Milwaukee police union can continue suit over body cam footage policy

MILWAUKEE (CN) — A Milwaukee judge ruled on Friday that a local police union’s lawsuit over a city policy expediting the release of body camera footage from officer-involved critical incidents will proceed, though her ruling gave neither party to the lawsuit what they were after.

In a 14-page decision, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge Brittany Grayson denied the city of Milwaukee’s motion to dismiss the Milwaukee Police Association’s lawsuit over the policy. However, she also denied the union’s request for a declaration that the policy is unlawful because the city did not collectively bargain over it.

Grayson did not buy any of the city’s arguments in support of dismissing the case, feeling that, at this point, the union has sufficiently alleged valid claims such that the lawsuit can move forward.

“The court has considered the legitimate interests of both MPA and the city. The evidence presented by the city establishes that there is considerable public interest in the implementation of [the policy], as it addresses the desire for more transparency and police accountability,” Grayson said.

But the judge also felt the union was not entitled to the declaration it wanted, in part because of the intense public scrutiny on the case and the new policy covering footage of shooting deaths involving police.

"At some point, MPA may be able to establish that the increase in public scrutiny of police and employment stress are legitimate interests that outweigh those of the city,” the judge added, but ultimately determined that right now the union has not shown its interests are greater than the city’s, or that the city was required to bargain over the policy,

Last April Milwaukee’s Fire and Police Commission enacted a new standard operating procedure requiring the public release of body camera footage from officer-involved deaths or other critical incidents within 15 days. The civilian police oversight board’s new policy additionally required that, with some exceptions, victims’ next of kin be allowed to review the footage within 48 hours.

The union — representing roughly 1,400 sworn Milwaukee Police Department officers — sued the city the same the day the new policy was enacted, claiming in part that city officials failed to negotiate as required by the union’s collective bargaining agreement.

Judge Frederick Rosa temporarily blocked the policy from going into effect in May 2023 while the parties litigated. Grayson’s Friday order does nothing about that injunction, so for the moment the policy remains enjoined.

The union’s lawyers have argued that the policy not only rides roughshod over officers’ union rights and imperils officers involved in critical incidents to unfair judgment in the court of public opinion, but that the board’s circumvention of normal policymaking procedures denied officers a full opportunity at the bargaining table.

Attorneys for the board have claimed that the union was given ample opportunities to be heard on the policy, the city is not obligated to bargain over the policy anyway because it does not affect officers’ conditions of employment, and the union is couching general dissatisfaction with the policy in a dispute about the technicalities of bargaining procedure.

Lawyers for the union and the city could not be immediately reached for comment on Friday’s decision.

Court records say the case will be back in Grayson’s court for a status conference on the afternoon of May 16.

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