Milwaukee PD: New Priorities, Fewer Arrests
Police in Milwaukee are making just a fraction of the arrests they made 10 years ago, and a shift in priorities is part of the reason why.
The Wisconsin Policy Forum released a report on Milwaukee’s arrest statistics earlier in December. It’s a follow-up to a report they delivered in 2023 that cataloged how the COVID outbreak impacted policing in the city.
This new report tracks an 82.3% drop in arrests between 2013 and 2023.
“MPD made 51,176 arrests in 2012, but just 9,061 in 2023 – a decline of 82.3%. The drop in arrests was not just linked to the pandemic, as there was a year-over-year decline in arrests of at least 10% in eight of the last 11 years,” the report notes.
Arrests in Milwaukee are down in almost every category, but the report focuses on so-called summons and citation arrests that used to see police officers give people tickets for low-level crimes, often drugs and disorderly conduct. The Police Forum report says those kind of arrests almost never happen anymore.
“The overwhelming majority (81.9%) of the decline in arrests made my MPD can be explained by a drop in Summons and Citations arrests, which fell by 95.7% from 36,055 in 2012 to 1,568 in 2023,” the report added.
But it’s not just arrests that have fallen in Milwaukee.
The report says Milwaukee Police have been reporting fewer crimes over the past decade, as well as making far fewer traffic stops.
“In 2023, MPD made 27,715 traffic stops, 81.5% fewer than the 149,721 it made in 2015; the department also conducted only
708 subject stops, a 98.5% decrease from the 46,438 it made in 2015. Drops were consistent across every police district, and similar to arrests, they happened progressively over the time period,” according to the report.
The Policy Forum doesn’t have one, single cause for the massive drop in arrests and traffic stops. But the report says shifting priorities gets a lot of the credit.
“MPD has placed a greater focus on low volume but high priority crime. Homicide, aggravated assault, and motor vehicle theft all surged in Milwaukee beginning in 2020. Combined, there were 17,455 crimes committed in these categories in 2021, nearly double the 9,346 in 2012. While violent crimes make up only a small fraction of all reported offenses in Milwaukee, the response and investigation of these crimes require a significant amount of law enforcement resources,” the report added.
But the report also says a drop in the number of street level cops, and a string of police chiefs have also impacted how many arrests Milwaukee Police make each year.
“Our analysis shows that policing in Milwaukee has changed markedly over the last decade. Police are now coming into contact with residents at significantly lower rates than they used to, and far fewer arrests are being made – particularly for lower-level crimes like drug possession and usage, vandalism, and disorderly conduct. As we have pointed out, there is compelling evidence that MPD may have been stopping and arresting individuals at rates that were too high a decade ago, especially relative to peer cities,” the report stated in its concussion. At the same time, a critical question is whether the changes in policing practices and the decrease in officer strength that have resulted in fewer stops and arrests have negatively impacted public safety in Milwaukee.”
Interested in the content of this Article?
Reach out to the MacIver Institute to aquire more information