Neighborhood Q&A

An Evening with MPD’s Chef Flynn and Captain Smith
The October Membership meeting, if you weren’t there, had Milwaukee Police Chef Edward Flynn, Captain Anthony Smith and full compliment of officers and detectives from the 5th District in a special joint meeting of the upper eastside neighborhood associations at the Columbia Hospital Auditorium. Chef Flynn gave a good overall explanation of the state of crime in the City and particularly in and around the 5th District. Captain Smith and his officers gave more detailed explanation of their particular efforts to address the types of crime being seen in the area, including the recent spate of strong-arm robberies and home invasions.
They opened the floor up for questions, but there were far more questions than time to respond to them, but they asked to have the questions forwarded to them and they would answer them. Below are selected questions that remained and the responses from Chef Flynn and Captain Smith. To see all the questions and answers and other information go to www.murrayhillna.org.
Q: There were more police patrols (foot and bicycle) at the beginning of the school year, but as of late, they have been lacking. Will we see some of these patrols increase in response to the recent crimes?
A: There are two squad areas that cover the east side. One squad has responsibility north of E. Locust Street (521) while the other south of E. Locust Street (520). These two squads are deployed 24 hours a day. In addition to these two squads there is a foot/bicycle unit assigned to the area, they work 7:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. In addition the District deploys Patrol Wagons on each shift, one is assigned east of the river. Officers assigned to squad car patrol are to conduct “park & walk” patrols as often as possible. These park & walk patrols generally will be between two to four hours in duration. In addition to these resources the District has conducted numerous Safe Street Initiatives and Directed Patrol Missions through out the year to address specific crime trends. There are currently two Safe Street Initiative deployments on the east side, to address robbery and theft. These extra resources will remain until the trend has been stopped. During the school year extra foot patrols are deployed in the area around UWM on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. These officers are on overtime, which is funded by a grant from the University. The grant period has ended for this semester and will resume again in the spring. This deployment is usually a Sergeant and four to eight officers. The deployment size is dictated by the intelligence gathered during the week.
Q: How many phone numbers for police are there now? As a child, each of us knew the phone number was PO5-2323. Why not a phone number we can remember?
A: There are 3 numbers for police service everyone in District Five needs to know. The first is 9-1-1 for all emergency and/or life-threatening situations. The next two numbers pertain to non-emergency calls for service and administrative calls to District Five,
Non-Emergency Calls: This number is 933-444. This will connect you with our centralized call center where a Police Telecommunicator will take your information, determine the call’s priority and determine whether a squad will be sent or if your call can be referred to our Telephone Reporting Unit or the Differential Police Response Unit.
Administrative Calls to the District: The direct number to the District is 935-7252 for questions you might have such as the name of an officer who responded to your call, obtaining an incident number for a report you filed and other items of an administrative nature.
It should be noted if you call 933-4444 and request to be connected to District Five and you desire police to respond, this will delay the squad’s response.
Q: I understand that in order to determine public or underage drinking, Milwaukee police must see the person take a drink, while University police have been trained in the use of a breath analyzer. Are there plans to train Milwaukee police in the use of these devices?
A: Yes, District Five currently has two of these devices and training through the state is expected to be conducted early in 2009. This will enable officers to utilize this equipment when the Spring Semester patrols resume. This will allow Milwaukee officers to enforce the underage drinking laws in the same manner the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee police officers do. However, in order for the public drinking ordinance to be enforced officers must see the person drinking in public or have a witness who will testify in court who made the observation of the public drinking.
Q: What is being done to ensure our neighborhoods are not recipients of displaced crime from west of the river?
A: Crime analysis is conducted daily. This analysis is done to identify not only where crime has been occurring but where we believe it may occur. Displacement of crime is always looked for, whether it is actual displacement or predicted displacement. Crime analysis takes into account numerous factors such as historical trends, weather/time of year trends, geographic trends and event driven trends just to name a few. We want to utilize the given resources as efficiently and effectively as possible. The goal is to not only be able to answer calls for service, but more importantly deploy resources to prevent crime before it occurs.
Q: How do we obtain information to give to students about crime in the neighborhood?
A: There are two web sites that you can check which are updated daily. 1) www.milwaukee.gov - Put the word “Compass” in the “Site Search” box on the web page. Once open, Compass offers a variety of places to check on crime trends from mapping to crime statistics to accident information. 2) www.milwaukee.gov/police - This is the Police Departments home page, which is updated daily. You can check under “MPD News” for the latest authorized releases by the Department. You can also access Compass from this web page. In addition the District will send out e-notify alerts when a particular trend has been detected or to provide information regarding arrests and other information that is believed would be useful for residents of the District to know about.
Q: Do you plan to re-redistrict the eastside and other parts of the city to eliminate the “hot spots” and reunite the eastside? What role do you see for meditation conflict resolution in community policing?
A: Yes, a changing of the district boundaries is being looked at. However, there is not a firm time line set. The Department is constantly looking at ways to improve our ability to reduce fear, crime and disorder. The evaluation process of the entire Department is an on going. Meditation conflict resolution certainly plays a role in community policing. Officers engage in it daily. In addition the city offers special meditation for such things as landlord tenant disputes. This allows matters to be settled without the criminal justice system having to be accessed. In addition there are any number of public and private entities, which offer meditation, that officers make referrals to daily.
Q: As Chief, what are your expectations of an MPD district station Community Liaison Officer, and how they are to interact with their assigned residents and Neighborhood Associations?
A: District Five’s Community Liaison Officer (CLO) is an integral part of the District’s operation. Our CLO, Raymond Robakowski, organizes block watch groups, attends neighborhood association meetings, assists in the crime analysis efforts, works closely with the Community Prosecution Unit, other city agencies and the alderpersons office. In addition he is available to provide presentations on various topics relating to crime prevention and nuisance abatement. These services are available at no charge to any citizen, group or business in District Five. He also heads up the monthly District crime reduction meeting open to all residents. He is supported in these efforts by CLO Roberta Klein. The District Five Community Liaison officer’s direct line is 935-7258.
Q: Why can’t our NA’s get weekly crime information from MPD other than what Milwaukee’s E-Notify publishes? E-Notify does not alert us to crime trends, nor does it provide suspect information or method of how crimes are committed. This information is vital for NA’s to take a proactive united front against crimes like robbery, burglary and theft.
A: The answer to this question is similar to the answer provided to the first question. Fiscal ramifications certainly play a very large part in how much approved data and information can be evaluated and released in “real time”. Given today’s technological advancements information can be obtained on any number of subjects in almost an instant. I certainly understand the need and desire to have this same capability as it relates to information about crime. However, the Department currently releases more information in a more timely manner than at any other time in our history. We will always continue to improve our ability to deliver detailed timely information.
Q: Can MPD collaborate with UW-PD and Shorewood PD to discuss use of Surveillance cameras at key businesses or intersections where crime issues are Frequent?
A: We can and have collaborated with both agencies in the past and I fully anticipate collaborating with them in the future. The question of surveillance cameras has a fiscal impact on all three agencies and that is something that would need to be addressed with each agency themselves. The City of Milwaukee has several cameras throughout the city. The expansion of this program is dependent on funding issues.
Q: How often is the e-notify updated with crime data? Are there restrictions or is all crime data sent out?
A: The e-notify crime data is updated daily. The only data, which is authorized to be down loaded, is official Department Reports. An official report is one, which has been approved by the officer who filed it, then approved by a supervisor and finally approved by the Central Records Division. The report is then “frozen” into the database. This is when the City’s computer mine’s the data. Raw intelligence and sensitive reports are not accessed. Obviously e-notify does not provide an in-depth detailed report of the crime. There are two main reasons for this, first the system required to handle that amount of data would be cost prohibitive. Secondly many reports are required to be and are heavily redacted. Such as all reports involving juveniles ,sexual assaults, confidential informant information, undercover officers and items that would relate to domestic security. It is important to remember that many investigations start out looking one way and end up very different once all the facts come to light. These are the reasons that only official Department Reports are accessed.
Q: What on-going work is there on the IT system?
A: The department has entered into a partnership with two private IT firms, Medavante and Syslogic. These firms, at no cost to the taxpayers, are assisting us in getting the most out of our existing systems and will advise us on what up dates we should be looking at. The key here is that expects in the field are for the first time being tapped to ensure that we get the biggest bang possible for the taxpayers dollars provided to us.