Public Safety Committee - Regular Meeting

To the Friday, April 10 meeting of the Public Safety and Health Committee. It is now 09:06. We'll get started. I'm Alderman Scott Spiker, Chair of Committee, joined to my right by Alderman Burghel's Vice Chair, joined to his right by Alder Taylor, and joined to my far left by Alder Moore. Alder Chambers will be joining us shortly, also joined by Staff Assistant Joanna Burtiz. With that, we will start with Item one on the agenda, file number 251,990, an ordinance relating to parking controls.

Morning Chair, community members, Kevin Anzac, DPW. We have a few items here today for you. First involves South 9th Street where there's a reconstruction project going on. We will be supplying more parking to the neighbors. So basically on the East Side of South 9th Street from Greenfield to National Avenue, we will be removing a no parking restriction and also installing a street sweeping restriction in that area.

Secondly, on North 31st Street between Wisconsin Avenue and Wells Street, residents have asked for the removal of the winter parking restriction and we will replace them with no parking anytime restriction. Next one is on the west side of North 45th Street from Juneau Avenue to a point two fifty four feet north at any time to be removed. The restriction is no longer needed. And lastly is the allowance of two side night parking on South Lennox Street from East Conyers Street to East Homer Street. All these have been coordinated through local alder persons and if you have any questions.

Any questions from committee members?

No. Move approval.

Alder Berglaus has moved passage of the ordinance to recommend passage and hearing no objections so ordered. Item two, file number 251,991, substitute ordinance relating to traffic controls.

Kevin Anzac, DPW again. Just a few additional stop signs being recommended at this point. First one is on West Dogwood Street at North 87th Street. Second one on North Greenwood Terrace at North 87th Street. On Leon Terrace and at West Constance Avenue on West Magnolia Street and at North 87th Street in westbound direction on West I I I Avenue at South 1st Street on South 1st Place at West Wilbur Avenue and lastly on South 1st Street at West Wilbur Avenue.

Very good. Courtesy will Okay. Also take Any questions? If not, Alder Moore would move to recommend passage and hearing no objections, so ordered. Thank you. Thank you. Item number three, file number 252,101, this is a substitute ordinance relating to time related futrexone, says sponsored by Alderman Baumann. I believe Alder Zammerit, but you're also a sponsor?

No.

I'm Okay. Not Very good. So with that, we'll kick it off to the sponsor, Alderman Baumann.

Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Chair, members of the committee. Good morning, everyone. Yes, this file is a direct response to some of the disorder that's already taken place in the Water Street Entertainment District and to a lesser degree, the King Drive Entertainment District, former Old World 3rd Street area.

Basically in response to requests from MSOE who are here today, Milwaukee School of Engineering, which has a major presence in this area on the East side of the river. And in response to the concerns we have heard expressed by Milwaukee Police Department, We are taking some measured approaches to attempt to diminish the disorder that occurs on these weekend nights, especially when the weather is warm. So this file basically amends the food truck prohibition from what is currently 1AM to a 10PM prohibition. So no food trucks would be permitted anywhere in the zone. The down basically the downtown zone with a very small piece also in the sixth district and an even smaller piece in the 3rd District.

But the vast majority is 4th Automatic District. And hopefully this will thwart some of the disorders, some of the loitering, some of the congregating, some of the tailgating that goes on in the evenings and especially late in the evenings near closing time for these bars. So that's the filing.

Very good. And have you had the opportunity to speak with the elder of the sixth and the third?

We have mentioned this to them.

Okay. With that, do you have anybody you want to bring to the table, the police department, anybody else?

Kirby is certainly here and Mr. Bruning is one of their trustees so he certainly can whenever I can speak as well.

Yes. That's why I was checking for cosponsorship. But if you would like to speak now before, is there anything you would like to queue up?

Yes, please. Mr. Chair, thank you. I do want to thank Alderman Bowman for reaching out to me on this file. This does affect time limited food truck zones.

In Burnham in the Burnham Park neighborhood, as you know, we do have a both a time limited food truck zone and a density limited food truck zone on Burnham. And so this would affect the food truck zone in the 8th Aldermanic District. I did work with Bob and and do some negotiating and so although the downtown zone that he speaks to will close at 10PM per this file, the Burnham Food Truck zone will now close at 11PM. So a little bit later in hopes that that could be a little bit easier pill to swallow for the food truck operators. I have reached out to all of the food truck operators who have a reserve spot in the food truck zone on Burnham.

I do see at least one operator in the audience here today. I assume they would want to provide testimony if you would allow it, Mr. Chair. But I did let them let them all know I've spoken with one of them personally. And I also do have several neighbors who are in support of the measure although you might have some opposing view today, I see, with one operator in the audience.

And am I correct that you are in support of this file or

That's correct. I appreciate Bob working with me. I did think ten p. M. Was a bit early for my district but it's similar in that it's now going to close at eleven p. M. As opposed to one a. M.

Okay. Very good. MSOE, would you please introduce yourself and state your case?

Sure. Kendall Brunig. I am an alumni of MSOE and I

am on the Board

of Regents. I also own a property half a block away at the Blatt's office complex. So this affects me and MSUE in a lot of ways. MSUE has about 2,900 students and we have about 300 students that live on Water Street at the corner of Water And Juneau. So far, there hasn't been anyone injured from MSOE, but the rate things are going, that's just a matter of time.

The recent shooting, there was four food trucks in the 1200 Block Of North Broadway. Last night, I drove past there by four p. M. There was already three food trucks parked there. Now the food trucks are not the problem. It's the crowds that gather around them. And especially later at night, these the crowds do not patronize the restaurants. They're there to hang out and then and I I don't know if if the streets being open or closed is better or worse. That's a different situation. I know the last shooting, the streets were open when it occurred.

So the food trucks draw the crowd. The other thing is know, Amisui the, has on the 1st Floor, we have two restaurants. We have a new sushi bay that just opened and we have Qdoba. I don't know if anybody is going to be here to represent them, but I this affects them. If you have a business and you're paying $30,000 $60,000 a year in property taxes and there's nothing stopping a food truck from parking in front of your business, that's not really fair.

I know that there's not a law against it, but I think the ordinances should take that into account and

Let's stay focused on the present ordinance, just what's Okay. Before us,

Well, my point of that is that I think that the ordinance right now is a good intermediate step. I think the long term solution is to tie the locations that food trucks are allowed at to licensed food dealers and have a distance from it. There are other municipalities that have laws like that in other states. So that wouldn't be unreasonable.

A On that point

Yes, fine. But let's be brief on it because that is an entirely separate issue. That's a whole We different looked at that

as an option. Yes. But we thought that would be very hard to enforce. You have to MPD would have to be out there with tape measures basically measuring where food trucks start and end. And so this is a pretty bright line test. It should be very easy for MPD to enforce this prohibition. The map is pretty clear. It's very logical. And if MPD sees a food truck parked there at 10:30, it's a very clear violation. And so they can either be ticketed or asked to leave.

Yep. Very good. So are you speaking for MSOE or just For MSOE. Okay. As a

Regent, the President wanted to be here but he has a commitment until 09:45 so I don't think he will be able to speak here for this.

Okay. Very good. Thank you for your testimony. Members, do we have any questions that would require other folks to the table or questions in general?

I have a question.

Alder Bergaus.

Thank you. And this question is more for the sponsors. Own this ordinance change only affects food trucks that are in the public right away or on state property.

That's correct.

So if I own own a food truck and I park it on my apron or in my driveway or on my private parcel, I can operate however I want to.

Consistent with the zoning code. Consistent with that, would become a potential zoning issue in terms of whether a peddler activity on private property would be permitted.

Right. You need occupancy for

that. Fair enough.

And if it's ready for that.

Thank you.

Thank you. Other questions? Is there anybody else in the audience who wants to testify on this briefly? If not, Chief of Stafford, you want to briefly say a word?

Mr. Chair, I just wanted to note, you may have missed one of the operators in the back stood up.

Okay. He can come to the table too. Or she. Or she. Oh, there. Way back there.

See? You didn't see

it. Obviously. Ms. Huff?

Yes. Thank you. Heather Huff, Chief of Staff, Milwaukee Police Department. Milwaukee Police Department is very supportive of this ordinance and the restrictions of time for these food truck zones. We know last year and this year we have issues with people congregating around the food trucks that are not patrons.

We have individuals in these areas in the age range of below 21 years of age who utilize these open spaces and places to congregate and that has caused us problems in the past. We'll be talking more about it in the next file but just wanted to get on the record that MPD is supportive from a community safety perspective.

Okay. Very good. And that would you please introduce yourself?

Yeah. Hi. Good morning. Name is Jennifer and I am Could

you state your first and last name, please?

Yeah. Jennifer Martinez. I am one of the owners in the type two food truck zone.

Okay. And your testimony?

Well, I just came because I received this email on Tuesday. I just wanted to mention about basically in the two type zone, we've never had any crime that I know of. Never have seen any presence of police in the area. I do, and accept, that there is a lot of trash in there. I try to put my part, but we are several trucks, and I can't speak for them.

Even though I always try to put on my part, I in my opinion, I just wanna ask if if there's any possibility that even an hour can be increased. In my situation, I have already had, to unemploy one person. And in this case, I would have to unemploy one more person. Okay. On their job.

So that's your testimony. You're not in favor of the legislation is currently crafted for those reasons?

Yes. Yeah. Okay.

Thank you for your testimony. Any questions from committee members?

Mister Chirkins.

Alder Chambers.

Thank you mister chair. I don't have a question for her. I have a question for ref for MSOE.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you. So,

thank you for coming back up here mister Berger. So, I I guess I'm a little perplexed. I was against the the move that they were making when this legislation came far as reducing the time limit for, you know, food trucks for those who come down and you know, patronize the entertainment district. I I voiced my concerns when the food truck rest the food truck legislation was created and put a onus to like the bar owners and things of that nature. So the reason why I actually come up here and thank you again is, you know, you have a fenced in parking lot that's right on Water Street right in front of Water and is it Kilborn or Juneau or something?

Juneau. Yeah. Juneau. Okay. Right. During those hours, during those nighttime hours, that is pretty empty. Correct. Have thoughts or talks have been in there to allow like the food truck to be in there, to fence in, to control those that come in and those that come out in order to you know, alleviate some of the stress that goes on to the entertainment district.

For our end, it's easier to control what happens by not letting people into that lot. Once we let people into the lot, we wouldn't have much control over what happens after that. What do you mean by that? Well, it's fenced in right now. Right. So we it's rented for parking during the day. But at that time, we don't. We close it so that the crowds can't gather in there. And actually the fence is not an MSOE fence. It's actually a city fence that was put up for crowd control.

Right. So, we're trying to control the crowd and you have this, you know, parking structure. I'm just thinking outside the box here. You know, you have public safety. You have, you know, school public safety and we also have police there within Cole Red. If there's something that we can possibly partner with you and having police or public safety at the entrances to allow those who are actually coming for food as opposed to congregating to go through there during those hours between ten and one or whatever. I I guess I'm trying to figure out what is the the reservation or what's the hesitation of allowing that to use the parking if you're not using that night anyways.

Let's hang on one second. Is DNS in the audience? Because the occupancy can't just set up a food truck zone anywhere, a private parking lot. It's for parking if there's an accessory use.

But it's still within.

So I am just asking if D and S is in the audience, they could clarify this because it might not be allowable. If they

are not,

it's could still 10 within the entertainment district.

Mr. Chair, if I may on this point.

Yes. Briefly on that point then let's get Alder Chambers answer the question.

He is a great corporate citizen in Milwaukee. They've done a lot of outstanding development downtown. They have a lot of students and faculty and staff downtown and to put the burden on them that somehow they have to assume the responsibility to entertain people that want to hang out on Water Street is absurd.

I I

understand. Mister liability exposure would be massive. You'd be congregating these people on private property.

Okay.

They don't insure for that. So why are we fencing? Some are triple their security forces. So why are

we fencing? Okay. Hold on, gentlemen.

Mister chairman. Alderman Chambers, you asked the question for the audience. I did not want this back and forth. So we are going to halt that right now. You can you give a direct answer to Alderman Chambers'

questions I

haven't consulted with the rest of the Board of Regents, but I think that we would oppose doing that. It would further the problem in my opinion. I think these crowds are not patronizing the local establishments. And by there may be another place where a food truck park could be created similar to on the sell side, but that's not something that we're interested in doing.

Okay. I respect that. So why are we fencing the private parking lot? I guess that's a DNS question as well, Mr. Chair?

DNS could tell whether it's allowable, next whether file

because the next file is a broader discussion of what MPD is doing relative to public safety in these entertainment districts and the fencing is part and parcel of that. I believe MPD requested that the fencing be put up.

Yeah, I I guess I guess where I'm at with this, I guess where I'm at with this and sorry to put you to the fire so it's not necessarily towards you is that, you know, the the issues that we're going to face is, you know, a number a good amount of officers that come from our neighborhoods go down to downtown every weekend to protect the entertainment district. Every weekend. About 10 to 15 at minimum. Those are resources that's going away from our neighborhood. If we restrict those opportunities for them to go get food or anything, guess where they come back into our neighborhoods where those officers are going. So I I guess I'm just trying to figure out how we're going to balance the two.

That is Right now. Yeah, I'm sorry.

Go ahead. Thank you. And right now, I don't see it. So, I mean, in respect to his district and his decision, he needs to have every right to do that. You know, I'm not pushing back on that. I'm just trying to figure out what type of solutions that we can do to meet in the middle. And I don't think this is one of them. Okay.

You. And Alder Baumann is correct that that's a broader discussion that would involve MPD. We can save it for the next file which will be in a couple of minutes. So with that, are there any other questions from committee members? Then do I have a motion relating to the file?

Move passage.

Alder Berglis would move passage. Are there any objections? I will address. One objection noted from Alderman Chambers. Any other discussion? Then the resolution passes or the ordinance passes on a four to one vote. Thank you very much. Moving on now to the communication file relating to some of this. Item number four, file number 252067, communication from the Milwaukee Police Department relating to their plan to maintain public safety in the King Drive and Water Street Entertainment Districts during the 2026. This is also sponsored by Alderman Baumann. So to whom we will turn to queue things up, Alderman Baumann.

Yeah. I'll just turn it over to MPD at this point. Obviously, we've had some incidents of disorder including some shootings in the Water Street Entertainment District. As soon as the weather turns 70 degrees, it appears the guns come out and the loiters come out and all the chaos is triggered and that's just been a few 70 degree nights. We're coming into spring and soon summer.

So, I I'm trying to get ahead of this as much as possible so we're not here mourning the homicides of various people rather than trying to get ahead of it by seeing what is the plan, what are the resources that are going to be devoted, how do we protect resources in the neighborhoods because Alderman Chambers has a legitimate point when we are flooding downtown with MPD personnel, they come from somewhere and that somewhere can very well be my West Side neighborhoods, his Northwest Side neighborhoods and our neighborhoods of everybody on this council. So that is a very legitimate issue to be watchful for. And one other thing, also during your comments, I also want you to speak to the issue of scooters because the next thing we're contemplating banning in this downtown district is scooters after 10PM because it appears that scooters, I've had anecdotal reports from business owners and including the Milwaukee Symphony that the scooters provide a very excellent form of mobile transportation. They're cheap to use and people running around on scooters can quickly move from the 3rd Street Food Market to water in Juneau to Highland and And King so the next thing, please speak to the issue of scooters and whether you will be in support of a 10PM scooter ban in the entire downtown district.

Very good. With that, we'll kick it off to MPD if you wouldn't mind introducing everyone at the table.

Morning, committee. Heather Hough, Chief of Staff again, MPD. I'm joined by leadership in the patrol bureau and the criminal investigation bureau, who will introduce themselves shortly. I just wanted to say a couple of things before we get started. One, I want to acknowledge we have a large police presence in the room.

These are our captains, our leadership. Recently, we believe it's very important for them to see the council process because we all work together. And so we have tasked our captains with coming and observing these processes. So if you're wondering why there's a large presence here, they are, here to see, how the council works, firsthand. Second, I want to say on behalf of the department, the MPD's responsibility is not just the entertainment district downtown.

We recognize the priority for the department is public safety for the entire city. And so while we're going to be talking about certain deployments and strategies for the downtown area, please know that these types of strategies exist for all kinds of problems citywide depending on the district, depending on what the issues are and wherever there's a need for additional resources, they will be deployed. So just wanted to put that out there to assure not just this committee but the public that we don't solely focus on the downtown entertainment district. We recognize this is a very large city and while there were some incidents downtown, there were many others citywide that are still the same on equal footing priorities for the department. And with that, I will turn it over to Inspector Grant and Inspector Lau to talk about our strategies, to talk about our clearances of some of the issues downtown and to talk about some of the problems we've had and seen in terms of those clearances.

Okay. And let's just make sure we address the sponsor's questions at some point during the discussion.

Yes. Alright. Good morning, everybody. Sharonda Grant, inspector of police patrol bureau. And so thank you all very much for allowing us to be present to speak to you all this morning. I wanna just talk about some things that Heather also referred to. As it relates to violent crime in the city of Milwaukee, I'm pleased to share that our part one crime which includes

a little closer.

Could. Sure.

Thank you. I

want to indicate that I'm pleased to share that our part one crime, which includes homicides, nonfatal shootings, robberies, carjackings, batteries, motor vehicle thefts, etcetera, have seen a significant decline this year compared to the same year last year as it relates to our crime trends. And so for the decrease, I would like to give a special thank you to all of the men and women of the Milwaukee Police Department who risk their lives each day to to keep our community safe. I also wanna make sure that I thank our partners, our CVI partners, four one four Life, the Department of Community Wellness and Safety, and a variety of other partners who also assist in quelling the violence that takes place in the city of Milwaukee. Now Water Street is very important, but so is Mitchell Street. So is Burleigh.

So is Brown Deer Road. So is Capital. And so our officers are tasked with assisting and serving the residents throughout the city of Milwaukee. Although Water Street is extremely important, we cannot deploy all of our resources to that location. We have to be strategic.

We have to be mindful knowing that all residents regardless of their economic status, regardless of their race, ethnicity, etcetera. They need services too. Alright? So the shooting that took place on Water Street, March 22, and it took place at about 01:00 in the morning, and it involved individual one individual who had a feud with others. And they to have that discussion at that location at which time one individual shot three people killing one. Mhmm. Alright? And I wanna pass it on to inspector Loud to provide additional information regarding that and after that, then I'll go back into our deployments for Water Street.

Yeah. Thank you. Inspector Paul Lyle, I'll be very brief on that incident. There was three people shot. We did take a suspect into custody and while I understand the loitering and all that is an issue down on Water Street.

It's our feeling that this particular suspect who committed this act who's charged with this probably should have been out because he's convicted of several felonies and put on probation just four days later for felonies that committed while he was incarcerated, I believe, up in Lincoln Hills. So that's something right there that it it saying that we're alleviating blame from us, but it's we we can't own all that. This guy should probably should not have been out. He should not have had a gun and he was down there and unfortunately, one young man died and three others or two others were shot. Is there any other ones you want me to speak on right now?

Nope. That's it. And then also it should be noted that three of the four individuals that were involved, three of those were on probation and parole. Now in being completely transparent, three of the four individuals that were involved in this incident, three of those individuals were under the age of 21. Alright?

And that's just for transparency purposes because I wanna make sure that you guys know that we're not holding anything back. We're being forthright and truthful. As it relates to the incident that took place on March 22, that night, Code Red, we had 26 officers that were in deployment throughout the Code Red Entertainment District, which consists of four different zones downtown. And that was an increase from the nine officers that we initially had that were going to be deployed at that location. We increased the number of officers because we knew that warm weather brings out more individuals and we wanted to make sure that we provided as much safety as we possibly could.

Now I know that may some of you may be thinking that we pull resources from other districts. No. We we did not. The individuals that were assigned to this deployment operation were on overtime using code red funds, but then also the officers that were assigned to district one. District one's second shift, the hours between 4PM and midnight, those officers, their shift was extended based upon the fact that district one that night was extremely busy.

Those officers did not get off work until about 02:30, 03:30 in the morning just based upon all of the issues that were place. Alright? So that night, and this is just a a very brief synopsis regarding gun related calls in the downtown area, there was a call for shots fired which took place in the in the downtown area, which officers were removed from their locations to investigate that. And there was an arm an armed robbery that took place in the area of Juno And Water where an individual pistol whipped a subject and removed his property from him. Officers pursued that individual on foot, took him into custody, and also recovered the gun.

So thank you very much for officers for being at that location at that time on Water Street. And then there was the unfortunate triple shooting slash homicide that took place not too much longer afterwards. So as it relates to our strategies, we will continue to work with our downtown businesses, the the security that work that bounce and work in these establishments and bars. When they see individuals who are loitering, they can provide us with the information, and we will do the best that we can to either disperse those individuals, warn them, and if they refuse to leave site and at the very last resort, make the arrest of those individuals because we know that when we remove officers from the the the deployment areas, it creates an opportunity for more issues to take place. Last year, we worked in partnership with the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office, which I am very appreciative of that partnership and that relationship with our other law enforcement partners, and we will continue this year as well.

We worked hand in hand with the Department of Wellness, Community Safety and Wellness, four one four Life along with a variety of our other CVI teams. And so the strategies that we utilized after in July had to do a lot with the strategies that we utilized for Juneteenth. So we know that our officers, we can only do so much, but when we have boots on the ground, individuals who are playing clothes, individuals who have lived experiences, and individuals who are able to disperse crowds of people such as our community partners, that works and they can provide us information. Hey, this group over here, they need to go. We told them.

We can move in and make that disbursement. So, our plan is to elevate that plan that we had last year when I was brought here for that communication file but that's only as needed because we do not want to remove other officers from other districts because the entire city needs to be safe.

Very good. Alder Baumann, would you like to do any follow-up? Did your questions get answered?

What what are we heard a TV report from the first district captain who I understand is in Nashville inspecting their entertainment zone protocols and so he's not here which is fine. Glad to glad to see him traveling to other cities to inspect what they're doing. What are we doing about curfew issues? I mean, there was some a deal floated about a curfew holding center that people who were found in violation of curfew in the entertainment districts would be transported somewhere and then held until picked up by their parents or guardians. And I thought, how can that happen?

Sure.

Wouldn't that take a lot of people

out of a lot of

police out of service? Transported how? In in patrol cars and and vans and and what's the authority to put people hold people if they're not because he does the question was asked why are they under arrest and he and the answer was no. Well, I said well then what's the authority to hold them if they're not under arrest?

Sure. I can speak to that Alderman Baumann. So one of the ideas for dealing with those violating curfew and those are 17. So know that there are two problematic populations congregating downtown. It's the 18 to 21 and then the 17 below.

One of the issues is when we are enforcing curfew downtown and we have an individual who's a minor who is violating curfew, those officers from downtown then have to stay with that person until we are able to get a hold of a parent or a guardian to come pick them up, from the location and it takes those officers offline for amount of time not being able to patrol the downtown area. So one of the ways we thought a solution would be to this issue was working with the Department of Community Wellness and Safety, where we would identify a minor who is breaking curfew. We would transport them to that facility. There would be dedicated officers, not many there to to wait until a parent would be able to pick up that minor and then community wellness and safety would offer resources and individuals to provide activities or resources to those youth while they were awaiting pickup. So really for us we weren't the lead on organizing what the curfew center would be.

We just felt it was something that would alleviate our resources and also do something positive for those breaking curfew in providing them this centralized location for pickup and then also resources. And I would say community wellness and safety can speak more to the plan for the curfew center. I think that the model that was envisioned has changed over time and that is really within that department's wheelhouse to speak more to what it looks like, what the status is at this point.

And our legal authority to detain transport and then hold someone until their parents arrive or guardians is what?

Alderman Baumann, can you pull the mic closer? They're having trouble hearing you.

Is that what that means?

Inspector Grant, how do we normally handle curfew

with detainee? Wonder

if they're 17. Yes.

All depends. As it relates to if an officer is to take a a young person into custody for a curfew violation, that young person would generally speaking go to a district to be processed and then we would wait for that parent to arrive if we're not a or or we would try to drop that young person off at that period or guardian's residence.

And so if you have 200 juveniles under the age of 17 loitering around Water Street, you're calling 200 people back to the district or delivering them to their parents' home?

That's what if we were to enforce curfew where we would to, as your example, was explained, taken in to custody three hun or 200 individual that that removes several officers from the employment.

It removed dozens of officers. Yes.

So as a practical matter, I think it's apparent to almost anyone in this room and anyone watching on TV that enforcing curfew is a lot harder than it sounds. Mhmm. If not impossible when you're dealing with large numbers. Is that a fair statement?

Yes, sir. That is a fair statement.

Thank you. Alder Chambers, you

had questions. Thank you, mister chair. Inspector Grant, he brought up an event that happened and the the manpower that went from nine to 26. He was saying some was from on extended OT from District 1 and people signed up for OT from various districts. Were the other districts busy as well?

So, yes, sir. However, when it comes to the code red overtime, that's voluntary. So those officers are off work already. Mhmm. And so those officers so say, friend, they can get a text message, a phone call from another start from a sergeant from district one asking them if they wanted to come and work the overtime. So it's not mandatory. And if if, say for instance, there was an overtime opportunity at that district, that officer has the choice whether or not he or she wants to work overtime at that district if there's an opportunity or if they want to work overtime down at Cobre Ed.

I mean, who would I mean, from what I've been hearing from officers, Cobre Ed is is is easy. It's easy money. You know, that's why a lot of people signed up for it. So, I guess, you know, what type of parameters we put in place to, I guess, have a cutoff list for, you know, co red and and whatever overflow going back into the districts. I mean, they signed up for overtime.

I guess, you know, my issues with co red have been well documented on this in this council. You know, because I just think it's taken away resources from my neighborhoods who need it in our those businesses and other places in our in our in our neighborhoods are taking bigger hits than the ones downtown. Plain and simple and and I guess where I'm trying to figure out is how do we find that ball and I still have not heard anything with this. So, I'm I'm seeing these communication files. I'm hearing these communication files and all I'm thinking about and seeing is more resources going away from our districts to come downtown to to protect downtown.

And then we're to ask OCWS or DCWS to come and pull their resources from the communities that they serve to come downtown. I have a problem with that.

Mister chair. Oh, yeah. I'm not No.

I'm not.

I'm getting the queue.

Oh, thank you. Sorry. Mhmm. So I'll just I'll just leave it at that. I'll let you go. Hold on.

Thank

you. We actually have a queue going. So I'll put Alder Moore after Taylor and Burgales who also Just clarity, I thought you said the the code red and I thought this came out in the communication file last year was, the extra staffing you had. So, you know, normally have nine, you had 26. That extra staffing comes from people volunteering for overtime, not being mandated?

Yes, sir.

And is that a nicety we supply our staff or is it contract mandated that we have to ask?

Could you repeat that question one more time? I'll do that.

Can we volunteer somebody to you're gonna do overtime? Is that contractually allowed?

The volatile part was when the officers from district one that worked from 4PM to midnight were extended. Okay. So that is the violent toll part and that's based upon the busyness of the the district at that at on the March 22. As it relates.

And real quick, that is not limited to district one.

Yes. So

that happens often times across the city depending on what's going on where these shifts are extended and officers are requested to stay extra hours.

But as far as bringing in bodies who were not going to work that night, that's are we contractually obliged to ask as opposed to tell folks?

We ask we ask the officers.

So that's if it's contractually required that we have.

Okay. Well, we we have to ask them. So in order for them to work.

Right. But they don't have have to show up.

Correct.

And is there not having to show up a matter of contractual obligation? No. Okay. So we could, in theory, voluntell people who are not scheduled to work that night to come in. Not suggesting we do. I'm just wondering if it's legally allowed.

Yes.

Point of order on that, mister?

There's no point of order on that. Not If a want a follow-up question, you can ask that.

Sure. Yeah. That's what I was going up. Okay. Thank you.

A very complimentary thing.

Thank you. To that point, Alderman Spiker brings up a great point. I had an incident this past weekend in my district at Primo's and there were squads that were pulled from District 3, District 5, and District 4. All pulling from different resources from within this. I know that happened quite often. I'm just bringing like far as like the resource that we're pulling, they could be protecting their neighborhoods within their respective districts moving back and forth far as that. So, that's where I'm getting at with that. So, thank you.

Yes, sir. Can I make a one point?

Sure, quickly. Follow-up and then we have to to elder Taylor.

Okay. We work we our patch says the Milwaukee Police Department. So we serve the entire city of of Milwaukee. And as it relates to scooter, sir, we are in support of any assistance as relates to reducing individuals from coming down to downtown neighborhoods to create issues. So if the individuals are driving, we don't want them there. If they're on scooters and they're in in their causing issues, we don't want them there either. So we are in support of any assistance that we can receive.

Well, then we'll do that. That file will

be introduced this cycle before hearing next cycle.

Speaking of transfer Hold on. Alder Baumann, we have a a queue, so we have to be respectful of of members' opportunity to ask questions. So, Alder Taylor?

Thank you very thank you very much, chairperson. So so as I sit here and listen to what's being said, it sounds like we are trying to reroute those that are under 21 because I've heard that several times now, and 17 and below from downtown to wherever. Right? We can get them. It's it's also looking at the last file where food trucks are being closed at ten.

Now, I'm gonna say this too because I'm not a fan of being being being open past 10:00. So seeing that, I I understand that 10:00 is is a good cut off. Right? I I really believe that for neighborhoods that nothing nothing past ten or eleven, right? Because then things seem to go downhill from there.

However, though, there is a school MSOE is here and they talked about crowds and so we often talk about our 21 and what are they going to do because they're getting into trouble but what do we do to be part of the solution. So Alderman Chambers mentioned something about being part of a solution like maybe just controlling them as they go in and out of a gate. That was shut down. Okay. But we spend a lot of time on security in the neighborhoods.

Every bar that potentially opens or is open in the neighborhoods, my first question is what do you do for security? You know, how do you secure it so that they can come in, have fun, go home safely? Are not not of people care in

We We

encountered any of these first establishments. I have two questions now. Hiring security firms that you as police officers can work along with. So to lessen the amount of resources from our police department having to be downtown having to go from nine to 26.

Sure. So Captain Teal I know works with all the businesses in the downtown area and the bid does fund security, different types of individuals downtown to monitor different types of situations. The captain of the downtown district does work hand in hand with those individuals and is in constant communication about what goes on there. The issue is that the security that private businesses hire, it's limited to those private businesses and they can't patrol the streets or the public areas. And so one of our I mean, biggest issue is controlling the individuals that are downtown in those public spaces, which is ours to own and identifying all the different ways we can manage those crowds.

What we're seeing is businesses can have wants to warn people for weapons. They have machines to ensure people are 21 when they're in the businesses. But in those public areas, those safety measures don't exist and that is problematic for us. Even though we do coordinate our efforts with those different security companies that are providing that private security for those businesses in those public spaces is where the challenges lie. So when we have the people congregating there who haven't been wanted, who may be 21 and, may have alcohol in their vehicles that we're not aware of at the time. Bad things can and have occurred.

Okay. So are you saying is so yes, there are security firms that are down there. But they're limited and that is why. I tell your title again.

I'm sorry. Inspector Grant.

Inspector Grant mentioned that it they're working in conjunction with different entities through OCWS because then they're there to support you as well. I guess I'm just looking at we're putting a lot of stress and strain on our resource, and and it's constantly increasing. And then we are, you know, sort of pushing our young people out. And I I I'm not advocating for them to be out all hours of the night. I do think that we do need to have that curfew in place.

And, again, like I said, things should not be open past 10:00, 11:00 at the latest because things go downhill. But I'm just looking at how do we relieve some of that stress off of a resource that's so important to the entire city, because we have to pour so much of that energy into our downtown area. I think that we're not really focused on the solution because we just keep looking at this problem and so we really need to focus on the solution of what to do with our young people that are 21 because that seems to be one of the focuses because you mentioned it several times that these individuals are 21 or 17 and below. And then we're constantly pouring our resources. So we need a solution.

Agree. Agree. And we are asking for all the help we can get from businesses, community organizations, faith based places, the council, help find productive things for our young ones to do in the city.

Right. Yes, ma'am.

Are you concluded, Alder Tiller?

I'm going to yield for a moment. Yes.

Okay. Yep. And we can always come back to folks. So with that, we'll go oh, is I know Alder Chambers had mentioned in a press release things relating to the parents. Are there any discussions relating to that? I know there is an ordinance on the books that actually I don't think has produced a case recently of parental responsibility. I checked with Muni Court. I don't I think there was one case that was before the court and it was dismissed. Dismissed. So is that a matter that the police department considers, discusses? Sure.

So part and parcel with the curfew ordinance, there is a parental ordinance if your child breaks curfew. And there's a number of different factors in that ordinance to meet. One, you know, the parent has to have some type of knowledge or or there's a multitude of factors that have to be met in order for those to work. To be honest, in those situations where curfews being enforced and particularly downtown, the time it would take then to hold the parent liable in that that moment and gathering all the information on that end once an individual is transported is a challenge of resources. I know know last

last year year Alder Baumann highlighted highlighted with actually

Correct.

Calling people out of there that that would take such a tremendous amount of resources. It wouldn't be worth it. Is that the response?

Well, it's worth it, but correct. It does. It's a balance of resources.

It's practical to do. Briefly, President, press, and then we go to

a lot So of

what what kind of traction do you have on this curfew? I mean, it sounds like people have been thinking about it. Is it have you put pencil to paper? Have you, I mean, how far along is this idea about curfew and taking people or young people to some location because it sounds like a different form of tabs to me and except that instead of it being truancy from school, it's like curfew. So, I'm wondering how far along is this initiative?

I would defer to the Department of Community and Wellness Safety on that because I know they are the primary planners on the facility and and the pieces for the curfew center that they're envisioning.

Okay. I'm so. So you but you're the police department's involved in some way, shape, or form. So. Correct. You don't know how at what stage this is at or is this real? Is this a conversation? What I mean? Sure. Because you talked about engaging I'm not sure who you've engaged from the council but it's I'm curious to know how you're engaging the council on on this initiative.

So we've been in contact with the Department of Community Safety and Wellness regarding what a the the beginning plans to pry the preliminary plans of what a building would look like. And they would have to speak as far as what it looks what the building is. I believe the it could be a possibility for a location that's located at 32nd And Brown perhaps. However, we're still at the very beginning stages. Now, of course, we have officers that can take these young people into custody if they are violating curfew.

Like I mentioned before, it does take officers offline. And our goal, we really don't want to have to write these citations to kids because we know that could be detrimental to the future as well. But we want to have some type of a space where we can take these young people to a location where there are adults that are there that are trusted, verified, etcetera. And like you said, it would be a reversal on the TABS program. For you have an officer perhaps that may be there throughout the duration, but this is still in the very preliminary stages.

Okay. So just to be clear, the officer committee wellness should should be briefing council and figuring out how we how we can engage.

Can you repeat that, sir?

The Office of Community Wellness or Department of Community Wellness should be connecting with the council to figure out how we get engaged in this process with deciding this initiative or helping make this initiative a reality?

I would say that MPD, the Department of Community Safety and Wellness, all of us should be involved in that discussion with the council regarding what the next steps look like and how we can support one another's efforts.

Okay. I just wanna know how far along we are. That's all.

Yes,

sir. Alder Bergaus. Thank you, mister chair and and if you would indulge me for four questions. Last year, there was a a very tragic incident where a vehicle struck through, broke through a two by four barricade that was blocking and protecting people on the street. The department has since invested in mobile barricades.

We saw that they were deployed and then soon after that, they were pushed to the side, left on the curb or in the terrace or in the parking lot and not installed because it was a burden to do so because it took about sixty minutes to install them. The manufacturer's website says it takes ten minutes to install them. Are those mobile barriers installed every day that Code red is in place?

So first and foremost, Alderman, thank you very much for bringing that to my attention because that was something that I was not aware of.

I was That was discussed in this committee previously.

Okay. So that's a discussion that I will have with captain Teal regarding. But the plan is we purchased those median barriers so that we could have the optimum protection of the individuals who frequent the downtown on Water Street area. And so the plan is to utilize those every night that every weekend night. Of course, we're not going to utilize them on a Wednesday or a Thursday. But when the code red is activated, officers are deployed for those operations. Those meridian barriers should also be activated as well.

And to be clear, I wanna clarify the incident that happened in March, our full Code Red deployment wasn't in place at that time. We had additional a

was

and

was closed a because there was an orange two by four barrier.

Oh, I I mean this year.

So I

just wanted to clarify this year so far we have not put up the meridian barriers. Last year, we did not have them in the area where that tragedy occurred. Okay.

So officers have the option to take voluntary overtime to work code red. Is the street takeover task force also staffed with voluntary overtime?

Well, thank you very much for discussing street takeovers because that is also problematic from time to time in the city of Milwaukee, not just on the North Side, not just on the South Side, but throughout the entire city. And so the deployment strategy regarding the street takeovers is that there are two officers assigned from each district to assist in case there is an incident that takes place in the in on any street in Milwaukee, and that is governed and supervised by a sergeant. And so if there is a a large amount of vehicles that are drag racing and engaging in these types of events, and if we are aware of that, that sergeant along with those two officers from each district, if it's if they are needed, will go and disperse

those That's not that's not voluntary overtime. That's just a regular that's a regular

yes, sir.

It's a regular

alright.

So the extra overtime in code red does not subtract from the street takeover task force.

Correct. That is its own entity.

The street takeover task force only starts at what time in the evening?

It depends because so right now

night, it starts

at 09:00. Well, we have our officers, our late power officers from 7AM or excuse me, 7PM to 3AM who are committed to that deployment in case there is a situation that takes

when I had a street takeover in my district, I was told, sorry, they don't start until 08:00. They'll be there around 08:30. And the the takeover

It's crazy.

Went uncontrolled with zero police response for ninety minutes.

I will tell you that was very early on in the stages when we had a task force dedicated to that work. And I recall that situation. And once it was brought to our attention, we addressed it with those individuals who were assigned and we explained the expectations and talked and discussed that they would be available throughout the entire ship. So there were some issues there and we acknowledge that. But as the work continues, as it's now become a process, that will no longer be the response.

Is that enormous city resources are being spent downtown where every property owner in the city of Milwaukee pays property taxes. In my district, I have one squad squad on on patrol. Patrol. And when I need more, I get told you need to wait ninety minutes before we

Mhmm.

Finish our roll call and make our way there. Right? That's a problem for me. That's a problem for my residents. Other cities that have entertainment districts control their entertainment districts with private security like the bid or the business association or the neighbors on that in that entertainment district pay for that security.

You need to check your They check IDs when people enter that entertainment district on the public street solely because this is not MPDs to own solely because this is a public street. If there is a drain on resources from other neighborhoods in the city, that neighborhood draining those resources needs to step up and come to this council for a plan. We can change whatever ordinance we need to so that that entertainment district can thrive but can also pay for its own needs. The cash cow of overtime on Code Red tells me that there are there are fewer resources, not just monetary, but if there was a need for street takeover over time, those 26 officers are no longer eligible to go protect neighborhoods. That's a problem for me.

That's a problem for my district. Thank you, mister chair.

Thank you. Alder Moore.

Thank you so much mister chair. So, probably, there was a few questions that I had and so if I'm going back, forgive me. I didn't want to interrupt my colleagues. Can you, inspector Grant or Heather, either one of you, can you talk a little bit about numbers? So for example, for Code Red, specifically, ideally, the volunteer portion, or the the the officers that volunteer, what is roughly the number of officers that are needed to support that?

And so that there are Even

if it's a range. So there are four zones

that we cover regarding, COREED. And so to support those, the efforts in keeping the individuals there as safe as possible, I know that in the past that we've had up to about 40 officers that have worked some of those deployments. But that's keeping in mind that we have Water Street North, we have Water Street South, and we have a variety of other entertainment zones downtown as well. But to give you an an exact number of what is proper to ensure that no one is harmed, I can't provide that because that even if we had like, we had 26 officers deployed on March 22 and someone still was was victimized.

Let me be a little bit more succinct. On average, how many officers are working code red no I understand that there's four zone on average you know what we typically have 20 officers or 25 or 30 what is the average number of officers. That are typically. Supporting that area.

I don't want to assume. Okay. Order one woman and I don't want to give you any false or inaccurate information. Can I provide that information

to Okay? You another I appreciate that. Thank you. And then so aside from just for my clarification. Aside from those officers that are supporting code red, these four zones, they are still regular, you know, appointed officers that are already scheduled to be there. What does that number look like? Sure.

So, that number generally is about nine. The nine officers that worked the the late power or nine or so officers for the that deployment. Yeah.

Those officers would, if there's a call for service, then be pulled and deployed to respond to that call for service anywhere in District 1.

Anywhere. Got it. Yep.

Yep. So perfect that you answered. That was a follow-up. So you all mentioned quite a bit about the support of some of our other agencies such as DCWS. Can you talk a little bit about when that relationship sort of started because I know they weren't always not to my recollection I know they were always coming down there- to help support. When did that relationship begin and what were the conversations about like what is needed of- of the staff.

Sure. Well, I know I had reached out and this is just anecdotally based upon my memory of my own conversations. I had reached out to Ashanti Hamilton back when he was the director and I can't honestly recall if it was last year or the year before to say hey listen, you know I get I know you're deployed in all these areas but maybe it would be helpful like let's start a conversation about coordinating in the downtown area. So that for code red probably happened within the last couple of years, but I don't know the exact date. Just know he was the director.

I'm just looking for just a timeline. Couple years ago, whatever that that makes sense. Yes. Thank you. That's all the questions I have for now. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Briefly on that point, Alder Chambers is still in the queue.

Okay.

Alder Chambers?

Thank you. Okay, I'll go I'll work backwards. Inspector Grant, you said that there's four zones and the zones are Water North, Water South, Brady, MLK. Correct?

Yes, sir.

Okay. And it's code red on all of these, like, every weekend?

Yes. We do have officers assigned every weekend to these locations.

So there was an incident that happened at Element where there was no officers over there.

That isn't part of the cold red.

Isn't that Water South?

That is Water Water South. And there if I'm if my memory serves me correctly, there were officers that were in that vicinity or in that general area. However, I would have to review additional reports regarding that. Okay. But that is Water South.

Yeah. I I because I just try to I guess the deployment is what can confuses me because I mean, the video stated that there was no officers near there. So then that would take me to my next question, and this is for you, miss Huff. You mentioned in your earlier testimony that the bid fund fund have funds for security. Do you know the dollar amount for their their funds?

So the the bid security is not NPD security.

I got you.

I do not know that information.

Do you know what are you aware of what the bid secure within their bid?

I know they utilize their resources for a number of different things in the downtown area, so they have a homeless outreach team. They have different security for different things, but I really honestly can't speak intelligently about what all of the resources are.

Talking about me that bill bid 31, is that that's the 21? Okay.

Well, for part of it, not not all the zones, not the four zones. The 21 with number two

of the four zones. Okay.

They will cover Brady Street which has its own bid and

That's Matt doing that.

Cover three of them.

That's Matt, correct? Matt's the bid direct. I can ask him that question. And then going back to Auto Woman Taylor's point earlier, piggyback on my point, thank you. NPS has had some success the Auto Woman to be traders were like this, had some success with their twilight centers. You know, with the amount of kids that, you know, come into there, I mean, maybe it's a question that we can, you know, since auto emboss has said the the great impact MSOE did, they have the beautiful current center literally right there on the corner. You know, maybe we could possibly look into doing something far as a twilight center there for the weekends.

Soccer

field. Yeah. Or the soccer field, you know, the twilight centers for them during the night to work off, brush off some steam, to charge em you know, a nominal amount, dollars 5 or something like that to help do that or that could be one of the centers that we drop off the kids to and they can get exposed to some college education or some college, you know, environment and see if they like that in the future as opposed to the the stuff that they're embarking. So, I just really that's more of a comment than as a of a question. You know, I I really want us to find creative ways to minimize the strain that we are already putting not only on you but the city and our residents because we get those calls when we hear about the lack of police response and to Alderman Burgales' point, you know, we do that.

And then, you like this one. I guess, you know, I had an incident. Again, I brought up last week where resources were pulled from various districts. Three, five, I drove there myself and saw the cars. You know, when a shooting when a shooting occurs or a major incident occurs downtown, all resources come from various districts if, you know, if, you know, we need it. The if a major incident or shouldn't come, do people come from downtown to go out to those incidents, or do they stay downtown?

They also respond to different locations throughout the city of Milwaukee if there is a violent or a major incident that takes place because I indicate as I indicated before, sir, we service the entire city of Milwaukee. So if there is an incident, a major incident, a shooting, a stat or a shooting, a significant issue that takes place on one side of the city, if those officers that are assigned to that district, if they're on other significant, calls for service, officers from other districts will respond to those services. And so it goes both ways.

What about officers that's working code red?

They can't be pulled. If if there is a major incident that's taking place in the city of Milwaukee, a life threatening incident, or where resources are needed, they can be pulled and utilized, sir.

How often are they pulled?

Right now, don't have that information but that's something I can follow-up with you on if that's okay.

Because you know, I I believe that but I just I I know people didn't go from co red down to the other incidents and I think that since they are working overtime and they are considered extra bodies as opposed to pulling resources from other districts who are securing a district, I think they should be the first ones to go. Just my, you know, point of view. But, you know, I I really think we need to reimagine this and, you know, get away from status quo because right now, I think we're just really stagnant and that's why we're having these conversations now. So, thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Chair.

Thank you. I think President Perez was in the queue and then back to Alder Moore. President Perez?

Yeah. I just wanted to just say that I think there is a lot of conversations going on and it doesn't feel like the council is at the table And I think we should be at the table. We have lots of council members that are committed to helping solve this problem, committed to prevention, committed to sharing resources, information and especially if there's going to be any dollar spent, the council must be at the table. It doesn't feel that that's the case at this point. So I just want to make that clear that we should be at the table. And then just one anecdotal thing I just wanted to ask is with the Fusion Center, we can't get ahead of the street takeovers in a in a in a timely fashion.

So, I believe our next file will touch a little bit on the street and teen takeovers but briefly. Save it for then. Okay.

Thank you. Alder Moore?

I'll make this really brief. Thank you so much, mister chair. I think one of the things that I wanna say is that I don't expect the police department to create programs for the young people. That's not what you're designed to do. Yes, you can partner. Absolutely. But it is the role of, community partners, even specific departments in our city to be able to take the lead on what that could look like. There's a room full of community partners that are are in the room. There are plenty that may be watching online. That is a strategy for us to be able to figure out while saying, okay, MPD, how can you support this particular initiative?

But in my opinion, it is not for you all to solve that issue. You all are the police. We want you to figure out how to, you know, make sure you're policing the entire you know supporting the entire city around the needs that we have not just again not just downtown and this isn't I don't want to make this you know this file is about you know downtown but we're talking about a citywide issue here. So I'm hoping that I hear you know from- and this is where we come in as well with looking at you know- resources that we may have to be able to put back into our generation, back into our young people because there are not a lot of skating rinks and bowling alleys that allow these young people to be at. And I know that some people don't want young people out late, you know, but once you get to be a certain age and you're a teenager, you know, there needs to be some structured and safe spaces for our young people to be.

We can have that. It's happened in other communities. We can figure that out. I just push us to be able to work together to figure out what that looks like and to be able able to again leverage resources philanthropy- you know community the city the state whatever but to leverage resources so that we can. Again I'm support the issues that we're having in the city and not just you know write off our young people so we can get I know we can get there because we got a lot of people in this room that care. Thank you thank you Mr chair.

Mister chair. Thank

you- elder Taylor's in the queue then we'll go back to the sponsor and- maybe wrap things up.

Thank you

so much. So appreciate all the woman Charlotte Morrissey. Thank you, Wayne, me right into where I want to go. So I was just going put in a plug for district nine because often I say that we need to be part of the solution, right? And so she's right. MPD is not responsible for programming, but there are a lot of people in the room that I can see right now who do care and they wanna come up with a solution. So my plug is that district nine has is in the process of opening a roller rink for our young people, but it is not

a free for all.

There is going to be accountability. There is high security. There is parental involvement. There is ID checking. So, but we are trying to be part of the solution to have a space for young people because we can't just keep pushing them from area to area to area without a solution because that's what's gonna happen.

And we're never gonna stop these street takeovers and over utilization of our resources. So we have to come up with solutions. So that is my plug for District 9. Flow roller rink will hopefully open sometime in October. But we're going to try to, like I said, have all of our security pieces in place so we're not over utilizing our resources.

We love that. Thank you.

Thank you very much. You are welcome.

Thank you. Alder Baumann. Yeah. Thank you Mr. Chair. I certainly take to heart the comments of my colleagues regarding the need for police resources in the neighborhoods and that the co red may or may not be consuming too much police resources. But I just having said that, I also represent neighborhoods. So I understand that concern.

Yeah.

But I have to say for the record and for people watching on TV, this area in yellow represents 22% of the city's tax base. This tax base is what allows the city to provide public services and public safety in other parts of the city. This has 2% of the city's land there, land mass in this yellow area. There's about 90,000 jobs in this this yellow area. There's about 10,000 hotel rooms in this yellow area.

There's about 8,000 residents in this area. There's a major university in this area. There are numerous entertainment venues which are economic drivers of the hospitality industry in downtown and frankly for the entire city. You have the Baird Center and the Convention Center and Fiserv Forum and the Panther Arena and Miller Theater and the new Live Nation Theater and all the other, the PAPS Theater Group. You have numerous entertainment venues.

So downtown is everybody's neighborhood. It does deserve the police resources necessary to maintain this economic engine. So this engine continues to function and continues to produce economic value and social value for all the citizens of Milwaukee and frankly for all residents of Southeast Wisconsin. So let's not put pit neighborhoods against neighborhoods because this is everybody's neighborhood. And this is the economic engine of Milwaukee and Southeast Wisconsin.

So I but I'm all in favor of measures that can reduce the incentive to come downtown and tailgate. And one of those methods and this has been discussed before, is fencing off these entertainment districts and creating entry points where people are wanted and go through magnetometers and are checked for weapons. Are we looking at that? Had we have any plans in place? Are we penciling out what that would cost?

So from a policing perspective, we would love to be able to have controlled areas in entertainment districts or elsewhere where large numbers of people congregate that are fenced off, where private security is wanting individuals checking IDs. We know that in other entertainment districts nationwide that

is

the model and that seems to have worked in some of the places. In fact, Captain Teal is visiting Nashville now. I think they do that in a number of different places and spaces. I think that's a bigger conversation than police and I don't mean to pass the buck. We can absolutely recommend and I know the chief is very supportive of areas where we could start.

A challenge with Milwaukee to acknowledge is that the downtown area is vast and there are a number of micro entertainment areas within the downtown areas. But we say let's start one place. Let's see. Let's see if it works and is effective because we also while we police citywide, we also agree with all the statements that you said as well. So I know that the police department is committed to having a conversation about dedicated entertainment districts.

We would be happy to make recommendations from a public safety perspective in that conversation. But I think that that would involve more than just us because there needs to be some decision and policymakers.

What's the administration's position on that?

Very supportive.

About Oh. Oh.

I thought you meant the police administration. I apologize. I can't speak to the administration's position.

Miss Daniels is here. She could perhaps speak. Would you like to speak to the position of the administration or not?

Well, I guess how do we get this process started? Do I introduce a file in two weeks that directs DPW to put a fence? Yeah. Just to get the conversation going?

Make defense of MSOE. Take defense from MSOE.

So

It's not their responsibility to police downtown Milwaukee.

Right. So so but what I'm I guess, just to kinda wrap things up. So what I'm hearing is when this many folks congregate, you are overwhelmed. There is not a response that you can do with even 26 officers that are is going to make that manageable. If you wanted to enforce anything, whether it's curfew, parents, the rest, that would take all your officers and more.

So Alder Baumann is discussing the fencing alternative as a way for you to get a handle on things. So worth further discussion, worth deeper dive with the administration to see if they'd support it. Alder Baumann wants to bring forward a file to to make that put that in motion. It's it's his district where this would be happening. So that's something that could be pursued. Alder Chambers, you had a super quick question. We usually end up with the sponsor.

Yes, sir. And I really appreciate my colleague on this and I know that he is working hard and has done tremendous work for you know, his district and representing downtown very well. So, I won't, you know, push back on that far as that but miss Huff, what is the I guess I want to know like what is the the the amount of officers that are currently stationed at district one.

So.

Or what what's the what's the I guess the the the rate of employment I guess as far as like productivity and things of that nature. I know we previously had a study and I know that district one and six had the highest like productivity rate after being proactive, having proactive cause as opposed to reactive cause. Meanwhile, district four, district seven, and district five had reactive cause to a high amount. I guess where I guess what I'm trying to figure out is there's more than enough officers that are district one that can man the entire district. I would assume. Correct? Or they are thin as well. Guess that's the question I'm asking.

So right now, if I'm not mistaken, we are down at least a 100 officers citywide, if not more than that. So we would welcome, and I appreciate you auditors for pushing out that we're hiring because we are definitely hiring and looking for more members to join our forces to support all of our vast diverse communities. But as it relates to the staffing of district five, I can give you that number district one, I can give you that number in a closed door session, sir. But right now, they are still just based upon the the resources that we have. They're still understaffed as well as other districts throughout the city.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much.

I'll place you on file.

Well, let's ask the sponsor if it's his wish to have this placed on file or would you like to keep it held

for I like keeping file alive. So hold and call it a chair.

I'll do that.

Okay. Alder Chambers then moves to have this item held to the call of the chair. Are there any objections? Then that matter is dispensed with. Thank you. Moving on to an adjacent file where community wellness and safety has been noticed and we'll have a seat at the table as well. This is item number five, file number 25200131. Communication from the Milwaukee Police Department and the Department of Community Wellness and Safety relating to their response to teen takeovers. This is sponsored by Alder Moore, myself, and Alder President Perez. Alder Moore, you are taking lead. So we will go to you.

Thank you, so much. Are we having other folks come to the Tech Bowl or?

Community wellness and safety has been noticed so they should, come on down.

Is that a presentation you have, that's her?

Okay. Let me call City Channel. Oh, you think.

Thank you. I'm actually leaving the table for this one.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much, mister Sher. One of the more recent issues that have transpired in our city has been sort of the team takeover. So we had the street takeovers.

Now we have the team takeovers. And this is an opportunity for us to get a little bit more clarity around just sort of and again, these opportunities are for us to- communicate back. To our residents as to what it is that we're doing you know when these sorts of issues- happen we know that there is police response but at the same time. What is- our department's response or even our community's response or the collaboration thereof on how we're addressing these particular issues. And so I just wanted to call the department to just share what it is that, they've they've done what you know how they've participated in the process, just so that we can get a sense of the work, that's taking place.

Again, this helps us, figure out if there there's a need, if there's anything missing, what do we need to do as elected bodies you know, to put some, you know, ordinance together, whatever it may be but it's that sort of relationship where we're looking for that communication. So thank you so much mister chair. If any of our my colleagues want to add to that.

Very good. President Perez, anything to add before we go to the departments?

No, I think my colleague captured it well. We just want to hear what's going on and I guess for the viewing public just to be able to measure some outcomes of commitments that are going to be made to some of the things we need to address.

Very good. With that, we'll throw it to the police department and Department of Community Wellness and Safety.

All right. So I also have Captain Vanetta Norberg, is our commanding officer of our school resource officer division as well as our community resource division. As it relates to the team takeovers, I was advised directly by our intelligence fusion center as well as community partners, CVI teams who provided direct information regarding where these team takeovers would take place. And that was an Instagram post with which had a variety of different flyers. And so I'm thankful for the partnerships that we have with our CVI teams and our CVI partners who provide us information so that we can get ahead of our strategic deployments, etcetera.

And so when advised about Carmen Park and Moody Park, we worked with our school resource officers, the officers from district four, officers from district five, and also our Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office to deploy law enforcement personnel at those locations. Our officers engaged with the youth that were there. We also know that four one four Life Department of Community Safety and wellness along with other CVI teams were at these locations engaging with the youth and that they also dispersed some of the individuals that were there. Based upon the information that I have is that a lot of the CVI partners actually diffused situations before they escalated. As it relates to the teams that were at these locations, a lot of the teams were there to have fun.

I was advised that a lot of the youth were there walk walking dogs, on roller skates, playing basketball, actually there to have fun at the park where they should be allowed to be kids and to and to partake in those activities. We were then advised that there could be a possible team takeover at 3rd Street Market. Our officers along with the Milwaukee Sheriff's Department or office responded to that location and worked in con conjunctively with the security personnel there, and there were no incidents that took place there. We were also advised that there was gonna be a teen takeover at district stations. And so that causes significant alarm because what teen is advising other teens to go to police districts to try to take over a police department.

And so it causes us to investigate if these are adults that are putting these flyers together. We know that this is nationwide, Atlanta, other places throughout The The US have experienced this during spring break and also responded. And so our message to our community, our message to our parents and guardians. Please know where your kids are going. Please know who's gonna be there. Please know if there's gonna be responsible adults. We know that we have a variety of community partners and resources who have programming for our youth, please take advantage of those programs and be very cautious of just dropping your kids off. Okay.

Office or Department of Community Wellness and Safety, do

you have

anything to add?

Sure. Hello, committee members, president the council and other council members. My name is Karen Tyler, interim director for the Department of Community Wellness and Safety. I'd like to first kind of emphasize with emphasize what inspector Grant stated. This is a national situation that's taken place.

So we are going to be under the guidance of the National Office of Violence Prevention Network and there is an emergency meeting scheduled for later this month. With that being said, we have done some research locally and I want to turn it over to Julian Pfeifer who leads our data and research work within the office and we'll talk about some statistics and some information that we've put together.

So I don't think this was shared with me in advance. So how long would the presentation

It's very brief.

Like five minutes, ten minutes?

For sure. Okay. Yes. Four?

Yeah. Please try to keep it brief so we will have time for questions from members.

Sure. Thank you.

Good morning. My name is Julian Pfeiffer. I work in community outreach projects for the Department of Community Wellness and Safety. As we think about our response to takeovers, I think it's important to be guided by the data. The data tells us that Milwaukee is a young City.

Nearly one in three residents is 20 according to the health department's community health assessment. Share of residents 20 in Milwaukee is about 27% higher than national average. That helps explain the scale of what we are dealing with here. It means that Milwaukee faces a higher demand for places to go, things to do, and ways to connect as the alderwoman mentioned. There's a greater responsibility to provide space, structure, and opportunity.

If we're not meeting that demand, then it's going it's going to show up somewhere. Uh-huh. Before team takeover, street takeovers were a thing, that community health assessment highlighted the need of investing in safe spaces and youth programs that help young people thrive. Speaking to that, there's a social engagement index conducted by the health department, which is a measure of things like what are people involved in, how do people feel connected, feel like they belong somewhere, and whether they feel like there's positive ways to connect with others. What what the index showed was that Milwaukee, city of Milwaukee ranks numb the lowest, second lowest among the 19 municipalities in the county.

Even within the city, there's a 30 gap between the most connected and least connected neighborhoods. That's that explains a big difference between how people experience daily life. Low social engagement means that there's going to be greater isolation. Higher higher isolation means that there's gonna be more instability. Where there's instability, there's violence.

Mister chair?

President press. I just

could you just explain how you how you got there? I mean I mean you you just threw out that we're second and how did you measure that? How?

Well, that was a research from the city of Milwaukee health department released in their in their recent release, recently released community health assessment. Those were their figures.

And this is within Milwaukee County. It's not a comparison of us with other peer cities around the country.

It's a ranking of the 19 municipalities in the City Of Milwaukee by the health department.

In the county of Milwaukee? The county. Okay. County. But not with peer cities across the country.

Nope. They looked at Okay. Purely Milwaukee County.

Do we have any data on that or how we compare to other peer cities as far as the social engagement?

That's very fascinating. I'd be happy to have that conversation.

Mr. Chair. Okay. President Preza, you concluded or

Yeah.

I just mean, it's an interesting ranking that we're second lowest. I just want to know how we got there or the data to back that up.

I'd love to have the health department here. We've talking about engaging and coordinating on more of these sort of things but

that's health department data.

And you know, I say that because I believe I I've heard publicly. I know the mayor said it that we have a plethora of things for young people to do. And so I'm I'm I wanna make that connection between what you're saying here and the plethora of things for young people to do in the city.

According to the metrics that they looked at and that they're comparing, what they're saying is between neighborhoods, There is a 30 gap. So there are neighborhoods where that engagement is high and then there are other neighborhoods where it's lower. Okay.

Alder Burgales?

Yeah. I just don't see the relevance of this at all. You just said just now a moment ago that there are there's a 30 gap between neighborhoods within Milwaukee County. So the relevance of a social engagement index amongst municipalities, one that has a whole lot of people in West Milwaukee with 4,500 residents, 900 of them go to the bake sale. That's not a fair comparison. So I I really just have to question the relevance of any of this in.

Well, the relevance in my opinion if I could say that, you know, Milwaukee is a city with young youth population, population 20, which which is 27% higher than national average. That that gives us a greater responsibility to provide this this support in a structure and these venue opportunities for young folks. We got more young folks than most cities, sir.

You're comparing apples to elephants. I I don't see it. Thank you.

Okay. Please proceed. And we wanna make sure we have time for questions. So again, was promised five, seven, ten minutes max. So I'll let you proceed without interruption but let's conclude so we can have questions.

Okay. So I'm pointing out here that the city of Milwaukee Department of Community Wellness and Safety has invested in our youth. Our summer of healing program provides safe, fun, skill building activities for youth to get signed up for and involved in during the summer months. That investment has been made. Also, we have partnered with Employ Milwaukee for the growth opportunities program.

That's for for kids ages 15 to 18, mentoring, job training, conflict resolution, skill building. These are some of the responses that the Department of Community Wellness and Safety has. These should be considered part of the response to the issue of what our young people are facing in the city. This slide here details the coordinated response as described by Inspector Grant, another MPD. Our street outreach teams are coordinating, looking to stay ahead, keep an eye on the chatter, what's happening, and respond to incidents.

What do we have here? Our summer of healing grantees have agreed on a creative way to create our own takeovers and surround those with positive healthy events. So there's some creative things happening. There's also been some discussions with gaining additional support from philanthropists. We've had some businesses who have offered to provide facilities, space, and provide support to capacity building for our efforts, prevention efforts.

Thank you. Thank you. And I would just request for the department next time to provide the slides in advance. We can have it added to the file and then members can have it on their computer so they can see it. Some of the text was really hard to see and also helps us prep in advance. Thank you. With that, are there questions from committee members for either MPD or DCWS? Mr. Chair? Alder Moore.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you for sharing that context with us. It's you know, sort of sad to see that we're the second lowest when it comes to social engagement. I know that the health department pull puts out this report. I want to say maybe yearly or every year. I always remember them seeing a report. Do you know if this is a yearly report or

I believe it's every two years.

Every two years? Yes. And I think my question is and congratulated them on the data in there that I don't know if anybody reads it. It's amazing. And we actually should be using the health report as a tool to gauge some of the things that we do here in the city.

So, sort of knowing that. So, and and my colleague, all the president Perez mentioned in regards to, you know, yeah, we have a plethora of activities for our young people. That's the that's the the summer camps, the internships but what we're really talking, you know, at at 10:00 at night or 09:00 at night, we're not talking about those things, right? We're talking about this social, this social engagement. So, knowing this information, I mean, when were you all so let me back up. When were you all aware of this information?

Well, it has informed our efforts. Our summer of healing programming. We've gone in. We're going into this summer represents the third year that our summer of healing program has been going on. So, we've we've that informs our work.

And the report that just came out, what what is the date on it?

2025. I think it was released in January '25.

Okay. And so you all have been using that information to sort of inform some of the things that you all do.

Along with other reports, studies.

Yes. No. That's that's awesome. That is that is really good and so then with that, what has been the plan to coordinate these sort of social engagements because again, you know, I shared before that the the this is not the police sort of- duty right to put together programs for young people or coordinate strategies right- they could be part of it so what have you all done. To be able to- core Nate knowing that the so, you know, this was in 2025. What has been done to help coordinate putting partners together using this data to actually strategize some things.

There have been conversations with folks like the health department in agreement on collaborating and coordinating on prevention issues. And so we look forward to that partnership. One of the things that we've talked about is ways to leverage the influence and the resources of sister city agencies who also have a stake in this, engage other stakeholders, and pursue opportunities where priorities and goals align and prevent violence.

Thank you. And I hear you and I hear what you're saying, but a lot of what I'm hearing is, oh, we're in conversation, we're in talks. I wanna know what's been done.

Summer of healing's been done. Growth opportunities in Milwaukee has been done. These are things

Social let's go back to

the social engagement. So, like, I'm very familiar with Summer of Healing. I'm very familiar with some of the partners that are at the table. What I'm saying is, what what is the strategy? So young people doing this sort of stuff, this ain't new. When I was young, what they had was cruising. The signs are still up on what is that? Sherman? Right? We were around during you know, we're young ourselves, but we're around during that time.

When when when a city is void again, we're the second lowest. When a city is the void, you already said it, of these operate opportunities it creates a higher demand and guess what. Young people are gonna you know find their own ways to do things as we've seen it morphs into different things right street takeovers teen take overs, whatever, right? What I'm asking is, yes, there is summer of healing. Yes, there's this growth opportunities that's very prescriptive to a small group of young people or a very structured opportunity what I'm asking is.

What is the strategy what has been the strategy to talk about how we address young people how we support. Young people you know and I and and- and anybody can answer but I'm I'm I'm trying to get to the yeah we're working on the I haven't seen anything. I just so I'm so that's what I'm pulling that's what I'm sort of pulling out. What what is the talks right now? What has been done right now to address that? Go ahead, boss.

So, that just and thank you very much for allowing me to jump in real quick. Our order woman more. I just wanna tell you, yes, you're absolutely you're absolutely right. Our role as law enforcement professionals is to protect and serve. However, our officers are engaging with the youth on a regular basis. I know that we have a great relationship with MPS and the young individuals that attend the schools. And Katherine Norberg can provide you with information regarding what our school resource officers are currently doing in the programming and the partnership inside of the schools.

I wanted to jump in because last year, when we had the shooting downtown Can you please introduce yourself? Von Mays, founder of Conforce. I'm one of the peacekeeper teams under DCWS. Last year, I sat here in the seat when we had the shooting downtown and I specifically say it that on top of the resources, the presence, and all of that stuff that we needed to have down there. We cannot do that without providing these alternative spaces for young people. I said that last year. Yep. And this is a continuation of that not being done and prioritized. So, what we're seeing is a continuation of young people figuring their own spaces, putting their own things together. Right?

So, mister Mays, when you share that information, who did you share that information with?

When I shared that, I was talking to the this.

Talking to this

body. Yes. Okay.

But what I will say is after that happened, the only so we have a lock in program. Yep. And this goes to Alder regardless of of the question he asked about the relevance, right? There's a difference in things that people do. You have people who go to bars, then you have people who go to after sex.

Yep.

There's a total difference in that. Yes. This is why we have all these programs that people talk about but they wonder why the kids won't go to those programs or aren't attending those spaces. The specific group that we're talking about, you have to be intentional in the space you create for them. Yes. Because a lot of these other place that are in place may not be welcoming to them. Some of them don't want them there or don't want to work with that specific population. So, the program that we created was a was a direct response to the buck shooting that we had a number of years ago. The lock in program was created for that and it was birthed in order woman Taylor's district and the the week before we opened that launched that program, there was a shooting in her district. Lots away from where we first launched.

After that, there was there were no more shootings in that district and we did that program in her district for about a year. Last year, DCWS, OCWS at the time sponsored the only lock in we had last year. We had the the most attendance we ever had in the lock in. Yep. So, when we talk about spaces, we have to be intentional and specific about the space we create for certain young people because there are spaces for other young people but you know, to be honest, a lot of the conversation we're not having is a lot of these other organizations do not want to work with the population that needs the most help. Right. We have to be honest about that.

Yep.

And then we have to be intentional about that space. So, even there's been some interruption because of what happened with Adam and his having to step down because the conversation that we keep having about the space where MPD is supposed to take in people, that was conversation started with myself and Adam and other partners about what that was supposed to look like and that has been interrupted since he's had to to step down. So, the the idea was to have the missing piece the the twilight centers. Yep. Lock ins, different alternatives for them to go to depending on what the needs of those young people were because some of them will go to the the Twilight Centers.

Some of them will go to the missing piece. They have great programming and stuff that happens there all the time but some of them specifically, we keep having these conversations with young people and they're telling us what they want.

They want.

The lock ins is literally created from everything that they want and they like to do. And I'm not trying to shameless plug. I'm just saying the hard work is specific for the issues that we're talking about. So it will be great to have some of that a lot more of that those conversations and I want to shout out the CVI ecosystem for bringing together the critical protocol response and how we are coming more collective and a lot of the stuff that we're doing and bouncing off each other. Even so much as we're seeing this spill out into other municipalities.

We've seen this spill out to Bakeshore. We've seen this spill out to Mayfair and these are again because even they are not providing spaces where they are but these are where people go And our young people go where everybody else goes. They want to be included, and they want to do some of the same things. And so, like you said, nobody wants young people to be out in the middle of the night, but you have to have something that accounts for the young people who will be out in the middle of the night and do that in a safe conducive and supported way.

So I'll take this back

to the department. So, Von, you mentioned that the conversation had been interrupted since Adam left as far as and my colleague talked about- the space the curf you know. Figuring out how do we do curfew violations are again- I'm inspector grant was just like this is not about you know punishing young you know. We can cite them all day we don't want to do that that doesn't work- it doesn't curve the behavior right- sort of make some things other things worse- but I want to bring it back to the department as far as- if this was interrupt why was it interrupted because I don't want to make this about. An actual person I want to make this about if the if there's a department that has.

You know these are the things that we're supposed to be doing and if somebody comes into the- or or is part of. These decisions or these conversations, why didn't it continue? So, I'll I'll bring that back to you miss Tyler as far as because I've been hearing about This curfew spaces I think there might have been an article about it and I was confused because I hadn't heard anything from you know from anybody- particularly the department that it started in as far as just communication. You know this is this is what we're thinking about so why was that conversation interrupted because again we're going into the summer months we know that when the you know the weather peaks. Right you know we probably got to praise god for the rain because it might simmer some things down but we know that things are you know folks will gonna be outside.

Right that's and that's where they should be. But how did that conversation not continue because it seemed like it was an idea to again figure out how to curb or curtail the issue. Miss Tyler.

We have a couple of them, sir.

So the the conversation definitely continued. So we didn't talk specifically about the lock ins, but we did talk to other youth organizations because it's beyond just violence prevention. It's it's youth engagement. So we have one of our great partners here, Uncom. They have youth organizations across the city. You know, we have contracted partners with running rebels and like our summer healing so. Again we're trying to be creative so for an example we talk

about the example of the curfew sit you you know the space for the curfew that's what I'm trying to. Get a little bit more understanding about

yes so first of all there's so much that we have to talk about and we have to talk about how do we even invest in this type of idea. So it's very preliminary. So when the media report came out, you know, we haven't finalized anything. So, yeah. So again, it's just preliminary conversations now. But what we learned from the police department is that they do to have youth and that it requires a lot of their time. So then we thought let's talk about this. Let's see what we can do because if we can bring youth into a location, we can possibly explore wraparound services. We can see what's going on. Why are they been out after curfew?

We know the statistics state that, you know, they're at higher danger when they're out. That's where the higher prevalence of violence is for you too. So so definitely we're just exploring a lot of different things and getting geared up for summer, but we have a lot of transitional things going on within our office right now. But definitely, we want to make sure we have concrete plans. But again, we're meeting regularly about this. As you see, we're doing the research so we can go in the right direction.

I understand that. And, you know, I understand that there may be some transitional things that may be impeding the department. So, with so, with that, then, will the work not get done because it's now April, right? You know, if we're talking about a plan for summer, it should we we should already know what that is because you know, I did a summer use resource fair and I apologize to people because we should be talking about summer in January, right? Because you know, that's when all people are signing up for stuff from just planning.

It's now April. When when will we get a, you know, is it something that's looking to be implemented a pilot this year? Is it, you know what? We're just going to plan for next year. I'm just trying to get an understanding of like we can talk and talk and talk and we're sitting and we're meeting but I'm a person that I'm just like, I, we need to get to the table, figure out what we need to do, call the partners, you know, get a plan together because summer is going to be here sooner than you know it and there's nothing that's concrete that is, you know, set in stone of how we're going to be supporting young people, you know, this summer.

So for you all is the it is there a timeline. Is there you know what we're looking to have things finalized by a particular time like give me a little sense of. Where you all are on just sort of the planning process because. I don't want us to be planning in June.

Yeah so. For one we had two major meetings yesterday one with the our fast with a lot of our- partners across the city. As well as an and I know Lynn Lewis is here who leads the critical response protocol. And so because it we want to explore that with the entire CVI ecosystem as well as youth organizations across the city. So yeah we know we do have a tight timeline and we and we we did anticipate starting early with things, but then we had an abrupt change in leadership. And now with the transition, it is affecting like our coordination, but for sure we know we mean, this

is

How is hard

it affecting the coordination? Well, for one, you gotta think. We went from an office to a department. Mhmm. So we had to look at that. We had to look at restructuring. Again, we had an abrupt change in leadership. Mhmm. We so there was differences in regards to the direction. We don't know who is going to be the leader. So so that's another thing. We're down five staff currently. But you're the

one that want to be the leader though. You know so yes so.

You to be an issue.

No want to be and actually is the leader.

Enter.

Well yes the the correct but that shouldn't deter things from still moving forward because you're Well, they're practicing that what you are doing.

So I'm down five. I'm not that. I can't even hire anyone right now. I can't even hire. So we're down five staff. And so I think people need to take have some grace for our department. Again, we went to we went from a we're a standalone department now. That requires a lot of infrastructure considerations. And then again, we can't hire. We can't fire. So we can't really make a lot of changes. So, we're down five seven. That's pretty significant. So, I believe we're doing the best we can and we are moving things forward but there's challenges. You.

Thank you so much, mister. Go ahead. Can I also

add? Bring it back

to chair.

Let's let's hold on here. So, we're having a very involved discussion. There's members with questions. Let's make sure we get members to have the opportunity to ask those questions. So, Alder Chambers, you were next in the queue.

Thank you, mister chair and and my apologies to my colleague for coming in. I'm going to be the one to apologize to you, miss Karen, and to your department because actions made by this council within the budget. You know, you know, indirectly harm your department for a short period of time and now, you're going through what you're going through right now and I can speak for myself and myself alone and I'm a say, I apologize for that because, you know, had we known at least for me, the decisions that we made within the budget process, it probably would have been a bigger fight in far as doing that. So, I'm going to be the first to say that because you as an intern, you don't have powers to do anything as you stated. As far as hiring, firing, or even monetary monetary decisions to actually, you know, hand out contracts and do things to your department, to your organization, Vaughan and various organizations that are here.

So I think it's very unfair to put you through that fire when you can't because if you had that ability, you probably would have done what you needed to do. So I'm not saying that to get applause. I'm just saying it to state facts. So, thank you. You know, I I just think that, you know, when we, you know, as my colleague stated, Auto Woman Moore, we all need to, you know, pull in our resources and pull in our thing and I came to a lock in.

I came to a lock in the day before my back to school festival just to see that missing piece. How far is this and it was fantastic. It was about 65 kids there singing, dancing, eating, loaded, Cheetos, and playing basketball and they were face pain. They was learning how to cook. They were playing video games. They were doing a ton of things not in the street.

That's it.

So, I want y'all to continue to do that work and one of I personally want to continue to support the efforts that everyone is doing far as doing this. My my question my question to you mister Mays is How do you see this? How do you see? How do you envision a true response and a true partnership between the departments as far as MPD and DCWS moving forward on combatting that? Because they can't do this alone. As you said, how do you how do you envision that?

I I think the route that we were going on originally when I was having these conversations with Adam about creating this new response. I think they've done done an amazing job of of kind of letting us come up with that initially and what that looks like about not wanting to be necessarily handing out, you know, tickets and all that stuff but trying to get these young people resources because even in 2016, the same issues at Sherman Park and much of the response was these kids won't go home at 10:00.

Oh, yeah.

Get them out of here, arrest them what's going on. Nobody was asking why or what could be done and I think some of the conversation that ended up happening was, okay, some of these young people may not have a home to go to. Some of these young people are getting abused and don't want to go home. So, once you start dealing with it from that way, you can go to Sherman Park right now and it's totally different, right? And so, I appreciate them for for that response. We have to maintain control of what that looks like to maximize the impact and make sure that it's not necessarily just punitive unless we have to go those routes. And also, there are other factors in this. Again, Bayshore, this has been an issue with them for over a year. Yeah. Almost two years and I've been in contact with the auditor and the mayor there.

They still haven't moved on this. And so it's not just a issue here. Other people and other entities who are impacted by this have to be part of the solution. Yeah. Because if you're losing money and this is affecting you, you can't just leave it on us to to come save you or to intervene in these situations. So, I think if we can continue to have these talks and we are able to build out and identify viable places these young people can go and then get the resources and the the the programs and stuff that they need inserted in those places to maximize while they're there, what we can do for them as as quickly as we can do that. I I think it's doable. We just have to do it.

Can I just interrupt for a second?

Sorry, I have to get out of here soon. I'm captain Norberg from the school resource office, community resource division and I just want to offer some resources, you know, that we may have or some connections that we can help anyone sitting out here have as well. So you guys already know that our school resource officers are assigned to 12 high schools across the schools engaging with more than 9,000 students every day when we can engage with them. So, we talk a lot about youth safeties, conflict resolutions, and we also take in their concerns, what they're looking to do, and what concerns they have in the city of Milwaukee. We do programs with one specifically is a 12 with 12 program at King where we cover human trafficking, reckless driving, forensic science, and also K nine operations and try to support those after school curricular activities including one high school is trying to get a flag football team started for the girls.

They also officers also do a voice to men talking circle, girls of color. So, I just want to put out there that we are a resource. Anyone can contact me to let me know what we can put out to the students, to the parents. We also have a parent academy meeting every month. We don't get a lot of show from the parents, but we consistently do it on our own so that we have a way to communicate information to parents. We have one that is coming up soon. That'll be at North Division High School, but we're gonna talk about the team take overs and what suggestions parents may have. Students are invited as well. What do they have? What do they do?

Or what can we give them as well? I just want to put out there that school resource office is a resource to to get information to the students, to the parents, just to the school community.

And really quick, mister Chair, can you please add us to that communication? Okay.

The parent academy or.

Whatever you all are putting out, we would love to hear. Okay. About that information. So, you can send it to the city clerk. He'll get it to all of us but I would love to know what's going on because I don't and so for this body again to help make, you know, decisions and to just know what's going on or do you even share communication with our constituents to be able to say, hey, you know, there's a there's a parent academy that's going to be this month. Right? So we want to be partners in that as well. But please communicate with us. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. Out there the floor, mister chair.

Apologize. Very good. Yeah.

Alright. Elder Chambers and then elder Taylor.

Thank you. Miss Tyler, prior to you getting your the second time being intern, what was some of the things that you were working on in your capacity? Not as intern, at your capacity prior to that under the leadership of former director, I don't know his last name.

Can you save that for, I think

Is this relating to the team takeover

bid is this It's the related next

to the previous points that were made by my colleague. But if we want to wait to number five, we can wait to number six, we can wait. It's still relevant. But

Yes. I'll If it relates the team takeover, it's completely germane.

If it

doesn't, then we should hold over to the other one.

No. Just wait. Just wait to it.

Okay. You, Mr. Chair. Alder Taylor.

All right. Thank you so much, Chairperson Spikert. So what I'm going to do is just point out the lesson to be taken from the conversation that was just had. It's continuity that when things are set up, it should be set set up with continuity. So regardless of what's happening, that there's no break in it.

So let's take that as a lesson that we when we set things up, that it is able to keep going even if someone leaves, that they that we can do that. It's important to do that when we're dealing with young people. So I do I did want Captain Norberg to hear a thank you to her for all that the school resource officers are doing especially this parent academy meeting because so often we forget about the parents. So Von Mays hit on something that is extremely important that we're looking at young people who are looking for things to do, but they're also dealing with trauma.

Mhmm.

So and now I'm speaking from an educator having taught for more than twenty years. Mhmm. That that is a big reason why our young people are moving directions that they're moving in. And so we have to find a way to deal with that. So I want to say thank you to Von Mays for the work that you're doing. These programs that you're talking about this lock in program twilight centers. And I want to say thank you to the organizations like on common running rebels and summer healing those are so important it is so important. That we keep this organization DC- W. S. In place.

Because we have to have people who are going to invest their time. And efforts into helping our young people. They have to be able to have someone to help them transition from young folks to adults.