When Isthmus in February reported that hidden surveillance cameras were installed at Madison East High School in an attempt to catch a custodian sleeping on the job, the district’s spokesperson said it was an isolated incident.
“The district has not approved the placement of any additional hidden cameras” in other schools, spokesperson Tim LeMonds said at the time. But documents received through an open records request suggest concealed cameras may have also been used at Leopold Elementary to covertly catch an employee suspected of stealing.
The cameras at East were installed in September 2019; they were concealed in hollowed-out smoke detectors and placed in the boys locker room and in a room where students with disabilities received personal care. District officials stopped monitoring the janitor after a couple of weeks but the cameras stayed in place. The district violated its own policy by deploying the hidden cameras without approval from the superintendent.
Attorney Heidi Tepp, director of labor relations, approved the hidden camera installation at East. David Kapp, assistant director of operations, was tasked with reviewing the footage from those cameras. Both have since left the district.
East principal Brendan Kearney learned about the presence of the cameras in January 2021 and called the police. A Zoom call on Jan. 11, 2021, was held for district officials to discuss the issue.
After the call, Kapp sent Tepp an email asking, “Do you have any idea how many times cameras like these have been used — at least that you are aware of? To view staff?”
Tepp responded minutes later: “One was a custodian sleeping at East and another was a guy stealing at Leopold,” she wrote.
Isthmus asked LeMonds if, in fact, hidden cameras had been installed at Leopold. He questioned whether Kapp meant hidden cameras when he wrote “cameras like these.”
“After looking into this, and without the advantage of having a time period to aid in our review, we cannot locate any record or evidence of a ‘hidden camera’ approved for installation at Leopold Elementary School in an attempt to curb theft at the school or for any other purpose,” writes LeMonds in a statement.
The district hired a private law firm to investigate the hidden cameras installed at East. It has refused to release the full findings of the investigation, citing attorney-client privilege. However, LeMonds confirms that the scope of the independent review was focused on East.
“The district did not have cause to investigate any alleged approval for the installation of a hidden camera at another school during the investigation at East High School,” says LeMonds.
Isthmus has submitted another open records request for documents about cameras at Leopold.
Meanwhile, the Madison school board is set to ban the use of hidden cameras entirely later this month. School board president Ali Muldrow says they are ending the practice under “any circumstance.”
“It’s damaging to the integrity of our work. It damages the relationships between faculty and the administration,” says Muldrow. “It also creates a potential safety concern for our students.”
A man’s rented room is his castle
Madison resident Doyle “Jay” Reifert was arrested Sept. 27 on tentative charges of first-degree homicide. He is alleged to have shot his roommate Brian Swan. The next day, Reifert was released without charges being filed after Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne found Wisconsin’s Castle Doctrine may apply.
“At this point, the evidence suggests that Mr. Reifert was inside his rented room when [Swan] forcibly and unlawfully entered. While inside of Mr. Reifert’s room, [Swan] allegedly refused to leave and took an aggressive stance towards Mr. Reifert,” Ozanne wrote in a Sept. 29 news release. “The law does not permit me to consider whether Mr. Reifert had an ability to flee or retreat from this situation and I am required to presume Mr. Reifert reasonably believed the force used was necessary.”
The state’s Castle Doctrine — signed into law under Gov. Scott Walker in 2011 — is a legal doctrine intended to provide immunity for people who use force against intruders who illegally enter a dwelling. What’s unique about this case is Reifert and Swan both rented rooms in a single-family home.
Swan’s daughter, Jessica, took to Facebook to express disappointment with Ozanne’s decision.
“They let the man who shot my father multiple times go the day after the murder occurred. The landlord and tenants are deathly afraid of this man who had threatened to shoot them previously. Multiple restraining orders were filed against Doyle who is now on the loose in Madison,” Jessica Swan posted on Oct. 1. “They let a psychopathic murderer out into the public without even a trial and before concluding a murder investigation. Please watch out for this man who believes it’s okay to shoot to kill to resolve conflicts.”
Jessica Swan tells Isthmus that her father was also shot in a common area of the home. The Madison police department won’t confirm that detail because the incident is still under investigation. Ozanne says he hasn’t made a final decision on whether Reifert will face charges.
“I also want to strongly caution all Dane County residents,” Ozanne adds in his statement, “against interpreting this limited decision in Mr. Reifert’s case as a license to use force intended or likely to cause death or great bodily harm against other human beings.”
Senate Republicans slow to act on bipartisan police reforms
A bipartisan effort in the Wisconsin Legislature aimed at combating racial disparities and reforming law enforcement should be an opportunity for Republicans and Democrats to come together and rise above the usual political rancor regularly on display at the state Capitol.
But a package of bills recommended by the Assembly Speaker’s Task Force on Racial Disparities in April doesn’t appear to be a top priority for GOP leadership in the Wisconsin Senate.
“We want to see these bills get across the finish line. They have a broad consensus from a variety of groups that are interested and invested in these issues,” says Jim Palmer, executive director of the state police union. “There just doesn’t seem to me to be a good policy reason or political reason why this shouldn’t get done now.”
The package of bills recommended after months of work from the task force propose funding for body cams for police, extending state whistleblower protections to local law enforcement officers, creating two new community grant programs aimed at violence prevention, setting new statewide guidelines for police departments, including new standards for officer training, and supporting communities who establish crisis response teams to provide mental health services. In short, these bills are police reforms that even the police support.
The task force, created by Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos in August 2020, was announced following the controversial police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha. Rep. Shelia Stubbs (D-Madison) co-chaired the task force with Assembly majority leader Jim Steineke (R-Kaukauna) and the group includes representatives from law enforcement groups, faith-based organizations, and civil rights advocates.
Stubbs says she’d like to see more sweeping reforms to policing in Wisconsin but the task force’s work is “a good start and a step in the right direction.”
“These are bipartisan, framework bills with support from across the state,” says Stubbs. “I’m very confident that the work of this task force will not be done in vain.”
The task force hasn’t been immune to controversy. In February, UpNorth News published emails where Steineke told Vos he’s willing to lead the task force even though it’s “probably a political loser.”
“I truly think if we do this right we have an opportunity to show how [Gov. Tony] Evers could get things done if his admin weren’t so damned political. We could also make some inroads with voters we don’t normally reach,” Steineke wrote Vos on Aug. 27, 2020. “Worse case scenario, we show a willingness to work on these issues and make the Democrats say no to things.”
Republicans in the Senate have been slow to embrace Steineke’s shrewd political calculus. The Assembly has embraced the task force’s work and passed several bills which were recommended. Democrats haven’t stood in the way. A couple of bills supported by the task force have been signed into law by Evers, notably a new statewide use-of-force standard. But the Senate hasn’t even set a date for committee hearings to take up most of the task force bills that have already cleared the Assembly.
Assembly Minority Leader Gordon Hintz (D-Oshkosh) says Vos’ motivation for creating the task force was about creating the perception that Republicans were responding to the nationwide protests against police violence in the summer of 2020 — not enacting policy changes that are widely supported. He says the lack of involvement of Senate Republicans in the task force is evidence that Vos “didn’t really care if the bills reached the governor’s desk.”
“If you’re serious about bills getting passed you work with the Senate, that’s how it works. [Vos] got what he needed out of the task force. Some good headlines that gave the appearance that they were actually doing something,” says Hintz. “A year later, Republicans are back to the Mitch McConnell strategy of rotting out Evers’ four years in office.”
Steineke admits that it has taken a while for the bills recommended by the task force and passed by the Assembly to be taken up by the Senate. But he is predicting the bills will start making their way to Evers’ desk early next year.
“I’m obviously hopeful that it happens sooner rather than later. But I haven’t had any discussions with Senate leadership, as far as the timing of getting the bills to the floor,” says Steineke. “People have their skepticism over whether anything real would come out of [the task force]. I think it’s clear that this process worked in finding common ground from people on different sides of issues.”
That may be true. But Hintz doesn’t think Senate Republicans are willing to play ball.
“They don’t want to give Evers anything, even bipartisan legislation. They just want to wait him out,” says Hintz. “Without the governor, we are Texas or Georgia. That’s just the stalemate we are in right now.”
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