MADISON, Wis. — On Thursday, State Rep. Shelia Stubbs held a news conference advocating for the creation of the Missing and Murdered African American Women and Girls Task Force.
It’s legislation the Madison democrat said is long overdue.
“Despite this bill unanimously passing the committee in both houses in the Legislature and passing the Assembly floor this session, this bill has yet to be given a floor date in the Senate,” said Rep. Stubbs.
Tanesha Howard is the mother of Joniah Walker, who was advocating for the creation of the task force on Thursday.
”The task force mandated by this bill will provide coordinated efforts to locate missing persons, enhance resources for investigations and support families like mine who are left in limbo,” said Howard.
Walker went missing on May 23, 2022, when she was 15 years old.
“Yesterday would have been her seventeenth birthday, but we weren’t able to celebrate it because we don’t know where she is,” said Howard.
After Walker went missing, Howard went directly to the Milwaukee Police Department.
“I was told that they could not make Joniah a priority because they had hundreds of missing cases in Milwaukee and [the officer] pointed to a file cabinet,” said Howard.
Walker is still missing to this day and Howard said the Milwaukee Police Department has not been helpful in the search.
“She was dismissed as just another runaway teenager when, in reality, she is a runaway child and was likely manipulated and preyed upon,” said Howard.
The legislation was first introduced in 2021 but has gotten little traction in the GOP-controlled Legislature.
The proposed task force would cost $30,000 and be run by the state’s Department of Justice.
In response to criticism, and with the legislative session over, Republican State Sen. Duey Stroebel said in a letter to Attorney General Josh Kaul that no legislation is needed to create a task force.
Stroebel cited the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Task Force that was unilaterally established by Kaul’s agency in 2020.
The Milwaukee Common Council also sent a letter that stated they were in full support of the creation of the Missing and Murdered African American Women and Girls Task Force.