WFRV Gov. Evers invests in community safety, allocates funds to local law enforcement

By: Indiana Schilz

Mar 15, 2022

WISCONSIN (WFRV) – Governor Tony Evers announced a more than $50 million investment in community safety on Tuesday, which will include nearly $19 million for local and tribal law enforcement agencies.

According to officials, the investment will add funding to help alleviate the pandemic-related backlog of criminal cases through additional public defender and assistant district attorney support.

“Last October, I was proud to announce a $45 million investment into addressing the cycle of violence and crime that for too long has gone uninterrupted. But I said then and I’ll say it again, today that violence is not a foregone conclusion. It is not inevitable. There is more we can do, and this is another public health crisis that deserves our attention and our action,” said Evers.

The nearly $19 million law enforcement program will provide an allocation to every local and tribal law enforcement agency in Wisconsin.

Officials say this helps enable agencies to address the unique needs facing their communities. Some of those needs include training, recruitment bonuses, community policing, and technology investments.

The determination of an agency’s amount is based on the population served. Evers says there is an included violent crime add-on for locations where violent crime exceeds the statewide average. Local and tribal law enforcement agencies will receive no less than $7,000, regardless of the population served.

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“Today, we’re building on the investments we announced last fall and investing more than $50 million in grants to support local and tribal public safety agencies, to bolster crime prevention strategies, and to help alleviate the pandemic-related backlog of criminal cases across Wisconsin,” said Evers.

Wisconsin already has nine of America’s top 100 safest cities, but Evers’ investment will continue to move Wisconsin cities up on that list.