Community Asks for Different Policing Strategies, Not More Cops

Public finally allowed to weigh in on public safety plan

Oct. 04, 2016

4:38 p.m.

Photo Courtest Joe Brusky, Flickr CC

The Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) needs to adopt different policing strategies, not hire more officers, members of the public told the city’s Public Safety Committee meeting on Monday.

The committee, chaired by Alderman Bob Donovan, took months of testimony from government officials but allowed no members of the public to speak during its summer meetings. On Monday, the committee heard that the recommendations in the new Public Safety Action Plan would harm city residents. The plan calls for hiring 280 new MPD officers and taking a tough-on-crime approach to violence in the city. The report offers no new recommendations for improving community relations, even in the wake of the mid-August Sherman Park unrest following an MPD officer’s fatal shooting of Sylville Smith after a traffic stop.

Instead of hiring more officers, community representatives who spoke Monday asked city leaders to look at what’s working in other cities. Cincinnati has reformed the way it polices neighborhoods to focus on community relations and re-think its approach to incarceration. As a result, between 1999 and 2014, police use-of-force incidents in Cincinnati dropped 69% at the same time violent crime and misdemeanor arrests decreased.

Fred Royal, president of the Milwaukee chapter of the NAACP, called those results “startling” and suggested that Milwaukee study Cincinnati’s example.

Felmers O. Chaney Advocacy Board Chair R.L. McNeely said researchers studying decades of data concluded that changing police strategy will have a greater impact on crime than simply adding more cops to the streets. Modest planned reductions in police force sizes are unlikely to have a negative impact on crime, he testified.

“This is good news for cost-cutting mayors and city councils,” McNeely testified.

MICAH representative Rev. Joseph Ellwanger said the MPD needed to rethink its use of traffic stops if it wants to improve community relations.

“A heavy-handed, stop every vehicle with a burned out taillight approach to policing is counterproductive,” Ellwanger testified. “It deepens mistrust between police and community and adds to the trauma that underlies violence.”

Jeanne Geraci, executive director of the Benedict Center, recommended following Seattle’s lead and allowing the police to become more proactive with low-level drug offenders, some of whom have addiction issues, mental illness or are homeless. In Seattle, officers direct low-level offenders to social workers or community services before they are booked in to jail.

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“Several of the cities that are adopting this model are doing so specifically to address the heroin epidemic because addiction requires treatment, not incarceration,” Geraci.

Those testifying stressed that the city needs to get serious about the root causes of crime: systemic generational poverty, the devastation caused by mass incarceration, lack of hope and few family-supporting job opportunities in neighborhoods.

Tammy Rivera, executive director of the Southside Organizing Committee, said the long-term solutions to crime have to be holistic and not solely focused on policing.

“We have never made the sacrifices or the commitment that it takes now to address those root problems, because we’re constantly being diverted and reactionary to the symptoms and symptom relief,” Rivera said. “At some point, we have to choose that this is the day that we’re really going to dig in, make sacrifices, do the hard things for the long-haul results.”

Additional Meetings Will Be Held

The Common Council’s Public Safety Action plan isn’t final and the committee will be holding additional meetings in the community before working through the recommendations via the legislative process.

The next meetings will be held in the community. Alderman Cavalier Johnson will hold a session on Saturday, Oct. 8, at 9:30 a.m. at Marshall High School, 4141 N. 64th St. Common Council President Ashanti Hamilton will host a forum on Saturday, Oct. 15, at 9:30 a.m. at Obama High School, 5075 N. Sherman Blvd. Alderman José Pérez will host a meeting on Saturday, Oct. 22, at 9:30 a.m. at South Division High School, 1515 W. Lapham Blvd. Alderman Terry Witkowski will hold a community meeting on Saturday, Oct. 29, at 9:30 a.m. at Pulaski High School, 2500 W. Oklahoma Ave.

At the same time, council members will be working through Mayor Tom Barrett’s proposed 2017 budget, which calls for hiring 165 more MPD officers to replace officers who are retiring to keep the number of sworn officers at 1,888. The Public Safety Action Plan would get staffing levels to 2,156, the number of officers MPD employed in 2008.

The MPD’s budget under Barrett’s plan will be $302 million, $25 million more than last year’s budget, to cover new wage agreements. The MPD budget is bigger than the city’s entire $263 million property tax levy. The Public Safety Action Plan floats a few ideas for paying for the enhanced costs of getting tough on crime, such as raising property taxes and asking the state to create a sales tax for public safety, but attaches no price tag to the recommendations.

Comments (3)

Comment Feed

Peace in the Community only comes when ALL the mem...

Peace in the Community only comes when ALL the members of the community feel that they can earn enough to be fed and entertained. It also means that ALL perpetrators are caught and punished.Its not that we need more Blue Lives where Black Lives hangout, first we have to prove that Blue Lives where White Lives stay are also rounding up and punishing the white dead-beats and ne'er do wells... running stop signs on their bicycles, stopped for not wearing seat-belts or non-working lights on their Lexus and BMWs and getting checked for valid license and insurance, any alcohol or weed on their breath.Only when blacks see that whites also suffer the in-your-face enforcement activities of our men in blue will they accept the same level of cops in their neighborhood.That's the key, to see that the watchful blue eye does not play favorites. But our suburbs will not tolerate that, it just gives the suburbs a bad reputation and brings down home-sale prices.Have you ever heard of the "Jude effect"? When black non-straight Frank Jude Jr. caught his beat-down at the hands of cops both on and off duty, 911 calls from black neighborhoods immediately dropped 20%. Did crime stop? No, but they were fearful of what cops do to blacks, so the crimes went unreported, and with no calls to 911, then the criminals knew they had the green light to do even more. Crime increased.

WaukeshaGuy more than 8 years ago

As I have stated numerous times in other venues, t...

As I have stated numerous times in other venues, the Justice Bureau, the federal government entity which recommends staffing levels for cities throughout the country, has a recommendation for large cities of which Milwaukee is considered to be one of 2.5 sworn officers per 1,000 citizens. The population of the city is just over 600,000. Their recommendation is for just over 1,500 sworn officers. There are currently over 1,850 officers, so according to their standards we are already over staffed by 350. To add another 280 plus an additional 150 sheriff deputies is a ridiculous proposal. Hiring to replace retirees is the only sensible part of this plan. Officers planning on retiring, like teachers in Milwaukee Public School, could have to assign their attentions to retiring by a certain date each year so replacements could be trained. Failing to follow this intent would trigger a loss of benefits same as teachers have endured for decades.

panchito more than 8 years ago

I was in Seattle recently. The homeless problem i...

I was in Seattle recently. The homeless problem is out of control but invisible at the same time. One thing that has hurt is the $15 minimum wage. Unless you look like a white Stepford child off an Iowa farm with a good complexion, you are not getting hired. So while stores have on-site recruiting stations, homeless sit outside begging.I don't know the solution. Other cities these people would be sent to prison since most of them are deep into drugs. I look at cities in South America, where there is no humane society. Stray dogs are always and everywhere, just part of the landscape. Seattle its the homeless. People are numb to them. Maybe in Milwaukee if we stopped arresting people and just left them alone unless they got violent, we could just get numb to them.

djlresearch more than 8 years ago