Recommendations

Recommendation 32

MPD should work with community stakeholders to develop a policy on critical incident information sharing and public release. 

Current:

The department currently does not release any detailed information, including any applicable video, until the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office has reviewed the incident and presented its finding to the department and victim’s family. Every incident is unique and requires weighing the facts to balance the public’s expectation to know with the integrity of the investigation. MPD needs to consider best practice such as San Diego Police Department’s policy regarding the release of video, which was crafted with input from attorneys, community members, elected officials and representatives from civil rights and media organizations. This policy allows for the video to be released as soon as it is appropriate to do so, but not until the district attorney has reviewed the critical incident and presented its findings to the agency involved. They also will not release video if the officer is criminally charged.

Future:

Because the FPC also encompasses the Office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security (OEMHS), the FPC could explore this issue from a broad Emergency Management perspective, investigating best practices for city-wide critical incident response beyond, but including, information release practices by law enforcement.  As the OEMHS conducts background research, community stakeholders could be engaged in the process of developing a plan.