MILWAUKEE — After nearly a year as the acting chief of the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD), Jeffrey Norman was officially sworn in as chief on Monday.
Norman took over as acting chief in December of 2020. About four months ago, the Fire and Police Commission asked Norman to be the only candidate to apply to the top cop job. Norman is Milwaukee's 22nd police chief since 1855.
As Norman steps into the new role, he already has a lot on his plate, including a city on track for a record number of homicides and a reckless driving crisis.
When asked what he would tell Milwaukee residents who do not feel safe right now, Norman said, "We're coming together on this from the faith-based, to our community partners. Our police department is standing very tall with those who are saying we want our streets back. For those who engage in reckless driving, beware because that is not going to be acceptable behavior in this city."
So far this year MPD reports 168 homicides so far this year, that's compared to 170 at this same point last year.
Since February 24th of this year, the Traffic Safety Unit reports nearly 10,000 speeding tickets issued. More than half of those speeding tickets were given for going more than 20 miles per hour over the speed limit.
"I do want to expand the Traffic Safety Unit. I think it's an important component in regards to enforcement, but also understand that we still need to work on education and also engineering," Norman said.
Norman has been with MPD for 25 years.
