ASHWAUBENON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Protesters against racial injustice have called for police reform after George Floyd was killed by a Minneapolis police officer.
The Village of Ashwaubenon’s director of public safety, Brian Uhl, hopes to answer that call with cultural competency training.
Uhl made his case at a Tuesday night finance committee meeting.
“It looks like this is an area that hasn’t been touched on for some time.”
He hopes to send his officers to cultural competency training this summer.
While all of the village’s finance committee members agreed the training is a need
“When you’re talking about training 51 officers it just isn’t cheap to do in person stuff,” Uhl said. He estimates the price tag for the training will top $27,000.
It’s a number a local Black Lives Matter protest organizer Chauncey Hughes tells FOX 11 isn’t worth it.
“The definition of insanity is continuously doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.”
Hughes helped organize one of last week’s Green Bay marches.
“No training will eliminate police brutality. I think they should reallocate the money they were going to spend on the training and put it towards community solutions and community based programs.”
Ultimately the committee decided the money just wasn’t there to send all of the villages public safety officers.
However it did decide to send 12 officers in leadership positions.
“I make a motion to approve leadership from the police department attending a training through NWTC (Northeast Wisconsin Technical College) on one of these three dates this year and ask that the administration look to in person and remote training options for the entire staff on this topic,” concluded Allyson Brunett, a committee member.
Tuesday night’s decision was just a recommendation. The board will then have the final say on whether or not Ashwaubenon Public Safety officers will attend this summer’s cultural competency training.
