FPC audit finds high compliance on key DV investigation tasks but flags documentation gaps

Summary

An FPC audit of Milwaukee Police Department domestic violence calls for 2023 found strong outcomes for probable-cause determinations and documentation of prior incidents but identified administrative and reporting shortfalls, including incomplete dispositions and incomplete Miranda documentation in some arrest reports.

The Fire and Police Commission Oversight and Accountability Committee reviewed an audit of Milwaukee Police Department domestic violence (DV) calls covering Jan. 1–Dec. 31, 2023. FPC Audit Manager Sean Ratclaw presented the audit and said it was a stratified sample drawn from the computer-aided dispatch (CAD) system.

Ratclaw told the committee the audit sampled 61 calls from the larger population of DV calls. Of those, 42 records were confirmed as domestic-violence incidents for purposes of the audit. The audit reviewed CAD entries, body-worn and squad-camera footage, arrest reports where applicable, and incident reports to assess compliance with MPD Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) 114 (Domestic Violence) and related requirements.

Key findings presented to commissioners included: - C-20 disposition (administrative coding that identifies a call as domestic violence) was present in 25 of 42 audited DV incidents (59.22%).…

FPC audit finds high compliance on key DV investigation tasks but flags documentation gaps

Summary

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