Crime & Safety
Inspector General Finds 3 Milwaukee Cops Falsified Vaccine Cards
A Milwaukee police lieutenant told a detective and an officer to falsely submit vaccine status for a training event, a city report said.
MILWAUKEE, WI — Three Milwaukee police officers circumvented the police chief's orders by making false statements about their COVID-19 vaccination status to attend an out-of-state training, according to a city report.
Milwaukee police lieutenant Branko Stojsavljevic led detective Lori Rom and officer Natalie Cruz to answer "yes" to a question about their vaccination status to go to an in-person training session in Georgia, a report by Inspector General Ronda Kohleim showed.
A text message the inspector general obtained showed Stovsavljevic, a supervising lieutenant, instructed Rom and Cruz to falsely answer a training application question about their vaccination status in May 2021.
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"Natalie they said they have your application. Lori, please fill out yours. They just ask if you have been vaccinated," the text message read. "Say yes."
A whistleblower complaint in November 2021 accused the three officers of circumventing Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman's March 2021 order to show a vaccination card if they wanted to travel for training, the report said. Rom and Cruz went on to attend a training in Glynco, Georgia, in June 2021.
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George Breed, the training instructor in Georgia, told investigators he received a text message from Stojsavljevic asking if anyone from the Milwaukee Police Department asked him about the police training and COVID-19.
"No sir, not me, should they have?" Breed said in a text.
"No, just some bs. No worries. Thanks," Stojsavljevic said in a text back.
The inspector general recommended police management consider disciplining the three officers with punishment up to discharge from the department altogether, the 16-page report read. The city also recommended police to consider whether Stojsavljevic's actions violated state law.
Rom was suspended for 30 days, demoted to the rank of officer and given a pay cut, while Cruz was suspended for 60 days, The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. Stojsavljevic submitted his retirement papers in May 2022 and avoided discipline over the report.
See Also: MKE Police Officers Accused of Making Fake Vaccine Cards: Report
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