Freedom Inc.
Black Lives Matter activists painted "DEFUND POLICE" in front of the City County Building this summer and no effort has been made to remove it.
Dr. Shon Barnes was sworn in Feb. 1 at the Madison Municipal Building. As Madison’s new police chief crossed Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard to his office at the City County Building, he must have noticed the feet-high yellow letters that spell out “Defund Police” painted on the pavement by protesters this summer. Barnes says it's “often easy to direct frustration” about the failures of government at law enforcement.
“The priority for government, in general, is to build trust. Every level of government. Police are the most visible form of government,” Barnes tells Isthmus. He admits gaining trust with the entire community will take time. “Trust is like building a sand castle one grain at a time.”
Barnes replaces interim police chief Vic Wahl, who was appointed to the post after former police chief Mike Koval resigned in protest in September 2019. Koval said at the time his sudden departure was prompted by frustration over lack of support from the mayor and city council for the Madison Police Department. He told Isthmus his department was 31 officers short of “appropriate staffing levels.”
“We have scaled back all the community policing stuff, all the educational opportunities, traffic enforcement, gang officers, you name it. We are just trying to continue to survive the calls for service,” said Koval. “I have failed to give my people the necessary bodies for them to do their jobs safely. So I must step aside and I’m hopeful someone else will be able to change the current political landscape.”
Two budgets later, the number of cops at the Madison Police Department — 479 commissioned officers — remains the same. In July 2020, the city’s police union issued a rare vote of no confidence in Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway, with 95 percent of voting members supporting the symbolic measure. The union said the no confidence vote was not made in haste and came after “many months of frustration in the absence of effective leadership from the mayor.” This fall, the council and the mayor approved nearly $500,000 in the 2021 city budget to fund an Independent Police Monitor Position and a new Civilian Oversight Board to add a new level of accountability over the police.
Barnes says an “empirical evaluation” of the department shows “we could use about 10 or 11” additional officers. And more police officers will be needed, he adds, when the town of Madison is annexed in October 2022. “They deserve to have the same level of service as everyone else,” says Barnes. As for trust issues, Barnes says, “I think it's only contentious if there's no trust in what you would do with those officers.”
Barnes frames the perennial debate on whether to fund more officer positions differently from his predecessors.
“I think that if you have a limited view of policing, and you see policing as law enforcement, I would agree, no, we don't need more law enforcement officers,” Barnes explains. “But what I'm talking about is community engagement, problem solving, about officers who are able to work with people suffering mental wellness challenges. So when I think about adding more officers, I think about the ability to add more services to our community. And I don’t think about the law enforcement side.”
Madison City Channel
Police Chief Shon Barnes was sworn-in at the Madison Municipal Building on Feb. 1.
The Madison Police and Fire Commission hired Barnes in December after facing criticism for not including the public during interviews with the four finalists for the job. Barnes was most recently the director of training and professional development for Chicago’s Civilian Office of Police Accountability, a position he held since just August 2020. Before that, he was deputy chief for the Salisbury Police Department and served for two decades with the Greensboro Police Department, both in North Carolina.
Barnes’ tenure in Madison comes in the aftermath of countless protests against police violence in 2020, some that boiled over into lawlessness during several nights of destruction downtown this summer. Especially in late May and June, police used tear gas, pepper spray and impact projectile weapons to respond to windows being smashed and fires being set on the street; Wisconsin National Guard troops were also deployed. A number of city alders condemned what they called “a gross and unnecessary display of force.” A push to outright ban tear gas and pepper spray is still making its way through city committees.
Barnes opposes the effort, but says tear gas should be used sparingly.
“Tear gas is something that I've always believed should only be used as a last resort and to protect people. To protect the lives of people. And it always should be used, just like with any amount of force, it should only be used in a minimum quantity,” says Barnes. “I was always taught that there were two words you never use in policing: always and never.”
As Isthmus reported this summer, activists organizing protests against police violence want Matt Kenny, the Madison police officer who fatally shot 19-year-old Tony Robinson in 2015, to be fired. Just last week, protesters demonstrated in front of the North District Police Station demanding that a criminal investigation against Kenny be reopened. District Attorney Ismael Ozanne declined to press charges against Kenny in 2015 and deemed the officer’s actions lawful.
Barnes tells the State Journal, “It was reviewed by the district attorney, internal affairs, civil rights division, and I think that it would be irresponsible for me to state that I know better than them…. I don't have any recourse or opinion in that matter at this time.”
For years, the city has also been studying whether all police officers should be equipped with body-worn cameras. Barnes says he will defer to the community's decision on that issue.
“I think that if we really want to be a 21st century police department, then body-worn cameras will help us get there…. But I want to be clear that body-worn cameras only capture behavior, it doesn't change it,” says Barnes. “The community should have a say in how they want to be policed.”
The city’s Body-Worn Camera Feasibility Review Committee is recommending a pilot program to equip officers with cameras coupled with a detailed list of procedures. The committee’s final report is up for a vote by the Common Council at its Feb. 2 meeting.
When asked to comment on the city recently banning the department from using facial recognition software (except in cases of human trafficking, child sexual exploitation or missing children), the new chief said all he knew was that the force doesn’t currently use the technology.
Madison’s new chief believes “a cultural shift” in the department can win over activists — and several candidates running for city council this spring — who view law enforcement as an institution that inherently perpetuates white supremacy.
“Policing, as it stands now, needs to take a bigger stand,” says Barnes. “Departments shouldn't be non-racist. They should be anti-racist.”
