MILWAUKEE — City and community leaders discussed violent crime solutions on Tuesday amid a spike in overall crime in Milwaukee over the past several years.
The event, organized by the Milwaukee Press Club, featured Office of Violence Prevention Director Ashanti Hamilton, Concordia University Associate Professor and radio host Dr. Ken Harris, Fire Chief Aaron Lipski and Assistant Chief of Police Nicole Waldner.
The panel opened by answering questions about key problems, including more modified handguns on the streets.
"We're finding more cases [of] the switch to make an automatic weapon, which can be Youtubed easily," said Assistant Chief Waldner.
Waldner said it's, in part, a matter of luck more people aren't being killed.
"Before we start saying, yay, homicides are down, we should look at non-fatal shootings," said Waldner.
According to Milwaukee Police data, homicides have fallen since 2021, including a 27-percent drop from this time last year.
But the number of non-fatal shootings, data shows, has practically remained unchanged.
So, what were officials offering?
"Not measuring success by the rise and fall of crime statistics," said Hamilton.
All the panelists, in one way or another, said that while police can respond and EMS can treat, the violence has already happened.
"One of the things is just reminding people that they live in a community. That there is a sense of responsibility to each other," said Hamilton.
Hamilton said OVP is launching a program this summer to teach mediation and de-escalation tactics, neighborhood by neighborhood and family by family.
"Every dispute shouldn't be a life-threatening situation," he said.
Dr. Ken Harris, a former MPD officer, also said it's on the public to hold themselves accountable.
"We keep hearing over the decades we want the police to work with the community. But I have not heard one person say we want the community to work with the police," said Harris.
Fire Chief Aaron Lipski left the discussion on a question of personal accountability.
"What do you want? What's acceptable to you? What's your threshold of enough is enough?" said Lipski.
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