The Battle for Records

Accessing personnel files

To figure out how often officers engage in criminal conduct, the newspaper requested the personnel records — known as hard cards — of the department’s approximately 1,900 sworn members under the state open records law. The Journal Sentinel paid more than $7,500 for access to public police records, which the department took 19 months to provide. READ MORE

Department withholds complaints

In most cases, the Milwaukee Police Department releases only a partial list of complaints against officers, known as a case file history. It does not include all complaints that were filed, but only those complaints that internal investigators ruled deserving of discipline. READ MORE