MILWAUKEE — Hard decisions are ahead with the City of Milwaukee budget.
Milwaukee Police laid out how cuts to their department could include eliminating officer positions and an entire police district altogether.
That would be District 6 on the south side, to which Alderman Mark Borkowski immediately said during the Steering and Rules Committee, “Over my dead body, by the way.”
Ultimately, it is up to Mayor Cavalier Johnson to sign off on the city budget, but this committee wanted to do a “stress test” to see what it would look like if the budget was cut up to 25 percent.
Milwaukee’s Assistant Police Chief Nicole Waldner made the presentation of what that would look like, which might include, slimming down the force by hundreds of positions, dissolving the traffic safety unit which curbs reckless driving, removing the 12 a.m. to 8 a.m. overnight shift at District 4, and dissolving District 6 altogether.
Alderman Michael Murphy said, “I know people are looking at this and probably going to say this is not going to happen, this will never happen, hate to disappoint (you), this is a 50/50.”
Alderwoman Milele Coggs said, “In general though, I feel that a lot of these cuts are so unreal unfortunately.”
Milwaukee’s Assistant Police Chief Nicole Waldner agrees, “It’s heart-wrenching, right?”
Molly King, Fiscal Policy Director for the Office of Milwaukee’s Mayor was there to listen in on this “stress test.” We asked her if it is realistic that District 6 could close she answered, “Nothing's off the table.”
We spoke to people who rely on District 6. Saroteo Mendoza said, “This is bad idea, we need more safety.”
Xavier Sims said, “We need a police presence here. It’s too many wild accidents, 'Kia Boys,' people getting killed on the street every day. We need the police presence to at least deter some of it.”
Assistant Chief Waldner tells us what would happen to the officers committed to the traffic safety unit if it were dissolved, “The traffic safety unit would have to be eliminated. Essentially we would need their squads and personnel in the districts to take calls for service.”
Molly King, Fiscal Policy Director for the Office of Milwaukee’s Mayor, says safety on our roads has been a priority to the mayor’s office. This includes “Vision Zero” to prevent traffic deaths.
With police being one of the most expensive items on the City of Milwaukee budget, King says something may have to give, “We’re in the loom of falling off a cliff. Our financial system is dire, and so we need to make tremendous and extreme cuts to sustain our budget.”
The Milwaukee Fire Department and Milwaukee Public Libraries made similar presentations Monday at the request of this committee. They have until May 9 to send the mayor their requested budget to keep their operations going as-is.
Milwaukee’s Mayor Cavalier Johnson will ultimately sign off on the city’s budget in November.
