The Milwaukee County Sheriff calls on the city of Milwaukee to get an action plan to combat violence.
"We need to rain holy hell on these individuals. Lawfully," says Sheriff David Clark.
He spoke to Milwaukee Common Council members as part of a series of special meetings on crime. His solution to the problem is to hire 400 more police officers, and have the county hire 200 additional deputies not counting those that will be retiring.
But how many officers are needed to keep the city safe is the question common council members are trying to decide.
"Looking at 400 officers for us to try to do that in one fail swoop is not a practical solution," says Common Council President Ashanti Hamilton.
Sheriff Clark argues the city needs to do better.
"I drive around this city for two hours and never see a cop. That's not an indictment on the men and women on the front lines of this agency, they are understaffed and under siege."
A claim Chief Ed Flynn strongly disagrees with.
"He has no role to play in local law enforcement and does that effectively. We've kind of divided up the labor here in Milwaukee. I'm responsible for an 1800 member police department that fights crime every day. He's responsible for having a wide variety of opinions, so far people seem satisfied with that division of labor," says Chief Flynn.
Another factor the city has to consider is replacing the 300 officers who will soon be retiring within the next year.
