Good morning and welcome to the Thursday, April 30th meeting of the Public Safety and Health Committee.

Could we please quiet down?

Um it is 9 04.

Uh I'm Alderman Scott Spiker, chair of the committee.

Uh joined to my right by Alder Taylor, uh joined two places to my left by Alder Moore, and to her left by Alder Chambers.

Alderman Bergellis will be joining us shortly.

Um we have and Alderman Burgelis to my right.

Shortly sir.

Um we have two very substantial communication, uh, one communication file and one resolution that will take up quite a bit of time, so we're gonna get going right away with item one, file number two five two one five six.

This is our ordinance relating to parking controls.

Good morning, Mr.

Chair, members of the committee.

Scott Reinbacher with Department of Public Works.

Uh, we have a few changes to the city's parking regulations before you today.

Uh first is to essentially remove the no parking zone on North 37th Street north of Custer to free up parking for residents.

Uh second is to implement a one-hour parking zone from 7 a.m.

to 7 p.m.

Monday through Friday.

Uh on Fillmore, Hayes, Montrose, and 51st streets near the Global Components uh Global Power Components facility.

Uh third, we are proposing to install three-hour uh meter parking in front of the UWM dorms from 8 a.m.

to 6 p.m.

Monday through Friday, as well as 8 to noon on Saturday.

Uh fourth, we are proposing to install accessible parking spaces for disabled persons, uh, five of them on the east side of Milwaukee.

Uh and finally, we are proposing to create an exception to the overnight uh parking regulations on North Palmer Street from East Vine Street to East Center Street.

All of these have been coordinated with the local Alders.

Happy to answer any questions.

Mr.

Chair.

Uh Alder Bergellis.

Thank you, Mr.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um, the parking area around global power components uh in my district uh has been a challenge for the last year and a half.

And I think it's very important to be transparent that this company is building AI data center components, and that company has been terrorizing the neighborhood.

Residents can't get out of their driveways.

Residents can't get a fire truck or a garbage truck down the street because it's parked over, up and down, all around this company.

They're creating a lot of jobs.

That's important, that's needed, but we that can't come at the expense of destroying a neighborhood.

These one hour parking zones near global power are a lot, and we've tried to do progressive uh adjustments to parking regulations, working with the department, uh, but right across uh a couple blocks away in the city of West Allis, West Allis just went in and put in a two-hour zone pretty much everywhere in their neighborhood, which has pushed more and more parking into the city of Milwaukee and onto the county parkway uh nearby.

Uh it does seem like a lot, and we may need to revisit these restrictions moving forward after uh some time passes, but I think it's necessary to listen to neighbors in the neighborhood.

Because even yesterday, uh someone had to have a car towed because they couldn't get out of their driveway for a doctor's appointment.

These are quality of life concerns.

The business I think is trying to be a good neighbor, but it just hasn't been enough.

Uh so these one-hour zones are sorely needed in the 11th district.

Very good.

And I'll move uh adoption.

Okay.

Uh Alder Bergells would move to recommend passage.

Uh Alder Moore.

I just had a quick question in reference um to the Maryland parking.

Um, you're moving to a three-hour parking.

What was it prior?

Um prior, it was a mix of regulations, uh a little ununiform in the area.

Uh, I believe it was either two-hour or four-hour places.

Um I can get that information to you, Alder Woman.

Not necessary.

I just wanted to make sure that you know it's students that are impacted by this uh parking.

So I just wanted to make sure that we were not limited, you know, reducing it versus you know keeping it something adequate where they can go to a few classes, right?

So thank you.

Correct.

Our goal is to make this uh restriction uniform in the area so that it's easier to follow and not catch them off guard.

Exactly.

Thank you.

Okay, so Alder Bergellis said it's moved to recommend passage.

Are there any objections?

Then so ordered.

Item two, file number two five two one five seven, ordinance relating to traffic controls.

Uh yes, today's file includes two changes to the city's regulatory traffic controls.

First is to to install an all-way stop at Melvina and 83rd.

And second is to remove a yield sign at the intersection of Reynolds Place and Pierce Street that we don't feel is no longer needed because there's no uh conflicting traffic movements.

Both of these were coordinated with the local elders and happy to answer any questions.

Questions not Alder Moore would move to recommend passage and hearing no objections, so ordered.

Item number three, file number two five one four zero seven substitute resolution directing the health department to collaborate with the Department of Employee Relations to develop strategies to prevent clinic closures due to staffing shortages.

This is sponsored by Alder Cogs, Alder Pratt, and Alder Dmitrievich is with us.

Yeah, we move the whole until she recovered.

Okay.

Um Alder Chambers who moved to holds it called the chair, hearing no objections so ordered.

We'll address this at a later point in the meeting when the sponsor is available to uh discuss the vision here.

Um moving on then to item four, file number two six zero zero zero seven.

This is a substitute resolution authorizing the expenditure of opioid settlement funds.

Um this is sponsored by President Perez and Alderman Jackson.

So I see President Prez is joining us.

Um as the primary sponsor, we'll start with President Prez and then we'll go to the departments.

President Prez.

Thank you.

Uh I appreciate um hearing the file and the patients with everyone had to hear it.

I had um many questions about some of the direct impact in my community uh for the open yard settlement funds and uh figuring out where the direct intervention would go.

We've had a couple meetings have had some good information that was uh provided, and uh just look forward to the presentation and maybe some additional questions will come forward.

Very good.

And uh I also want to express my thanks to uh the health commissioner and the fire chief for working with me and the LRB in resolving some of my concerns regarding metrics.

So there's a bunch of resolved clauses that have been added to deal with that issue.

So I appreciate the collaborative work there.

With that, we will kick it over to the health commissioner and the fire chief.

Good morning, Mr.

Chair.

Uh good morning, members of the committee and President Perez.

Uh, thank you for this opportunity.

We're really excited to share this information.

Um with that being said, since there's a lot, we're gonna get right into it.

Um we're presenting uh a slide deck that was shared with our board back in um February to really help orient how this investment is going to um really focus on a whole of government approach.

So it includes not only the health department and fire department, but uh a recent addition is the Department of Community Wellness and Safety looking to support their credible clinicians program, which is a part of the workforce development work that um the grant was looking or the settlement was looking to support.

But overall, what we did over the last year was really to look at how current funding across the landscape has been uh administered both by the county and what was going on in the city to identify um what we call a continuum of care of uh uh service provision from uh prevention to intervention to treatment and recovery, and through that uh systematic review, we implemented a couple different um strategies and frameworks and looking at both um national examples, uh resources from Johns Hopkins, resources from the CDC to really help us build out this continuum of care.

And in some of the supplementary documents, you can see that there aren't certain boxes that are checked.

So we're not really providing a lot of funding into the recovery space because uh Milwaukee County supports you know tens of millions of dollars into that space, so we don't want to put a small drop in that bucket because that bucket is pretty pretty full.

However, we do want to invest in things like workforce development, uh prevention, um, and interventions that uh the chief and I are going to talk about here.

Um of the pieces that we really used is to identify budgeting priorities systematically.

So uh a lot of credit goes to our senior strategist Anna Narvi, who really led this effort to ensure that we were looking at the evidence base and and picking uh priorities that fit with the needs of the community and didn't duplicate services that the county um is doing.

And one of the attachments to the packet is a letter from uh Milwaukee County DHHS outlining that partnership and uh the support that we're giving them uh in return to ensure that these historic investments are transformational for our communities.

So if folks are familiar with the Vision Zero plan, um that really is a similar example to what we're trying to do here.

And again, a whole government approach, our whole of government approach that looks to uh bring in best practices, bring in community feedback and input, and work with you know uh elected officials, other departments, other stakeholders to create a plan that yields measurable change.

So our plan here really looks at that continuum, and I know it's a little small on this uh screen here, but there's the kind of half circle on the bottom, and that's the continuum of care that we're talking about.

And within that continuum of care, there are different slices that we're prioritizing and focusing on with the investments, um, and you'll see that in a couple slides here.

But really uh this is a holistic approach to address the complex needs that lead people to use and uh help people or um prevent people to get the treatment that they need.

Um part of this work is uh uh guided by a collaborative work group with members listed here on the uh screen.

It is not exhaustive.

Umelissa Biefer is on here, and then Karen Tyler, now that she's confirmed as the director of uh uh community wellness and safety, she will also be on this uh work group.

But really, this group is tasked with ensuring that they're reviewing the evidence base, ensuring that um they're helping to keep track of some of the metrics that we're interested in tracking, and really serving as a sounding board for other ideas that we look to fund in future um years.

Um here's that.

I don't know, Chief, if you wanted to add anything about this work group before.

Yeah, absolutely.

Uh thank you, uh Commissioner Todoritis, and thank you to this uh board and to the uh sponsors, uh as well as a whole bunch of other council members and uh staff throughout the city of Milwaukee who have uh it appears congealed in the past few weeks on some very very positive directions forward.

Uh this work group uh has been underway, as I think the commissioner said for over a year or about a year, and um there's been a lot of learning going on in this.

And what I think is noteworthy about this is uh it takes the focus, at least for the fire department's point of view, it takes the focus away from what we've been doing, which is crucial and critical, and I'll continue advocating for, but it recognizes the whole nose-the-tail nature of dealing with um the socioeconomic conditions that contribute to mental health issues that contribute to addiction that contribute once a person begins a recovery process, supportive care for that, housing, all these things.

Now, we can't solve every one of these problems overnight, but what we can do, uh, and I credit the commissioner and and Anna Narve for this plan.

This plan uh is one of the most comprehensive I've uh been pleased enough or lucky enough to be involved in.

So huge supporter of uh tying this all together and and continue to move forward.

Thank you.

Excellent, thank you.

Um I'm just gonna jump ahead into the budget then that we're proposing.

So, what we're really trying to do here is to create the framework and infrastructure that uh the city can make sustained investments.

Um, 5.6 uh roughly of the funding that's coming to the health department will go back into the community through a variety of initiatives.

The actual scopes of uh the RFPs or re-granting that we're going to create out of this uh allocation have not been developed yet.

We know that they will fit within uh this pie and will uh be uh focused on the different efforts that are needed in our community.

Treatment is a huge part of that.

Um I know the chief has some exciting partnerships that I think he's gonna mention later.

Um, but there are a lot of uh work still to be done to val to develop these uh grants and RFPs, and we look to work with the the committee, our board of health, um, and and stakeholders across the region.

Um question that we've gotten in several spaces is ensuring that we're not duplicating investments with the county.

Um our staff collaborate with the county on their selection process to ensure that uh you know we're not finding the same entity double E or triple E for the same uh uh service.

Um so that's a key part that I would just stress here.

And if I go back to the actual budget, um there's a more detailed budget uh that's attached to the file, and that actually breaks out the positions and um the different investments with our contracts and regranting.

And those are broken out.

Yep, just so folks are following along.

Um so there is a document uh I think it was included in the list that Mr.

Shapinski sent out last night to committee members, uh the council as a whole.

And then on the other side, there's MHD three-year OSF budget request where it does break down the positions.

Is that the document?

Yes.

Yes.

Thank you.

So there's more detail in there.

I'm happy to dig into that once we're through the presentation.

But really, these investments allow us to issue larger grants and subgrants to participants in the community.

So instead of giving them a 12-month contract, they're they can have up to two-year or three-year contract and really scale up to the need of our community.

So that's a key part that I want to stress that this is a historic investment and gives uh agencies the ability to grow and to sustain the critical work that's needed in our community.

A portion of that also funds parts of our team here to ensure that uh the work is happening and help with evaluation, help with ensuring that our Narcan and Xylosine and harm reduction uh supplies are going out in the community training folks on that.

Um so there's a lot of pieces to that.

I don't know, Chief, if you wanted to add anything about MFDs.

Yes, so I I think you're familiar with the MORE program, it's the Milwaukee Overdose Response Initiative.

Uh, this is on the uh arc, the pie wheel here, it's towards the right, falls under treatment.

This is where we we are responding in many cases to 911 calls, following up with our specially trained Mori teams that include uh peers with lived experience in this space.

Uh just very quick summary.

Uh the Milwaukee Fire Department gets us in the door, the peers keep us inside, and that allows for uh a greater percentage of people that we actually get to treatment.

Uh so we act as connectors, facilitators, locators.

Uh but uh one thing that I think uh I've learned isn't as clear is that we can take referrals.

We do take referrals so from other agencies from uh uh other folks in a clinical space, uh homeless outreach programs, folks that are in the neighborhoods, you all, we can take referrals to start that process.

Thanks.

Yep.

Excellent.

Uh all right, so we'll grab kind of dive in through some of the examples that were of what we're talking about in the different uh wheels of the pie.

So if you look up on the top uh right corner, I know it's a little bit small, but it really highlights the different sections of the continuum of care that we're looking to support.

Um, and then it gives you what that definition is the strategic aim, the domains uh that it fits within, and um the examples of programs that we're looking to support.

Um, some of the examples and activities are are non-specific like outreach and education because we're really gonna tailor that to the available agencies in the community that do that kind of work.

Um, and similarly, even in the last week we've had uh partners reaching out to partner with us.

So that's encouraging for us to ensure that we're um meeting the moment with providing RFPs and regranting that fits with what's available.

Um, and it and again by doing the three-year investments or two-year investments, it gives an agency to grow into a space that they've wanted to.

Um so one of the his one of the previous um iterations of our allocation, we funded additional beds, uh, recovery beds, um, and that was very successful in scaling up the the ability for that agency to grow and then sustain more um services.

Uh the other so that that's I'm sorry, health promotion, which really is a focused on a lot of the harm reduction and early intervention prevention um pieces there, and then we have substance use prevention, um, and as you can see on the bottom right, there are uh focuses on both the public health system and MORI is called out on the bottom uh right there under tertiary prevention, um, which really um speaks to what the chief was saying in terms of the different layers of support that Mori can provide.

Um, the other part from the health department's perspective that we're funding through this is the neighborhood nursing team.

Um, our team are active in President Perez's district and uh going to be as well on the um Alderman Jackson's district because those are the two areas that have the highest concentration of of uh substance use issues.

So our teams are scaling up to meet that moment and uh just commissioner, just for the public in general.

Could you say just a very brief similar to the chief about Mori introduction to the neighborhood nursing program, what they do?

Yes, that's um one of the um programs that we've been growing over the last year.

Initially, it started with health disparities funding, and now it's going to be supplemented by overdose um settlement funds, is the scales neighborhood nursing program, and it's really a call back to a lot of public health nursing that we've done historically at the department, and that's having our public health professionals going into the community, meeting with people, helping to screen people and make referrals right there on the street.

Um as a former community organizer, I know the power of being in front of somebody at their home or where they socialize, and our team really looks to take their medical training and their uh um health promotion training that they have with their community health workers um paired with the nurse to meet people in the moment that they need, and we're hoping to to start focusing on you know chronic disease and um substance use disorders, but then as this continues to be successful, um we're hoping to grow that and ch and and add more to it across the city because we've really heard from our residents and our clients that we serve that they need accessible services and having teams that can go into the community to actually support people directly is a really uh critical function that we're looking to fill here.

Okay, thanks.

Oh Chief, if you had anything else on this slide.

Well, I think I think I I I do want to touch on something.

This this space is evolving and it's moving fast.

Uh I wish I could report we're getting our arms around it.

We are seeing a reduction in general in fatal overdoses while the incidences of overdoses continue to climb.

So that's a testament to the health department's work.

Uh the Milwaukee Fire Department's work as as well as a whole bunch of community partners and even private businesses and citizens and flooding flooding our neighborhoods uh with Narcan.

Uh ready access to that has had a huge impact.

De stigma destigmatizing uh reaching out for help.

Uh it's a major thing uh in certain areas of our city.

We're beginning to to cross that uh bridge.

Here is another thing is accessibility.

Um I credit uh BOSA, I credit several alders with speaking out and saying, let's get some medically assisted treatment facilities in our neighborhoods.

Our mortar program for a long time had to take people to West Allis to continue that that or begin that treatment and recovery process.

We now have several very strong facilities in our cities, very near our hardest hit or in our hardest hit neighborhoods.

Uh we had a meeting yesterday, which the timing on this is absolutely unbelievable.

Uh there are mobile medically assisted treatment vehicles.

It's like a big RV basically.

These are operated by uh clinicians.

Uh the department uh uh excuse uh uh drug enforcement agency has very very strict controls on where these things can be deployed.

So I had a very, very good conversation, and uh I I don't want to out uh specific businesses or or corporations right now, but it really appears as if we're going to be able to plug uh using fire stations as anchors uh hosting uh these in some of our hardest hit neighborhoods.

And so uh it yeah, I almost don't want to jinx it, but it's huge because the outreach that we speak of and the availability on the streets in the hardest hit neighborhoods, in your neighborhoods.

Uh it seems as if that's much closer to being a reality.

So we're gonna continue pushing that, and I'll any conversations I have like this, we're gonna steer towards uh whatever RFP processes come out so that the health department can subgrant to these agencies and make this work.

And that's a really good point that I would underscore of meeting our clients and the the residents of our city where they are.

That was a huge lesson that the health department learned during the pandemic was if you made it accessible to do testing or or vaccination, folks took advantage of that.

Um they didn't have to go out of their way to you know pick up their kids and go to uh testing clinic or a vaccination clinic.

We we offered vaccine and testing a lot of in a lot of schools and a lot of public locations that made it easy for folks to get access to that, and that's what we're trying to do here with a lot of these uh investments.

So that segues really nicely into the treatment um section of the pie, um, both case identification and treatment of known disorders are pieces that um we will focus on.

Obviously, Mori is called out uh in this part, and I would highlight the scales neighborhood nursing team, which will also be doing referrals.

Um they have access to an electronic health record system that's shared by all the federally qualified health centers and health systems.

So when we encounter an individual, um we can look up their history and say, hey, you know, you had uh an appointment for medically assisted therapy, you know, why didn't you show up for that?

And if it's a transportation issue, we can make that referral.

Um, but we can also help just the the uh client or individual working with help them understand their health information as well because that's been the other piece that our team does in our clinics is when someone presents for a vaccination or testing at our STI clinic, they often don't know how their medication might work with something else, or they might not know how their diagnosis fits with their uh course of treatment.

And that's what our team does is help provide that education and uh ensure that we're connecting them to additional care if they need that.

Um so that's a core tenant of this trick treatment uh arm and we look to have outcomes to track with that.

So seeing obviously number of contacts, we can track that through our electronic health record, but we also want to see that those referrals are upheld.

Um we don't want to refer to an agency and then not have them have that individual show up.

Um so we're looking to track that longitudinally to ensure that those referrals are being uh taken advantage of.

And then lastly, the maintenance and aftercare.

A lot of these recovery kind of longer term services are what I was calling out that the county uh DHHS really supports heavily.

Um so there's less funding in this bucket um from the city, but I can assure you, and I have um a memo to that effect.

Um I don't think it's a part of this packet, but we can share it with the broader um group that outlines those investments that the the county and the state have made to ensure that we're that area is is well funded and that we don't need to be um putting funding into that space.

Uh and that is that is that um so Alder Jackson has joined us as well, he's also a sponsor.

Um would either of the sponsors like to take the initial follow-up question.

Sure, I would um thank you both for the presentation.

Um and in our prior conversations we talked about um at least for me the priority around some of the intervention, which is the treatment category.

Could you just put on the record a little bit about how um some of the initiatives that will be directly related to the street and some of the intervention and then I know that um in this collaboration with the county and a lot of the things they're doing, how is it that that coordination gets to this body or communicated to residents in my district about um if we're very clear about cities in this lane, counties in this other lane, how is it that that collaboration there's some communication or really accountability to everyone if we're sharing the work that we can talk about that we can evaluate and then um as piggyback on some of that discussion, um just how all the whereas clause is in that appreciate all the Ms.

Biker for really staying consistent and you know getting the clarity on the evaluation of the program.

We talked about it like you know that and so we're clear moving forward that there's gonna be opportunity to say, you know what?

Um we need the channel some funds, we need to channel a different strategy.

We uh being out here we realize the need is this when we're pushing in this direction, evaluating that, working on that with community members, just some of that collaboration between city, county, and community.

Yeah, Chief, do you want to take that first for more yeah, I'll touch on the more stuff.

I I briefly uh touched on it just a few moments ago, but uh we are uh not just responsive, uh meaning we're not just reactive to when we have the overdoses.

We are out in the streets, we have made a ton of connections uh first off by opening up our hours so we're not just a Monday through Friday shop because obviously uh this this does not know that time frame.

So we've expanded into the evenings, we've expanded into the weekends.

Uh we've also uh made connections with a number of uh I think 16 is the number gas stations, uh stores, uh shops uh who we have direct connectivity with, and we've begun to receive referrals from folks and and at present that's over uh I believe in district twelve.

Uh and so we're s receiving referrals that way.

We can receive referrals as I mentioned before uh directly to our program uh from anybody, really anybody that's aware of somebody that is grappling with addiction.

We can we can follow up.

It does not require 911 call as the initial step.

Uh and then I mentioned the mobile medically assisted treatment facility concept that again is very much in its infancy, but we would be possibly the second municipality in the state to actually get one of these going.

So that would be a huge thing.

It's it's a very difficult thing to make happen, and we crossed some bridges yesterday, so I'm looking forward to that.

And I would add to that um much like uh the MORIA program and MFD can take referrals, our our scales neighborhood nursing team can take those similar calls and and triage whether or not that's a referral to the county housing um folks that we work with for folks that are um housing unstable, or if it's a referral to the behavior behavioral health services.

The key part that our team has is foods on the ground to be able to go out and talk to people and really understand what's going on.

Um we had some lessons learned um about um some issues in Casyasco Park with individuals who were uh um socializing there, and you know they didn't have they had housing, so that wasn't the issue that we thought was actually driving them to be in that park.

So those are the lessons learned that we can glean from actually interacting with people.

And um as the um uh president was mentioning, we're really um excited to be able to say, hey, here's a hundred thousand dollar contract to do this work, and then if that work can goes well, we can add more money to that contract.

Um we've done that with uh previous grants in the health department, so we're well versed in being able to do that, and we're we're also not shy of saying this isn't working well and pivoting from that investment.

So that might be ending a contract slightly early, or um, you know, amending the scope to include additional referrals or treatment.

Um but those those parts and those processes come before this committee and FNP to ensure that you are aware of those amendments to those contracts.

Um, but I think it really starts before that to ensure that um the voice of the um constituents and the alders, our board of health are are factored into how we put those grants together and those um sub-awards.

Um so we're really excited to be able to put some substantial money into the community through that process and include uh uh call out to ensure that we have good data to evaluate.

Um so we want to make it easy for folks to administer the funds and track their data because then at the end of the day, we get that data back and be able to report out.

Um I think in the text that I talked about quarterly, but we're also looking to have some public dashboards too that um are refreshed and show people what's happening with this funding.

Um we owe it to um everyone here to ensure that people understand where those investments are going and um be able to admit if we need to pivot or add more money to a different contract.

I think that's a critical part of this by having a three-year investment allows us to be able to do um things that we haven't been able to do before.

Um so I'm really excited about some of the uh opportunities that the chief has talked about with the mobile uh clinics, and there's other agencies that um do much smaller scale uh versions of that here in the city.

Um Aurora has a community health um uh kind of arm that does a lot of uh uh access through a nurse practitioner and a mobile truck.

Um so they're much more smaller scale, so if we can supplement that into a much larger operation, like what the chief is mentioning, um those are the things that we're looking to scale with this funding so that people can have access.

Um, but we're really going to be guided by the evidence base and the data, and for unfortunately for right now, we know that that's in President Perez's district and Alderman Jackson's district.

Yeah.

Uh just a follow-up to that, yeah.

Um, and I know that you're you guys have um have experience with the RFP process.

I just asked that in in those RFP selection committees that key members of the community participate in some of that to make sure that that some of the decision making on what the RFP there looks like or respondents to it, they feel that it's it's meeting the need of the community.

I I think I would offer that we don't we we could I think the best spot, and you correct me if this doesn't meet your intent here.

I think the best spot to include them is in the creation of the scope of work because the RFP process is pretty tightly managed legally by city purchasing.

So, like I insofar as we can influence the final do they meet it, don't they?

Um I but I will offer, and I think we talked about this uh recently.

I will offer that even if a respondent doesn't meet every mark on an RFP or or a bid process, there there is flexibility for us to go, yes, but uh this there are so many other benefits here, they they just don't happen to have a red telephone on their desk.

We can live without the red telephone, right?

Um so there is flexibility there.

I just I I never want to represent on behalf of a different department what the legality is of the construction of that selection committee.

I I agree with you.

The information needs to be there and and the will of the people needs to be represented.

Um one quick question.

I I know you said referrals are welcome.

It doesn't, like with Morey, it doesn't have to be a response to a previous overdose.

You could get referrals from an Alder, similarly for the health department.

Is there any sort of public facing element to that?

So if members of the public want to call in, I don't know that that's widely publicized.

So I have business owners sometimes who have issues and they you know we'll call the police and they don't know similarly with our issues with the unhoused, you can contact the county for sure and pursue that at so is there a similar um avenue for business owners, members of the public to contact um you all when they see someone in trouble, and if so, is there any plan to publicize that more broadly?

So our our outreach teams uh have been leaving that information, uh albeit to your point it has not been widely broadcast.

Um just entertain me for a second.

So we've got a community paramedic hotline.

Morey is housed within our community paramedic area, and that's 4142865230.

I realize that's not what you're asking for in the broad scheme of things, but there is a hotline that people can call with these referrals.

Uh and uh as part of this, we definitely need to uh similar to the smoke alarm hotline, right?

We need to broadcast that and publicize that.

And I would add to the county has their Better Ways to Cope campaign, and that's a really excellent entry point for folks that are um either personally or it's a family or friend that's um um working through a substance use disorder to actually go and and get this information.

On the other side of it, um uh President Perez actually had the idea of really um coordinating a lot of these activities through the target team meetings that happen uh uh at the district level um with uh the police department and neighborhood groups, uh DNS and DA's office, where uh some of these issues can be triaged through those specific arms of the criminal justice system or um community uh stakeholders like Safe and Sound or SOC on the south side.

Um and and I think the other part of that is there are pieces that uh only come like MHD, we do the needle pickups.

So if if constituents are seeing needles in their district and they need someone to come safely dispose of those, they can make those calls to us, and it's uh 414 286 6800, and they get routed to our environmental health team that does those pickups.

Um at the same time, if they're concerned about uh individuals congregating and using in their communities, um, those are referrals that they can also make to our scales neighborhood nursing team or some of the community outreach teams um through behavioral health services at the county.

But you're right, that we do need a more concrete copy of the yeah.

Yeah, just to drill down on that a little bit more.

So the accessibility of the information is what's pivotal here.

So um I I guess I would urge partnerships with the police department, partnerships with the Department of Emergency Communications who are taking in calls and deciding deciding how to triage them if they aren't aware of if their folks who are taking those calls aren't aware of the proper way to route it, then that's an opportunity missed.

211.

Right.

Yeah, and I would just um share to celebrate the Department of Uh Emergency Communications, they've been incredible partners to supporting the health department in the last year, um, helping us triage some of our calls after ours, and have been really great partners.

So I I'm confident um Chairman Spiker that we can make something like that happen.

Okay.

Um Alder Chambers, you had a question.

Yeah, thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Um we received the MORI funds in we received the OIPO funds, I'm sorry, in 2022, correct?

And you just now developing a plan this past year.

Why why now?

Umright when the funds were accepted by the city, um uh Alderman Murphy was uh really the champion of these funds and putting together um some of the guidance and direction of the funding.

And um at the time we had a strategist that was working really closely with him to make some of these decisions and investments.

So there were two investments that were made um pretty early on.

One was for a media campaign around harm reduction, and the other was for um additional recovery beds.

So that was 23 into 24, I think.

And um it was really when I became commissioner in 23 that I started asking, what about a bigger plan?

We can't just do these one-off investments.

And um I was concerned about decisions being made in isolation and wanting to open up this process.

And uh in 2024, Anna was promoted to uh senior strategist role, and I and and she's like, What do you want me working on?

I said, take the time to ensure that we're investing the money in the right spaces.

Um, we don't want to do one off things that was happening prior to that, and to do uh uh really comprehensive literature review and looking at where the data is going.

Um so looking at those trends of where the overdoses are happening, um where they're um not happening, looking at the service provision and really landing on this continuum of care that took time to put together and getting feedback from uh the elders and our board, um that all takes time.

So here we are in 2026 coming together um with a plan that looks to make a historic investment for three years.

The city doesn't have opportunities like that, and we didn't want to run into it as had happened early on with just some singular investments that don't really look at the bigger picture.

Um at the time there were similar groups in the city doing media campaigns around harm reduction, so um we re-evaluated that contract and said, you know, we we should stop putting money into this contract because we don't need additional media campaigns.

Um but the recovery beds was a really good investment, and that's you know, part of the treatment arm of this investment is to grow things like that.

So it it took time, and um, if folks remember, I think the last two budget cycles I've talked about developing this plan.

So um we've been talking about it, but finally we have something to to to dig into.

Um I think what dovetails with uh Alderman Chambers, your question is is um a part that I would stress that this is a living document.

So as we make success in some areas of case referrals or reductions in folks that are having fatal overdoses, we want to recalibrate and say, hey, we've been having really success further up on the um continuum in prevention, let's reinvest in uh more prevention services.

So that might be outreach and education, and we might have some agencies that we're working with in the community that have a contract with us that we look to um add more money to their contract because they have good um outcomes and metrics.

Um the other part to this is just ensuring that we had the infrastructure to do the tracking and the data um uh dashboards, and that took time as well.

Our team last year built a lot of dashboards internally for the health department that now will be leveraged for this moment.

Um but I I will say this took a lot longer than I had hoped it would.

Um as I mentioned, I'd been talking about this process for two years.

Well, thank you for that answer.

Um I guess you know, my my concern is is you know, there were other I guess other things that was going on.

Um, you know, other people who are thinking about other ideas on um you know what to do as far as outreach in addition to the Mori program.

Um and then it's kind of like oh now this is just popped up surprise uh in a way that's how I see it because this this program is besides the Mori program, this new program is news to me.

I have not spoken to no one about it.

Um so that's unfortunate about that.

And the Mori program started when, Chief.

So uh about 2019 we began doing it.

It was largely grant funded, partially to answer your your previous question.

Uh by unanimous council uh resolution, March 22, 2022, the funds were dedicated to MORI and harm reduction strategies by this council.

Uh and so we set to work within the parameters like, okay, now we're gonna be able to use some of the uh opioid settlement funds to fund this as we transition away from some of the grants, and we spent the next over two years trying to access the funds.

And so that brings us to 2024.

Uh that's about timing out with when the health commissioner and I began communicating about like there's got to be a broader strategy here.

Um with apologies for not having communicated uh more frequently or directly with you on it.

Um I nobody wants this, you know, to be the excuse, but there's there's been legislative and bureaucratic static in this space.

We we thought we were doing what we were asked to do by this resolution, and now we have a much clearer picture.

We've we've spoken with folks who have sought us out and been very vocal about like what about this, what about this, what about this, and here we are.

And commissioner, at what point was uh uh what type of um involvement was the office the department of community wellness and safety involved is not just in a focus group, but like yeah, uh that's a great question.

Obviously, um, as we're all aware, um their leadership status has been uh tenuous for the last you know couple years, and um um Ms.

Tyler was recently confirmed, so I think it was last Friday.

Um Deputy Commissioner uh Hyatt Oates and I met with um Director Tyler to have a conversation about how we could support them.

It was actually on a separate, I think DOJ grant or SAMHSA grant, looking at um children's um youth access and mental health services, and really to help sustain the work of the credible clinicians that work that they've really successfully been building through the recast grant, which is a SAMSA award.

Um, and through that conversation, we were talking about the concern um for the longevity of that program given that SAMHSA really hasn't announced that they're gonna continue to fund that.

Um so we uh Deputy Commissioner Hyatt Oates and I walked out of that meeting thinking, you know, what if what about the work that we're trying to do with this uh fund?

Um and you know, apologize for not um reaching out more directly to you, and I would uh offer that there's still plenty of opportunities to help shape what's happening with this uh investments, and the the part that we took to our team then after meeting with Kieran was to see if there was space within what we're looking to support that um could support some of what they're doing with recast, and there is so we had a workforce development kind of rough budget line.

We actually ended up putting additional funding to it to ensure that um the workforce development was focused on mental health professionals and providing uh staffing essentially, or uh a pipeline for more people with lived experience or folks that frankly don't look like me to be able to provide treatment in the community, and that's what credible clinicians is doing.

And Karen's team was able to share that a lot of their clinicians in their network have the dual certification where they do the trauma therapy as well as substance use therapy.

Um so we've taken that back to our team looking at what's in the budget.

That's something that we're looking to fund directly with that work.

Okay, and thank you, Mr.

Chair, for giving me the brevity.

You got about maybe one, maybe two questions.

So I I hear you, I hear I hear this this last name, but at what point in developing what you presented today, you said this is a live-in document that you've been going for since you've been, you know, uh commissioner.

At what point did you see to include that department?

Because I feel like far as the outreach and the people that they impact they're about just as parallel is the fire department when doing that.

So what is what I hear from you is that you just now included them now that you know Director Tyler is involved, but there were subsequently three other directors prior to this department which was the office back then and actually was housing your department prior to budget change in 24.

Um you know how to been there.

So I I guess I'm I'm trying to understand.

Yeah, uh I was just reminded too that um one of their staff also participates in our community health improvement plan, um, which was focused around mental health and uh kind of injury prevention pieces, which aligned really well with um what was OVP when it was still in our in our department.

And I had talked to Mr.

Prosell about doing some of this as well, but obviously that was a short-lived moment um in our city's history.

Um so there have been conversations.

I think the the challenge is looking at the moment and seeing who is going to be working with us, and and the one staff member um from OCWS or DCWS um had been a part of our work focused on the service provision, and I think that's part of why we continue to keep in the back of our heads and we need to bring them into the work.

And as I mentioned at the beginning, for the actual work group, Ms.

Tyler is going to be sitting on that work group as well.

Okay.

Um thank you, Ms.

Shepard.

I got more questions, but I'll move it on over.

Thank you again.

Okay, very good.

Other questions from committee members.

Um I guess one thing I just wanted to follow up is again, um, I do appreciate the efforts on metrics, um and specifically um not just process or activity metrics but outcome ones.

I understand it is until you actually do some stuff that you can measure those outcomes, but I think we have a structure in place and alliance with the reporting you're required to do for the Board of Health anyway.

So again, I appreciate that effort.

Um do you have any concerns there?

Or does that seem like a reasonable path forward?

I think it's a great path forward.

Um as we we shared um in some of the meetings, the and it's one of the attachments that's uh the executive summary of the evaluation plan and has examples of um kind of a logic model, but essentially it's a placemat that shows where the funding's gonna go, what kind of outputs we're gonna track and outcomes we're gonna measure.

Um and we're looking to have those developed for each of the different buckets of funding that we're having.

So um if it's focused around outreach and education, we want clear metrics of you know, obviously the easy one is how many people are you talking to.

Um but part of that I I would argue will be referrals and making sure that folks are successful with referrals.

So that's something that we're gonna look to track with our um skills neighborhood nursing teams and have that kind of logic model, the placemat accessible to the public so they can see what we're kind of funding in that bucket, as well as then subsequent um dashboards or data reports that will align with the quarterly reporting structure that's outlined in the text.

Um I think that the big piece of this is this is this is funding that's gonna be here for um you know, whatever it is, 18 more years or something like that.

So it we want to create the front end that makes it easy for whoever's in my seat in 18 years.

I don't think I'm gonna be here in 18 years.

Um God help me if I am.

Um to uh yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean, right?

I'll get more gray.

Um have have you know the keys of the car and the cars working.

Um so this is really building the engine and the infrastructure of the car to make sure that it's gonna be able to be uh driven for 18 years.

Mr.

Chair.

Yeah, and and just quickly on that point, it's it's good also, and it says in the resolution um that we establish a baseline of where we're at and then we can see the progress over time that being communicated clearly, because uh as the chief noted, it's it's great that we're having fewer deaths due to overdoses, but if the overdoses themselves are continuing apace, um that's something we need to um wrap our arms around.

And as the chief also said, um though nalaxone and our can saturation is is surely uh an advantageous thing here.

Um be uh um uh transparent that I have uh sort of companion legislation working with Alder Pratt to try to get some of those into some of the facilities like hotels, convenience stores, things like that, to make sure that that access is is provided and and staff has it on hand and and knows what to do with it.

So um and I take it that's kind of in keeping with the broader goals of the health and fire department to get um Narcan everywhere we can and to reduce the stigma for its application.

Yes, Chief.

Um I I would add whereas we have 18 years or the remainder of that, whatever we're we're digging into these years here of this these settlement funds, much like a smoke alarm or fire prevention program.

I want to just assure everybody we have no intention of attempting to consume these funds for the next sixteen, seventeen, eighteen years.

The idea of this working is that we put ourselves out of business in this regard, that we get our arms around this epidemic and we can begin to sunset this at some point.

And I I have to just in good faith believe that that is not gonna take the next eighteen years.

Yep.

Uh agreed to your point with the metrics we're on board.

Um I and and I think the three-month thing is fine.

I fear we're not gonna be able to demonstrate enough change in the first three months, right?

And then the increment between three and six is gonna be a nudge, but I think uh you can't change it unless you can measure it.

So the three month was meant to reflect the Board of Health cadence, the annual reporting is more reflective of perfect the what the progress we look to see.

And say again?

The dialogue will be worth it.

Yeah.

And that's why we have the touch point with LRB to make sure that we're keeping in touch with the council and their expectations.

So Aldermore.

Thank you so much, Mr.

Chair.

Um, just briefly, um Commissioner, can you share a little bit?

Because one of the um concerns that I had was about um funding being deployed um during our summer months, uh and if we would be able to I don't know how quickly or you know, how smoothly we can transition funds, particularly into community organizations that are on the ground doing a lot of preventative work, um particularly among our young people and young adults.

Um can you just talk briefly that you know, once this process moves forward, uh what timeline are we looking at?

Is it late summer?

Are we gonna be able to get some work done during the summer?

Um our board had a similar question as well.

Um we really want to have the funding um going out the door as soon as possible um so a lot of credit goes to um Aaron Chapinski who's our our uh administration manager for the department to do a lot of the lake work with the city attorney's office um so that we could get agreements in place or uh you know template agreements that help us expedite the contracting process um but there's a lot of unknowns to some of that um how quickly those get issued uh I'm sorry like posted online so people can apply to them.

We are uh obviously staffed in our neighborhood nursing now um so that that team will be out and about and we have a um staff in our strategy uh team as well that are outreach education or community outreach specialists um that already are in the community right now doing the work um and part of that part partnership as well um goes with like DCWS as well with their staff that um we share gunlocks with them and and vice versa we share an arcan and other uh harm reduction tools that they're also putting out so there are some f you know feet on the ground but we're really looking to issue those contracts as fast as we can um you know there's just red tape that we have to go through to issue those contracts but I'm committed to making those um go as quickly as we can.

Thank you thank you so much.

So is it overly optimistic to expect that some of those contracts will be executed by the summer that seems like a very aggressive timeline.

I uh if you want to weigh in I would agree with you.

Yeah I would agree with the other Aaron at the table.

Um good morning Mr.

Chair Committee members I'm Aaron Chapinsky budget administration manager for the health department I was just messaging my colleagues in ITMD talking about a timeline.

We're excited about this opportunity um and another item that's gonna be before you this morning because the health department has really wanted to formalize our ability to issue grants and create funding opportunities that are accessible for smaller organizations.

And the opioid settlement funds are gonna be the catalyst to get that done.

We're designing that RFP process currently um purchasing has a great one.

It's probably more than what we need for this and to what the commissioner and the chief have said and what uh the council and the president have asked for we want to have a lot of people involved in designing and evaluating those and so we have the tools in hand now to sort of run this in-house we're building those I would love to have uh grants out by the end of the summer um and hopefully sooner.

Um we do have a template in hand I appreciate city attorneys support both in administering the funds and then getting those ready but um you know I've been around for a long time I know that this doing part is one of the most important and we really want to make it go as quickly, efficiently and and with the most accountability that we can have.

And I really appreciate that intentionality particularly with our small organizations.

I've worked with dozens of them and a lot of times they get overlooked because they don't have the infrastructure to be able to apply for opportunities like this and I think it's our duty to be able to figure out ways to support those organizations because they're the ones you all that are on the ground that are doing this work day in and day out.

So I'm really grateful um that you all are thinking about ways to be able to do that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Other questions comments from committee members um Mr Chair could I add just one detail um just one second uh Ms.

Urtis if you wouldn't mind listing me as a co-sponsor as well appreciate it.

Um did you have a question?

Yeah no I was just gonna make a comment I actually has spoken with both um Chief Lipsky and Commissioner and um had lengthy conversations with both of them and and I think I just think that is just important to to note.

I know that um Chief Lipsky just said a little while ago that um fatal overdose are on a decline and then you said that the overdose is on the increase and so it's just very important and I talked to both of you at length about the treatment um just being very long term because um if we just keep reacting to what's happening then you just keep having it happen.

But when you begin to provide that long term treatment and then you start seeing those results where we can see a decline in the actual overdose and I know you just say that that is the ultimate goal to get to and so um I d I appreciate the work that you guys are doing together the collaboration that you're bringing together because I think that's the only way that we're gonna get to a program where we're gonna actually start to see a reduction in overdose.

Uh and so I I also appreciate too that um commissioner had mentioned that you do have a person on staff that's looking at um data and collecting that data and and um where to concentrate our efforts and I think right now what I hear throughout the community is that we have a shortage of treatment bits and facilities and um I think I'm mimicking my colleague down there on just focusing on um though those kinds of things so that um that we begin to um really address the issues of what's really causing these overdose to take place anyway and so I just didn't want to leave today without making sure that we speak to um that continuum of care that takes us to a long term solution.

So and the work that you're doing to get us there.

Thank you.

I w uh Mr.

Chair, can I add a response to that?

Mr.

Chair.

Say again.

Can I uh add a response to um Yeah, of course.

I you know, I really appreciate that call out to uh that piece because um that was uh as I was listening, I you know didn't mention earlier part of our team and this is what comes with funding our staff is having um the actual policy experts and bigger uh supports to coalitions and policy work to make sure that medically assisted therapies are accessible, destigmatized, and there's a lot of stakeholders um in the in the medical community that are looking to increase the access to these things.

Um we work as a Department of Corrections community corrections um for folks that are coming back into the community.

Um the DOC programs give uh harm reduction materials to folks that have SUD diagnoses and um we're helping to uh supplement their supplies for that too, because we know having access is critical.

Um so there's a lot of policy work that also looks to ensure that access is happening.

Um and that's not necessarily called out in this, but uh the grants that we're looking to issue should be um supporting access and ensuring that um system wide that folks understand the need for this.

Thank you.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Alder Burgelis.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

It's frankly I think it's disappointing that we have to fight over pennies coming back from a settlement or an industry that has devastated our community and communities across the country.

The cost and the burden on the administration and departments, not to mention the community that's been impacted, will never be repaid.

I wish there was there was more we can do.

I wish there was more funding available to do more in Milwaukee and throughout the country.

This has hurt every zip code in our community, every neighborhood in our state.

Thank you for what you're doing.

I think the model that Milwaukee developed is something that other communities are looking to and bringing um back over there to improve their own communities.

So thank you for taking a leadership role on this for the past year, number of years.

I'm glad that we have something from the opioid settlement, it is far from enough.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Um I support parts of this um of this file.

Um I'm gonna be abstaining right now.

My hope is at council that there would be some type of changes to the file to incorporate uh department of community wellness and safety for as a financial side to assist with them.

Um, you know, have them go out and do more outreach as well because they are equipped and trained to do so, as you mentioned.

Um so um that is my ask uh moving forward for my support at council.

Thank you, Mr.

Um, do you have a proposal or anything you want to have discussed at committee I can have a conversation with governor in chief at the appropriate done.

I just want to make sure we do our committee work in committee.

So okay, very good.

Um any other questions, comments?

No.

Thank you.

Yeah, could you add me as a co-sponsor, please?

Let the record reflect.

Um any concluding remarks from the s the chief sponsors, uh adoption.

I'll have a comment.

Um I just appreciate some of the clarity on the on the treatment and the intervention in the neighborhoods.

It's what I'm really committed to.

And it's been said, so I look forward to that moving forward.

And just uh want to make sure that we're all paying attention as the reports come in and we're all talking and uh some of the coordination.

Uh I mean we talked about it very generally because it's early, but I I really want to make sure we're going to tighten that up as this money goes out the door.

And um these RFPs are out the door as soon as possible, and that um these communities are feeling and seeing the work of uh these settlement funds and coordinating whatever the county is going to do, so we all have some clarity.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Alder Moore.

Please add me as a co-sponsor as well.

Uh that will be done.

Um Alder Bergellis has moved to recommend adoption.

Are there any objections?

No, one abstention.

Uh so ordered.

Thank you.

Um hang on one second.

Chief uh Alder Cogs is waiting for her file.

Do you think you could stick around five minutes?

Okay.

Yes.

I'll have to move to reconsider item three now.

Yep.

Okay.

Um, so that's what I was just sorting out.

So item uh Alder Chambers moves consider reconsideration of item three and hearing no objections so ordered.

This is file number two five one four zero seven, substitute resolution directing the health department to collaborate with department of employee relations, develop strategies to prevent clinic closures due to staffing shortages.

This is sponsored by Alder Cogs, Alder Pratt, and Alder Dmitrievich.

Alder Cox.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Uh members are remembered this is just uh a resolution uh to follow the footnote that we did during budget.

I know that the I and the health department have been doing work um on this issue already, but this was just the follow-up um to the footnote.

Um we will later do a communication file for them to explain what they've done and what they um was contained to do with the insure this, but this is just the formality of the resolution following the footnote.

And I would hope that you all could approve it.

Thank you.

Very good.

Does the health department have anything to add?

You're supportive of this?

Oh, we are, and I have lots to share.

Okay, very good.

So Alder Chambers would move to recommend adoption.

Um any objection?

And so ordered.

Thank you very much.

Um we'll move out of the agenda order to items 13 and 14 to dispense with those quickly, then we'll get back to our street takeover file.

So item 13, file number 252187.

Resolution authorizing Milwaukee Fire Department to enter into agreement with Managed Health Services Insurance Corp for community medicine.

Please all right, uh Assistant Chief Joshua Parrish from Milwaukee Fire Department.

Uh the item before you is one of our uh is a contract for our resistance service providers, um, as we were just speaking to in exhaustion.

Um the partnerships that we have for doing this work are really really essential.

Uh this is actually one of the existing partnerships that we have, so we're happy to have force today to enable us to continue the amazing work that we're doing in the community with a uh partner that's been with us for quite a long time to get this work done.

Happy to take any questions you may have.

Okay, any questions about this from committee members if not, then Alder Taylor would move to recommend adoption, hearing no objections so ordered.

Item 14, file number 25205 substitute resolution approving an EMS emergency medical services intergovernmental agreement between the city of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County effective January 1st, 26 through December 31st in 2031.

I'll jump in real quick.

So this is the master agreement that all uh communities throughout the county engage in with their departments if they provide paramedic services, which we do were the largest provider.

Um we are pleased to report that we uh sat on the committee as this was renegotiated with the co uh uh the county office of emergency management.

This was approved at the intergovernmental cooperation council, the ICC uh recently, and now it comes before you for uh approval or questions.

Uh we were happy to maintain the metrics that are used which recognize land mass, number of paramedic units, uh, the the relative busyness across different departments, and we top out on all those metrics.

Uh and other than that, there was there was not any other there were no major substantial changes to the contract.

Okay.

Any questions about the contract or anything else related to this item?

No adoption.

Uh Alder Chambers move to recommend adoption and hearing no objections so ordered.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Okay, moving back to our agenda order item four.

I'm sorry, item five.

No well I just um I'll yield some time to any of the co-sponsors but I just want to hear um what the plan is um last year we heard about some dedicated patrol missions dedicated to street takeovers and when um there was a shift in services when there were issues on Water Street I just want to hear um what the plan is so that we can have measured outcomes for community members as they contact us with complaints concerns or what the reaction will be moving forward as we try to get ahead of the street takeovers but uh when they start uh what can our constituents expect from our response or as a response okay with that we'll kick it over to MPD and TCWs um thank you to the committee uh for hearing us today uh my name is Heather Huff Chief of Staff of the Milwaukee Police Department I'll give a brief introduction and then talk about both our patrol and our criminal investigation bureau responses to street takeovers I think what's all on our minds right now are the street takeover activities from last weekend um last weekend it was originally reported out there were 12 street takeovers throughout Milwaukee and more in surrounding um jurisdictions we will get uh the data and the results of that and some more information from Inspector Grant shortly um but with that in mind know that the Milwaukee police department's response is twofold um uh pause one a second please um look at some have the city channel looking to what's going on here think we can yeah this man otherwise we'll just have to get an update uh let's soldier on though okay um our approach is one the immediate response to the incidents that are taking place in the city that is challenging sometimes we have information ahead of time that we have gathered or that the community has relayed to us about the location of the street takeovers oftentimes we do not we know there are lots of individuals involved in uh street takeover activity and they generally share those locations uh in discrete ways not on social media but they do have social media accounts um highlighting their race cars uh some have YouTube videos showcasing some of the chaos they're causing in communities and so uh we have teams of individuals tracking and gathering information in hopes we can have it ahead of time but as you saw from this last weekend sometimes that does not occur so we have the immediate response from patrol that Inspector Grant will go into and we have the follow-up investigation conducted by CIB um we might not get you or get to you right in the moment of the street takeovers but that doesn't mean that we're not continuously looking into those events last year I think we highlighted some success we had in tracking down a participant um in a jurisdiction it was Mount Pleasant or Pleasant Prairie or something like that as follow up based upon intel gathered from the events that occurred uh technology like license plate reader cameras um and follow up on social media so I'm sharing some slides today and this is uh something that Inspector Law will go more into detail about but this is just an example so we have an individual with an alias SRT RIC 414 and on this Instagram there are tons of pictures of the individual with different street racing cars SRT stands for street uh racing technology I believe um nothing to indicate that they are using these for street takeovers but this individual also has YouTube links to videos that showcase different street takeover events um we gathered information after the events this weekend to understand this was the primary organizer of the street takeovers in this area this is not a resident of Milwaukee this is somebody that came here from an outside jurisdiction organize these events from a location that's not Milwaukee and so while his Instagram account says SRT RIC it probably stands for street racing technology as of last night how do I

This is not a resident of Milwaukee.

This is somebody that came here from an outside jurisdiction, organize these events from a location that's not Milwaukee.

And so while his Instagram account says SRT Rick, it probably stands for street racing technology as of last night.

How do I it stands for sorry, Rick towed?

Uh we were able to tow one of these vehicles based on probable cause and a warrant.

And Rick will be able to get that car back once he's out of custody.

Um so we are doing serious follow-up on individuals who participate with information gathered.

And I'll now turn it over to Inspector Grant um to talk about the patrol response and uh Inspector Lau to talk about the long-term investigations.

Good morning, and thank you all for allowing us to discuss this important matter.

So as it relates to the street takeovers that took place Saturday, April 25th, those calls came in, began to come in at about 11 p.m.

And the last call was at about uh 2 40 a.m.

that Sunday morning.

And just to provide you with information regarding that, there were nine identified street takeovers, which produced 17 total calls.

So that means that there were only nine incidents.

However, 17 individuals along with our police officers uh notified dispatched regarding these incidents that were taking place.

And I'm sorry, Inspector, how many of these were the same group going from place to place versus different groups?

We at this point it's undetermined, however, we believe that this is the same group of individuals.

They leave one location once officers arrive to make arrests or to conduct traffic stops and they go to another location.

Okay.

I'm sorry, I I got lost.

What was the total number?

The total number is nine, sir.

Okay, because we got reported twelve, so that's an accurate.

Yes.

So after uh additional information, additional investigation regarding these calls, there were actually nine.

So there were 17 calls which our residents, officers called out.

However, there were actually nine identified street takeovers.

That's all within the city.

Yes, sir.

Okay.

Thank you.

Yes, sir.

All right.

So out of those nine incidents, we had two vehicles that were towed, one individual who was arrested on scene, and seven citations that were issued.

It should be noted that while officers.

I'm sorry, to whom were the citations issued?

Bystanders, what kind of action citation?

I'm gonna get into that a little bit later.

I can I can talk about it now if you like.

Yeah, but um, so one individual was cited as a spectator.

Uh also there was another individual who was cited as a spectator as well.

One individual was cited for cited and arrested for reckless driving.

As it relates to the stunts and his involvement in the street takeovers.

So one for reckless driving, two for spectating and seven citations to some individuals received multiple citations.

Okay.

So the individual who was arrested on scene, he was cited for the reckless driving along with operating while provoked, and also without having an ignition interlocked installed into installed into his to his vehicle.

And his vehicle was also towed.

Okay.

I'm sorry, so that's seven citations between three people.

Yes.

Thank you.

Yes, sir.

All right, and so for that particular individual, he received over 1400 in citations and fines.

But I want to make sure that we also understand this as well.

Our officers who were assigned to uh to investigate the street takeovers, they were extended, and while this was taking place from the hours of 11 p.m.

through 240 a.m.

Our officers total throughout the city of Milwaukee were dispatched to 165 calls for service.

And so handling these street takeovers does take away from our uh ability to make sure that we're responding to these calls for service, and so that's why we're taking this extremely uh extremely seriously.

So moving forward.

One individual, uh, this individual he actually lives in Caledonia.

He was also, as I indicated before, cited for um spectating another individual uh who we are seeking right now.

He led officers on a three-mile pursuit.

His vehicle was towed.

He actually evaded officers.

Uh he was cited, however, we are seeking criminal charges on that individual to hold him accountable.

As it relates to the arrest that was made yesterday, I'll turn it over to Inspector Lau to provide us with a criminal investigation details regarding that situation.

Good morning, everyone.

Thank you for having us.

Um Inspector Paul Lau, Criminal Investigation Bureau.

Uh I just I want to give a shout out to our fusion division investigators who have been uh uh diligently tracking some of these guys these incidents for the last few years.

They've finally been able to ID the main guy which we took in custody last night at for a felony, recklessly endangering safety for his actions last weekend.

Um we have three other main actors identified that we're we're looking into.

I expect uh uh some charges on the main the guy that we arrested yesterday and the upcoming days.

Um and I I just want to say that if the the investigation, a lot of the stuff that we're able to do after the fact through social media analysis, uh licensed flight readers, and just from the knowledge that some of our investigators have looking into this, uh I'm very confident we're gonna be hold being able to hold more and more people accountable as we move forward.

So is that is that um how can you elaborate on that?

I mean, how are you gonna ramp up?

Uh as we identify them through investigate, we're going to go and we will be arresting them as we are able to identify who's driving uh these vehicles uh in the fashion that we see in these videos that that that equates to recklessly endangering safety.

We've already had conversations with the district attorney about that.

Some of the difficulties are is that uh these guys uh a lot of the drivers of these cars they're wearing balaclava masks we use so a little more diligent and thorough investigations need to take place.

Uh we sometimes we can identify the owner of the car, but we might not be able to identify who's driving at that time based on that.

So a little more work has to go into it, and that's what's kind of led up to the arrest yesterday, and hopefully in the future, some more arrests as uh we're able to dig uh deeper into this and uh one arrest and investigation like such as last night can ultimately lead to other information which can give us other arrests.

So you're hoping that as you react to the to a street takeover through social license plate readers and so on, that that will increase the accountability.

Absolutely, and then we have to remember that when as we make an arrest, we might take an offender's cell phone, we might get a warrant for that.

There's information in there that can lead to other people.

Uh sometimes people want to cooperate and they'll tell on others.

So all that type of stuff.

Interviewing of other witnesses, which uh once we identify one person, we can identify others.

So and and the reason, Inspector, that you mentioned the 165 calls for service is because you're saying that these were officers doing what they do and they were pulled away in order to deal with the street takeover.

So some of so we have actually we actually have deployments.

So we have officers who've have been identified to address these street takeovers.

However, when we notice that these in these incidents are taking place, those officers could be utilized to take other calls for service.

And so we are we realize that this is impacting our response times, and so we are taking this extremely seriously.

And so the individuals, as I indicated before, uh that one individual who fled from officers, led officers on a on a uh three-mile pursuit.

We even though he got out of the vehicle and fled, we are going to track that individual down and hold him accountable for his actions, as well as the other individuals involved because we don't have time to chase vehicles around when we have individuals who need our services.

So these individuals who are engaged in this behavior, they will be held accountable.

Whether they will be arrested, uh citations issued at that at that uh time, their vehicles told on scene at that moment, or uh working with our criminal investigations bureau to conduct further investigations to track these individuals down and hold them accountable.

You between between the nine um street takeovers, you have an estimate of how many people were involved.

So right now we're still working with our intelligence fusion center.

Uh we know that uh there were cameras in that in those general locations that can provide us that information.

So that is still uh information that we're working on.

Okay.

Um I mean the feedback I've gotten from constituents and whether it's either anger questions in general is seems like two cars told an arrest and seven citations between three people seems relatively low.

What how do we explain that or tell that to folks who are angry about it happening a block away from their house?

I understand that frustration, sir.

And so what I would explain to those individuals is that we want to make sure that our officers are using safe tactics when they're out here attempting to apprehend these individuals.

We know that some of these individuals flee, multiple individuals flee upon sight of our officers, and so our goal is to ensure do the best that we can to apprehend these individuals while keeping safety uh at the top of our minds.

I mean, some of the just some of the behavior we'll see it it it feels like it's a matter of time before someone gets seriously hurt, and I mean that's what we're all trying to avoid beyond the nuisance and the reckless behavior feeling like things are out of control.

So um how how proactive can we be about these takeovers?

So I want to let you know that uh we began our initiative last year because we noticed that there was a rise of those incidents taking place in the city of Milwaukee.

And so we've met with the all of our district captains uh to devise multiple plans and different strategies to deploy uh depending on what the situation and circumstance was.

And so, although I cannot provide you that information due to the sensitive nate the sensitivity in nature, uh we can definitely have a conversation offline.

But I want to advise you that our members are equipped with the tools to utilize, whether that's outbursts, uh as relates to the auto plates readers, as uh whether that's stop sticks, uh, if we need to use on those vehicles to deflate those individuals' tires, uh, and also uh along with a variety of other tools as well.

So we do have a variety of different deployment strategies that we will utilize, however, I cannot divulge that information in public setting.

Is technology one of them?

Yes, sir.

And if I may just add to that, the challenge with being proactive in these situations is that we don't have the locations ahead of time.

And so once the location is identified, I believe we took a look into our response times, and it's three to four minutes, but then our officers have to get there quickly, so their lights and sirens getting to the scene, and then those individuals see the police coming, and then they generally disperse to a new location.

So for us, it's kind of a game of catching up unless we have the information ahead of time, where then we can pre-plan having individuals and officers deployed, but we have identified that uh taking people offline in further investigations after the fact is really generally another successful tool in the toolbox.

May I answer?

Uh sure, briefly.

Yes.

Uh yesterday with uh our investigators developed a probable cause, and with our within hours, we went and arrested the individual I talked to you about.

Mind you, while this was going on, we had a three-year-old get his grandfather's gun and shoot himself in the head fatally.

We had an 11-year-old shoot a DNS worker that we chased and caught, and we had a nine-year-old that was shot in the head during a domestic violence incident, which we all handled.

So we're doing this in the middle of responding to our normal course of violence and trying to hold keep the community safe and to hold people accountable.

Thank you.

Alder Tiller.

Thank you so much.

Um, I I do want to say thank you, and I and I think um I can speak for I'm not gonna speak for anyone else, but I do recognize the work that you guys are doing um with the what you just gave us, the information you just gave us.

Um, because I got a call Saturday, and I think after talking to uh President Perez that it may have been the same group, but somehow um it doesn't take very long to get from the south side to the north side on a busy street, and I got you know, a resident calling, sending me a video of what's happening in the middle of 76 in good hope.

And it's I mean, you're putting all these lives at danger.

You know, she was so afraid.

Um she could barely get out what she was trying to say on the video.

Um so I think um just wanting to let you know that we do recognize that you're trying, and it's very difficult because looking at the video, I don't know how to begin to uh try to identify someone that's driving.

You might get the car and hope that maybe the owner could lead you to the driver, but I know ultimately you need the driver, and and that's that's the difficult part.

So we know how difficult it is, but your diligence and staying on top of it and trying to identify because I've gotten um even with the event spaces, I've gotten um flyers text to me saying, Here's uh uh undercover party or something that the kids have gotten real slick with some of the the language.

I'm looking at it thinking, like, what is this?

Uh you know, but they're looking at it going, oh, there's a secret party over here, you know, because of that language, so it's very difficult to keep up with them.

I do understand that too.

But so staying on top of those things and trying to figure those things out, we appreciate that.

And if I could just say to uh the committee and to uh you, Alder Taylor, when you receive those videos, or if your constituents have those videos, those are really good for us to receive as well.

We know oftentimes when these things occur, um they are posted on social media, and it takes us a really long time to find them with the investigation that happens after the fact that if we have these videos in real time, getting those to us and we can perhaps pull out identifiers, encouraging constituents don't post on social media.

That's what the people causing this harm want.

Instead, post to the Milwaukee Police Department, I think um is something to get out there in the public sphere.

Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

Uh are you concluded?

Okay.

Alder Moore.

Um thank you so much.

Um thank you all so much for the work that you all um continue to do.

Um I know that it's not easy.

I know we sit behind here and um ask you know various questions and critique.

Uh but you know, from being in this position, I completely understand um and learning how you all continue to navigate how to make our city um our a safer place.

Um really quick, uh, and whomever maybe Inspector Grant.

Can you talk about the response time, particularly for the incident that happened um down here by City Hall?

Thank you very much, ma'am.

Uh, thank you for recognizing the work of the men and women of the Milwaukee Police Department.

So as it relates to the street takeover that was taking place, no one had actually called police.

And so our captain, one of our captains, who was uh downtown in the the downtown district entertainment zone uh monitoring the activities that were taking place as he was driving.

That's when he observed that takeover, and that's when he activated his lights along with other officers that uh were in their vehicles responding to try to capture some of those individuals.

So no one actually call out.

Um thank you so much for that.

Um another quick point um that one of you can share as well when you talk about um, you know, I know you all do everything data, right?

I tell my residents all the time, please don't assume the gunshots you heard or the um the drug deal you may have witnessed, whatever, right?

Like these incidents, please, please, please call them in.

Can you all please share that if an individual witnesses something, hear something, um, can you just reiterate who are who should they call?

Is it is it 911?

Is it the non-emergency line?

Um, in in regards to um what Alder Woman um Taylor shared uh that hey, residents are sending me up stuff all the time, like she's not the police, right?

Um, who should they be directing this information to?

So they should call police, and they can call a 911 because this is a very important, uh this is a very dangerous situation that's taken place where an individual's life could uh be lost uh based upon uh the reckless activity that's taking place.

I want to indicate also at the uh incident that took place at KK in Lincoln Avenue, one caller called at 1143.

It was dispatched at 1146, and our officers arrived on scene at 1150.

Wow.

And so uh even though individuals may think that someone else called, I mean it it it's it's not for us to assume that someone else is someone else is calling, it's important that we pick up the phone ourselves as residents or as witnesses and call because we can't assume that someone else will do it.

And so our officers arrive within minutes of this incident taking place at KK in Lincoln.

And so we just want to make sure that it's not good enough just to post the stuff on social media for our residents.

We have to make sure that you're calling us so that we can get there.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

IFC Intelligence Fusion Center at Milwaukee.gov.

We encourage anyone that has videos of these to send them as uh Inspector Grande.

What was that website?

IFC at Milwaukee.gov.

IFC at Milwaukee.gov.

Thank you.

And again, the similar to my question with the health department.

The fire department, do we have any means is public relations doing anything to promote this?

I you know, we're finding out about it at committee.

Is there any way for the public to know where they're supposed to be sending this stuff?

We do have a street takeover website on the Milwaukee Police Department's public relations website.

Uh this is a great opportunity to send that out and circulate it.

I will send that following this meeting to everyone here, and also we'll repost on our social media.

Um it does have contact information for if people have information about these particular events, and it was created last year.

Okay, yeah, social media is the medium that people are posting on and communicating via that medium would seem to make sense.

Um I I guess I had one quick question before I pass it to Alder Burgels, which is are we honestly outstripped here in our capacity to respond to these because you know we have seven citations.

I'm not criticizing the work being done, you're doing the best you can under the circumstances, but are we really having a deterrent effect if we're catching you know one big fish and then a couple spectators when there are scores and scores of spectators?

Um is there any grounds for optimism that we can actually change the behavior here given the limited resources and the speed with which these groups move around town?

So thank you very much for asking that question, sir.

So I just want to let you know that we have identified a communication gap between the department of emergency communications and our agency uh as it relates to these street takeovers taking place.

And so what took place Saturday evening into Sunday morning was that our districts were operating in silos.

So that means that a street takeover may have been taking place in district six police department district six neighborhood, and our officers in district seven did not know that these incidents were taking place.

And so we've been in communication with the Department of Emergency Communications uh to just basically shore up those communication lines so that when there is a call for street takeover, that it's notified broadcast throughout all of our districts, so that even if an incident is taken in uh Milwaukee Police District 2, uh Milwaukee Police District 4 is aware.

And so also what that does is that activates the uh the our night watch captain who acts as our incident commander for these incidents so that he or she can uh get our resources together from each district in order to uh stabilize these incidents.

So they're not moving from place to place uh without the other districts being aware of it.

Mr.

So I appreciate the communication and the transparency about that flaw and uh the plans to remedy it, but the the question still stands.

If we can't even make an example of one group, which you know I've long said just if we could make an example of one group come in, you know, surround the situation, arrest people and scores, that would get media attention, that would get some sort of hope from the public that we have a way of wrapping our hands around it.

Um if we're just getting nibbling pieces around the corner, again, I'm looking for what we can change given our staffing limitations that would allow us to get our arms around this problem.

So I just wanted to shore that information up with you on to let you know what took place this past weekend.

So now that we have this information and this communication gap in alignment, we are confident that we'll be able to uh dig more dig deeper as it relates to the arrests that we make and the individuals that we hold accountable.

Uh and also I want to keep you all in my advised that we're working with districts, district officers from each district throughout the city of Milwaukee, along with our specialized patrol division, along with our uh in criminal investigation division officers as well, which uh Inspector Lau can also provide you additional information on.

So, but again, touching on my question, how are we gonna ever get a handle on this given the staffing requirements, even if you alert all the districts at once, are we is there ever a plan or is there uh even an ability to surround one group?

I know we're focused on dispersing, but unless we make an example of somebody, I don't know why the behavior would change.

So, sir, just so that you know our we do have a we have robust plans in order to make mass arrest of these individuals.

Is that what you're referring to?

As I indicated before, I cannot provide you the details of those plans just due to the sensitivity and nature.

We don't want to advise the street takeover individuals of what our goals are, what we're gonna do, but the goal is to make mass arrests at these individuals.

Okay, and so hopefully we'll see that this summer.

I just want to add one thing, and uh sir, I I kind of get what you're asking about making mass arrests.

The guy we took in custody yesterday, though those are serious following.

That's proven charge.

It's not citation.

That is one example we are making, and we plan on making them upcoming days.

And as the message gets out on that, I believe that'll be at a turn as well that some guy's facing prison for a street takeover as opposed to just a simply citation.

Yeah, time to do that.

That's a process works.

Just a problem on your point.

Say again.

So that that's if the rest of the process works where there's charges, the A, judges, the whole nine, then everything has to be.

You mentioned prison time, but that only someone else depends.

And may I just add one thing to your inquiry, um chair?

Briefly.

Briefly, um, it is about mass arrests.

So I want to level set here.

These situations when we um encounter them, our officers are coming in grossly outnumbered.

So when you have an officer writing a citation or taking somebody into custody that takes that one officer offline, and so the challenge for us is we will do as many arrests and detain as many individuals involved as possible, but for each one of those one of our officers at least is offline then and can't respond to the chaos that's surrounding.

So when we say we'll do everything we can, those are the challenges, and that's why that follow-up is so vastly important as the next step.

It's an eerily similar response to what we heard about addressing the issues on Water Street when you there's so many people, every officer you bring in to address it is one off the street.

So there is a problem here.

Alder Mark.

Just briefly, um just a quick follow-up.

Is it illegal to spectate?

Yes, ma'am.

And it is a 750 citation.

And then it the proof is you were just there at the time, like how do you prove, right?

Because a lot of times that's what it boils down to.

Um if we're citing someone for um spectating.

There is a legal challenge to that because you have individuals who see this occurring in front of them, sure and they get out their cameras because they're mesmerized by the chaos, and they're not necessarily spectators, they're not following these groups around.

Um, but we're, you know, working on crafting some questions that pointed questions for our officers to ask individuals to really get to the heart.

Are you a participant as a spectator, or does this just happen to be going on in front of you and you're stopping to figure out what's going on?

So um it is a challenge.

Um there is on site investigation that needs to occur to determine a person's intent in that situation.

Um, but it was uh the council actually that um created the harsher penalties and uh short up the language to the ordinance scheme to allow us to cite those spectators.

Yeah, yeah.

That was just last year with President Prez's legislation.

And if I can just say make this really quick point too, you know, that um I believe I think it might have been Inspector Lao um or Inspector Grant shared as far as just the number of calls too that happen between that period of time that figuring out how to balance, yes, how do we address this issue and be able to because there was stuff going on in my district as well, right?

How to address other things that are going on um in different parts of um our city.

So, you know, this is a very some unique situations um that we're that we're dealing with and figuring out how to best address this in the way that we need to let folks know, let the folks know that participate in this stuff, like this is unacceptable.

Um we're not gonna tolerate it, uh, but having enough bodies to be able to do other things in the city as well, um, definitely challenging and you know, figuring out ways to pull these partners in together um to address it.

Thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Thank you.

We have Alder Brighellis in the queue, and then we'll go to um uh present president Alder Dmitrievich, I believe, is online.

So uh Yes, thank you.

Thank you, uh and then Alder Tilly.

So we have a robust queue.

Uh Alder Bergellis.

Thank you.

Um this isn't new, right?

Street takeovers have been around for a while.

Uh last summer we saw lots of these incidents.

How did CIB help identify those bad actors last year?

How many people were charged criminally that were organizing these that number I'm gonna have to get back to I'm aware of the one arrest last summer for the uh I believe it was for the driving recklessly in danger, but I I I can't confirm that right now.

Oh, but last summer we also had the street takeovers, then we had Water Street, and then we had Kendall Quarter officer Corter getting murdered, so that took away from it again, I'm not using it as an excuse, those are reasons right there.

Right.

Well, I'm I'm looking for the track record.

And last summer we had one criminal charge, and this year we already have one.

This year one felony criminal charge.

One felony.

Yes.

Any but last year we didn't have any felony charges.

I I gotta get back to you on that.

I think we arrested one from last summer, like I said.

I just have to make sure of the exact charge.

Um the SRT model sometimes really terrible things happen in the city.

And these takeovers really shake residents to the core.

It's disruptive, it's frightening.

We have to get these people accountable for their actions.

They're terrorizing neighborhoods.

You said that there were you're still looking at how many cars were involved in last weekend's yes.

Uh how many people are you investigating currently?

Uh we've identified the four main targets.

Uh it's it from all the video we have, we're able to make that we had nine takeovers.

There's one video that's really broken this open.

That's why I can't express enough that it's very important that we get as many videos as we can sent to us.

Now, in terms of uh trying to identify we're not giving up on we're trying to identify participants, spectators, and drivers, even after the fact.

So do you expect to have charges ready for more people from last weekend?

I do, yes.

The um the SRT initials, sometimes really terrible, uh, I think comes comes forward pretty quickly.

I'd like to see it change to safe, responsible traffic or safe responsible today, safe and responsible today.

Um what are the next steps?

How is the department preparing for the inevitable street takeovers that are going to be here next weekend and next month?

Well, as Inspector Grant touched upon, uh, we do have a plan in place.

We're also we're adding uh until we have a program, let me just digress a minute called Summer Guardian, which is starting in three weeks.

Before that starts, we're going to be dedicating other officers from our special investigations division to assist with patrol to include surveilling, making arrests, uh filming some of these on our own.

So if we can't catch somebody there, perhaps we're going to arrest them later on, whether it's a citation or a felony charge or other charges, because uh some of the people that we're dealing with here are also linked to illegal drug trafficking or illegal weapons possessions, and I I'm confident that some of that will be coming forward in some of the charges that we're dealing with.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Uh we have President President Alder Dmitrievich.

Um this briefing or summer strategy, is this something we go to our captains to?

Is this something, Inspector?

You'll talk to us about regarding Summer Guardian?

No, just about the initiative with the street takeovers that you said.

Yes.

So our captains are all on board.

They're aware of what their resources are, what resources are going to be utilized from their independent districts.

Uh and so uh we are all on board regarding what we're gonna do as far as how we're going to uh implement these strategies.

Now we do know that uh Cinco de Mayo is this weekend and also next weekend.

So we are preparing for some of these individuals who will use that beautiful celebration of culture uh as a way to take over some of these streets.

And so we are prepared to deal with those individuals.

Okay.

And then some of the is the briefing the things you said you have to talk offline.

Did we get that from you or for our captains or we can work with uh myself and chief of staff have them off?

Okay.

And and I will say, you know, some of the information, we're happy to have conversations and share some details.

All of the details will not be shared just because we don't want the individuals participating in these uh you know, this harm to our community to get that information and then build strategies to have street takeovers around those operational plans.

Um just some of the questions that that that I want just to put on the record.

One of the things is can we can the police department site uh write a citation for an o owner of a vehicle, whether they can prove that's the person driving or not?

Or doing any reckless acts in a in a vehicle?

Uh we we've looked into that and I'm quite confident the answer is no on that right now.

Um that's a state statute.

Well, there are some owners' liabilities, strict liability laws.

Um I don't know if any of those may apply to these particular circumstances, but we're happy to work with the district attorney's office or the city attorney's office to explore.

We know that citation exists for hidden run owner responsibility along with some others.

So if we if there's an opportunity for us to uh could use the mic, yeah, if there's an opportunity as Heather is uh Chief of Staff Heather Hoff has indicated to work with the city attorney regarding, I think that that would be very beneficial uh for our members to be able to hold those into the owners of those vehicles responsible, even if an individual is observed driving, evades police, we can still hold someone accountable for their vehicle being utilized in that manner.

If it uh why couldn't you impound that to investigate that crime?

Just like if you saw a a car leave a bank robbery in your upstairs, why couldn't you impound that's totally correct?

And we did so yesterday, um, when we've identified the vehicles.

I think the question was of the owner's liability ticket, though.

That's I think that's two separate things.

I understand what you're saying, and we do impart on those cars that are used in felonies like we did yesterday.

No, I just I I think constituents have asked, um, I know council members I've spoken to believe that it's an appropriate citation for the owner of a car whether they got a bala cob on or it looks like them, but you can't prove it.

Uh I I think there's support for that.

Alder Dmitrievich.

Yes, good morning.

Just want to make sure you can hear me okay.

Yes.

Okay.

Thank you, Chairman Spyker, for allowing um a virtual uh questioning here.

I truly appreciate it.

Um we have a number of things going on in my district at this time, and this was um one of the items that um kind of put people over the edge, which I understand.

Um I do have to get a few questions answered from my constituents and I've been listening in.

Why were there no tickets um uh administered or given um at the KK and Lincoln um takeover gathering?

I know that many were saying that it took 30 minutes.

I appreciate the inspector saying it took between five and seven minutes for response.

If they were there within five or seven minutes, why were no tickets issued?

Ma'am, thank you very much for asking that question.

Uh, they'd speak with the sergeant that responded to that location, uh, who indicated that as soon as the officer and himself himself responded to that area, KK and Lincoln, those vehicles fled immediately upon site.

And so there were only two officers, uh excuse me, one officer and one vehicle, one sergeant, and another vehicle.

And so it was not um appropriate for those members just based upon their safety to uh chase those individuals.

And so that is the reason a citation was not issued.

Those individuals that were involved in that uh that uh take over at KK and Lincoln, as soon as they observed those members, they fled.

Okay, that's helpful.

Um, the I believe they're referred to as stop sticks, the tire puncturing devices.

Um, inspector and chief of staff, do all districts have those?

Um that's one one question I have.

Yes, ma'am, each district is equipped with the contingent of stop sticks at the district.

Okay.

And is that and if you're not able to share that because it's a unique in intelligence tactic, I can understand, but are those you know, is that part of the process?

Can those be like part of the vehicle that responds to these um takeovers?

Yes, ma'am, that is a part of the plan, and it should be noted that those have been utilized uh those stop sticks are utilized to uh to um in our pursuits and things of that nature, and so they have been utilized in the past and they will be utilized moving forward as we work to uh decrease these incidents from taking place in our city.

Okay.

Do you have a read on how long the KK and Lincoln incident actually lasted?

I mean, it sounds like you can only read it from when the call you went through the timing from when the call went in.

Do you have any gauge of how long it might have lasted?

We only have information just based upon the call type at this time, and that's why it's it extremely important for residents when they see these incidents taking place that they call us immediately and not assume that someone else is calling because that call may never be made.

Yeah, the time that people take to put it on social media and film it could be a time calling the police.

Um people are quick to gather their phone and create a video, um, which actually is a point that I need to make, Mr.

Chairman.

Um we in September of last year, as a council, and it was a a challenge because we had to be really careful with people's first amendment rights, took um aggressive steps to have spectators find.

Um the problem is is that there are many more hundreds and thousands of online spectators, and additional spectators when people share the videos out to report it.

And I can understand why uh when you're unsettled, sometimes that's that's a way to do it.

But we've got to find a way and and um I have introduced a communication file um to keep uh these social media corporate giants accountable, like MADA.

And I'm investigating and looking at with the city attorney's office, um, just like Chicago did possible uh very large fines, because they have a role to play in this too, by making these wrongdoers some kind of social media superstars.

It is not the only way to combat this, but it is one tool in a very small toolbox that we have, and it must be looked at.

It's a n nationwide trend.

Um, and unfortunately, we're gonna see more and more of it if we don't start taking social media uh responsibly, and this is a way that could actually help parents.

Um and with with that point, Mr.

Chair, uh I'll conclude.

Um I want to ask, do you know, Inspector, the average uh age of the people that took um a role in those 12 street takeovers this past weekend?

Uh ma'am, I believe uh said experiment.

Uh the four people that we have identified that we know were involved, to include the one that we arrested, I believe, were between the ages of like 22 and the oldest one is 26.

Uh now that's can I just go ahead.

I I I those are the the four that we have identified.

So, in terms of like the other people that were cited, uh I have to turn that to Inspector Grant if she has that.

But uh some of the main participants are in in the low to mid-20s.

Okay, that's uh helpful to know because there's some thoughts that this was the exact same thing as like a teen event, um, and I think it's important to um at least have that information out there.

People can do with what they what they want.

Um, but you know, these are at this point at least this group of individuals um that were arrested as well.

I I understand in Glendale.

And that's the other thing is when people are moving about within the county, um, there needs to be a countywide discussion.

Um, because I it from my understanding, I heard that the group that was in Bayview then moved on to um Glendale, which is a totally different jurisdiction.

Can you just discuss how that uh inter jurisdiction um countywide discussion is going?

Yeah, okay.

Uh, just want to let you know that uh we have been in in contact with uh other law enforcement partners, uh also including the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office as well, uh, as it relates to these incidents, because we know that when something is taking place, perhaps in Glendale, that it's just a matter of time before it impacts the city of Milwaukee, another jurisdiction as well.

So uh we've also been in contact and will be in contact with the Department of Uh emergency communications so that we can uh work together if they receive information from their dispatch channel uh from another jurisdiction, they can provide that information over to us, and so those conversations with our intergovernment mental partners will be taking place regarding this these uh these takeovers.

Okay, there were also fireworks that were launched as part of the KK Lincoln um incident.

Um Fire Chief Lipske stated that the investigation was um not conclusive.

Um do you also if there's fireworks presence and you're on the scene, are you issued through issuing citations for illegal fireworks because um that is dangerous and um people did consider that that could have impacted a nearby house fire.

I just wanted to know that, and that'll be my last question, Mr.

Chair.

Yeah, ma'am, thank you.

Um as we identify people more and more, and we're going through the videos that we have.

If we're able to identify somebody who's actually lighting the fireworks or in possession of them inappropriately, yes, we will follow up with the citations, much like if we can uh identify some of the spectators, and when I say that I with uh respect to the First Amendment violet, if we see the same spectator going from takeover to take over to takeover, that's a good sign that they're an active participant in it, and that's some of the things that some of the ways we're looking at addressing this.

And again, I can't encourage enough to those videos are very helpful.

So yeah, I imagine on the videos you can see people's license plates and whatnot, so yes, thank you.

Okay.

All right, thank you, Mr.

Chair.

Really appreciate this opportunity, and thank you, President Perez, for sponsoring this and allowing me to be a co-sponsor.

I'm looking forward to a much more uh safe summer.

I'm also have asked the Office of Community Wellness Um and Safety to look into this matter because I think that we need to invest in the preventative side of this as well.

Thank you.

Very good.

Alder Taylor, next in the queue.

Well, I think um Alder Woman Demetri was asked almost all the questions that I had.

Um the only one that she left out was um with the um because I was looking at the age um of those individuals that you guys have um um encountered or arrested or excited.

Um and then uh the other one was uh with the fireworks because some of the residents were thinking that fireworks, but then there are also maybe some weapons on site as well.

So I was just wondering because I know that that will increase the danger that you will encounter.

Yeah.

That's a great question.

We did hear we did receive information that shots may have been fired.

Uh it's inconclusive at this time.

However, we did seize a lot of firearms in our investigation since then.

Um I'll be able to give opine on that a little more in the future if you give us some uh let the investigation transpire and see where we get.

But yes, it seems to be.

And another thing I want to say with some of the spectators too, with this ring leader that we took in custody and the other three, they were able to draw a lot of people from Illinois that weren't even Milwaukee residents based on the social media research we're able to do.

So it's uh it's not all Milwaukee or local people that are involved in this.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Other questions, comments from committee members.

Mr.

Chair.

Uh President Press concluding remarks.

I just hope that um there's a I hope we have a safe summer and that we can stay in front of this.

I just want to as you guys move forward just to keep this file open if if needed to have an update or a briefing in the future because of um street takeovers and notice it for closed session if we need to go into closed session and talk strategy and uh for sure have a communication file at the end of the summer and fall to to evaluate uh what what we did together between departments and police, all there's complaints, information, and and figure out what's working and not working.

Mr.

Chair, especially technology.

Um Alder Taylor had one quick follow up, then back to Aldermore.

Yeah, just real quick and and um so one of the reasons why I was thinking about the age of the individuals, um, because this week is um youth victory over violence week, and uh so there are individuals who are working hard to um work with our teams to try to um just get them to focus on more positive activities as we enter into the summer.

Um and I think they're working along with Office of Community Wellness and Safety.

So um, even though these are young adults in their like you know, early 20s, mid-20s, how um what would you say then to Office of Community Wellness and Safety or these other individuals kind of um just work with some of our teens just to make sure that they aren't looking at participating or sharing out those videos on social media?

Is there any comments or anything that we can do in that regard?

I think a really important message for especially young adults with this type of behavior is young adults are really self-focused and they think of what's fun and what's for them, and having them understand the larger and greater impact of their actions.

When these occur, it's not just the risk of endangering the people involved in them.

It is the chaos they're causing to communities and residents.

It's the noise, it's the fear that people are feeling when these things come.

It's the innocent people who are trying to drive or walk down the street that are impacted and their safety is on the line.

And so these behaviors may seem fun, but they have this huge potential to cause such harm to others, and really messaging that to youth in some way that's gonna impact them and make them at least think twice about these actions, uh, is really important.

Thank you.

I think that that sounds like we might need to have you make a visit through one of those workshops.

Uh yes, sir.

I just want to add, uh being informed.

Memory was jarred here.

Um ATF last summer were able to uh take into custody and make a case uh related to regarding somebody who was making fireworks that were used in part of the street takeovers last summer.

So I was just wanted to add to that.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Alder Moore.

Um I just wanted to um have the Department of Community Wellness and Safety.

You all came to the table and just wanted them to share um any input or insight um since you all are here today.

Thank you, Alder Woman Chair.

Uh thank you to uh chairman to all of the council members.

Um really want to pour honor on the Milwaukee Police Department and the law enforcement in the city of Milwaukee for the great work that they've been doing.

Yes, uh Quinn Taylor with the Department of Community Wellness and Safety, currently uh serving as a community violence prevention program coordinator in the process of transitioning to community outreach and engagement manager.

Um so a lot of this work in regards to informing constituents and communities on how do they respond in situations like this?

That'll be a part of my responsibility, um, ensuring that they know of the MKE Mobile Action App when to use 911 and the non-emergency number, um, ensuring that they know a program such as the Alert Neighbor program where block clubs can um receive equipment such as cameras and motion lights to help deter this type of behavior, but also report it to the IFC and other platforms where law enforcement can have this information to hopefully um make arrests.

Um we work very closely with uh many of you with automatic walks, um, community cleanups.

There was a pop-up that we had scheduled yesterday.

Um thank you to uh President Perez that helped to lead those um discussions um to initiate that.

Um with that said, uh DCWS recognizes that vehicular takeovers impact community safety, neighborhood stability, and resident well-being.

While DCWS has a role in prevention, coordination, and community support, we are not equipped, especially in our current state to manage or intervene during active takeover events.

Those moments involving moving vehicles, large crowds, and unpredictable safety risk requires specialized response and traffic control.

Our role is best positioned before and after.

Helping share credible information when available, supporting prevention messaging, connecting with impacted residents, and working with partners to reduce the likelihood of future incidents.

We want to be a part of this uh the solution, but in a way that protects the safety of our teams and keeps DCWS focus on prevention, engagement, and community stabilization.

Thank you.

So briefly, what steps have has DCWS taken um with respect to street takeovers in the past, or what's the plan in the future?

What concrete steps can you take that um MPD is not in a position to take?

What can you do?

Thank you for that question.

We do have team members that survey social media sites, um, some of the ones that's highly popularized and used by um youth.

Um certain videos we've been able to get them to remove, um, stopping to promote um that type of behavior.

Um when we do have information of possible street takeovers, we do uh refer that information over to law enforcement.

Very thankful for um Inspector Grant Um and Captain Lau that we have direct communication where we can um relay information in real time.

Also, um Inspector Chief Deputy uh Barco with the um Milwaukee Sheriff Department.

Having that open line of communication has really um enabled us to communicate in real time um with law enforcement when we do have certain information.

Um so those are some of the things that we do.

Um, but after uh a situation, um, we go into neighborhoods and make sure um that residents know um of the resources um to help uh mitigate those those things um and also if they're dealing with any level of trauma how our office department can support them.

Okay, any other questions?

If not, uh Alder Taylor would move to hold this item to the call of the chair so we can take it up uh a little later date.

Thank you very much, everyone.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Back to the health department.

So item six is file number two five two one two six.

This is a resolution relating to acceptance and funding of the 26th through 27 Wisconsin congenital disorder newborn screening grant from the state of Wisconsin Department of Health Services.

Yeah, just we haven't opened it up to public testimony.

We would have to notice it for that.

We have to notice it, yeah.

Sorry.

Okay, uh Mr.

Shapinski.

Yeah, good morning.

Good morning again, Mr.

Chair and Committee members here in Chapinski budget and administration manager for the health department.

Uh the newborn and congenital grant uh that is before you today brings in about 300,000 dollars, and that supports long-standing work at the health department um helping connect families and their newborns with care in the event that they have um hearing deficiencies and uh uh or adverse results for other congenital disorders that the state mandates testing for.

So our nursing staff um does a lot of follow-up and we actually offer this on a regional basis.

So this program will be funded through June 30th of 2027 under this grant.

Okay, very good.

Um again, Mr.

Shapinski had supplied us with a list of the grants we're talking about today and some background information.

Anyone have any questions or comments?

I move.

Then if not, Alder Moore would move to recommend adoption or referral to finance and personnel, hearing no objection so ordered.

Item seven, file number two five two one three six, substitute resolution relative to acceptance and funding of the 2026 beachwater monitoring grant from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.

Sure, Mr.

Chair, committee members.

Um, this is a grant we've received for several years.

It helps support our summertime beach water testing at the three county beaches located in the city.

Our staff goes out every day.

Um they test the water and report back and advise on beach closures.

Um it's a very successful way for us not only to serve the public but um to provide some opportunities for student work to go out and collect stamples and uh do some testing with our lab and our EP teams over the summer.

So I believe funding is about $20,000 uh and we will be funding the two temporary positions with this grant.

Okay.

Any questions about the beach water monitoring grant from DNR?

If not, then Alder Burgelis would move to recommend adoption.

Hearing no objections so ordered.

Item eight, file number two five two one five eight resolution authorizing the commissioner of health to enter into grant agreements to carry out the purposes of the healthy food establishment special fund.

Uh Mr.

Chair, committee members uh semi-related to our opioids discussion earlier.

This uh file authorizes the commissioner to award grants um based on submissions and evaluations of submissions for the healthy food establishment fund, which was moved into the health department in 2025.

Um we're very aware and supportive of the mayor and council's actions to address grocery store closures and food deserts in our city, and we're eager to play our part by administering these funds as well as other funds that were allocated by the council recently for this uh important initiative.

Okay.

Any questions about the funding here?

If not, then Alder Taylor would move to recommend adoption, hearing no objections so ordered.

File number item number nine, file number two five two one eight six, substitute resolution amending common council file number two five one two four oh relating to acceptance and funding of the 2026 WIC grant from the state Wisconsin Department of Health Services.

Uh Mr.

Chair and Committee members, um, as noted, this amends our WIC funding.

It is to essentially change the term of the grant.

Uh typically this grant's ended in December.

The state is changing a lot of grant calendars, and so the WIC funds will now uh term out at the end of September and then pick back up in October.

So we're reducing the grant a little bit.

Again, not because of deficiencies or cut funding or anything else, just because we're spending it in nine months rather than twelve.

We'll have a new contract before you probably in August.

Well, not August, but September.

Got it.

Right.

Yeah, thank you for that clarification.

Uh questions, comments?

No.

Uh Alder Moore would move to recommend adoption, hearing no objections so ordered.

Item 10, file number Mr.

Chair.

Yes.

Can you just make sure I get uh reported as an affirmative on items number six and seven?

Okay.

Let the record reflect.

Um and then uh without objection so ordered.

Item 10, file number 252119 resolution relating to acceptance and funding of a 2026 Wisconsin DOT Board of Transportation Safety, Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Enforcement Grant.

Thank you, Mr.

Shepinsky.

Good morning, Petra Decker of the Milwaukee Police Department.

Um I'm joined today by my colleague.

I'll let him introduce himself.

Uh Eddie Sparkman, budget of finance.

Say again?

I'm sorry, my name is Eddie Sparkman.

I work with MPD as a accounting area and grant specialist.

Okay, Mr.

Sparkman.

Okay, thank you.

So this file um is about a grant that's coming to us from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation Safety.

The grant amount is $25,200, and there is a $6,300 match.

This is one of several grants that we get regularly from the Wisconsin DOT for a high visibility enforcement campaign.

This one is targeted at pedestrian and bicycle safety violations.

Thank you.

Very good.

Um locations as far as uh our adopted, those are all in the file or uh well it's covering the entire city of Milwaukee.

Um kind of notable this year.

Our new partner is the University of Marquette's police department.

Oh, okay.

They're getting a portion of the funding as a partner of the grant.

Okay.

Very good.

Um any questions?

If not, Alder Burgellis would move to recommend adoption.

Hearing no objections, so ordered.

Item 11, file number 252135.

Resolution related to acceptance and funding uh application acceptance and funding of a fiscal year 2025 Edward Byrne Memorial JEG or Justice Assistance Grant program, local solicitation grant.

Yes.

Um thank you for this opportunity.

Um we'll be presenting the JAG grant for FY 25.

Um the total award for this one is 946 dollars 946,496 dollars.

A portion of that will be um distributed to our sub-award um as sub awards to Milwaukee County and also the Milwaukee Barn Association in return for the Milwaukee Community Justice Council.

Um our portion here for the city of Milwaukee will be 480 408,248 dollars, which will fund various supplies, equipment, and temporary contract employees um during this season for Milwaukee Police Department.

Okay.

Questions about the grant?

No.

Not Alder uh Taylor would move to recommend adoption.

Hearing no objections, so ordered.

Uh item 12, file number 252174, resolution relating to acceptance and funding of a state of Wisconsin Department of Children and Families Coronavirus, state and local fiscal recovery funds program.

Milwaukee County Domestic Violence High Risk Team Grant.

This file relates to the acceptance of a grant extension.

The original grant comes to us from the state of Wisconsin Department of Children and Families by way of a sub award from the Sojourner Family Peace Center, uh Peace Center.

And the um the original grant was for 325,000 dollars.

The program period ended at the end of 2024.

This extension provides an additional 448,751 dollars, and it increases the grant term uh by 22 months.

Uh the purpose of the grant is to um identify and manage cases at high-risk highest risk for homicide to save lives.

Okay, very good.

Um Alder Taylor would move to recommend adoption or referral to finance and personnel.

Hearing no objections, so ordered.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh we have dispensed with items 13 and 14.

So we'll go to the last live item, item 15, file number 252147.

This is our standard communication from FPC relating to standard operating procedures.

Thank you for your patience.

Good morning, Mr.

Chair and Committee members.

Leon Todd, executive director of the Fire and Police Commission.

There are seven policies uh before you uh in this file.

These were heard by uh the fire and police commission at its April 2nd, and then the April 16th uh regular meetings.

Uh the files from the April 2nd meeting include a new file, SOP, I'm sorry, a new policy, SOP 100, uh, which is uh titled Foot Pursuits, and it creates guidelines uh regarding the use of foot pursuits um given that they're inherently dangerous.

So that's a new policy.

Uh and then there was also a modification to SOP 320, uh, which is for canines, um, and that added uh rules and responsibilities for the new electronic storage detection canine uh which will assist MPD in uh investigations regarding uh sensitive crimes and the doll and the canine is specifically trained to help uh with the detection of digital storage items.

Uh I'll pause there and see if there's any questions.

Um where is the report on the foot pursuits?

I see the one from the public memo relating to 416.

Um there should be another memo uh dated March 25th.

Hopefully that's in the file.

If not, I can not in the file.

I don't see it in the file.

Okay, that must be an oversight.

I can uh get that to you for the entire committee.

So what is the change with the foot pursuits?

So the foot pursuits is a new policy.

Um MPD did not specifically have a policy on this before.

Uh it is a uh fairly detailed policy that uh codifies um uh prior training standards and and other requirements and uh um codifies that into uh a formal policy.

So what are the highlights of the policy?

The new policy.

Again, not having the memo.

The the policy is in the in the uh uh in the file.

Uh it recognizes that foot pursuits are inherently dangerous, uh, and it seeks to balance uh the need to apprehend suspects and the seriousness of the crime with the inherent danger to the public as well as the members.

Uh it is fairly detailed as I mentioned.

Yeah, it's 11 pages.

So is there a summary of it or why don't we um hold this one and hear it next time when we have the memo?

Sure.

Okay.

Yes.

Uh and Mr.

Chair, if you'll indulge me, I'd just like to draw your attention to uh section 100.30 sub D sub 6 sub C of the policy, which is on page 10.

It says um supervisors shall evaluate whether foot pursuits uh are in compliance with the policy and assess, among other things, whether any missteps were made.

I just find that language uh very very nice because we wouldn't want any missteps in a foot pursuit.

Oh, okay.

Sorry.

I couldn't resist.

That's yeah, that's totally checks.

Um okay.

So uh Ms.

Ortiz, can you make a note that we'll be hearing this item um relating to foot pursuits next time?

And Mr.

Todd, could you make sure we have that summary so we can just go over the details?

All right the new policy.

And then uh just to continue at the April 16th meeting.

There were five uh policy changes that that were heard uh related to prisoners and booking, directed patrol missions, electronic satellite pursuit system, uh police facility security and crash, a newly created policy, crash reconstruction unit, standard operating instruction, uh with the exception of something quick.

The new SOI on uh crash reconstruction unit.

I believe the other changes are fairly routine and administrative.

If you give me one moment, I will verify that though.

Ah, I see.

Um so uh you know, for example, uh prisoners in booking, they uh uh added a section related to persons who are arrested and are are used wheelchairs as they must be conveyed by private on file.

Uh if there's anything that's not purely technical, you always draw our attention to that.

Again, I believe the only uh non routine changes the uh uh the creation of the crash and struct crash reconstruction unit SOI.

Okay.

Any questions on the remainder besides the foot pursuit?

Okay.

Then uh Alder Bergelson move that this item be placed on file.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Item 16, file number 211260, and item 17, file number 220510, are both sponsored by Alder Cogs who wishes to have them placed on file file.

So Alder Taylor would make that motion and hearing no objection, those items are placed on file.

And that concludes our agenda for today.

Thank you very much.

We're adjourned.