A Few Important Events

The Milwaukee Police Department is always looking to improve and make the system better to serve the public. To that end it has launched a new website to report certain […]

A Few Important Events

The Milwaukee Police Department is always looking to improve and make the system better to serve the public. To that end it has launched a new website to report certain property crimes. This is very new, but the department hopes this will help lessen the caseload that officers deal with on a daily basis. This hopefully can lead to them to handle more serious crimes. The site is called the “Police to Citizen” website to report online. These offenses will not require the police to arrive in-person to help. There are certain criteria for an online report: (1) The incident must have occurred in the City of Milwaukee, (2) The reporting person must be 18 years of age or older, and (3) A valid email address is required.

The following types of reports will be accepted online: (1) Theft valued at less than $2,500, (2) Vandalism/Damage to Property valued at less than $2,000, and (3) Lost Property. In 2021 there were 12,050 reports of these types filed. So far in 2022 there have been 8,280. There are certain crimes that still must be reported the old way by calling the emergency or non-emergency number. These crimes include: violent crime or sex-related offenses; Assault, Domestic Violence, Arson, etc.; a crime with viable suspect information; motor vehicle theft; burglary; identity theft; any offense involving a firearm (to include lost/stolen firearms). The department will look to add more offenses to the list to report in the future after seeing how this first list works out.

This past weekend MPD hosted Faith and Blue events to promote trust within communities. Six districts held events with different congregations on Saturday. This was part of the National Faith and Blue week. The officers at these events state it is part of a bigger picture to bridge the gap between officers and the community. Officers state they want to get a connection with the community. Residents and churchgoers say creating that relationship is a vital part of feeling safe in their own neighborhood. “As people who live and worship in the downtown area, having a sense of security and safety is really, really important,” said Pastor at Grace Lutheran Church, Jim Huebner. Police Chief Jeffrey Norman said, “the goal is to continue to build trust.” “We have trust in parts of our community, somewhat trust in others, and in other parts of our community we do not have any trust. People in our department need to work on all three, no one is more important than the other.”

These are two events that I think will help to improve the overall functioning of the Milwaukee Police Department.

Greg Thompson