Good afternoon. I'm Mayor Tom Barrett and I'm joined by Police Chief Edward Flynn, Alder Mike Murphy, and as you can see behind us, uh, a group of a large group of members of Milwaukee's police department and their neighborhood task force, which was a special unit that was created last June by Chief Flynn to really, really reach into the neighborhoods. It's a coordinated group that works in some of the most troubled areas of the city. And the purpose, of course, is to make this a city where people are safe. Prior to today, this unit had been housed in the police administration building, but we were looking for a permanent home for them. And we couldn't be happier, at least I'm speaking personally here, I couldn't be happier to have them returned to the rock, as this building is affectionately referred to. Uh, a place that is a former District 3 building that was out of commission for several years. But Alderman Murphy, Chief Flynn, others have been pushing to put this building back into use. And I think by the the rumblings I've heard in the neighborhood, uh the neighborhood is delighted to have the Rock reopened as well. Uh it's a very very great location as you can tell by the access to 41 and Valit Street. We're really at the crossroads in many way of Milwaukee and allows the police officers to move very very quickly through all parts of the city. So I wanted to thank Chief Flynn, Alderman Murphy, most importantly uh the brave men and women who work for the Milwaukee Police Department who are here today. Just earlier this week, I had the the great honor of accompanying some of these police officers as they executed some search and arrest warrants um that allowed us to to bring down the Valite Street gang in many respects. Uh a group that was terrorizing the area just east of here and selling lots of drugs and controlling that area. That has changed dramatically now. And because of that, because of of the work that's done by these individuals as well as other elite units of the Milwaukee Police Department, uh we've taken a significant step forward in making this part of town safe. Again, the final thing I want to say is the stimulus bill, which passed Congress and was signed into law by President Obama last week, uh will also bring directly to this community $5.5 million in burn grant dollars. uh and we are working with the police chief with other law enforcement officials for the allocation of those dollars. Uh so we don't have an allocation yet, but I want the people to know that that is the figure that we have now received from Washington in the burn grant dollars. That's a very important law enforcement program and I'm pleased to have those dollars as well. Now I'd like to turn it over to Chief Lynn who's done just a great job in in I think restoring trust in the Milwaukee Police Department, bringing this community closer together and reducing crime in the city of Milwaukee. Chief Lynn, thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, Alderman Murphy. Uh, first and foremost, I want to thank the mayor and the alderman for permitting us to spend money. Um, the results of those expenditures are here today. Um, they're very proud to stand in front of the neighborhood task force. They've had a dramatic impact on the crime problem in Milwaukee. They've had a dramatic impact on disorder. They've had a dramatic impact in reducing the fear in the community. And in some ways, reopening a station house is also an investment in reducing community fear as well as providing a good facility for our uh for our operations. The neighborhood task force is made up as you can see by the mounted unit, the marine unit, the tactical enforcement unit, the violent fugitive apprehension unit, um the street crime unit. All of these units functioning together as a group in critically afflicted neighborhoods have driven down crime and disruptive criminal networks as well as providing a safe place for neighborhoods to prosper and grow. That's ultimately our goal and a critical aspect of reaching our goal has been the work of the neighborhood task force and I couldn't be prouder of them. Uh we're also glad today to have a chance to reconnect with the history of the Milwaukee Police Department. This is an historic building. Uh if you get a chance to walk around, you'll see some historic photographs. And as hard as it is to believe as you look at the young fit officers behind me, but someday they're going to be in old yellowed photographs as well. And I'm hoping those photographs will be up on the wall here. So when they come here and remind people of how tough it was in the old days, but how Milwaukee changed for the better under their watch, u they'll be able to relive some fond memories here. So we're very proud of this moment. We're proud of these men. We're proud of these women and uh we're glad to be uh back in the neighborhood. All of them. Thank you. Thank you, mayor. Thank you, chief. I want to thank the chief when he became uh chief Milwaukee Police Department over a year ago. One of his first acts was to recognize how important this building was to the neighborhood and to the community. And he worked very closely with me and members of the council to make this a reality. This building is a great significant part of the community in the west side. It serves really as the rock for both the Washington Heights neighborhood and the Martin Drive neighborhood. It's got great access to all the central points of our city. And I couldn't be prouder of the men and women behind me who have done such a remarkable job in the last year to the neighborhood task force. They made a significant improvement in overall quality of our life. I'm very proud of them. Um let me just add the police chief was very creative in using the financing to get this building built. Excuse me, get this built re uh rehab. And what he was able to use was to able to use the asset forfeerture funding um with capital funding from the city of Milwaukee. What the asset forefeerture money is money that they confiscated from drug dealers. So part of this building was paid for by the drug dealers of this city and it's a good use of their money to bring it back to this community and making a difference. And the chief is to be commended on that leadership and working creatively on the financing. Once again, we're very proud to have him here in this community. thrilled to have him on the street and I have the great pleasure of introducing a neighborhood resident who has worked for over 25 years to bring back to the west side and made a significant improvement and that's Pat Miller from the Martin Drive neighborhood association. I'm just very happy to be here and I want to thank all the powers to be. I don't know exactly how this happened, but um on behalf of the Martin Drive Neighborhood Association and Valite Street businesses, we are so happy to have this wonderful reuse of this police district building. And um but mostly I think our police department is really working now. they they've taken the community into account and I think it's done a really good thing for all of us because um the crime or the response time is so good just I'm very very happy with the police department and so I want to thank you Chief Flynn and um I'm happy to be the community part of that. So thank you very much Mr. Mayor a little bit over here so that we don't have the mic stand in the way. How's that? This is the best police tape to cut. So, get in here. All right. Ready? One, two, three. All right. Business questions. Chief, the mayor, the alderman. Uh, you keep in mind this is a Friday in Lent. I understand you can get a delicious uh fish sandwich across the street at uh at Fred's. Uh Mark's here and uh the Flynn burger. We want to have good nutrition here. If we're going to go from 0 to 60. Um, the other thing is it might be a good time to buy Dunkin Donuts stock. If somebody wants to, uh, think about locating one on Bleed Street, I think we'd appreciate that as well. So, we're here. There's also a really good pizza store down the block. So, uh, we're going to help reinvigorate the business. We, uh, want to make sure that, uh, everybody benefits from the economic stimulus of the police department on Glee Street. Any questions, guys? Chief, you guys do a lot of research. You have a lot of a lot of criminals crimes cases you're doing in one central location. Is that going to help information? We think it's going to help on a couple of levels. I mean, these units were uh in different locations. You know, they weren't all in the same place. And on one level, we want to improve unit cohesion, but a part of unit cohesion is uh intraunit coop cooperation and communication. And obviously getting everybody in the same house uh gets them to know each other, understand each other's operations, understand the uh capabilities of their individual units and once again you know create a cohesiveness in this task force so that it functions optimally when it's deployed and a big piece of that is as you say communications which I think this can only enhance. Chief, I know Mayor Barrett talked about stimulus money on the way. What's the challenge in finding the resources both monetary from a manpower standpoint? What's what's the challenge in keeping something like this going? Well, you know, the challenge is the unknown. Uh the mayor's made a commitment to uh to invest in public safety and he's been as good as his word and uh our budget this year reflects the fact that he made uh the police department a priority. We don't know what the future's going to bring. Uh we're we're grateful that the administration right now is very oriented towards uh local aid and support for local law enforcement. that's been missing for quite some time and they've certainly made a major commitment in terms of the burn grant funding, the justice assistant grant funding as well as the reinvigoration of the cop's office. So, we're hopeful that even as uh as city revenues may be uh may be stressed uh by the uncertain economic climate that the continued investments at the federal level will enable us to uh to do our uh to do our job.