Population growth in Dane County in recent decades, coupled with a rise in the number of law enforcement officers, has increased the chance that contacts with officers will involve deadly force – but only slightly.
In Madison and Dane County, where law enforcement officers have a long history of exercising restraint, the probability that officers will use deadly force remains “very, very low,” said Michael Scott, director of the Center for Problem-Oriented Policing and a professor at the UW-Madison Law School.