Sheriff Creates Community Advisory Board

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

Milwaukee County Sheriff Denita Ball announced the members of a new community advisory board for the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) Monday morning.

Ball previously announced plans to assembly a 15-member advisory board composed entirely of community residents selected or appointed by herself. The sheriff will meet monthly with the board, which is intended to facilitate an ongoing dialogue between the sheriff’s office and the community and identify solutions to public safety challenges the community faces, according a statement from the sheriff’s office.

The sheriff announced her board after county Sup. Justin Bielinski began pushing for an independent community oversight board. Bielinski wanted a citizen board that would formalize interaction between the community and the MCSO, and that could produce policy recommendations.

After Ball’s announcement it wasn’t immediately clear whether the two proposed boards would have overlapping, or conflicting, areas of interest and responsibility. Bielinski, who wants a board independent of MCSO influence, was also skeptical that a board hand picked by the sheriff would provide robust feedback or oversight to the agency.

Ball’s new board includes residents representing a wide array of interests, including critics of law enforcement and correctional institutions. Other members come from organizations focused on community violence, voter outreach, community building, social services and education.

Ball appointed six members to the board, including activist Vaun Mayes, Tomika Vukovic of Everybody Votes, former MCSO communications director Faithe Thomas-Colas, Robert Thibault II of Prison Action Milwaukee, former state representative LaKeshia Myers and Bathena Webber, who appears to be an acquaintance of Thomas-Colas.

The rest were chosen by a selection committee that included Thomas-Colas, Darryl Morin of Forward Latino, Adam Procell of Paradigm Shift and Pastor Richard D. Shaw of Milwaukee Innercity Congregations Allied for Hope.

“I’ve been asked, ‘Why appoint any critics to this board’,” Ball said in a statement. “The answer is easy: I wanted people from different walks of life in our county, with a variety of viewpoints, including constructive criticism of the MCSO, as long as they shared two common denominators: a desire to make Milwaukee County safer, and a desire to move our agency and community forward.”

The community oversight board proposed by Bielinski has not yet begun to take shape. It will likely be modeled after a similar board created in LaCrosse County. Though, because of state law, it will not have the power to affect MCSO policy in the event it has policy recommendations. Bielinski wants to secure funding for a board during the upcoming 2026 budget process, he told his colleagues during a June meeting of the Board’s Committee on Judiciary, Law Enforcement and General Services.

Bielinski told Urban Milwaukee he still needs time to review all the details of Ball’s new advisory board.

“More oversight is a good thing,” he said. “However, cutting the board out of the process entirely does not breed confidence in the intentions or the potential of the Sheriff’s advisory committee.”

MCSO Advisory Board

Affiliations are listed as they appeared in a statement from the sheriff’s office.

• Faithe Thomas-Colas, Greater Milwaukee Urban League
• Richard Cesar, Milwaukee Area Technical College
• Alberta Dziadulewicz, Retired
• Travis Landry, Westcare Wisconsin, Inc.
• Renee Logee-Henersky, United Neighborhood Centers of Milwaukee
• Byron Marshall, Self-employed
• Vaun Mayes, ComForce MKE LLC
• Michael McClone-Carriere, Milwaukee School of Engineering
• Eva Roberson, Milwaukee Public Schools
• Anthony Smith, Marcus Performing Arts Center
• Robert Thibault II, Prison Action Milwaukee
• Tiquila Thomas, Safe & Sound
• Tomika Vukovic, Everybody Votes
• Bathena Webber, Retired
• LaKeshia Myers, Educator, former Legislator