well thank you all for coming I'm pleased to announce today that uh we are reporting the second consecutive year of crime decreases in the city of Milwaukee as you see behind me our logo announces that uh in our business sometimes success is measured by what doesn't happen and last year uh we had a lot of things not happen we're happy to report that violent crime is down 133% from the 2008 numbers and down 20% from two years ago total crime is down 7.2% from last year and 12% from two years ago now these are sustainable decreases they're Trends and they demonstrate that this city is moving in the right direction what's really important is to recognize what these numbers mean these numbers translate to 3,072 fewer Crime Victims in 2009 than in 2008 it means 5,570 fewer Crime Victims from two years ago now these are important because in these circumstances the numbers are people now you have the statistics in front of you I call your attention for example to the drop in auto theft by a quarter from last year 25% reduction which is a 37% reduction in two years now I think by any standard that's a stunning and impressive decrease and it's due directly to the efforts of our officers who nightly and daily make car stops and check for suspects and check for suspicious activity they're making lots of subject stops they're making lots of good arrests they're making strong cases they're preventing crimes they're interrupting crimes and progress now some of those officers who do all of the above are behind me today I've got officers from the anti-burglary cars from the third and fourth districts as well as detectives from the property crimes division I've got division excuse me I've got District commanders with me as well all of them are working hard to have a measurable impact on crime fear and disorder in the communities for which they are responsible now there's been much talk recently in the newspapers nationally about a National Crime decrease and about National Trends I want to make a very important point today there isn't a National Crime decrease in in a meaningful sense of the word because all crime like all politics is intensely local the crime decreases in the United States today are being driven by crime decreases in the large American cities that have adopted the toolkit of progressive policing whether it's Boston or New York or Los Angeles or Milwaukee the significant decreases in crime in those cities that have adopted some form of communitybased problem oriented and datadriven policing methods have resulted in dramatic increases that happened almost immediately here in Wisconsin for example a recent study touted the 20% reduction in murders in Wisconsin from 2008 to 2007 well that was true there had been 38 fewer murders in the state of Wisconsin in 2008 and 2007 but there were 34 or fewer murders in Milwaukee alone 95% of the decrease in murders in the state were achieved by one single City now crime reduction strategies work when we use crime analysis when we do datadriven deployments when we engage with the community when we use problem solving that's been the action plan here at the Milwaukee Police Department for the last two years and it's still working now here we are in 201 10 were reporting good news and good police work but I am cautious about the future I think it's important to note that disinvestments in criminal justice are a false economy when it comes to budget balancing our challenge right here in Milwaukee is to recognize that crime has a direct Financial impact on individuals on households on neighborhoods and on cities it extra a financial as well as a human cost Lost Property must be recovered insurance claims must be made insurance rates go up medical treatment must be administered frequently without health insurance cars have to be fixed sometimes jobs are lost and crime exacts a real toll on neighborhoods and cities when it creates a reputation or in awe that say an aura that states his place is too dangerous to visit or work the early release programs that the state's adopting um because it has to balance a budget and I hasten to recognize that I understand budget stresses every level of government there are going to have an impact on our streets you know Milwaukee receives over 3500 offenders to its streets every day back from prison it's uh estimated that 44% of all of the early releases are going to come to Milwaukee and that translates to approximately 1,400 people will be coming back to Milwaukee early now 14% of our arrests last year 4,800 arrests last year were arrests of people who were violating parole or probation 15% of those 4,800 were arrested more than once in the same year for violating arrest or probation or parole now given the fact that 14,500 people in the city are on some type of Probation and Parole we can see that these decisions are going to have real ramifications for us now we've already examined the records of some of the people being early released um they're not records that would give you great confidence that the individual is going to refrain from future offenses uh we have a 51-year-old individual here uh who's been released on January 5th of 2010 has 33 adult arrests to his record including charges for murder battery burglary and robbery he's consistently shown that he can't stay out of jail we have a 35-year-old released on January 13th of 2010 with eight adult arrests resisting an officer drugs carrying concealed weapon driving a stolen car Reckless battery he had 15year in sentence he had a 15-year prison sentence he was released last time he was released was in 2004 6 months later he was under arrest for cocaine possession and resisting an officer um he stayed clean for all of six months after his last release and uh he's back Among Us Again a 39-year-old we have here with seven adult arrests including three four separate arrests for burglary uh burglars tend to be extraordinarily High rate offenders and every time one is released we can pretty well be assured that person will reoffend U another one a 49-year-old with 14 career arrests as an adult burglary resisting an officer felony theft battery disorderly conduct fellen in possession of a firearm I didn't ask where he had gotten the firearm that's a separate press conference um despite a six-year prison sentence in 2007 U he's back on the he's back in prison almost immediately and now he's back on our streets um this is going to be a challenge for us uh we recognize the challenges in the economy the high on employment rate the large number of returning offenders uh these are going to create stresses as we moved forward um we may we may we remain committed to our strategy I'm convinced we can continue to have a positive effect on the safety in the city and continue to improve on the work we've done uh but I would not be entirely U straightforward if I didn't uh bring to your attention things I am concerned about that will uh obviously affect our work going forward [Music]