Deadly Police Encounters in Wisconsin Were Up Last Year

Tuesday, August 27th, 2024 -- 1:01 PM

(Jacob Resneck, Wisconsin Watch) Deadly police encounters in Wisconsin were up last year and are on track this year to exceed the modern record of 26 deaths set in 2017.

According to Jacob Resneck with Wisconsin Watch, the increase comes after Wisconsin Watch and The Badger Project reported two years ago that Wisconsin’s rate of police killings ranked among the lowest in the nation over the past decade.

In the past two years, the rate has risen, particularly compared with neighboring states. There were at least 24 fatal encounters last year, up from 14 the previous year. So far, the number of deaths this year is at least 19, according to a Wisconsin Watch review. That outpaces Illinois, which has more than twice the population. Experts cannot pinpoint one specific cause behind the increase.

Wisconsin Watch conducted its own count of fatal use-of-force incidents because the state Department of Justice’s tracking falls short and is updated only four times a year. The department’s use-of-force tally does not reflect police incidents involving restraints, “non-lethal” force and confrontations that ended in suicide.

Wisconsin Watch also found cases in which law enforcement violated its own de-escalation protocols and resorted to deadly force in ways that experts say contradict long-established best practices, all with little accountability.

In at least one death last year, authorities used a medically discredited condition that still appears in state training materials to justify forcibly restraining someone during a struggle. Tracking every police killing or injury remains difficult, and efforts to tighten oversight and accountability have largely stalled in the state Legislature.

Local district attorneys have determined virtually every police use-of-force case was justified. But the increased frequency of fatal encounters has prompted law enforcement accountability advocates to call for more state oversight.

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