Ed Flynn and the Journal Sentinel

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is determined to get the public to believe that Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn and the Milwaukee Police Department are engaged in an orchestrated effort to mislead them about crime in the city, specifically aggravated assault.

Flynn, not surprisingly, objects.

Flynn is mad as hell and he's not going to take it anymore.

From 620 WTMJ:

Police Chief Edward Flynn is angrily responding to the latest Journal Sentinel watchdog report into the Milwaukee Police Department.

Flynn called Wednesday's article and others by the Journal Sentinel about the reporting of crime statistics in the city "a campaign of lies of omission."

The article by reporter Ben Poston says that the MPD's record clerks have "routinely changed computer codes by hand in a way that removes serious assaults from the city's violent crime rate."

"I believe there is an effort to mislead the public about crime in this city, but it's not us. It's the Journal Sentinel," said Flynn on Newsradio 620 WTMJ's "Midday with Charlie Sykes."

"They are doing everything they can to misrepresent the work of this police department to its community."

Flynn specifically claimed that Poston not only found examples of record clerks giving a downward categorization of crimes from aggravated assault to simple assault, but upward coding errors which brought about the reverse situation in crime statistic reports.

"Poston himself has acknowledged to us that he has found upward coding errors," said Flynn.

"We have found upward coding errors...when a simple assault gets categorized as an aggravated assault. That doesn't count. That's not news. It's only news if we code it downward.

"Poston says the chief's comment isn't true.

"I did not find upward coding errors, nor did I ever tell MPD that, but MPD says they have found some," said Poston in an e-mail to Newsradio 620 WTMJ News Director Jon Byman.

Here's the audio of Chief Flynn talking with Charlie Sykes.

...Flynn also claims that with the exception of Sykes, Journal Broadcast Group's Milwaukee news operations (which include Newsradio 620 WTMJ and TODAY'S TMJ4) are following the same pattern of reporting Milwaukee Police stories as the Journal Sentinel.

"They've decided there are prizes and profits in tearing down this police department. It is a profit-minded, corporate decision. With the exception of (Sykes), who has got the credibility and ratings to be independent, the rest of 'TMJ Enterprises' is in lockstep with these guys."

Here's video, local coverage of the feud between Flynn and the Journal Sentinel.

WISN video here.





From FOX 6:

George Stanley is the Journal Sentinel’s managing editor and spoke with FOX6 News Wednesday.

“If we can’t pay $10,000 for them, who in the general public could get them? These are the public’s records. The public owns them,” Stanley said.

Chief Flynn said he isn’t arguing with the findings of the Journal Sentinel’s investigation, but rather, the presentation. He says the paper’s report lacks context.

“I sat down at this table with that reporter and his editor, and I asked them three very simple questions: when you’re trying to compare the error rate of 2011, how does it compare to years before I got here, as well as other years since I’ve been here? We don’t know. OK. How does our reporting error rate compare to other cities of half a million with similar crime and poverty rates? We don’t know. How does the error rate compare with other Tiberon users of our size? We don’t know. So apparently the universe is one and the standard is perfection,” Chief Flynn said.

Chief Flynn said himself Wednesday that the software MPD uses for crime reporting is “a very cumbersome system.” An MPD sergeant walked reporters through the process Wednesday.

Chief Flynn said multiple drop-down menus have complicated data-entry and staff members have been retrained, and training will continue.

Chief Flynn said the paper is trying to discredit his department – a charge the paper denies.

“We have one agenda, and that’s trying to find out where the truth is,” Stanley said.

Obviously, crimes were misreported and that needs to be addressed.

Obviously, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has an agenda. I don't believe it has anything to do with finding out "where the truth is."

It has already "found" the truth. Its conclusion is Flynn and the MPD are corrupt.

I don't think the newspaper is engaging in investigative reporting. The reporters appear to be engaged in constructing a reality to fit their agenda - discrediting the police. The paper's media partners appear to be doing their part to help.

It's troubling that Milwaukee's police chief has to devote so much energy to defending his department. His time should be spent protecting the citizens of Milwaukee and visitors to the city rather than protecting his reputation and that of the MPD.

The Journal Sentinel definitely has an agenda. Too bad that agenda doesn't include improving the quality of life for people in the city.