Wisconsin Statutes & Annotations
Chapter 175 - Miscellaneous police provisions.
175.05 - Sabotage.

175.05 Sabotage.
(1) Definitions. As used in this section:
(a) “Highway" includes any private or public street, way or other place used for travel to or from property.
(b) “Highway commissioners" mean any individuals, board or other body having authority under then existing law to discontinue the use of the highway which it is desired to restrict or close to public use and travel.
(c) “Peace officer" includes sheriffs, undersheriffs, deputy sheriffs, police officers, railroad police officers appointed under s. 192.47, constables, marshals, deputy marshals, and federal law enforcement officers.
(d) “Person" includes a firm, partnership, limited liability company, corporation or association.
(e) “Public utility" includes any pipe line, gas, electric, heat, water, oil, sewer, telecommunications, telegraph, radio, railway, railroad, airplane, transportation, communication or other system, by whomsoever owned or operated for public use.
(2) Unlawful entry on property.
(a) Any person or state or any political subdivision thereof engaged in, or preparing to engage in, the manufacture, transportation or storage of any product to be used in the preparation of the United States or of any of the states for defense or for war or in the prosecution of war by the United States or the manufacture, transportation, distribution or storage of gas, oil, coal, electricity or water, or any such person or governmental unit operating any public utility, whose property, except where it fronts on water or where there are entrances for railway cars, vehicles, persons or things, is surrounded by a fence or wall, or a fence or wall and buildings, may post around that person's, state's or political subdivision's property at each gate, entrance, dock or railway entrance and every 100 feet of water front a sign reading “No Entry Without Permission".
(b) Whoever without permission shall willfully enter upon premises so posted shall be punished by a fine of not more than $50, or by imprisonment in the county jail for not more than 30 days, or by both such fine and imprisonment.
(3) Questioning and detaining suspected persons. Any peace officer or any person employed as security person, guard, or in a supervisory capacity on premises posted as provided in sub. (2) may stop any person found on any premises to which entry without permission is forbidden by said subsection and may detain that person and demand that person's name, address and business in such place. If the peace officer or employee has reason to believe from the answers of the person so interrogated that that person has no right to be in that place, the peace officer or employee shall forthwith release or arrest that person without a warrant on a charge of violating the provisions of sub. (2) and an employee in case of arrest shall forthwith turn the arrested person over to a peace officer.
(4) Closing and restricting use of highway.
(a) Any person, municipal corporation, or state or any political subdivision thereof engaged in or preparing to engage in the manufacture, transportation or storage of any product to be used in the preparation of the United States or any of the states for defense or for war or in prosecution of war by the United States, or in the manufacture, transportation, distribution or storage of gas, oil, coal, electricity or water, or any such person or governmental unit operating any public utility, who has property so used which that person or governmental unit believes will be endangered if public use and travel is not restricted or prohibited on one or more highways or parts thereof upon which such property abuts, may petition the highway commissioners of any city, village, town or county to close one or more of said highways or parts thereof to public use and travel or to restrict by order the use and travel upon one or more of said highways or parts thereof.
(b) Upon receipt of such petition, the highway commissioners shall set a day for hearing and give notice thereof by publication of a class 1 notice, under ch. 985, in the city, village, town or county in which the property is located, such notice to be at least 7 days prior to the date set for hearing. If after hearing the highway commissioners determine that the public safety and the safety of the property of the petitioner so require, they shall by suitable order close to public use and travel or reasonably restrict the use of and travel upon one or more of the highways or parts thereof, except that the highway commissioners may issue written permits to travel over the highways so closed or restricted, to responsible and reputable persons for such term, under such conditions and in such form as the commissioners may prescribe. The order of the highway commissioners closing or restricting the use of one or more of the highways shall be effective only so long as the public safety and the safety of the property of the petitioner may require. Such order shall be vacated by the highway commissioners when the necessity which prompted it has ceased to exist. Any person feeling aggrieved by any order of the highway commissioners rendered pursuant to this subsection may, within 7 days after the issuance of the order, petition the division of hearings and appeals in the department of administration for a review thereof. A copy of the petition shall, within the period named, likewise be filed with the clerk of the local highway commissioners. The clerk shall thereupon certify to the division of hearings and appeals a copy of the order in question together with a transcript of any testimony that may have been taken and any documentary evidence received on which the order was based. On the record so certified and on any additional evidence deemed necessary by it, the division of hearings and appeals shall render its decision affirming, vacating or modifying the order in question. Should additional evidence be deemed necessary by the division of hearings and appeals, at least 7 days' notice of any hearing for that purpose shall be given to the person bringing the petition for review and the clerk of the local highway commissioners.
(c) Appropriate notices in letters at least 3 inches high shall be posted conspicuously at each end of any highway so closed or restricted by such order. The highway commissioners may at any time revoke or modify any order so made.
(5) Penalty for going upon closed or restricted highway. Whoever violates any order made under sub. (4) shall be punished by imprisonment in the county jail for not more than 10 days, or by a fine of not more than $50, or both.
(6) Rights of labor. Nothing in this section shall be construed to impair, curtail or destroy the rights of employees and their representatives to self-organization, to form, join or assist labor organization, to strike, to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing, and to engage in concerted activities, for the purpose of collective bargaining or other mutual aid or protection, under either the federal labor relations act or subch. I of ch. 111.
(7) National railway labor act not affected. Nothing in this section shall be deemed or construed to interfere with or abridge or in any manner diminish or affect the rights provided for under the National Railway Labor Act.
History: 1977 c. 29 s. 1654 (8) (e); 1979 c. 89; 1981 c. 347 s. 80 (2); 1983 a. 189; 1985 a. 135; 1985 a. 297 s. 76; 1993 a. 16, 112, 482, 490; 2015 a. 1.