Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn attended a public meeting at Bay View High School Tuesday night to address the questions and concerns of residents.
This comes about two months after some south side aldermen called on Chief Flynn to boost officer staffing in the area.
“I’m really glad he came and talked with us,” says Jeanette Torres, who lives just west of Bay View. “We all just want our neighborhood to be safe, and more police patrols really help ease our concerns and deter crime.”
Chief Flynn says the bottom line is that the police department has to commit the bulk of its resources to the areas of the city most plagued by crime, and Bay View is not one of them.
“From time to time, there are stable Milwaukee neighborhoods that experience an increase in crime, or some significantly individual violent acts, that undermine the community's confidence in itself,” Flynn says. “We recognize that’s a big part of policing, to build confidence in neighborhoods.”
That’s why Flynn increased patrols in and around Bay View over the past few months.
“From time to time, we’ll deploy more assets than data requires, in order to lower fears, and give people that sense of control over their public spaces.,” Flynn says.
Beyond police patrols, Bay View Alderman Tony Zielinski is pushing for local businesses and residents to chip-in to install private security cameras around the area. Some are already on board.
“We find that cameras can be a crime deterrent, and invaluable pieces of evidence,” Flynn says. “Our challenge is, we can’t be sitting at consoles monitoring every camera across the city and using thousands of staff hours to watch street scenes.”
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