Joseph Mensah signs off on his resignation from Wauwatosa PD
WAUWATOSA, Wis. - The City of Wauwatosa and Officer Joseph Mensah signed off on his resignation agreement on Wednesday, Nov. 18. It comes less than 24 hours after the city's leaders approved the move Tuesday night -- 11-0, with two council members abstaining.
Wauwatosa Mayor Dennis McBride indicated Mensah's resignation will be effective Nov. 30 -- and will put the city on a path forward to heal.
Officer Mensah has shot and killed three people in the last five years of his time with the Wauwatosa Police Department. All of those shootings were ruled justified.
"He's waived any claims he has against the city. The city pays him for that and he resigns his employment and he moves forward," said Mayor McBride.
The agreement says Mensah will be paid 13 months severance along with benefits. He also agrees not to file further matters against the city, disparage its employees, and that he may not be re-employed.
Mensah would still be able to seek employment elsewhere -- and could be provided a letter of recommendation by Wauwatosa Police Chief Barry Weber, if he chose to do so.
"It was to everyone's advantage to do this," McBride said.
Wauwatosa Mayor Dennis McBride
Mayor McBride said talks began in July, but accelerated recently as Mensah was set to go before the Police and Fire Commission in December on administrative charges. In light of that, McBride said it was in the city's and Mensah's legal and financial interests to move forward.
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It is a path McBride hopes to guide Wauwatosa down as it works on instituting a number of reforms -- including the purchase of body cameras, increasing minority hiring, and stepping up implicit bias training.
Wauwatosa Mayor Dennis McBride
"The first step that everybody wanted us to take was to resolve Officer Mensah's situation. And we did so -- again -- in a way that is positive, I think, for both sides. But we still have a long way to go," McBride said.
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