Committee on Milwaukee Police Department reform urges training on community-oriented policing

Community engagement, a diverse workforce and cultural competency are among the recommendations included in a report by a committee on reform of the Milwaukee Police Department.

The report, created by the Milwaukee Collaborative Community Committee, urges the Fire and Police Commission to create a community-oriented policing policy that would be integrated into training and professional development opportunities for officers.

The training would be "culturally responsive" and trainers should be community members, according to the report, presented at two public hearings this week and to the Fire and Police Commission earlier this month.

The commission voted to craft the policy and referred the matter to its policies and standards committee, which will meet Oct. 31.

For nearly two years, the committee held a series of meetings with residents throughout the city and gathered input online, leading to the creation of the report.

"I'm going to take the time … to thank those community members who participated," committee Chair Tammy Rivera told the commission.

"We're going to continue to elevate community engagement and partnership, not only to have a stronger and better relationship with the Police Department and the Fire and Police Commission but to strengthen our community as a whole."  

The committee is an outgrowth of the Collaborative Reform Initiative for Technical Assistance, a scuttled federal effort to address tensions between communities and law enforcement agencies. 

The initiative was created under the Obama administration to help reform police departments after the national outcry over a series of officer-involved shootings of unarmed black men. 

Its mission was to provide support to law enforcement agencies in building community relationships through organizational transformation, and it was administered by the U.S. Justice Department's Office of Community Oriented Policing. 

After the fatal shooting of Dontre Hamilton in 2014, the in-custody death of Derek Williams, the beating of a handcuffed suspect in an interrogation room by a former detective and illegal strip searches of suspects, in 2015 former Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn requested participation in the initiative by the Milwaukee Police Department. 

In response, the DOJ began an assessment of the department and the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission. 

But under the Trump administration, in September 2017 the mission of the Community Oriented Policing office and the reform initiative were changed to focus on returning control to local police departments and providing technical assistance to reduce violent crime. 

And though no final assessment report on Milwaukee was ever produced by the DOJ, a draft version of the report that was made public listed a series of findings and recommendations to reform the city's Police Department. 

The draft, written in 2016, was highly critical of the department, saying it fails the community and its own officers by not communicating clearly, making too many traffic stops and applying inconsistent standards when disciplining officers. 

City officials used the draft report's 55 findings and more than 100 recommendations as a guide that led to the formation of the Milwaukee Collaborative Reform Initiative and the Milwaukee Collaborative Community Committee. 

"The detailed implications and recommendations found in the DOJ’s findings must be responded to," the report says.

"When recommendations are not met it will result in performance issues."

Other recommendations in the final report include: 

• Prioritizing revisions of standard operating procedures, including procedures involving undocumented immigrants, and making officer body-worn camera video of critical incidents public within two weeks.
• Initiating ongoing educational initiatives for residents and officers.
• Requiring that Police Department personnel involved in recruitment and hiring be culturally competent and diverse, with established successful community relationships.
• Requiring that recruits and staff be culturally competent and reflect the makeup of the city.
• Requiring officers to make annual visits to a counselor, chaplain or psychologist and to have voluntary access to offered resources.