MPD Launches Community Oriented Policing Community Engagement Sessions

MILWAUKEE, WI – On, July 6, 2022, the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) along with the Community Collaborative Commission, Office of Violence Prevention, Fire & Police Commission and Mayers Strategic Solutions, LLC announced a joint community engagement effort. The intent is to improve communication and trust between MPD and the community through a series of listening sessions, with the goal of developing a city-wide safety plan.

Recognizing the importance of community engagement and building and maintaining positive police-community relationships, community members will have an opportunity to offer input and engage in conversations about law enforcement, community responsibility and accountability.

There will be a robust series of community engagement listening sessions throughout each of the 15 aldermanic districts, once a month. The sessions will be held every fourth Saturday. The first session will be held on Saturday, July 23rd, 2022 from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m., at Marquette University Law School, Eckstein Hall located at 1215 W. Michigan Street. The locations for the future sessions are still to be determined.

“I am thankful for the visionary leadership from the Mayor’s Office, Fire & Police Commission and Milwaukee Police Department for seeing the value in collaborating with the community to reimagine public safety and develop a city-wide safety plan to compliment the Community Oriented Police Standard Operating Procedure,” said Fred Royal, 1st Vice President, NAACP.

“Community involvement is so important as we move forward in our work to make Milwaukee safer,” Mayor Cavalier Johnson said. “I want good ideas, thoughtful suggestions, and positive engagement from people across Milwaukee. We all need to work together to improve life in our city.”

“The community feedback and input sessions we are facilitating in each of our city’s 15 Aldermanic Districts are critically important to our Community Collaborative Commission’s work in reimagining public safety and strengthening our collaborations with City officials, the FPC, and MPD to eliminate the systemic inequities that exist in our community. It continues to be my honor to represent on the Commission my organization Pathfinders and the youth and families we serve so that their collective voice is represented and heard,” said Tim Baack, President & CEO.

“The FPC is proud to be collaborating with MPD and the CCC in this effort to reimagine public safety. The upcoming series of community meetings will allow residents from every area of the city to share their goals and vision for what policing should look like in Milwaukee. This process will build on the valuable work of other community stakeholders in recent years to develop a shared vision for public safety in our community,” said Leon Todd, Executive Director, Fire & Police Commission.

“I look forward to listening and talking with the community more in the coming months about how we can partner together to earn trust and build relationships while safeguarding our residents. We must guide our actions not by what we can do, but what we should do. We must always be ready and willing to change, adjust and learn”, said Chief Jeffrey Norman.

These listening sessions will be open to all members of the community. If you would like to attend the July 23 Listening Session, please visit https://mkepdpio.org/community-oriented-policing-community-engagement-planning-session to sign up.

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.