The Milwaukee Police Department announced a comprehensive plan last night to fight crime in one part of the city. The effort is a response to instructions from the city's new Chief of Police, Edward Flynn. He recently met with police captains, and asked them to be creative and innovative in their districts.
"I issued them a series of challenges and the first challenge was what can we do quickly that people will notice the department is reorienting itself to the neighborhoods. I call them quick wins and my first set of challenges to the district commanders was what can you do with what you have now," Flynn said.
Captain James Harpole came forward with a plan for the Concordia and Avenues West neighborhoods just west of Marquette University. He presented the details last night to a room filled with residents, landlords, and members of neighborhood associations. Harpole says, in part, the plan will zero in on a stretch of wells street.
"Wells Street's the heart of this plan. Everybody in this room knows that's the corridor where everything happens in that area and things kind of spread out from there. Wells Street has the reputation in the neighborhood of being known as crack alley," Harpole said.
Harpole says other things also contribute to a sense of disorder and fear in the area, such as prostitution, public drinking, and poor oversight of nuisance properties by building owners. So he's assigning a larger staff of officers than usual on a temporary basis, to target areas where specific crimes have been identified.
Then, on an ongoing basis, he says police will work more closely than ever with the community. They'll tell landlords of rundown or crime-ridden buildings how to fix the problems, without getting fined. Harpole says officers will work to become recognized in the neighborhoods by their face and name and even give out their cell phone numbers. To get a start he introduced some of his staff at the meeting. And Harpole says his officers also will walk more to build both visibility and credibility.
"The barrier of the police car needs to be removed and that's what we're gonna to try to do with this neighborhood policing plan is get those officers out of the police car, on foot, in the neighborhoods, getting to know the know the residents, business leaders, church leaders, it's so important for us to make that connection, we need to be plugged in, we're never going to be plugged in if we're just driving by in our police cars," Harpole said.
In addition, police will hold monthly public meetings, put out a monthly newsletter, and go on regular group walks with community organizations. Harpole says the measures won't cost anything extra because he's using resources already dedicated to his district.
Real estate owner Mohammed Rashid was in the audience as Harpole outlined the plan.
"I'm really impressed, seeing Harpole's new initiative in this neighborhood, it's needed. Not only do I have property in this neighborhood I'm also a resident in this neighborhood so it's very important to me to see the crime driven out of this neighborhood," Rashid said.
Police Chief Flynn is enthusiastic, too. He hopes neighborhood policing plans will start to spring up in other parts of the city, as well. But Flynn says they won't mirror Harpole's strategy. Rather, they'll reflect specific problems in each police district.
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