As other states look to Wisconsin as a model for improving accountability in officer-involved deaths, a former state legislator who co-sponsored a law requiring independent investigation of those deaths says the Milwaukee Police Department and state Department of Justice didn’t comply following the death of Dontre Hamilton.
"Milwaukee just thinks they’re different from the rest of the state and they just do things their own way, and until somebody makes them accountable for their actions, they’re going to continue," said Garey Bies, a Republican who represented Sister Bay in the Legislature for 30 years. "The citizens of Milwaukee should be insisting that they abide by the law the way the rest of the state has to."
The new law, which took effect in April, requires a team of at least two investigators from an outside agency to lead investigations of officer-involved deaths. It was prompted by three deaths in which officers were exonerated after their actions were evaluated by their own departments: Michael Bell in Kenosha, Paul Heenan in Madison and Derek Williams in Milwaukee.
Via Sponsor: Custody death law not followed in Dontre Hamilton case @ Journal Sentinel Watchdog Update.