Milwaukee City Attorney Spencer falsely claims his policy change ended police-involved deaths

Embattled Milwaukee City Attorney Tearman Spencer claimed in a recent forum that a policy change in his office has ended police-involved deaths during his tenure as city attorney.

However, police say they are unaware of any policy change. And, there have been police-involved deaths in the city since he was elected in 2020.

Spencer is running in Tuesday's election for a second, four-year term leading the office that serves as the legal counsel and representative for city departments. That includes representing the Milwaukee Police Department.

Running against him is state Rep. Evan Goyke, D-Milwaukee.

In a forum held by the League of Progressive Seniors last week, Spencer said he came into office with a different mindset about qualified immunity, according to a video of the forum posted to YouTube Thursday. The legal principle protects government officials from civil lawsuits and is frequently raised in cases involving police officers.

Spencer told those assembled that qualified immunity creates a "mindset" wherein "some folks think they can go do whatever they want to and be absolved of their actions. So, we had to bring that back and let them know you will be accountable for your actions.

"And I’m here to tell you, since that policy change, unofficial, has been announced we’ve been in office, we have not had one, not one, loss of life with police encounters with citizens of Milwaukee.

"Now, I will tell you prior to that, we have had one or two every year. But just a fundamental shift in a mentality and philosophy on how we deal with that, making people more aware of the operations, have saved this city a tremendous amount of money, loss of life. How we view and approach our job."

If there was a change in policy, however, police were not notified.

"The Milwaukee Police Department is not aware of any policy change imposed by the city attorney related to qualified immunity," MPD Chief of Staff Heather Hough said in a statement to the Journal Sentinel.

Spencer did not immediately respond to voicemails or an email to his campaign on Friday seeking clarification on the policy change he was referencing and requesting a copy of it.

The Journal Sentinel also requested clarification on his claim regarding the loss of life in police encounters with Milwaukee citizens.

There have been a number of police-involved deaths in the last four years. These include fatal shootings in May 2021, two in September 2022, and two in February 2023, according to a review of Milwaukee Police Department community briefing videos.

There have been additional non-fatal shootings by police during Spencer's four years in office, some of them quite high-profile.

Spencer challenger says he knows of no policy change

Goyke said he is unaware of any change in the qualified immunity policy within City Attorney's Office.

"If this is an official policy, it's not something that's publicly available or readily available to the people of Milwaukee and apparently not to the client," Goyke said, referring to the Milwaukee Police Department.

Qualified immunity is a long-established federal law that protects state and local officials, including law enforcement officers, from individual liability unless the official violated a clearly established constitutional right.

Some states have sought to restrict the application of qualified immunity as a defense in law enforcement cases, but Wisconsin is not one of them.

Goyke said individual litigants can argue with the city over whether the policy should be applied in a particular case. It's an issue the city would handle on a case-by-case basis, he said, and not something "that you can apply a blanket policy to."

Beyond that, Goyke said he thinks Spencer erred when stating that the city has "not had one, not one, loss of life with police encounters with citizens of Milwaukee" since the incumbent made changes to qualified immunity.

Goyke said the city should be working toward that goal of ending police-involved deaths in Milwaukee but that has not yet been achieved. Spencer shouldn't, he said, be making such a claim.

"It just doesn't seem to me to be something that really belongs in a candidate's stump speech or introduction, especially if it's not factually accurate," Goyke said.

Alison Dirr can be reached at adirr@jrn.com.

Contact Daniel Bice at (414) 313-6684 or dbice@jrn.com. Follow him on X at @DanielBice or on Facebook at fb.me/daniel.bice.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Milwaukee city attorney claims his change ended police-involved deaths