On Saturday, September 3, 2022, at 1:07am, a woman called the Kenosha non-emergency police line from Wisconsin Dells. She was made aware by her adult daughter’s boyfriend that they got into a verbal fight while at a tavern. They left and she later got out of his car and refused to get back in. The young woman was extremely drunk and insisted on walking home from 75th St. and 22nd Ave. to her house near Durangos on the north side. She was very distraught and at one point was laying down in the middle of busy 22nd Ave. The caller said that this has happened before and her daughter got into a car with a stranger and ended up in Minnesota. The dispatcher then said “sounds impulsive, but she’s an adult. I can’t really do much about that.” The mother asked the dispatcher many times to send the police to check on her daughter. The dispatcher decided not to send a Kenosha Police Officer to look for her stating that it would be hard to find her “wearing all black and it’s dark out.” Her daughter eventually walked from 75th and 22nd to Durangos. This route goes through some sketchy areas of Kenosha, especially for a Saturday night. The dispatcher never sent a KPD Officer so no one ever checked on her. Thank God she got home safely.
After reading many of our articles about the lack of accountability at Joint Services, a relative of the young woman called KCE instead of the agency. The reletive thought he wouldn’t get anywhere knowing all of the bad behavior that’s tolerated at the important agency. We asked for a copy of the call audio. We also suggested that they review the dispatcher’s attitude and behavior while they make us the copy. After a month, we never received the call. They said we couldn’t have it becuase it was “involving a pending investigation.” Joint Services knew that the denial was laughable so they quickly turned it over when we threatened to sue. After listening to the audio, we realized why they didn’t want us to have it.
Here is a small part of the call:
We learned that the dispatcher in question was fired a couple of weeks after we notified Joint Services management. We are not releasing his name.
We asked Kenosha Police for their thoughts on this matter. Lt. Nosalik, the department’s public information officer and internal affairs commander, told us what KPD’s take was on this incident.
“Each agency involved in public safety has very specific roles to play. We depend on each other to do our part. The decision to not send an officer to a call for service to Kenosha Police is made by Kenosha Police supervision. KPD rarely [refuses to] send an officer to a request for service.”
Nosalik also told us that KPD was concerned about the dispatcher’s attitude and decision not to send an officer but did tell us that “I understand the matter was addressed by Joint Services.”
9 Responses
KCE—-Thank you for exposing the crap that goes on in Kenosha!
That’s so lame. Would have taken almost no effort to Simply pass the information on so a dispatcher could have alerted any squads in the area to be on the lookout for a person meeting that description in those areas. Pathetic.?
Glad he was fired
What a frickin idiot.
Exactly why I opposed Joint Services when it first started. No law enforcement supervision.
One bad apple does not reflect all of Kenosha Joint Services Dispatch. Thankfully he was removed from the position.
If mom was so worried why didn’t she go look for her own daughter???? Call family members to help locate the woman… Officer should not have lost his job… Reprimanded yes !!!!!
If you read the article, mom was in Wisconsin Dells. If she were in town she would never have needed to contact police as she would have immediately jumped in the car and gone to the location herself. Ultimately, mom called and woke up a family member at 2:00AM, who went out and located the young woman. Bottom line is that this dispatcher was an asshole to mom, and made a decision (not to dispatch a squad to check her welfare) that wasn’t his decision to make. He got exactly what he deserved.
so sick of the lack of decency in Kenosha–glad that guy was fired.