1997 Wisconsin Act 176

  Date of enactment: April 27, 1998
1997 Assembly Bill 208   Date of publication*: May 11, 1998

* Section 991.11, Wisconsin Statutes 1995-96: Effective date of acts. “Every act and every portion of an act enacted by the legislature over the governor's partial veto which does not expressly prescribe the time when it takes effect shall take effect on the day after its date of publication as designated" by the secretary of state [the date of publication may not be more than 10 working days after the date of enactment].

1997 WISCONSIN ACT 176

An Act to amend 66.312 (3); and to create 946.66 of the statutes; relating to: false complaints of police misconduct and providing a penalty.

The people of the state of Wisconsin, represented in senate and assembly, do enact as follows:

176,1 Section 1 . 66.312 (3) of the statutes is amended to read:

66.312 (3) Citizen complaint procedure. Each person in charge of a law enforcement agency shall prepare in writing and make available for public scrutiny a specific procedure for processing and resolving a complaint by any person regarding the conduct of a law enforcement officer employed by the agency. The writing prepared under this subsection shall include a conspicuous notification of the prohibition and penalty under s. 946.66.

176,2 Section 2 . 946.66 of the statutes is created to read:

946.66 False complaints of police misconduct. (1) In this section:

(a) “Complaint" means a complaint that is filed as part of a procedure established under s. 66.312 (3).

(b) “Law enforcement officer" has the meaning given in s. 165.85 (2) (c).

(2) Whoever knowingly makes a false complaint regarding the conduct of a law enforcement officer is subject to a Class A forfeiture.