Dear Wisconsin Chiefs, Sheriffs and Deputies and the City of Milwaukee,

We, citizens of Wisconsin, respectfully ask you to publicly declare your support for Wisconsin Assembly Bill 409, the Citizens and Law Enforcement Safety Act, in a letter to Representative Chris Taylor and Representative Garey Bies and at lobbying.wisc.gov.

 We do not believe friends and colleagues within the same law enforcement department should ever be allowed to solely investigate or lead an investigation of an incident in which their friends or colleagues are involved in civilian death.      

 We ask for investigations of officer-involved fatalities to be as competent and unbiased as possible, in both reality and appearance. 

We ask that you do everything to ensure that those having the power of life and death in their hands do not misuse that power and this bill is the first step.

Reasons to support AB409:

1.    Michael Bell Jr., Kenosha, WI

2.    Wilbert Javier Prado, Milwaukee, WI

3.    Derek Williams, Milwaukee, WI

4.    Paulie Heenan, Madison, WI

5.    It takes the pressure off of friends within the department or colleagues with conflicts of interest.

6.    It takes the pressure off of sheriffs and chiefs whose careers and lives can be destroyed by choosing to enforce external oversight or choosing to bring in external investigative agencies.

7.    It's shows authentic respect for a family's need to grieve by not making them fight to gain access to the whole truth through unworkable back up systems such as petition for an inquest or John Doe investigation, in the midst of such crippling, irreversible loss.

8.    It will help restore trust in the officer who had no other choice and help you learn from the officer who could be justified but perhaps, shouldn't have pulled the trigger. 

9.    It will help separate those exercising good judgment from those using poor judgment and thus encourage the public to trust that the good or bad behavior of one officer in a department does not represent the whole.

10. It defines common sense.

Please, protect Wisconsin families and law enforcement from bias and the appearance of bias. Come out in public support of AB-409 today.