Mayor's Office

Earlier this year, hundreds of residents reached out to the Mayor’s office in support of the 8 Can’t Wait campaign. This campaign focuses on eight best practices around police use of force, and asks police departments and cities to adopt them. The best practices are:

1. Banning Chokeholds and Strangleholds

2. Requiring De-escalation

3. Requiring Warning Before Shooting

4. Requiring Exhausting All Alternatives Before Shooting

5. A Duty to Intervene

6. Banning Shooting at Moving Vehicles

7. Having a Use of Force Continuum

8. Comprehensive Reporting

The campaign was created by Project Zero which is an organized effort to eliminate police violence in the US by integrating community demands and recommendations from President Obama's Task Force on 21st Century Policing. This is in line with the Obama Foundation’s Mayor’s Pledge to address police use of force policies -- a pledge adopted here in Madison by myself and members of the Common Council earlier this year.

Madison’s initial score was 4 out of 8. I asked the Public Safety Review Committee (PSRC) and the Madison Police Department to review our policies and get us to 8 out of 8 as soon as possible. Thanks to good work by MPD, the PSRC and the Council, Madison’s score is now 8 out of 8. I want to thank everyone for their work on this, and thank MPD for their continued work implementing these policies. I look forward to working with MPD, the PSRC and the new Civilian Oversight Board to continue to adopt and implement best practices.