Posted on Sunday, 5th September 2010 by Patrick Dorwin
Some enterprising reporter ought to ask Milwaukee Chief of Police Ed Flynn and his boss, Mayor Tom Barrett why detectives are no longer assigned to shootings, unless the bullet enters the torso of the victim.
It is clear that this chief wants to dismantle the detective bureau, leaving the initial investigative work to the patrol officers. Now I understand that these officers are capable of doing investigative work, but do they have the time to dedicate to in depth investigations without their other duties suffering? I think they clearly can’t, there are only so many hours in a day, with many calls for service that are already delayed, or never responded to at all. The patrol officers are our front line of defense against the thugs, they do an awesome job, but they must be free to do that job.
Is the chief saving enough money by not assigning detectives that have specialized training and experience, to make up for the added danger he is putting the citizens of Milwaukee in? If someone is shot in the arm, does that make the shooter less dangerous because he’s a bad shot? Do we deserve to be subjected to another crime that will be more serious, or deadly, before the detectives are allowed to enter the investigation?
We at BadgerBlogger received a report that during the over night hours of Sept. 3-4, an off duty sheriffs deputy was attacked in the 400 block of East Michigan, in downtown Milwaukee. The deputy was beaten badly enough to send him to the hospital, and robbed. Even though there were detectives available, none were dispatched.
The same night, around Teutonia & Hampton, three armed thugs carjacked a victim, stealing their car. Again, detectives were available, none were dispatched.
Chief Flynn, Mayor Tom Barrett, is the safety of your citizens worth what you are saving by not using detectives to investigate violent crime?
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2 Responses to “MPD no longer assigns detectives to most shootings”
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September 5th, 2010 at 12:21 pm
Along with all of the other good reasons why this is bad policy, it also seriously inhibits the “Quality of Life” policing that his mentor, George Kelling, wrote about and which was so highly touted (and rightfully so) in the 90s. Then there is the subject of police response to calls for service. Doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out that if the first responding uniform squads are being saddled with the additional responsibilities traditionally reserved for the better trained Detectives, there will be fewer squads available to respond for calls for service resulting in longer wait times and even no response at all. Won’t be long and the directive will come down from the mountain that police will not be responding unless you have the suspect in custody and are willing to handle the processing through the D.A.’s Office. Of course, you could always call and just tell them to send an ambulance - or the coroner - for a “suspect down”.
September 5th, 2010 at 12:54 pm
the better trained Detectives
You hit the nail on the head.
Flynn could actually pull this off well IF and ONLY IF he trains the patrol-cops how to do “first-stage” info gathering, etc., so that a smaller detective bureau can easily pick up where these guys leave off.
Another way to make it work is to assign a detective to (say) every five patrol-squad cars, sort of as both a trainer and as the squad detective.
It will shed overhead IF it’s played correctly.