Programs that manage stubborn problems like mental health and homelessness, with or without police, are spreading across Wisconsin, and the nation. Early results are promising, experts say.
Oak Creek Police officers arrested Christopher Romero Sanchez in 2021 when he was a recruit officer in the city of Milwaukee. The DA declined to charge him, and his law enforcement career has continued.
The force has gone from more than 1,900 officers in 2019 to about 1,600 today.
After three years of progressively higher killings in the city, the number finally fell in 2023, and is on track to drop again this year.
More than 300 active officers in the state were fired or forced out from previous jobs in law enforcement. Here are the departments that employ the most.
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.
An investigation by The Badger Project discovered the names of three Wisconsin police officers among the 38,000 on the leaked list.
Six months into the year, homicides are down about 30% in Milwaukee, mirroring the national decline in homicides and other violent crime following a surge during the COVID-19 pandemic.
As Wisconsin faces affordable housing shortage, campaigning Evers puts $200 million in federal funds toward the problem
More than 500 jail officers have been fired or forced out across the state in past five years, including more than 200 in Milwaukee County. Counties are struggling to fill the lower-paid law enforcement positions.
Experts call it “shenanigans,” “different species of gerrymandering”
The total number of law enforcement officers and the total number of police academy graduates in Wisconsin are both at a ten-year low. Recruiting and retaining officers has become more difficult, making it an employee’s market.
Portraits of voters from Milwaukee, Madison and Eau Claire.
