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An Open Letter to Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales and the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission

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In the summer of 2017 I addressed the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission about their directive forcing then Police Chief Flynn to reinstate dangerous non-violent felony vehicle pursuits. 

I asked the Commissioners, “How will you respond when innocent bystanders are injured and killed for chases started under this new policy?”  “How will you respond when those innocent citizens bring legal actions because this purposefully weakened policy was the direct cause of the injury or death?” and, “Have you considered other available options including funding additional technology tools proven to reduce the need for more pursuits while still allowing the capture of car thieves, drug dealers and joyriding kids?”

The Commission chose to ignore these serious concerns and instead did what no other city in the US has done. They mandated increasingthe number of allowable pursuits throughout Milwaukee’s densely populated neighborhoods.

Likely as a result of that change, and very tragically, Officer Charles Irvine was killed in a pursuit related crash in June 2018.  Officer Irvine was the same age as my son, who was also killed in an unnecessary police pursuit.  Could technology or more pursuit driving training have prevented Officer Irvine’s death?  Sadly, we will never know.

In June I read that Chief Morales and the MFPC are planning to spend precious and limited police funds for BILLBOARDSadvertising that, “Milwaukee Police chase bad guys.”  Really?  Does anyone actually believe that a few billboards will have ANY impact on Milwaukee’s criminal driving problems?  Criminals could care less what is printed on a billboard. The billboard expense is even more perplexing since the mayor and city council already voted to fund an expansion of GPS tracking technology and the supporting policy stating the system shall be installed on each new police vehicle.

Does anyone find it strange that the Chief and MFPC are leaning so heavily on pursuing fleeing offenders, no matter the reason, rather than strengthening pursuit policies, increasing officer training and using more pursuit-reduction technology the agency has already committed to implementing?  I certainly do.

Milwaukee’s 2018 pursuits are up 239 percent, and each of those chases endangers officers and citizens. How can anyone consider that to be a good thing?

Milwaukee is not alone in its pursuit-related problems. I recently spoke with Massachusetts media when an innocent father was killed while returning home from the hospital after visiting his newborn daughter for the very first time.  These unnecessary pursuit-related bystander and officer deaths continue to occur across the country every day.

Spending money on billboard advertising is wasteful.  It will not help Milwaukee to reduce reckless driving, nor reduce dangerous pursuits, nor save innocent lives.  However, allocating additional funds for officer training and acquisition of pursuit reduction tools will help protect officers and bystanders while still dealing with the criminals.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Farris
Chief Advocate

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