trail refrains of the department’s “weaponization” against him and his supporters.
Less than a year ago, the president was a defendant in two Justice Department cases and made history after becoming a convicted felon in New York state. Trump told the crowd of department officials, law enforcement officers and lawmakers his administration is “restoring fair, equal and impartial justice under the constitutional rule of law.”
“It’s going to be legendary,” Trump said.
The president also insinuated he may keep the Federal Bureau of Investigation headquarters in Washington, D.C., after a drawn-out battle over whether it would move to Maryland or Virginia.
Calling out law enforcement officers in the room, Trump said “with me in the White House, you once again have a president who will always have your back.”
Republican senators Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana were among the crowd, even though the Senate had not yet voted to extend government funding that was set to expire in less than eight hours.
Trump’s hour-long speech in part addressed crossings at the southwest border and deaths from illicit fentanyl. At one point he invited to the stage a mother who lost her son in 2022 to a pill laced with a deadly amount of fentanyl.
But the president’s remarks often meandered into topics unrelated to the Justice Department’s mission, including several minutes about his reelection endorsement from Indiana basketball legend Bobby Knight.
Classified documents case
At numerous points during the speech, Trump lambasted the DOJ’s investigations into his alleged mishandling of classified documents at his Florida estate and his attempted conspiracy to overturn former President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
He said department officials “broke the law on a colossal scale, persecuted my family, staff and supporters, raided my home, Mar-a-Lago, and did everything within their power to prevent me from becoming the president of the United States.”
The government, following the election, dropped its appeal of Trump’s classified documents case, citing a longstanding DOJ policy of not prosecuting sitting presidents.
Florida federal District Judge Aileen Cannon had tossed the case on the grounds that the Justice Department had unlawfully appointed and compensated special counsel Jack Smith.
“The case against me was bullshit, and she correctly dismissed it,” Trump said.
Smith also dropped the 2020 election subversion case against Trump, which probed his alleged role in inciting the violent Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Trump granted clemency to the nearly 1,600 Jan. 6 defendants just hours into his second presidency, undoing the largest-ever investigation executed by the Justice Department.
Attorney General Pam Bondi has since overseen the firings and demotions of FBI agents and DOJ prosecutors who undertook Jan. 6 investigations and the two cases against Trump.
During his Friday remarks Trump thanked his former personal lawyers. Todd Blanche, who defended Trump in the Justice Department cases, is now No. 2 at the agency.
‘We have to keep on showing up’
At a press conference afterward outside the department, Democratic Maryland U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, alongside a police officer who was at the Capitol on Jan 6 and former DOJ officials, struggled to talk over a heckling protester. The event was livestreamed on C-SPAN.
Raskin, who sat on the House select committee to investigate the Capitol attack, described Trump’s speech as a “tirade” and praised Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn for “defending democracy.”
“He pardoned everybody and let them know that it’s OK. Now listen, I don’t know what accountability looks like, I don’t know what this fight is going to continue to look like, but we have to keep on showing up,” Dunn said.
One of Biden’s last acts was issuing broad preemptive pardons to members of the Jan. 6 committee as well as Dunn and three other officers who testified before the panel.
Over 140 police officers were injured in the riot.
Brendan Ballou, a former DOJ prosecutor who investigated the Jan. 6 attack, said while the administration is “perfectly happy to talk about the pardons, it is less willing to talk about some of the things that are happening in this building right now.”
He alleged DOJ officials are dismantling or weakening other divisions, including antitrust and anticorruption.
The Department of Justice did not immediately respond for comment.
The last time a president made a public appearance at the department was former President Barack Obama in 2014.
The FBI has issued an alert related to attacks on Tesla cars and dealerships.
Warning instructs Americans to be vigilant, especially near the brand’s showrooms.
The attacks are rooted in the vandals’ upset at CEO Elon Musk’s DOGE activities.
In a sign of how serious attacks on Tesla vehicles and Tesla-related property has now got, the FBI has waded into the furore. The Bureau this week issued a public alert over the violence, which the government says counts as domestic terrorism.
In an announcement titled ‘Individuals Target Tesla Vehicles and Dealerships Nationwide with Arson, Gunfire, and Vandalism,’ the FBI warns the American public about recent incidents that have occurred in at least nine states these past few months.
“These incidents have involved arson, gunfire, and vandalism, including graffiti expressing grievances against those the perpetrators perceive to be racists, fascists, or political opponents,” the alert says. “These criminal actions appear to have been conducted by lone offenders, and all known incidents occurred at night.”
The bureau gives no weight to Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s claim that the attackers are being funded by leftist organizations and says the vandals are operating alone, not in coordinated groups. It warns members of the public to ‘exercise vigilance’ and be on the lookout for suspicious activity in areas where Tesla dealerships or facilities, such as depots, charging stations, and plants, are located. The alert asks anyone aware of a threat against Tesla to contact their local FBI field office.
For the past two months, we’ve become used to seeing and hearing media coverage of people spraying graffiti on Tesla cars, shooting them, and setting them on fire. Some of the automaker’s dealerships have also come in for similar treatment.
The attacks aren’t specifically related to Tesla itself but are the result of anger at CEO Elon Musk’s work for the new Trump administration. As head of the newly-created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Musk has been responsible for thousands of federal employees losing their jobs.
Last week US Attorney General Pam Bondi announced charges against three people for the “violent destruction of Tesla properties” using Molotov cocktails. Around the same time, Musk revealed that Tesla was activating the camera-based Sentry Mode security system on all its parked cars in an effort to identify vandals.
The Milwaukee County Jail. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
A 49 year-old Shorewood man who had been in custody at the Milwaukee County Jail died in a hospital Tuesday, the Milwaukee County Sheriff said in a statement. The Waukesha County Sheriff is investigating.
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Shorewood Police brought the man to be booked on three criminal charges, according to the sheriff’s statement. He had been in the custody of the jail since Friday.
On Monday evening, a nurse with Wellpath, the jail’s health care provider, observed the man experiencing a health crisis and initiated emergency protocols, the sheriff’s office said. Efforts to stabilize the man, including the use of NARCAN, were unsuccessful.
The man, who had a pulse and was breathing, was brought to an area hospital and then a second area hospital, where he died.
The Milwaukee County Sheriff is not investigating itself, in accordance with Wisconsin law, the statement said. It directed all inquiries to the Waukesha County Sheriff.
An audit of the jail found “systemic issues ranging from dangerous suicide watch practices and a mental health challenge to critical staffing shortages and occupant overcrowding,” the Examiner has reported. During a 14-month period from 2022 to 2023, the jail saw six deaths in custody.
The Waukesha County Sheriff did not immediately respond to a call seeking comment.
The Department of Justice is targeting those behind Molotov cocktail attacks on Tesla.
Three individuals face charges and could face up to 20 years in prison for the attacks.
Attorney General Pamela Bondi recently called attacks on Tesla “domestic terrorism.”
Attacks on Teslas have become a common occurrence and now the federal government is getting heavily involved. As part of this effort, U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi has announced charges against three people for the “violent destruction of Tesla properties” using Molotov cocktails.
While the Department of Justice didn’t release many specifics, one of the defendants was involved in an attack on a Tesla dealership in Salem, Oregon. The government says this person was armed with a suppressed AR-15 rifle and was arrested after throwing approximately eight Molotov cocktails.
The second individual was arrested in Loveland, Colorado after allegedly attempting to light Teslas on fire with Molotov cocktails. The government also claimed the “defendant was later found in possession of materials used to produce additional incendiary weapons”.
Lastly, a person in Charleston, South Carolina allegedly wrote “profane messages against President Trump” around Tesla charging stations. They then lit the chargers ablaze with Molotov cocktails.
Salem Police
Attorney General’s Statement
Attorney General Bondi was direct in her response to the situation, stating: “The days of committing crimes without consequence have ended. Let this be a warning: if you join this wave of domestic terrorism against Tesla properties, the Department of Justice will put you behind bars.” Her office added they’re “committed to ending all acts of violence and arson directed at Tesla properties and otherwise.”
The news comes two days after Bondi released another statement saying that “The swarm of violent attacks on Tesla property is nothing short of domestic terrorism. The Department of Justice has already charged several perpetrators with that in mind, including in cases that involve charges with five-year mandatory minimum sentences.”
As for the three people charged in this latest round, they now face prison sentences ranging from five to 20 years, depending on the specifics of their actions.
Several other police departments throughout California and using EVs.
A Palo Alto police captain says the R1S is more spacious than the Ford Explorer.
It’s unclear if the agency will purchase any other EVs from Rivian.
The first-ever R1S police cruiser has officially made its debut in the United States, and it’s headed straight to Palo Alto, home to Rivian’s sprawling facility. The electric SUV was unveiled at a recent event at Rivian’s headquarters, where local Mayor Ed Lauing took a moment to shower the company with praise.
Interestingly, this charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County is also home to Tesla’s new global engineering HQ, which has been operating there since 2023. Yet, for some reason, Elon Musk’s brand didn’t quite make the cut.
Unlike the louder, garish designs you might expect from a police cruiser, the R1S keeps it understated. Most of the exterior is decked out in gloss black, while the front doors get a clean white trim. The department’s badge makes a neat appearance on the sides, adding just enough flair to remind everyone this is a police vehicle—not a luxury SUV on a road trip.
The R1S Cruiser Still Needs a Few Tweaks
For now, the R1S doesn’t have the customary red and blue roof light bar—it just didn’t arrive in time for the event. There’s also talk of a push bar being added, as well as other custom equipment for the cabin. Rivian’s engineers are reportedly working closely with the city to get the SUV ready for active duty.
Palo Alto’s Captain James Reifschneider spoke to Palo Alto Online, noting that the R1S offers significantly more cabin space than the Ford Explorers and Jeep Durangos currently used by the department.
“The electric car was created years before Rivian first shipped their EV, but Rivian wanted to be the best EV in the future, not the first EV of the past,” he said. “That sounds a lot like Palo Alto to me because Palo Alto is a great place to live and work and shop and play and go to school and that isn’t enough. We’re always looking to be more innovative going forward and to make our place in Palo Alto even better.”
Other Police EVs
Palo Alto is far from the only city jumping on the EV police cruiser bandwagon. Several agencies in California have started adding electric vehicles to their fleets, but the transition hasn’t been without its challenges.
The South Pasadena Police Department has replaced its entire fleet with Tesla Model 3s and Model Ys, but some departments have complained about the lack of space offered by these two Tesla models. The Rivian R1S is much larger, but it’s also much more expensive, starting at $75,900 in base guise before any expensive upgrades are made.
There’s no word on whether police in Palo Alto plan to add more Rivian models to their fleet.
Tracy Cole, the mother of Alvin Cole, surrounded by her family. (Photo by Isiah Holmes)
A federal civil trial into the killing of 17-year-old Alvin Cole by then-Wauwatosa officer Joseph Mensah five years ago began on Monday, bringing Cole’s family, Mensah, a cast of current and former Wauwatosa officers, and other witnesses into the U.S. district court building in Milwaukee. The lawsuit accuses Mensah of using excessive force when he fired five shots at Cole in 2020, killing him after a foot chase in a darkened mall parking lot.
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During opening statements, attorney Kimberly Motley said police officers receive extensive training in use of force under Wisconsin’s Defense and Arrest Tactics (DAAT) standards. Motley said that when officers fire their weapons they must “articulate each shot” and that Mensah “did not exercise restraint” when he shot Cole. Cole’s case was Mensah’s third shooting over a five year period, although attorneys agreed to not bring up that fact during the trial. “We believe that Joseph Mensah did not have the right to shoot and kill Alvin Cole,” said Motley.
The mostly white jury of seven women and one man listened intently to statements from both Motley and attorney Joseph Wirth who represents Mensah. They recounted the events of Feb. 2 2020, a Super Bowl Sunday, when Cole and a group of his friends got into a verbal altercation with another group of boys at the Mayfair mall. Police were called and the boys fled. Officers later testified that a single gun shot was heard as the police were chasing Cole, though they did not see who fired the gun. While Cole was on his hands and knees, surrounded by officers, Mensah fired five shots, later claiming that Cole pointed a gun at him. Wirth said footchases are dangerous and unpredictable and stressed that the events leading up to the shooting took place over less time than it took the attorney to introduce himself to the jury. He appealed to the jurors saying they could be sympathetic to the Cole family, while also ruling that Mensah’s use of force was reasonable. “Put yourself in the officer’s shoes,” Wirth told the jury.
Motley said that Cole accidentally shot himself in the forearm before he fell, breaking his arm in the process. The broken arm would have made it hard for him to aim his gun at Mensah, as Mensah claimed, Motley said. Also, an officer who was closer to Cole than Mensah said that Cole hadn’t moved at all before Mensah fired.
That officer, David Shamsi, who’s now an FBI agent, was called as a witness on Monday. Another officer, Evan Olson, who said the gun was pointed in a completely different direction than Mensah claims, is also expected to testify later in the week. The contradictory statements from officers Mensah, Olson, and Shamsi persuaded U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman that the lawsuit should go to trial.
On Monday, Alvin’s father, Albert Cole, recalled dropping his son off with his friends the last time he would see him. After Alvin died, Albert became “anti-social,” he testified, Crying on the witness stand, he said Alvin’s death left a hole in his life and that of Tracy Cole, his wife of over 30 years. “That hurt was inside me,” he said.
Shamsi testified that he was “tunnel visioned” on Cole’s gun, which he said remained on the ground and didn’t move after Cole fell to his hands and knees in the dark parking lot. Shamsi hadn’t considered whether Cole was wounded and, in fact, was prepared to fire his own weapon if the boy moved again. “I did not see him point a gun at me,” said Shamsi.
During questioning, attorneys noted that Shamsi changed his story when he was re-interviewed about the shooting months after it occurred. It was during that interview that Shamsi said that he saw Cole’s arm extended towards officers. When he was deposed for the civil lawsuit and then on the stand Monday, Shamsi reverted to his original statements that he did not see Cole move after he was on the ground.
Cole family attorney Nate Cade told Wisconsin Examiner that he suspects Shamsi changed his story after meeting with Mensah’s attorneys, because “no one wants to turn around and say that a fellow officer did something wrong.” He said Shamsi’s testimony that the gun never moved “is the most damning thing.” Cole’s shooting was initially investigated by the Milwaukee Area Investigative Team (MAIT), before the Milwaukee County district attorney decided Mensah wouldn’t be charged for killing Cole in 2020. A recent investigation by Wisconsin Examiner in partnership with Type Investigations found a pattern of MAIT policies protecting officers and contradictory statements left unchallenged.
Cade said “the district attorney looked the other way” and that there were things that investigators “should have done” but neglected, such as measuring the distance between Cole’s body and bullet casings. “There are no measurements,” said Cade. “None of the officers identified exactly where they were standing.”
Attorneys also called a civilian witness who’d seen Cole’s group running from police and witnessed the shooting. The witness said that he did not see Cole running with anything in his hands, suggesting that he had not turned his body to point a gun at officers as he ran. Wauwatosa officer Dexter Schleis agreed with Cade that deadly force is allowed if an armed person turns towards an officer, he would not answer directly when asked if deadly force is appropriate when an armed person has their back to an officer, is on the ground and isn’t moving. Schleis repeatedly asked for the question to be repeated, that he didn’t understand, or couldn’t say whether the shooting complied with police protocol.
More than a dozen people were injured after a school bus crashed on the Garden State Parkway in New Jersey, reported CBS News.
The incident reportedly occurred March 10 at approximately 7:30 p.m., when the Rabbinical School bus from Lakewood was heading to New York to attend a post-wedding celebration.
According to the news report, the school bus was seen on its side facing the wrong way on the highway and skid marks were visible on a nearby embankment. There was no immediate information on what caused the school bus to overturn.
The New Jersey State Police said via the article that 15 people, including the 44-year-old bus driver, were treated for injuries. One of the passengers suffered serious injuries. Police said in a statement the 14-year-old boy is fighting for his life after he was pinned under the overturned bus.
The Woodcliff Lake Fire Department was the first to arrive at the scene said Mayor Mike Ghassali in a statement on Facebook. The Montvale Volunteer Fire Department and other firefighters that assisted, lifted the bus and rescued the 14-year-old boy [that was pinned under the bus] and 28 other boys along with two adults.
The 14-year-old, who is fighting for his life, the bus driver and 13 other boys were transported to local hospitals. Their current condition is unclear at this moment.
An ally of Michael M. Bell, the Kenosha father who has been campaigning for a decade for a new look at the police killing of his son 20 years ago, is suing the Wisconsin Department of Administration for records in a dispute with the state Department of Justice and the Wisconsin Crime Victims Rights Board (CVRB).
The Wisconsin Examiner’s Criminal Justice Reporting Project shines a light on incarceration, law enforcement and criminal justice issues with support from the Public Welfare Foundation
Russell Beckman filed the open records lawsuit Tuesday in Dane County circuit court in response to the administration department’s denial of billing records from a private law firm that had a contract with the victims rights board.
In the lawsuit, which he filed without a lawyer, Beckman states that he “believes the Department of Administration is attempting to conceal these records because they may contain information that constitute evidence of misconduct and unlawful collusion between high ranking Wisconsin State officials and citizen members of the CVRB.”
Michael M. Bell’s son, Michael E. Bell, was killed in November 2004 by a Kenosha Police Department officer after an altercation in the driveway of the home where the younger Bell lived. A department internal investigation found no wrongdoing on the part of the officers on the scene.
Michael M. Bell subsequently campaigned for a Wisconsin law, enacted in 2014, that requires fatalities at the hands of police to be investigated by another department
Since settling a civil lawsuit with the city of Kenosha arising from the killing, the elder Bell has sought to reopen the investigation into the death of his son. The younger Bell was being physically restrained by police when an officer shot and killed him, eyewitnesses and police reports agree. The police account reported that officer fired the shot after another officer at the scene, who was standing near the 21-year-old, shouted that Bell had grabbed his holstered service handgun.
Citing discrepancies between the official police account of the incident and eyewitness testimony as well as physical evidence at the scene, Michael M. Bell has maintained that his son probably never touched the second officer’s weapon, none of the officers were in danger of being shot by the younger Bell, and that the killing was unnecessary.
The elder Bell has said the second officer may have been sincere in his assumption that his gun had been grabbed. Based on eyewitness accounts, however, he thinks the second officer was not where his son could have grabbed the gun. Bell believes the officer who fired the fatal shot was in a position to know that the second officer was mistaken and did not need to take his son’s life.
Bell’s repeated attempts to persuade authorities to reinvestigate the events of that night have been unsuccessful, including multiple appeals to Attorney General Josh Kaul.
In December 2022, Beckman, a retired Kenosha police detective who has been assisting the elder Bell for more than a decade, filed a complaint with the Wisconsin Crime Victims’ Rights Board on Bell’s behalf.
The complaint charged Kenosha police and city officials had concealed information about Michael E. Bell’s death, and in the process committed “alleged crimes [that] included the felonies of perjury, destruction of public records, misconduct in public office and conspiracy to commit these crimes.”
The complaint also charged that Kaul “and high ranking subordinates” at the state Department of Justice repeatedly ignored attempts by Beckman and Bell to bring their concerns to the attorney general’s attention.
In June 2023, Madison attorney Hal Harlow emailed parties in the case — Beckman, Bell and a DOJ lawyer — that he had been “retained to act as legal counsel to the Wisconsin Crime Victims Rights Board” in the matter.
In November 2023, the CRVB decided it lacked probable cause for the complaint, holding Michael M. Bell didn’t have “victim status” in connection with the complaint’s allegations. “The alleged conduct is against the government and its administration, not against individual persons,” the decision stated.
After that ruling, according to the lawsuit, Beckman “filed a number of public records requests with the CVRB, seeking records that may have evidence supporting his belief that Attorney General Josh Kaul and/or his staff may have colluded with the CVRB to influence their decision to dismiss the complaint.”
The board supplied records that have become part of the appeal that Beckman has filed on Bell’s behalf. The appeal is now before the Wisconsin Appeals Court District IV in Madison after being dismissed in circuit court.
Meanwhile, Beckman filed an open records request with the Department of Administration seeking attorney billing records for the Crime Victims Rights Board in connection with the Bell complaint.
The department issued a blanket denial of Beckman’s request. DOA cited the ongoing litigation over the lawsuit against the board and asserted that “those records and that information would reveal strategy and efforts that would affect the ongoing litigation.” The department also denied a request to reconsider its denial, and a request for a copy of the contract for the outside law firm.
The lawsuit filed Tuesday argues that the denials violate Wisconsin’s open records law. The attorney billing records, the contract and its addendums are not “attorney work product” and are not privileged attorney-client communications, Beckman argues.
Beckman said in an interview Tuesday he wants the billing records and contract because they might shed light on interactions between the DOJ and the Crime Victims Rights Board, which are supposed to operate independently of each other. He said he’s learned other unexpected information in his work with Bell over the years that turned up by perusing attorney billing records.
A Mason County school bus driver was indicted after allegedly driving a bus under the influence of drugs with students on board, reported WOWK News.
The incident reportedly occurred last April, when a 911 call was placed about a school bus driver who was driving erratically and in the opposite lane with students on board. The caller also claimed that the driver made several wrong turns and was falling asleep at the wheel.
A blood analysis the police reportedly took from the bus driver, 54-year-old Leslie Watterson, revealed she had taken three different drugs that affect the central nervous system. Watterson was arrested in May of on warrants filed by West Virginia State Police.
According to the news report, Watterson was indicted March 5 on 54 counts of gross child neglect creating substantial risk of serious bodily injury and one count of DUI with minors. The three drugs in her system were identified to be Phentermine, Oxazepam and Temazepam.
A 14-year-old boy with special needs is safe after a school bus driver found him wandering the streets during cold temperatures, reported ABC 7.
The incident reportedly took place on Feb. 18, when Trey Briggs woke up and found all the doors of her family’s apartment open and her son, Urijah Heard, missing.
According to the news report, Heard is non-verbal. Temperatures that day were below zero and he was only wearing a t-shirt and underwear.
Briggs reportedly contacted the Wheeling Police Department and was told that officers had already been contacted by a passing school bus driver who saw Heard wandering and returned to pick him up.
“The fact that he [the school bus driver] stopped and put him on the bus is amazing to me. A miracle to me,” Briggs told local news reporters.
Police were able to identify Heard almost immediately because the teen had just been registered in a program started in 2022 by Wheeling Police Sgt. Richard Giltner called “Return Home Safe.” The database includes children with special needs, identified with photos and information submitted by their parents, for situations similar to this one.
According to local news reporters, the bus driver, Freddy Leon, did not want to comment on the matter. However, Heard’s mother is grateful for his act of kindness. The police department is planning to honor Leon for his actions later this month.
Several Tesla Supercharger stations burned up overnight in Littleton, Massachusetts.
Authorities are investigating the fire as a targeted arson case against the EV brand.
This marks the third arson case targeting Tesla-branded products within a single week.
Some electric vehicle owners may be in for an unpleasant surprise when they pull up to charge today only to find their intended station reduced to a charred wreck. That’s the unfortunate situation at the Tesla Supercharger station in Littleton, Massachusetts, where at least seven stalls were torched overnight. Authorities are now investigating the incident as an act of arson.
“Chief Matthew Pinard reports that the Littleton Police Department responded to and is investigating fires at a Tesla charging station at The Point Shopping Center that are believed to be suspicious in nature,” local officials told ABC News. “Responding officers observed that several Tesla charging stations were engulfed in flames and heavy, dark smoke.”
Authorities have made it clear that they suspect arson. “The Littleton Police and Fire Departments, along with the Massachusetts State Police Fire and Explosion Investigation Unit from the State Fire Marshal’s Office, are investigating and have determined that the fire was likely intentionally set,” they confirmed. This is an important detail, especially since Tesla has provided additional context that aligns with that conclusion.
While fires at electric vehicle or charging stations can happen, they’re extremely rare, and are typically the result of a thermal event caused by a faulty connection between a vehicle and charger. In this case, however, Tesla confirmed that no cars were plugged in at the time. Impressively, the company says the station will be fully operational again in less than 48 hours.
No customers were charging at time of the fire. Posts & wire will be replaced in <48hrs. Critical infrastructure for EV drivers. Arson investigation ongoing with @LittletonMAPD.
Interestingly, Tesla does seem to have a fast turnaround when things like this happen. When vandals attacked chargers about a week ago, the team said it would fix the issue within a day and press charges. Perhaps it’ll do the same if police find a suspect for the fires in Massachusetts.
Sadly, this marks the third arson attack in just a week. In Colorado, police caught a suspect with explosives and incendiary devices near a Tesla dealership—though, thankfully, no fires were set. In France, however, things took a darker turn. Police believe someone set fire to at least a dozen cars at a service center overnight on Sunday, including customer vehicles that were there for repairs.
At least twelve cars at a Tesla dealership in France were severely damaged by fire, with damages estimated at €700,000.
Authorities suspect arson due to multiple fire origins and specific car targeting, excluding damage to the building.
The incident coincides with broader global protests involving vandalism and targeted attacks on Tesla properties.
On Sunday night, one or more individuals set fire to at least a dozen cars at a Tesla dealership in France, according to a magistrate from the Toulouse public prosecutor’s office. The attack damaged both vehicles for sale and customer cars in for repairs. While the motive remains unclear, it appears to be the latest, and possibly the most serious, incident amid growing tensions surrounding Tesla. Protests targeting the company and its CEO, Elon Musk, have been on the rise in recent months.
Authorities say that they believe this was arson in part because of the fire pattern itself. It appears as though there were at minimum three separate fire origins and that none of the fire damaged the building itself. Of the twelve vehicles bruned, eight were completely destroyed, while four sustained partial damage. The prosecutor’s office called the fire “not at all accidental.”
According to FranceInfo, damage estimates are hovering around 700,000 Euros or about $735,000 at current exchange rates. Video from the scene shows the extent of the destruction, including cars burned so severely that only their skeletal remains are left.
It appears as though the arsonist targeted a small group of cars including several Model Ys and Model 3s. In another section of the lot we see a Model 3 damaged on the front but in far better shape than some other cars in the lot.
Over the past few months, protests and demonstrations against Tesla and its CEO, Elon Musk, have been ramping up. Weeks ago, protesters projected the word Heil onto the Berlin Gigafactory. Others put up anti-Tesla posters in London, while more demonstrators gathered outside dealerships across the U.S. in the past month.
One person was arrested for attempted but failed arson at a dealership last week. At the same time, it very well appears to be the most dangerous and destructive in nature. While some vandals have targeted charging stations or individual cars, none have gone to this sort of scale.
Tesla and Musk Remain Silent
Despite the growing wave of anti-Tesla actions, both the company and Musk have remained largely silent. Aside from Tesla’s previous statement vowing to prosecute vandals targeting charging stations, there’s been little response. French authorities, meanwhile, have yet to release any information about possible suspects.
Consumers, however, seem to be making their stance known with their wallets. Tesla’s sales have taken a significant hit across multiple European markets. In the first two months of 2025, sales dropped 45% in France and Norway, while Sweden saw a 42% decline compared to the same period last year. Denmark was hit even harder, with Tesla’s sales plummeting by 48% in February alone.
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The Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office system for tracking officers with credibility concerns, allegations of dishonesty or bias, and past criminal charges is inaccurate and incomplete and relies, in part, on police agencies to report integrity violations.
Such tracking systems, often known as Brady/Giglio lists, are meant to help prosecutors fulfill their legal duty to share evidence that could help prove someone’s innocence.
Wisconsin lacks statewide standards for how such Brady information should be gathered, maintained and disclosed.
Of more than 200 entries on Milwaukee County’s list, nearly half related to a direct integrity or misconduct issue, such as officers lying on or off duty. About 14% related to domestic or intimate partner violence, and nearly 10% related to sex crimes, such as sexual assault or possessing child pornography. Another 14% involved alcohol-related offenses.
A deputy falsifying jail logs. Officers stealing during a search warrant. An off-duty officer hitting a parked car after leaving a bar, then lying about it.
Imagine one of them arrested you.
Would you want to know about their past?
Under the law, you have a right to that information. How and when you get access to it depends on prosecutors, who file criminal charges and bring a case in court.
The Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office has a system for tracking officers with credibility concerns, allegations of dishonesty or bias, and past criminal charges. But it is inconsistent and incomplete and relies, in part, on police agencies to report integrity violations, an investigation by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, TMJ4 News and Wisconsin Watch found.
After reporters provided Milwaukee County District Attorney Kent Lovern with their analysis and raised questions about specific cases, he removed seven officers from the database and acknowledged one officer should have been added to it years earlier.
The haphazard nature of these tracking systems fails officers and people defending themselves, said Rachel Moran, a professor at the University of St. Thomas School of Law in Minneapolis, who has extensively studied the issue nationwide.
“It does lead to wrongful convictions,” Moran said. “It leads to people spending time in jail and prison when they shouldn’t.”
Many criminal cases come down to whether jurors believe a defendant or a law enforcement officer.
The system of flagged officers — often known as a “Brady/Giglio list,” so named for two landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases — is meant to help prosecutors fulfill their legal duty to share evidence that could help prove someone’s innocence.
Wisconsin does not have statewide standards for how such Brady information should be gathered, maintained and disclosed. It falls to local district attorneys to decide how to gather and share information about officers’ credibility, leading to inconsistencies across the state’s 72 counties.
Lovern maintains his office is fulfilling its obligations. By compiling the spreadsheet, his office already is doing more than required, he said in an interview. Just because an officer is on the list does not mean he or she was necessarily convicted of a crime or had a sustained internal violation.
“The database is complete to the best of my knowledge and belief,” he said in a follow-up email in February, adding it always is subject to change with new information.
Some of those changes were prompted by this investigation, which found multiple inaccuracies in the Brady list released last fall. One officer was described as being involved in a custody death but he was not. Two were listed with the wrong agency. Another was listed for a criminal case that was expunged in 2002. At least five officers on the list were deceased.
After reporters raised questions, a West Allis officer who resigned after admitting he had sex with a woman while on duty at a school was removed from the list because, Lovern said, he did not lie about what he did. That officer was hired at another agency in the county.
The inconsistencies in Milwaukee County’s Brady list have frustrated defense attorneys and advocates for police officers — one union leader called it the “wild, wild west” — and are another example of a nationwide problem for legal experts like Moran.
“It’s just an ongoing travesty of constitutional violations,” she said. “It is a huge national problem that should be a national scandal.”
Who is on the Milwaukee County Brady list and why?
Milwaukee County District Attorney Kent Lovern speaks to reporters with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, TMJ4 News and Wisconsin Watch. (TMJ4 News / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
The district attorney’s office started tracking officers with documented credibility concerns more than 25 years ago.
The full list has not been made public — until now.
The move came after years of pressure from defense attorneys, media outlets and a lawsuit threat. The decision to release the list was harshly criticized by Alexander Ayala, president of the Milwaukee Police Association, the union representing rank-and-file officers in the city.
“It’s only going to be detrimental to police officers or even ex-police officers because they’re trying to move on,” he said.
The district attorney’s office first released the list to media outlets last September in response to public records requests. At the time, Assistant District Attorney Sara Sadowski wrote, in part: “This office makes no representations as to the accuracy or completeness of the record.”
She also said that some criminal cases may have “resulted in an acquittal, that charges were dismissed, or that charges were amended to non-criminal offenses.”
That list, dated Sept. 20, contained 218 entries involving 192 officers and included a wide range of conduct, from a recruit who cheated on a test to officers sentenced to federal prison for civil rights violations.
The Journal Sentinel, TMJ4 and Wisconsin Watch spent five months tracking down information about the officers through court documents, internal police records and past media coverage.
Milwaukee police officers made up the largest share of officers on the list, but nearly every suburban police agency in the county was represented, as well as the Wisconsin Department of Justice and the Wisconsin Department of Corrections.
At least a dozen officers kept their jobs after being placed on the Brady list, then landed on the list again.
Ceasar Stinson is shown with his daughter, Cearra Stinson. He was struck and killed when former Milwaukee County sheriff’s deputy Joel Streicher ran a red light in 2020. (Courtesy of Stinson family)
One of them was Milwaukee County sheriff’s deputy Joel Streicher.
Back in 2007, Streicher and five other deputies searched a drug suspect’s house without a warrant, according to a previous Journal Sentinel article. It wasn’t until 2019 that Streicher was added to the Brady list when he was caught up in a prostitution sting and pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct.
A year later, Streicher was on duty when he ran a red light near the courthouse and killed community advocate Ceasar Stinson. He resigned and pleaded guilty to homicide by negligent operation of a vehicle. Streicher declined to comment when reached by a reporter last month.
Criminal cases like Streicher’s represent three-quarters of the entries on the Brady list. The other quarter are tied to internal investigations.
The news organizations also found:
Of the 218 entries on the list, about 47% related to a direct integrity or misconduct issue, such as officers lying on or off duty. The allegations vary: One officer pleaded guilty to taking bribes for filling out bogus vehicle titles and was fired. Another former officer was charged with pressuring the victim in her son’s domestic violence case to recant. A lieutenant was demoted after wrongly claiming $1,800 in overtime.
About 14% related to domestic or intimate partner violence, and nearly 10% related to sex crimes, such as sexual assault or possessing child pornography.
Another 14% involved alcohol-related offenses, most often drunken driving. At least six cases involved officers, most off duty, who were found to be driving drunk and had a gun with them.
Nearly 7% involved allegations of excessive force. One of the officers listed in the database for such a violation was former Milwaukee officer Vincent Woller, who was added in 2009 after receiving a 60-day suspension for kicking a handcuffed suspect in the head, according to previous Journal Sentinel reporting.
Woller remained on the force until last year. He recently told a TMJ4 reporter he had testified “hundreds” of times in the past 15 years and never knew he was on the Brady list.
When asked to respond, Lovern, the district attorney, removed Woller from the list, saying Woller’s internal violation was not related to untruthfulness.
Lovern, who served for 16 years as the top deputy to his predecessor, John Chisholm, said he reviews any potential Brady material brought to his attention from the defense bar.
In those cases, he said, he often has concluded that while officers’ conduct may show “poor judgment,” it did not relate to credibility or untruthfulness.
Others have strongly disagreed with those decisions.
Assistant Public Defender Angel Johnson, regional attorney manager for the State Public Defender’s Office in Milwaukee, works in out-of-custody intake court on Feb. 11, 2025. (Angela Peterson / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
Three years ago, the State Public Defender’s Office asked for the full Milwaukee County Brady list, only to receive a partial list of about 150 names of officers charged or convicted of crimes.
Public defenders then shared police disciplinary records they had obtained while investigating and trying past cases, said Angel Johnson, regional attorney manager for the State Public Defender’s Office in Milwaukee.
Johnson had expected those officers would be added to the list.
“They were not,” she said.
How some police officers can be on the Brady list and keep their jobs
Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman and Milwaukee County Sheriff Denita Ball speak to reporters with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, TMJ4 News and Wisconsin Watch. (TMJ4 News / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
The Brady list is not a blacklist.
Eighteen officers are still employed by the Milwaukee Police Department, while five others are members of the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office, according to representatives for those agencies.
In some cases, an officer’s past integrity violation or criminal conviction, such as drunken driving, may not necessarily prohibit the officer from testifying. That means they can still be useful as police officers, officials say.
Police Chief Jeffrey Norman, left, alongside Mayor Cavalier Johnson, speaks on June 10, 2022, at the Milwaukee Police Administration Building in Milwaukee. (Jovanny Hernandez / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
“For us, it’s not about being placed on the list, it is how they will be used by the district attorney’s office,” Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman said in an interview.
Norman said he does consider an officer’s ability to testify when weighing internal discipline.
Milwaukee County Sheriff Denita Ball said she does not, instead concluding the internal investigation and deciding discipline before forwarding any information to the District Attorney’s Office.
“Somebody can just make a mistake,” Ball said. “If that’s the case, then their employment is retained.”
Norman stressed he takes integrity violations seriously and makes his disciplinary decisions after reviewing internal investigations, officers’ work histories, comparable discipline in similar cases and input from his command staff.
Depending on those factors, officers can keep their jobs despite an integrity violation.
Officers Benjaman Bender and Juwon Madlock were working at District 7 on the city’s north side in 2021 when a man reported that he had just been shot at in his vehicle a few blocks away, according to records from the department and the Fire and Police Commission.
The man handed Bender his ID. The officers did not write down his name, inspect his damaged car parked outside, interview witnesses, or ask him any other investigatory questions, even after the man took a call from someone involved in the shooting.
Milwaukee County Sheriff Denita Ball says she does not consider an officer’s ability to testify in court when weighing internal discipline. “Somebody can just make a mistake,” she says. “If that’s the case, then their employment is retained.” She is shown giving an address at her public swearing-in on Jan. 6, 2023, at the Milwaukee County War Memorial Center in Milwaukee. (Angela Peterson / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
Instead, Bender instructed the man to return to the crime scene by himself and told him a squad would meet him there.
“So it’s cool for people to just go shoot at people now?” the man replied.
“Just go over there,” Madlock said, as he returned the man’s ID.
Bender later told a sergeant the man had been uncooperative and that he did not see the man’s ID. Madlock told another sergeant the man had walked out on his own. Video from the lobby contradicted their accounts.
Internal affairs found both officers failed to thoroughly investigate and had not been “forthright and candid” with supervisors.
Norman suspended each officer for 10 days. They remain employed — and on the Brady list.
The department did not authorize the officers to speak with a reporter for this story.
In rare cases, the district attorney’s office will decide that an officer can never be called as a witness. Only two or three officers in the county have received that designation in the last 18 years, and none are still employed as officers, Lovern said.
Reporters were unable to track the current employment of every officer on the Brady list because the Wisconsin Department of Justice has refused to release a statewide list of all certified law enforcement officers, a decision that is being challenged in court.
The state has released a separate database of officers who were fired, resigned instead of being fired or quit while an internal investigation was pending.
A comparison to that database showed at least four officers on the Sept. 20 Brady list were working at different law enforcement agencies in the state.
Credibility matters whether you’re an officer or a citizen accused of a crime
There’s no guarantee an officer’s past will come up in court.
A defense attorney has to decide whether to raise it. And if they do, a judge has to decide if a jury should hear about it.
But for any of that to happen, prosecutors must collect and disclose the information in the first place.
“We don’t monitor the Brady list,” said Milwaukee County Chief Judge Carl Ashley, who added that he has never encountered a Brady issue during his 25 years on the bench.
“We get involved once the matter is brought to our attention,” he said.
Some prosecutors across the country come up with different systems to learn of potential Brady material. In Chicago, prosecutors started asking police officers a series of questions, such as if they had been disciplined before or found to be untruthful in court, before using them as witnesses.
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley (left) talks with Milwaukee County District Attorney Kent Lovern (right) and Milwaukee County chief judge Carl Ashley (middle) at the Milwaukee County Courthouse Complex and Public Safety Building in Milwaukee on Feb. 3, 2025. (Mike De Sisti / Milwaukee Journal)
In Milwaukee County, the district attorney’s office relies on police agencies to self-report internal violations. Lovern defended the practice, saying the local agencies are “very direct with us.”
But that approach leaves gaps.
Out of 23 law enforcement agencies in Milwaukee County, only seven provided a written policy detailing how they handle Brady material in response to a records request sent in November.
The Milwaukee Police Department and eight other agencies in the county do not have a written policy, and the other agencies did not respond or the request remains pending.
Regardless, prosecutors have a constitutional requirement to find and disclose potential Brady material, whether the records are located in their office or at another agency, said Moran, the law professor.
“Prosecutors still have the ultimate obligation for setting up information-sharing systems,” she said.
Sometimes, officers slip through the cracks.
Before Frank Williams landed on the Brady list, the Milwaukee police officer had a history of misconduct allegations dating back to 2017. He had been investigated for excessive force, improperly turning off his body camera and interfering with investigations into his relatives, according to internal affairs records.
Milwaukee police officer Frank Williams appears at the Milwaukee County Courthouse in February 2024. He was charged with child abuse, later pleaded guilty to lesser charges of disorderly conduct and was forced to resign. (Courtesy of TMJ4 News)
His harshest punishment, a 30-day suspension in 2021, was for an integrity violation after he falsely reported he had stayed at home on a sick day when he instead played in a basketball tournament.
But Williams was not added to the Brady list until last year, when prosecutors charged him with child abuse. He later pleaded guilty to lesser charges of disorderly conduct and was forced to resign. Attempts to reach Williams and his attorney by phone and email were not successful.
When asked why Williams was not placed on the list earlier, Lovern said the Milwaukee Police Department did refer Williams for Brady list consideration in May 2021 after the integrity violation, and Williams should have been added then.
Lovern said he should have forwarded Williams’ information to a staff member to include him in the database. He found no record that he actually did.
As a result, Lovern’s office is now contacting anybody who was convicted in cases where Williams was a named witness in the three-year period he should have been in the database.
Officials with the State Public Defender’s Office said they appreciated Lovern’s decision, but said the case shows what can happen when a Brady list is incomplete.
“The ability to question those witnesses against our client and their credibility is fundamental,” said Bridget Krause, trial division director for the State Public Defender’s Office.
If the information is not disclosed, it can have devastating consequences.
“You can’t go back and unring some bells,” Krause said. “Somebody who served 18 months in prison and now you’re finding out this could have impacted their case, they can’t not serve that time.”
Criminal defense attorneys who regularly practice in Milwaukee County say they rarely receive disclosures about officers’ credibility.
One said he had been practicing for nearly 20 years and had never received one. Another said the district attorney’s office practices amounted to a policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell.”
Johnson, a manager for the state public defender’s office in Milwaukee, has practiced in the county for 10 years and tried numerous criminal cases.
She said she’s received two Brady disclosures related to officers’ credibility.
Both came this year.
About this project
This is the first installment in “Duty to Disclose,” an ongoing investigation by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, TMJ4 and Wisconsin Watch into the Milwaukee County district attorney’s “Brady list,” a list of law enforcement officers deemed by the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office to have credibility issues. The office publicly released the list in full for the first time in late 2024 after pressure from the news organizations.
Journal Sentinel investigative reporter Ashley Luthern, TMJ4 investigative reporter Ben Jordan and Wisconsin Watch investigative reporter Mario Koran spent five months verifying information of the nearly 200 officers on the list, discovering that it is frequently incomplete and inconsistent.
Readers with questions or tips about the Brady list can contact the Journal Sentinel’s investigative team at wisconsininvestigates@gannett.com.
Project credits
Reporters: Ashley Luthern (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel), Ben Jordan (WTMJ-TV), Mario Koran (Wisconsin Watch)
Contributing reporter: Dave Biscobing (ABC15)
Photos and video: Bill Schulz, Sherman Williams (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
Graphics and illustrations: Khushboo Rathore, Andrew Mulhearn (Wisconsin Watch)
Editors: Daphne Chen (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel), Tim Vetscher (WTMJ-TV), Nicole Buckley (WTMJ-TV), Jim Malewitz (Wisconsin Watch)
Digital design and production: Spencer Holladay (USA TODAY Network), Ridah Syed (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
Copy editing: Ray Hollnagel (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
For more than 25 years, the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office has maintained a list of law enforcement officers who have been accused of dishonesty, bias or crimes.
Often known as the “Brady list,” it is meant to help prosecutors fulfill their legal obligation to turn over evidence that could help defendants.
The Brady list is a compilation of law enforcement officials who have been accused of lying, breaking the law, or acting in a way that erodes their credibility to be a witness. It’s also sometimes known as the do-not-call list or the Brady/Giglio list.
The name comes from the 1963 U.S. Supreme Court case Brady v. Maryland, which ruled that prosecutors cannot withhold material that might help the defense at trial.
What kind of behavior gets you on the Brady List?
(Andrew Mulhearn for Wisconsin Watch)
The type of misconduct that can land a law enforcement officer on the Brady list is broad, ranging from violent crimes to workplace issues. An officer does not have to be found guilty of a crime or even charged with a crime to be placed on the list.
Of the names on Milwaukee County’s Brady list, the majority involve criminal cases. Roughly a quarter involve internal investigations.
The offenses range from crimes like domestic violence or drunken driving to integrity issues like falsifying police documents or cheating on police training tests.
How does the District Attorney’s Office find out about potential Brady material?
The District Attorney’s Office is responsible for prosecuting crimes. If a law enforcement officer is referred for potential criminal charges, prosecutors would know about it because they make charging decisions.
But if an officer is facing an internal violation and not a criminal charge, it is up to the officer’s law enforcement agency to report the information to prosecutors, according to Milwaukee County District Attorney Kent Lovern.
Do police agencies have written policies for telling prosecutors about Brady material?
Not all of them.
The media organizations sent records requests to 23 law enforcement agencies in the county asking for any policies governing how to handle Brady material.
The Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office and six other agencies provided a written policy. The Milwaukee Police Department and eight other agencies in the county said they do not have a written policy.
The remaining agencies did not respond or the request remains pending.
If an officer is on the Brady list, does that mean they can’t testify?
No. Being placed on the list only means that prosecutors have to disclose that officer’s history to the defense. If defense attorneys wish, they can raise the officer’s credibility issues with the judge.
At that point, it is up to the judge to decide whether or not the officer is credible enough to testify.
In rare cases, the district attorney’s office has determined an officer could never be relied upon to testify. Lovern said that has only happened two or three times in the past 18 years, and those officers are no longer employed as law enforcement.
If an officer is put on the Brady list, can they stay on the force?
Yes. Just because a law enforcement officer is on the list does not mean they are necessarily prohibited from testifying. That means they can still be useful as police officers, officials say.
Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman and Milwaukee County Sheriff Denita Ball say they carefully consider the facts and severity of each case before deciding whether to keep an officer on the force.
Where can I find Wisconsin’s Brady list?
In Wisconsin, there is no single Brady list. District attorney’s offices in each county are responsible for maintaining their own lists.
Nearly 200 current and former law enforcement officers are on the list, which dates back about 25 years. Some are accused of multiple offenses. Of those on the list, the majority are from the Milwaukee Police Department, but nearly every suburban police department is represented.
A Madison City Schools bus driver in Alabama was arrested after allegedly engaging in sexual acts with a student under 19 years old, reported AL News.
Police stated that 24-year-old Azaria Ashford of nearby Huntsville was arrested last Friday and charged with one count of school employee engaging in a sex act with a student under the age of 19.
According to the news report, the district received information regarding the incident on Feb. 11 that Ashford allegedly exchanged inappropriate messages with several students. The school district quickly placed her on administrative leave and reported the allegations to the Madison Police Department.
The police department conducted a subsequent investigation, which resulted in the arrest of Ashford. She is no longer employed by the Madison City Schools.
Ashford was reportedly booked into the Madison County jail pending bond. The investigation is ongoing.
Protesters march in Milwaukee calling for more community control of the police. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
What has become of the city of Milwaukee’s Fire and Police Commission (FPC) since the passage of Act 12, which traded its policy-making powers over the police department for a fiscal deal with the state? That’s the question the Milwaukee Turners’ – described as Milwaukee’s oldest civic group – sought to answer with hard data.
From June to December 2024, the Turners’ “Confronting Mass Incarceration team” monitored the FPC – itself one of the nation’s oldest civilian-led oversight bodies for police and fire departments. The team monitored the FPC’s meetings, who attended, what attendees did, and how commissioners engaged in the meetings. A white paper published earlier this month, detailing the team’s findings, noted among other things that:
The FPC spent 81% of its time discussing personnel matters, and often discussed these during closed sessions which the public cannot view. The Turners noted 359 minutes were spent discussing personnel matters, whereas just 49 minutes were spent on public comment.
The Turners noticed what they described in the white paper as “an overall lack of active engagement and participation from commissioners.”
Law enforcement personnel attended FPC meetings more frequently than members of the general public. During the monitoring period, 30 police personnel attended meetings whereas 20 members of the public attended. Of those members of the public who attended the meetings, half engaged in public comment and of those, only three received a direct response from commissioners.
The report states the FPC “appears to serve as a rubber stamp” and that the commission “has failed to secure public trust.” Dr. Emily Sterk, a research and advocacy associate with Milwaukee Turners who worked on the project, explained why the numbers looked the way they do. While citizens can discuss whatever they want during public comment, commissioners can’t discuss anything that isn’t on the agenda due to open meetings laws. “So therefore they just have this practice to, you know, have public comment but then not even address the public that is there,” Sterk told Wisconsin Examiner.
While she understands the legal reason for this practice, Sterk said, “that is, for us, subjectively very troubling when a member of the public makes the time and effort to get themselves down there, go to this meeting which – as we alluded to in the white paper – the regular sessions are very frequently heavily delayed because of the closed sessions that are taking place.” As a result, the commission ends up engaging in back-and-forth discussions with city officials and law enforcement more frequently than the public, whose comments may be left unheard.
The Wisconsin Examiner’s Criminal Justice Reporting Project shines a light on incarceration, law enforcement and criminal justice issues with support from the Public Welfare Foundation.
Leon Todd, executive director of the FPC, told Wisconsin Examiner that personnel matters such as promotions, hiring or setting recruitment standards “are extremely important.” Todd added, “I don’t think it is necessarily problematic that the FPC spends a goodly amount of time on that. It is part of their core functions. It’s been part of their core responsibilities for more than 150 years…Since 1885 no person has been appointed or promoted to any position in the police or fire departments without the express approval of the FPC board.”
Yet even this function of the FPC has come under fire. In January, the commission was criticized by conservative elected officials, right-wing media outlets and the Milwaukee Police Association after an officer was denied promotion. WISN12 reported that the FPC considered promotions for seven officers, and only denied officer Jason Daering. A couple of weeks later in early February, the FPC reversed its position and voted to promote Daering to sergeant. Prior to the final vote, FPC co-chair Bree Spencer said that the police department didn’t provide a full file, that Daering did not appear for an interview and was unprepared. “So we really encourage, going forward, that people take this process seriously,” said Spencer.
The commission’s voting record was another issue for the Milwaukee Turners. In their report, the group noted that over its monitoring period last year, the FPC took up 122 agenda items, of which 120 received unanimous approval. Only two agenda items – one involving the promotion of a detective and another concerning reappointing a former police officer – received No votes, with both items receiving two No votes. “Given the current practices of the FPC, including closed sessions and lack of Commissioner participation during regular sessions, the public is left unaware of why these aye or no votes were made,” the report states. “We observed an overall lack of transparency when it comes to Commissioners’ voting records. Even if Commissioners are actively participating in deliberation and debate during closed sessions, the public has no way of knowing this.”
Todd also pushed back against the Milwaukee Turners’ claim that the FPC has become a rubber stamp. Harkening back to the pre-Act 12 era Todd, who was appointed by former mayor Tom Barrett in November 2020, recalled the FPC’s record of pushing for police reform measures “that the [police] department did not agree with.” From a ban on chokeholds and no-knock warrants, to approving a policy of publicly releasing video of incidents like police shootings within 15 days of the incident. Those decisions – made when the FPC was led by Chairman Ed Fallone and Vice Chairwoman Amanda Avalos – were “probably, if not the reason, a big reason why the Legislature took away [FPC’s] policy-making authority, because they were acting independently and listening to community members from Milwaukee,” Todd told Wisconsin Examiner.
A Milwaukee police squad in front of the Municipal Court downtown. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)
After the passage of Act 12 in 2023, Fallone and Avalos resigned their positions in protest. Stripping the FPC of its decades-old policy-making powers emerged as a bargaining chip in negotiations between Milwaukee elected officials and the Republican-controlled Legislature. In exchange for targeting the FPC, reversing the Milwaukee Public School district decision to remove school resource officers from its facilities at the request of students and community members, and agreeing to never reduce the police force, the city of Milwaukee was allowed a new sales tax and county was allowed to raise its sales tax, which enabled both governments to avoid a fiscal catastrophe. Act 12’s law enforcement aspects had previously been proposed as bills favored by Republican lawmakers and the Milwaukee Police Association, which failed to pass.
For the FPC, it seems that many roads lead back to the shared revenue and sales tax deal codified by Act 12. In its report, Milwaukee Turners recommended that Act 12 be amended to return the policy-making powers of the FPC. This state-level solution, however, relies on cooperation from the Republican-controlled Legislature which helped craft, negotiate, and implement Act 12.
Protesters gather at the Milwaukee County Courthouse to call for transparency in the death of Breon Green. (Photo | Isiah Holmes)
In the meantime, the Turners recommend that the FPC bring ideas for policy changes to the common council. “We recommend that the FPC dedicate less of their regular sessions to closed door personnel matters, and instead publicly engage in discussions about new and amended [Standard Operating Procedures] that are brought forth by the [Milwaukee Police Department],” the report reads, adding that “the Common Council might actively invite policy recommendations from the FPC, especially as it relates to the concerns of their constituents.”
Todd told Wisconsin Examiner that the commission adopted a new rule requiring that the police department provide copies of any new or amended policies to the FPC within 48 hours, and no less than 30 days before the policies take effect. When that happens, a communication file is created by the FPC which goes into the regular agenda, and thus becomes public. Todd said that so far, the commission has not sent policy recommendations to the common council.
Todd is considering other ways to beef up the FPC’s oversight capacity. Specifically, he wants to encourage a focus on the FPC’s audit unit as a way of being “more proactive” and “not just reactive.” Todd pointed to an audit on police pursuits, and the police department, Todd said, is also looking to create a vehicle pursuit committee. The commission also continues tracking citizen complaints about officer behavior, as well as progress the department makes in eliminating discriminatory stop and frisk practices as part of the Collins settlement agreement. This year, the audit unit is expecting to do six or seven audits which are unrelated to the Collins settlement, said Todd.
Additionally, an ordinance passed in the common council to ensure the elected body is quickly notified of policy changes.
How the commission attracts more members of the public to attend meetings is another issue. Todd acknowledged that there have been fewer citizens attending public comment after the passage of Act 12. “I think that’s unfortunate,” he told Wisconsin Examiner. “I think that we welcome people to come and express their views, their input.”
Milwaukee police officers on the scene of an officer-involved shooting at King Park in 2024. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
The last major policy he could recall passed before Act 12 was the video release policy concerning police shootings and related deaths. Local activists fought for the reform, as did the families of people killed in incidents involving Milwaukee-area police.
Todd said that the FPC still has “soft power” such as through audits, which it can use to influence the police department. “So I’m hoping that we will get more public input going forward,” he said, noting that FPC recently welcomed in a new commissioner, Krissie Fung, from the Milwaukee Turners.
“Our findings highlight the importance of fostering a culture of police and fire accountability within the FPC,” the Turners’ white paper concludes. “By advocating for legislative changes to restore policy making authority, increasing public engagement, and ensuring rigorous Commissioner participation, the FPC can rebuild public confidence and strengthen its capacity to address systemic inequalities in policing.”
“We really hope to continue to provide civilian oversight of the FPC and see what happens over the course of the next few months,” said Sterk, “especially as we continue our lobbying for the amendment of Act 12, as we hope members of the FPC and members of the public do as well.”
This report has been updated to clarify that Act 12 allowed the city to offer a sales tax and the county to raise its sales tax.
A Northeast School Corporation bus driver in Farmersburgh, Indiana, was arrested after he allegedly operated a school bus while intoxicated with students, reported WBIW News.
According to the news report, Ryan Campbell was arrested after a staff member detected what she believed to be alcohol while grabbing an item from Bus #2 around 7:49 a.m. on Feb. 5. The staff member reportedly alerted school officials and authorities were contacted.
Chief Matthew Price of the Northeast School Corporation Police Department said he boarded the bus and immediately noticed Campbell exhibited general indicators of intoxication.
Campbell reportedly failed a field sobriety test. A subsequent chemical testing revealed his blood alcohol content was above the legal limit of .04 percent for commercial drivers.
The Sullivan County Prosecutor’s Office is reportedly reviewing two Level 6 felony charges of neglect of a dependent and operating a vehicle while intoxicated with passengers under the age of 18. The judicial system will evaluate the presented evidence to reach a verdict.
Unless things change soon, it appears unlikely that the city of Milwaukee and Milwaukee Public Schools will meet the Feb. 17 deadline to place at least 25 student resource officers in schools.
Wisconsin Act 12, a law enacted in summer 2023, mandated that police officers be placed in MPS and stipulated that they must first complete 40 hours of training through the National Association of School Resource Officers.
This has yet to happen.
A school resource officer is a law enforcement officer who works full time in collaboration with a school district, according to Act 12.
School resource officers typically carry firearms, according to the National Association of School Resource Officers.
No trainings scheduled
Mo Canady, executive director of the National Association of School Resource Officers, said no Milwaukee Police Department officers have completed or are scheduled to take the weeklong training before Feb. 17.
“We are never going to recommend that an officer start working in a school without first being put through this training,” Canady said. “We’re talking about the most unique assignment in law enforcement: putting men and women in schools and trusting them to do good work with adolescents in the school environment.”
MPD did not confirm its timeline for training or whether it has enough officers who have completed the training in the past.
Even if there were officers with past training, though, that wouldn’t necessarily be the best or safest option, Canady said.
“We don’t have a timeline on when you should retake the training,” but “there have been massive changes” in the past five years, Canady said.
Subjects that have been updated or added include training on how adolescent brains develop, forms of bias and how to understand trauma, he said.
A spokesperson for MPD deferred all questions to the City Attorney’s Office, stating the department is “unaware of the status of the agreement.”
Several attempts to speak with the City Attorney’s Office were unsuccessful as were attempts to speak with every member of the Milwaukee Board of School Directors except one.
Training is the most important concern when it comes to officers in schools for Henry Leonard, Milwaukee Public Schools board director of District 7.
Without this training, Leonard said he fears “a haphazard approach to this and it turns into a disaster.”
Next steps
There are no consequences for having not met the 2024 deadline stipulated by Act 12, according to an analyst with the Wisconsin Legislative Reference Bureau, a nonpartisan agency that provides research and legal services to lawmakers.
An additional hearing has been scheduled if the Feb. 17 deadline is not met.
Jeff Fleming, a spokesman for Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson, said there have been some productive meetings between the city and MPS.
“The Mayor is optimistic the outstanding issues can be resolved,” he wrote in an email to NNS.
How we got here
In 2016, MPS pulled officers from inside its schools and, four years later, ended a contract with MPD for patrols outside its buildings.
Act 12 required the city to beef up its police force by 2034 and ordered officers back into MPS by Jan. 1, 2024. That deadline came and passed as the school district and city jostled over who would pay the estimated $2 million cost to fund the officers.
Pressure to bring officers back into schools picked up after a mother of an MPS student who was bullied sued the city and school district for not meeting Act 12 requirements.
Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge David Borowski decided in favor of the mother, ruling that the city of Milwaukee and MPS are responsible for getting officers in schools by Feb. 17.
Impact on current officer shortage
NNS reported in December about hiring challenges within MPD as the number of new recruits wasn’t enough to offset the retirement and departure of other officers or potentially the new requirements of Act 12.
Leon Todd, executive director of the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission, said officers placed at MPS would come from the current ranks of the MPD, which could stretch the department’s already thin ranks.
“One of our top priorities is to grow the size of MPD, and we obviously want to limit the strain,” Todd said. “While these officers would be placed in MPS and wouldn’t be available to take other calls for service, the number of calls are going to be reduced as they won’t need to respond because they will already have officers in schools.”
According to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article, there were 40,643 calls to police from MPS-associated addresses from 2013 to 2024, although 7% of those calls were during nighttime hours.
The Fire and Police Commission is typically in charge of hiring all new officers. But because the school resource officers are going to be current officers, Todd said, the police chief or the department’s executive command staff will decide who is sent into schools.
Canady emphasized the importance of carefully selecting those officers.
“There should be input from the school community,” Canady said. “These should be officers who are veterans, who have been with the department at least three years, so we know something about their character. They should be officers who have shown sincere interest in working with youth.”
Leaders Igniting Transformation, a youth-led nonprofit in Milwaukee, doesn’t want officers back in schools at all.
“We are angry and terrified at the thought of placing armed police officers back in Milwaukee classrooms, who have shown time and time again that they are unfit to work with students and have no place in our schools,” a recent statement from the group said.
A Tuscaloosa City School bus driver has been arrested after a school bus video footage shows him allegedly assaulting a student with special needs, reported WVTM News.
According to the news report, 74-year-old Samual Jones was taken into custody on Jan. 31 and charged with assault/willful abuse of a child, after a review of school bus footage revealed an incident in which Jones is seen assaulting a student.
The incident reportedly occurred on Jan. 29, when Jones stopped the bus and hit a 17-year-old student. Police stated via the article that Jones is seen in the footage striking the student multiple times with his belt while she remained in her seat.
The transportation staff immediately notified a school resource officer after watching the footage. The officer reportedly contacted the student’s mother and forwarded the evidence to the police department’s Criminal Investigation Division. A warrant was obtained that day. Jones is no longer employed by the school system.
A 16-year-old student was arrested for reportedly bringing a gun on a school bus, though the teen denies it, reported WTAE News.
The incident occurred Jan. 30, when a Shaler Area School District teen allegedly brough a gun into a school bus.
The Millvale police said officers executed a search warrant at the teen’s home the following day, recovering what were described as items used with a gun.
The boy’s father, whose name was not released, told local news reporters that police searched his son’s room and recovered bullets from a separate incident. He said his son denied that he had a weapon on the bus.
The teen was reportedly expelled from school while police investigate the incident. On Feb. 1, police arrested the teen. According to the Shaler Township Police, the teen has a prior record.
It is unclear if the teen has since been charged with any crime.
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