Jeffrey Johnson resigned from the Sawyer County Sheriff’s Office in 2022 after sending sexual images to female jail deputies. He was later hired in the next county over at the Minong Police Department.
With the total number of law enforcement officers in Wisconsin sitting near record lows, the bill aims to ease staffing shortages with grants to help pay for the training of new hires. But it faces an uphill climb.
The total number of law enforcement officers in the state has steadily decreased since the Wisconsin Department of Justice started tracking it in 2008. Efforts to reverse that trend may be working, experts say.
Sheriff’s offices in Waukesha and Milwaukee counties, Milwaukee Police Department employ the most wandering officers as the total number of police statewide continues its long decline.
Nearly 14,500 officers patrolled the state in 2008. Fewer than 13,000 officers were on the streets at the end of 2023, a drop of 11 percent, and another record low.