Karin Tyler Speaks out on Community Wellness and Safety

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Photo by Tom Jenz

Karin Tyler - Department of Wellness and Safety

Karin Tyler Director, Milwaukee Department of Community Wellness and Safety (2026).

Karin Tyler, the city’s Director of the Department of Community Wellness and Safety, knows about troubled neighborhoods. She was raised in the central city and experienced trauma and dysfunction. Her early life story could be a dramatic movie, the plot rippled with loss, grief and triumph. The daughter of activist parents, Tyler grew up on 12th and Keefe in the heart of the central city. 

“My home was filled with Civil Rights activists,” Tyler told me. “As children, we participated in protest marches with my parents. My dad had marched with Martin Luther King. He worked at Delco Electronics, and my mother was a nurse.” 

But when Tyler was a teenager, her parents divorced. She lapsed into personal problems: anger, drugs, street culture, suicide attempts and struggles with self-love. When she was 16, she had a child, a boy, and the experience set her straight. “My son and I kind of grew up together,” she said. 

As a young mother, she was living in an apartment with her boyfriend. “My boyfriend got violent, kicked my door in, climbed on the balcony and assaulted me sexually. One day, he had a gun to my head. saying, ‘If I can’t have you, no one can.’ I think he wanted to kill me, but he didn’t have the courage. Eventually, he was incarcerated. As a result, I dealt with depression, anxiety, and trauma. It took a long time to get myself together.”

If that near-tragedy wasn’t enough heartbreak for one lifetime, Karin later lost her oldest son to homicide in 2011. Then in 2018, she lost her father, who was killed in a hit and run accident. 

World of Violence

Through a profound understatement, she said, “I feel I can personally help abuse victims because of my own background experiencing the world of violence.”

According to the Milwaukee Police Department data, the average age of a fatal shooting or homicide victim is 30, while the average age of a nonfatal shooting victim is late 20s. Individuals between the ages of 18 and 39 account for approximately 67% of all homicide victims. For fatal shootings, 84% of the victims are male and 76% are Black. For nonfatal shootings, 79% of victims are male and 82% are Black.

I have known Karin Tyler over the years and admired her dedication in helping to reduce violence and dysfunction in the city. A while back, we met in the Department of Community Wellness and Safety offices located in Walker’s Point.   

How long have you worked for the Office of Violence Prevention, now called the Office of Community Wellness and Safety? What were your jobs?

I started in 2017 as a family violence prevention coordinator, then a family violence prevention manager, then the operations manager, then the interim director and now I am the director. I’ve done all the jobs.

You have been director for a few months. As the director, what are your job responsibilities?

I oversee the citywide violence prevention effort. My job has three different components. First, prevention, which includes education and awareness. We do this through conferences, webinars, and technical assistance to other departments. The goal is to get ahead of violence before it starts. The second component is secondary prevention, working on retaliatory violence. For instance, we get referrals from the police department about violent situations that have a chance of retaliation. We try to get to that person who might want to retaliate and try to stop the dispute from elevating further. We have our Promise Keeper team, Home for Life team and our Critical Response team. We also have youth ambassadors with lived experiences, and they deal with their peer groups. The third component is tertiary prevention, and that includes healing and wellness, which is critical. 

What do you mean by healing being critical?

We are coming off 2025 when homicides and non-fatal shootings were up in Milwaukee. We’ve been trying to find healing for all those impacted people—moms, fathers, siblings, kids. The goal is to prevent victims of violence from becoming perpetrators of violence. Tertiary prevention is about healing.

I will sometimes see negative stories and videos about violent incidents on social media and on the local legacy media. How do you counter that?

We are always looking at data, community cultural behavior, and how we can be transparent with our work. We look at how we can give our city hope. This year in 2026, violence numbers are going down. We are making progress. No matter the numbers game, residents need to have a feeling of hope. That is why we have outreach teams in the neighborhoods.

What are your other responsibilities as director?

As a cabinet member, I represent our city on a national scale. We just had a regional meeting with our National Violence Prevention Network. I was looking to see what was working in other cities. In Chicago, they use tax revenue from marijuana sales to help fund their violence prevention office. Sale of marijuana is illegal in Wisconsin.

In my experience writing about central city issues, if one violent incident happens in a neighborhood, residents will sometimes globalize the issue as if this type of incident happens everywhere when actually it does not.

That is what we try to counteract. I tell my staff to not take it personally when people are angry and maybe challenge our work. We are often dealing with human emotions. When my son passed away many years ago, I couldn’t listen to anything about hope. I was too emotional. 

How many full and part-time staff members do you have?

Currently, we have seven full-time staff. 

Does your office work with the grassroots leaders, pastors and residents who are trying to reduce violence?

Our Promise Keepers initiative was really innovative. We have what we call Promise Zone areas of the city. Promise Keepers uplift the work of grass roots organizations. They work on primary and intervention problems. For example, the Sherman Park street leader, Vaun Mayes, is one of our Promise Keepers, and so is Shawn Moore, who works in the Garden Homes area. They know if there are threats of violence in their neighborhoods. We try to support grass roots organizations. Our main partner is Evolve Church on North 76th Street. They have a younger congregation. They have given us referrals if there is a problem within their congregation. For example, if someone is in imminent danger or threatened, we can help that victim with relocation.  

What exactly are Promise Zones?

Promise Zones are certain city areas, zones with high crime incidents and low resources. These Promise Zones are further broken down into impact areas.

Tyler showed me a large wall map illustrating the impact areas or at-risk zones. The North Side neighborhoods include Amani, Lindsay Heights, Harambee, Metcalfe Park and Garden Homes; with Clark Square on the South Side.

If a resident is having issues with violence in the home, should they contact your office? 

If your family member is causing trouble in the home and you don’t want to call the police, you should call us. We have people with lived experiences who are relatable. We also coordinate the Commission on Domestic Violence, which includes all the organizations and nonprofits that deal with domestic violence—Sojourner, UMOS, the Asha Project, and more, and also the police and sheriff departments. 

Do you work with the city police department and county sheriff’s department?

Through my history of working in this office, connection with law enforcement is very important. I remember when my son was killed, I had to think about my other family members. What are they going to do? And what about the aftermath of violence. When will a perpetrator get out of jail? Will he kill again or be killed as an act of revenge? Anger lasts a long time, and a family member of a victim might seek retaliation. 

‘Stop Snitchin’: I’ve seen this statement on T shirts, and I’ve heard it from police. If residents won’t report a crime or snitch on criminals, what is there to do?

Our office is the middle ground between police and residents. Our credibility is important because we need to have influence to get into the communities. We need to get information to stop that retaliation.

I have a mom’s group. Moms who have lost sons to violence feel like it is important to report a criminal. It can be a cultural thing, too. In our work, we’ve been dealing with decades of racism and even hatred.  

What is the annual budget for the Office of Wellness and Safety and how is the money spent? 

I give a recommended budget to the mayor’s office, who then holds budget open houses for public input, and then it goes to the common council. Currently, our budget is about $1 million, but we also get a SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration) grant for another $1 million. We get additional funds from other grants, businesses and philanthropic partners.

Your predecessor, Adam Procell, stated that he wanted community violence intervention workers to be better paid and receive benefits.

I learned a lot from Mr. Procell. He spent 20 years in prison for murdering a gang member when he was 15. He and I were dealing from opposite sides of trauma and violence. I have my grief over my son being murdered, and he has his guilt over what he did. But we do want our team members to have benefits. They risk their lives to help prevent violence. Police officers get benefits.

 For assistance with issues of violence or potential violence, call CONNECT WITH US at 414-286-5468 or email  OCWS@milwaukee.gov. For further information, visit  milwaukee.gov/staysafe