MADISON, Wis. – Last week, Fond du Lac County District Attorney and law enforcement’s choice for Attorney General, Eric Toney, filed a public records request to hold Josh Kaul accountable for the number of children whose safety he’s put at risk. And in yesterday’s debate on WISN, Kaul did not refute that:
- His office is 1,000 ICAC referrals behind. That’s why Toney filed a public records request directly to Kaul to demand that he immediately release the numbers of ICAC referrals that have been received under his watch and when they were assigned for investigation.
Toney released the following statement last week:
“After receiving information that Josh Kaul has delayed and failed to assign over 1,000 ICAC referrals from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, I sent a public records request directly to the Attorney General calling on him to immediately release the appropriate information to the public. This delay appears to be a direct result of Kaul’s failure to fill critical DCI law enforcement positions and comes during his mismanagement of the state’s crime lab, as documented by PolitiFact. We are seeing a pattern of his incompetence that may have resulted in child predators roaming free and placing the safety of our children at risk.”
ICAC referrals include child predators who:
– Possess child pornography
– Obtain nude photos of children over the internet; and
– Coerce children to meet them for the commission of heinous and deviant sexual crimes.
“Kaul’s failure to fill critical law enforcement positions at DOJ and to process over 1,000 ICAC referrals may be allowing child predators to roam free.
“I demand that Josh Kaul immediately release the number of ICAC referrals that have been received under his watch and disclose when these referrals were assigned for investigation. If Kaul allowed more than 1,000 ICAC referrals on backlog at any time during his tenure, he owes an explanation to the voters. I also demand an investigation into how Kaul allowed this to occur on his watch and who he intends to hold accountable for this egregious failure. Public safety is my top priority and if Kaul’s incompetence has caused even one more child to become endangered by a sexual predator, the voters deserve to know before Election Day. While others have lost their jobs for such failures, it says everything about Kaul that he’s asking Wisconsinites for another four years as Attorney General despite his lack of judgment, mismanagement and indifference.”
Earlier this year in March, at a law enforcement conference, Josh Kaul’s DCI Director Tina Virgil stated that only 88 out of 113 DCI positions were filled – a near 25% reduction.
In March, the Wisconsin State Journal reported that there was over a 30% vacancy rate at the DOJ’s Criminal Litigation Unit. This unit is comprised of frontline prosecutors that work with local law enforcement and district attorneys to keep our communities safe.
District Attorney Eric Toney has endorsements from over 100 Republican and Democrat Sheriffs, District Attorneys, and Police Chiefs, and has been unanimously endorsed by the Wisconsin Fraternal Order of Police State Lodge, the Milwaukee Police Association, the Racine Police Association, the West Allis Professional Police Association, the Waukesha County Chiefs of Police Association, the Racine Deputy Sheriffs’ Association, the Kenosha Professional Police Association, the Wisconsin Troopers Association, and the Milwaukee Police Supervisors Organization.
