The Success of Milwaukee's Neighborhood Safety Initiative

Milwaukee's Neighborhood Safety Initiative was stunningly successful, right?

Milwaukee's Mayor and Police Chief unveiled results of the Neighborhood Safety Initiative Thursday, calling the police program a huge success.

During the 4-plus months NSI was in affect, statistics show that shootings decreased 31%, armed robberies decreased 22%, and homicides decreased 20.8%. Officers also confiscated 174 firearms, many of them from felons.

Impressive.

However, that success came at a high price.

I'm not referring to the program's cost. I'm referring to the consequences of the program that police and Mayor Tom Barrett didn't mention when they bragged about the NSI's tremendous results.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports:

If you listen to the Milwaukee police, you'll hear that an intensive summer patrol effort drove down violent crime across the city.

But listen for a moment to Patrick Fiddler.

Fiddler, 62, says he has lived on the city's east side for 30 years but was never a victim of violent crime until July 28, when he was mugged around the 3300 block of N. Oakland Ave. He says during the past year three others in his small circle of friends have been robbed on east side streets - one twice - and physically assaulted.

"Maybe it's only because I'm a victim and all of a sudden I'm more aware of it, but it seems that these kinds of street crimes are becoming more prevalent here on the east side," Fiddler said. "I don't think the city, either through priorities, emphasis or budgeting, is doing enough about this."

Fiddler is among residents and aldermen who question whether the vaunted Neighborhood Safety Initiative has pushed crime from the patrols' target area into other parts of the city that previously saw little crime.

A Journal Sentinel analysis of crime statistics for the first three months of the $2.45 million initiative shows that some major crimes, such as homicide, were reduced rather than shifted to other areas. But the statistics also show that the extra patrols might not be the unqualified success that police and some city officials have portrayed.

Consider:

• Although the most serious violent crimes dropped citywide, aggravated assaults rose in 10 of Milwaukee's 15 aldermanic districts.

• In two aldermanic districts, aggravated assaults were up sharply, and both of those districts were right next to the target area for the expanded patrols.

• In one aldermanic district outside the target area, serious crime increased overall.

The NSI suddenly doesn't look like such a smashing success, does it?

At a news conference a week ago, Police Chief Nannette Hegerty and Mayor Tom Barrett said violent crime dropped citywide during the time the patrols were running, from May 20 through Sept. 30.

In a subsequent interview, Barrett suggested that the increase in aggravated assaults also could reflect the initiative's success because some of those crimes might otherwise have been homicides.

Talk about spin!

INCREASED aggravated assaults are actually a good thing! They indicate success!

I can't believe he thinks Milwaukee residents would buy that.

Barrett continues to measure the crime crisis in Milwaukee by zeroing in on the homicide rate, as if a decrease in homicides is the strongest indication of a safer city.

There's more to it than that.

Either Barrett understands that fewer homicides aren't the only measure of success and he is intentionally deflecting attention away from the spikes in crime in areas adjacent to the NSI's targeted areas; or he doesn't grasp the spreading, stubborn, epidemic nature of Milwaukee's crime crisis plague.

Either way, it's bad.

At their news conference, Hegerty and Barrett highlighted decreases in homicides, nonfatal shootings and armed robberies. But they didn't mention that aggravated assault rose 4% citywide from May 20 through Aug. 31, compared with the same period last year.

...Barrett said police told him about the increase in aggravated assaults, and he would have shared the information had he been asked.

Although he is concerned about aggravated assaults, Barrett said it is more important to highlight the 174 guns taken off the street by officers assigned to the initiative. Taking guns off the street doesn't stop violent crimes, but it means those incidents are less likely to turn into homicides or nonfatal shootings, he said.

This is an embarrassment.

Hegerty and Barrett should have leveled with the community. They should have been honest and revealed the good with the bad.

Barrett's claim that he knew about the increase in aggravated assaults but didn't share the information because he wasn't asked is so lame.

A "don't ask, don't tell" policy when it comes to crime in the city is deceptive. It is no way to lead.

"Gee, honey, I would have told you about my affair, but you didn't ask."

The following figures are truly disturbing:

Aggravated assaults actually increased more in the aldermanic districts where the patrols were concentrated, the analysis shows.

In the six districts that were at least partly within the initiative's target zone, aggravated assaults were up 5.5% By contrast, aggravated assaults rose only 2% in the nine districts that saw less - if any - of the beefed-up patrols.

Yet some of the aldermanic districts outside the target zone saw bigger increases, and the two with the biggest increases were adjacent to the target zone. In Ald. Tony Zielinski's Bay View district, aggravated assaults shot up 50%, while Ald. Mike D'Amato's east side district was the site of 21% more aggravated assaults than the previous summer.

A 50% increase in Zielinski's Bay View district?

That's enormous.

Barrett says the citywide decrease in crime proves that crime is not being shifted. But that only means the initiative's critics are wrong to claim that all central-city crime was moved to other parts of the city. As the figures show, some crime could increase in some areas while decreases elsewhere push down the citywide totals.

Zielinski said he supported efforts to increase police presence but would not comment on the numbers for his district until he could study them in greater detail.

Barrett said it was possible that a crime spree by a single criminal or gang of criminals could lead to a spike in crime in a particular neighborhood.

Barrett should quit playing around with the numbers and offering excuses.

To be sure, the NSI produced some positive results. However, while the program to tackle the crime crisis in Milwaukee was in place, there were some dramatic shifts in crime in the city, too. That's undeniable.

Furthermore, it's undeniable that Hegerty and Barrett were not forthcoming about the program's results.

If Barrett wants to argue that crime didn't shift, fine. But then he also must admit that parts of the city, such as the Bay View area, are simply becoming more dangerous and dramatically more crime-ridden.

...Barrett said he believed crime went down citywide largely because criminals got the message that police had stepped up patrols. He also said criminals could not predict where those patrols would be because the police moved frequently.

I think criminals got the message, loud and clear. They got the message to SHIFT their activities outside the areas targeted by the NSI.

The figures back that up and so does common sense.
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The latest from Mayor Tom Barrett's office: THE BARRETT REPORT

Not a word about the 50% increase in aggravated assaults in the Bay View area.

Nothing.

Zip.

Zero.

Nada.