A state legislator presented four bills
Tuesday intended to protect Wisconsin citizens by providing law
enforcement additional tools and support to prosecute dangerous
perpetrators.

The bills, packaged as the "Citizen
Protection and Crime Deterrence Agenda," were presented to law
enforcement officials and community leaders by Sen. Dan Kapanke, R-La
Crosse.

Kapanke said the components of the
agenda are all "crime deterrent bills" and it was a logical
decision to introduce them to the community together.

"We had received notice of these gaps
in the law and the penalty for such crimes," Kapanke said. "They
all came together."

According to a statement from Kapanke's
office, two pieces of legislation supported in Kapanke’s agenda would
make strangling someone a crime and increase the penalties for using
an imitation firearm.

"Law enforcement called our office
and talked about the importance of the issue," Kapanke said. "Now,
if you commit a crime with a toy gun, it’s the same [penalty] as a
real gun."

On Monday, Kapanke added, an incident
occurred in which a fake gun looked almost identical to a real gun.

The Strangulation Prevention Act, one
of the bills in the Agenda, aims to close an existing loophole in
state law, according to Sen. Julie Lassa, D-Stevens Point.

Current law only allows prosecutors to
charge perpetrators with a misdemeanor if they are convicted of
strangulation, unless the act resulted in death. Lassa, the Senate
lead on the bill, said if passed the bill will increase the penalties
for strangulation and suffocation.

Lassa added the legislation was
proposed as a result of visits by Lassa’s office to the Coalition
Against Domestic Violence.

"They were seeing a number of cases
around the state where they were unable to fully prosecute
perpetrators of this form of violence," Lassa said.

The proposed bill, Lassa added, has
bipartisan support, and she said it will save the lives of Wisconsin
residents.

"This bill is homicide prevention,"
Lassa said. "Charging someone with a misdemeanor for strangulation
or suffocation that didn’t result in the victim being killed is
really a downfall in our justice system."

Kapanke said strangulation occurs more
often than people would expect, as "one of the law enforcement
officers told us strangulation is involved in three-fifths of
domestic abuse [cases]."

The two other proposed bills in
Kapanke’s agenda would extend the statute of limitations for
prosecuting sex offenders and require additional accidental shooting
reporting.