Sterling Brown case

The Fire and Police Commission calls for an audit of the Sterling Brown case.

The Fire and Police Commission on Thursday evening asked the Milwaukee Police Department to conduct a full audit of the Sterling Brown tasing incident.

Commission executive director La Keisha Butler read a letter requesting the audit from commission chairman Steven DeVougas to Police Chief Alfonso Morales at the commission’s regular meeting.

The letter also asked the police to provide the commission with all body camera footage that has not been presented to the commission, and that all findings of the audit be turned over to to the commission and the Common Council.

The letter, dated Thursday, came after aldermen called for an investigation into the Brown incident, a rare move that came after the police seemingly withheld some body camera footage of the incident.

Brown was tased and arrested about 2 a.m. Jan. 26 after parking across two handicap parking spots outside a Walgreens drug store at West National Avenue and South 26th Street.

A police officer who pulled up to the store waited for Brown to walk out before questioning him about the parking violation.

The first body camera video made public, which was released by the Police Department last month, shows officers taking Brown to the ground and tasing him. On that video, he does not appear to act aggressively.

New video shows Brown on the ground after he was tased, with one officer holding his shoulder and another standing with a foot on Brown’s ankle.

Eleven Milwaukee police officers will be disciplined or retrained as a result of their interaction with Brown.

Butler read the letter after the public comment portion of the meeting, during which the commission and the department were lambasted for a lack of responsiveness to citizen complaints, failing to release all footage of the Brown incident and a history of incidents involving what speakers characterized as excessive use of force.

“An officer put his foot on the ankle of someone he knows is an NBA player?“State Sen. Lena Taylor asked the commission rhetorically before directing another question to the officer.

“Are you trying to end his career?” Tiffany Stark, who identified herself as a social worker and community advocate, described how the optimism she felt after Morales promised transparency from the department was shattered by the delayed release of all information on the Brown incident.

She also said she would now be reluctant to call police during certain situations.

“I should not have to be afraid, as a professional, to call police,” she said.