On August 4, 2026, Madison Police cleared the shrine to Corey Ruiz and the tent village that had cropped up in the streets adjacent to Williamson and Baldwin Streets. A police drone captured interactions between Glass and several members of the Madison Police Dept. Glass believes in immediate “hands-on” investigation, appearing at the scene immediately after an incident or in some cases while an incident is occurring.

Glass is used to being in the thick of it trying to determine what the facts are and how they are viewed. Prior to being appointed Madison’s interim independent police monitor in November 2025, Glass was the chief of police accountability in Baltimore, MD. Glass’ roots in social justice work began in San Diego, CA.

“I really grew up in a very diverse community,” Glass said. “San Diego has a predominantly Black community called Southeast San Diego. And my grandfather is a bishop in the Church of God in Christ and my other grandfather was a deacon in the Baptist church. So I’ve grown up all throughout San Diego. But my roots in the work that I did was in the predominantly Black part of the community.”

Glass started her career in the mental health field and worked with youth in the juvenile justice system. Her direct service work grew into activism.

“I really started to become an advocate,” Glass said. “And then I started to help create policy. And then I started working for nonprofits. And then I went into full-blown activism for a while. And then at the same time, I started working for government entities. I was moving my way up in the work that I did. I became this person that would do both. And it was kind of unheard of. What people really wanted from their public officials was people who were going to show up in the community, but also be able to be in every room in government. And I became that person. It was full-time plus. Sometimes, I would have an action, be arrested, get out of jail and then walk into a room with the district attorney, the city attorney whom I was an advisor for and any other entity and agency including the mayor’s office. They were like, ‘Hi Meeka.’ I have pretty well worked in all areas from nonprofits to government in official capacities.”

In Madison’s Office of the Independent Police Monitor, there is basically Glass, a full-time administrative assistant and a part-time data and forensic analyst who deal with a full-time plus load of issues that fall within the mandate of her office.

“Our office is mandated to take complaints of the community, of the public,” Glass said. “We are mandated to investigate those complaints. We’re also mandated to open independent investigations. We review internal affairs investigations and render disciplinary and policy recommendations or additional findings. Or I might look at the internal affairs investigation and find that I need to open an independent investigation. There are some classifications that automatically get an independent investigation without it going to internal affairs. That is separate from the Madison Police Dept., the city of Madison or any other agencies. We also have to look at policies, practices and patterns of MPD as well as be responsive to the community.”

According to Glass, the work of her office is community and data driven.

“We engage in the community, have conversations, town halls, and listening sessions,” Glass said. “We take a trauma-informed approach. We also do audits on the police data as well as any data patterns we see. When we released the annual report, within a week of me being here, based on the complaints I was seeing and some of the concerning patterns, I asked Dr. Greg Gelembiuk who is our data and forensic analyst to do a disorderly conduct audit. I allowed the complaints to guide what I am seeing and those patterns that I also pull data from doing those audits to be able to say, ‘Oh, this is an issue. This is a concern that we need to address and examine that.’ And then we render findings and solutions, recommendations for those changes to be made.”

While the OIPM looks at each case, they take different pathways within her office depending on what the data and circumstances are.

“There are three pathways,” Glass said. “There is the pathway of once we get the initial complaint and do the initial assessment, I review it and I say, ‘This will just stay in a review.’ It will go to internal affairs. And once it goes to internal affairs, they do the investigation and it comes back to me. I review their investigation and it’s just a review. Another pathway is the independent investigation if it falls within a certain classification . There are certain things like excessive force, canine, taser, officer-involved death, officer-involved critical incident, and officer-involved shooting, those are automatic independent investigations. And then the third pathway is alternative resolution. That can be either restorative justice or remediation.”

Glass said that she hasn’t had a day off since she took on the interim position last November. There are a lot of cases to be looked at thoroughly and many potential cases that exist in the community. Glass feels that her office needs more resources to do independent police monitoring right.

Next Issue: The Resources It Takes to Do the Job Right