Congratulations Chief Morales, you’ve earned it

I sincerely congratulate Police Chief Alfonso Morales on his much deserved reappointment last night by the Fire and Police Commission.

Chief Morales has done an exceptional job guiding the Milwaukee Police Department during the final two years of former Chief Ed Flynn’s term. And I note that those two years have been extremely challenging, with the tragic deaths of four officers (including three in the line of duty) in just about a year’s time.

The trauma and emotion that has been felt by the department and its dedicated officers and personnel during this time has been embodied with class, leadership and humanity in Chief Morales, and as a city we are grateful for that.

By his example and by simply leading the right way, Chief Morales helped boost morale on the department during a very difficult period.

Chief Morales has also had to pick up the broken pieces of the failed non-pursuit policy put in place by his predecessor, a policy that created an atmosphere of lawlessness across the City of Milwaukee. The Chief took a bad situation and completely turned it around, allowing officers to pursue suspects who were wreaking havoc on our streets.

I applaud Chief Morales for simply allowing our cops to go after the bad guys!

To those who say there wasn’t enough community input prior to the reappointment, I have a different opinion. In my view Chief Morales has been consistently transparent and has been highly scrutinized during his service – perhaps more scrutinized that any chief in the city’s history.

He has been accessible to the public at meetings across the city and has gone out of his way to attend events and to be transparent in his role as chief. I believe he has been consistently open and responsive to calls and discussions initiated by members of the Common Council and groups in the community.

Chief Morales has earned his reappointment and I look forward to continue working with him during my remaining time on the Council.

NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. While it is believed to be reliable, Urban Milwaukee does not guarantee its accuracy or completeness.