Milwaukee journalist arrested after photographing squad cars at police lot

Annysa Johnson | Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

A Milwaukee journalist working on a story about police response times was arrested over the weekend after taking photographs of squad cars in a Milwaukee Police Department parking lot.

Edgar Mendez, a reporter with the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service, was issued a $181 ticket for trespassing — but only after being handcuffed, fingerprinted and questioned at the police station at 245 W. Lincoln Ave.

A Police Department spokesman said Wednesday that the no-trespassing signs were clearly marked and that Mendez had no press credentials on him when he was pulled over shortly after noon Sunday after leaving the lot.

But News Service Editor Sharon McGowan said Mendez's treatment appeared excessive and that the agency plans to contest the citation.

"The whole thing was completely unnecessary," said McGowan, who has reached out to the nonprofit Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press for assistance with the case.

"It was unnecessary for him to be handcuffed at the station. He was fingerprinted and interrogated and detained for more than two hours," she said. "I've asked attorneys if that is typical to keep someone for a municipal citation for hours, and the answer was 'no.' "

An MPD media specialist said Mendez's treatment was "typical" for a trespassing charge. He said more detailed information would be made available Thursday.

Mendez said he encountered two officers in the lot, neither of whom mentioned the no-trespassing signs, according to a story on the news service website. Police confirmed that account. And he said he photographed squad cars at District 5 on the east side earlier in the day with no problem.

"An easy and quick Google search would have confirmed that I am a reporter," he said.

Mendez said he was asked what his story was about and that he declined to discuss it, but urged them to call police spokeswoman Sheronda Grant or Assistant Chief Ray Banks, both of whom were aware of the story. He said he was told that police were on heightened security because of the fatal shooting of Officer Michael Michalski.

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A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and Marquette University, Mendez grew up in the south side neighborhood around the station and is relatively well-known there. He has been with the news service since it launched in 2011 and has been honored for his reporting and columns on the inequitable enforcement of marijuana laws, poverty, homelessness and racism.

While the U.S. remains among the safest places is the world to be a journalist, it is becoming increasingly dangerous, as reporters face increased risks of arrest and attack, particularly at protests, according to an April report by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press.

Last year, 33 journalists were arrested — one twice — while doing their jobs, according to the Freedom of the Press Foundation.

It is not the first time a Milwaukee journalist has been arrested on the job.

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reporter Jesse Garza was handcuffed and detained, but not booked, in December 2014 while covering a protest following the fatal shooting of Dontre Hamilton. And former Journal Sentinel photographer Kristyna Wentz-Graff was arrested photographing an Occupy demonstration in 2011. Both were wearing press credentials at the time.