well mayor Barrett council president Hines director Tobin thank you for your supportive words thank you members of the Milwaukee fire and police commission for the renewed support and confidence that you have expressed in Me by appointing me to a second term I said it four years ago I say it again today I will not let you down now as we spoke earlier just a few miles from where we stand today officer veric lies in a hospital bed recovering from the injuries he received on Christmas when his Squad was struck by a reckless driver his courage in recovery is indicative of the type of people that work for this Police Department twice a year the Milwaukee Police Department recognizes the courage of its officers it has been my privilege to award our brave men and women seven Medals of Honor 12 purple Valor awards for wounds received in action 12 combat Valor Awards 31 rescue Valor Awards 42 life saving Awards 31 rescue Valor Awards and literally hundreds of other Awards words for excellence in Police Service distinguished service and meritorious service because of them because of their courage and competence their integrity and their leadership their respect and restraint the city of Milwaukee is a demonstrably safer place than it was four years ago you won't see their pictures on the front page of the newspaper you won't see a mult M part article explaining their exploits to the community but you will see them on the streets of your neighborhood protecting you every single day I am proud of them every family member of theirs should be proud of them every neighbor every resident of this city is proud of them and should be now four years ago standing in these Chambers I made some bold promises I promised that we would reduce the levels of crime fear and disorder in the city I promised that we would be communitybased problem oriented and data driven I made a series of commitments to the department to its commanders to its supervisors to its working cops and I made commitments to our community as well that we would be accountable and accessible and responsive to their needs now why was I so confident because I know and respect cops you just found out I'm related to a few now listen the Milwaukee Police Department had been through some hard times there appeared to be some estrangement between it and some of its neighborhoods it had taken some hits violent crime was a nagging problem technology was either obsolescent or awaiting implementation but I knew I could count on the cops I could count on their fundamental sense of Duty their ideals I knew also that within the ranks of the department were people waiting for the chance to show what they could do waiting for the opportunity to put the agency they had devoted their lives to on the path to Greatness I said we were going to get to work and we did the men and women of your Police Department stepped up and they stepped it up dramatic changes occurred in a dramatically brief period of time and dramatic results have been achieved every single year there has been a reduction in the overall crime rate in this city for 20 years the average number of murdered milwaukeeans was 127 in the past four years that average has been 81 the Milwaukee Police Department working with its Community Partners has reduced the number of violent and property crimes in this city by 177,000 in just four years now this has not been an accident a department full of hardworking talented people committed to their Community made it happen four years ago I said that the measure of our success would be results not activity we've made deliberate choices the public spaces had been abandoned to criminals the only way to take them back was to create time for officers to be proactive not just reactive rapid response to non-emergency calls would have to be secondary to saving lives preventing crime and reclaiming public space foot patrols were dramatically increased bicycle patrols were doubled every Squad had to do at least one hour of a par parking walk roll calls in the streets were conducted officers now had time to stop suspicious vehicles and confront suspicious pedestrians has there been a slight increase in the average response time yes in the meantime Motor Vehicles stops increased by 243 per. pedestrian stops increased by over 300% I believe it's reasonable to assert that that activity just might have something to do with our reduced crime rates but for officers to be proactive they had to have accurate and timely information they needed the technological tools to maximize their effectiveness so the computer information system with the help of a committed private sector was completely overhauled as a result for the first time in its history MPD has access to up to-the-minute crime data on a daily basis every day crime analysis meetings take place discussing patterns and Trends patterns and trends of crime and uses that information to adjust deployments and identify emergency problems there are five times as many ins Squad videos as there had been rapid ID units have been installed in the squads to enable us to immediately identify who a suspect is special vehicles have been assigned to the districts equipped with a technology that allows them to scan hundreds of license plates every hour looking for for wanted individuals and recovering stolen cars finally an obsolete radio system has been replaced by one that is state-of-the-art now our implementation challenges have been well documented but the fact remains that we stand as the first major city in the United States to have implemented such a system while at the same time making sure that every single officer in a field assignment has an individual radio another first for the department now I promis the community we would reorient ourselves to their needs we redrew the district boundaries to align more specifically with neighborhood boundaries we've reorganized the criminal investigations Bureau along Geographic lines to reinforce our community policing efforts an emphas on emphasis on neighborhoods coupled with the production of more useful analytical data has enabled us to focus on the 10% of offenders who commit 50% of the crimes and the 10% of locations that generate 60% of our criminal activity we've reorganized and created a neighborhood taskforce made up of formerly specialized units that were self- deployed using data now to guide their deployments the ntf has became a vital part of our crime fighting efforts on the streets of this city and a crucial component of our district-based response to crime and disorder now while significant strategic and technological change was introduced and implemented so too was organizational change we have committed ourselves to the notion that every officer must be a leader the principle of dispersed leadership requires that every officer accept their responsibility not only for their own actions but for the actions of their peers it requires all of us to recognize that we're each responsible for our morale that each of us is responsible for the reputation of the Milwaukee Police Department the introduction of the leadership and police organization model has been a driver of internal cultural change coupled with policy modifications and the introduction of a code of conduct that's based on values our core values we have seen improvements in the professional behavior of our officers citizen complaints despite a vast increase in proactive police activity have declined nearly 40% use of force incidents have been decreased by 9% and vehicle Pursuits have declined 66% all are tributes to the discipline and Restraint of our officers as well as showing the high degree of public support that their efforts and joy in the community now when I took command of this agency I not only knew that I could count on the cops I also need knew I needed to depend on my supervisory and command officers I relied on my experience once again that within every Department there are those commanders waiting to get it right so from the very beginning I didn't just Empower them in some theoretical sense I gave the specific strategic Direction and told them to develop the tactics they would implement the vision with the tools at their disposal working hard and late into many nights it was those officers in the command ranks who operationalized and legitimized our strategy our success is due in large part to their tenacity and sincerity of purpose now the days of Lone Ranger policing are over no Police Department can be effective for long without viable and active community and government Partners our officers have forged productive collaborations with numerous community-based organizations we believe the community prosecution partnership that is evolved in matured with the office of district attorney Chisum is a national model we believe that our partnership with the Milwaukee Department of Neighborhood Services special enforcement section is another National model for problem solving and nuisance abatement at the neighborhood level your Milwaukee Police Department has achieved National prominence in a very short time for example representatives from numerous police departments including Detroit in Minneapolis Oakland and Austin have come to our Police Headquarters to look at our daily crime briefings and examine our comstat processes we are currently part of a project with the urban Institute studying how to employ field stops in a way that doesn't endanger Community Support John J College of Criminal Justice is working with us on an offender re-entry project Harvard's CED School of government recently published a a document referencing our reorganization of the detective Bureau in support of community policing Yale University law school funded by a bureau of Justice assistance grant is in Milwaukee working with us to study how a police department builds Community Trust in order to co-produce Neighborhood safety finally both the Police Executive Research Forum and the international ass Association of chiefs of police have applied for major Justice assistance grants using the Milwaukee Police Department as their research partner now I promised much four years ago but the men and women of this Police Department delivered on those promises and much more their and your Police Department is more effective more community-based has more Community Support is more technologically advanced more transparent more engag Eng with its neighborhoods more restrained in the use of force and the subject of less complaint than at any time in recent history be proud of your sons and daughters they deserve no less now the MPT MPD vision statement is a Milwaukee where all can live safely and without fear protected by a police department of the highest professional and ethical standards our mission is that in Partnership with the community will we we will create and sustain neighborhoods capable of of sustaining Civic life the control of crime fear and disorders are but means to that crucial end we know we're not done we'll never be done but we will never stop improving we will never stop trying we are the police and this city depends upon us there's still too much crime there are still too many victims in too many neighborhoods fear still Reigns but we are here for you Milwaukee faces challenges we milwaukeeans will face them together we can't count on federal support we can't count on state support we can't count on anyone but each other I'm grateful for the financial support shown by mayor M Barrett and the common Council because of their efforts MPD has an academy class while many other similar cities to ours are currently laying police officers off I pledge to you that we that we will deliver you results and be prudent stewards of the public trust and the public purse for the residents of Milwaukee I pledge the department to continued partnership where there is crime we will be there where there is fear we will be there with you where disorder threatens we will be your partner we will never abandon you every man and woman in this Police Department pledges to put themselves In Harm's Way on your behalf much has been done much more needs to be done and we're going to do it together now let's get back to work [Music]