During the Democratic National Convention people will be staying in Madison because the hotels are all full in Milwaukee and surrounding areas, bar time could be 4:00am and yet will we be down 100 police officers here in Madison. How does that work?As Dylan Brogan points out in his Isthmus article Can Madison spare officers for the DNC?, Chief Koval quit because the department was 31 officers short and it was impacting morale. So there is some cognitive dissonance that is disturbing when thinking about sending 100 of our 483 officers commissioned to Milwaukee. It’s a head scratcher that we’ve been hearing about not having enough officers for patrol at about 200 officers, but we have 100 officers to spare.
WHAT DO OUR 483 OFFICERS DO?
I’m the chair of the Public Safety Review Committee, was an alder for 8 years and follow local governments probably more than 99% of the City of Madison who don’t work for the City or County, and yet, I don’t understand what the other 383 officers that are not on patrol do. I understand that there is a need for management and there are detectives and other assignments, but it either seems really top heavy or we have a lot of officers doing other things.
I asked Acting Chief Vic Wahl if he had anything that could explain things to me. He sent me a memo that he prepared for the Mayor last July. (MPD Staffing Overview) At that time there were 479 commissioned officers and 119.7 civilian employees. This is what they do are “authorized” to do or the “designated assignments” but “not the actual staffing”:
- 1 Chief
- 3 Assistant Chiefs
- 11 Captains
- 23 Lieutenant’s
- 3 are patrol
- 46 Sergeants
- 29 are patrol
- 13 Investigators
- 68 Detectives
- 34 District Assigned
- 12 Violent Crimes Unit (VCU)
- 7 Special Victims Unit (SVU)
- 5 Burglary Crimes Unit (BCU)
- 4 Criminal Intake Unit (CIU)
- 4 Dane County Narcotics Task Force (DCNTF)
- 2 Special Investigations Unit (SIU)
- 310 Police Officers
- 211 Patrol
- 30 Community Policing Teams
- 10 Neighborhood police officers
- 7 training officers
- 7 K9 Officers
- 6 Neighborhood Resource Officers
- 6 Gang Unit
- 6 Mental Health Officers
- 5 Community Outreach and Resource Education (CORE)
- 5 Traffic & Safety Team (TEST)
- 4 Criminal Intelligence Section (CIS)
- 4 Dane County Narcotics Task Force (DCNTF)
- 4 School Resource Officers (SRO)
- 2 Traffic Specialists
- 2 Mounted Patrol
- 1 Crime Prevention/Social Media Coordinator
At that time they were proposing the following change:
In 2020, twelve of the non-patrol officer positions reflected above will be eliminated:
• Six (6) Community Policing Team officers (one per district)
• Two (2) Gang Unit officers
• Two (2) CORE officers
• Two Neighborhood Police Officers (NPOs) – the exact neighborhoods to lose their NPOs will be determined later this year.
These reassignments will result in 223 police officer positions being assigned to patrol and 87 being assigned to non-patrol positions. This will mean that 72% of police officer positions will be assigned to patrol in 2020.
I had been hearing there were only 198 patrol officers, but that was before the training class was on the street. According to this memo they were going to have 223 patrol officers + 87 non-patrol officers = 310.
The council then added 3 additional officers.
SO WHO ARE WE SENDING TO MILWAUKEE?
At the Finance Committee Alder Rebecca Kemble asked a lot of questions and here is what Chief Wahl had to say.
Alder Kemble asks Acting Chief Vic Wahl about basic stats. Milwaukee is asking us for 10 days of a number of officers to be deployed in Milwaukee, before, after and during the DNC. How many officers are they asking for and are you considering sending.
Wahl says that they are not asking for a specific number of officers, they have made requests based on specialty and capacity and we have been working with them to give some ball park numbers of what we think we will be able to provide. Ultimately once the agreement is finalized and goes through the council and the mayor’s approval, then we will sit down and identify the exact officers that will go and that will be in context of looking at our staffing during that time period. The ballpark is around 100 officers, but the intergovernmental agreement that will be signed with Milwaukee doesn’t specify. The number that would actually go is up to us.
Kemble asks what kind of specialties they are asking for?
Wahl says the special events team officers that do crowd management or tactical team, and mounted patrol are the main specialties that they are looking for from us.
Ok, so looking at the list above to figure out how many officers that might be:
- 2 mounted patrol
- and the SET (Special Events Team) team and tactical units aren’t mentioned above by numbers.
We got more information at the Public Safety Review Committee meeting. But not a real answer to who will be going.
FULL PUBLIC SAFETY REVIEW COMMITTEE DISCUSSION
Always awkward when I write about a meeting I am participating in. But here is the discussion.
I asked Chief Wahl to give us a brief update about the item.
Chief Wahl says Milwaukee is hosting the Democratic National Convention in July. Late last year they contact the MPD to ask for assistance with providing security. It’s one of the few events every year that is deemed a “national security incident” which means the secret service has overall responsibility and ultimately the federal government pays Milwaukee and Milwaukee with reimburse us. They security needs that they have are remarkable. It’s a very complex event with different venues and a lot of dignitaries, so they literally need 1000s of officers from outside juridictions and they have officers coming in from across the country to assist them. They have a particular need for Wisconsin Certified officers, that have arrest authority in Wisconsin and officers with certain specialties and training like our special events team or tactical team. They have been working with them and their attorney’s office to put the agreement together which covers reimbursement and some of the details of our assistance. We have not finalized the exact number or names of people that we would be sending to assist but it is probably going to be upwards in the area of 100. He does not think it will be for the entire 10 day period. The DNC is only 4 days, there are some pre-events and some post-events but all the contracts are written for 10 days to make sure they have coverage for that entire period as well as training before the event starts. After the agreement is signed, they will take a careful look at the projected people that we plan to send and make sure that it doesn’t adversely affect our daily patrol minimum staffing. And certainly they will be drawing from a cross section of the department with different ranks and different units. Certainly we have restricted vacation picks during this time and officers knew that going in. Nobody is being ordered to go, in fact we have had more officers volunteer and express interest than there are positions available to go. It certainly is going to be a burden on us like everybody else but its an event of international significant and a pretty compelling need in his view to provide the assistance.
Gideon Amoah says this is something we have to help Milwaukee. In terms of the number of officers you need, is that something we have to discuss here?
Wahl says the agreement itself is not specific to the number of officers. They have talked to them about general parameters, but once there is approval, if there is from the council for us to enter into this agreement then we will finalize that list. And again they will look at the staffing numbers look like before we commit to that.
Amoah says his question is if that is something we want to get into, in terms of the number of officers that will be out there or is that something that the police department deals with. He says there are two things he is concerned about. What is the public safety impact of sending officers out there? How do we determine how many officers are going out there? Is that something our committee has to talk about or is that something the captain can take care of as part of his business?
I say that the answer to the question is up to the body. If we have big concerns and we want the concerns addressed, we should express those concerns. If we think Action Chief Wahl has it handled then we don’t have to do anything with it. The question is what does this mean for us while those officers are gone? I say I think Acting Chief Wahl shared more at the finance committee about how you have the ability to not send officers if they are needed here.
Wahl says there are a few mechanisms in the contract where we can withdraw from it completely if we need to or else during the event we can call people back if there are emergencies here. And, if there are events here that are associated with the DNC, that will actually be part of our security plan so our officers would come back and potential officers from other jurisdictions being paid by Milwaukee would come back to help with those incidents if there is a need for it.
Captain Mindy Winters says, who better to patrol our own city than our own officers.
And I say “and get paid by Milwaukee to do it”. That was what I was reading between the lines was the good part about it, but I wasn’t sure if that is likely to happen.
Wahl says they haven’t heard of any yet, he says its not unlikely, its possible. But its a very big footprint, all the way down to Chicago, so part of their security plan is much bigger than just the Milwaukee Metro area. It very well could include something.
Alder Barbara Harrington-McKinney says there was a very lengthy discussion at the finance committee and Alder Kemble brought up your concerns, really expanding on what does that mean for public safety and coverage for us in Madison, and there was a lengthy discussion and she really brought out areas that the average person would be concerned about. So I give her that. The other piece of it is that the convention, whether it is Democratic, or regardless, its just the volume of people that will be in Milwaukee and the international significance. Madison doesn’t sit on an island. There is no way Acting Chief could say no. It’s just one of those things, that you don’t like it, you wish it wasn’t happening in Milwaukee, go someplace else, but in July they are going to be here and they are going to be an hour and a half to two hours away. Even for hotel, because Milwaukee cannot even house all the people who are going to come to the conventions so they are bussing them to areas outside of Chicago. So that wide birth is going to affect not only Madison but surrounding communities as well. This was a very good article that was sent out and shared. She doesn’t know if everyone read it, but it says “any assignments made to the convention will be made with first consideration being staffing needs in Madison.” Also there is a provision in the proposed agreement that allows for recalling officers back to Madison from the convention should an event occur here that requires it. She didn’t have this on Monday night when the finance committee met, but in her head she just didn’t see a way out, that our police officers could say no. I’m sure that in terms of looking at that, what does it mean, how many officers, where the specialty officers will be. I’m sure that command is already looked at that, because if they haven’t, they haven’t considered what is going to happen here. So she is sure those conversations are going on that we are not a part of, but she just doesn’t see how we could say no.
Amoah moves to approve. Al Rickey seconds.
I ask some questions I’m surprised that weren’t asked at the finance committee. Would the approximately $1M reimbursement go into the general fund or to the department funds.
Wahl says it goes to the general fund.
I ask how it works with the reimbursement, if someone is scheduled to have 2 days off and now they take two days off some other place, we’re ultimately paying later, or is overtime, are they fully reimbursing for everything so we don’t have outside costs later as an impact from people being pulled into this.
Winters says they don’t switch people’s days off like that. It’s not a switch for a regular day off. If its your regular day off and you’re there working, that is paid at over time and you don’t get a day off.
I ask if they just lose the day off?
Winters says you work your day off (and don’t take it later)
And I ask if that is because of the union contract. They say yes.
I ask why people are volunteering for this. Is it the excitement of a national event and training?
Wahl says people are interested because its an opportunity that is not going to come around again. Certainly there is some overtime opportunities, but he thinks balanced against the fact that you have to go stay in Milwaukee for a week or so, he thinks its just experience and opportunity to be involved in something like this.
Rickey asks if he did something similar to this in 2000-2002.
Wahl says that Madison hosted the US Conference of Mayors years ago. Shortly after, a year or two, after the US Conference of Mayors in Seattle was a massive riot and civil disorder and so we had all sorts of officers from other jurisdictions that we had to call in to request to support us as we provided security to that event. And we do that every year at Freakfest and to a lesser extent Mifflin St. and other events.
I ask if the intergovernmental agreement is going to come back to anybody, or do they just have the final say on it once this gets approved.
Wahl says the agreement itself, the only thing we will be adding to it is names, of who we are going to send. The legal provisions have been worked out with the City Attorney’s office and the Mayor’s office, so we’re not changing that any more. That part is final. It’s just those attachments or appendices for names and a few other details that they need on their end.
I ask if they have the agreement, because we don’t have it. We can’t see it.
Wahl says someone has it, yeah. It exists. I don’t know if its attached to the resolution or not. It’s out there. I’m pretty sure aside from the names it’s made it to the final, or near final language. But that’s primarily a city attorney preview.
I ask Alder Heck who is looking at his computer if he can see it?
He says no. I explain sometimes city staff and alders can see things the public can’t see.
I say sometimes there are terms and agreements you know all about but we’re not seeing them to approve them. I trust that everything you are saying is true, and I listened to everything at the finance committee, but its no where for us to see here.
The committee votes to approve with no further discussion. Of course, being the chair, I can’t vote. I would have voted no.
SO WHERE’S THE INTERGOVERNMENTAL AGREEMENT?
Well, now that the Finance Committee and Public Safety Review Committee have recommended approval of the intergovernmental agreement, now its available.
After the meeting I followed up with Attorney Michael May. He said it was being loaded into legistar. And sure enough, here it is!
But it doesn’t really answer many more questions about who is going to be going to Milwaukee.
And sadly, it leads to so many other questions that I have, but that will be the subject of another article/opinion piece. I’m frustrated that my questions didn’t get answered before we voted and that the document was done but not available to the committee before they voted.
A SNEAK PEAK AT ADDITIONAL CONCERNS
Much of what Acting Chief Vic Wahl was in the agreement that no one could see. I think the ability to get out of the agreement is a little more limited than what I heard at the committee meetings.
This was the paragraph that gave me pause (note City = Milwaukee, Agency = Madison):
Agency Personnel to Participate in After Action Activities. At the request of the City (including but not limited to City MPD, the City Comptroller, and the City Attorney), Agency shall reasonably provide information, participate in debriefings, complete surveys, respond to information requests required for insurance or audit purposes, and reasonably aid the City in the prosecution or defense of any civil or criminal proceedings related to Agency’s performance under this Agreement or any matter in which Agency Personnel is identified by City MPD as a witness. Such assistance shall include the provision, by Agency, of personnel or other records in criminal and/or civil proceedings as reasonably requested by City
How long could this go on as officers need to drive back to Milwaukee to appear in court or fill open records? Is Milwaukee going to continue to pay for that for years to come if necessary?
I also had some additional questions I asked the Finance Department about impact on the levy and expenditure restraints and how that impacted that, particularly now that I know we will be paying more overtime.
More to come . . .
