A Flock camera outside of Washington Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
The Milwaukee County Board voted to remove Flock cameras from its parks Thursday night. Passed unanimously, the resolution also permits the county to replace the controversial cameras with more conventional security cameras. It’s not clear how the new cameras would be paid for.
Supv. Justin Bielinski, who authored the resolution, said he’s excited to remove Flock cameras from Milwaukee County parks. The cameras must be removed by the end of the year.
Flock cameras are equipped with AI-powered automatic license plate reader technology. When a car passes in view, the camera takes a picture of the car and its license plate. The images are then stored in a database which can be searched at will by law enforcement agencies with their own Flock contracts. The searches can be done without a warrant, and allow officers to enter a license plate or vehicle description to determine where a vehicle has been.
Law enforcement agencies say the cameras are invaluable tools for detecting and stopping crime. Numerous law enforcement agencies in Milwaukee County use Flock including the Milwaukee Police Department and the sheriff’s office. In a presentation to a county board committee earlier this week, the sheriff’s office credited the cameras with contributing to a 43% decline in certain crimes around county parks between 2023 and 2026.
Privacy advocates, concerned citizens and elected officials have increasingly soured on the cameras. Cases of officers using the cameras to surveil protesters, pursue women suspected of seeking out-of-state abortions and keeping tabs on current or estranged romantic partners have made national news. In Wisconsin, three police officers and one sheriff’s deputy in Milwaukee, Menasha and Kenosha counties have faced charges of misconduct in public office due to their use of Flock to unlawfully monitor people.
Milwaukee County Executive and Democratic candidate for governor David Crowley proposed removing funding for Flock in the 2027 budget.
The sheriff’s office said that without a replacement technology, crime would increase in the 11 parks where the cameras have been installed. It’s estimated that replacing the cameras could cost as much as $140,000. In 2025, the Examiner found that at least 221 Wisconsin law enforcement agencies used Flock during that year. Several communities around the state have removed their Flock cameras since then.
A Flock camera outside of Washington Park in Milwaukee, WI. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
A committee of the Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors voted on Tuesday to advance a resolution to remove Flock automatic license plate reader cameras from county park property. The unanimous vote, made in the committee on parks and culture, comes as Flock cameras have grown increasingly unpopular around Wisconsin. The resolution will be taken up for a full county board vote on Oct. 1.
Flock cameras capture images of vehicles and their license plates passing within their view on roadways. The images are stored by the AI-powered cameras, allowing police to enter specific license plates or vehicle descriptions to determine where a vehicle has been. A single search can span hundreds, or even tens of thousands of cameras across Flock’s network.
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.
“With great power comes great responsibility,” said Supv. Justin Bielinski in a statement. “Big tech have proven themselves time and again to be ill-suited to this responsibility. It is critical that we as elected officials ensure whatever technology is being used in our name respects civil liberties — for everyone.”
Supv. Juan Miguel Martinez told the Wisconsin Examiner that “the entire community needs to be worried about Flock.” Martinez called Flock “surveillance” and “technology that’s not fully fleshed out yet.”
Thousands of law enforcement agencies across the country use Flock, including both the Milwaukee Police Department and the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office. Police leaders often tout the cameras as useful in developing leads for serious crimes such as assault, homicide, carjacking and kidnapping. In 2025, the Examiner found that at least 221 Wisconsin law enforcement agencies used Flock during that year.
Privacy advocates and concerned citizens fear Flock is a kind of perpetual and warrantless surveillance. There have also been numerous cases nationwide of officers using the cameras unlawfully to monitor current or estranged romantic partners. Wisconsin has seen four such cases in Menasha, Kenosha County, and two in the city of Milwaukee. In each of those cases officers or deputies were charged with misconduct in public office.
The Menasha officer, Cristian Morales, was sentenced to six months in jail in August. In Milwaukee, officer Josue Ayala was given probation in lieu of jail time. The cases involving Kenosha County deputy Frank McGrath and Milwaukee detective Tehrangi Chapman are ongoing. Chapman worked in internal affairs, and was involved in investigating Ayala’s unlawful use of Flock before his own alleged misuse was reported to the department. Morales, Ayala, and McGrath were all accused of using Flock to monitor current or former girlfriends. Chapman used the cameras to monitor someone he had been watching for years before Milwaukee adopted Flock.
Some have also expressed concerns the cameras could be used to surveil protesters and for immigration enforcement. Reviews of Flock audit data have found immigration-related searches around the country, indicating that local and state law enforcement have conducted Flock searches on behalf of federal immigration enforcement. A deputy in Texas was also found to have used Flock to track down a woman in an abortion-related prosecution. Numerous communities across Wisconsin have canceled their Flock contracts, or worked to disable their cameras.
A Flock camera outside of Washington Park in Milwaukee, WI. (Photo by Isiah Holmes/Wisconsin Examiner)
Martinez also pointed to a case where Flock was used to track and intercept a man who was traveling to a neighboring state to purchase cannabis, and false alerts where people were flagged by Flock as being connected to crimes that they didn’t commit.
In a PowerPoint presentation provided to Milwaukee board members, the sheriff’s office said that there has been a 20-25% reduction in crime in areas with the cameras. Another slide in the presentation states that there has been a 43% decrease in certain crimes from 2023 to 2026 since the cameras were installed in county parks. The PowerPoint presentation did not present evidence that the correlation was directly due to the installation of Flock cameras.
One slide asserts that “crime WILL increase,” “deterrence costs less than investigation,” and that “slower investigations delayed justice for victims.” The PowerPoint also states that data collected by Flock cameras used by the sheriff’s office is only retained for seven days, and that a 48-hour retention limit is being considered.
The PowerPoint claims that the sheriff’s office owns the data collected by Flock in its jurisdiction, that it is never shared or sold, that uses related to immigration enforcement or reproductive healthcare are prohibited, and that the sheriff’s office does not subscribe to statewide or national lookups. It also asserts that although Flock does create heat maps based on the vehicle data it collects, that this is not the same as tracking people. “They show density — how often data appears in an area,” the presentation states. The sheriff’s PowerPoint also asserts that automatic license plate reader technology does not violate the Fourth Amendment.
A police officer uses the Flock Safety license plate reader system. (Photo courtesy of Flock Safety)
Martinez expressed doubt about how the sheriff uses Flock, and whether federal agencies can access the data. Besides the Flock removal, the committee also took up a resolution to establish requirements for reporting law enforcement staging in county parks, which also passed the committee. This would build on other efforts the county board has made to prohibit immigration enforcement from staging in the parks.
“They nabbed like five Latino people that were hanging out down by the lagoon out of nowhere,” Martinez told the Examiner. “And that’s why I have a very personal stake in it, because we had just passed that — that they’re not allowed to stage in the parks. And then I went down there, I went down there with ordinance in hand, saying you’re not allowed to be in the park, and they were gone by that time. You know, ICE moves very quickly,” Martinez said. He said he wonders whether police surveillance including Flock could be involved in the efficiency of immigration arrests in the city.
“I don’t have any choice but to trust them,” he told the Examiner. “Of course we’re going to be suspicious, and of course we want to push against it every step of the way.”
The Milwaukee Police Department told NNS it is looking to the future with its policy on generative artificial intelligence, or AI. The department is not currently using the technology, but that could change.
One potential law enforcement use of generative AI is helping officers write police reports.
Some civil rights advocates and defense attorneys say using this type of emerging technology could create problems for Milwaukeeans accused of crimes.
“You have this risk of errors and hallucinations and bias that we see a lot of large language models have, whether it’s a transcription error or if it’s a bias that’s baked into the training data sets,” said Amanda Merkwae, policy and advocacy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin.
Among other requirements are that AI-generated material should be considered a draft and reviewed for accuracy.
Department members should also indicate in the final work product that AI was used.
An MPD spokesperson said its Generative Artificial Intelligence Committee has met to consider a variety of AI products but is still evaluating the utility, cost, accountability and effect that those products may have on the department’s work product.
“Any onboarding of an AI product is only in the consideration phase, so have we given it thought? Yes. Are we anywhere close to implementing that (technology)? No,” the spokesperson said.
What happens at the DA’s office?
Prosecutors in the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office have considered what the use of AI technology could mean for criminal cases.
Jeffrey Altenburg, chief deputy district attorney for Milwaukee County, acknowledged risks associated with generative AI but said it could be useful with sufficient human oversight.
“It can be a helpful tool as long as it’s overseen and regulated by actual humans making actual observations and making sure that what is generated is consistent with what was intended to be,” he said.
Deputy District Attorney Matthew Torbenson said prosecutors are not expecting AI-generated reports to capture everything an officer observes.
He gave the example of a child neglect investigation, during which observations — including what a home looks and smells like, whether there is a bug infestation, whether food is available — would have to come from police officers.
“All of that has to come from the impressions of the officers that are on scene,” Torbenson said.
The what ifs
Merkwae said there are concerns about the use of generative AI that should not be ignored.
What happens, for example, if an officer’s testimony later conflicts with an AI-assisted police report?
The error could stem from AI, she said, but it could also raise questions about an officer’s credibility.
“If it was a human-written report and there’s that type of contradiction that can rise to the level of a potential dishonest statement — that could land a prosecutor putting a police officer on the Brady list,” Merkwae said.
The Brady list refers to prosecutors’ records that identify law enforcement officers whose credibility issues may have to be disclosed to defendants.
Connor Romenesko, a forensic science practice coordinator with the Wisconsin State Public Defenders Office, said AI-generated reports could create serious problems without any malice or ill intent on the part of police or prosecutors.
There could be a situation, he said, where an officer is rushed at the end of a shift and fails to adequately review an AI-generated report, and a prosecutor uses that information to charge someone.
Since David Crowley became Milwaukee County executive, the number of juvenile homicide victims in the county has ranged between 19 and 27 annually, with no clear trend upward or downward.
Crowley, who was sworn in in May 2020, is the Democratic nominee for Wisconsin governor in the Nov. 3 election.
Here are the number of Milwaukee County homicide victims ages 6-17:
On Aug. 28, Milwaukee County Judge David Borowski, during a hearing for a defendant charged with triple homicide, learned the defendant had used a county jail-issued tablet to discuss threatening witnesses.
Borowski revoked the defendant’s tablet access and ordered him confined to his cell around the clock. The judge also pointed to two other recent instances in which tablets and laptops had been used in ways detrimental to personal and public safety.
“Why is the sheriff’s department handing laptops or iPads to defendants?” Borowski asked.
The comments soon went viral, picked up by candidates, public relations firms and political influencers. Few explained why tablets and laptops exist in correctional facilities, how common they are across the country or what actually happened in the security lapse. Instead, a nuanced issue was reduced to a single alarming anecdote.
The sheriff’s office would later note that it does not hand out iPads, but rather “pre-programmed devices with limited capabilities.”
Tablets have been used in jails and prisons nationally for well over a decade. They are now used in 48 state prison systems, the Federal Bureau of Prisons and numerous county jails throughout Wisconsin. They were introduced to help incarcerated people communicate with loved ones and access educational programming. Yes, the companies that provide them also profited from poor, disproportionately Black and brown families in the process. See Worth Rises for more information on this issue.
This is how the model works in Milwaukee County: Incarcerated users and their families pay the cost, not taxpayers. Over time, better vendors entered the market, prices dropped and some services became free. What has never changed is that these tablets do not provide internet access. They operate on a controlled intranet system. These cost and access dynamics are why tablets were requested in the first place.
Correctional officials have credited tablets with reducing violence and disturbances inside correctional facilities. Some jurisdictions have reported declines of up to 40%, and the director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons described the agency’s tablet program as reducing administrative burdens and allowing staff to focus more on institutional safety, not as a security risk it was forced to accept.
This is not a partisan issue. Some of the nation’s most conservative states have rolled out tablets to every person in custody, regardless of charges or convictions. Sheriffs, who as a group tend to skew conservative, have widely approved their use because those who actually work with incarcerated people understand the benefits they provide.
Responding to the misuse of a few by eliminating a beneficial service for everyone mistakes the appearance of action for the work of actually solving the problem.
Tablets do not inherently create greater opportunities for witness intimidation. They simply create a more visible story when they happen to be the tool used. If tablets disappeared tomorrow, people could still call home, write letters or find other ways to intimidate witnesses.
We do not even know the full story of how this breach occurred.
But tablet security features are more than capable of preventing situations like it. A more useful conversation would focus on identifying and closing the security gap that allowed it.
While I was incarcerated, I had access to a tablet during the final two years of my 17-year sentence. The growth, efficiency and preparation for the real world it gave me as a writer, student, researcher and future employee were light-years beyond what I achieved during the previous 15 years.
Most people do not realize that 90% to 95% of incarcerated people will eventually return home. The only question is who we want them to be when they do.
The nonprofit I founded while incarcerated, The Community, publishes rehabilitative videos, newsletters and podcast episodes that reach more than one million incarcerated people each month through these tablets. The positive feedback and outcomes have been considerable.
But what technology builds, fear can still take away.
I once tried to pay for the language-learning software Rosetta Stone so people inside could learn Spanish. Instead, all of the existing language tapes and CDs were removed because someone unfamiliar with the fact that they had been available for years worried that people might learn another language to plan something illegal.
That episode illustrates how easily a single anecdote — or even a hypothetical possibility — can define the entire conversation, producing a hammer where a screwdriver would do.
As a national advocate for criminal legal system reform, I have many concerns about tablets in jails and prisons, so I do not defend them uncritically. But many outlets covering this incident stopped at the sensational headline instead of doing the reporting the story required. Political candidates and influencers with their own agendas were then given free rein to use the incident as content.
Half a story, told quickly and left uncorrected, leaves the public further from understanding a system it pays dearly for every day.
Wisconsin deserves a justice system more worthy of that name. This episode demonstrates how far we remain from that goal — but also that we know exactly how to get there, if decision-makers take the problem seriously.
Shannon Ross is the founder of The Community and a founding member of the Justice Forward Wisconsin coalition, which prepares incarcerated people for healthier futures, creates opportunities for them and their loved ones and advocates for positive systems change for everyone impacted by the criminal legal system.
Editor’s note: This column was updated to correctly describe the facility where the defendant accused of using a tablet to intimidate witnesses was held.
Guest commentaries reflect the views of their authors and are independent of the nonpartisan, in-depth reporting produced by Wisconsin Watch’s newsroom staff. Want to join the Wisconversion? See our guidelines for submissions.
Milwaukee County sales and property taxes have increased under County Executive David Crowley.
The Democratic nominee in the Nov. 3 election for governor takes credit for “the largest property tax cut” in the county’s history.
That occurred after Act 12, a bipartisan state law, allowed local leaders to raise Milwaukee city and county sales taxes and provided local governments in Wisconsin more state aid.
The law was largely aimed at helping the Milwaukee governments avert financial crises.
Crowley signed the near-doubling of the county sales tax, to 0.9% from 0.5%, after the Milwaukee County Board approved it.
Property tax levies have increased under Crowley, who took office in May 2020, though not as much as the state average (2.6% from 2020 to 2023):
2020: $304.8 million
2021: $310.3 million (1.8% increase)
2022: $313.8 million (1.1%)
2023: $292.3 million (-6.9%)
2024: $299.6 million (2.5%)
2025: $309.9 million (3.4%)
This Fact Brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Although the Milwaukee Police Department halted its use of facial recognition technology in February, there are still cases being prosecuted in Milwaukee County in which the technology was used at some point in the investigation.
This means concerns about the technology – and the potential errors it can introduce – still remain, community members told NNS.
Facial recognition technology uses artificial intelligence to identify someone by comparing a photo of an unknown face to a database of images of known faces.
“The reliability of these systems is certainly in question, and particularly the disproportionate risk of inaccuracy when identifying non-white faces,” said Amanda Merkwae, policy and advocacy director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin.
Questions also remain about whether defendants and their lawyers have always been told when facial recognition technology played a role in an investigation.
MPD and facial recognition
In April 2025, the Milwaukee Police Department acknowledged it had, for two to three years, used other agencies’ licenses to obtain facial recognition search results without having a written department policy governing the practice.
At the same time, MPD was considering expanding its access to facial recognition technology through an agreement with the company Biometrica.
Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman announced in February that MPD would prohibit its members from using facial recognition technology and would not consider acquiring the technology until after the department develops a policy with the Fire and Police Commission.
However, the moratorium did not eliminate the technology from criminal cases in which it had already been used.
MPD did not respond to questions about its policies and practices relating to disclosing the use of facial recognition to the DA’s office.
What happens at the DA’s office?
Milwaukee County District Attorney Kent Lovern said his office treats facial recognition technology as an investigative lead.
“It is not, in and of itself, probable cause,” Lovern said. “It’s not, in and of itself, the sole basis for gaining a search warrant.”
Lovern said information his office receives about the use of facial recognition in an investigation gets turned over to the defense as part of the case file.
Deputy District Attorney Matthew Torbenson described a 2021 home invasion and sexual assault case prosecuted by the DA’s office in which another law enforcement agency used facial recognition technology to develop about five potential suspects from surveillance footage.
Investigators pursued these leads and focused on one person based on additional evidence, including an identification by his former spouse.
The five individuals who it came back with as a potential match were all turned over to the defense, Torbenson said.
Torbenson said the potential errors would be more concerning if just facial recognition were being used to directly identify a suspect.
“That is not at all how we’re using it,” he said.
Technology creates challenges
Connor Romenesko, a forensic science practice coordinator with the Wisconsin State Public Defenders Office, said defense attorneys can obtain the image submitted for a facial recognition search and some information about the software used but may not have the information needed to evaluate the system as a whole.
“The biggest concern I have with these services is that they’re provided by private companies who don’t necessarily provide information about how these systems are trained,” Romenesko said.
This can make challenging a facial recognition result “extremely difficult,” he said.
Federal research has found that facial recognition systems can have higher false-positive rates for some racial and ethnic groups, including Black, Asian and American Indian people.
‘Still a big unknown’
Another question is whether prosecutors and defendants have always been told when MPD used facial recognition technology.
The ACLU of Wisconsin reviewed police reports from more than a dozen cases MPD had identified as examples of facial recognition use.
“In many of those cases, there was just no mention of (facial recognition technology) use at all,” Merkwae said.
She said it still isn’t known how many total cases in recent years – or ever – MPD used facial recognition technology in any step of an investigation.
“And of that total – was that information turned over to the defendant in discovery if that person was charged?” Merkwae asked. “I think that’s still a big unknown.”
Romenesko said facial recognition information is sometimes included in initial discovery but sometimes must be requested from law enforcement or prosecutors.
Public defenders are trained to spot vague language such as “investigative lead” that can indicate facial recognition technology was used, Romenesko said.
“Our lawyers are all trained, so that if they see that language, they’re going to go up to kind of alert to the fact that maybe this hasn’t been disclosed up front, which we also see in some cases,” he said.
Jeffrey Altenburg, Milwaukee County’s chief deputy district attorney, said there are instances in which leads or suspects developed early in an investigation are not initially shared with prosecutors.
“However, once those leads are corroborated using standard investigative techniques, those details are included in the reports that are provided to our office and turned over to the defendant if they are criminally charged,” Altenburg said.
Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley gave final approval to a 2022 contract requested by the Sheriff’s Office and approved by the Board of Supervisors that provides communication tablets to county jail and House of Correction inmates.
Crowley, the Democratic candidate for governor, also approved a three-year extension in 2025.
Generally all inmates can access tablets, which can be used for text messages. People who want to message with inmates must create an account.
The tablets cannot access the internet. They can access the contractor’s “intranet,” which includes entertainment and educational material.
The goal is to help inmates “stay connected to family, loved ones, and legal and support services,” the county executive’s office said.
The tablets became an issue in the gubernatorial campaign after a judge Aug. 28 raised questions about their use for witness intimidation, victim harassment and child pornography access.
This Fact Brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
Milwaukee County Legislative Information Center: File 21-1004
Milwaukee County Legislative Information Center: File 250222
A man who was being held at the Milwaukee County Jail is disputing the account from the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office about the events leading up to the in-custody death last week of Kourtney Edwards, a 45-year-old Milwaukee man.
Alex Williams, 33, said officials at the jail ignored initial pleas to help Edwards.
He said he heard people in a nearby holding cell banging on the door and yelling through a slot that someone was vomiting, wasn’t doing well and needed help.
“Those calls went ignored for a while,” Williams said, estimating that they lasted several minutes.
Do you have information to about Edwards’ death or about the conditions inside Milwaukee County Jail?
Williams said officers eventually removed the man from the holding cell and began walking him toward the nurses’ station. He said Edwards made it about halfway there before appearing to have a seizure and collapsing. Williams said he was foaming at the mouth.
“He was not assessed by nurses until he was passed out on the ground,” Williams said. “I wouldn’t even call that an assessment. That was them trying to save his life.”
Williams said he arrived at the jail around 2 p.m. Monday, Aug. 17, and remained in the booking area until early Wednesday morning. He said he was still going through the booking process when Edwards became ill Tuesday morning.
Timeline from sheriff’s office
Rooms line the booking area at the Milwaukee County Jail. (Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service)
The account from the sheriff’s office previously reported by NNS stated that Edwards was brought to the jail the morning of Tuesday, Aug. 18, had been initially medically cleared and was awaiting a secondary screening when he reported vomiting and feeling ill shortly before 8:30 a.m.
Nurses then assessed him and determined he needed to be taken to a hospital. While an ambulance crew and two deputies prepared to transport the man to the hospital, he experienced a medical emergency.
He lost his pulse and stopped breathing.
Emergency personnel attempted life-saving measures, but he was pronounced dead at 9:30 a.m.
A representative from the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office told NNS Tuesday that it would “be a while” before the cause and manner of Edwards’ death was determined.
Concerns about in-jail deaths
Alan Chavoya, treasurer and organizer for the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, said Williams’ account reaffirms concerns he already had about Edwards’ death.
“It’s deeply upsetting and infuriating if he was able to be assisted sooner – if that would have saved his life,” Chavoya said. “Could this have been prevented? It seems like yes.”
The sheriff’s office told NNS Friday that it had no comment beyond saying that it is an active, ongoing investigation and that questions should be directed to the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Office, which is conducting the investigation.
The Waukesha County Sheriff’s Office has not responded to a request for comment.
Williams also said the man’s death took place amid overcrowding, booking delays and repeated instances in which staff failed to promptly respond to requests for assistance.
He described the cells as hot, with little or no airflow, and said people repeatedly yelled through slots in the cell doors that they needed water or to use the bathroom.
“It was often ignored,” Williams said.
He said the jail was overcrowded.
His holding cell was marked for 12 people but held between 13 and 20 people at different points, he said. Williams said the overcrowding made the toilet difficult to access because people were sleeping or standing around it.
Williams also described significant booking delays, made worse because there was no third-shift booking staff Monday night.
He said his bail was posted at 6:30 a.m. Tuesday, but that he was not booked into the system until about 2:30 p.m. that day and was not released until around 1 a.m. Wednesday.
Nothing changed after death
Jail safety advocate Omar Flores confronts Milwaukee County Sheriff Denita Ball outside an event at the Milwaukee Press Club in April 2023. Flores and other organizers with the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression have pushed for greater transparency following deaths at the Milwaukee County Jail. (Devin Blake / Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service)
Williams said he noticed no real changes after Edwards died during the time he spent in custody until he was released. He said officers still sometimes ignored pleas for assistance.
Williams believes the conditions at the jail contributed to the man’s death.
“They should take every call for help seriously,” he said.
Chavoya said the allegations from Williams fit what he sees as a broader pattern at the jail, including neglect and perhaps abuse “of the people who are supposed to be, as we’re reminded, under their care.”
Chavoya said he wants investigators to determine what happened and for the sheriff’s office to release video of the incident.
Last Friday, a spokesperson for the Office of Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley told NNS in a written statement that the incident doesn’t raise concerns about medical care at the jail.
“The jail’s medical staff and Milwaukee Fire Department EMS performed lifesaving measures, but, despite best efforts, the individual died,” the spokesperson for Crowley’s office said.
When NNS reached out with Williams’ account, a spokesperson for Crowley’s office said that the initial report from the sheriff’s office of the incident did not indicate cause for immediate concern.
“The matter is now under review by the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Office,” the spokesperson said.
Williams said he is worried about potential retaliation for speaking publicly about what he witnessed but believes coming forward is important.
He said he wants “to model morals, bravery and humanitarianism” for his family.
Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.
Local jail reform advocates say they have serious concerns about the death of a 45-year-old man in custody at the Milwaukee County Jail on Aug. 18.
Many of their concerns are not new.
“It’s a very painful sort of flashback of the different cases we’ve encountered where people are in for a bit, or for a duration of time … and assistance isn’t provided,” said Alan Chavoya, treasurer and organizer with the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression.
The alliance is a Black and brown-led grassroots organization that says it aims “to end police crimes, advance community control of policing, and build collective power.”
According to the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office, deputies picked up the man from the West Allis Police Department at 4:25 a.m. Aug. 18 and brought him to the Milwaukee County Jail.
During the booking process, Wellpath nursing staff medically cleared him, although a secondary medical screening remained pending. Shortly before 8:30 a.m., the man told jail staff he had vomited and did not feel good.
Nurses assessed him and determined he needed transportation to a hospital.
While an ambulance crew and two deputies prepared to transport him, the man experienced a medical emergency, lost his pulse and stopped breathing.
Emergency crews and Milwaukee Fire Department first responders attempted lifesaving measures, but officials pronounced him dead at 9:30 a.m.
“The timeline just seems very, very odd,” Chavoya said. “How is it that people are approved or like given the green light to be administered into the jail, and then less than a couple of hours later, the person is vomiting? Where was the failure there?”
Chavoya said the initial medical screening by Wellpath, the jail’s contracted health care provider, also raises questions.
“We’ve had our eye on Wellpath for quite some time, and it’s not just a Milwaukee issue – it’s a nationwide issue,” he said.
Robert Thibault, vice president of Prison Action Milwaukee, an advocacy and support group for people affected by the criminal justice system, and a member of the Sheriff’s Community Advisory Board, shared some of Chavoya’s concerns.
“Did everybody do everything they possibly could have? Was everything done that could have possibly been done in a reasonable time?” Thibault asked.
He pointed to an independent audit completed in 2024 that identified deficiencies in several areas, including mental health services, suicide prevention and staffing.
Thibault said he recently toured the jail and saw improvements compared with several years ago.
NNS contacted the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office but did not immediately receive a response.
County Executive David Crowley’s office responds
In a written statement to NNS, a spokesperson for the Office of County Executive David Crowley said the office is confident that everything possible was done for this man.
“The cause of death is still under review by the Medical Examiner’s Office, but this incident doesn’t raise concerns about medical care at the jail,” the statement read. “The jail’s medical staff and Milwaukee Fire Department EMS performed lifesaving measures, but despite best efforts, the individual died.”
Milwaukee County Supervisor Justin Bielinski, chair of the County Board’s Judiciary, Law Enforcement and General Services Committee, said he spoke with jail officials about the death, but the investigation will ultimately make clear what happened.
As the investigation proceeds, Chavoya said he wants accountability and concrete steps to prevent another death in custody.
“Maybe you can’t give us everything, but, at least, get some public trust again by explaining what the steps you are taking to ensure this doesn’t happen again,” he said.
What happens next
Bielinski said he expects the investigation, being conducted by the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Office, to take several months. Meanwhile, he said he is exploring changes that could identify medical emergencies sooner.
Bielinski said his focus after incidents like this is to figure out “how can we improve process.”
Specifically, Bielinski wants the county to explore providing wearable health monitors to people awaiting booking.
The devices could track measures such as pulse and blood oxygen levels and then alert staff to a medical emergency sooner. He said he asked Wellpath to explore a pilot program for the use of such devices.
“We just give ourselves the chance to get ahead of whatever medical emergency might be happening sooner,” Bielinski said.
The city of Milwaukee is currently the only city with its own sales tax of 2%. Both the 0.9% county rate and 2% city rate went into effect Jan. 1, 2024.
This story is part ofThe uprising in Sherman Park: 10 years later, a Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service series examining resilience, collective action and ongoing efforts to address the inequities that sparked a pivotal moment in Milwaukee’s history.
Milwaukee County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson-Bovell remembers hearing the pain of community members who felt unheard and disenfranchised during the Sherman Park uprising of 2016.
The unrest occurred after Milwaukee Police Officer Dominique Heaggan-Brown shot and killed 23-year-old Sylville Smith. Heaggan-Brown was acquitted of Smith’s killing but was later sentenced to prison on unrelated sex crimes charges. His death sparked days of protest in Sherman Park, with clashes between residents and police and significant damage to property.
“I think a lot of it had to do with the community’s relationship to public safety, but also the historic disinvestment,” said Nicholson-Bovell, who was a new county supervisor representing parts of Sherman Park in District 10 at the time.
Milwaukee’s manufacturing industry once supported good-paying jobs for Black residents, said U.S. Rep. Gwen Moore. But when many of those family-sustaining jobs vanished, residents faced structural inequalities that impact maternal health outcomes, incarceration rates and poverty and unemployment, she said.
“Years of facing disinvestment and these challenges cultivated tensions that reached a breaking point after Sylville Smith’s death,” Moore said.
In the aftermath of the uprising, many government leaders, community members and philanthropists shared an interest in addressing longstanding systemic issues that contributed to the summer’s tensions.
Ten years later, those investments have led to some changes, although it’s unclear how many Sherman Park residents directly benefited.
Home renovations
An investment of $4.5 million in state funding to improve housing stock and employment opportunities in Sherman Park and Milwaukee was announced a few weeks after the uprising bythen-Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele.
The initiative promised $1.5 millionfor employment programs, $2 million to help the city demolish and renovatetax-foreclosed properties and $1 million in Wisconsin Fast Forward grants awarded to Milwaukee businesses and nonprofits for job training.
With $1 million, the city launched the Milwaukee Employment/Renovation Initiative, or MERI. The program helped six developers purchase distressed tax-foreclosed homes for $1 and receive grants of $10,000 per property to rehabilitate them to go back on the market.
A house in Sherman Park completed through the Milwaukee Employment/Renovation Initiative. (NNS file photo)
The developers eventually renovated and sold 104 homes, 81 in the greater Sherman Park area, with most projects wrapped up by mid-2019, according to a presentation to a Common Council committee at the time. Additional private donations and funding led to a $7.9 million total investment in the properties.
Each property renovation had to employ at least one worker certified in the city’s Residents Preference Program for unemployed, underemployed or low-income workers. A total of 33,000 hours were logged by Residents Preference Program workers.
Jim Gaillard, vice president of Ezekiel Community Development Corp., said the initiative fit naturally with the nonprofit’s model of training chronically unemployed people, minority contractors or those impacted by the justice system to develop skills in the construction trades while rehabbing homes. The nonprofit, also known as Ezekiel HOPE, works to sell the properties to first-time homeowners.
“We needed to show some people that they could do more than what they thought they could do, so it gave people hope,” Gaillard said.
From left, Don Utech, former Mayor Tom Barrett, Jim Gaillard and Jeff Fleming stand outside 2946 N. 46th St., a property Ezekiel Community Development Corp. acquired through the Milwaukee Employment/Renovation Initiative program in August 2017. (Jabril Faraj / Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service)
The city later launched another round of funding, dubbed MERI 2.0, that was open to a wider boundary of tax-foreclosed properties.
Lafayette Crump, commissioner of the Department of City Development, said both iterations helped shape the Homes MKE program, under Mayor Cavalier Johnson’s administration, which has fully renovated 77 homes with 20 more properties still in progress.
“It’s really a great example of how strategic public investment could improve property values, return homes to the tax rolls but also strengthen neighborhood stability by moving more of these properties back into productive use,” Crump said.
Ezekiel renovated five homes through MERI, three during the second phase and three in Homes MKE.
“I think the other big thing is that it opened people’s eyes to what can be done if you put a concentrated effort together,” Gaillard said.
Reasons for Hope MKE Fund
A large crowd gathers on West Auer Avenue where Sylville Smith was shot and killed by Milwaukee police in 2016. (Jabril Faraj / Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service)
Darlene C. Russell, director of community engagement for the Greater Milwaukee Foundation,remembers the period of unrest as a painful and emotional time.
“I also remember neighbors checking on one another, community leaders stepping forward and residents asking what they could do to help,” she said.
That spirit of community care inspired the Greater Milwaukee Foundation to launch Reasons for Hope MKE with $200,000 in initial funding. The micro-grant fund is designed to provide immediate and flexible support for community-led efforts throughout the city, Russell said.
Over the last 10 years, the fund awarded 312 grants totaling over $2 million.
While Sherman Park was central to its creation, the fund is open to grassroots organizations throughout the city for neighborhood-strengthening initiatives such as youth and arts programming, community events and leadership development, according to Russell.
“It was never intended to be a quick fix to systemic issues. Instead, it was designed to invest in trusted neighborhood leaders already doing the work,” Russell said.
Residents from a variety of neighborhoods serve on the fund’s Community Advisory Council and receive training on grant administration. The current 13-member council reviews Reasons for Hope MKE grant applications and makes funding recommendations.
Community members have donated $146,800 to the Reasons for Hope MKE Fund in addition to institutional funding.
This year, the fund has supported Sherman Park through grants for activities like community gardening and wellness programming with Iwigara Holistic Hub in the 2800 block of North 35th Street and the UpStart Kitchen Food Crawl with PRISM Economic Development Corp.
Other projects
A view of the northwest part of the Sherman Park neighborhood on Aug. 6, 2026. (Jonathan Aguilar / Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service / CatchLight Local)
The BMO bank branch, O’Reilly Auto Parts, Jet Beauty Supply and a former BP gas station, which were damaged or destroyed during the uprising, were rebuilt. The BP gas station is now a Citgo.
Other investments supported the Sherman Phoenix Marketplace development, the county park and other initiatives.
The city provided $225,000 for the Sherman Phoenix Tax Incremental District. Moore and Sen. Tammy Baldwin advocated for federal funds for the neighborhood, including a $750,000 grant to the Wisconsin Women’s Business Initiative Corp. to support the Sherman Phoenix and neighborhood entrepreneurs.
Milwaukee County received a $250,000 Community Development Investment Grant in 2018 from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. to support construction costs of the entrepreneurial hub, according to Nicholson-Bovell.
Milwaukee County funded $2.3 million in heating, ventilating and air conditioning system upgrades for the Mary Ryan Boys & Girls Club at Sherman Park in 2016.
More recently, Nicholson-Bovell and the County Board helped leverage nearly a million dollars of American Rescue Plan Act funding to build public and private partnerships to support a multimillion-dollar revitalization of the park.Improvements included a new splash pad, improved lighting and pathways, resurfaced athletic spaces and more.
“When you go into Sherman Park today, it looks a lot different than it did 10 years ago,” Nicholson-Bovell said. “It feels more open, more airy, it’s better lit.”
Reflections
Looking back, Crump said he’s glad there was political will at local and higher levels of government to make some determinations after the Sherman Park uprising, and later in 2020 and 2021 after the COVID pandemic and death of George Floyd prompted similar conversations.
“But it’s unfortunate that it takes those major incidents that draw a lot of attention in order to make those things happen,” he said.
Going forward, Mabel Lamb, who became executive director of the Sherman Park Community Association in 2018, said she would like to see even more investment in the neighborhood’s housing stock, upgrades for businesses and the community as a whole.
As their work continues, Moore, Crump and Nicholson-Bovell plan to keep listening to residents.
“My constituents didn’t want just jobs, but an opportunity to have a voice in their community and to feel respected,” Moore said. “There is still so much work to do.”
Russell said after 15 years with the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, she’s learned that hope is not simply an idea.
“It is something you can witness. It is something you can nurture. It is something you can invest in,” she said.
Black men and boys lock arms at a rally in Milwaukee’s Sherman Park neighborhood a month after the uprising in 2016. (Jabril Faraj / Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service)
Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.
Every morning, rising senior Chris Hutcherson takes two Milwaukee County Transit System buses to get to Audubon Technology and Communication Center on Milwaukee’s South Side.
Hutcherson said he doesn’t mind his daily commute on MCTS, except when the buses are delayed. If his bus hits traffic, he sometimes misses his transfer.
“Then the 57 don’t come for like a good, good 20 minutes,” Hutcherson said.
Hutcherson is one of about a fifth of Milwaukee Public Schools high schoolers who district officials say ride MCTS buses to school. The district is now deciding on whether to send more students on county buses as part of a transportation system overhaul.
To hit its transportation budget for the year that began in July 2026, MPS needs to cut roughly $3.5 million, according to figures the administration presented to the school board in June.
MPS Senior Director of Transportation Services David Fifarek said the district will not implement most changes until the 2027-28 school year, to allow for community engagement and to determine which recommendations are most practical.
Betting on the bus
Hutcherson tracks county buses on Google Maps, which he said is the most reliable of the apps he’s tried, though it isn’t foolproof.
“I was actively watching that app on my phone, and I remember getting on the bus, and it’s saying that it didn’t leave,” Hutcherson said.
MCTS buses are on time 80% of the time, which, by its definition, is within one minute before or five minutes after the scheduled departure time, according to transit officials.
Fifarek said students who live more than seven miles from their high school are assigned to MCTS, while those within seven miles typically ride a yellow bus.
“You can’t have a yellow bus running effectively more than seven miles from starting point to destination without having to run at least an hour long to do it,” Fifarek said.
MCTS buses will likely be most effective for students in high-density areas who can take a bus to school with no transfers, Fifarek said. It also alleviates some safety concerns because students are quickly on and off the bus without having to get off the bus and wait for another one to connect them to school.
He said things get tricky when students live on the opposite side of town and children have to transfer buses in an area that is unfamiliar to them.
Fifarek described a “tug of war” between MCTS covering more of the city with county buses and running them often enough so riders aren’t stranded waiting for a transfer.
MCTS is weighing that very dilemma as the agency begins its own overhaul of the county bus system to provide efficient service amid a looming budget deficit.
For the next 12 to 15 months, a spokesperson said MCTS will engage with stakeholders including MPS as part of the MCTS Forward system redesign.
MCTS has already made tough decisions to recover from a $14 million deficit, reducing frequency on routes like Hutcherson’s 57, and running the 55, the main line for commuting Reagan High School students, during peak hours. Midday service has since returned for the 55.
Fifarek said the district’s future plans will largely depend on how MCTS will change its coverage and ride frequency in the next year.
“If that coverage model changes, then we’re going to have to pivot and then reinstate some yellow buses or some other form of transportation to replace the void that might be created by the county transit system,” Fifarek said.
On July 15, MCTS proposed cutting bus service by 25% in 2027 to address the deficit.
Chronically late
Perry Perkins, a student at Lynde and Harry Bradley Technology and Trade School, was one of five students who said buses to Milwaukee Public Schools are routinely late in the morning. (Jonathan Aguilar / Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service / CatchLight Local)
McQuinn Coleman said his yellow bus is late multiple times each school year. When he has too much trouble with the bus, he stays home.
Four other students at Barack Obama School of Career and Technical Education, Lynde and Harry Bradley Technology and Trade School and Milwaukee High School of the Arts said their buses are routinely late in the morning. They sometimes take MCTS buses as a result.
A district-commissioned analysis by 4MATIV presented at the June board meeting found that 73% of trackable bus trips to MPS are on time. But, looking at all trips, including about a third that have no GPS data, less than half of MPS bus trips could be confirmed as arriving on schedule.
Coleman said he dealt with so many transportation issues that he lost a credit and had to take summer school.
‘On point ever since’
One day, Coleman said he got robbed as he left summer school.
He said he doesn’t feel safe waiting at stops anymore and stays vigilant on his walks to and from the bus.
“I’ve been on point ever since,” Coleman said.
Hutcherson said he generally feels safe taking MCTS buses, but he also makes sure to stay aware of his surroundings.
Other male high school students who spoke to NNS said they feel safe walking to and from their stop and waiting for the bus.
Students like Coleman are the ones School Board Director Darryl Jackson thinks the district should consider when forming a transportation plan.
He said cost saving measures are important, but safety shouldn’t be overlooked in favor of cost.
“Currently, a lot of adults don’t want to walk through certain neighborhoods,” Jackson said. “We got to keep that in mind with having our students walk through certain areas.”
Fifarek said safety is one of the biggest concerns as MPS reviews the recommendations and overhauls the district transportation system.
The report presented to the school board in June estimates $11 million in savings if the district consolidated stops, for example. But Fifarek said implementing such a step by only considering distance could potentially send young children crossing busy streets like Capitol Drive or Fond du Lac Avenue.
“Eleven million dollars of savings in stop consolidation would have to completely wipe out this concept of no cross streets,” Fifarek said. “You might create some safety issues and risks in the process.”
Alex Klaus is the education solutions reporter for Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service and a corps member of Report for America, a national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on under-covered issues and communities. Report for America plays no role in editorial decisions in the NNS newsroom.
Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.
The massive Interstate 94 construction project in Milwaukee County is expected to wrap up in 2033, according to a timeline on the state Department of Transportation’s project page.
Construction began on the I-94 East-West corridor in late 2025, meaning eight years will pass before utility and roadway construction are estimated to end in 2033.
The project covers 3 ½ miles of I-94 between 16th and 70th Streets in Milwaukee County and prompted long-term closures of several roads.
Plans include widening the freeway from three to four lanes in each direction, eliminating left-turn ramps, redesigning the Stadium Interchange and reconstructing aging roads.
Crash rates in the corridor are higher than the statewide average, and 13 bridges do not meet clearance standards, according to the DOT.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
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