Milwaukee homicide review team reports progress on domestic violence recommendations, but housing and legal gaps remain

The Homicide Review Commission and city agencies reported progress June 12 on implementing recommendations from a sentinel event review of a fatal intimate-partner violence case, while warning that housing availability and state law may limit how fully the city can respond.

Commission presenter Dr. Connie Kostelec, who led the update, said the domestic violence high-risk team (DVHRT) received funding extensions to staff up to 30 case reviews per week and to continue a position that works with people who cause harm. Kostelec told the Public Safety and Health Committee the governor's office extended grant support through December 2026 and that the DVHRT has reviewed “only two” fatal cases in the team's lifetime, a statistic she said would be summarized in a forthcoming report by Sojourner.

Kostelec said a District 4 co‑response pilot — pairing advocates and multiple system stakeholders at incident scenes — has preliminary positive results but is resource intensive. She also reported that Milwaukee Police Department follow-up calls to victims who initially declined services convert roughly one in four people to accept resources.

Why it matters: Committee members pressed…