The Milwaukee Police Department says most types of crime declined in the city last year. That includes homicides, property crime and auto thefts.
Vehicle crashes, hit and run incidents and driver or pedestrian fatalities also went down. Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman says one reason streets were safer is the greater use of traffic calming structures like extended curbs, or bump outs, that narrow some major driving routes.
"The other day, anecdotally, someone came up to me, and, like the chief had anything to do with it, said, 'Hey, these bump outs, can you do something about it? It's making me slow down.' I'm like, Good!" Norman told news reporters at a Wednesday news conference.
But Norman, Milwaukee Community Wellness and Safety Director Ashanti Hamilton, and Mayor Cavalier Johnson all say crime still needs to be brought down. For one thing, by the police department's count, there were still 169 homicides in the city last year, with a growing percentage of the victims being under the age of 18.
Johnson hopes more police help is on the way, thanks to an improving city budget picture that makes use of new sales tax revenue and additional money from the state.
"The budget I produced for 2024 called for three classes — the maximum our police academy is able to produce in a year—and those three classes are funded with 65 recruits apiece — the maximum that the police academy is able to produce in a single year. So yes, it's our intention to see that and grow the number of police officers not just this year but in the years to follow as well," Johnson says.
But the mayor acknowledges that, like other places around the U.S., Milwaukee has a challenge in convincing enough candidates to enroll in the police academy.
