Sheriff pulls out of DNC because of protests at home

The Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Office will not be contributing to security at the Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee when it is held later this month due to the number of Black Lives Matter protests that already have occurred in the county and the likelihood more will take place.

“There has been an increased need for personnel to respond to protests occurring throughout Ozaukee County with increased frequency,” Ozaukee County Sheriff Jim Johnson wrote to Milwaukee Police Department officials. “An agency emergency event relative to protests exists within Ozaukee County.” 

Johnson had agreed to make available 10 members of the county’s 20-member Multijurisdictional Special Response Team as a quick response reserve unit, he said. The team is made up of members of the Sheriff’s Office and municipal police departments.

“The Multijurisdictional Special Response Team is an integral component of Ozaukee County’s response plan,” Johnson said. “We cannot in the best interests of Ozaukee County public safety commit” the MSRT.

“We are having increased protests at this time. During the DNC there is the possibility that more protests might occur,” he said.

According to news reports, at least 100 law enforcement agencies have withdrawn agreements to send personnel to the convention, many of them doing so because of the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission’s recent directive to Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales to change department policy to discontinue the use of tear gas and pepper spray.

Plans had called for bringing about 1,000 police officers from outside agencies to Milwaukee to shore up security for the convention, to be held Monday, Aug. 17, through Thursday, Aug. 20. 

Johnson said the commission’s decision was secondary to his stated reasons for not sending the MSRT, but added it was a concern because those restrictions make it more difficult to control unruly crowds and increases the likelihood that violence could occur.

“You want to make sure that you have all options available. Using less lethal means in order to provide a safe environment for everyone is part of the use-of-force continuum,” he said. “Without those means, that’s a problem.”

Meanwhile, the number of protests have had an effect on the Sheriff Office’s bottom line.

Sheriff’s personnel put in about 10 times the amount of overtime they normally do in June due to the number of Black Lives Matter-related demonstrations in the county, Johnson told the county Public Safety Committee last month. 

And it continued into July, although final numbers aren’t yet available, Johnson said.

“There have been a lot of extra events where we have been assisting,” Johnson told supervisors.

According to Sheriff’s Office figures submitted to the committee, there were 219 hours of overtime logged as “extra patrol” in June.

Those hours, plus additional demonstrations in July, have cost the department an additional $49,020. 

That compares to 20.75 hours in May and 38 hours in April.

None of those costs will be reimbursed by federal or state sources, he said.

The protests have meant more overtime for police departments, as well.

Port Washington police officers, for instance, racked up $9,161 in overtime manning protests on June 21, July 10 and July 12, Police Chief Kevin Hingiss said. On the fiscal plus side, Ozaukee County Jail revenue from boarding state Department of Corrections inmates has shot up due to the Covid-19 pandemic, as the state tries to avoid introducing the virus into prison populations.

That’s caused the average daily number of state inmates held temporarily at the jail to total 46.3 in April, 53.2 in May and 48.4 in June.

In the previous 10 months, the number being boarded at the jail averaged 36.78.

That has caused county boarding revenue to skyrocket in recent months, to about $85,000 at the end of May, up from about $60,000 when Gov. Tony Evers issued his Safer at Home order near the end of March.

In June, it dropped to $75,000. At the end of April, boarding revenue was about $71,000. 

Since June 2017, only a three-month stretch in the summer of 2018 — when revenue hovered around $71,000 — has boarding income been near that high.

Undersheriff Christy Knowles told supervisors on the county Finance Committee that jail revenue is about $105,000 ahead of budget projections for this time of year.

  Knowles also said the increased number of boarders has not resulted in more overtime for jail deputies because shifts had been adjusted in response to the Covid-19 emergency order.