Photo credit: Tom Jenz
Acting Police Chief Michael Brunson
I met City of Milwaukee Acting Police Chief Michael Brunson on the 7th floor of the Police Administration Building. He comes across as an imposing presence, strong, sincere and confident, and always with a straight gaze. He’s the breed of cop you want watching out for you. My focus was not confrontational. Instead, I was trying to gain a clearer comprehension of Milwaukee policemen in their jobs and also as fellow citizens.
Chief Brunson, where did you grow up? How did you get into police work?
I grew up in Lynn Haven, Florida, small town in the panhandle. I got interested in law enforcement when I was about 11. I already knew what I wanted to do. I went to Florida A&M University in Tallahassee. Got my degree in criminal justice. My goal was to work for a metropolitan police department. It was 1994, and the Clinton Police Hiring Grants provided millions of dollars to add cops to city law enforcement. In December 1995, my new wife and I moved to Milwaukee, and I trained at the Milwaukee Police Academy.
That was 25 years ago. What’s your progression? How did you get to be Acting Police Chief?
At first, I worked as a policeman mostly at District 5 in the inner city. In 2000, I was promoted to Sergeant and worked in a couple different districts. My next assignment was the Internal Affairs Division. That’s where we investigate any police misconduct. In 2005, I was promoted to Lieutenant at District 5, and later I moved up to Captain at District 3. After that, I was promoted to Deputy Inspector and then to the commander in the Internal Affairs Division. In 2016, I was promoted to Inspector at the Neighborhood Patrol Bureau in 2018, I was appointed the Assistant Police Chief. A month ago, I was made Acting Police Chief. Along the way, I earned my MBA from Cardinal Stritch University.
Quite the wealth of experience. You once said, ”We cannot be successful as an agency if we don’t have the trust, confidence and legitimacy throughout the community.” Do you have goals to change the culture of the police department? Or does it even need changing?
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My goal is for our police to engage with the community and improve the relationship with our residents. One of our issues right now in Milwaukee is the violent crime rate. The homicide rate has doubled since last year at this time. Reckless driving fatalities is near record breaking. Fundamentally, law enforcement agencies are about the preservation of life, protecting the community. To do this effectively, we need the trust of the citizens. In other words, how do we change the culture of this police agency? We need to interact with the community, creating dialogue, find out what our citizens want.
What changes have already occurred?
Major change? Body cameras. Since 2015, every officer assigned to a patrol bureau has a body camera. This allows us in management to examine which officers have behavioral issues. The old way was an officer’s word against the word of a citizen who had a complaint. But now we can get to the truth of an incident. The body cameras allow us to discipline officers, give them more training, or even dismiss them. We look for officers who have a pattern of behavior that is unacceptable.
The police seem reluctant to report on one another if one officer is being abusive to a suspect. It’s like a code of silence. Am I right?
We have a policy called Duty To Intervene. This means if an officer sees another officer engaged in misconduct or unreasonable force, that officer has a duty to intervene. If he does not, he can be disciplined. There have been Milwaukee police officers who’ve lost their jobs because they did not intervene in the misconduct of their partner. This is written in our code of conduct.
I’ve been walking the streets of the central city on and off for seven years, talking to Black residents and Black leaders and photographing them. I am trying to understand the culture, the difficult conditions inner city Black folks deal with. Ninety-eight percent of residents tell me they want the criminals off their streets. Then, there is the reckless driving, speeding, car accidents, running stop lights. Too many drivers ignore the laws.
This is a tough issue, and it takes a complete focus. I call it the Three E’s: education, enforcement and engineering. In truth, the police alone are not going to enforce our way out of this reckless driving problem. There are not enough police officers to catch everyone who engages in reckless driving. We’ve been doing an initiative called RDRI, Reckless Driving Reduction Initiative. We collaborate with nearby law enforcement agencies and the State Patrol. We also get grants from the state to deal with speeding, OWIs, seat belts, and so on. We use data to inform us where the most dangerous intersections are located.
But what about right now? The immediate problem of reckless driving? I’ve seen too many homemade memorials to accident victims on the inner city streets, tributes to those who lost their lives.
First, we’ve been dealing with COVID, keeping our own personnel safe. Second, we are facing civil unrest here in Milwaukee, and this requires a lot of our personnel including our motorcycle unit, which had been addressing reckless driving. But now our motorcycle units have to deal with civil unrest. Third, there was the Democratic National Convention which required much or our personnel to deal with the massive planning. Yet, the convention never happened. These problems have hindered us in dealing with the reckless driving issue.
In talking to cops on the streets, several have told me they are discouraged from speaking to journalists and giving their opinions. In my opinion, that policy keeps them out of reach and encourages mistrust.
Actually, we encourage officers to talk to the media but through scheduled interviews. However, in specific incidents on the street, we have a policy that follows our chain of command. Information regarding specific crimes, arrests, or car accidents need to go through our Public Information office. We want public information to be accurate. If you as a reporter or a citizen are dissatisfied with an officer’s response, just ask them where you can get information about an incident.
Some Black inner city residents feel that 911 calls do not result in swift responses from the police. Do they have a legitimate complaint?
When an urgent 911 call comes in, the operator alerts the district where the disturbance happened. We need to get the police officer there right away and that means the closest district. It comes down to who is the squad that is closest to the incident. A priority one 911 call takes precedent over any lower priority 911 calls.If a resident’s call rates as a lower priority, there may be waiting time depending on the severity of other calls.
Over time, I’ve been getting to know the on-the-ground-protesters. I’ve gotten close to protest leaders Frank Nitty and Vaun Mayes, and they trust me to be accurate. They have issues with the police and have voiced their differences publicly. Would you be willing to meet with these two protest leaders in order to talk about on-the-ground issues, clear the air, so to speak?
I’m willing to meet with anyone who has Milwaukee’s best interests at heart.
Ideally then, you would meet with one or two of these leaders. As I see it, you three leaders would air your frustrations, and you’d tell them what can or what cannot be done. It also goes into bigger issues, white versus Black, fears and misunderstandings between the races. I wish we Americans could get over this.
I have no problem with meaningful conversation and would engage with them on that basis. But what is the goal and productivity of a meeting? That is my concern when meeting with anyone.
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