Milwaukee 911 investigation record release faces procedural delay

MILWAUKEE - It could be a while before we learn details on the City of Milwaukee's investigation into the mishandling of a 911 call that left a 99-year-old woman waiting two-and-a-half hours for help after she was beaten inside her own home.

Mishandled 911 call

The backstory:

One month has passed since the incident occurred.

Call takers at the city's Department of Emergency Communications passed the 911 calls onto dispatchers as a welfare check, having not spoken to a direct witness to battery themselves. The department announced Wednesday that both call takers resigned. FOX6 News learned their resignations were in lieu of discharge.

We expected to learn details about the city's investigation into the matter. Instead, DEC Director Tony Bueno said he could not release an executive summary on the investigation and couldn't answer many questions.

"I was recently advised by city council and open records that we could not release that as quickly as I would like, due to some procedural issues," Bueno said. "We need to allow the employees involved time to either augment the record or to request that we not release it."

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The Woznicki law

What we know:

The state law Bueno referenced is known as the Woznicki law, which gives public employees rights during open records requests.

The law requires public agencies (the DEC) to notify public employees (the two call takers) when deciding to release certain records, including investigations into disciplinary matters involving them.

Before releasing the records, the agency is supposed to deliver the Woznicki notice to the employee within three days. Once employees receive the notice, they have five days to either augment the record — such as adding to or correcting it. They can also inform the agency of their intent to block the release.

Employees then have an additional five days to file a lawsuit in court against the public agency to block that release, though public records experts said those cases are often dismissed in favor of releasing the records.

FOX6 News has already filed open records requests for the completed investigation and other documents.

Thursday, open records experts expressed mixed views on whether the law is a strong defense for not providing the public with more information.

Tom Kamenick founded the Wisconsin Transparency Project — a law firm dedicated to public records and open meetings laws in Wisconsin. He shared this perspective via email.

"The literal language of 19.356 (the Woznicki law) applies only if the government agency plans to release records in response to a record request," Kamenick wrote. "I would argue they can release information broadly and publicly without first receiving a request without following the 19.356 notification requirements, but I have seen government agencies refuse to do so like this."

Kamenick noted that the law applies to the record and the request, not to broad information.

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What's next:

Meanwhile, Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council President Bill Lueders said withholding the information gives employees a fair shot at correcting the record, if needed.

Sources told FOX6 News that the employees have not received their Woznicki notices, meaning the DEC must wait an additional five days from the day the employees receive the notice to release any records.

Portions of this article were formatted using A.I. FOX6's Sam Kraemer and an editor reviewed it for accuracy and tone prior to publishing.

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