Public Safety Committee - Regular Meeting

Anything else you want to cite us before we go into committee? Oh wait, are there any neighbors present to testify? Please let the record reflect that there are no neighbors present to testify. Is there any last thing you want to cite us before we go into committee?

I'd just like to thank the committee for giving me the chance to speak.

All right, we are in committee. Do we have a motion?

Move approval.

The motion by Alderman Brower is approval. Are there any objections to that motion? Hearing none, so ordered. Good luck.

Thank you very much.

With that, we have no further business. So with that, we are...

More of the same.

Thank you. Thank you. you

This is the July 2, 2026 regular meeting of the Fire and Police Commission. Present are Commissioners Burgos, Evans, Fung, Ramey, Schneider, Spence, Spencer, and myself, Commissioner Horwitz. Commissioner World-Patterson is expected in due course. Also present is FPC Executive Director Leon Todd. And then we don't have Jay, okay. Director, please proceed with the agenda.

Thank you, Madam Chair, and with your permission, before I proceed to the agenda, I just wanted to take a moment to recognize Commissioner and Vice Chair Bree Spencer, because this will be her last full FPC meeting with us, although she will have another committee meeting next week, but this is her last full FPC board meeting. Her term began in early 2022, and just because of the technical rules as to how terms run, it expires on July 13th of this year. This is a big loss for the Commission, although I do want to say that during this time, when I first started in early 2021, I think that... The Commission was going through a fair to say a transitional period and there had been it was at a near crisis level, if not actually a crisis level when I came on board in early 2021 and we had a few. new commissioner appointments before Commissioner Spencer. But she was part of, I think, the initial core group of new commissioners that really helped to turn things around and right the FPC ship, so to speak. And I do just want to say, too, Particularly about Commissioner Spencer, she has done this job with energy, intelligence, dedication. She has really done it with her whole heart and put a lot of time and effort. And she is one of the reasons why I am so proud to be a part of this amazing team as Executive Director. I think it's fair to say I don't think there's any commissioner that works harder than Commissioner Bree Spencer. She's been instrumental in pushing forth major policy changes like the video release policy, the vehicle pursuit policy that's still pending with the Common Council, and just countless other initiatives and efforts. She has done more ride-alongs with both police and fire than I think any other commissioner that I've seen. I wonder how she does it all with her personal life, her private life, her professional life, and then in addition to all that, everything that she's done for the Fire and Police Commission. Again, this is going to be a big loss for the FPC, but she has decided to move on now that she's completed her term, which is, of course, completely reasonable. But I just want to say thank you so much for everything you've done over the last four years and a handful of months. We wish you the best. You're going to be sorely missed, but thank you so much.

Thanks, Lee.

Commissioner Bree Spencer.

It's been an honor. Let's go. All right.

So we will proceed with the agenda. Our first item is item number one, public comment. For those who would like to speak and are here in person, please come up and sit at the front table when your name is called. If you're appearing virtually and have registered in advance to speak, please use the raise my hand feature in the webinar tools and unmute yourself when called upon to speak. Each person will be given up to five minutes to speak and we will begin as we usually do with the speakers that are here in person and then we'll go to those, if any, that are appearing virtually. Our first public commenter is Hiba Mohammed. Good evening.

Good afternoon. Okay, hello everyone. My name is Hiba and I'm here with Milwaukee for Palestine. Please let me start by sharing this photo. This is a photo of me. While I posted this photo to an old social media account, that's not where I was able to retrieve this photo from for today. This photo was sent to the Milwaukee Police Department by their friends at Lockheed Martin. I pulled this photo from the results of a FOIA request that yielded 167 pages detailing over 130 email exchanges in one year's time between the Milwaukee Police Department and war profiteer Lockheed Martin, which is acting on behalf of its local subsidiary, Durco Aerospace. There have been recent revelations that MPD has been coordinating a surveillance campaign of anti-genocide, anti-war residents, and this should alarm any person committed to civil and human rights for all. As you know, I've been to this committee repeatedly over the past year, raising the alarm about police surveillance and overreach, only to mostly have our warnings ignored, at least from my perspective. Everything that I and so many others have warned about when it comes to police repression through surveillance, the increasing fascism in this city as police are given tools with little restrictions or understanding, and having all this done in secret while being paid for by our tax dollars, it's laid out plainly in the emails in this FOIA request. There's a lot that I have to say for five minutes, so I'm gonna trust that others will say what I miss because we are all outraged. So let me start with some facts. The MPD initiated 42% of the emails with Lockheed Martin in order to start discussions, offer warnings, and share information about us, residents, to Lockheed Martin. There is evidence MPD staff who are watching Milwaukee for Palestine social media accounts of their own volition. The MPD was interviewed by the journalist who requested the FOIA request, and here are some key takeaways that stuck out to me. MPD says they were not paid by Derco or Lockheed Martin to provide security. That means our tax dollars were used to pay these officers while they criminalized us, the taxpayers. And while I inherently disagree with this premise, I understand that there is an option to rent a cop in this city, wherein uniformed police officers are provided to supposedly secure events. My understanding is the cops assigned to fill these requests must be off-duty from their regular shifts. The MPD doesn't even have enough respect for taxpayers to have insisted on such an agreement. And even if they were in a private agreement, I raise the question that I think we should all be asking. What threat are we posing? And what crime is being committed to warrant such a massive over-deployment of police to gatherings of anti-genocide pro-Palestine residents when the police's presence only escalates things? Another point from the interview, MPD doesn't question the intelligence gathering of Lockheed Martin or anyone else apparently. This is a quote from the MPD. This is quite the assertion to say when Lockheed misidentified a resident that they were targeting. here is a photo of that unaffiliated person whose name i won't mention because they are not affiliated but lockheed martin misidentified this person and the mpd says they don't question their intelligence gathering so now we have to ask ourselves is this person again unaffiliated now in an mpd database under false information and accusations The third point I want to raise from the interview, MPD claims they're not using intelligence provided by Lockheed Martin to do anything, but they would if they believe a crime was committed. And what exactly is the threshold to be suspected of a crime? It's the same conversation that we've been having repeatedly, that just being suspected of a crime and being forced into interactions with police because of it, or being added to their databases for future interactions, can be extremely harmful and traumatizing to people, even if and when they're proven innocent. Unless proven otherwise, we can only assume MPD is incorporating this information into their activist database, which we believe exists. There's more to say here, and I encourage you all to read the FOIA and the article about it. One of the last points I want to raise is a vital point that the UN last year issued a report naming several global companies, including Lockheed Martin, as benefiting from the, quote, economy of genocide. The report says that continuing to support Israel's capabilities puts these companies at risk of violating international law by being complicit in war crimes. The MPD's role in servicing Lockheed is to protect their capital and profits. We should have a serious interrogation into whether or not this makes MPD also complicit in war crimes. As a target of this unwarranted surveillance, Milwaukee for Palestine has several demands. I will leave you all copies, but to just quickly name them, we want you to investigate gifts, donations, and other bribes and benefits provided to MPD, investigate the MPD's deployment of public resources to protect Lockheed Martin, and whether or not those services were provided with on-duty officers, which is what they said. We want confirmation. Perhaps most important, we want to reiterate our demand for a total ban on deadly exchanges that is training with any foreign government and specifically Israel. Audit stacks involvement with corporate intelligence requests because they were requested to do research on individuals, including me. Investigate surveillance and information sharing about activists, hold public hearings and release records, and establish clear limits on political surveillance and protect the right to protest.

You are at time, so if you could briefly conclude.

Yes, absolutely. So I'm going to leave these with you, including copies of our Deadly Exchange program and why we're making this demand. So I'll just pass it over to the end there. Appreciate it. Thank you.

Issan Atta.

Good evening. Commissioner Spencer, thank you for your service. I don't know if that's a congratulations do you say to someone when it's over?

That's nice to see you.

You as well. Well... I'm here today as a business owner, property owner, and a taxpayer in the city of Milwaukee because of the uncovered public records that expose what I believe is a betrayal of public trust that should deeply alarm every single taxpayer in the city of Milwaukee. From the evidence I've seen, the Milwaukee Police Department and the Southeastern Wisconsin Threat Analysis Center are actively functioning as a private intelligence service for Lockheed Martin. They have shamelessly weaponized public resources, our money, office officer hours, and intelligence infrastructure to shield a multi-billion dollar weapons manufacturer from public scrutiny. Durco Aerospace, a local Lockheed Martin subsidiary right here in Milwaukee, holds exclusive contract to maintain the fighter jets currently inflicting devastation and mass civilian death on Gaza. Instead of serving the people of the city, MPD and STAC have spent the past year acting as Durco's personal corporate security firm. Through political surveillance, where over 100 emails, as Hiba mentioned, revealed that the overwhelming majority of their communications were dedicated to tracking the meetings, protests, and social media activity of local Palestinian solidarity organizers. There's data sharing where private personal information of Milwaukee residents was handed over directly to corporate security officials. And corruption, if on-duty officers are accepting corporate gifts while actively spending public time protecting the reputation of a private war profiteer. While Milwaukee residents face ridiculous emergency response times in their own neighborhoods, our police department is prioritizing the public relations and security needs of a weapons manufacturer. This isn't public safety, this is a state-sponsored political surveillance carried out on our dime. Members of this community are speaking today and presenting the impact this surveillance and sharing of information has had on them. You can't look away from this evidence. This commission needs to exercise its authority and immediately implement a full independent investigation into MPD and Stacks' corrupt relationship with Lockheed Martin and Derko Aerospace, total public disclosure of all records, communications, and intelligence logs related to this corporate spying, an immediate ban on police participation in surveillance and intelligence sharing on behalf of private corporations, and strict binding limits protecting our First Amendment right to protest without being tracked, profiled, or reported to the very entities we are protesting. The bottom line is that Milwaukee residents did not consent to funding a surveillance apparatus for a war profiteer. This commission has a binding obligation to uncover exactly how deep this rot goes, put a definitive end to it, and ensure it never happens again. Act now or be complicit. Thank you.

Galen Michael.

Good evening. Good evening. My name is Galen Michael. I'm a member and representative of Wisconsin Bail Out the People movement. So I'd just like to express our outrage over Milwaukee Police Department surveilling private citizens in service of these corporate entities, especially military contractors who are complicit in the ongoing genocide in Palestine. Oops. This sets a terrible precedent, and even individuals who may not be interested in the US and Israel war crimes that Lockheed Martin contributes to, I think, need to consider the short distance there is between these kinds of activities and, for example, the Milwaukee Police Department acting in service of a private corporation to surveil union organizers or any other individual who's acting in ways that these corporate entities don't agree with or don't find palatable. This is really unacceptable and so Yeah, I would just like to reiterate all of the demands that Hibble laid out, especially demanding a ban on deadly exchange programs. Yeah, I think, all right, I don't want to take up more time trying to think of what to say, so thank you. Thank you.

Kayla Fond.

Hello, good evening. I am the journalist in question who did this records request in the interview with the cops. I was here last meeting and I did bring this up just because I felt compelled to come share, but I'm really glad we're talking about it again. Yeah, folks who have commented before me have pretty much laid out the important facts, but I want to say that I'm scared. I've been scared for a long time in this country, but I get more scared every day. And this whole process brought me to a new level of fear, not just because of what I uncovered, but because how interviewing the police felt like talking to my school bullies, genuinely. I think the reason that institutions feel so empowered to come after anti-war protesters in particular is because there's a huge history in this nation of you know islamophobia laying the groundwork for that and i think that's why i felt it's so important to investigate this issue particularly and i think related to that what you do about this particular issue is a true litmus test of whether you are going to choose people or corporations. I just want to reiterate one more time that the title of the article is what it is because I literally exclaimed out loud, I don't do that. I'm pretty professional in interviews, but when I heard that they don't question anybody else's intelligence gathering, I let out a yelp. And as Hiba laid out, they misidentified a completely unconnected person. So yeah, I don't want to be so scared all the time. I don't want to be scared that people that are my friends or associates who may not even be connected with this could get caught up i don't want to be scared for myself and i really hope that everybody here will do everything they can to protect milwaukee residents because i think that's your moral imperative oh also ban deadly exchanges um if we are you know training to dehumanize and oppress people in other countries we will always be experiencing that at home so we gotta stop it thank you

Ellery Extents.

Hello. So my name is Ellery Extents. I'm a resident of the Kilbourne Town neighborhood. I'm commenting today to express how disturbed I am to see the MPD taking the side of a war profiteering company. I know that MPD has stated that they are neutral, but it feels like an empty statement when in emails with Lockheed Martin counterintelligence investigator Justine Maxwell and MPD's own Lieutenant Shannon Taylor, they discuss ways in which Durko might trespass charges on protesters, advising Maxwell that putting up a physical barrier would help with the trespass charges. does the MPD consider it neutral to offer advice to genocidal corporations on how to make those who would protest them disappear? I'm unsurprised, but nonetheless disappointed and enraged at this institution for taking the side of corporate interests over the rights and opinions of its constituents. We demand that the FPC audit stacks involvement with corporate intelligence requests and to investigate surveillance and information sharing about activists. The least the MPD can do is let protesters know where the data collected on them is being sent and stored and who has access to it. Thank you. Thank you.

Kaylin Arlt. Good evening.

Something we should all find deeply disturbing is the Milwaukee police force, which steadily consumes our tax dollars, always seems to be protecting wealth over people. For instance, they protect the corrupt corporations like Durko Aerospace, which is playing a role in the genocide, by having the exclusive contract to provide maintenance to the engines of the fighter jets that are used to bomb the Palestinian people. Finding out about the copious exchange of emails between DRCO and MPD has been extremely unsettling. I'm a proud member of the Milwaukee chapter of Code Pink, which is a feminist-led, nonviolent, anti-war organization. Specifically mentioned, Code Pink was one of the organizations that was specifically mentioned in the exchange of emails between DRCO and MPD. But what is our crime? supporting an end to the genocide, demanding accountability for war crimes? Why does MPD get to decide what is or isn't a protected First Amendment activity? I attended the candlelit vigil on October 7th, where we mourned the loss of innocent lives that were targeted by the very aircrafts that Durko proudly repairs. We created grave markers to honor the Palestinian martyrs, in which some of the names were of children that were barely weeks old. On that day, menacing in front of the Durko property was a force of Milwaukee police officers protecting what? Property over people. because if they were there to protect the protesters, so they may have claimed, they would not have been on the Durko side of the barricades. It is quite clear to us Milwaukee residents that our police are more interested in protecting whatever gives them more money and potential bribes than the citizens that they vowed to serve. So we demand a direct investigation on the use of public resources to serve private interests, including any gifts, any donations, bribes, or anything else provided to MPD in order to protect the Durko property. We also demand the release of all relevant records, including the surveillance of activists and organizations like Code Pink, and all information sharing between MPD and DRCO. And with all of that, we need clear limitations on political surveillance so that corporations like DRCO aren't calling on MPD as their own special security against clearly nonviolent protesting. Thank you.

Ashley Dolger.

Good evening.

How backwards is the world where people fighting to stop a genocide are treated as criminals, are stalked by corporations and cops who are supposed to protect and serve? Why are the cops protecting a private defense contractor profiting off genocide and not their community members who are fighting for a better world? Why is our chief of police traveling to a racist state to learn from Israeli terrorists while Palestinians are nearby stuck in a concentration camp? and yet we're being surveilled for trying to stop a genocide? I am so disgusted. We are doing nothing illegal. DIRCO, on the other hand, is involved in war crimes, fixing terrorist weaponry and profiting off death and destruction. We should be encouraging and helping each other to fight for justice, equality, and peace. We should be doing everything we can to stop a genocide. We know who the real criminals are and they are the ones that silence and murder people. Shame. Why are the cops helping these criminals? That makes the cops criminals too. Why don't you do something good for the world because currently you are the oppressors. Boo. Seriously, what is the point of surveilling our peaceful community? What did you expect to figure out? Absolutely nothing, because we are normal people doing normal things like fighting for basic rights. Why not help us fight? Unless stalking people and protecting the criminals is what you'd rather do with your life, and that's extremely creepy. I beg you, use your critical thinking skills. Find the light inside of you. The time is now. The world is no longer tolerating authoritarianism and imperialism. You can turn your life around at any time and come fight for justice and peace, but that is up to you and only you. Thank you.

Lila Hamden. No, okay. Tiffany Stark.

Uh-oh.

All right, I have a couple things to say. You guys know me, we're like family, social worker, Milwaukee Alliance, community activist. First off, I would like to start off hearing everyone in the audience talking about the sphere. I've been around a long time, and I can relate, because in 2021, I was protesting, and I never got a ticket, never pulled over, never arrested, but I was profiled by Tulsa Police Department. All of my information, photos, personal information was given to the FBI. We fought and we did a lawsuit in federal court and sued Tosa and we lost. But unfortunately to this day, anything jumps off, I'm still on that target list. So I'll probably be on the target list till I die. And I did nothing. My First Amendment rights were violated. So I hear everyone, what they're saying, this is serious and we should not be going through this when we are practicing our First Amendment rights. That's number one. Number two, we just saw passed on June 23rd this ice pack package. My friend witnessed somebody getting detained on Friday the 26th in broad daylight, detained out of their car where their kids were in the back seat. They smashed the window and was taken out. I know we have a difficult time here to control federal or ICE agents, but MPD is no excuse. They knew you cannot stage in parking lots, especially the police department in District 2. This is not new. They knew this since June 23rd and before. And now they're like, oh, well, we'll tell them they can't. You knew that before. Shame on MPD. That's number two. Number three, so from what I'm hearing, on July 14th, the City Common Council will be taking up our recommendation 660 and 575. I'm very concerned still with the communications of silos and calling people's elders and getting all of that done in time. because some people, because you're not in their district, they don't want to hear from you, and that's concerning. I understand Act 12 is a whole new process, but we need to be able to communicate with elders. I mean, You should know what's going on in the city of Milwaukee. It isn't a district. And I've been saying this since September. I'm tired of these silos, I'm tired of being shut out, I'm tired of the disrespect. My daughter's father died, and you're on a committee, and yes, my elder may not be on there, but you won't take my phone call? Like, have some empathy. You won't even answer or you're a coward. I have one person in particular. But that is disrespectful. You represent the whole city, not one district. So here we are on July 14th is when this is going to be brought up. And I'm nervous. So I'm asking all of you here individually to contact your alder. Also, we are... asking you guys to draft another letter to the full City Common Council regarding the highlights of all of the FPC meetings that led up to this and the important report links like the NYU, DOJ, all of that. I am nervous, but by the grace of God, there could be a miracle. But I really, like I said, we're not asking for all the police to stop. We're asking for restrictions. No one should die over a license plate. This is preventable. And that's all I have to say on that. So I do really appreciate all of you. You guys have been so supportive. But we're at the fork in the road where we're about to hit... and i just want us to be prepared we are we submitted our slides to everyone on the common council and we um are reaching out as much as we can um so that is that So finally, last but least, Brie Spencer has been here since the beginning of 2022. So we've worked together with the passage of 575 and we made history in Milwaukee. So I am so proud of that because anytime there's an officer involved incident that has to be released to the family in 48 hours and 15 days, plus the no chokeholds, the no knock warrants. I mean, we've done so much work like that will never be undone. And I'm so proud of that and honored that we got to work with you and we were a pain in your butt. And that's why I got you a bundt cake. And I decorated it. I didn't want to put police stuff on it because, you know, and fire. But I did get... It's a red velvet. And then I have a blue bow with a bunch of different police things. But I added whistles. And there's little toppings with a notepad and a pencil because you are... the commissioner, keeping them in check. So once again, I really appreciate you and all of your help and service, and I'm sure we'll see you in the community at some point. Thank you.

Thank you, Tiffany. That's very nice. I'll go move the Bundt cake. That's really funny. Here it is. That's a good pun.

And I'm glad I don't have any more because it's melting.

Jennifer Volstead.

Thank you so much. That was very nice. Yes. Oh my gosh, it's heavy. Yes, it is.

I'm Jennifer Volstead. I'm an organizing member with Milwaukee for Palestine. I don't have a lot to add to what people have already said, but I do just want to point out, I don't know if you guys have read the article or the records request. I think we can probably organize to send the record request to you with all the documents so you can see how extensive the emails are. It was incredibly... to see how monitored we have been as a group and it's honestly kind of incredibly ridiculous. But one of our volunteers seems to have been identified by Lockheed Martin using their license plate readers and they sent that information over to MPD and fed it to them. We wanna re-raise the alarm about the ALPRs like flock. Would MPD use this information fed to them by Lockheed Martin that comes from the ALPRs from somebody else? And what does that mean for our privacy? If private billion dollar companies are buying surveillance tech and tools that we have no oversight over, and then they're sending that information and sharing the tools and access with MPD, how are we as a community, you as a board going to uphold any sort of accountability over the MPD accessing this. So I just wanna raise that concern. I think it's really alarming to have seen that in the documentation. It's in the emails that they're referring to the license plate reader and the images appear to be coming from a license plate reader technology. My other concern I want to bring up, I know we've brought up our concerns over Chief Norman's trip and training exchange in occupied Palestine, receiving training from Israeli occupying forces, the ones that are currently committing a genocide. That being said, he's learning from the Zionist entity, the one that oversees, like over surveils and uses that information to harm people that they've occupied. And now I think that our FOIA requests only went to December 2025. We need to request one that goes at least from February 2025 to the present when we have, as a group, has started escalating and mobilizing to see the aftermath of that mobilization, our demands, and how his behavior may have changed after learning from this trip and what he's brought back to the Milwaukee community, because I also find that concerning. I hope you guys are all concerned about that as well. And that's all I have to bring to you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Our next speaker is Rosella. And I apologize, it's a little difficult to make out the writing. It starts with an A. Okay. Good evening.

Good evening. I'll keep this really short because I feel like I don't have too much new to say, but I just want to say also as a resident and a taxpayer in Milwaukee, I think that all of our citizens have a right to privacy. I think this is a really concerning amount of intelligence that was collected. both by MPD and by DERCO on just like regular people, some of whom were exercising a completely legal right to like protest. So I think just that in and of itself that MPD had that much data is already concerning. The fact that it was being shared with a multi-billion dollar private entity Extremely extremely concerning I think that the city should take steps to make sure that everybody is safe and private.

Thank you Stephanie Stephanie

Hi. Hello. Hi. Between finding out about this meeting and being here, I didn't have as much time to prepare specific points as maybe I would want to. So likely I will be back and outlining that stuff particularly. But I just wanted to highlight kind of top level and be direct about that. As you know, so many of us who are here in this room have been coming here for over a year now talking about FRT and ALPRs and this level of surveillance and how it can be abused. And we have highlighted those harms very clearly. But now we have this data that we now have found out from the FOIA. And that takes it to another level because these are our First Amendment rights. And honestly... In the case of Durko, when we've actually shown up to be in front of the Durko building, the least use of our First Amendment rights that we can have. We're holding vigils and demonstrations. There is nothing there that has ever signaled to Durko, the building itself, or anyone there, that anyone is at risk. So to have this level of resources, surveillance, and inaccurate surveillance put into it is so beyond and is so incredibly harmful. And also, I wonder how, I mean, I don't know the rules around this, but how is it legal for a private company to enlist that many resources while they're on the clock? I don't actually know how that works. But in this case in particular, in talking about what was found there, when we now have this supplied image of a protester, and it didn't even come from the MPD, right? It came from Lockheed Martin. And if this isn't actually someone who's involved, then what does that look like? So this FRT and this ALPR surveillance that we're talking about, and we have outlined the real threats of it, if they're tracking and targeting a person who's not even a real protester, and how that could end, what does that mean about how it could be applied to anybody and everybody. And as we know, frequently, I mean, sorry, I wrote these things in different order, just stood up on my thoughts, but like, we often see that cops under stress will act first and apologize later. And so we don't actually have the room to not take this seriously because People can be killed on impulse, and we can't get that back. We can't take that back. So the top-level thing that I want to say is there's a reason that we show up here all the time and that you see our faces all the time, because you are literally the only institutional force that we have to protect us from this harm. I mean, truly, you're the only place we can come other than protesting. And this harm and this fascist violence, where... the ones who committed between cops in the federal government have plenty of avenues to do so and continue to do so and as we know the federal government frequently taps the local entities to enact on their behalf to act on their behalf and the risks of that are so seriously as we see across the country i just want to be very clear like please take this seriously we will keep showing up uh... this is a matter of lives being lost And only to in the case of us exercising First Amendment rights of saying, hey, maybe you shouldn't slaughter babies and not starve people. And that's actually really important. And I don't know why that's an issue in the first place, but that's what we're doing. And then the last thing I want to say is just that I think this room would be entirely packed and has been packed before if these meetings were not at 430. So people work every day, and they can't make it here, and they deserve to have their voices heard too. So I don't know what determines that time, but if there's anything that can happen to adjust that, that would be very appreciated.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ned Littlefield.

Good afternoon. Thank you. I wanted to share five reflections and questions about what it felt like to be at the protest at the DERCO headquarters on December 7th, 2025, and then maybe conclude with a broader question for the FPC, a rhetorical question. So I think one of the first things that I felt there was, or one of the first questions that came to mind there was, how did this group, the people organizing this protest, become so good at policing themselves? I feel as if the ratio of people designated to keep themselves safe, keep the other protesters safe, was maybe one to four, one to three. That made me feel as if there was not much of a threat. And if there was a threat, it was not from the protesters, notwithstanding all of the anger that we felt. The second question was, why does it seem like the ratio of MPD vehicles to DRCO security vehicles was maybe 10 to 1? And why does it feel like the Durco vehicle is the one patrolling the street, driving up and down the street past protesters, while the MPD vehicles are the ones stationed on Durco property? That seemed – I would have expected something different. I would have thought that the MPD vehicles would have been – on the street and the DERCO vehicles would have been on the DERCO property and that Lockheed Martin, which has a larger budget than the MPD, would have been dedicating more resources than MPD would have been dedicating to this event. I also thought, what did these officers think? They didn't have much to do. Maybe they were looking at us as if we were kind of a curiosity. They were kind of standing around. Is this what they signed up for? Is this what they care about? And I also wondered as Zerco tried to recruit them, as Lockheed Martin tried to recruit them, that would be a bummer for the MPD, I assume, considering that the MPD cares a lot about its numbers and policymakers seem to care a lot about how many officers are on the force right now. What did Alderwoman Taylor think? This is Alderwoman Taylor's district. My impression is that Alderwoman Taylor cares a lot about safety. I forgot to say I live in the 6th Aldermanic District. I apologize. I forgot to say my name is Ned Littlefield. This is Alderwoman Taylor's district, I think. I think she cares a lot about public safety. What would she have thought about the allocation of force for this event? What did Alderman Spiker think? As the chair of the Health and Public Safety Committee at the time, and as the alder who has the most Palestinian district based on census data, I would have thought that he would have had some interesting reflections concerning the allocation of police resources. And so I think this all leads me to ask, oh, and also it looks like the fourth police district had a dramatic increase in homicides from 2024, dramatic in terms of percentages from 2024 to 2025. 42% from seven to 12, five more lives lost. So that also makes me think in retrospect, What else was happening in the fourth district, the fourth police district at the time of this protest? And is it possible that MPD could have used its resources differently? So I suppose those all have implications for the Fire and Police Commission. I think perhaps a more philosophical question, relates to the what the purpose of civilian oversight or civilian control which i think of as to control specifically the use of force i think of that as the number one responsibility of the fire and police commission controlling the use of force by the milwaukee police department and in this scenario it felt as if the milwaukee police was department was responding to a corporation that specializes in the use of force, that has no interest in control over the use of force. So I suppose that has interesting implications for what does civilian oversight look like when the police in question are supporting a corporation whose expertise is in violence when the purpose of civilian oversight is to control violence. Thank you. Thank you.

Patricia Hallett, apologies if I'm misreading the last name.

First of all, thank you for letting me speak today. This is going to be quick because this is less of a statement as I just agree with all the folks that came before me. But my specific question is, will you guys be enforcing or having a discussion, I guess you could say with enforcing Milwaukee, Wisconsin ordinance number two, five, one seven, nine, seven adapted in on April 22nd of 2026, which is all agents have to be not wearing a mask. Is that something that is going to be enforced by local law enforcement? If they see somebody actively, uh, Pulling somebody over and trying to detain and they're wearing a mask. Is our police department going to enforce our ordinance or are we not? I don't know who answers those questions, but I'd really like to know if that is something that the police department is going to enforce when we come across ICE agents. And I guess that's all. I don't know who answers those questions, but that is something that I am interested in knowing because I think that if they have nothing to hide, they should not be covering their faces.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Andrew G.?

Good evening. My comments are not for any of you sitting in front of me. They are for the public and the people sitting behind me. Every single one of you right in front of me represents a failure. More on that in a moment. It should come as a surprise to no one in this room that Milwaukee is one of the most racist and segregated cities in this country. Now there are a lot of reasons for that, but the fact of the matter is people of color in this city, your city, are policed and incarcerated and convicted at disproportional rates to the representation in the general population. Let that sink in. Now, those reasons are not necessarily your fault. They're the result of redlining. They're the result of systemic and structural racism in all of our institutions, including and especially policing. So it comes as no surprise to me when I discovered that MPD was surveilling citizens that had done nothing wrong, committed no crime, just because somebody with a lot of money and influence decided that that needed to happen. Police in this city cannot be reformed. I'm going to give a few examples. You have a Theensville officer who went outside of their jurisdiction just a couple of weeks ago into Mequon just to play target practice on some stray dogs. The officer shot and killed one of the dogs and one of the other dogs was shot but managed to survive and luckily was taken in. That is absolutely disgusting. And one of the number one indicators of domestic violence and psychopathy is violence towards animals. This is just north of here. Then, and I can't believe nobody else has brought this up, this is where your failure comes in. Every single one of you has failed. Anybody here know Officer Ayala? Officer Ayala? was found to have misused the ALPR license plate reader system. Now, in the wake of a shooting of a one-year-old over an allegation of stolen diapers in Mississippi, also person of color, innocent, are we to believe that police are paragons of morality and that they are not going to misuse the surveillance tools that are given to them to fight crime? I'll leave you with a final note. A lot of people say and will argue that slavery in this country was ended with the 13th Amendment. I would argue slavery was not ended. It was merely rebranded. There's a special carve out in the 13th Amendment for prison labor. Prison labor is slavery. There cannot be a reformation of a police system and incarceration system that actively incentivizes private business. This is unacceptable. And so that is why every single one of you are failures. The reason every single one of you are failures is specifically in this case because you did not suspend the Flock AOPR system in the wake of documented abuse and misuse. And I doubt it's limited to a single officer. That's just the one officer who is so egregious about it that he actually got caught. So, as I leave, I have one final statement. And again, this statement is not directed towards you. It is directed towards the people behind me. We are just a few days away from the 250th anniversary of this country's founding. Now, the founders of this country, who were white, who were rich, and who were racist, still manage to understand one single thing. That it is not only the right, but the duty of people who are oppressed to dismantle the systems that are oppressing them and replace them with something better. Every single one of you should be ashamed for not taking action. Thank you and have a good night.

Good evening.

Good evening. Good afternoon. I really want to just start with surveillance as violence. Period. And I know that on a very personal level, because my late father, James Allen Gokinar, was a researcher, of assassination. In particular, what he's highlighted for is the JFK assassination, but he worked on researching many different assassinations. And due to being a whistleblower and a witness, my father was surveilled until he took his last breath. I was born into the violence of surveillance and what it does to families. So it's very personal on that level. And some of the things that just kind of came to my mind as I was listening to all of these wonderful people, my goodness, like really take a moment and understand that these are the people that are being surveilled when our city, is a national hub for human trafficking? As a trafficking survivor, I can't just even wrap my head around that. That people who are against a genocide have a file now, most likely that will follow them their entire life until their last breath. But the people who are stealing our children, exploiting our children, do not. What is going on? And what that brings to my heart, and just in a really rough way, When I opened up the news the other day, I saw that the Milwaukee Fraternal Order of Police decided that what you decided and our city council decided about the face covering of the IDF trained usually ICE officers was something that was disgusting and that they were against. So, That came from you, that came from the city council, and that came from the heart of the people that live here. In everyday jobs, if you go against what your managers and your oversight is saying, would be the way to move forward as we have a crisis coming towards us. We are about to be invaded. They would be fired. And I know that that seems like a gigantic thing to lay on the table, fire the fraternal order of police, but if they're not doing their jobs, they're disagreeing with your body and the elected body and the people of Milwaukee, should we not start the process of looking for a different order, I mean, Can we not find a security service that would actually align with public safety and putting kids first and protecting all kids in Milwaukee? And when I think about the fact that people are going to be surveilled for the rest of their life for standing against a genocide, surveilled for the rest of their life for standing against a genocide is unacceptable. There's no way to move forward or do conflict resolution with the Fraternal Order of Police. If they're using surveillance to stalk off hours, we know that we've got one caught, but when we look at what's happening on a national level, we know that there's several incidences of surveillance being used to stalk. And I would just hope, and I know it's difficult, I've sat on an oversight body before in the city of San Francisco for two terms, and it's difficult to know what you can do within your charges to change the direction, but I plead with you to look over your charges, look over what you can actually do, start looking into, hey, if they're working already with Lockheed Martin, let's find ourselves a partner who cares about our community and preserves our rights. And I think that's all I have to say today. I'm sure it will get me followed through the rest of my life, but I already was from first breath. So I'm just going to keep saying what my heart needs to have said. Thank you for listening.

Bridget, do we have anyone appearing virtually for public comment?

Yes, Julie is online for public comment.

Good evening.

Good evening. Thanks, Bridget. Good evening, commissioners, directors, neighbors. Chaplain Julie Curcio, Milwaukee County resident. I agree with my neighbors who have provided comments and concerns about the use of public resources to serve private corporate interests, the dystopian surveillance of and attempts to intimidate political activists. protection of First Amendment rights concerns. I commend the FPC for being one of very few official bodies that still welcome hearing public comments and concerns. Now I'd like to share some facts. The United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry has recognized that the racist apartheid Zionist regime known as Israel is committing a genocide in Palestine. This is not just a strong opinion. The United Nations Special Rapporteur has also publicly recognized this genocide and has specifically named the MPD's pals at war profiteer Lockheed Martin in the aforementioned economy of genocide report. Amnesty International says it's genocide. Human Rights Watch says it's genocide. Doctors Without Borders says it's genocide. The International Association of Genocide Scholars says it's genocide. The Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention says it's genocide. The Genocide Watch Organization says it's genocide. And get this, two leading so-called Israeli human rights organizations themselves have publicly called this genocide. I'm talking about B'Tselem and Physicians for Human Rights Israel. So people of conscience in Milwaukee County who have for a thousand days witnessed it live streamed and voiced opposition to it have been under surveillance. It's kind of a stretch anymore to be calling opposition to this strong opinion. I just want to comment something now about Ned Littlefield brought up the issues in MPD's District 4. The increase in homicides, the decrease in response times, all while this over deployment stuff was happening. Another point to investigate in District 4 is the gift that District 4 Captain Tischer received from Lockheed Martin. this potential ethics violation must be investigated. So back to the chief of MPD who willingly traveled to this genocidal racist apartheid Zionist regime for training. The chair of the FPC does not view this as worthy of further investigation or concern, despite repeated pleas from the community to get this put as an actual agenda item. find it interesting that tonight new new business item number 10 i believe is someone from mpd reporting to the fpc and the public about a conference they participated in that seems normal every place i've ever worked has required employees to report back the information of what they received and how it applies to the company or the organization in some official manner so it makes sense that today tonight it's on the agenda This is exactly what we've been asking to have happen from the chief. Have him report back on what did he learn at this training? How is he applying it to Milwaukee? This very thing is what we've been asking. And Director Todd, who kindly called me back about some other questions, reiterated that the chief is at the top of the chain in the department and approves his own conferences and trainings and does not have to report back to anyone. even when it's requested by taxpayers. This is unsafe. This is unthinkable. That amount of power, that lack of transparency, the lack of accountability in the chief of police is a dangerous thing, as we've seen from all the commentary over the past months and tonight. What is the chief afraid of? What is he hiding? Is the chair being complicit with all these issues we're raising? Why won't she put it on the agenda for us to talk about this? more than five minutes a piece, like an actual decent, elaborate presentation. I'm hopeful that one, several, or all of you commissioners, maybe Bree as your final act, will pressure the chair to put this on the next agenda. Give the taxpayers the opportunity to present our concerns in detailed fashion, along with how it relates to this commission and what we are asking the FPC to do about it. It would be valuable for regaining trust and in the interest of accountability and transparency in light of all the things that have been brought up tonight and at so many previous meetings, how the Chief's trip and his carte blanche power over his own training and authority, how all these things are connected and dangerous. Please, Commissioners, compel the Chair to get this on the next agenda. I thank you for your time.

Bridget, do we have anyone else appearing virtually for public comment? No, we do not, Director. All right, and we've gotten two more requests. Carlos Dixon.

How are you guys doing? Y'all good?

Good evening.

What's going on, y'all? I mean, the lighting is good as always in here, right? All right, I'm going to start off with a quote from Muammar Gaddafi. He said, I think Americans are good, but America will be taken over and destroyed from the inside by the Zionist lobby. The Americans do not see this. They are getting decadent. Zionists will use this to destroy them. Now, I want to talk about influence, okay? Not conspiracy, not identity, but influence. Because influence is neutral, right? It becomes dangerous only when it's invisible, okay? So tonight, I'm asking one question. Who shapes the decisions that shape this city? When Mayor Cavalier hosts the delegation of Jerusalem, that's influence. When our police chief trains with the IDF, that is influence, okay? When our local foundations like Beta Philanthropies on 3rd near Keith write checks and grants to our libraries, universities, and museums while publicly supporting the state of Israel, that is also influence. I'm not naming these things to accuse anybody of anything, okay? I'm naming them to ask a question. Are we paying attention? It's the question we need to ask today. Lobbying, by definition, is an attempt to influence policy. We all doing it right here, doing it right now, today. The question is transparency. Organizations and advocacy groups appropriate publicly and legally. The concern begins when influence becomes difficult to trace through institutions, grants, partnerships, and programs. Questioning influence is not hatred. The same surveillance technologies used in our communities today have been documented to be connected to Israel. That's influence. That deserves scrutiny. And when resources flow into our communities from institutions connected to those systems, we have a responsibility to ask. All right? What are we funding and what are we normalizing? Many people in this room work in nonprofits and institutions. They are often effective, okay? They are often well-intentioned as well, but donors have interests, okay? And communities have interests. Those are not always the same thing. Representation without power can become optics without outcomes. And I am not here to make anyone comfortable at all. I came in here specifically to make everybody uncomfortable, and that's the truth. I am here to be honest as well. Let us stop asking who's in the room. Let us start asking who's not in the room, okay? Let us stop tracking identity and start tracking the influence of our city. If outside interests shape local policy without public understanding or consent, that's colonialism, by the way, we owe it to ourselves to ask the difficult questions because democracy depends on what? Accountability.

Maya Lorenz. Good evening.

Good evening. This is my first time coming to one of these meetings, but I'm here as a resident of Milwaukee, and I'm very disturbed by what I've learned about the relationship between Milwaukee Police Department and Lockheed Martin. After reading some of the emails between the two, the only conclusion I can come to is that the Milwaukee Police Department has allowed itself to be purchased by Lockheed Martin and its subsidiary, Jericho, on our dime. 90% of correspondence were monitoring activities and social media posts by civilian activists, normal people exercising their rights, apparently to the dismay of Lockheed Martin. To me, this relationship between Milwaukee Police Department and a subsidiary of Lockheed Martin, which according to the UN is complicit in war crimes, is disturbing enough on its own. But I also believe that the activity that we already know of is a waste of taxpayer money, is a violation of activists' rights, and it is a profound breach of public trust. I also cannot help but wonder what other private corporate companies can monitor civilians with the direct help of the Milwaukee Police Department. To what extent will the Milwaukee Police Department work with private entities in tracking those entities' potential political rivals, and what is the price for this relationship? Milwaukee Police Department is attempting to get more mass surveillance and facial recognition technology. Who else will this technology be weaponized against in our community? As other mentioned, will it start going towards union members or other organizers? How quickly will this slip into Islamophobia if it hasn't already? I'd argue it already has, considering an organization called Milwaukee for Palestine is being monitored and stalked. for what infractions and again to what extent who are making these decisions and and who is assuring that any uh border like any lines that there are are actually being followed does the milwaukee police department have the answers to any of these questions and if they do why don't we know them I, regardless, do not believe that any police department can be trusted with this kind of facial recognition technology and mass surveillance technology. Nor can we accept any kind of monitoring of political activity like this. Already, at least one Milwaukee police officer, Officer Alea, yes, thank you, has already misused AI surveilling technology to stalk people from his personal life. Elsewhere in Wisconsin, we know other officers have used flock and mass surveillance technology to stalk civilians and coworkers both on time and off duty. Such activity can and will easily bleed into the continued stalking of political activists, especially when private companies like Hockey Martin are able to purchase allegiances and cooperations of the Milwaukee Police Department. For the safety and rights of all civilians, the Milwaukee Police Department is supposedly trying to serve. Any relationship with Draco and Lockheed Martin must be severed entirely. All emails between the parties must be released. And frankly, the entire relationship between Lockheed Martin, Milwaukee Police Department must be formally investigated for ethics violations and possible bribes. I simply cannot understand how this has been allowed to happen and how it has not been revealed until, thankfully, it was exposed by Information Act. I really loved your reporting on that. Thank you. I also am really appreciative that somebody already mentioned, but I'm really disturbed by the fact that the police are using the second district parking lot for allowing the ice activity to happen there. And that it seems that there has been and will be nothing done about the fact that they are also covering their faces. That is all I have to say. Thank you for listening.

Okay, sir, sir, that's not appropriate. Yeah, whatever.

You're getting tight right now, Mr. Todd. You know what? You're real tight about my comments about Zionism, ain't you, Mr. Todd? You're real tight about it. Sir. Yeah, sir.

That's unacceptable.

Sir, that's what you do. You do your job. If you think you got some influence, use it. Get these people about our communities. Ain't no brown or black people in here except for me. Get these people about our communities because we're going to crash out and I'm letting y'all know already. We're going to crash out.

Okay, Ben Slowly. Are you okay?

I'm fine. Okay. Hi, good evening. I just felt inclined to share something. So I'm a local reporter here in Milwaukee, but right now, I'm taking my reporter cap off and putting my concerned citizen cap on relative to the issue of the collusion between MPD and DERCO and Lockheed Martin. There was an event that occurred here in Milwaukee from April 7th through 9th. Are all of you familiar with something called DibCon? It's a defense industry conference that was hosted here in Milwaukee where war profiteers nationwide all gathered in our city to talk about how they can make more money by bringing more companies into the war machine so that they can keep bombing people in the Middle East. And I reported on this event and wrote a story about my takeaways from that experience. And there's some things that are worth mentioning that were discussed over the course of those three days. One of the quotes that... turned my stomach the most out of all of the insufferable speakers that we heard from over those three days. One of them who worked in defense strategy under Trump in his first term called Operation Epic Fury an extraordinary achievement that we should all be proud of. And that we should be proud of our men and women in uniform for it. Proud of what exactly? Bombing a girl's school in Iran that killed hundreds of children? Also, mentioning that The US is currently spending $900 billion a day on the war in Iran. You want to know how many houses could be built with that money? 87,000. You know how many nurses salaries could be used with that money? Or could be paid for with that money? 400,000 plus. There's a lot of other statistics that, like the website that was recording that information, the ticker was going so quickly when counting how many school lunches could have been provided with that money that I couldn't even make out a number for it. And being in a room full of these people who treat war like it's just some business investment, some enterprise that can help them keep building drones in Taiwan and keep bombing Palestine, Lebanon, and Iran into oblivion. I think it's important to recognize that that defense industry that is being used for such nefarious purposes overseas has very strong roots here in Milwaukee. And Lockheed Martin and Durko are integral to that infrastructure. And our police department, who supposedly swore an oath to protect and serve, are colluding with war criminals. And it's not like we can't just look all these things up and this information about this collusion with these emails between MPD and DERCO were obtained through a FOIA request. So did they not think the people were going to find out about this at some point? Because we're a lot smarter than they seem to think we are. Yeah. You are at time, so if you could briefly conclude. Free Palestine.

Thank you. Is there any further comment?

There is not.

There being no further comment.

Speak, ma'am? Did you come to speak?

I don't think she knew about the farm.

I did, but not about that. It's more local. That's okay. But not local.

Okay.

Okay, that's fine. Come up.

Hello, good evening. So I used to work at the Fire and Police Commission. Oh, really? And it was during the Dahmer hearings. It's such a long time ago. But my concern is really Milwaukee, smaller than that, my home.

And I'm sorry to interrupt.

I know you need my name, right?

No, if you're comfortable with it. You don't have to.

My name is Valeria Taylor. I'm an attorney, but I'm here as a citizen. All I want to do is say, I thought the police chief used to be here, but maybe that's like in the history. I, during the rains, I had a fence. I bought some pictures. That's why I was late. Not a lot. Just one that I want to show you. And my fence was falling, so I had to replace it. Well, I'll show you two. So I replaced it. I don't know how to do this. I'm not in a court. So I replaced it. I didn't want, you know, I, in fact, called a former colleague who was a prosecutor. I was defense. And I said, this is my legacy. It was installed on April 29th. I won't tell you the cost, because that's not the issue, if it was a penny. The neighbors behind me have a basketball hoop in the alley, and it faces, so the hoop is facing their property and yet ball has come over into my fence uh... the children uh... at least four times the worst of the well there are two worse last on the fifteenth the pretty late at night uh... i want to say eight ish it was actually after dark so it could have been nine uh... my doorbell rang i don't answer and I did look at my cameras and the ball was in the yard. I didn't go out there. I don't see the need to when the children are out there. And when I didn't open the door immediately, one of the children started pulling at the door. It's kind of off-centered now. This, to me, is a police problem. I went to the police station on 7th District. I spoke with Captain Anderson and a officer, uniformed, T-O-T-H, I want to say. And I explained, my goal is not to have, look, I did defense, I did fire and police commission for a while. I did defense for just short of 30 years. I believe there's a solution to basketball hoops. Front page of your website, your meaning ours, the city of Milwaukee. I'm small here, I'm not dealing with anything else. Frequently forgotten ordinances. One of them is you can't play ball in alleys, just like you can't put a basketball hoop on I-94 or Capitol Drive or whatever we're on here. I knew I was being dismissed, even though I knew the captain. And I was saying, look, all I'm asking is, Look, I know Charlie Young's case, and so children have an opportunity to be one of two things while they're figuring this life out. Give them an opportunity to understand what's wrong, and let's make it right. How much time do I have?

A total of five minutes, so you have about a minute left.

I'm going to talk faster, or get it wrong. I believe that when the garbage trucks go through, or those sweepers they should report these this is not a neighbor against neighbor thing and i really wish some of the money that's been on other things like basketball players to say plan in the alley is not a good thing it's bad for your needs you might get here your statute did not your statute three forty six ordinance one zero one says don't do it They refused. It's on your page. And they were like, we're going to research it. Chief Norman said they're cracking down on bad parking. I would think anything illegal in our roadways should be included. And it doesn't take extra manpower. I'm just asking, begging, because I don't want to. I'll show you the picture on June 8th. I heard the, it was such loud noise. And on June 8th, one of the children, remember the fence was installed on April 29th. And one of the children had hit the fence so hard with, I guess they were using it as a backboard. that the fence had caved in and the child came over the fence and hit it back. Good news, he hit it back. Bad news, he broke it. Worst news, it's I don't want tension. I just want the police department... in cooperation with the city. You can't just keep saying it's not my job.

Madam, I'm sorry to interrupt. I'm through. But you are over time, so if you could briefly conclude.

I'm asking that you and your powers, because I did go to the police department, have them Notify. They could do a general notification before they crack down. We're cracking down on things in the alley. Parking, basketball hoops. It's a danger to the children. It's bad for me. I'm used to arguing for people's lives.

You're good. The only thing I would say is if you have a complaint against a Milwaukee police officer, you think that...

tiny and dealing with the time i do not want this is not about the officer alone the uh... out here this is about i want in the most positive way for the children that basketball hoop to come out take to a basketball game out even paid for it i'm just don't want that when i go home I don't want to have children, which has happened, coming to me as I come out of my garage saying, you got my ball. I don't want them coming to my house at 9 o'clock. And I don't want friction. Is that fast enough? Because I'm faster.

That's fine. Let me give you my contact information and if you want to follow up. Okay. No?

No, no, I wanted to, no, follow up with you? Yes. Perfect. I thought you were going to send me down the line, which I really didn't want to do. I know this isn't as big as other people's problems, but I live in Milwaukee. I've served this community. I'm a veteran. I've served this country. I've served the city and the state. All I'm asking is let's find a win here. We can do it, but I can't do it by myself. That's enough. You want to see the picture or not of the broken fence?

We'll take your word for it.

Okay.

I'm used to courts where they make me show evidence. This is my contact information, so if you want to reach out, we can discuss it further.

Now, you need me to reach out before somebody looks at that basketball hoop, or is this sufficient? Reach out and let's start talking about it.

Sounds like a deal. No, it's fine. Thank you. Before we move forward, I just want to acknowledge that I know that we're dealing with emotional issues, issues that people care deeply about. But if we don't adhere to some type of decorum in this room, it's going to be hard for anyone to break through to understand. And so we had an outburst. The last thing I want is for this body to ban people from speaking out because they can't comport themselves in a way that allows for these discussions to take place. I just want to make sure that people know that we hear you. We're not ignoring you. We need to find better ways to have true dialogue, but that doesn't mean that as we're having these meetings, we're not listening to you.

Madam Chair, just respectfully, though, I hear you and I hear the need for discussion, but it does feel, I guess, a little strange to me. I think the person that had the outburst is gone now, and so everyone who's here has been fine. So I just want to make sure that that's pointed out.

Yeah, thank you. Thank you. My hope is that we can have a discussion with that individual to make sure that they understand. But everybody's got a right to come here and speak their minds. We don't want to extinguish that.

Okay, we are now done with public comment.

Let's keep order, please. Public comment is over.

Public comment is done. Director, please proceed with the agenda.

I will now read the items on the consent agenda. After I do so, any commissioner may remove any of these items to the regular agenda for discussion or appropriate action. Items not removed may be adopted by general consent without debate. Item 2, FPC 212596, resolution relating to the June 18th, 2026 meeting minutes. Item 3, FPC 212597, resolution relating to the appointment of the forensic identification processor position within the Milwaukee Police Department. Item 4, FPC 212598, resolution relating to the appointment to the intelligence analyst position within the Milwaukee Police Department. Item 5, FPC 212599, resolution relating to the job announcement bulletin for the business maintenance supervisor position within the Milwaukee Police Department. Item 6, FPC 212560, resolution relating to the job announcement bulletin for the HVAC maintenance technician position within the Milwaukee Police Department. Item 7, FPC 212601, resolution relating to the job announcement bulletin for the human resources supervisor position within the Milwaukee Police Department. And item 8, FPC 212602, resolution relating to the eligible list for the management accountant senior position within the Department of Emergency Communications. This concludes the consent agenda.

Would any of the commissioners like to remove any of these items from the consent agenda to the regular agenda? If there are no objections, the items on the consent agenda will be adopted by general consent. Are there any objections? Hearing no objections, these items are adopted. Director, please proceed with the agenda.

I'll read the item under examinations, which is item 9, FPC 212603, resolution relating to the eligible list for the emergency communications officer one position within the Department of Emergency Communications.

Is it okay if Carl shuts the door? Sure.

As long as it's not locked, that's fine. Yeah.

Then they can be out there talking. I just have trouble hearing.

Thank you.

Okay, so Do any commissioners have any comments or questions regarding this resolution? It's an eligible list that was developed after testing processes, right?

That's correct This is a an FPC eligible list that was developed by our testing staff through a competitive examination for the echo one position

Okay. Any comments or questions?

No.

If not, I will take a motion.

So moved. Second.

All in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Motion carries. Director, please proceed with the agenda.

I will now read the items under new business, starting with item 10, FPC 212604, communication from the FPC community outreach coordinator relating to lessons learned at the 2026 event. professionalizing law enforcement community engagement or Plessit National Conference and for this item we have our community outreach coordinator Carlos Martinez Rivera good evening welcome and thank you for your patience and Bridget could you queue up the PowerPoint please whenever you're ready

All right, good evening, commissioners. Good evening. Thank you for the time. My name is Carlos Martinez-Rivera. I'm the community outreach coordinator here at the FPC. Last month, I had the pleasure of attending the 2026 Plessent National Conference, Plessent standing for professional law enforcement community engagement training, where law enforcement, community partners, community organizations, and oversight bodies came together to share best practices when it came to community engagement. Tonight, I'd like to highlight Sorry, can we put the first slide up?

Looks like we're at the last slide.

There we go.

Little teaser.

So, yes, tonight I'd like to highlight the biggest takeaways, explain why they're relevant to the FPC, and share a few recommendations I believe we should consider moving forward. Next slide, please. All right, so tonight we'll cover the current landscape of public trust, community engagement strategies, AI and technology and public safety, funding opportunities, examples from other agencies, and recommended next steps. Next slide, please. So the conference opened up with a message that applies directly to organizations like ours. Public trust in institutions continue to decline, not only in law enforcement, but also in oversight bodies. Researchers emphasize that engagement isn't one-way communication, it's relationship building. Trust is earned through visibility, listening, responsiveness, transparency, and consistency. For the FPC, that's an important reminder. Our credibility isn't only built during formal decisions or meetings. It's built through how consistently we engage with the communities we serve. Next slide, please.

Carlos, sorry to interrupt, but just make sure you use the mic. Thank you.

So one of the most practical tools presented was the five Ps. Purpose, people, place, program, and promotion. It's a simple planning framework that ensures every engagement effort starts with clear goals, reaches the right audience, happens in the right setting, and provides meaningful interaction and effectively is communicated. I'd recommend we adopt this as our standard planning checklist for future outreach efforts. The conference also emphasized intentionally involving community partners early in the planning process, not just those who already participate, but those whose voices are often missed. Another useful framework connected engagement directly to outcomes, which was identify the issue, engage the community, implement solutions, and measure the results. That reinforced that the community isn't separate from public safety. It's part of achieving it. Next slide, please. All right, and artificial intelligence was one of the major topics throughout the conference. Many agencies are already using AI to improve meeting summaries, expand multilingual engagement, and collect community feedback more efficiently. The important message, however, was that technology should support, not replace face-to-face community engagement. The conference also highlighted that the Council of Criminal Justice's new AI decision framework, which provides agencies with structured process for evaluating AI through readiness, risk assessment, procurement, implementation, and ongoing oversight. What makes that particularly relevant to the FPC is that each phase includes documented decision points and creating natural opportunities for oversight. As AI becomes more common in public safety, I believe this framework provides a strong foundation for the kinds of questions we should be asking. Next slide, please. The conference also discussed several FY2026 COPS office grants opportunities, including community policing development, collaborative reform, de-escalation training, and officer wellness. While the FPC isn't eligible to apply directly for these grants, our work can strengthen the applications for MPD and MFD. The key takeaways was that sustainable funding isn't simply about finding grants, it's about building the partnerships, documentation, and measurable outcomes that make agencies stronger applicants. For us, that means continuing to document our committee engagement efforts and demonstrate the value of civilian oversight.

Next slide, please.

One of my favorite parts of the conference was practical examples from other agencies. One of my favorites was in Henderson County, officers partnered with local businesses to host an annual free movie night for families. It wasn't centered on enforcement. It was simply an opportunity to build relationships. In Evansville, Indiana, community partners helped transform a neighborhood by raising enough support to build a $1 million community playground. The lesson isn't that we should copy from these agencies. It's the meaningful engagement that happens when agencies intentionally invest in relationships and partnerships over time.

Next slide, please.

Based on what I learned, I'd recommend these several steps for the FPC. In the near term, I'd like us to adopt the five Ps as our standard planning framework for community engagement and begin identifying two or three trusted community champions who can help us connect with communities that have historically been less engaged. in the midterms. I'd recommend exploring multilingual digital engagement platforms like GoVocal or Public Input while also improving our current simple performance metrics, tracking our events, attendance, community feedback, and resulting actions from these things. And in the longer term, I'd recommend using the CCJ AI decision framework whenever AI technologies are considered and continue to build the documentation process and partnerships to help position our departments for these future grant opportunities.

Next slide, please.

In closing, I'd like to leave you with one idea that stayed with me during the conference. Engagement is not the side project. It's how the work gets done. For the FPC, that means our effectiveness isn't measured only by the decisions we make, but by how consistently we listen, communicate, and build relationships with communities within communities that we serve. The conference provided valuable tools that I believe can strengthen our outreach efforts, and I look forward to working with the board to put these ideas to practice. Thank you, and I'm welcoming any questions.

Thank you very much. One thing I'd like to ask, I don't think that your slides are in Granicus, and I think they should be.

I agree. I can definitely send that to Bridget to get those in there.

They are in there now. They were put in yesterday. Oh, okay. Well, they didn't show up in mine.

Problem solved.

Thank you.

My pleasure.

were you the only Milwaukee representative at the conference?

From what I understood, yes. I believe last year we did have Marcy Patterson there who recommended this to me, and that's where I moved forward with that recommendation.

Okay. And it had participants from all over the country?

Correct, yeah.

Very good.

Any questions? Just, first of all, a comment. I love the the view of what engagement should be oftentimes we engage with communities in one-way conversation we're not building on ongoing dialogue to create the change that we want so framework is certainly something that we need and it's not only for The FPC is for the partner organizations under FPC. So my question is one of. creating a shared vision of what engagement looks like. And so what's your process to ensure that fire, police, emergency communications, we're all of the same mind of what engagement looks like. And we're working collectively to drive in communities as opposed to siloing those discussions.

I appreciate that question because I think it hits the nail on the head. Right now we are a bit siloed, and I think the goal is to become intertwined when it comes to planning these activities. Because if we use the five Ps, nobody should be missing. Everybody should be at the table. and the results should be measured to the point where it can be replicated in the future in case these incidents happen again. One thing that they did touch on that I appreciate was the need for groups who deal together when the crisis has happened. Right now, entities kind of act alone, and they spoke about that, and they spoke about the need to come together when those things happen. I think the five Ps is a good start to begin to eliminate those silos.

Thank you. Yes.

Anything? Yeah, I have a couple of things. First of all, thank you so much for putting this together. I think this, I don't know if it's me not refreshing Granicus, but the slides aren't showing up for me. So I'd love to see the slides later. And then I noticed you said you have maybe other conference materials you could share.

Yep, we can request them to Plessit. They've put everybody's, every presenter's slides on there so we can get those as well.

Yeah, I would love to see that. I think that would be great. I'm especially curious to hear more at some point about the decision framework, about things that involve AI, because as you know, that's something I've been concerned about. I was wondering if this came up at all during any of the sessions, I think. one of the um one of this the structural blockers sometimes to certain forms of community engagement for us is just the quorum issue and you know the obviously i think lots of us being involved at the same place is great but there is that issue did that come up for anyone in any other places did they like rotate through people or did you see any solutions to that

I can't say that they brought it up intentionally. I think it came up in passing to the point where they spoke about different methods of having these meetings, whether it be kind of like we have our FPC meetings here where people sign up for public comments or just to give their opinion, or they gave the audience an opportunity to ask questions while they were providing answers at the same time. But I can't say they did it intentionally to the point where there were slides on it, unfortunately. Sure. But it is something worth looking into, I agree, because it's an important issue to get everyone's voice out there in a respectful manner.

Yeah, appreciate that. Then that's a totally fair answer. And then my other question was just around, I think I'm certainly interested in this five P's framework. So I guess maybe a more logistical question, which is what do we need to do to implement that if everyone sort of agrees on it? I think that certainly as an individual commissioner, it looks like something that's a good idea to me.

Yeah, I think that, you know, it's an administrative action, but I think we all endorse it. So I would expect the executive director to implement that.

That's great to hear. And Carlos as well. He's our community outreach coordinator, and we've got to get MPD and MFD and DEC on board too. Right. That would be amazing.

Madam Chair, and I know we're talking about a framework, But I'd just like to add one more element to it. And it's really wrapped around how we effectively deal with hot-button issues at the time and whether or not we've got the right mindset of getting ahead of those issues, not just as the FPC, but anyone that has a voice in public safety. And to that matter, I'm talking about the Safety Committee of the Common Council because they have a lot of weight added on this issue. And so we need to find a more effective framework so that people don't feel as if bureaucracy is just passing them around. Right. So I'd really like for us to think about how we effectively bring people together to deal with these issues and not come, and again, I don't want people to think that I don't want them to come here, but this is a unique forum where we're not gonna have that discussion, that back and forth discussion that's necessary to create greater understanding and better outcomes.

I would like to. Of course. Yeah, I really like that idea because I had the, I'm going to call it an opportunity, to speak to the, is it health and public safety or public safety and health? It's actually the 6th P, public safety and health. It's the 6th P, public safety and health. Wow. and was pretty uh and remain pretty alarmed at like the lack of preparedness of the people on that committee to like kind of the questions that were being asked i i thought would be things that you would know preparing like preparing for a meeting i'm not trying to be like a jerk whatever i know that like Alders have a lot going on, for sure. But it really struck me, that point that you're bringing up. There's going to have to be a shift of gears, since they're the ones that are now responsible for making decisions about policy. That means they have to know policy. They have to understand the nuance. These are not simple... necessarily things so like they require a little time and more time and energy to prepare for and so i really like the idea of sort of trying to figure out and i know i got my foot out the door but just on my way out the door i got something to say are you surprised no um which is like introducing a framework that could help ensure like i i would like to um I think Tiffany requested like that the FPC prepare a document that's like a summary document for the alders about all the different things that have been discussed related to vehicle pursuits and like the direct link to the report and maybe a hint on what pages to look at. And you know what I mean? Like genuinely, because there's been so there has been so much information discussed over the course of the last year on that topic that, um, one way fbc can help is by kind of what i think commissioner spence is recommending and also like thinking about very accessible materials that could be easy to go i'm gonna go look at this report i'm gonna look at this report i'm gonna watch this video you know of the hearing or whatever a preparation packet yeah a preparation packet yeah i like that thank you i have no questions thank you for everything a lot to think about my pleasure are there any hands up Like online?

Online. Anybody online have a question or comment? Okay, then. Like no. All right. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Have a great time.

Have a nice night. That was helpful. Thank you. Communication file, so no further action is required. Director, please proceed with the agenda.

Item 11, FPC 212605, communication from FPC staff relating to the physical readiness test or PRT for the police officer position. So this is – I wanted to update the commission about a new idea we've had. I know we talked about – requesting a waiver from the Law Enforcement Standard Board, or LESB, for the entrance standards for the physical readiness test. As you know, unfortunately, that was denied, I believe, in June, in early June. and uh... while that is certainly a disappointment uh... i wanted to just not give up on this issue because i think that this is a significant drop off point in the testing process i i think it's an area where there's room for improvement it's a little frustrating because we don't control uh... what the standards are directly and we can't tinker with them and try new things but i didn't want to give up on this uh... kind of this issue or this area and so sort of to pivot so to speak, we want to try something which might not be quite as comprehensive as what we had previously proposed with the waiver request to LESB but will still hopefully be beneficial. And so the next PRT test is gonna be July 11th and 12th. So it's coming up and we wanna try at that test something a little bit different. So we'll still run the PRT exam in the same way that we've historically done it. And those that pass the LESB standards, they're gonna move forward in the testing process just as they've always done. And if you'll recall, For the waiver proposal, we had this tiered scoring approach where there was a five-point scale, a four-point scale, and a three-point scale. And then if you got above a certain total, you'd move through. The five point scale is essentially the same as the outright pass, not essentially, it is the same as what's on the first page of the memo here, outright pass. The three point scale is the same as the contingent pass. So we believe, so when we do the test, Those people that don't pass one of the events, if they still receive a contingent passing score, at least in each of these five areas, we will allow them to move forward in the testing process on a contingent basis. They'll be informed of that, that moving forward is contingent. upon them ultimately receiving a passing score shortly before or on the first day of the academy. We'll encourage them to work with MPD to attend their fit camps and do the work that they need. There's three or four months in between the start date of the academy and the PRT typically, so there is plenty of time. if they meet this contingent minimum standards, we believe that someone in that range has the ability to ultimately meet the entrance standards with a reasonable amount of work. And so that's how we plan to try this for the first time in July, on July 11th and 12th. MPD we've discussed this with them they like the idea they've agreed to to modify their fit camps which they hold twice a week right now so that it's more focused on passing the PRT as opposed to just general aerobic fitness and they're also going to be given information about the the contingent candidates so that they can best work with them on the areas that they need to improve on be it sit-ups or push-ups or whatever it is and And then these candidates will also be required to attend at least two fit camps, and hopefully this will give people a little bit more opportunity, even if they weren't quite ready on the exam day, if they're within striking distance and they're given this extra opportunity and they work at it. uh... we can uh... hopefully get them into some into the academy of successful recruits uh... so i wanted to update the board on this because i uh... i think this is a good idea uh... and see if you had any questions or uh... i hope you're supportive but uh... uh... yes uh... my question is how does this really differ from the one that lsb yes didn't want that's a good question so if l e s b had granted the waiver we would have been able to admit those candidates that that were but that hadn't quite met the entrance standards into the academy and then they would they'd be full-time input recruit employees or police officer recruits and they'd have uh... the six months of the academy to work full time with these people whereas now they'll have three or four months But they'll have to do it largely on their own, and they'll have to show up to the fit camps and then do exercise and fitness on their own time. But they do have time to do it, a reasonable amount of time. So it can be done, but it's just not quite as good as having them captive, so to speak, for six months in the academy. I see.

for a full-time schedule. Madam Chair, I appreciate the creative thinking that was involved in coming up with something, as opposed to just giving up on it. And it's another level of support for people who, if they're really intent on being in service in this way, It's there for them. It may not be perfect, but it keeps us moving along. So I appreciate the work that you and your staff put into this. Thank you.

Madam Chair. Yes. I just want to say I agree once again with Commissioner Spence.

My goodness, what's going on here?

It's a collusion. Does any other commissioner have any questions, comments?

Commissioner Will Patterson has her hand up. Thank you. Go ahead.

Hi, Garrett. Thank you, Chair. I just wanted to say thank you for the work and the effort in helping individuals to be more physically fit and prepared in this way. It, again, reminds me of the Army training and it has proved over all these years to be very effective. So hopefully we'll see that increase in those that will pass the test and do very well So thank you for the effort. I appreciate it as well.

Thank you, Commissioner.

Thank you. Any other?

Ruben has this.

Commissioner Ruben? Commissioner Burgos?

Thank you. The question, we had just a clarification. Prior to this, we would, if they failed the PRT, they were done. They were out of the whole program, right?

That's correct. Going back a few cycles, we would run... at least one makeup or retake event. When we move to continuous recruitment, and just because of the volume of work that the testing staff had, we stopped doing that, but with the idea that we're running continuous recruitment, so in four months they're going to have another opportunity and they're going to be moved over to the next testing cycle. But yes, they would be out if they failed the PRT.

Okay, so we're giving them another chance. We're trying to get more inclusive with our groups, which is great. It's a good idea. Thank you. That's just why I clarify that.

Okay, there being no other questions. Director, please proceed with the agenda.

Next item is item 12, FPC 212607, resolution relating to the HR and business operations positions follow-up report for citywide positions. And I believe we have a representative from DER who can give a summary of this item.

Ms. Knickerbocker. Good evening.

Yes.

Yes.

Yes, Andrea Knickerbocker from Employee Relations. And the report before you this evening has three recommendations. And this is a part of the follow-up to the market study that we presented at the last meeting. that covers human resources and business operations positions across the city. There's a report that will be going to the City Service Commission meeting next Tuesday, which will have some follow-up items and this one. And then we'll meet at the Finance Committee, which is next Wednesday. And to just go through the recommendations quickly, uh our first recommendation for a fire department position of business finance manager was in pay range one i can't see my own writing here one i x and Turn up the lights. And based on some very good information from the department, as well as some additional research we did with our own staffing division in employee relations, we wish to change that recommendation to a higher pay range of 1LX. And then two positions in the department of emergency communications these were actually classified at your previous meeting and because these positions are benchmarked against a human resources analyst senior classification and as that position is going up with the study we recommend that these also go up to to stay in lockstep with their comparator. So the recommendation is to take it up one pay range from 2JX to 2KX for both titles. And I can answer any questions.

Do any of the commissioners have questions, comments? Sounds good. If not, we need a motion on this one. Move approval.

Second.

Okay. Any discussion? I'll take a voice vote on this item. All in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Motion carries. Director, please proceed.

Yes. Item 13. I'm sorry. Yes, it is item 13. FPC 212608, communication from the Milwaukee Police Department relating to recent changes to standard operating procedures and or standard operating instructions. There is only one policy change before us, which is the creation of a new standard operating instruction for school resource officers.

Is there someone from the department to speak to this? I hope the AC Sarno's on. Great.

Good evening, Madam Chair, Commissioners, Assistant Chief Sarno. This is a, as the Executive Director said, a new SOI that was born from our recent experience with our Wiley accreditation, reaccreditation process. So we went through accreditation in 23. We did not have an SRL program at that time. We went through reaccreditation in 26. We do have an SRL program and therefore one of the Wiley standards is you have to have a written directive or policy that addresses your school resource officer program, which is in the four page SOI that's before you. The context or the meat of this SOI comes from our MOU with MPS and the posting for school resource officer, which we did. back in the winter of 25 prior to the launch of SROs in March of 25. I know that we have spoken to the Commission previously, I believe it was in November, when Captain Norberg came and gave you a presentation then on the SRO program. There really isn't much to speak of as far as the SOI goes. As I stated, this was the language and the context in here is strictly from the MOU and our posting for the school resource officer program. But happy to answer any questions you may have regarding.

Any questions? Comments?

I do have one question for AC Sarna. There was some discussion by NPS board at some point on responsibilities of the ESRO. There seemed to be some confusion on what those responsibilities were. I'm wondering if we got to a clearer view on what that is, not just with the NPS board, but the NPS community. Have we broken through that whole?

I believe so. Yes, I believe so. And I believe that this SOI reflects that under duties and responsibilities subsection D that outlines nine different points on what we are responsible for versus what MPS is responsible. I'll refer you to page two, number seven and number eight stand out to me. Be familiar with MPS district's disciplinary policies and MPS student code of conduct as provided by MPS. framed for making decisions for speaking on behalf of MPS. We are there to enforce the law and not enforce any type of MPS disciplinary policies, but we are meant to be familiar with them.

Got it. Thank you. My hope is that there won't be a need to just dwell on certain things and not move what I hope to be a successful program forward. And I know that's what everybody wants, but I think sometimes we get stuck as a community on what we think is happening and not what parties agreed to the handle.

So hoping we- I understand, Commissioner. I think it's a great question and I would suggest that since the last update we provided, the commission was in November, which was kind of in the first half of the 25, 26 MPS school year, maybe post your break in August, another presentation is warranted to provide you and the commissioners and the public with the update, as well as field any additional questions you might have.

I think that's a very good suggestion and we'll follow up on that. Also, it gives us an opportunity to review the school year. from last fall through this spring. And I'd like to know how it went. Okay, thank you. Go ahead.

Oh, I just thought Commissioner Burgos' hand was up next.

Commissioner Burgos?

Um, no, I was mostly along the line with what Mr. Spence was saying. Um, and this is a living document, I hope, and that we're continuing reviewing everything that goes through it. Uh, and exactly. I wanted an update. That's, uh, that's perfect. Thank you, Chief Hart. I'm sorry that we didn't have an update on this. How's it doing? How's it going? What, how did we change? How we adapted, um, and continue with a good program. So thank you. You're welcome.

Commissioner Fung, do you have any questions? I think she was just flagging for Burgos. Do you have some? I do have some, but I think you were first. Okay. Just quickly, I think this is great to have this written down. I do want to flag, I had done that work with the Racine Police Department and the Racine Unified School District on their SRO program years and years ago. And I was really happy to see in writing in black and white that MPD officers are not to be enforcing school code. That's like one of the biggest, quickest quagmires that show up in schools. I do, however, want to flag, and I don't know, AC Sarnoff, this is something that's documented for MPS, but one of the things that makes this to the school disciplinary code things so challenging for officers is that a lot of times when they do get involved in that they're recruited by a teacher where the teacher says hey he won't give me his cell phone he won't take it whatever and so uh... one of the things that in racing and i think it was really critically important is that that was put in writing for both from them like the school district perspective and from the police department perspective and uh... officers will get dragged into doing things they shouldn't do if teachers do not manage their classrooms appropriately. And so I just wanted to flag that.

Yes, I couldn't agree with you more. And it's also, I think, a byproduct, though, of the teacher themselves not understanding their specific school disciplinary policies.

Yeah, I think that's right. And also understanding what they're there for. And also sometimes that's the easiest route to getting what you need. And so that's something that just cannot happen in order for the SRO program to work. And then I just wanted to flag, I am a little concerned that officers are not going to be assigned to specific schools. I understand the desire is to be able to have them cover more territory, but I just want to flag like, And this is something that should be, I think, looked at at the end of the next school year or whatever. What kind of impact does that have on the relationships they're actually able to build and maintain with students, with staff? So I just wanted to flag that as well.

Yeah, I'll make a note of that, Commissioner, and make sure that in the next presentation that that question specifically is answered by Captain Norberg or Lieutenant Ratliff, whoever or both does the presentation.

Thank you. Thank you. Any further? Madam Chair, I just, I do have a couple of questions. First, I'm very happy to see this in an SOI and I agree that it's in line with the policy from MPS on the other side and the MOU as well. I just had a couple of Questions. I think if I'm not misunderstanding, MPS has to report data to DPI, I believe annually, on seclusion and restraint. Is that data when an SRO or an MPD officer is engaging in seclusion or restraint, how is that data being communicated to MPS?

Um, I will, uh, have to follow up on that and, uh, get you an answer commissioner because I'm not familiar with that.

Okay, no problem. And then I also had a question regarding Miranda rights because I understand there was a recent case about that. Is that something that will be addressed in a future version of the SOI? Are SROs currently reading the students their Miranda rights as of now?

On page three of four, you'll see a number 12 where it reflects have a working knowledge of SOP and Wisconsin statutes, including SOP 140, juvenile procedures and children's code. And those specific things related to children and Miranda are referenced in that SOP, juvenile procedures.

Okay, wonderful. Thank you. Um, and then, um, I was curious about, um. The community referrals on, uh, I think it's. Page 2, um, I was just curious what that looks like. That's not something I guess that I'm super familiar with.

Sure, and, um, I can just like, I. told Commissioner Spencer, I will make a note that that's included in the presentation, you know, and whenever we do it, whether it's September or I guess whenever the Commission wants it to be done to kind of highlight what that looks like and in the MPS SRO space.

Okay, thank you. Definitely looking forward to that. And I would also be curious to know, I guess at that point, if there are in school referrals that are able to be made as well. And then I just looking at state statute, I guess I'm a little bit unclear. Are SROs currently able to engage in strip searching of students?

Uh, which state statute are you referring to?

So there's, I guess, uh, state statute regarding general law enforcement strip searching and then it's 948 50 strip searching by school employees. So I understand. whatever is considered school employees should not be engaging in strip searching. So I'm just not sure whether SROs in this case are falling under school employees or are considered more of a general law enforcement officer and might be able to strip search young people.

Sure. Yeah, that's one. I am not aware of any strip search being authorized or being done by a school resource officer, but I would have to follow up with Captain Norberg on that and what we would fall under if we were authorized to do that.

Okay, no problem. Thank you for that. And then my last question, I had received some questions from folks out in the community. Are SROs able to, I guess, confiscate things from students? And if so, what are they allowed to confiscate or not confiscate?

When you were given that question, did they have a specific example or scenario in mind?

I think it was more so coming from young people just wondering sort of, I guess, like what their rights are and like what they should expect.

Those conversations happen with school administrators and school staff as well as with the students. I mean, the things that I know that we've confiscated are usually connected to some type of crime. You know, we have had kids that have brought guns into schools and we've had to, you know, uh go down the path of an investigation obviously taken things like that but i i'm not familiar with anything else we might have taken like cell phones and things like that that would be a question again i can uh note for captain norberg because i'm writing all these things down i am because i'm going to have her include that in the presentation uh that's given to the commission in um in the fall okay much appreciated thank you so much thank you uh commissioner evans

yeah um as a former high school principal i just want to say thank you because sros are important but more importantly is the training that they receive and the communication and the teamwork and collaboration with the administration but my main question is that how is the data being tracked as far as students uh interaction with sros as far as arrest and um yeah some some of the questions have been answered but i'm just like is there data as far as arrest in schools uh and for what

Sure. Yeah, I think that was a great question. And like I've been saying, it probably sounds like a broken record. We do keep track. We do track that data and those metrics. That's how we learn and that's how we get better. And I think including some of that data or how we do those things, how we do the tracking and what we look for would be very beneficial to include in an update to the commission.

absolutely and is there in the training or is there any uh protocol and sop as far as uh regular uh communication with administration school administration as far as in-house local school not not district office uh yes it does refer to that um i'm just trying to see um the yeah it's under it's on page two

If I'm understanding correctly, the commanding officer of the Community Resource Division, which is Captain Orberger's designee, shall attend monthly meetings with the MPS safety director to discuss any matters regarding scheduling response for the execution of the MOU between the department and the Milwaukee Board of School Directors and meet at least semi-annually at the end of each semester to consult with school administration about SRO compliance and performance. Now, what that looks like, I can't say because I'm not involved in that. And, again, that would be something really good, I think, for Captain Norberg to highlight in the update to the Commission.

Okay. Appreciate that.

Thank you. Commissioner Ramey.

Yeah, and excuse me. Something's going on with my camera, so I apologize. I don't know. It's on the fritz, but nonetheless, thank you very much, Chief Sarno. I think along the lines of Commissioner Evans, a recommendation We still have a school lead who meets with the school administration directly, not just at the high level at central office. I think just from some of the things I've seen successful and Bree can kind of attest to this and even Racine, when the relationship occurs at the school level, you see more alignment on, I think, the relational side. that includes students teachers family staff because they're seen regularly and that way if you can have a school lead meet with the administration at the school i think that will go a long way in supporting the work and just for a comment i'll say this um i i think the thank you for the sor so i on this i think it looks good but i really want to move to more of a mind shift and a culture change that aligns this SRO mutual to the culture of the school and still not seen as this disconnect. So, and we can talk more offline. I just wanted to say that out loud, but thank you very much. You're welcome.

Yes, and Commissioner Spence, sir.

One other thought I had, I'm trying to remember back to all that time ago. Another thing that happened in Racine that I think was impactful was there was an opportunity for SROs not just to record the normal stuff that police would record in any circumstance, but also to note when they had a positive interaction with a student. And so it was a way to sort of measure productivity and engagement of the officers when they're in the schools. instead of just relying solely on the punitive pieces, they must absolutely also record. But having this opportunity for a way for them to highlight their good work with students was also, I think, really valuable.

Yeah, I believe in the November presentation that Captain Norberg did, because I was there with her, she did have a slide that talked about mentorship and positive engagement. And I know she brought up I believe it was called the 12 with 12 series that offers students monthly Q&A opportunities with officers on safety and decision making in topics and things like that. So I have no doubt that that has been built and developed since then. So I will make sure to have her include an update on that specifically and everything else that they're doing related to what you did with the Racine School District, Commissioner.

I think we're on the right track. Any other questions? Okay. This is a communication file, so no action is necessary. Director, please proceed with the agenda.

And Madam Chair.

Oh, yes. I would like a break. Okay. I told you I wanted. Yes. Let's take like a five-minute break so that. After a break. Okay. We'll be. Do I gavel out?

Sure.

We're out.

Thank you. Thank you.

This was yesterday.

The commission is back in session. Director, please proceed with the agenda.

I will now read the item under the Department of Emergency Communications, which is item 14, FPC 212609, resolution relating to the extensions of a probationary period for the emergency communications officer to position, to extensions.

I think this is one of those, they were absent for a period of time and now they want to bring them back to the correct amount of time. Are there any questions or comments? Is there a motion?

So moved.

Second. Any discussion? I will take a voice vote on this item. All in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstention? Motion carries.

Director, please proceed. I will now read the items under the police department, starting with item 15, FPC 212610, resolution relating to the promotion of police officer Thomas Maglio to the court liaison officer position.

One or more commissioners have requested that we interview Officer Maglio, I'm sorry to say it wrong, in closed session before voting on this item. We will therefore hold this item to the end of the meeting. Director, please proceed with the agenda.

Item 16, FPC-212611, resolution relating to the promotions of Jessica Roman and Breanne Martian to the Crime Analyst II position.

Do any of the commissioners have any comments or questions regarding this? Are these promotions are civilian spots, right?

Yes, and I believe they are based on... A testing process? No, that they have sufficient experience and knowledge to meet the requirements for Crime Analyst 2 versus Crime Analyst 1. I see.

So it's a progression step. Yes. Is there a motion on this matter? So moved. Second. Any discussion? As this is a promotion, I'll take a roll call vote in alphabetical order. Commissioner Burgos? Aye. Commissioner Evans?

Aye.

Commissioner Fung? Aye. Commissioner Ramey? Aye. Commissioner Snyder? Aye. Commissioner Spence? Aye. Commissioner Spencer? Aye. Commissioner World-Patterson? Aye. Aye. And the chair votes aye. Motion carries. Director, please proceed with the agenda.

Item 17, FPC 212612, resolution relating to the appointments to the police aide position, 17 appointments.

This is through the testing process? Yes. So it is what it is. Do any commissioners have any questions? Is there a motion on this matter?

So moved.

Second any discussion I'll take a voice vote on this item all in favor. Please signify by saying aye aye Any opposed any abstentions motion carries director, please proceed with the agenda. I

Item 18, FPC 212613, resolution relating to the reappointment request of a former police officer. We do have a recommendation for reappointment from the chief, and he is also asking that the commissioners waive the portion of Rule 13, Section 1, that requires former members to have passed probation in order to be eligible for reappointment. Waiver of that rule would require a two-thirds vote.

I have a question. The request for reinstatement was back in April, I think.

One moment.

And I'm just wondering what took so long?

I don't know. Did you do a background check? It could be.

Yeah, the background check.

I don't know, but that's just my guess.

Yeah, that's probably it. Okay. So we first have a motion for the waiver or is it all in one?

You could do either way. You could do a motion to waive said rule and reappoint.

Okay. Is anybody making a motion to...

I will make that motion.

Second. Okay, great. Any questions or comments? This is a... Roll call vote. Commissioner Burgos? Aye. Commissioner Evans? Aye. Commissioner Fung? Aye. Commissioner Ramey? Aye. Commissioner Snyder?

Aye.

Commissioner Spence? Aye. Commissioner Spencer? Aye. Commissioner World-Patterson? Aye. And the chair votes aye. Motion carries.

Congratulations. Welcome back. Welcome back.

If you know anybody else who wants to, you know, get in on it. Thank you.

Director, please proceed with the agenda. All right. Item 19, FPC 212614, resolution relating to the extension of the probationary periods for the police officer position to extensions.

uh... one of the two officers who are subject to this request has asked to be heard in closed session before the board votes on the extension request as it relates to him that is officer with initials lm we will therefore divide the question for this item and hold the item as it relates to officer lm until the end of the meeting With respect to the probation extension request relating to the other member, an officer with initials JN, we can now proceed to consider and vote on that matter.

Madam Chair.

Yes.

Move approval. Second.

Okay, we're moving along. I will take a voice vote on this item. All in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Any abstentions? Motion carries. Director, please proceed.

Item 20, FPC 212615, resolution relating to the extension of the probationary periods for the police sergeant position to extensions.

Do any commissioners have any questions or comments regarding this? These are pretty straightforward. Is there a motion on this matter?

So moved.

Okay, good. I will take a voice vote on this item all in favor. Please signify by saying aye Any opposed any abstentions Motion carries vector director, please proceed with the agenda item 21 FPC 2 1 2 6 1 6 resolution relating to the extension of the probationary period for the police records specialist 3 position We got a whole lineup of these. Do any questions or comments come up? Is there motion?

So moved. So moved. Second. Second.

Good, we have... We have double motions and double seconds. I'll take a voice vote on this item. All in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Aye. Aye. Any opposed? Fire. Any abstentions? Motion carries. Director? uh... now we are returning to the items that we held yes and uh... we have to uh... consider going into closed session yes the board may receive a motion to convene in closed session pursuant to section nineteen point eighty five sub one sub c the wisconsin statutes to consider these items following the closed session the board may then reconvene an open session concerning these items Do I have such a motion? So moved.

Second.

This matter has been moved and seconded. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Any abstentions? Motion carries. We are now in closed session.

Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you.

So,

you Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you. you you Thank you. you so so Thank you. Thank you.

We have concluded the closed session, and we will return to the open meeting in order to take up item 15.

15.

And the rest of item, what is it?

19.

It's gotten complicated. Oh, yeah. And the rest of item 19. Director, please proceed.

All right. Item 15, FPC 212610, resolution relating to the promotion of police officer Thomas, I apologize, Malio, to the court liaison officer position. I apologize for any mispronunciation. I know you just told me.

Thank you. Okay. Well, we did... interview the officer in closed session and learned a little bit more about the circumstances and I think we are ready to vote on the request for the promotion. Madam Chair? Yes.

Move approval.

Second.

It's been moved and approved and seconded. Do I have any discussion, further discussion? Okay, then I will take a roll call vote. Commissioner Burgos? Aye. Commissioner Evans?

Aye.

Commissioner Fung? Aye. Commissioner Ramey?

Aye.

Commissioner Schneider? Aye. Commissioner Spence? Aye. Commissioner Spencer? Aye. Commissioner World-Patterson? Aye. And the chair votes aye. Motion carries. Congratulations. Congratulations. Okay.

All right. The next item is item 19, FPC 212614, resolution relating to the extension of the probationary periods for the police officer position.

Okay. And this is to take up the officer with initials. Lm. Yes Okay, and again we have had an opportunity to meet In closed session and discuss and get more information Is there anything further? If not, is there a motion madam chair? Yes move approval of the recommendation? Okay second Okay, it's been moved and seconded. This requires a voice vote, right?

Either one.

Either one. Well, let's do a voice vote. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Okay, motion carries and the recommendation of the department will be upheld. Thank you very much.

Yeah. Appreciate you coming through and chatting with us. Thank you.

Madam Chair.

Yes.

Move. Yes.

For adjournment.

Adjournment. Thank you. My weekend brain was working.

Thank you. And by consensus, we are adjourned.

Thank you.