"It does look bad:" Video shows Kenosha officer's "unjustified" use of force

KENOSHA -- FOX6 News has obtained new video that shows an incident that led to a Kenosha police officer receiving a 60-day suspension. Authorities say it was an unjustified use of force -- and on top of that, the officer's report did not match the video.

Kenosha police say at first, they did not get a citizen complaint about this incident. Instead, they say the investigation started when a supervisor was doing a routine check of dashcam video. He saw something that led him to pull up the incident report.

"It does look bad. The video looks terrible," said Lt. Brad Hetlet of the Kenosha Police Department.

The sight of Officer Peter Bisciglia shoving a man to the ground, his head hitting the pavement, got the attention of Kenosha police supervisors. They were looking for something very different.

"To make sure the microphones are on, the squad videos are working properly. And in doing so, the captain on second shift came across a video he thought needed to be looked into," said Hetlet.

Police went to Westown Foods in Kenosha on January 27th for a shoplifting call. According to the initial report, Bisciglia described the scene as "chaotic" and he "didn't know who was friend or foe."

On the indoor surveillance video, a man with a red hat seems to touch Bisciglia's shoulder to get his attention. The officer responds by knocking his hand away -- and then shoving the man back. Bisciglia does not mention this in his incident report.

"Credibility is everything when you're a police officer. You have to be a credible witness for the state for prosecution purposes and we expect certain things of our officers," said Hetlet.

Bisciglia then shoves another man outside the front door -- knocking him to the sidewalk.

According to the internal investigation documents, Kenosha police brought in an outside use-of-force expert. He described Bisciglia's actions as "unreasonable" and "probably based on emotion rather than sound tactics."

"Most officers do the right things for the right reasons. In this case, we found there were policy violations. He didn't do the right things for the right reasons and he was disciplined for it," said Hetlet.

Bisciglia was suspended in May, but will continue to serve the suspension into next year. That's because his punishment is broken down to six days a month for ten months. Police say that's also to limit the financial hardship on the officer -- and to keep him ineligible for unemployment benefits.