Preventing Violence Against Women

One year ago this month, a successful Illinois business woman, Cindy Bischof, was tragically murdered at the hands of her ex-boyfriend. After ten months of endless stalking, damage to her property, and threats made to both her and her family, her ex-boyfriend shot her to death as she was leaving work one day. Despite every attempt she made to protect herself from him, the law was not enough to save her in the end. One of the methods of protection she had tried to pursue was placing a GPS tracking bracelet on her ex so that she would have been alerted whenever he violated the terms of his restraining orders by trying to stalk her. Sadly, this was not an option available to her at the time.

Cindy’s ordeal and tragedy were brought to my attention by members of her extended family, shortly after her untimely death. Since then, I have worked very hard to research and draft legislation called Cindy’s Law to require repeat domestic violence offenders to wear GPS tracking devices. I shared my bill draft and ideas with Representative Scott Suder, and we agreed to pursue this legislation together in honor of Cindy and every woman in Wisconsin living in fear of domestic violence offenders. No woman should have to suffer in this way and have her personal freedom violated.

The purpose of Cindy’s Law is to permit our courts to place GPS tracking devices on repeat domestic violence offenders who have violated the terms of the restraining orders filed against them. The Department of Corrections would then be given the responsibility of monitoring these offenders once they’ve been ordered to wear a GPS ankle bracelet. Should they make any attempt to contact their victims the GPS will alert the Department of Corrections, who will immediately call local law enforcement and the victims to alert them of the offenders’ whereabouts. The GPS tracking program will be funded through a $200 surcharge each offender will have to pay when ordered to wear the ankle bracelet.

My primary concern with this legislation is how effective it will be once it has been signed into law. Right now, twelve states around the country have similar laws in place to protect women from domestic violence, including our neighbors Minnesota and Illinois. According to the Wisconsin Coalition Against Domestic Violence, however, these current laws are not 100% effective. Studies conducted on these programs have found that offenders ordered to wear the GPS ankle bracelets will intentionally allow the battery to run low or remove the device altogether. By the time they are caught by law enforcement, it might be too late.

The very last thing I want to do is give domestic violence victims in our state a false sense of security under Cindy’s Law. The GPS tracking programs currently in place are not perfect, but I intend to work with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to address the existing weaknesses. Ultimately, my goal is to just pass the best legislation possible to better protect victims of domestic violence and strengthen our state’s public safety laws.

 Chad and Samantha Kerkman pictured recently with Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen.

I-94 North-South Freeway Project

Last Thursday, I attended Department of Transportation (DOT) briefing with local elected officials on the recently accelerated I-94 North-South Freeway project.  So that you can be aware of what's going to be happening in the upcoming weeks and months and be able to plan your driving routes accordingly, I'm providing a link here to a DOT-maintained website on the project.

http://www.plan94.org/