Pubdate: Thu, 16 Jan 2003
Source: Post-Crescent, The (Appleton,  WI)
Copyright: 2003 The Post-Crescent
Contact:  http://www.wisinfo.com/postcrescent/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1443
Author: Dan Wilson, Post-Crescent staff writer

WAUSAU CRIME LAB AMONG OPTIONS FOR BUDGET CUTBACKS

Attorney General Wants Owi Laws' Impact Examined

APPLETON - Atty. Gen. Peg Lautenschlager said Wednesday that impending cuts 
to the state budget - and to her own spending at Wisconsin's Department of 
Justice - "are going to be phenomenally significant."

Lautenschlager was in Appleton on Wednesday to speak at the Wisconsin 
District Attorneys Association Conference at the Radisson Paper Valley 
Hotel. She also met with The Post-Crescent editorial board.

Lautenschlager said among the cuts she is contemplating is closing the 
State Crime Laboratory office in Wausau, which is one of three in the 
state. The other two are in Milwaukee and Madison.

"It would greatly impact at least the police departments in northern 
Wisconsin and their travel expenses," she said.

Lautenschlager said she also will propose the merger of the Division of 
Narcotics Enforcement and the Division of Criminal Investigation, which she 
expects will save $350,000 to $400,000 a year.

"It will save us in supervisory salaries, and frankly I think (DNE) is an 
agency which has served the state well. But now we are at a time where 
there is so much overlap among the categories of crime I think we can 
provide better services to local departments in terms of our own department 
in a merger," she said.

Gov. Jim Doyle, who served 12 years as Wisconsin's attorney general before 
his election in November, has said the state is facing a $4.3 billion 
deficit. In Madison on Wednesday, he said education - an area he previously 
had pledged to spare - could face spending cuts.

Lautenschlager said the Justice Department already has been operating on a 
"bare-bones budget" because it was an easy target for previous Republican 
administrations at odds with Doyle, a Democrat. Lautenschlager, another 
Democrat, defeated former Outagamie County Dist. Atty. Vince Biskupic, a 
Republican, last fall.

On another matter related to state spending, she said the state's tough 
drunken driving laws, which have increased jail populations in Outagamie 
County and throughout the state, should be re-examined to see if they are 
working.

She said enough time had passed under the tougher laws to make a study 
possible.

Outagamie County is considering using satellite monitoring of drunken 
drivers as an alternative to jail. The move is opposed by Dist. Atty. 
Carrie Schneider.

Drunken driving offenders make up about two-thirds of the county's 
work-release jail population.

"Now we need to have an assessment of the effectiveness of the various 
programs and sanctions we have put in place and measure them," she said. 
"Clearly the (work-release) costs of drunk drivers is huge.

"We should do it in a measured way so it doesn't appear we are being soft 
on crime. And (we need to) do a cost-benefit analysis as to the 
effectiveness of the sanctions. We have to talk about what this is costing us."
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MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart