Collins et al. v. The City of Milwaukee et al.

For over a decade, the Milwaukee Police Department pursued an aggressive and unconstitutional policing strategy that promoted large numbers of stops and frisks citywide without probable cause. Between 2007 and 2015, the department nearly tripled its traffic and pedestrian stops, from around 66,000 to around 196,000, predominately stopping Black or Latine people. Collins v. Milwaukee was brought by six individuals who were victims of the City’s unlawful stop-and-frisk program, representing a class of similarly affected people. Each plaintiff, either Black or Latine, was unlawfully stopped or unlawfully stopped and frisked at least once by Milwaukee police officers while engaged in routine activities such as walking home from school and driving home from a relative’s house. The lawsuit claimed violations of the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures, and the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which protect against racial discrimination.

The lawsuit sought to end the Milwaukee Police Department’s practice of conducting stops and frisks without reasonable suspicion and its practice of stopping people based on their race or ethnicity. It also sought reforms that safeguard constitutional rights by promoting bias-free and evidence-based policing, transparency, and police accountability.

In July 2018, the parties reached a Settlement Agreement, which was approved by the plaintiffs, the Common Council of Milwaukee, and Mayor Tom Barrett. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin entered an order adopting the Settlement Agreement on July 23, 2018. The agreement required the Milwaukee Police Department and Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission to:

• Change policies regarding stops and frisks;

• Document every stop and every frisk conducted by officers, including the reason for the encounter and related demographic information, regardless of the outcome;

• Improve training, supervision, and auditing of officers on stop-and-frisk and racial profiling issues, and discipline officers who conduct improper stops or fail to document them;

• Release stop-and-frisk data regularly to the public;

• Expand and improve the process for the public to file complaints against police officers;

• Maintain a committee to seek community input on policing strategies and their impact, and ensure diverse representation on the committee;

• Use an independent consultant to evaluate the city, police department, and the Fire and Police Commission’s progress in implementing reforms and correcting unlawful stops and frisks

• Sufficiently reduce the prevalence of unlawful stops/frisks; and

• Eliminate the racial disparities seen in the stop and frisk data.

As of August 2022, Gilbert Law Group replaced Covington & Burling LLP on the litigation team.

The Settlement Agreement remains in effect and continues to be monitored by Plaintiffs’ counsel. Over the course of each year, the independent consultant issues a few different reports that analyze the City’s compliance with the various requirements of the Agreement. Those reports can be found here. If any member of the public wishes to inform Plaintiffs’ Counsel about something that they feel is relevant to this case, they may contact stopandfrisk@aclu-wi.org.