Supervisors Can Create Sheriff Citizen Review Board, But What Power Would It Have?

Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office vehicle in Sherman Park. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

The Milwaukee County Board has received a legal green light from the its attorneys to create a Citizen Review Board (CRB) for the Milwaukee County Sheriff‘s Office (MCSO).

The board would be limited to an advisory role and unable to compel the sheriff’s participation or adoption of any policies, according to Office of Corporation Counsel (OCC) attorney William Davidson.

However, supervisors expressed interest in creating an official body that would provide a conduit between community ideas for the sheriff’s office and elected leaders.

“I understand we’re constantly grappling with this question of what we’re able to enforce upon the sheriff or the sheriff’s office, but I do believe in the power of public input and public recommendation… let’s see what we can make of this citizen review board, because even if we can’t enforce these recommendations on the sheriff, I think it’s important that we’re able to listen to and engage our constituents and hear those recommendations and affirm those recommendations through votes of our county board,” said County Board Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson during a Tuesday meeting of the Committee on Judiciary, Law Enforcement and General Services.

The push for the board began during the 2025 budget process. Sup. Justin Bielinski, chair of the judiciary committee, sponsored an amendment asking OCC to develop a legal opinion on the feasibility of creating a CRB modeled on one established by the La Crosse County Board last year.

La Crosse County officials were similarly constrained by state law in what authority could be delegated to the board. It is a non-binding body that does not have any formal authority over law enforcement in La Crosse County, but does offer a formal venue for interaction between the community, elected officials and law enforcement. Candidates had to apply for a seat on the board.

The La Crosse CRB considers issues related to law enforcement across the county, as opposed to a single agency. Its structure and authority were developed during two years of work by an ad-hoc committee of local law enforcement leaders, subject matter experts, representatives of disproportionately impacted communities, representatives with legal and civil rights expertise and victim advocates, according to a report by OCC.

The resulting La Crosse oversight board was ultimately established as a two-year pilot program, intended to serve as “a respected, trusted, and independent liaison between law enforcement agencies in La Crosse County and the communities they serve,” according to the resolution adopted by the La Crosse County Board.

Milwaukee County would not be able to create anything with the authority approaching the City of Milwaukee’s Fire & Police Commission, which was long regarded as one of the most powerful public safety oversight bodies in the country before Republican state legislators stripped its policy-making authority with the adoption of Act 12, the sales tax law, in 2023.

Bielinski said the county’s attorneys had provided the board with a legal framework for creating a CRB. Anything created by the county, he explained, could serve as “training wheels for, you know,  the time when maybe the legislature is a different ideological makeup, and maybe at the state level there’s some enabling legislation which enables something analogous to the Fire and Police Commission to exist at the county level.”

The sheriff’s authority over the agency is derived from the state constitution.

“Because the Milwaukee County Sheriff remains a Constitutional Officer, OCC continues to believe that a Milwaukee County CRB would lack authority to direct any activities for which the Sheriff is responsible but could nevertheless recommend for the Sheriff’s consideration changes to departmental policies and procedures,” according to the legal opinion from OCC.

Parallel to the board’s push for a CRB, Sheriff Denita Ball is seeking to create a Community Advisory Board, but it would lack the independence supervisors are seeking. The sheriff’s board would be composed of 15 community residents, selected or appointed by the sheriff.

Discussion of a review board comes on the heals of a shocking audit of the county jail after a string of suicides and deaths. The audit found critical gaps in the facility’s suicide prevention policies, inefficient use of mental health resources, insufficient training, understaffing, overcrowding and a lack of internal oversight.

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