MILWAUKEE — It has been more than a year and a half since the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) launched the Traffic Safety Unit to target reckless drivers in the city. However, some people say writing tickets is not changing the problem.
TMJ4 News takes a 360-degree look, talking about all sides of the issue, to see if targeted enforcement is making a difference.
"I think Milwaukee drivers need to slow down. Just slow down,” said Tracey Jones, a Milwaukee resident who usually gets rides instead of driving in the city.
A Milwaukee man, who was heading to his job at Culver’s and did not want to be identified, said he is afraid he will get hit going to work.
“They are crazy. They don't care for nobody else,” he said.
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James Allen had just a few words to describe what it is like on Milwaukee streets.
"Man, it's terrible,” said Allen.
On the city's north side, community members say the people drive so poorly they formed the Sherman Park Reckless Driving Committee to try to make a change.
"People are really, more and more, fearful of driving on our city streets,” said Steve O'Connell, the committee chair.
It is a big reason why MPD started a Traffic Safety Unit in February of 2021. It is made up of approximately 18 officers targeting hot spots like Capitol Drive and Hampton and Appleton Avenues. It is all in an effort to cut down on reckless driving.
"What we are trying to do is we are trying to curb all types of behavior that create a hazardous situation for other motorists on the highway. If it is running a red light, if it's speeding, if it's passing at an intersection, we're all there to try to curb all that behavior,” said Milwaukee Police Captain Jeffrey Sunn, head of the Traffic Safety Unit.
Since that targeted enforcement started, there has been a 22-percent increase in citations related to reckless driving and speeding, according to MPD. There has also been a 23-percent increase in arrests for traffic violations.
“There's no one demographic that perfectly describes the reckless driving perpetrator. They range in ages from anywhere, from as young as 14, 15, 16, all the way up to 50 and 60 years-old,” said Judge Derek Mosley, a municipal judge for the City of Milwaukee who often deals with people cited for traffic violations.
He also sits on the city's Traffic Safety Reckless Driving Taskforce. Mosley says there is no "one size fits all" approach, but ticketing drivers has started to change some behavior when it comes to repeat offenders.
"It wasn't uncommon to see someone get pulled over on Monday and then see them get pulled over again on Thursday. I think a lot of that had to do with the fact that they thought it was just a once-in-a-lifetime thing that they got pulled over. They didn't think they were going to get pulled over again,” said Mosley.
The cost of a reckless driving citation can really add up. It is between $313 to $555 and can include nearly a year in jail. Although, more than half of the tickets written by the Traffic Safety Unit are for speeding, which can run anywhere from $98 to $439, according to the Milwaukee Police.
Police tell us, for some people, this enforcement is making an impact. There has been a 4-percent decrease in crashes during the last year and a half and a 5-percent decrease in deaths, according to the Milwaukee Police Chief of Staff Nick DeSiato.
“Four percent might not sound like a big deal, but that's 1,000 less crashes, that's 1,000 less days our residents lives' were ruined because they were involved in a crash,” said DeSiato.
He says the city recently filed a lawsuit in civil court against a repeat reckless driver and it's now looking to file other lawsuits.
But people on the street say they are not feeling any kind of a change from the extra enforcement so far.
“I think it's gotten worse,” said Jones.
"Everyone of us as drivers has to own the nonsense that goes on out here. It's not the police. We aren't enforcing our way out of this mess,” said O'Connell. "It has to be a change in our attitude."
Police say this is about education, engineering, enforcement, and their partnerships. They say the department is just one small piece of the pie when it comes to curbing the reckless driving problem.
