Chief has been a suggestion that homicides were down in a lot of major cities around the US do you have that impression as well and if so was Milwaukee all that much different uh I would note that uh homicide was down in some cities that have embraced similar taxic that we have it has not been down uniformally it went up in Washington DC and went up significantly in Chicago uh but there are cities that have worked hard to comb through their departments and you know create for example strategic Reserves have a number of special units uh there are departments that have made a renewed commitment to data analysis and the use of data analysis in those deployments I mean it's a toolkit nobody's pretending here that we've uh invented something wildly new what we've done has gone into the tool kit and we've used those tools I think wisely and because we've got some uh some pretty uh some we not some we've got very highly capable people out there dedicated to their city in the use of those tools it's had an impact yes have you U broken down who's doing killing the age and race um we've got good data from the homicide review commission as well as from our own data we can get that to you you'll see that uh as usual the demographics of the offenders are always tracked very closely with the demographics of the victims what do you need from the state or the federal government over the next year you or the mayor want to answer that well I mean I I'll give you a quick approach from my perspective and then I'll defer to the mayor I mean um there's no doubt that uh you know since 2001 there's been a disinvestment from the federal level in local policing and I think our federal Partners in homeland security really missed the boat when it came to understanding that when it came to local law enforcement its greatest role could be terrorism prevention because of its connection to communities and that arises from our core mission of police and communities effectively in a way that instills trust uh that underfunding resulted in a lot of shiny new command vehicles but I wouldn't say it's resulted in in an improvement in our ability uh to do our core job and my hope is that with someone like Vice President Biden who is a co-author of the cops Bill back in uh the 1990s that there will be a renewed commitment to investing in cities that are afflicted with the significant violence the chief has talked a lot and many have talked a lot about the correlation between poverty and crime which one causes the other uh I think it's safe to say that we recognize that there is a strong correlation regardless of which is the chicken which is the egg but what is most important I think is at a time when our economic situation not just in Milwaukee but throughout this nation um is not in a good situation in terms of joblessness uh and the corresponding rise in hopelessness as a result of that this is a time for both the federal and the government to reinvest in our cities um that Hometown Security becomes very very important particularly at times when you've got economic unrest as we have in this nation so we have seen a disinvestment um I served in Congress in the 1990s when we instituted that cops program and we were able to get 100,000 cops onto the streets of the Cities throughout this nation I would like to see a return to that I'd like to see better funding for programs like the burn grant program I'd like to see the state uh help us more with some of these programs as well um as the chief said it is a political decision as to how many resources go into the police department we have made the calculation that by investing in police officers we will have safer streets that's a calculation that I will continue Contin to make uh and hope to have the resources to continue to give the police officers um to the chief that he needs to make this a safe City there be some backsliding if the state cuts the budget or the Federal invests in infrastructure again that's why it's important for us to be here today to say we've made progress and part of the reason we've made progress is because we have invested the resources that have allowed us to reduce crime in the city that means we need Partners at the state level and the federal federal level to remain partners with us and be stronger partners because inevitably if we see Sharp cutbacks whether it's from the state or the federal government ultimately we are going to have to look at the police department for cuts I don't want to do that I think that this has been a wise investment I think it's been an investment that's paid off we want to continue with how much of an imp do you think some of the G take over the um they've certainly helped um gangs use violence to enforce their monopolies now the other side of it is frequently when a gang is taken down there's a destabilization in the environment that increased some renewed Bloodshed as well uh but there's no doubt that it's been of some assistance uh again our goal has been to be uh a well-informed stable and assertive presence in neighborhoods that have the highest levels of violence our goal is to disrupt the crime environment by making it hard for these stable marketplaces to function and I think that's had an impact no doubt taking down some of these uh gangs has been an important component of that but the stable engagement is also I think brought significant dividends what Ro do you think the economy will have in the next year inme well it'll certainly have some effect I would expect its most obvious effect would be on familial violence sadly all too of an economic downturn that creates Financial stress results in intra Family Violence uh it'll no doubt have some effect on property crime and of opportunistic proper property crime whether it has an impact I'm not going to uh you know if it comes to you know gang and Drug violence I'm not going to attribute that to the economy that has to do with an illicit economy that functions independently of the uh of the conventional economy and has its own rules and it's in that environment that we're going to continue to uh do our best to affect Behavior would you say that excuse me would you say that the increase in domestic uh homicides this last year had something to do with the economy D well it's it's obviously early to tell but I would certainly if you were doing any kind of longitudinal work or you know read the sociology of the subject there's uh where where there is financial stress uh it is frequently accompanied by Family Violence so I I would not be surprised to see an increase there and this is one of the things that's really quite honestly and I'm just you know talking to you now as a group that's our form of communication with a public that needs to know how afraid it needs to be there are different kinds of homicide as we move forward I recognize that people are going to be keeping count under the number of homicides it's easy to do but not all homicides are equal when it comes to the safety of citizens and affecting their behavior and it would be helpful moving forward you know to note where possible you know when we're dealing with a domestic as opposed to When It's a Robbery Homicide or you know possibly gang or drug related there are distinctions some of them are amendable to our strategy some aren't some are the kinds of crimes people need to be afraid of um in the General Public many aren't and it would be helpful you we'll do our best to keep you informed but it would be helpful if we could move beyond the scorecard mentality and really get to uh get behind the numbers and understand just what's going on as we move forward into 2009