Public Safety and Health Committee Votes to Allow Police to Enforce ‘Safer-at-Home’ Order

The Public Safety and Health Committee for Milwaukee county voted in favor of the ordinance which will allow police officers to write citations and arrest citizens if they violate Wisconsin’s “Safer-at-Home” order. 

The committee held a virtual meeting on April 21 to discuss a new ordinance relating to the enforcement of orders to protect people from Covid-19. Four aldermen voted in favor of the ordinance, and no one objected to it or the amendment submitted by Ald. Chantia Lewis.  (Note: this vote occurred before the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled the state’s Safer-at-Home order was unlawful, striking it down. The City’s own ordinance remains in effect)

The ordinance went into effect on May 2. For people who violate the order, the Milwaukee Police Department officers will first try to educate them on the order and Covid-19, but those who repeatedly refuse to comply may be cited or arrested, according to a MPD press release.

Ald. Mark Borkowski started the meeting by asking Chief of Staff to the Police Chief Nicholas DeSiato why he wanted this ordinance to be put in place and why he wanted it now.

“This is an ordinance that provides another proverbial tool in the toolbelt,” DeSiato said. “It does not affect the range of options for law enforcement for enforcing the ‘Safer-at-Home’ and orders related to Covid-19.”

DeSiato said that there’s a spectrum of options for law enforcement when dealing with non-compliance that ranges from education and the informal piece to the arrest piece and pursuing criminal charges as an unclassified misdemeanor. 

“What this does is allows a middle ground for citations to be issued; we just need to adopt the statute to allow law enforcement to have that option,” DeSiato said. 

DeSiato compared this ordinance to disorderly conduct where law enforcement has the option to either give a warning, write a citation or pursue criminal charges depending on the severity of the case. 

He also said that their public communications office has been reaching out to the community to educate them on the “Safer-at-Home” order and to ask them to comply with social distancing guidelines.  The department wanted to wait a few weeks after the messages were sent out to put the new ordinance into action so that people had a fair warning. 

Ald. Lewis agreed that they have gotten the “Safer-at-Home” message out into the public but said that they could still do a little bit more. 

“We have a warning out, and now the people who just choose to ignore that warning, there should be some level of consequence,” Lewis said.

Lewis used the “Safer-at-Home” order protests in Madison and Brookfield to describe circumstances in which it would be appropriate for law enforcement to make arrests for not complying with the order. 

“If you are deliberately putting people’s lives at risk because you think you’re smarter than the health officials and scientists, then there should be some definite repercussions for you,” Lewis said. 

Recently, in Madison and Brookfield there have been protests against Gov. Tony Evers’ extended “Stay-at-Home” order. Both protests held crowds of about 1,000 people who were mostly not following social distancing guidelines and weren’t cited or arrested. Paul Matson, a protester in Brookfield, told the Journal Sentinel that he didn’t need to be locked down because he uses hand sanitizer, wears his mask and washes his hands. 

Lewis said that there is “writing on the wall” that Milwaukee might be the next city in Wisconsin to host a protest. 

“I don’t want us to look like Brookfield, and then the narrative is that they get to do whatever they want but then we are targeting the minority community,” Lewis said. 

Lewis also said that doing things like going over to a family member’s house to check on them while the order is in place is not something that people should not get arrested for; however, police officers should have the ability to take things a step further for people that ignore the order, go out in large groups to protest and put us all in jeopardy. 

Towards the end of the meeting, Borkowski asked DeSiato if he had any comments on the amendment.

DeSiato said that it’s important to communicate that the department is not depreciating the gravity of non-compliance. They aren’t trying to dilute it by just passing out citations, but underscoring that arrest, if appropriate, is on the table now.

None of the other aldermen had any comments or questions about the amendment. 

Ald. Lewis said that she hopes her colleagues support this amendment because it is what’s fair and just. 

Commissioner of the Milwaukee Health Department Dr. Jeanette Kowalik said they are on their sixth week since their first Covid-19 case, and they have been responding as quickly as possible. Then, she thanked law enforcement for taking action to save lives.