On Wednesday evening, Police Chief Noble Wray gave a presentation to the alders who were available to show up. Here’s the things I found of interest:
10. The number of police we have has doubled in the county (country? I think that was a typo) in the last 20 years. However, no new District Attorney positions have been added in that same time period.
9. Violent crime is down 14.2% from 2005 to 2007. Property crimes (thefts, burglaries etc) are up 8.3%. (You think that has anything to do with the police department’s big idea to publicly announce that they were going to stop responding to commercial burglar alarms?)
8. Kudos to Journey Home! In 2006 588 prisoners were returned to Dane County. 81 (14%) returned to prison within the 1st year. During that same time, the 331 who went through Madison Urban Ministry and Voices Behind Bars program Journey Home, only had 3 (1%) of the people return to prison. Chief Wray says that to prevent crime, we should be putting more money into re-entry programs.
7. The chief thinks we need to get tough on “bad corporate citizens” – i.e. pawn shops and metal recyclers. The want the City and the State to make people wait longer to get their money from these places, limit the amount of money any individual can get and check id’s of people who use these services.
6. If you call the self-reporting system, it still might be a week before you get a call back.
5. Where did our 30 cops get used? Only 1/3 of the 30 officers are assigned to patrol.
– From the first 12 officers there are 4 officers that got assigned to patrol this summer. (I wasn’t clear if the are, or will be.) Here’s where the rest went: 2 temporary detectives (Central and West), 1 captain, 2 lieutenants, 2 Sergeants, 1 Detective, 1 Investigator, 1 training officer, 1 gang officer and 1 officer for the West Community Policing Team.
– From the next 18 officers that will be ready in February 2009 – only 6 will be assigned to patrol. The rest will be 4 Sargeants, 2 mounted police officers for the Central District, 1 more officer for the West Community Policing Team, 1 more officer for the South Community Policing Team, 2 police officers for the TEST (traffic enforcement) unit.
4. The police department thinks that we should make it mandatory to collect DNA from people they arrest, not just those that are convicted. They want the state law changed. We actually have police following people around waiting for them to toss out a cigarette or spit on the sidewalk so they can collect their DNA.
3. The Chief supports the loitering ordinance, but only if he isn’t held accountable. He doesn’t want to have to report to the council on the race of the people who are being arrested.
2. Crime is down since 1990 when the gangs first hit Madison. So, why was the big news all about gangs in Madison. Several people asked me why if gangs first hit Madison in 1990, why is it such a surprise that gangs are involved in thefts? How was that the take away from the presentation? That wasn’t my take-away. More important was what the police chief said, it’s the economy (stupid!) Alder Rummel picked up on it and expressed the need for economic alternatives to gangs for young people.
1. Police are looking for alternatives to arrest. They like the Teen Court and Journey Home programs and are hungry for more resources. They think the resources should be better coordinated in the community, I don’t think the resources they are looking for are there but it is a good conversation to have! They credited the work done in Allied Drive for the decrease in crime. And yet we are ending the Weed and Seed Coordinator position that is there. Alder Cnare suggested that we have a police liaison that works with the Office of Community Services so we can better educate the police department.
The alders who were there were: Konkel, Cnare, Verveer, Rummel, Judge, Skidmore, Rhodes-Conway, Kerr, Bruer, Clausius, Clear, Pham-Remmele. I was interested in Alder Bruer’s introduction where he said that poverty is on the rise and that is why public safety is such an important issue. I’m not sure he was saying poor people are criminals, but it was close. However, all in all, it was nice to hear the police say that they don’t need more officers, they need more or better services for the community. Too bad those services aren’t considered “basic services” come budget time. Or will they be now that the police department wants them?
