CIty of Milwaukee Police Department

Bradley Tech, a fight, gangs, guns, and more squad cars than you can count.  And no news.  Why?  What happened?

For years much of the crime reporting on the evening news worked like this:  Listen to scanner, put out news story.

But today with the Milwaukee Police Department’s move to OpenSky radios, and more importantly to digitally encrypted communications, the days of scanner based reporting are coming to an end.  Maybe that’s a good thing, because having officer communications listened to in real time could possibly impact their security.  But somewhere between MPD and MPS, a press release, statement, or a news conference should of been held to notify the public of the events.  It didn’t happen.

Representatives from MPD responded to complaints that the public wasn’t notified by pointing out that the calls for service were visible on the City of Milwaukee’s website, at least for awhile.  And yes, a close look at the page might have clued a very astute, and likely bored, reporter to notice something big had happened.  But even this would only have been possible within a short window of time, and only with very careful monitoring, as after 90 minutes the data is no longer available from the website.  Removing the data after 90 minutes is hardly open, accurate, or easily monitored.

The impact of this lack of communication has Alderman Donovan calling out Milwaukee Public Schools for a cover-up and there are citizens that think there is a MPD cover-up as well, but what is clear is there has been a lack of transparency.  Cover-up or not, what needs to be learned is that openness of public information makes for good government.

Alderman Donovan has suggested allowing certain news agencies access to the radio communications, and although that is one solution, another is to work towards providing the dispatch log in an open machine readable format.  This would offer developers and news agencies the opportunity to build mashups, a web application that combines data from multiples source, to monitor the activities of MPD.  These applications could include mapping tools, alert systems, and even monitoring applications to start, but with the addition of other data, such as liquor licenses or violations, citizens would be better prepared to work with the city in improving their neighborhoods.

This may never replace the level of detail that officer to officer communications once provided, but it could be a small step towards open government in Milwaukee and hopefully a big step away from conflict and disenfranchisement.

Today we received just about all we needed to confirm our suspicions, a couple of great quotes from the Milwaukee Chief of Police Edward Flynn courtesy of the Journal Sentinel article Jazz in the Park fans have a whine and cheese party.

“It’s the first time I’ve been thrown under a bus by a wine-drinking Brie-eater,” he said.

“Listen, I can’t tell you the Police Department is not going to enforce appropriate laws. I will tell you that when it comes to an event like this, we’re going to respond to conduct. We’re not doing anything pro-active.”

Translation: The police don’t care if you uncork your own bottle of wine or pop a few carry-in beers at Jazz in the Park, as long as you’re peaceful and behave.

Flynn communicated this to Kate Borders, East Town’s executive director, when he saw her at the fest last summer. “Against the backdrop of 19 years of no major incidents there, I certainly assured her that we weren’t suddenly going to become revenuers,” Flynn said.

It’s perfectly reasonable for the East Town Association to want this event to break-in, or even generate a profit to support area businesses, no one should complain about that.  What is a shame is how this whole thing has been handled.  The East Town Association has done nothing to help itself here, failing to control and soften the reaction at every step of the way.  The statements from Chief Flynn, that contradict earlier reports from the East Town Association, are just another step in this saga that probably isn’t over.

Let’s at least give it a catch title.  Jazzgate?

• "Neighbors fed up with vandals, lack of patrols" – A story of chaos and vandalism ensuing in a northwestern Milwaukee neighborhood that the police don’t seem to care to fix.  If I lived there I would be scared for my life judging by the stories told and the police departments unwillingness to monitor things.
• "City ranks at bottom of health categories" – This shouldn’t come as a huge surprise to you, but being host to most of the people that experience severe socioeconomic problems in this state means the city’s health ranking will be pretty low.  In other news, keep your pants on.
• "Experts say ‘most dangerous city’ rankings’ twist numbers" – Clearly, it’s disgusting how they glorify Detroit, St. Louis, Cleveland, and company as such dangerous places.  Offer a solution, not an insult.
• "All routes lead to Amtrak Station" – A summary, more or less, of the status of all transit projects in the Milwaukee-area.  If you’re short on time just know that the story ends with Scott Walker killing everything in favor of a weak express bus plan.
• "Developer completes Park East financing" – Mandel Group Inc. has all the money it needs for the first phase of the North End on the site of the former Pfister & Vogel tannery.  I’m excited to watch the progress of this and enjoy the results.