KENOSHA, Wisc. — The I-Team acquired employment records for the off-duty Kenosha police officer who knelt on a 12-year-old girl’s neck for about 20 seconds.
Officer Shawn Guetschow has eight years of law enforcement experience, the last four of which were with the Kenosha Police Department (KPD).
During his time with KPD, Officer Guetschow filed three uses of force, all of which were incidents he used his taser on adults.
The employment records also show Guetschow requested to work at Lincoln Middle School (LMS) in September of 2019, the same school where the incident with the 12-year-old occurred on March 4. Guetschow applied for secondary employment at Lincoln Middle School, where he expected to work five to 20 hours a week. His request was approved less than a week later.
According to the request, Guetschow must follow KPD policy # 1.13 for Police Officers performing Off-Duty Arrests. In section C, Subsection 2, it reads, “When an arrest is necessary, the off-duty arresting officer shall abide by all departmental policies and procedures, specifically those policies in regards to use of force and arrest.” Under KPD’s Use of Force Standard Operating Procedure, it explicitly says chokeholds are prohibited except as a last resort.
In addition to the request to work at Lincoln Middle School, the employment record shows at least seven instances of praise, including an email from the mother of a student at Lincoln Middle School. She says, “Of the many officers involved with my family you were the only one who used compassion and patience and seemed to have any interest in helping.”
Following the March 4 incident, Guetschow resigned from his position at LMS and was assigned to desk duty at KPD.
In addition, the records show one instance of discipline. In 2021, Guetschow received a written reprimand for not properly maintaining custody of evidence in an incident at a hospital.
Guetschow has also received numerous training, including Crisis Intervention Training to recognize and understand mental illness when de-escalating persons in crisis.
Friday, the Kenosha Education Justice Coalition and Leaders of Kenosha are planning to speak about this incident and the topic of school safety at a news conference. It starts at 4:30 p.m. Civil War Museum in Kenosha.
The Kenosha Police say there are no updates on the internal investigation into Guetschow.
