Important: New Procedures for Calling for Police Service

Neighbors,

Attached is a document prepared by MPD District 1 Captain Thiele that outlines the new procedures that residents are to follow for calling for police service.  This guidance replaces the Report It, Record It policy.  Please note that when calling the non-emergency number to request service, you may request a citation be issued and District 1 officers will follow up on that request the same as with Report It, Record It.

MHNA encourages residents to utilize and support this new system, have patience as we all transition into the new system, and keep both Captain Thiele and MHNA (issues@murrayhillna.org) updated on your experiences with the new procedures.

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NEW PROCEDURES REGARDING POLICE SERVICE AND REQUEST FOR FOLLOW UP

Back in 2011 a program called Report It/Record It was established by the captain of District One.  This system was designed to allow residents in the UWM area to contact the District One Shift Commander to give information for officers to follow up or respond to quality of life violations.   There are numerous problems that have come with this program, one being that we cannot have a dual dispatch system within our department.   This practice is in conflict of our Communications SOP as well as our Accreditation.  We must have official computer aided dispatch (CAD) records of all calls for service, including officers’ self-initiated calls for service, which this past program did not allow.

Therefore the following has been established for use by the public with regards to police service:

1.  First and foremost, if anyone has a police emergency they are to call 911 immediately.

2.  If a resident of District One is requesting police to respond, which is NOT an emergency (i.e. loud party) they are to call the non-emergency number for the Milwaukee Police Department, which is 414-933-4444. They should relay to the telecommunicator the address of the problem, information regarding what the problem is, the description of any actors involved, and their information if they wish to be contacted by the police in order to obtain further information or to be a complainant.  Calls into District One will be forwarded to the Communications Division for a telecommunicator.

The Communications Division will be notified to have a district squad respond to all noise nuisance complaints.  Throughout the city, at times, these types of calls will go to a DPR officer (Differential Police Response – these are officers that are inside, limited duty, and are utilized to handle low priority calls over the phone.)  Be advised, calls for service are prioritized based on the severity of the problem.   When an officer is available they will be dispatched to the highest priority assignment first (i.e. shots fired, robbery, etc.) that is pending before a lower priority call (i.e. loud music, abandoned property).

3.  For those calls where it is NOT necessary for immediate police service, but the residents want the officers to address or follow up on a particular situation in the next day or so, we have set up an email account for them to write into in order to convey the necessary information.  That email is MPD1@milwaukee.gov.   A group of officers have already been assigned to monitor this email account and they will be responsible for making sure that each call is logged with our Communications Division in accordance with their SOP and our Inspections Division.  These officers will respond within 24 hours to convey the disposition and/or updates regarding the request for service.

4.  We are continually working alongside UWM Police, the UWM Dean’s office, the Department of Neighborhood Services (DNS) and Alderman Kovac’s office in addressing the neighborhood issues.  The UWM grant money was reallocated for the first time this year, giving us an opportunity to have additional officers in the area during the fall semester.  By doing so we are able to address the quality of life issues as well as educating the students about safety and responsibility throughout the neighborhoods.

5.  Student IDs are confiscated by both police departments when a police contact is conducted due to the student’s negative behavior, which may or may not rise to an issuance of a citation or a state arrest.  This will allow the University to then be involved in helping to correct the behavior of their students by the means established by the Dean’s office.

6.  Milwaukee Police Department, along with the other departments, will work with DNS in order to address nuisance properties, unsafe properties, or other code violations.

**Some residents were given officers or supervisors cell phone numbers in the past and would call them directly for police service.  These calls cannot be tracked and as mentioned above, we must have records of all of our calls for service.

**I would respectfully ask that if anyone has any problems, and choose to email your elected officials and/or other members of the Milwaukee Police Department for police related matters, that I be included on that email chain.  This will give me the opportunity to address the problem as soon as possible.

My email is:  LTHIEL@Milwaukee.gov or Leslie.Thiele@milwaukee.gov