Adam Procell, Milwaukee violence prevention leader, stepping down

MILWAUKEE - Adam Procell, Milwaukee’s violence prevention head, is resigning, reluctantly, after only five months on the job because of what he said is a legal technicality.

Procell's conviction

The backstory:

Procell has been open about his past. He was convicted of homicide at 15 years old, something he said could help him lead Milwaukee's Community Wellness and Safety department.

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"I've had so many individuals that have made mistakes, were formerly incarcerated, that have come up to me, and said, ‘You've given me hope,’" said Procell.

Why the change? 

Dig deeper:

The office used to be a division within the city’s Department of Administration, but the Common Council moved the office to its own standalone department. It was in the 2026 budget, which Mayor Cavalier Johnson vetoed, but the council overrode.

Johnson said the city attorney recently found a problem: Procell’s past conviction made him ineligible to head a city department.

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"As is widely known, Adam Procell has a criminal conviction as part of his history that's actually added to his work and qualifications in the crime prevention field," he said. "As we formally learned this week, the city attorney has concluded that by law, Adam cannot serve as the department director."

Article 13 of the Wisconsin Constitution states: "No person convicted of a felony...shall be eligible to any office of trust, profit or honor in this state unless pardoned of the conviction."

"Total surprise"

What they're saying:

Procell’s departure has led to a flood of reaction from local leaders. 

"If we’re going to stand on words like righteousness and religion and all that stuff, what about redemption and grace? (Procell) is the living embodiment of those things," said Milwaukee Fire Chief Aaron Lipski. "If you spend five minutes talking with him, he bears the weight of what he did wrong at the age of 15, every day of his life, every waking minute, and he has dedicated his life to trying to fix and change and help."

Lipski also had a warning.

"We are losing something here. The city of Milwaukee is losing something today," he said. "It is losing something so great that we don't even know the damage that's going to be caused by this. Adam is irreplaceable."

Ald. Scott Spiker sponsored creating the new department. He said it was to make sure the Common Council would be able to confirm the leader, but the effect it had was a surprise.

"No, it wasn't a glimmer in anybody's brain. Nobody thought of that. Nobody knew there was a legal issue there," he said. "I knew of the article as pertaining to elected officials, such as Judge Dugan, and with respect to police officers, but for Community Wellness and Safety to be impacted was a total surprise."

Milwaukee County’s GOP chairman supports Procell and said he’s saddened, calling it a stupid decision.

Department's future

What's next:

Procell will be on the job for another two weeks.

"I thank the mayor, the city, for the opportunity to be a servant," he said. "I know at the end of the day, god's going to give me another opportunity to continue to serve."

FOX6 News asked if there was a workaround, such as making Procell a deputy so he wouldn’t head the department. Johnson rejected that, saying it would be a demotion.

Could the governor pardon Procell? The mayor said he didn’t think that was a possibility.

The Common Council changing course on its decision to change the office into a department seems unlikely, at least right now.

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