Plan Includes Recommendations To Increase Police Staffing, Taxes
By Ross Terrell
The Milwaukee Common Council released a public safety action plan Tuesday afternoon. The plan includes recommendations to expand juvenile detention facilities, increase Milwaukee police staffing and increase property taxes. Alderman Ashanti Hamilton said the price tag for the changes is large, but they don’t plan on paying for everything in it. “Quite honestly, we would like the flexibility of bringing in more resources so we can make the decision locally about what was funded and what wasn’t,” Hamilton said.
Some of the changes recommended don’t cost much and are as simple as training police officers, Hamilton said. The plan also calls for improving police- community relations and increasing economic development in Milwaukee. Hamilton said he believes there’s a way to improve public safety while decreasing incarceration rates.
The public safety action plan is a working document and there will be community meetings to gather input, Hamilton said.
“We cannot dismiss what some people feel like would have a major impact on public safety and put that on the table and have an open public discussion about it,” Hamilton said.
Other recommendations included keeping arrestees in jail instead of using electronic monitoring until cases are resolved and creating a bootcamp-style boarding school for at-risk youth.
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