Public safety is Attorney General Josh Kaul’s top priority. He believes we must be proactive in working to keep our communities safe.
Investing in Public Safety
Inadequate
investments in public safety over decades have had an impact on the criminal
justice system. While important investments have been made in recent budgets,
Attorney General Kaul believes continued investment in public safety is
critical. His
Safer Wisconsin plan identifies proposed areas for investment,
including community policing, officer recruitment and retention, crisis
response teams, mental health, and reentry programs.
Firearm Safety
Common-sense
changes to the law can help prevent gun violence. Attorney General Kaul
supports expanding background checks, authorizing judges to issue extreme risk
protection orders to keep guns out of the hands of people who are shown to be
dangerous, and updating state law so that individuals convicted of disorderly
conduct involving domestic violence will subsequently be prohibited from
possessing a firearm.
School Safety
Wisconsin DOJ's Office of School Safety has been proactive in working to keep kids safe in our schools. In September of 2020, that office launched the Speak Up, Speak Out (SUSO) Resource Center, which includes, among other things, a 24/7 threat reporting system. Through that system, thousands of contacts have been received, including tips regarding child abuse, cyberbullying, depression, drugs, weapons, threats of suicide, and concerns of planned school attacks.
In 2024, Gov. Tony Evers signed Assembly Bill 1050 into law, which provides bridge funding for the Office of School Safety to continue its school safety initiatives in Wisconsin through September 2025. This bridge funding will allow the state to potentially provide stable funding for the OSS as part of the 2025-2027 biennial budget. While this bridge funding has allowed OSS to continue its success in keeping students and teachers safe, long-term funding is still needed.
Online Safety
Wisconsin DOJ's Division of Criminal Investigation leads the statewide Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force. That task force provides investigative expertise and works to promote prevention and education.
Wisconsin
DOJ is also working to address the impact of social media on youth mental
health. In October 2023, Wisconsin joined a multistate coalition in
filing a lawsuit against Meta alleging that Meta’s business practices have
harmed and continue to harm the mental and physical health of young people and
that Meta misled the public about the safety of its platforms.
Human Trafficking
In
2020, Attorney General Josh Kaul announced the creation of the Wisconsin
Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force (WAHTTF), a statewide
multidisciplinary task force comprised of federal, state, and tribal
law enforcement and victim service providers dedicated to supporting survivors
of human
trafficking and ensuring that those who commit this crime
face justice. WAHTTF is led by the Wisconsin DOJ’s Division of Criminal
Investigation and Project Respect. The task force is supported by federal grant
funding.
Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women/Relatives Task Force
In July 2020, Attorney General Kaul announced the launch of a task force focusing on the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women. That task force is examining issues associated with this crisis, and its work is ongoing.