Two groups of investigative journalists who track police misconduct have filed a lawsuit seeking to force the Wisconsin Department of Justice to disclose the names, birth dates and disciplinary records of every police officer in the state.
The Badger Project and the Invisible Institute filed the lawsuit in Dane County Circuit Court last Thursday after the Justice Department refused to release much of the data, citing officer safety, and rejected the requests as excessive.
Liberal-leaning “independent” newspapers in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin “are trying to sway voters” and “suck away their credibility.”
“The Department of Justice’s denial does not legally trump the strong public policy supporting disclosure,” the journalism groups argue in their lawsuit. “The public has a compelling interest in knowing the identities of government officials authorized to use force, including lethal force, against civilians.”
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul speaks during a campaign rally in Milwaukee on Oct. 27, 2022. Two groups of investigative journalists who track police misconduct have filed a lawsuit seeking to force the Wisconsin Department of Justice to disclose the names, birth dates and disciplinary records of every police officer in the state. (AP Photo/Molly Gash)
Department of Justice spokeswoman Gillian Drummond did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment Wednesday, nor did James Palmer, executive director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, the state’s largest police union.
According to the lawsuit, the groups filed an open records request with the Department of Justice in November, requesting detailed information about each officer, including their full name and date of birth, their title and rank, the name of their current agency, their date of hire, their past work history with law enforcement agencies, and their disciplinary records.
In April, Assistant Attorney General Paul Ferguson of the Justice Department’s Office of Open Government provided a list of employees who had been decertified or fired, or who had resigned in lieu of firing or before internal investigations were completed. He also provided journalism groups with a list of Justice Department special agents, but Ferguson removed all birth dates and titles to prevent identity theft and protect undercover agents.
Ferguson also said in a letter to the groups that the request is overly burdensome because about 16,000 police officers serve in Wisconsin. He wrote that the Justice Department would have to contact each of the state’s roughly 571 law enforcement agencies and ask them to determine what information should be deleted about each employee. He added that the Justice Department does not keep disciplinary records for police officers.
The groups argue that Wisconsin’s open records law presupposes full public access to government records, forcing police officers to waive certain privacy rights and open themselves up to public scrutiny.
The plaintiffs argue that journalists across the country have used similar data to expose officers with criminal records who have taken jobs at other law enforcement agencies, and that the information released by the Wisconsin Department of Justice is insufficient to meet the needs of their organizations and the public.
The groups say police officials have not explained why releasing the information they requested would put officers at risk, and point out they are not seeking officers’ addresses.
While reviewing data for potential deletion may be “labor intensive,” the group argues, the Justice Department is a large agency with hundreds of employees. Because police oversight is so important, the department should be expected to handle a large number of records requests, they say. As for checking with departments about deletion, the department “cannot outsource its own records decisions.”
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The Invisible Institute is a Chicago-based nonprofit journalism production company dedicated to holding public institutions accountable. Earlier this month, the organization won two Pulitzer Prizes: one for a series about missing black girls and women in Chicago and how racism and police response have impacted the issue, and the other for “You Didn’t See Nothin,” a podcast about the ripple effects of a 1997 hate crime on Chicago’s South Side.
The Madison-based Badger Project, which describes itself on its website as a nonpartisan, nonprofit journalism organization, won third place in the Milwaukee Press Club’s online category for best investigative story or series for its series on a Wisconsin police officer who joined the far-right group, the Oath Keepers.
