as we can see from the data that we provided to you what we believe we have here in milwaukee right now is a trend not an anomaly seven straight quarters of decreased crime in general and seven consecutive quarters of decreased violent crime are a trend that trend is the result of what we believe to be a very successful strategy that is community based problem oriented and data driven we're focusing on the problems of neighborhoods we're focusing on partnerships we're focusing on data not emotions to drive our deployments we're very proud of the results of this strategy so far but we know that there is work to do our great challenge as we continue to refine our tactics is to maintain that civic support when we see a reduction in car thefts bordering on over 30 percent we recognize that a stolen car in milwaukee is not just a lost piece of property it's perhaps a lost job consequently we work very hard in making sure that we put our officers with their authority to investigate to stop and inquire in precisely those areas where crime is highest and when i say area i don't mean general area every single day of the week we have a meeting of our top commanders we look at the crime map from the preceding 24 hours and we decide what our deployments will be in the next 24 hours that police deployment is bearing fruit but there's another important thing to note as well as we see here the 25 reduction in violent crime over the course of two years a one-quarter reduction we also note that the number of car stops and pedestrian stops our officers have made have nearly quadrupled but in that same period of time citizen complaints have declined that's the result of the police working with not against the community we recognize that crime disproportionately affects the poor we recognize that violence disproportionately affects those who live in distressed neighborhoods and we recognize therefore that our enforcement efforts must disproportionately be in those neighborhoods but those efforts must be built on a strong foundation of community support understanding and partnership now we are faced with future challenges and in the midst of our good news i do want to sound an alarm there is a national challenge facing state and local government right now as state and local revenues are declining from coast to coast virtually every state is meeting its challenge in revenue projections by cutting costs particularly in the justice system specifically in corrections state after state is engaging in massive re early release of offenders state after state is closing down prison beds closing down facilities but the same time local government is also being challenged by the same financial pressures as states are and local governments do not have the capacity to make up for the state revenue shortfalls and so city after city is it treating police positions city after city is laying people off city after city is deferring or cancelling purchases as we look down the road but our future challenges we have to recognize the challenges that are facing state and local government but also recognize that those disinvestments in justice will have very real consequences in the streets of our cities if they are not reversed or compensated for by some level of government but in the near term we're still here to talk about good news and as we talk about good news we know data can only tell us so much of the describes so much of the current situation sometimes it's stories that make that situation more specific and more understandable and so today i'm glad to share with you a couple of stories of your police department protecting its community i have with me today a few officers that demonstrate the level of hard work that's being done in this city i may develop the strategy but it's the commanders behind me who operationalize it and it's the officers behind me who implement it on october 7th there was a dispute on the 1000 block of south 20th street that resulted in a 14 year old boy being shot in the chest by a suspect who fled the scene district two officers tim keller and mike slump checks tomchesky to my left here responded and through good police work interviews and above all knowledge of the neighborhood they always work in allowed them to develop a suspect whom they subsequently arrested and from whom they recovered the firearm used in the shooting suspect was charged with reckless endangerment and of being a felon in possession of a firearm just two days ago district five officers bryant de valkaneer and tom maglio made a traffic stop of a vehicle with illegally tinted windows and expired plates the suspect's driver's license was revoked and he was asked to step out of the car when the car door opened marijuana smoke poured out the officers called for a backup officer derek vernon and his canine cyrus who's barking in the background cyrus responded to search the car and when cyrus searches your car you let him search your car cyrus alerted on the glove compartment where officers found a fully loaded 40 caliber glock handgun the driver another convicted felon was on parole for drugs and was arrested i'd like to have a round of applause for these officers whose work represents so much that of their colleagues and we are here this afternoon to share with you some very good news about the progress that has been made and is continuing to be made by the milwaukee police department and the men and work women who work for the milwaukee police department we are here to report that violent crime is trending downward for the seventh consecutive quarter that's seven consecutive quarters of crime going in the correct direction going down i get called when there's a homicide in the city and in between 2000 and 2000 2007 and 2008 we saw a dramatic decrease in the number of homicides in the city we went from 105 in 2007 to 71 in 2008 that's a 32 percent reduction perhaps more remarkable as we saw a reduction in the number of young african-american men who are victims of homicide that number went from 54 in 2007 to 19 in 2008 a drop of 65 percent that 32 overall reduction in homicides has held strong now this year which will mean that for the second consecutive year if this progress continues we'll have the lowest number of homicides in the city of milwaukee that we have seen in the past 25 years that is progress that is something we can all be proud of but perhaps equally remarkable is the fact that we have 7 000 fewer victims of crime in this community over the last two years seven thousand fewer people who have had their lives disrupted because someone has decided that they're going to take out their problems on an innocent bystander in the city that is not an insignificant number seven thousand people that means there are a lot more grandmas in this city who feel comfortable sitting on their front porch in the summer time there's a lot more grandkids who feel comfortable playing in front of their homes or in their backyards in the summertime it means a lot more people who feel comfortable traveling to parts of the city that previously they didn't feel comfortable traveling to we've seen a 30 percent reduction in car thefts that means there are more people who can get to work now that previously had been had their lives disrupted because their cars were stolen we have seen fewer burglaries that means there are more people who feel safe in their homes overall violent crime in this city has dropped 18 percent over the last seven quarters that's something we can all be proud of i've made a commitment that i'll do everything i can to reduce crime in the city and with the partners we have at the police department starting at the top with chief flynn throughout the and throughout the ranks of this police department we have made great strides forward and i'm thankful for those partners i'm thankful to the partnerships that i have at the other end of the hallway and president hines is here and i'm thankful for the support he has given us and that's very very important i'm thankful to the work that's done by organizations like safe and sound and you'll hear later from barb notestein because she has been a real stalwart in getting people on the streets and making people feel safer in their communities in their neighborhoods as well i'm thankful for those of you in the media who have been partners of ours in promoting the public service announcements dealing with the police department's new approach that that not everything as i call it shows up in the box score we can be a force in this city and sometimes the statistics that are not reported are the ones that are most important so i encourage you to continue to run those public service announcements so that people know that they can be a force in this community just as the police department is a force as well