Grace testifies on licensing, police reform measures

Policy Analyst Julie Grace today testified in Wisconsin State Assembly committees on AB 320, which would streamline licensing requirements for registered interior designers, and AB 108, AB 109 and AB 110, which would provide greater transparency into policing in Wisconsin.

Assembly Bill 320 would streamline the regulatory structure of Wisconsin’s interior design profession. The bill makes two important changes: it removes education and experience requirements from state statute, and it allows registered interior designers to “stamp” their own plans, removing an unnecessary and costly step in the current process.

Based on our prior research on occupational licensing and regulation, we believe this legislation is a step in the right direction and a good model for future reforms to the many other regulated professions in Wisconsin.

First, it removes unnecessary and repetitive requirements from state statute and instead requires that applicants for an interior design registration complete a national exam. The conditions needed to take the exam would no longer be set by the state and would therefore no longer be evaluated and approved by the Department of Safety and Professional Services, freeing up the agency to process other licenses, registrations or certifications.

Read her full statement here.
 

Assembly Bill 108 would require law enforcement agencies to specify when and how to report use of force, Assembly Bill 109 would require the Department of Justice to collect and publish data on use-of-force incidents and Assembly Bill 110 would require law enforcement agencies to post their use-of-force policies on a publicly available website. We believe these bills would increase transparency and accountability among police departments across the state and improve trust among the citizens they serve.

Last year we attempted to determine just how often force is used by police officers across the state and how police departments discipline their officers when inappropriate use-of-force incidents occur. Our complete findings are available in a special report we published in November, but I will share with you today a few takeaways from this research that AB 108, 109 and 110 would at least partially address.

Data on use-of-force incidents is difficult to find due to a lack of both standards and legal requirements for reporting. Without this information, it is nearly impossible to compare similar-sized police departments or those that handle similar levels of crime to determine which are outliers deserving closer scrutiny.