A state lawmaker says it’s crucial that investigators in police shootings are truly independent. State Representative Chris Taylor (D-Madison) authored a bill last session that would have required that the Department of Justice’s investigators have no prior connection with the police departments they’re investigating.
Attorney General Brad Schimel has acknowledged that former Milwaukee police officers, now working for the Division of Criminal Investigation, are investigating the latest fatal officer-involved shooting in Milwaukee.
“Obviously we need to pass that bill, and make sure in every instance that these investigations and the people leading them are truely independent,” said Taylor, one of the authors of the state’s officer-involved shooting law that requires outside, independent investigators of shootings by police.
Taylor first raised the concern following the fatal 2014 shooting of Dontre Hamilton by a Milwaukee police officer, shortly after the legislation became law.