Wisconsin AG race: Can the numbers measure who's tougher on crime?

You hear it every election. Candidates accusing each other of being soft on crime. But when it comes to public safety, can you actually measure who's getting results? As Wisconsin voters prepare to choose the state's next attorney general, Fox 6 investigator Nicole Herzog is putting that very question to the test. Both attorney general candidates are referencing crime data to make their case for who should lead the State Department of Justice. But take a closer look, and the numbers tell a more complex story. The race for Wisconsin's top cop is heating up. This time around, it's a rematch between Democratic Attorney General Josh Kaul. His response to your question about violent crime in his county was to attack me. And Republican Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney. We've seen on his watch record drug deaths in parts of our state. Crime statistics have become a central point of debate in this race, so we decided to check the numbers behind those claims. The Fox 6 investigators analyzed FBI crime data starting with 2019, the year Kaul took office, through 2025. We compared... statewide data with Fond du Lac County's numbers. The numbers can tell different stories depending on where you look. In Fond du Lac County, violent crime increased about 20 percent. Statewide, it fell about 17 percent. Call says voters should note that difference when comparing candidates. You know, under my leadership last year, Wisconsin had the lowest number of violent crimes that we've had in any year since 2011. Fond du Lac County has had a spike where Eric Toney's the DA. Last year, they had the second highest number that they've had. In decades, that's technically correct. The county has seen an increase in violent crime, but it wasn't a steady climb. The numbers fluctuated, falling in 2024 before an uptick in 2025. The increase was largely driven by aggravated assaults, while reported rapes and homicides have consistently remained low and represent a small sample size. When we look at what we're seeing in Fond du Lac County, our police chief has talked about the increase in domestic violence that is driving the numbers that the attorney general is talking about. Toney, though, points to another statistic, murder. In fact... He brought up one claim. Murder is up over 30% on his watch as Attorney General. Again. Homicides are up over 30%. And again. Homicides being up over 30%. And again. When we talk about those stats, he's the one that's seen homicides up over 30% since he's taken over as Attorney General. Murders are up in the state. Wisconsin recorded 40% more murders last year than in 2019. comparison doesn't tell the whole story. Murders rose sharply during the pandemic, peaking in 2021. Since then, the number has fallen every year, though it has not returned to pre-pandemic levels. The FBI also tracks a broader category, homicides, which can include cases that are not classified as murder. Those cases increased about 25 percent between 2019 and 2025, but fell about 20 28 percent from their 2021 peak. But can crime trends alone tell voters who's tougher on crime? You look at overall crime rates that there's so many factors that contribute to that that it's very difficult to assign any causation as it relates to a particular district attorney or attorney general. Mark Levin, chief policy counsel at the Council on Criminal Justice, says it can also be difficult to compare a district attorney with an attorney general. Both serve different functions. I think that when we look at trends in crime on a statewide basis, the Attorney General would have, frankly, almost no effect on that. So if you can't measure the Attorney General's impact with crime statistics, what can you look at? One area where the attorney general does have a direct impact, the state crime labs, which analyze evidence submitted from crime scenes. A nonpartisan legislative audit found Wisconsin crime lab turnaround times increased by nearly 50 percent between 2019 and 2023, and assignments for the labs dropped 13 percent. Call says those statistics are misleading because DNA analysis methods have changed, allowing for more precise results. We've improved the laboratory management system and we've also are doing testing that allows us through toxicology testing to identify drugs like fentanyl at lower quantities than we used to be able to. What we have not had is the kind of investment from the legislature that we need. Tony says one of his top priorities is to increase efficiency within the labs. Saying he'd adopt formal performance metrics for lab analysts. They're taking longer to test less, and our attorney general just passes the buck and blames the legislature for not giving him the resources that he wants. But when they do give him additional resources, he doesn't use them. So if you're asking who's tougher on crime, you might just be asking the wrong question. Both candidates say they're the right person to keep Wisconsin safe. Whether their records prove it is a question voters will have to answer. There are other ways to measure commitment to public safety. Call sites, changes to sexual assault kit laws, funding for the Office of School Safety, and efforts to address the opioid epidemic. He's also joined lawsuits against the Trump administration more than 60 times while in office. Meanwhile, Tony references his own reputation as a local prosecutor, saying felony filings in Fond du Lac County have increased 75 percent since 2012, and domestic violence filings have more than doubled. He also points to support from more than 80% of the state's sheriffs in the newsroom, Nicole Herzog, Fox 6 investigators.