The Milwaukee Common Council rejected the $9.7 million COPS grant that would have allowed the Milwaukee Police Department to hire 30 more police officers. While the decision to not accept the federal grant has come with support, it has also been under scrutiny.
The file will be brought before the council again in January after Alderwoman Nikiya Dodd made a motion to reconsider. The common council released a statement the day after the controversial decision to explain that it is more than rejecting money for 30 more officers –it’s about responding to the calls for change in a police department that has lost the trust of many.
‘Simple Economics’
The council’s statement pointed out that the grant is not “free money.” While the officers would be paid for three years under the grant, they could eventually be eligible for higher pay and benefits that “have caused public safety costs to consume a wildly disproportional share of the city's revenues.”
The council says they faced difficult decisions about cutting other services to pay for public safety infrastructure. “And these officers have costs far beyond their wages and benefits,” the council explains. “In the period 2016-2020, police misconduct lawsuits cost the taxpayers more than $34 million.”
Responding to the People
The council also acknowledged that their constituents have been calling for them to reevaluate the city’s priorities. “People can no longer accept a police department that takes so much and spends what it has in ways that they do not believe truly protect them,” the council writes.
The council hopes to respond to the people’s call for an investment in intervention, mental health, de-escalation and nonviolent responses to problems. Therefore, blindly accepting the grant they had always unanimously accepted would have been the opposite of working towards change.
Reaction to Mayor Tom Barrett’s Criticism
Shortly after the council voted to reject the grant, Mayor Tom Barrett criticized the council’s decision. Barrett said this decision will hurt those in Milwaukee who call the police for help with break-ins or robberies.
In response, the council points out that Barrett has told them that he hears those who are calling for change. “His own remarks yesterday afternoon, then, sounding a good deal more like an unsympathetic state legislator than an advocate for progress in his own city, were intemperate and counterproductive,” the council writes. “This sort of posturing benefits no one and only postpones the day on which he and the common council can begin to find real paths forward.”
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While the council will meet again to reevaluate accepting the grant, there is no guarantee that it will change anyone’s original vote.
