This post originally appeared at https://www.badgerinstitute.org/reckless-milwaukee-drivers-pushing-conservatives-out-of-traditional-lane/
Camera culture becoming even more pervasive
Sen. Cory Tomczyk, a Republican from Mosinee, says he fully expects to take criticism from his own party for helping author a bill that would allow Milwaukee police to use cameras to ticket drivers going at least 15 mph over the speed limit or blowing through red lights.
After all, similar bills in the past have gotten scant support from conservatives who are worried about ever-growing government surveillance and about the modern camera culture that seems to document everywhere we drive, eat, drink and sleep.
“As a conservative, having more cameras watching our every move is not ideal,” he told his fellow senators at a recent public hearing on SB375 in Milwaukee. “But, unfortunately, in this modern world, cameras are everywhere. That train has left the station.”
The bill would allow Milwaukee, where reckless driving is rampant, to set up what what amounts to a five-year “pilot program.” Ticket revenue would be used only to implement the program and pay for other traffic-related uses.
Sen. Van Wanggaard of Racine, a former cop who, like Tomczyk, is a member of the Senate Committee on Transportation and Local Government that held the public hearing earlier this month, argued what the city really needs is more police, not cameras.
Wanggaard argued that reckless drivers “are going to continue to drive at 80, 90 miles per hour through the city if there is a camera because they probably have illegal plates, stolen cars, et cetera.”
Snapping a picture “is not going to stop a person unless you get a squad car behind them and get them pulled over,” he said.
Unlike the rest of Wisconsin, Milwaukee County’s traffic is growing deadlier.
The number of traffic fatalities in Milwaukee County, which includes suburbs, was 77 percent higher in 2024 than it was in 2002, increasing from 52 in 2002 to 92 in 2024, data obtained from the Wisconsin Traffic Operations and Safety Laboratory, along with previous analysis by the Wisconsin Policy Forum, shows.
Over the same period, fatalities in all other Wisconsin counties decreased by 36 percent, from 757 to 482, or 275 fewer deaths per year.
Milwaukee leaders, including Mayor Cavalier Johnson, support the bill, and the majority of bill’s sponsors in Madison are also Democrats — some of whom say data is on their side. An Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) study found that cameras reduce fatal crashes stemming from running red lights by 21 percent and the rate of all types of fatal crashes at signalized intersections by 14 percent in large cities.
Tomczyk is not alone on the Republican side. Other Republican sponsors include Sen. Jesse James (Thorpe), Rep. Todd Novak (Dodgeville), Rep. Rob Brooks (Saukville), Rep. Dan Knodl (Germantown) and Rep. Paul Melotik (Grafton).
The debate over traffic cameras sets some traditional conservative tenets — the right to privacy, support for law and order, and local control — at odds with each other. Meanwhile, the proliferation of privately owned cameras, including dashboard cameras, contribute to a shift in thinking among some.
It can’t be known how many people in Milwaukee have dash cams in their private vehicles, for instance, but one — an off-duty police officer — is undoubtedly very happy he did on the morning of Oct. 9 when he was driving to work along Mill Road.
After he was involved in a minor traffic accident, the officer pulled over to the side of the road. The driver who hit him, 26-year-old Elijah Wilks, got out of his car, pulled out a gun and pistol-whipped the officer, according to the dash cam video. The officer pulled out his own weapon and, when Wilks aimed his weapon, fired. Wilks scurried behind his car but didn’t stay there and the officer fired again — killing him.
It’s not unusual to have multiple sources of video nowadays. The Mill Road accident happened on a Thursday, and a YouTube account that weekend posted some other surveillance video from a camera across the street. According to a Fox6 News story, that video was grainy, however, and it was hard to make out what happened. The police department responded by releasing the officer’s dash cam video.
Before the dash cam video in the case was shared with Wilks family, a local TV crew had already done a story quoting friends and relatives who almost immediately gathered at the scene, called Wilks “soft-spoken” and “well-mannered,” and accused police of lying about the incident.
After the dash cam video was released, Wilks family said they believed the officer was justified.
Dash cams are increasingly common all over the country. It’s unclear how many drivers already have one — 10 or 15 percent by some estimates — but roughly a third who plan to buy a new car now want one, according to a 2024 story in Automotive News that cites research by AutoPacific, a research firm.
Stephen Gerring, an attorney in St. Louis, tells the story of a client who was in a multicar pile-up in which drivers had conflicting stories and police reports were inaccurate. Luckily, he told the Badger Institute, his client had a dash cam and was able to secure $145,000 in insurance settlements.
“I think dash cams are great,” he said. “I would tell any client to have one. I would do it myself. I should do it. I think it is good advice to give to people, have a dash cam for situations like that.”
Wanggaard, at the public hearing, expressed concern about the “little guy” paying the price for the cameras. He was presumably alluding to generally law-abiding drivers, the ones with licenses and registrations and insurance, speeding the way most people do occasionally.
A Milwaukee mother, Gloria Shaw, focused on her son, meanwhile. Shaw’s son, 23-year-old Xavier Davis, was hit and killed while crossing the street near the Fiserv Forum in downtown Milwaukee in August 2022. Police said at the time that the driver of a pickup truck ran the red light, hit Davis and took off.
“These cameras may have helped me,” she said at the public hearing. “My case is still unsolved. I have no justice. Nobody saw nothing. Nobody is saying nothing. This could help me. This could have given me a picture of who did it.”
Mike Nichols is the President of the Badger Institute.
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