Public Safety Committee - Regular Meeting

Good morning. Welcome to the Friday, 02/20/2026, 9AM meeting of the city of Milwaukee Common Council Public Safety and Health Committee. I am Alderman Peter Bergelis filling in for Chair Scott Spiker, who is joining us virtually on the Board. We're also joined by Alderman Larissa Taylor to my right. To my far left, Alderman Charlene Moore, of course our staff assistant Joanna Ortiz, Alderman Mark Chambers, welcome to the committee.

He is excused for today. Our first agenda item or is file number two five one seven one six, an ordinance relating to parking controls. Welcome DPW. Please introduce yourself and introduce our first item.

Alright. Good morning to the chair and also to the the committee. I am Kyle Pfeiffer from the

oh, here. You pulled it a little closer. A little closer. Right.

Here you go.

Hear me now. Good. I'm Kyle Pfeiffer from the Department of Public Works. First item to discuss will be a ordinance relating to parking controls. This ordinance will make some changes to the parking regulations.

Specifically, the there's gonna be two changes. First will be a change to the parking from North of North Avenue to its dead end. It's currently marked no parking. This will allow for parking to a point slightly to the north of north to that dead end to allow for parking in the parking spaces next to the apartment buildings there. And the second change in this ordinance will be to change the half hour parking on Clyde Ward Street between 17th And 18th Street from half hour to two hour parking. So that way the students will be able to attend lectures and park there.

Yes. Also, rush for lunch at miss Katie's diner. My good.

Hope that as well. We are of support to recommend passage of the ordinance. I'm available questions regarding this.

These were coordinated with the local elders for those districts? That's correct. Excellent. Any questions on these two items? No. 251716. No. No questions from committee. Alderman Taylor moves adoption moves passage. Hearing no objections, so ordered. Moving on to item number two, file two five one seven one nine, an ordinance related to traffic controls.

Alright. Item two is another ordinance for traffic controls. This one will change the stop signs. It will add a stop signs on North 91st Street at Our Avenue, making it a two way stop and it will make the following locations all way stops. This will be Holt Avenue and 55th Street, Holt Avenue and 57th Street, Holt Avenue and 47th Street, Keith Avenue and 91st Street, and Ohio Avenue and 55th Street. This has all been coordinated with the aldermans. They support it. We recommend the passage of this ordinance.

Thank you very much. I will mention that three of these traffic traffic controls border Lions Park in the best district in the entire city on the 11th Aldermanic District. Lions

Park. And

I as the local elder there, that park has reactivated with a a friends group in the last couple of years. Yeah. That park is a lot more active. There are a lot more people going there. And frankly, I was astounded that someone hadn't stolen a stop sign and put it on their on the wall in their garage because how could we not have stop signs at crosswalks Right. Next to parks in the middle of neighborhoods. So thank you to the friends group for Yes. Supporting this. Thank you to the department for swiftly installing these, and we will patiently wait for better weather to mark those mark the rest of those crosswalks with crosswalk paint when the weather does improve. Any comments or discussion on this item?

Hearing none, Alderman Moore moves passage. Hearing no objections, so ordered. Thanks so very much. Alright. For the stop signs.

Thank you.

Item number three, file two five one three five three. Reappointment of Byron Marshall Junior to the Safety and Civic Commission by the mayor. Welcome, miss Davis.

Good morning. Amber Daniels, council liaison for mayor Johnson. Mayor Johnson is honored to continue to also he hopes to reappoint, excuse me, Byron Marshall Junior. I'm not equipped with his attendance records but my understanding is with a reappointment as long as everything's okay, he does not he's not required to appear.

Correct. And we do have the attendance record in the file, one excused absence, and seven attended meetings of eight. Any comments or questions on this reappointment? Mister chair. Alderman Spiker.

Is mister Marshall, I've met him before. It's been a while. Is he the chair of the commission?

Thank you. We

don't have an answer. Alderman Spiker.

I believe he is. And I am looking at the ordinance creating the safety and civic commission, and it's in the ordinance that each year with the assistance of the police department and DPW, the commission shall submit to the council three reports. I don't think we've had an annual report since most members have joined. So I think we need to hear the reports about what the commission's been up to before we go reappointing people, especially the chair. So I've moved to hold at the appropriate time so we

can at least hear

that report and hear what they've been up to, if anything.

Okay. And I recall that we've had reports scheduled but delayed. Okay. What what is the will of the body?

Mister chair.

Alderman Moore.

Just a question of clarity. Do we need to have the delay in as far as the reappointment in order? Do one have to happen before the other? And maybe. Well,

yeah, they serve in the role till they're substituted. So, this won't change anything on the ground. He'll still be in the role.

Do we know when the term expires? Yeah.

I don't have it with me. Okay. It

already expired, I believe.

Under I move

for

Can we I'm sorry. What?

Can we still move for approval and just do a communication file for that report?

Yeah. Think there are files that are in the hopper that

already filled. Okay. Yeah.

I would, Mr. Chair, on the motion

Alderman to We don't so you're making a motion to hold?

Yeah, and I'd like to speak on that

motion. Okay.

So I would urge committee members that we hold this because we shouldn't be approving members to a committee if we don't know if that commission is doing anything and even should exist. If you look at the details of what the commission's ambit or goals are, they some of them have been taken over by the Vision Zero stuff. So this was put in by my predecessor, Alderman Wodkowski, in collaboration with then president Hamilton. Mhmm. Wodkowski had some reservations, you know, towards the end, whether they were actually accomplishing anything, I think we definitely need to take a close look at this.

This should not be business as usual. We should see whether they're actually accomplishing any anything, and it may be that what they're doing is duplicative now that this vision zero stuff has taken root. So I would urge us to hold off till we know what's going on. Thanks.

Mister chair.

Okay. So the a motion to hold supersede Alderman Taylor's motion to confirm.

Yeah. I would I would support. I would support that hold. That that makes sense what my colleague is is sharing and thank you for that insight, Alderman Spiker.

And then we did take a look at Legistar. It looks like the term for this person expired 10/02/2020.

2020? 2020?

That's what we have in Legislature. Legislature may not be accurate or updated

but Typically,

Legislature isn't updated but I can get, I will get that record. Yeah.

That's our public record. Okay. So, we have a motion to hold any discussion on that motion? Nope. Alderman Spiker moves to hold. Any objections to that motion to hold? No. Hearing none, so ordered. We will revisit this hopefully swiftly at the next meeting. Moving on. Item four, file two five one four nine two, appointment of Elizabeth Mueller to the Milwaukee Commission on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. Please join us. And that is someone from OCWS here to present. Or introduce.

Okay.

Good morning.

Welcome back. Miss Dennis, please introduce yourself and introduce Sarah Pointy.

Thank you. Good morning, Amber Daniels, council liaison, for mayor Johnson. Here to introduce miss Elizabeth Mueller who the mayor has decided to nominate as an appointee to the Milwaukee Commission on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. So, mister chair, I'll

turn it

over to you.

Thank you very much. Please introduce yourself and, tell us why you wanna, serve the city on this commission.

My name is Elizabeth Miller. I'm a deputy district attorney. I oversee our children's division at Children's Court. The ordinance actually requires that someone from the district attorney's office children's division be on the committee. I have served on the committee in the past starting in about 2015. You're talking before about somebody's appointment terminating around 2020. That sounds about right for my appointment as well right around COVID. Everything shifted and I think there's just been an issue with appointments. I heard you asking questions about the previous committee. This committee does meet regularly recently. I want to say in October suspended meetings until everyone could be reappointed but there are ongoing subcommittee meetings as well.

Excellent. Any questions for the nominee For the appointee? No. Thank

you. Thank you

for your service.

All right. Alderwoman Moore moves confirmation. Hearing no objections so ordered. Congratulations.

Thank you. You. You. Thank

you. Moving on to item number five, file two five one three zero two, appointment of my Matthew Torbenson to the Milwaukee Commission on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault by the mayor. And we are joined virtually by someone looks like Matthew Torbenson. Torbinson. Welcome.

Danis, do you want to introduce your nominee?

Again, good morning. Amber Daniels. I'm here to introduce mayor's nominee, mister Matthew Torbinson. So, I'll turn it over to you,

mister chair. Welcome, mister Torbinson. Please, introduce yourself. Give us your brief history and, why you wanna participate on the commission.

Good morning. Thank you for allowing me to appear via Zoom. I have been a deputy district attorney in the Milwaukee High District Attorney's Office since 2016. I've been a prosecutor for twenty two years total. I supervise our sense of crimes unit, our domestic violence unit, and our child protection and advocacy unit, and directly handle child homicides related to child maltreatment that occur in Milwaukee County. I'm devoted to confronting the issue of domestic violence within our community. I've served on the commission in the past, and I'm a proud Milwaukee Milwaukee public school graduate. So for all those reasons, think I should be allowed to serve on this committee.

Public school graduation is not a criteria for elected office or Milwaukee public school, but you're welcome anyway. Yes. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for those comments. Any questions from committee members? No.

Thank you for your service.

Thank you.

Thank you and welcome aboard.

Alderman Taylor moves confirmation hearing no objections so ordered. Thank you very much. Welcome. Thank you. Moving on item six, file two five one two nine eight. Appointment of Sheraine Horn to the Milwaukee Commission on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault by the mayor.

Mister chair, Amber Daniels, introducing Sheraine Horn to as the mayor's nominee. Mister chair.

Good morning, Sheraine. Please introduce yourself. Tell us your history

and why you would like to serve on the commission.

Good morning. I'm Sheraine Horn. I've had a name change since that name. It's Lopez now, but I am also a City Of Milwaukee resident. I live in the Harambee neighborhood. I've been a City Milwaukee resident all of my life. Professionally, I work for Advocate Aurora Health Care. I'm Associate Vice President of Trauma Safety and Healing Services, so I get to oversee forensic nursing programs across Wisconsin and Illinois. I'm a forensic nurse examiner certified. I've been a forensic nurse examiner since 2002.

And prior to working as a registered nurse, worked as a police officer for the city of Milwaukee. So for those reasons, I would like to continue my appointment as commissioner.

Excellent. All right. And Lopez, l o p e z? That's correct. All right. So Alderman Moore will move to amend the letter of appointment to Sherain Lopez, reflecting the name change. Hearing no objections so ordered. Any questions on the on for this appointment? Mister

chair, I do have a really quick question. What does a forensic nurse do?

Yeah. So we serve all victims of intentional violence. So it could be gunshot victims, human trafficking, sexual assault, domestic violence, those type of victims.

Wow. Mhmm. Thank you for what you do. No. Thank you. Alright. Thank you, mister chair.

Older woman Taylor.

So, move for confirmation.

Older woman Taylor move for confirmation. Any any objections to that motion? Hearing none. It's ordered. Welcome. Thank you very much for your service.

Thank you.

Thank you, Sheraine. Okay, Brad.

Moving on. Item seven, file 251297, appointment of Carrie Scott Haney to the Milwaukee Commission on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault by the mayor.

Hello, lovely. Good morning. Morning.

Mister New Year, Amber Daniels, mayor's nominee, miss Carrie Scott Haney and I'll turn it over to you.

Welcome. Please introduce yourself and tell us about your history and why you like to serve on the commission.

My name is Carrie Scott Haney. I am Native American. I work with Ann Black And I work with Gerald l igneous Indian Health Center on the South Side Of Milwaukee. I've been sitting on the commission since 2018. I lost my daughter to domestic violence in 2017, and I have a passion and commitment to serving the city and preventing such crimes to come forward.

Excellent. Any questions or discussion?

Mister chair.

Alderman with more.

Just wanna say so sorry for the loss of your daughter but thank you for using that energy, you know, to to do this work. Welcome to the team and I move confirmation. Definitely. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other discussion? Alderman Moore moves confirmation hearing no objections ordered. Thank you so much. Welcome. Item eight. On our agenda to file two five one six six eight communication from communication relating to Operation Safe Haven and its work supporting veterans with post traumatic stress disorder. This is sponsored by alder Woman Taylor.

Yep. And I move to hold that item. The person did not have enough time to prepare.

So for general Pull your mic up.

The next

We can't hear you. Oh.

Oh, I'm sorry. I move to hold item number eight.

All room Taylor moves to hold. Any discussion on that motion? Hearing none, so ordered. We'll hear it. Next time. Moving on. Item nine, file two five one seven six six resolution approving an agreement between the Milwaukee Police Department and Milwaukee World Festival Inc regarding extra duty police services. Welcome chief of staff Huff.

Good morning, everyone. We are here today to have the council do a resolution to approve the receipt of funding for any officers who sign up for extra duty agreements for world festivals, summer fest this year. It's an annual resolution we make. The cost is anticipated that they will be paying us to exceed $176,834 Any

questions or discussion on this item? Mr. Chair? Alderman Moore.

Just really quick. Heather, so the this is overtime. This is officers that have extra time that want to sign up. Is that typically how this works? Correct.

So extra duty agreements are posted and then individuals who choose to sign up, for those can, to staff events like summer fest or other things around the city. And then they're paid, at a rate with an administrative fee, for those services by, in this case, World Festival.

Is it for all of them? Like, you know, we all all the different festivals, it it does that include is that incorporated to everything that happens on the Summerfest grounds?

This particular agreement is only for Summerfest, but we do enter into contracts, special duty agreements, extra duty agreements, excuse me, with all of the different festivals.

Got it. Thank you so much. Yes. Uh-huh.

So so anything under $50.00 the department can administratively enter into an agreement on their own because this one is far more than that. That's why it's before us today.

Correct.

Alright. And then the extra duty agreements, that's overtime for the officers.

Correct.

Right. And then a 10% administrative surcharge for processing stuff. Correct. And equipment they're using. And these earnings for the officers, they're still pensionable wages, right?

I believe so under the new retirement system but I am not very knowledgeable on that topic.

But the agreement covers just the wages per se, none of the long term pension costs?

I the agreement, yes, only covers those wages for overtime.

Okay. So I think that might be

a discussion. We'll flag that for follow-up later on. Any other questions or discussion on this contract?

Move for approval.

Mr. Chairman? Alderman Spiker?

Yeah. No. That you raised an excellent point, which is so has the department in consultation with the city attorney's office ever discussed the pensionable aspect of this because that's the gift that we'll keep on giving for the city, and we're paying an ever growing share. So has that been we're not gonna settle that here, but has that even been broached in discussions in the past?

I don't believe so, Alderman.

All right. Well, we better approach it. Okay. Thanks.

All right.

Thanks, Alderman.

All right. Thank you for that. Alderman Taylor moved.

Sorry. Guess can you make sure that you get back to us and let us know for sure if that

Sure. The question well, I know for sure that these extra duty agreements only cover the expenses for overtime. Question, I would just need clarity on on what information that I am to provide to this body.

Yeah, I think that would be a a communication file sometime in the future. Okay.

Yeah. And clarity is whether or not that cost that is not incurred by the city but by summer fast. Right? That they're paying for that overtime. But whether or not that payment is still going to

is still going to be part of.

Affect the city's long term liabilities on Yeah. The

Correct. Pitching. Yeah.

Yeah. Mister chair. Alderman Spiker.

Yeah. And I

believe the reason this is this matters is with Seamers, the old retirement system, which most officers are still under, overtime was not pensionable. But under the WRS, which applies to, you know, the newer employees post act 12, that's all pensionable, that overtime. So that's the cost that we continue to bear. So we may need to change the agreement or seek to at least discuss change it, given that those are new costs that we would bear in the new system. So it's an excellent point.

So I will work with Alder Berglaus who who raised the point and is taking point on this to draft a letter to get something more formal to Director Huff, our Chief of Staff Huff about what the exact information request is here.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank

you. Alright. Alderwoman Taylor has moved adoption. Any discussion on that motion? Any objection? Hearing none, so ordered. Thank you very much. And we'll be in touch. Moving on to item number 10, file two five one seven three five, resolution authorizing the Milwaukee Fire Department to amend the private ambulance service provider agreements for emergency services in certain areas of the city of Milwaukee. Welcome chief Parrish.

Good morning. This is chief Joshua Parrish from Milwaukee Fire Department. The item before you is our annual amendment to the subsidy agreement that we have with the private fighters. For a little bit of historical context. This is something that we did in the effort to stabilize the system. It is renewed annually. It has a slight inflationary marker forward. So each annual renewment has a new amount and that's kind of it. Open for any questions you may have.

All right. Any questions on this item?

No. All

right. Alder, no questions. Thank you chief for being here. Alderman Spiker moves adoption. Any discussion on that motion? Hearing none. Any objection? Hearing none. It's so ordered. Thank you very much. Have a

great day.

Thank you. Moving on. Final number 11. I don't know. Do we need to take a thirty minute recess got?

Listen. No. No.

Maybe next time.

Alright. Let's keep it going. Keep it working. We'll through. We'll push through. File, item number 11, file 251,407, substitute resolution directing the health department to collaborate with the Department of Employee Relations to develop strategies to prevent clinic closures due to staffing shortages. More. This is sponsored by Alder Woman Cogs.

Thought it

was

Cogs and More.

This is Cogs and Moore?

Or is it just No. It's just Cogs. Just Cogs. Okay.

I know older woman Cogs is out this week.

Should we hold?

So Yeah. We will I think it would be prudent to

Yep.

Hold this. Okay. Alderman Moore moves to hold item 11. Perfect. Any discussion on that? Hearing none. Any objection? Hearing none, so order. Item 12. Communication or item 12. File 251684. Communication from the Department of Administration relating to its Vision Zero Annual Report. We might need to take a recess because we're moving ahead of schedule.

No Vision Zero people?

I think that's here. Here.

Okay. I spoke with Jessica yesterday. She was going to be here.

Can we what do we do when we have to come back

to it? We temporarily hold it. Yes. Can we temporarily All the women more moved to temporarily hold item 12.

12?

Yeah. Hearing no objections. So ordered, we'll come back to that here shortly if We can reach out to Jessica. Alright. I guess we need to slow down and enjoy that sip of coffee and move on to our next Item on the agenda. Yeah. File number or item number 13. File two five zero nine five three. A substitute ordinance relating to the creation of a Department of Community Wellness and Safety. This is sponsored by Alder Spiker and Moore. We'll start with the sponsors, if the sponsors would like to introduce the file.

I'd I'd hand it off to my able colleague, Alderman Moore.

Thank you so much, Alderman Spiker. So, there's been lots of conversation in regards to moving our office to a department. And I think there's just definitely one clarity that I I want to make because there's been some sort of in the news, you know, where you don't have all the information or where it's shared by particular people, misinformation. One

of

the things that we wanted to make sure that we have is an opportunity for community to be engaged. Engaged in a process. I want to mimic or highlight the process that the housing authority has been going through to with their nomination of their executive director or the new secretary executive where we have had community forums. We've made sure residents were aware and got input like there's this entire process especially with departments that are really prominent, you know, to us. And so that transparency is important.

The the last process done by the mayor's office was sort of scapegoated in in instead of it being, you know, just having very clear very clear information back out to the public on the process. They chose an individual now because we moved the department from an office to a department. That individual based on their background based on Adam's background unfortunately office appointed the interim director, miss Karen Tyler. And so we wanted to make sure that this sort of process didn't happen again. And so that was one of the reason I joined Alderman Spiker in moving to having confirmation power so that we can make this a transparent process process for community.

I think we owe community that much. And so I know miss Tyler has been setting up meetings with council members. I hope that those that are interested schedule some time to connect with her. Yesterday she had a community meeting at missing peace collective. Thank you Natalie for hosting hosting that particular community meeting at your space.

And I'm hoping that miss Tyler gets an opportunity to also get on Michelle Bryant show WNOV twelve ninety. So I say all that to say. I think we're looking for an update. I think that's what this Alderman Spiker correct me if I'm wrong. This particular file today is is looking for an is to codify the the what we have put into statue. Am I correct in saying that?

Yes, ma'am. This is just following up on what we agreed to in the budget. In the budget, we created the position for the new department and this is just at the city attorney surging making it part of the code.

Perfect. Excellent. Amber, you are at the table. Is there anything that you want to want to add?

No. Well, Amber Daniels.

Amber. Is there anything you'd like to add?

Yes. Amber Dania, council liaison, Demir Johnson. No. Just wanted to speak to the fact that, since the budget was adopted in November, various departments have been working really diligently to make sure that the transition from office to department is happening. They continue to do so, and that's our update.

Are you running the presentation? No. It's it'll be the next item. You. No. You're good. Okay. That's it.

Okay. I I do remember there was some discussion in the media that because it was a department the the previous director was ineligible but later the city attorney's office also did clarify that an office or department head would not have been eligible with that history. For the record. Any other comments or discussion on this item? Alright.

Alderman Moore moves passage of the new ordinance creating the Department of Community Wellness and Safety. And it will be referred to the committee on to the steering and rules committee as well. Any discussion on that motion? Any objection? Hearing none. So ordered. See you in steering and rules. Alderman, Taylor moves to reconsider item 12, file two five one six eight four. Alderman Spiker?

Yeah. Sorry. So I wasn't aware, and I'm not sure why there would be a referral to steering and rules. Is there a reason that got put in there? Because I wasn't notified of that.

At the president's office.

Because that'll push us back another cycle since we just had steering in Rosa instead of addressing it.

Alderman Spiker? Yeah. I received notification from the president's office to do such.

Alright. Well, I'll get it sorted

email as well.

Yep. I'll get it sorted out before the end of the meeting. Alright. Thanks.

Very good. So, Alderman Taylor has moved to reconsider item 12, file two five one six eight four, communication from the Department of Administration relating to its Vision Zero Annual Report. Hearing no objections so ordered, we are now so we now have Item 12, file two hundred fifty one thousand six eighty four, communication from the Department of Administration relating to its Vision Zero Annual Report before us. Welcome, Director.

Good morning. I'm Jessica Weinberg, the Policy Director for the City of Milwaukee Vision Zero and really appreciate this opportunity. Thank you, members of the committee. So the quick take on Vision Zero and our twenty twenty five report is that it really seems to be that Vision Zero is working and we are seeing a major decline in traffic deaths. I do want to put a little asterisk by that.

In that, our traffic data is preliminary until June of the following year and so there could be minor fluctuations, but we still feel like there will be a decline no matter what. But just know that these some of these numbers could change. So overall Vision Zero is working. The community is really engaged. We are doing a lot of education and so many departments across the city are taking action and we think that's what's leading to the reduction in traffic fatalities are North Star number.

So in 2025, the preliminary numbers that twenty four people died in traffic crashes. Of course, this is still fifty four. I'm so sorry. Fifty four. And this is still a tragedy, but it is a great improvement over seventy for the year before.

I also wanna note that, as a Vision Zero program, we do not count interstate deaths or serious injuries. Those are really outside of the control of city policies. So all the data in the Vision Zero action plan and that I will be reporting on in general does not include interstate deaths. So a big step for us this year was adopting the Vision Zero plan and then having it recognized by the Vision Zero network as a plan that met their very strict criteria for being high quality and based on the safe systems principles. So we're very proud of that.

We got our dot added to this map. We could not have been added to this map until we had our plan adopted. This has been a goal since the city adopted the policy of Vision Zero. But as Vision Zero gets adopted in more and more cities, the finish line gets moved a little and you have to do more and more to get on this map and can be considered a true Vision Zero city where it's not just a slogan, but it's really transforming how business is done. And I'm proud to say the city of Milwaukee was able to receive that.

So many departments are taking lots of actions. I don't want to read simply what's in the report, but just about every city department is taking action on Vision Zero and it's that layered approach that really is getting us to change. Local elected leaders, of course, are also playing a major role, the common counsel, attorney Goyke, local judges, all of that. Everybody is focused on Vision Zero and in that example, prosecuting reckless driving citations to the fullest extent. I thought maybe there would be some questions about some of the data.

So this is the first portion of our snapshot on 2025 data. We'll do a fuller and complete version of this in the middle of the summer when the state certifies the data. But you can see that deaths have gone down. Why is this 2024? Saying 2024.

I'm so sorry. There's something wrong here. This is one year before. The general picture is still the same, but I'm so sorry this is the last year is not added, but this would be '54 and this would be about 03/24. Most of our deaths are still on the high injury network.

That's our 10% of streets. One issue that happened in 2025 is that we have our first ATV deaths that I'm aware of and sadly there were two. And because of the nature of those did occur on the city streets, so those counted in our numbers. Going on to educating the community, we had over 8,300 people directly educated about Vision Zero and our media campaign was able to have 150 impressions. So we think changing the street designs

150,000,000 impressions.

150,000,000 impressions. I'm sorry. I'm nervous and go fast. We partnered with the Bike Fed and many other groups to have that be effective. And then just lastly, I want to highlight it is our partnerships that really make all of this happen. The Coalition for Safe Driving is a wonderful partner highlighting the World Day of Remembrance. There's a quilt hanging right now as part of the quilt display that was made by victims of traffic violence to remember their lost loved ones. That coalition organized and created that. The Andrew Center for Restorative Justice is putting together a restorative justice program for adjudicated youth. On and on, as you can see, there's really good partnerships.

One of the last ones I'd like to highlight is that our state partners, especially Senator Dora Drake and Tomchuk, were able to introduce and then have a hearing for the traffic safety camera bill, which is the most critical tool that we are not able to use in the city of Milwaukee that could reduce traffic fatalities by fifty percent saving, you know, twenty five lives at our current numbers. But we were able to get a hearing in Milwaukee. The room was packed and really showed how deep the support is and I want to thank the elders including, I don't if you're the chair today, chair Bergelis. Elder Bergelis for testifying at that meeting. And that oh, what's next?

It's a it's just an interruption and an aside. I think that's a great example of the collaborative spirit of the council. Alderman Chambers and myself both testified there. I wanna make sure he gets his credit. Senator Johnson also cosponsored that legislation. We had one senator from outside of Milwaukee, a little bit of my district that was trying to push city leaders, including the mayor and the police chief, and the the fire captain who was there. I believe it was a a captain, and, tried to criticize traffic cameras. And, the police chief very squarely said, no. That is incorrect. This is needed.

This is this doesn't replace police officers. This allows us to do our job better and more efficiently. And, you know, the legislative session in Madison ended yesterday and with great results for traffic cameras in the city of Milwaukee, the legislature did what?

They didn't pass it.

It did nothing. It did not bring that vote that bipartisan bill to a vote, which is very, very disappointing. But we do hold our legislators accountable and the best way to do that is at the ballot box and the next election is in November. Moving on, sorry for that aside and that interruption.

No, not at all.

But all right. Next steps?

Yes. So the key next step that I want to highlight, again, there's more details in the report, but we are planning a Vision Zero Summit on June 10 at Milwaukee Central Library both for community members, city staff, other professionals who work in the space. We really hope it's community and professionals learning from each other and together. So it'll be a free all day event, June 6 at Milwaukee Central Library. And that that will be a yeah a wonderful place to to learn more. Are there any questions?

Yeah. We will go pass

it on to the committee. Any comments or questions from committee members?

Sorry. My chair was short. I appreciate all the the work that you do. I mean, you see the necessity for it every single day that we're driving up and down our streets. So just thank you so much for the diligence that you have towards doing the work.

Yeah. And thank you to all the elders who get the bulk of the complaints on a day to day basis. I know that's a lot to handle, but I hope you can know in your brain and your heart that what we're doing is making a difference. It's worth it. It's saving lives. We'll all go a little bit slower, but many less of us will die. And I appreciate, like, you are on the front lines of having those conversations, I really appreciate it.

Briefly, we'll have the an updated corrective report sent out committee and added to the file for for archival purposes. Older woman more.

Yeah. Yeah. Jessica, I just want to say thank you and the team. You know, this is I I want to concur with Alderman Bergales in reference to this is definitely a collaborative effort. There's not one entity that can bring us to zero, and that's the Northern Star. We want zero deaths here in the city of Milwaukee. So we're gonna continue to partner, continue to collaborate, continue to educate, and continue to do as much as we can to slow people down even though we do get the complaints. But, you know, at the end of the day, if it if it means that it saves a life a life or lives, then it will be all worth it. So thank you again for your leadership.

Thank

you. I will as a precursor to Vision Zero, I will share a a favorite memory of a neighborhood meeting at school on 40 off of 43rd Street where the discussion was to restrike 43rd Street from four lanes to two. Mhmm. And one person said one member from the community stood up and said, I don't care if someone doesn't lose their life. I wanna get home and have my commute ninety seconds shorter.

And with that perspective, we do recognize there is a diversity of, commitment to public safety in our community. Some people just want to get home sooner but that's okay. They are not charged with the responsibility of protecting our residents and our public. I did want to to ask about the data and how we compare with other newly implemented Vision Zero cities. And then also, you know, because we're a little late, not late, but we're later in the game compared to a lot of other cities that have adopted Vision Zero. How has our data compared to other cities that have newly implemented Vision Zero?

I have not been able to do that analysis. I would be happy to bring that to a future meeting.

And that might be worthwhile to do next year when we have a little bit more, when we have three or four years worth of data. And then compared to other peer cities, what are other cities in the Vision Zero network experiencing? Are they also getting results similar to ours? Are they doing better than we are? Or

Yeah. I have an unscientific answer to that. I am on a listserv of Vision Zero.

This is government. We're not scientific.

Yeah. We do the best we can and lots of natural experiments. So I'm on a Vision Zero listserv and someone put out the question, how is everybody's 2025 data looking now that you have decent preliminary numbers to look at? And many places are having some major decreases. Ours is twenty three percent.

We decreased deaths twenty three percent from 2025 compared to 2024. Many places were having like around 10 or 12. So I'm really proud of where we are at. But I will say nobody responded to that question saying, no, I'm not having that sort of decline and it was a small sample size, but it is really helpful. We are all instituting many of the same strategies, although we work in very different political and legal frameworks. But knowing that what what we're doing is working, it's working in other places, but we actually have one of the biggest declines. Maybe we had a higher place to come from, you know, many places are in in a different context.

Mhmm.

And Hoboken, New Jersey, for example, has actually achieved vision zero and been doing it for nine years in a row. Wow. They are, you know, a much smaller city than us but very dense and it's really, you know, proof in the North American context you can do this.

And sidewalks in Hoboken are right next to the street too. Okay. Any other comments on Vision Spyder?

Mr. Chair.

Alderman Spyder. Sorry, we have the presentation up. Can't see see the floor.

Yeah. I can't see anything either.

I don't know how to

close it. Should I close it? Does that help?

No. Because you're Sure. Taking that's okay. Alderman Spiker, you have the floor.

Yeah. The staff assistant can help things. We don't have to do everything ourselves here. So the Vision Zero thing, when it was first announced, And that's only the

we

So one thing, I guess, I've always been mindful of with the program is I wanna know what's marketing and what's making a difference. And it seems presumptuous in the extreme to chart the decrease in traffic fatalities and hook that to the Vision Zero partnerships. I should think that if we had come in high, we would not be claiming the failure of the program, but just the attractability of the problem. So there's I know we aren't scientific exactly in government, but we should at least try. And there's no analysis given to suggest that the Vision Zero program in its infancy infancy has resulted in a twenty three percent decrease in traffic fatalities.

I think that's very presumptuous. And when I look at what the Vision Zero, you know, I'm a supporter of the program and that, but I would also like to not just believe it because I wanna believe it. I wanna actually have some evidence. So I'm not sure which of the things that are linked under the vision zero accomplishments are things that wouldn't have happened anyway. The business about the police and the unlicensed drivers, that wouldn't have happened if it weren't for myself and James Stratton getting on the police department about unlicensed drivers in the loophole there.

The whole blood thing with the chief and the fire department, that would have happened anyway. The the place where I guess I see you guys as having more of an impact is the DPW mindset change. I'm not sure that that wouldn't have changed anyway due to the complete streets approach, but it certainly is welcome to it do is that make people's lives a little bit slower, but ultimately, is you know, can save lives. But we should have some data to back that up, that we should be presenting that. So again, I I don't mean to cast too much cold water here, but I really don't think we could claim victory at this point, even that the decrease has anything to do with the Vision Zero program.

The big piece that was really different, I thought, was the marketing campaign, the vision, the speeding we can live without it, which I thought was creative. But what I've always wondered about these campaigns is are we reaching the people who we need to reach? And, Ms. Weinberg and I have discussed ad nauseam, don't just think of, you know, speeding and reckless driving as a they problem. It's a you problem. We all speed. We all need to be more mindful. And, you know, you don't have to go 80 miles an hour to kill somebody. You can go 30 miles an hour. So I guess if I'm I'm lurching towards a question, it would be this.

Do we have any evidence at all about the effectiveness of our media program? And if so, what metrics have we tried to collect, not just of activities that we've done, but results that we've obtained from that marketing campaign?

Yes. I would say there's some good data points that underlie my assertion, but I am simply stating that I think the association between the decline and our ongoing efforts is having an impact and that as a leader working to maintain both public and internal support, it's essential that we celebrate our successes to do this hard work and keep going. And so that's one point. I will say DPW has been collecting some really important data about their traffic calming projects initially. Right after they do a project, The first data they can collect is only speed related data.

It takes a longer amount of time to have sufficient crash data to be able to see if your projects are having an impact on crashes. They are just now able to have enough time from some of our early traffic calming projects to see a true decline in crashes and Lapham, for example, like there's no fatalities on that street since it's been redesigned and there had been before. So I don't have like pure scientific proof. I would need a huge team to really be teasing that apart. But using the best information we have, data that we have locally, national data, I want to, also add in that the fire department has started carrying whole blood.

That's a countermeasure that's estimated to save fifty percent of people that are able to receive it and it's mostly gunshot victims and car crash victims who are the recipients of that in the field. They are still working on that program and don't have hard data yet but the national number says that's the kind of reduction we can have and they are implementing it. And so I think those it's the layered approach of all these things together that come that ends up with our decline and it's a very complicated scientific problem to really tease all of that out but if that's a place we want to invest resources we certainly can and have more answers

pushed for the whole blood thing regardless of whether vision zero existed or not. I mean, as you mentioned, gunshot wound victims benefit as well as crash victims, and that should have been evident to the chief regardless of whether Vision Zero was there. But to the point which I've heard with the police department too, who have, I guess, less of an excuse than you all do, yeah, big data projects effectiveness of a program probably aren't something we have in house resources to do. But look around, we have research universities in this town that we should have much closer connections to. And we can't just throw our because we're entering very dangerous budget territories where programs that you know sound good and seem like they're pushing in the right direction might not be able to be funded unless they can prove their effectiveness.

So I would think for this program to show its worth over time, we would view as existential to that, that we collaborate with some of our partners maybe on the downside of the town and gown divide to evaluate some of these programs. And I'd be happy to facilitate. I've been working studiously to build connections with some of the universities in town. So if if we all agree that to analyze these programs that can't be done in house, then please feel free to partner with me, and I'll do what I can to reach out the university side of things to get, you know, a professor or a grad student or somebody who needs to develop some of these research skills to use our program as a test case. So I would just urge us not to always think we have to do it in house or else we don't do it at all.

Thank you.

All right. Thank you for that. And I will note 150,000,000 impressions. I feel like I've seen Vision Zero images throughout the city no less than 300 times myself. So I think that has really made an impact for awareness. How awareness translates to results, that's always the challenge. Any other questions or comments for discussion on Vision Zero?

Nope.

Alright. Hearing none, Alderman Spiker moves to place this item on file. Hearing no objections, so ordered. Thank you very much for your hard work.

Thank you. Thank you.

Mr. Chair, before we move on to the next item.

Alderman Smiker.

I would move reconsideration of the file pertaining to the transition to Department of Community Wellness and Safety. I did speak to the president. There was miscommunication.

Think was all the speakers moved reconsideration of item number 13, file two five zero nine five three, the substitute ordinance relating to the creation of the Department of Community Wellness and Safety. Any objection to that motion to reconsider? What reconsider? I'm sorry.

I'm new. Recon what does that mean?

Bring it back before us.

Oh, bring it back before us. Okay. Yes. Okay.

Right now. Any objection to that motion to reconsider? No. Hearing none, so ordered. So we are now back to item 13, file two five zero nine five three. Alderman Spiker.

So I move to recommend approval to the full council. There's no need to send it to steering and rules. That was based on miscommunication. If we did send it to steering and rules, we knock it back a cycle. It is just implementing what we already decided to do in the budget. So there's no need for this item at least to be discussed in ndi rules, and I confirm that with the president.

You confirm that with the president today?

Himself, personally. Got it.

Yes. Okay. Any further discussion on the motion to refer the motion for passage, which would result in into referral to the full council not needing to refer to steering and rules. Any discussion on that? Any objection to passage directly to full council? Hearing none, so ordered. Thank you Alderman Spiker for that clarification. Moving on to our final item of the day, item number 14, file two five one seven nine one. Communication from the Fire and Police Commission relating to standard operating procedures.

Good morning, mister chair, committee members. Leon Todd, executive director of the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission. And I'm joined to my right by assistant chief Craig Sarno of the MPD's administrative Support Bureau. There is one file or one policy change before you today that is MPD standard operating procedure 60 which deals with vehicle pursuits and emergency vehicle operations. There are substantive changes to this policy.

First, there is a number of procedural updates throughout the policy for filing vehicle pursuit reports and that's due to the conversion from MPD's AIM system to benchmark. But in addition to that, MPD I'm sorry,

what system? WIT.

I'm sorry? What is that?

So MPD has migrated from its prior system AIM which is what does AIM stand for again?

It's a tracking software system. Our system was twenty one years old. So we just transitioned to a new data platform.

I don't know if we were going back to instant messenger or something else.

Not quite that, no. Not MySpace, none of that, no.

In addition, MPD added the following items which reflect a newly updated model policy for vehicle pursuits from the International Association of Chiefs of Police. They've added a requirement that members in deciding whether or not to initiate or continue a pursuit consider elevated risks of certain vehicles when initiating or continuing a pursuit specifically motorcycles, ATVs, non motorized vehicles, members should be aware of the limitations and capabilities of these types of vehicles. They also added that members shall take into consideration if there is a minor passenger present when initiating or continuing a pursuit. And then also the availability both in time and distance of support units including ground and airborne assessment team units and technology. In addition, they've added a requirement that officers must provide information to the dispatcher about the existence of firearms, overt threats of force or other unusual hazards during a vehicle pursuit.

In addition, they added a provision that states members will not face disciplinary action for deciding to terminate a pursuit if in their opinion the risk of following I'm sorry, the if in their opinion the risk pursuing outweighs the risk to public safety, other department members or the suspect. And finally, they've added an additional requirement for vehicle pursuits that are for reckless driving that specifically that requirement states that vehicle speed in and of itself is not enough for a member to initiate a pursuit for reckless driving. At least one of the following listed factors or behaviors that show substantial and unreasonable risk is required as well. Those other factors are one, collision with other vehicles or objects two, forcing other vehicles to take evasive action to avoid a collision or three, failure to stop at a controlled intersection without slowing or stopping. They also added that a third or additional units may assist with high risk vehicle contact at the conclusion of a pursuit.

So these changes were presented to the FPC Board at its January 22 meeting. The changes took effect on February 6. They are ultimately designed to balance the need to ensure public safety regarding vehicle pursuits. As I mentioned, we're also balancing that against the need for the department to enforce traffic safety rules and violations. Happy to answer any questions.

All right. So to give a short summary of this, this is this would result in less chases

I

I

question question

there

only to situations where or to better limit vehicle pursuits to situations that present a true risk, an elevated risk to the community while I'm trying to think of a good way to say this. This is a balancing act. There's a good deal of debate and difference in opinion about it. Ultimately, what the department wants to do is balance the need, like I mentioned, these two competing interests, public safety and the need to enforce criminal traffic laws specifically related to

And

that. Should they not pursue do where And the balance tips in favor of pursuing a vehicle and not one that may tip in favor of terminating or not pursuing due to a heightened risk to the public. So yes, would it's difficult to say how much, but there may be fewer pursuits because of this.

All right. And then when we talk about pursuits, we're talking about a squad car pursuing someone on the ground? That's correct. When so now we've launched an airborne assessment team. That's is that dispatched in conjunction with pursuits when possible?

It could be currently the drones that MPD has because of the speed, the maximum speed at which they're able to travel and also the height which they are allowed to go up to. They cannot practically speaking pursue vehicles in real time and serve as a substitute for a squad car on the ground. Now that said, they may be able to assist at the end of a pursuit if there's a crash or if the vehicle otherwise flees on foot, the drone could be deployed in that fashion to give officers a greater bird's eye view and allow them to safely take someone into custody or locate them.

Is there is there a have we issued policy that would allow an airborne pursuit should a squad car's pursuit be canceled? Could an airborne pursuit continue?

There is a I believe, recent policy update for drones as first responders. I didn't necessarily come prepared to speak to that. Assistant Chief Sarno, I don't know if there's anything you would add to that.

Understand.

Should a pursuit be called off? Can the drone still try?

The drone would not be able to keep up with the speeds we're talking about here. The technology has not developed to the level that it can go at that kind of speed like the executive director said. Now we that being said, we did put in a request to beta test some technology, drone technology that could keep up with a vehicle chase. We're just waiting to hear back if our proposal is accepted.

I'm not going to ask for what the speed is because I don't want to know. Alright. Any comments or questions from committee members about the SOP?

Mister chair.

Alder Woman Moore.

Director Todd, was there any community input in regards to this change of SOP because I know a lot of times you all put it on the agenda. Did community weigh in and if so what were some of the sentiments from community?

Well there was substantial public input at the FPC meetings leading up to this as I think you're all aware in 2025 there were nine fatalities, 10 depending on how you count traffic fatalities. So there was substantial public input on that. There was members of the community that expressed the desire to limit and restrict when MPD can conduct pursuits and there was a broad spectrum of opinions as to what that may look like. MPD, I believe subsequently took that those sentiments into account. They went back and looked at their policy, looked at some of their pursuit mitigation tactics.

They looked at other policies that other jurisdictions have around the country. This policy change is at least partially modeled off of the vehicle pursuit policy in Minneapolis. So these policy changes were made in regard to in part at least public input and then when the department presented these policy changes to the commission in January, there was additional substantial public input about the policy changes and there were community members that felt it didn't go far enough. I know that there has been other community voices that say goes too far and it's too restrictive. So there has been public input on Thank

you. Thank you so much. Thank you Mr. Chair.

Alright. Mister chair. Alder Alderman Spiker.

So, wasn't it also true at that commission for whom you ostensibly work that a couple of important very that's point.

Requested that the commission have a follow-up discussion point. On this to consider a potential formal recommendation to either the department or the common counsel. I anticipate that that is tentable. Is tentatively scheduled to be heard at the next FPC meeting on March 5.

Okay. Don't you think that's a relevant thing to mention when Alder Moore asked for community input that two commissioners expressed those misgivings?

Yes. What Or do

we need to bring in the commissioners themselves to testify about such things?

No. I didn't think it was directly responsive to alderwoman Moore's question, but it was my intent to raise that at my next opportunity.

Yep. Quickly on the drones. So my understanding is if you had a drone bird dogging it with the vehicle, of course, it would have to go insane speeds, which technology can't do currently. But I thought the whole point of a drone, like a helicopter, was you get high and you can zoom. So I heard mentioned that there were difficulties with current technology about heights. I understand having the airport in my districts, there would be restrictions perhaps around the airport, around Timmerman, but is the technology be such that you just can't get it high enough to compensate for the lack of a compensatory speed?

My understanding is that there are either rules or practical limitations that prevent the drones from going beyond a certain elevation level. I don't want to misspeak. So AC Sarnoff, correct me if I'm wrong, but I was it 200 I get it, I'm not going I don't to spec or say something incorrect, but there is a limitation and

I'll Yeah. So a data request would just be could you have the people who know provide a written response to the committee members explaining what the technological limitations are that would prohibit, elevation of the sort, needed to do what Alder Burgess had suggested, which is even if you have to break off a pursuit, can't you send the drone in high and zoom me to kind of follow it for at least a period of time to see, where it goes and if it's crashing into other things, it so warrants any sort of additional response. So if we could provide a written response to the committee on that, that would be sufficient.

Sure. And I have specifically asked that from MPD. I apologize, I don't remember the exact requirements. ACSR, no, I don't know if you have anything to add at this this time or if we can always follow-up in writing.

To that question Alderman. We'll follow-up with you. My understanding is current the current technology we have has and its limitations do not allow it to be actively involved in a vehicle pursuit to even the even even for the involvement you're talking about here. But I will verify that with the aerial assessment team.

Very good. Moving on to at first I thought there was a problem with the memo when it said so the big changes to Chair Bergal's point to that there is a more restricted range in which pursuits will be allowed, So this will restrict, maybe not as much as some would like, but it will restrict. And specifically, if you're pursuing, if you're engaged if you're initiating a vehicle pursuit for reckless driving, vehicle speed alone will no longer be sufficient as a justification for pursuit of reckless driving. Is that correct, director Todd? Yes.

Yes. So what other conditions must be met? Well, the memo kindly details them. There have to be one of the listed behaviors demonstrating a substantial and unreasonable risk. So it's not enough that you take off like a bat out of hell. Something else has to happen as well. What are those things? Well, it's a list of three possibilities. Either you start colliding with other vehicles. So that's the canary in the coal mine where we know you're dangerous because you've actually collided with somebody.

It would be unfortunate if we had to wait till that happened. Number two is you have a near miss where you force other vehicles to take evasive action to avoid collision. So you're flying down the road and people have to get out of the way to avoid hitting you. So that would be sufficient, I guess, to warrant a pursuit. And then the third and grossly ungrammatical one is failure to stop at controlled intersections without slowing or stopping. I thought that was an artifact of the memo, but it's actually an SOP. So is there a translation of that into English? Looking at gosh. What page is it? Page five of the actual clean six sixty SOP.

So members looking at their files, clean six sixty, vehicle pursuits and emergency vehicle stuff. Page five at the bottom, item five, in the note, it says members may initiate vehicle pursuit for reckless driving, blah blah blah. However, in the second paragraph at the bottom of the page, it says, however, vehicle speed in and of itself is not enough for a member to initiate pursuit. And then it gives the factors, the two I read. And then the third one is at the top of the next page.

So page six in our file, failure to stop at controlled intersections without slowing or stopping. So what does that say? And why isn't it why can't it say it in English? Because failure to stop without stopping makes no sense. So what is the intent of what that's saying?

My understanding is that the intent is to identify situations where a fleeing vehicle is going at a high rate of speed, goes through controlled intersections without stopping or slowing.

Without stopping or slowing. So if I'm going through an 80 and I slow to 75 is that an insufficient basis then for pursuit because I have

to Alderman Spiker?

Yeah.

I think that we're veering off of topic a little bit here.

I would urge otherwise because we're asking for the conditions under which vehicle pursuit is no longer allowed and I'm seeking clarity on one of the conditions that would be sufficient to trigger it.

Slowing down from 80 to 75 isn't a fair question for the department. Do you have anything else you'd like to add?

Yeah, I will continue if I might. So the question is to the department, so slowing down means going at a speed reduced. Is what you really mean to write here sufficient what would be a sufficient attempt at slowing down that would warrant somebody traveling away at a high rate of speed not to be pursued under this SOP? How much do they have to slow down?

I would say this I always try to look at the SOPs and read them through a lens of reasonableness. So what would a reasonable officer reading this SOP think and I think that someone slowed from 80 to 75 miles per hour, one I don't know that that would even be perceptible to the officer. There would be. And it's not I think reasonably read it's slowing to a sufficient degree that it demonstrates some regard for public safety. And if the officer viewed that, the flip side of that is if they don't slow in a manner that demonstrates some regard for public public safety, I I think that they would be justified in pursuing AC Sargon.

I don't know if I'm over overreaching that into the patient.

Refer you. Miles an hour. I slow down, I'm sure do you're I'm effort to slow down, let people know I'm coming through. They haven't hit me yet. So the officer is bound to just sit there and watch me continue to go and hope the lottery gets struck at the next light as well.

I don't I don't agree with that Alderman Spiker. I don't ever use the word high speed pursuit because high speeds are baked into what we're talking about here. If you looked at the I shared with the data with the committee that I presented to the Fire and Police Commission back on January 22 and the average maximum speed is 84 miles per hour. So, the speeds we're talking about here are very fast. So slowing down to 80 is still going to present an unreasonable risk of danger to the public and the community.

Furthermore, even if they were to slow down, you're more often than not going to hit one of those other factors that are listed there. Are there a collision with another vehicle or forcing another vehicle to take evasive action, particularly if you're going through a controlled intersection when somebody else has the right of way.

So just to clarify then chief Sarno this is helpful- you're saying if I'm going at high rate of speed and I know the whole reason we're reluctant about. Pursuits now is people are just flying at crazy speeds, and the vast majority are, whereas it used to be a minority before. So I understand the the motivation here. But you're saying if somebody's flying away at a gross like, the average rate of speed, 84 miles an hour, and they don't have the right of way. There's a red light, but, you know, other cars are slowing down and don't hit them.

As long as they slow down, we can't chase them, or you're saying in that case, that would be us, the the pursuit vehicle forcing other vehicles to take evasive action because they're having to stop even though they have the right of way.

They may be, from the scenario describing, they very well may slow down for their own self preservation just to get through that intersection, but you're the fact that you slow down, still creates at that speed an unreasonable risk of safety to the community. So the pursuit would continue.

So is there the unreasonable risk of safety to the community I thought that was supposed to be clarified by this SOP change for cases of reckless driving pursuits I thought that was the whole point. So if we're done having to rely on this pre intuitive notion of is the community in danger, then that defeats the point of the SOP. I thought the SOP was supposed to say, look, speed isn't enough anymore, fellows and ladies. It has to be that there also things that are running into you or people are having to stop from crashing into you.

We believe that the language we have here goes to the spirit and intent of what we're trying to accomplish. I sat at this very same table with the city attorney's office months ago who also said that we take into account more things than just speed. We feel that the language we put in here, the language that we, you know, kind of mirrored from Minneapolis does just that. And we believe it's going to strengthen these cases and impact public safety in a in a positive way.

And I I

just So I'll end with this request then which I made to you director Todd in our meeting with chief Norman, assistant chief Sarno and chief of the department to chart how the number of pursuits pursuits changes post adoption of this policy. Because I'm torn into think between thinking, one, it's not gonna do much of anything, and two, oh, boy, what if it does Mhmm. Too much? And I don't know the answer. The chief doesn't know the answer.

He will very honestly say, but we need to collect that data. And, yeah, it's nice to ask the police department to do it. I'm sure they'll they'll oblige. But in exercising oversight, I would I should think the Fire and Police Commission would be very interested in seeing what the actual impact of this SOP change is and that that would require them to collect data from the police department on what the impact of this SOP change is on actual vehicle pursuits. Understanding is about one factor in many.

Yes. I agree and I'm confident that the FPC board will do exactly that that and exercise their oversight and monitor what effect this has on vehicle pursuits. I did want to add this and I probably should have done so at the outset, but I was trying to give a briefer summary. But the SOP language in this regard does also say that members shall also have at least one of the following factors, but not limited to those factors. So it's factor that demonstrates behavior that shows substantial and unreasonable risk of death or great bodily harm to another beyond just speeding. So it does say including but not limited to these factors.

What other factors might there be?

It would be factors that demonstrate a substantial and unreasonable mean, I don't mean to give a smart answer but or a acute answer, but I I don't have another example off the top of my head.

Yeah. And I I'll just leave you with this. It's the s the whole point of the SOP is to add to clarity for the officers. So if we add confusion, that's that's not gonna be good. But I understand you wanna give discretion. My only note would be to translate three into English because it's not in English right now. So alright. I'll look forward to, hearing the data collected and see whether the fears of great reduction are warranted or no effects are manifested. So thank you very much. Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Time. Alright. Thank you very much for that, Alderman Spiker. We, I do want to recognize that we do have some members of the public that have joined us in the committee room. Did someone want to make a public statement? We're not taking questions, but please join us and just share if you're in support or opposed to this change. The change has already happened. We are not voted the the committee is not voting on this change. This is just a communication file from the police department through the Fire and Police Commission about recent changes to policy.

Okay. Thank you.

And please start with your name and your address and and you'll have our two and a half minutes from our licensing time clock.

I'm Jeannie Lupo and I'm with the group Enough is Enough. I spoke in front of you a couple weeks ago. I had I live in East Troy but I work in Milwaukee County for free. So, my my statement, I I came we came to support the police in their change of policy. We don't really wanna see any change in policy.

We understand the public outcry about safety. More scrutiny given to the police about how to do their job in my opinion is just it's unwarranted but I believe that the police are responding to the public outcry which is commended. I'd like to see, when we talk about all these changes in policy an equal amount of time and advertisement about people needing to stop for the police and that instead of scrutinizing how fast they can go or that they shouldn't be, we can't pursue until they run a red light. It's unfathomable that we're even talking about that type of activity and behavior and that all of the emphasis is on the police and how they should do their job when the person fleeing shouldn't be fleeing in the first place and, creating a a public crisis, a a, you know, danger for the public. And so an equal amount of time spent on educating the community that the police need to do their job and more times than not if they don't do their job, some tragedy is gonna happen anyway because we see it a lot.

So that's why.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, miss Lipa.

Thank you

very much. Before you Yes. Before you go, any questions for member of the public?

Mr. Chair? Yes. I don't necessarily have any questions. I remember when you all came and shared your presentation and the work that you all continue to do. It is definitely valuable. And again, the conversation around connecting and working with each other, we still have so much work to do. So I'm glad we're all sort of chipping in and doing our part. Thank you for

your service and And volunteer

thanks to all

of you.

Alright. Thank you, miss Lupo. Thank you for joining us. Chair before she leaves. Oh oh, Alderman Spiker, please sit back down. Open twenty minutes on

the clock. Yeah. Just wanted to say, yeah, this is an important reminder and companion piece. So as you saw, Ms. Lupo and the Enough is Enough group, shown a particular spotlight on, folks who flee, and repeat, and, yeah, we absolutely need to underscore that what needs to happen here is getting, great clarity and and better public messaging actually about what the consequences are for fleet.

And for there to be consequences, of course, there have to be consequences of the court, and that's where enough is enough steps and so appreciate their role here. So thank you.

Thank you and Alderman Spiker, I appreciated your extra scrutiny about the policy because I think if any person in the public has questions about what's actually happening, you know, we all need to understand that at our level. So understanding it and that might help with some of this public outcry or backlash so that people, everybody understands what, you know, what it is that we're asking the police to do and and and so so that there's general understanding of that. So, thank you.

Alright. Thank you, Alderman Spiker. Thank you, miss Lupo.

Thank you for that.

Thank you to the department and and chief Sarno for being here. Alderman Moore will move to place this item on file, hearing no objections. So ordered that is the end of our regular agenda. I do wanna note that today is National Love Your Pet Day, and I wanna give a shout out to the best beagle of the 11th Aldermanic District and probably the city. Oh. Booker. Booker. Waiting at home and protecting the house from Amazon drivers and the coyotes that live across the street. So thank you to Booker. Thank you to everyone here. Have a wonderful rest of your Friday. Enjoy the weekend. This meeting is adjourned.