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

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

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

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

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

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

Oconomowoc gun crime claims lack data support

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

Why did Oconomowoc pursue the gear this summer?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Supporters cite mutual aid, 2020 unrest and protests

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Fundraisers ‘freed up’ tax dollars for other needs

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Part of a trend

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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