As has been well publicized on the Monday of this week, a group of unruly students from Lad Lake Alternative School uh got upstreous on a bus. They got loud, they got profane, they got disorderly, and they got tossed off. Uh as they continued their walk right behind us, uh they assaulted a 15-year-old and a 16-year-old student. They also vandalized a bus, kicking out doors and windows. Um, today the Milwaukee Police Department is announcing the arrest of five suspects for the strong armed robbery, battery, and criminal damage to property in relation to those two incidents. Two suspects are 15, two are 17, and one is 16. Now, we're going to continue our investigation, and we're going to continue to identify whether or not there were other victims. Now, today the Milwaukee Police Department is directing its units to undertake bus security in the city of Milwaukee. Our marked and unmarked units will be directed in the course of their duties to stop at bus stops, inspect them, await buses, board the buses, and make sure that the passengers and the employees of the bus company are safe, secure, and free from disorder. Now, we do know there have been some rather vocal concerns raised late lately about the safety of buses in the city of Milwaukee. Well, the city of Milwaukee is protected by the Milwaukee Police Department, and if there are concerns about safety on the buses, we will step up and provide that safety, and that's what we're doing today. The public pays us to protect them, not make excuses why we can't. And so in addition to our other crime fighting duties, you will see an enhanced presence of Milwaukee police officers on the bus routes and the buses of the Milwaukee County Transit System as it traverses through the city of Milwaukee. We're going to continue our work. As I said, we've made the arrests involving the incidents on Monday, and we will do our best to reduce crime, fear, disorder, not only on the streets, but on the buses of Milwaukee as well. We'll do what good police departments do. We'll follow the data. It's a datadriven deployment and we'll make sure that we allocate our officers in such a way as to be in the areas where the problems are greatest. I think all the major bus routes will see us, but we'll certainly try to make sure that we concentrate on those areas in which there have been the most complaints. Historically, the sheriff's office has taken responsibility for policing the county transit system. Uh, but that seems to be an issue. Uh, we obviously uh do not want to have people have the perception that they will be unsafe in the city of Milwaukee riding on its buses. And since we're the Milwaukee Police Department, we will undertake to try to make sure that people feel safe. Calls come to us from a variety of sources. Uh they don't always go to the same place, but the bigger issue is prevention. And so we feel that uh we've got an obligation to make sure that Milwaukee is safe. I think the main intervention initially will be that we're going to pay attention to the bus routes. We don't want to pull them over in the middle of their bus route, but they do make periodic stops at buses. When they do, we'll be waiting for them and we'll do an inspection. Obviously, if a driver is having a problem and sees one of our cars, they can, as they currently do, flag us down. But we want to do something a little bit more proactive. We've got lots of cars out on the road. They're doing lots of proactive policing. This is one more thing we're going to be asking of them. Well, I'm not going to characterize any areas worse. Obviously, there are some areas of town in which there are more complaints on the buses that reflect the fact that there are some areas of town where there are more complaints, period. Those tend to be the same areas because the kids that are trouble before they get on the bus and trouble after they get off the bus are trouble on the bus. And so we'll make sure that in those areas we're paying extra attention. You know, the data says what the data says. Now, I'm well aware of the fact that, you know, one picture can defeat a mountain of data. So, it's a perception issue as well as a data issue. It's true for my crime numbers as well. I understand it. There's a terrible film of something happening in Milwaukee. Doesn't matter if crime went down last quarter. People are afraid. And one of our obligations is not only to respond to the actual incident driven policing strategy we have, but to allay fears. And one way you allay fears is to be visible and active in public where people are concerned. The Milwaukee bus system that services the city of Milwaukee and is vital to us is being actively portrayed as a menacing and frightening place that can't be protected. Okay, we'll protect it. That's all I'm saying. [Music]