Dear Mayor Barrett,
With police staffing levels decreasing to a point where, at times, we have had as few as six to eight officers patrolling a district of as many as 100,000 residents, a dangerously unacceptable situation exists.
I will not mince words. Whether you choose to admit it or not, Milwaukee is facing a public safety crisis.
We can wait no longer to deal with it. While I wholeheartedly agree that police can’t solve all of society’s problems, given the appropriate resources they can maintain a level of order in the community that is sorely lacking at this time.
It is incumbent upon you to address the escalating violence. As Chairman of the Public Safety Committee, I am very concerned about this coming summer. Already we are seeing an increase in violence and disorder. I can only imagine what this summer will bring. Steps need to be taken now to begin a turnaround.
I am calling on you to take the leadership role I know you are capable of to move forward and I’m asking that you do the following:
1. Create ten investigator positions to speed up the background checks on police recruits.
2. Add a fourth police class of 66 recruits for 2007. It is essential that we fill the vacancies and begin to do so now.
The reality is that additional officers won’t have an impact for about a year. Steps need to be taken in order to salvage as peaceful a summer as possible. That’s why I am proposing these additional steps:
3. Call upon the Governor to deploy 50-75 National Guard military police to augment our police force.
4. Work with the Milwaukee County Sheriff to relieve the County of freeway patrol duties in order to have deputies available to assist MPD. State patrol could assume the freeway responsibilities.
5. Begin the process of allowing lateral transfers. Qualified individuals that work for other law enforcement agencies can simply do an abbreviated training on Milwaukee’s specific policing strategies and then and more quickly transfer in to MPD.
6. Implement a program that has been successful in Chicago whereby officers assigned to desk duty are put on street duty one day a week, staggered.
7. Put a moratorium on all promotions within MPD since these have a trickle down effect, diminishing the lower ranks where the actual patrol officers are. These are the officers that are doing the work and promotions take from their numbers.
8. Lead a delegation of civic leaders, business owners, social service groups, and public officials to Madison to call on the Governor and the Legislature to increase state shared revenue to pay for these public safety efforts.
I look forward to hearing your strategy to improve public safety. I trust you share my concern about summertime violence and will take measures to nip it in the bud.
Finally Tom, I would be remiss if I didn’t gently chastise you for your most unflattering penchant of taking credit for other people’s hard work. From surveillance cameras to cops in schools and everything in between relating to public safety, both you and I know not one of these ideas has originated from your office.
Let’s work together for a change. The citizens of this City deserve as much.
Cordially,
Bob Donovan
Alderman, 8th District
Cc: Chief Nannette Hegerty
Members of the Common Council
Milwaukee Police Association
Sheriff David Clarke
Members of the Milwaukee County Board
Milwaukee County Executive, Scott Walker
