Posted on Thursday, 9th December 2010 by Glenn D. Frankovis
Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn denied an Open Records Request issued in October 2010 by Alderman Bob Donovan requesting information on the Open Sky digital radio system, so today Alderman Bob Donovan issued a subpoena demanding Flynn produce those records on June 1st, 2011. The subpoena demands any and all correspondence related to this communication system. “The required documents are all records either currently or formerly in the custody of the individuals listed below…for the time period January 1, 2003 to present.”
“The purpose of the original records request, according to Alderman Donovan, is threefold:
1) To determine if the safety of Officers and citizens is and has always been the top concern in implementing the Open Sky system.
2) To determine if the system will ever work the way it is supposed to.
3) With regard to the system - what mistakes were made in the past, who made them, and what steps are being taken to ensure they don’t happen again?”
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14 Responses to “Alderman Bob Donovan issues subpoena to Chief Ed Flynn for Records on Open Sky”
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December 9th, 2010 at 1:45 pm
Funny how they always say that the OpenSky radio system will also keep citizens safer. I use to get a lot of emails & direct messages on twitter, from people asking if I know why police are all over their neighborhood, sometimes with guns out.
One time I got a call from my mother who lives in D6, she was freaking because squads were flying up and down the street & Police were walking with guns out, even shotgun. Another time my Niece was going to UWM and lived a few block south, and called to ask why Police were all over the area.
December 9th, 2010 at 3:28 pm
Bob Donovan is the Chairman of the Milwaukee Common Council’s Public Safety Committee. One would think that when he asks for information from the Police Chief, he would be provided with that information without having to resort to filing an ORR and/or subpoena. This pretty much dispels any doubt about Flynn being in Barrett’s back pocket - or somewhere in that vicinity.
December 10th, 2010 at 8:11 am
Somebody told me that to hear MPD radio broadcasts, one only has to purchase a digital-reading scanner.
Wrong?
December 10th, 2010 at 12:01 pm
@dad29, there are no scanners that can hear OpenSky’s encrypted signal.
December 10th, 2010 at 2:18 pm
Thanks!
December 10th, 2010 at 6:53 pm
Yesterday I heard there is still problems with OpenSky audio quality.
Flynn & Barrett say this isn’t true, but for some reason don’t want to show records. I think the real reason they don’t want media to have receive only OpenSky radios is, then the media will hear the bad quality, dead spots and all the “Repeat” “You were 10-1″ “Nothing came through”
December 10th, 2010 at 7:18 pm
mkescan, that may be, but I have long felt that it’s something much deeper than that. Barrett’s hiding something here, and I suspect it’s to cover something about this system and just how it was handled, maybe even to include kickbacks or insider investing. After all, what the hell is so “confidential” about the information Bob Donovan originally asked for in his ORR? It’s just a damn radio system - unless the manner in which it was purchased and handled over the years wasn’t exactly kosher.
We have more info from the Flynn’s Office and one piece of correspondence from Donovan’s Office in which he gave Flynn one more opportunity to comply with the ORR before sending him this subpoena, however I need it put in link form before I can post these documents.
December 10th, 2010 at 7:59 pm
Here are the links to the documents we at Badger Blogger have received from Alderman Bob Donovan’s Office and from Chief Ed Flynn’s Office:
This first document is a letter, dated December 3rd, 2010, from Alderman Donovan giving Chief Flynn one more opportunity to comply with the ORR:
http://badgerblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/Chief-Flynn-Open-Sky.doc
These three links were provided to us by Chief Flynn’s Office and detail his responses to Alderman Bob Donovan’s October 2010 ORR request. Two of these documents are dated October 15th, 2010 (acknowledging receipt of Donovan’s ORR) and November 29th, 2010 (stating reasons why Chief Flynn was not going to comply with the ORR). The third link is supporting documentation, dated January 2, 2008, provided by Chief Flynn’s Office and was authored by Melanie Swank, asst City Atty, for City Attorney Grant Langley.
http://badgerblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/Donovan-Final-Response-letter.pdf
http://badgerblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/Donovan-receipt-letter.pdf
http://badgerblogger.com/wp-content/uploads/OpenSkyComm0001.pdf
December 10th, 2010 at 11:29 pm
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December 11th, 2010 at 7:14 am
I read through these documents again and the way Flynn’s November 29, 2010 correspondence, denying Donovan’s ORR, reads struck a chord with me. It was written much like how an attorney would counsel his client to answer questions in a deposition (or on the stand). Basically, you answer only the question asked without volunteering any additional information. If the question calls for a “Yes or No” answer, that’s how you answer - “Yes or No”. Almost like an adversarial questioning during a Department internal investigation.
To condense this denial, it simply states that the ORR is too broad and would take too much time to put a response together. It suggests that Alderman Donovan modify his ORR to be more specific so as to reduce the amount of time, and cost to him, to comply with the ORR.
As a taxpayer of the City of Milwaukee, it would seem to me that an ORR from a City of Milwaukee alderman, who has oversight of the Public Safety Departments by virtue of the fact that he is the Chairman of the Common Council’s Public Safety Committee, would be unnecessary. It’s not as if Joe Schmoe was demanding this information as a citizen. Aldermen are a part of the City budgeting process which determines our taxes every year. If there was some kind of screwup using City tax dollars for this purchase, it certainly seems appropriate for those reponsible for our City budget to know about it.
I am also familiar enough with the Milwaukee Police Department, having served 29 years and having been a member of the Command Staff the last three of my years of service, to know that the Department keeps records. Knowing some of the people who served in the upper levels of the past administrations, some of those records were quite detailed (anal might be a better word for one or two of these people).
Having said all that, it seems to me that most, if not all, of the records being asked for by Donovan would be at Flynn’s fingertips if he wanted them - unless, of course, the people involved in this Open Sky fiasco failed to maintain some records for reasons which only an ORR (or maybe a John Doe investigation) would reveal. Then again, maybe it would reveal nothing more than Tom Barrett’s (and at least one previous police chief’s) failure to exercise any administrative oversight of the Department - say during the years 2004 through 2007.
In any event, I have serious reservations abut the stonewalling taking place here. I’ve seen it before with the Fire & Police Commission and City Attorney’s Office when the Commission’s hiring and promotional practices were being challenged and ORRs were similarly denied by the City.
I think it may be time for Bob Donovan to seek an opinion himself - from Atty General J.B. Van Hollen.
December 11th, 2010 at 10:46 am
I have a feeling that there is some kind of kick back with regard to the selection of the Open Sky radio system. Sheriff Clarke offered to integrate MPD into the County radio system, with the only cost being buying radios, and paying for the extra bandwidth to accommodate MPD needs. This system works, is now digital and every other jurisdiction can easily communicate with one another, sans MPD, who cant even successfully patch separate districts. The cost of switching to this system, would have been magnitudes less costly, with results that would have justified the cost.
December 13th, 2010 at 9:08 am
MPD does have a analog back up system now.
They can also use it to talk direct to Sheriff & Suburban departments during a incident.
These are the 800 MHz National Interop Frequencies that all Public Safety 800 Mhz users should have in their radios. I am guessing they were not set up with this when OpenSky went down for 30 minutes, they wouldn’t of used cell phones if it was.
December 13th, 2010 at 12:19 pm
I just dont see why MPD had to go with a system that nobody else will use, when we could have switched to a systems that everybody else in the county was using.
December 13th, 2010 at 6:21 pm
CorneliusJones, I mentioned that over and over on twitter & even in email to media. I even told them that the County Radio Administrator had a copy of the letter that Sheriff Clarke sent to Arthur Jones, inviting them on the county system. I even included the Phone number & email to contact her.
Even if there was a Digital mandate (there is not)MPD still could of switched over to the county system and let the county worry about that.
I can’t understand why media doesn’t ask Sheiff Clarke about this.
Here is the County Radio System Admin talking about it (Mweiher) http://forums.radioreference.com/wisconsin-radio-discussion-forum/162723-milwaukee-stuck-17-5-million-radio-system-may-never-work-right-post1294183.html#post1294183