MILWAUKEE — Last year marked the fewest citations the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) issued in at least the last five years, according to records obtained by the I-Team.
In total, MPD wrote 33,105 tickets in 2022 compared to 71,402 tickets issued in 2017; a 53.6 percent decrease.
“From a positive standpoint, we do like to believe that we are making a difference with some of the strategies we’re doing,” Inspector David Feldmeier said.
Feldmeier points to a decrease in total crashes as proof MPD’s strategy towards reckless driving is working. There was a 12.5 percent decrease in total crashes from 2021 to 2022, according to MPD. However, there were 77 traffic deaths last year in Milwaukee compared to 67 in 2021.
Feldmeier says, the reason for the decrease in citations is three fold; MPD has fewer personnel than its had in the past which leads to fewer tickets being issued, there has been an uptick in violent crime requiring MPD to shift its limited personnel to those scenes and taking them away from traffic enforcement responsibilities.
“When we have larger violent crime type scenes happening in neighborhoods, a lot of times attention is diverted,” Feldmeier said. “Those officers have to go help out with those scenes before they can go back into service and go back to their main responsibility.”
Lastly, a shift in strategy when it comes to traffic enforcement. Think of it as shifting to police making more quality traffic stops instead of the number of traffic stops.
“We have focused on more of the egregious types of driving behaviors,” Feldmeier said. “We’re not just casting a wide net and pulling over anything. We’re looking for those individuals really causing harm to the community through their reckless driving. Maybe a turning violation or equipment violation isn’t something necessarily an officer is going to make a stop on when there are more egregious types of violations happening.”
“I haven’t heard one person argue that things are safer out here on the street than they were a while ago,” Harrison Kern said.
Kern was an officer for the Milwaukee Police Department from 1980 until 2004. He says since he retired, things are much different. Kern says when Milwaukee Police changed its pursuit policy in 2010 under former Chief Ed Flynn, it sent a message to drivers that they could get away with breaking the law.
“We went through about seven years in the city where you had people who had gotten to the point of pulling up next to police officers at a stop light and daring the police to stop them,” Kern said. “Then taking off in front of them knowing they couldn’t give chase.”
The pursuit policy was reestablished with modifications in 2017.
“People get accustomed to anything that you allow them to get accustomed to,” Kern said.
Fond du Lac Avenue is considered one of the worst roads for reckless driving in the City of Milwaukee. It’s among the worst for deadly crashes, speeding, and other reckless driving behaviors. Kern met the I-Team on a section of the roadway to give his insight on who he would and would not pull over when he was an officer.
“I don’t think one car is going [the speed limit],” Kern said.
With a radar gun in hand, vehicle after vehicle was clocked in the middle to high 30s. Many, Kern says, he wouldn’t look twice at most of these folks.
“They’re probably a little faster than the speed limit by a few miles per hour but it’s within the realm of reason,” Kern said.
One driver went by at 42 mph according to the radar gun. Kern says he may have issued that driver a warning.
“You look at the speed of the traffic and who is breaking apart from that,” Kern said. “You already have most of the people driving slightly faster and he’s going to go past that but it’s not that bad.”
But this isn’t any stretch of Fond du Lac Avenue. The section of this road is in the Sherman Park Neighborhood directly outside of Milwaukee Police District 7 where black and white squad cars dot 36th Street, intersecting Fond du Lac Avenue.
“This car is flying,” Kern said.
“Wow, 63 mph” Shaun Gallagher, Investigative Reporter said.
“I told you,” Kern said. “That car was flying. I could see it all the way down there. Right in front of the front door [of District 7]. Think of where that happened. He did that right in front of the police station and right in front of the [television] cameras. He had enough time to see the camera. He knows he’s in front of the 7th District and he did this right here.”
“It’s challenging for every officer,” Feldmeier said. “I know we try and do our best at contacting as many violators as we can when it comes to specific violations like reckless driving and the excessive speed.”
With ticket numbers at the lowest level in five years and aggressive driving happening right outside of a police district, Feldmeier stands behind the current traffic strategy.
“It is indicative of the enforcement we’re doing based on the personnel we have,” Feldmeier said. “The focus that we have as far as the type of violations we’re stopping on top of trying to balance that with all of the other responsibilities we have in keeping this city safe.”
It’s about time to watch on your time. Stream local news and weather 24/7 by searching for “TMJ4” on your device.
Available for download on Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and more.
