Milwaukee debates community oriented policing

The Milwaukee Police Administration Building downtown. (Isiah Holmes | Wisconsin Examiner)

What are all the ingredients that create a safe neighborhood? In cities like Milwaukee — where nearly half of the annual budget goes to law enforcement — deciding which issues the police should be responsible for addressing can get messy.

Demand for community input into police activity has continued to grow. One way communities have tried to satisfy that demand is through Community Oriented Policing (COPS). By integrating feedback from residents, law enforcement agencies say they can foster more harmonious relationships with the neighborhoods where they operate.

That’s the hope anyway. COPS policies have existed for decades, dating back to the passage of federal-level laws in 1994. At its core, the philosophy guiding COPS accepts that effective public safety requires cooperation between law enforcement and the community. Although practiced in some areas by the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) for some time, the use of Community Oriented Policing wasn’t codified in the city until 2021. City streets in Milwaukee had been charged by almost daily protests calling for police reform for nearly a year at the time.

Passing COPS a decision made by the beleaguered Fire and Police Commission (FPC), which became a lightning rod for law enforcement supporters and saw its powers curtailed. The commission also banned the use of chokeholds, adjusted policies surrounding no-knock search warrants, banned the use of pepper spray on peaceful protesters, established an unarmed response unit for mental health calls, and demoted former Milwaukee police chief Alfonso Morales.

The  commission’s longstanding power to set policy for police was stripped as part of revenue negotiations between state and local officials. FPC members who’d led the commission through those reforms resigned, and new rules were imposed by the state Legislature requiring that Milwaukee never decrease the number of its police officers.

Some saw the codification of COPS as a public safety strategy as its own kind of win. Criticisms that the MPD had moved away from Community Oriented Policing had grown under Morales. The policy, which remains active under the current chief Jeffrey Norman, acts as a ground-up approach. Officers are responsible for a variety of tasks aimed at rebuilding trust and rapport with the community. From “maximizing positive interactions with the public” by building relationships with residents, community groups, and businesses, to doing daily park checks and finding ways to build public trust. Officers are encouraged, under the watchful eye of supervisors, to develop “a deeper understanding of neighborhood conditions while creating community collaboration to enhance problem solving capacity,” according to the policy, SOP-003. Officers also set up blockwatches, or hold annual community meetings to hear both complaints and feedback to further those goals.

Reaching hearts and minds

For over a year, neighborhoods in Milwaukee sought to dig even deeper. In partnership with the Wisconsin Policy Forum, MPD, the FPC, and the resident-led Community Collaborative Commission (CCC), a series of meetings was held across many of Milwaukee’s aldermanic districts. Earlier last month, a report was released by the Policy Forum detailing results of  the meetings with residents.

“The goal was not necessarily to only turn out people who lived in that aldermanic district, but to provide that sort of geographic diversity and make sure that all resident voices from all across the city were being heard,” Ari Brown, a senior research associate at the Wisconsin Policy Forum, told Wisconsin Examiner. The sizes of meetings varied, from dozens of people filling a single library conference room, to just a handful of folks who were able to show up. “Part of it was, of course, interest in the project but a lot of it was scheduling,” said Brown. “These were generally held on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.. You can imagine in the winter, it’s hard to get people to turn out. In the summer, when the weather’s really nice out, people don’t want to sit in a four-hour meeting.”

Residents came from a variety of backgrounds, and brought various perspectives on what’s important for police to address. “The individuals that showed up at these meetings and shared their thoughts were a very, very, very diverse group,” said Brown.

Although younger Milwaukeeans showed up to some of the meetings, the racially diverse gatherings were largely attended by older residents.

During some meetings, activist groups expressed concerns about boosting funding for MPD while other residents supported dedicating more of the budget to police.

When the meeting series was first announced, the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression expressed skepticism about the program. “At face value, this initiative of ‘community policing’ seems promising for the people of Milwaukee,” the Alliance said in a press release. “However, upon closer inspection, it’s evident that it provides no concrete solutions or description for what exactly community policing is. The initiative loosely requires officers to be ‘culturally responsive’ and requires more ‘intentional community engagement.’ How exactly will these categories be measured? How can these requirements actually help reduce the harassment Black and Brown people of Milwaukee experience by the hands of police?”

A focused discussion

Rather than having a freeform discussion, meeting attendees were given specific questions like “what makes a safe community,” and “what elements of a safe community are present in your neighborhood, what elements are not present in your neighborhood?” MPD also offered questions to residents such as what does the department do which they like, and what would residents like to see MPD do more. “I think one of the things that we saw very clearly was that for residents of Milwaukee, for diverse array of residents of Milwaukee, ‘what a safe community’ looks like means something different to different groups of people.”

Whereas some residents felt the MPD gets too much of the city budget, others wanted to see a greater number of more efficient services from police. Residents wanted the department to be more “transparent, accountable, and communicative,” the policy forum noted in a report summarizing the meetings. “Many requested that officers have calmer interactions with civilians or provide faster response times,” it added. At the same time, residents expressed a desire for more friendly neighbors, clean streets and parks, more resources for their communities, increasing street light coverage, a focus on recreation for youth, and greater access to housing and mental health resources. It’s here where another question arises: How many of these problems  are police responsible for solving?

Especially since 2020 with the help of the pandemic-era American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), Milwaukee has dedicated funds to tackling some of those issues at the city and county level.

Efforts to open new mental health crisis centers, provide resources to prevent overdoses and open the doors to homeownership in Milwaukee have emerged over the last three years. Meanwhile, as local officials attempt to plug budgetary holes, people have continued to reflect on the role of police.

“There are things that MPD might be involved with, but they cannot and should not be the only group involved in doing such a thing,” said Brown. “Necessarily, there needs to be input and action by residents and non-governmental groups.”

Joining all those voices into one dialogue was the purpose of  the meetings, a joint effort between MPD, FPC, and CCC. The meetings, which began in 2022, were dynamic in that they occurred during the passage of Act 12, which changed the power of the FPC and the dynamics of policing in Milwaukee.

Following the meetings, the Wisconsin Policy Forum compiled various recommendations based on the discussions. Expanding COP practices to include every MPD member, sworn and unsworn, while also increasing data sharing, being more active on social media and updating MPD websites and continuing to study neighborhood specific approaches were among them. The forum also recommended “building out the assets the department offers, particularly in the area of youth engagement, by collaborating with existing community organizations,” and building partnerships with other city agencies.

“The basis of Community Oriented Policing is a cooperation and a partnership between residents and law enforcement,” said Brown.

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