[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e [Music] [Music] for from for [Music] [Applause] [Music] and [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] e [Music] [Music] my name is Will everyone please take seats for the of milwauke police honor guard All Rise please col's turn March present arms please join me in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the rep for it stands one nation God indivisible with liy and justice for all right shoulder arms order arms Ready Cut arm ready start ready 1 oh [Music] please take your seats I would like to say thank you to the Milwaukee Police Department honor guard and Captain Leslie teely for your commitment to honoring our nation good afternoon everyone I'm pleased to welcome you to today's oath of office ceremony for Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn today marks the beginning of Chief Flynn's thirdd term as the 20th chief of police for the City of Milwaukee we are honored to be joined by many local dignitaries our first Speaker today will be mayor Tom Barrett mayor Barrett was elected as the 40th mayor of Milwaukee in 2004 and reelected in 2008 and 2012 alongside Chief llynn and the community he is helping create a Milwaukee where all can live safely and without fear please welcome mayor Tom [Applause] Barrett thank you [Music] thank you very much inspector and good afternoon um it's good to see so many of you here this afternoon and I want to begin by um thanking Susan for being here um in support of her husband I want to thank the chief for the fabulous work that he has done um this is all about our criminal justice system and we are also joined by other individuals um both within the Milwaukee Police Department and outside thewa Police Department who are involved in our criminal justice system so I want to thank County Executive able for being here judge white district attorney Chisum chief raling for being here Terry wowski who chairs our efforts of course in the common Council um our memb is and director of our our Milwaukee fire and police commission I want to thank you for the leadership that you have shown um but mostly I want to thank the men and women who serve in the Milwaukee Police Department for being here today in the years that I've been mayor of the city and had the honor of being mayor of the city um I have come to have an even greater greater respect for the work that is done by the men and women who serve in the Milwaukee Police Department the reason for that is I have been able to see much more closely what they do how they act in the most trying situations that one can imagine and how they respond in situations where most of us would turn and run the other way as recently as this morning I saw a video video tape of interactions between our police department and a juvenile who had been picked up and I was proud by the respect the courtesy and the professionalism that they showed in dealing with that juvenile I believe that in any organization the leadership the leadership emanates from the top and with the Milwaukee Police Department we are blessed to have a leader who is strong who is professional who understands the needs of the rank and file members of his Department who understands the nuances of a multi-racial multiethnic city who understands the importance of having a proactive datadriven police department and who understands that this must be a city where people can work with and resp respect the members of the police department and where members of the police department can work with and respect members of the community he also understands that this is a challenge that is never completed that this is something that on a daily basis on an hourly basis on a minute by minute basis because of interactions between the public and our police officers that professionalism that dedication to service that dedication to honesty must be at the top of the list even in the most trying situations that we have faced in a community in the eight years that Chief Flynn has served as chief of this department on every occasion every occasion where we have been challenged he has faced that challenge straight on and we've had some good moments and we've had some bad moments and it's really those bad moments where I think his leadership has been tested most we know that there have been some challenges within the department with individuals who did not act in accordance with the law and he acted he acted referring the case to the district attorney and the district attorney acted they did so both of them in a proactive manner I've seen him in situations where our police have been criticized but where he felt they were doing the job and time and time again he has had their back in those situations where they are being treated or have been treated unfairly we all know his style he's blunt he's driven he's going to tell you what he things but that's the type of person we need to have in this position so whether it's working with the US attorney or the Marshall's office or the state of Wisconsin he has shown that willingness to work with those partners and I want to thank them for being here as well um but this is a job that he recognizes is never completed and it's not a job where you can rest because the challenges that we face in a community are very very real now I also recognize that we are coming off one of the most difficult years that we have faced in the city's history as it relates the homicides in particular and again he has dealt with that issue on a in a head-on fashion um and has worked not only with the members of the police department but with the other members of the community and the criminal justice system to deal with the issues that we Face there is more work to be done we all recognize that um but I am proud that our police chief is Chief Edward Flyn thank you very much [Applause] Chief thank you Mr Mayor our next speaker is Alderman Terry wowski Alderman wowski is a lifelong Southside resident and represents the 13th District he was elected to the common Council in July of 2003 and among many committee assign he is the chair of the Public Safety Committee please welcome Alderman Terry wowski thank you and and good afternoon I appreciate the invitation to speak today though I I thought I'd never be invited back I was here for uh recruit graduation as the main speaker I asked my colleagues how did I do they said great speech way too long so that's not going to happen today so uh I appreciate apprciate everything that's happened in the Milwaukee Police Department in the past past eight years I do believe that the common Council feels the same way the leadership that's been provided the teamwork that's gone on within the department has been tremendous in moving this department and the city forward we've left the front pages of the paper nationally for big problems in the Milwaukee [Music] uh we've had problems yes but they've been addressed what the leadership that we have now it has brought great management when it comes to management of resources management of people management of problems as well and involving the community in Solutions we've seen new community efforts new ways to reach out to the public we've seen a new arrangement in the bluke Police Department New Staffing Arrangements we've had a police differential unit established to make use of officers talents while they're injured we've seen District boundaries changed in the past eight years we've seen new technology used with com stack shot spotter crime mapping body cameras you name a number of different techniques have been been implemented in the past eight years there are new and renewed relationships among departments and those interested in quality of life in the city of Milwaukee and through the Milwaukee region and nationally I'm very proud when I read that the chief of the Milwaukee Police Department is at a National Conference or at the white house uh this hasn't happened before I'm happy with the approach of looking at Milwaukee as a total picture looking at its quality of life looking at its economic well-being and trying to address the total picture in cooperation with others I think there's more challenges to come in the next four years and by the way this is record setting uh since State legislation had established terms for Chiefs uh this is the first Chief to be reappointed and now he broke his own record he's been reappointed twice so I congratulate the chief and look forward to your techniques and in addressing the future of milwauke thank [Applause] you thank you Alderman our final guest speaker this evening is is fire and police commission chairman Steven mogus Mr D vogus was appointed to the fire and police commission in 13 he's a graduate of the University of Michigan and received his law degree from Marquette University in 2015 he joined corals and Brady's Milwaukee office as an attorney in its product liability Practice Group please welcome Mr [Music] [Applause] Doogan good afternoon first and foremost allow me to congratulate the chief uh on a third term as chief of the Milwaukee uh police department department is not an easy job it is not an it is not a uh a well praised job but it is an important job and in this age of increased SC scrutiny and visibility where For Better or For Worse any one of us can become an internet sensation uh it goes without saying Chief Flynn has garnered more than his 15 minutes of fame however Chief Flynn has not wilted under the bright lights he has worked to change and improve the culture of the MPD he has instituted a code of conduct that holds officers to a higher standard and has been emulated by many other departments Chief Flynn has invited third party review of the of the policies and procedures of the department as exhibited by the annual use of force report and the current collaborative process uh undergone by the Department of Justice Chief Flynn has also introduced a modern datadriven strategy to policing and he along with the city recog are recognizes being on the Cutting Edge of policing tactics most recently working with the city and equipping officers with body cameras in addition the MPD has over gone undergo a complete reorganization that should lead to better police services for the community some of the fruits of the Department's efforts are uh most recently a decrease in use of force as exhibited uh in the use of force report for 2014 and in November 2015 the department received accreditation from the Wisconsin and law enforcement accreditation group approving the Department's standards and practices personally I have found Chief Flynn to be decisive and principal he is very much of what you see is what you get type individual he is a passionate man who acts in accordance with his conscience I can respect that one could argue that Chief Flynn is a controversial figure but in having one of the most difficult jobs and one of the most difficult times he is held up the pressure I believe that in my heart Chief ly and the officers of the Milwaukee Police Department want what we all want a safer more prosperous Milwaukee it is our Collective responsibility to make this goal a reality this is our city this is our police department and for a third term this is our police chief so allow me to again congratulate Chief Flynn on another term and thank you [Applause] I will now ask that Chief Flynn and Miss maryel ran please come to the stage we're going to do the uh oath of office uh maryel rigan is the assistant City attorney Who was appointed to the executive director of the fire and police commission in 2015 we welcome you thank you for joining us today [Music] please raise your right hand and repeat after me I I Edward Blen having been appointed to the office of chief of police having been appointed to the office of chief of police swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States swear that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the constitution of the state of and the constitution of the state of Wisconsin and will fully and fairly discharge and will fully and fairly discharge ofice du of office of abil ab [Applause] thank you each of you for joining me here today I'm honored to continue my service to the city of Milwaukee this Police Department in all of our communities neighborhoods and residents thank you mayor Barrett chairman wowski and chairman D vogus I appreciate and depend upon your continued support confidence and enthusiastic interest in ensuring the Milwaukee Police Department performs at the highest levels in the pursuit of our mission yesterday was the eth anniversary of my swearing in as the 20th Milwaukee Police Chief in some ways it literally feels as though it were only yesterday but when I reflect upon the dramatic improvements in the Department's organizational capacity operational effectiveness technological capability Community Partnerships and National reputation for excellence I'm acutely aware that much time has indeed passed and an extraordinary amount of work has been done I am proud of the men and women of the Milwaukee Police Department they are the ones who have implemented an aggressive reform agenda due to their efforts we are a community-based problem oriented datadriven organization our members are animated by their core values of Courage competence leadership Integrity respect and restraint their motiv motivation is derived from the shared goal of realizing our Collective vision of a Milwaukee where all can live safely and without fear protected by a police department with the highest ethical and Professional Standards our shared Mission has been and continues to be that in partnership with the community we will create and maintain neighborhoods capable of suain staining Civic life towards these ends every member regardless of assignment has dedicated themselves our accomplishments have not been achieved unaided recognition must be accorded to Mayor Barrett and members of the common Council who have during times of fiscal austerity consistently provided the Milwaukee Police Department strong budgets supportive of our our Collective Mission during these past eight years more than 400 police officers have been hired helping us keep Pace with attrition at the same time significant Capital Investments have been made in our information and technological infrastructures our police officers have continued to receive raises and their pension unlike those in most American cities is fully funded additionally mayor Barrett has been a consistent supporter of our efforts to control crime fear and disorder in our neighborhoods while insisting that we be respectful of our diverse communities he has stood by us in difficult times we have also had extraordinary support from the fire and police commission and City departments throughout the administration that have collaborated with us to improve the quality of life in our city I am grateful to the Commissioners who have served on the fire and police commission during my tenure and all of my peer department heads for their commitment to our shared vision of Public Service when we reset the Milwaukee Police Department's Mission eight years ago we committed to becoming a community- based problem oriented and datadriven agency we knew this would require a renew focus on performance metrics so we built a comstat that continues to evolve today we knew this would require a fresh and Innovative perspective on officer accountability and discipline so we became a values based agency with a code of conduct founded on those six core values of competence courage Integrity leadership restraint and respect we knew this would require major overhauls to the nearly defunct records management and communication systems so we overcame Financial capacity and political barriers to become the first major city in the country to implement a fully encrypted interoperable Digital radio system and that was just the first two years since then we have earned more than three dozen National and international awards for our community based problem oriented datadriven work including some of the most prestigious recognition in the field all the while we have been fighting crime on every front despite a dramatic increase in gun crimes and homicides in 2015 over the past eight years the members of this department have achieved six of the lowest eight homicide totals in the last quarter of a century and have driven down the occurrence of property and violent crime in pursuit of our mission and we are proud of our accomplishments including our recent Statewide accreditation indicating that our policies and Management Systems meet the highest standards of our profession our Innovative ambassador program as part of the mayor's compete Milwaukee initiative our nationally recognized stop program focused on developing mutually beneficial relationships with the next generation of our Civic leaders our robust homeless Outreach team which whose efforts are targeting some of our City's most disadvantaged our cuttingedge implementation of crime fighting Technologies like shot Spotter and our aggressive implementation of bodyw warn cameras which has already proved beneficial to both officers and the people they are sworn to protect alike these are just a few of the ex examples of our commitment to reducing and preventing crime while building Grassroots community support and acclimating our agencies to the principles of continuous and evolutionary reform I am proud of the work we have done and I invite you to be proud of your Police Department too now none of this is to suggest that we are without challenges there remains much work to be done indeed there always will and I along with members of this agencies are up to meeting these challenges straight on the national coverage about policing undeniably has created a crisis of confidence throughout the country and of course affects attitudes here in Milwaukee and we realize that incidents of misconduct even when identified and investigated ated first by us still summon painful memories going back many decades the facts indicate that our use of force is Down Citizen complaints against us decreased by 75% since 2007 and our purposeful proactive policing has dramatically increased while community support for this agency and the work of its members is objectively high there Still Remains a gap between the perceptions of black and white residents this is something we remain committed to addressing and measuring as we continue our community-minded reforms the facts also indicate year after year after year regardless of whether we have record low shootings homicides or record high shootings and homicides that the greatest Criminal Justice System disparity in Milwaukee is the appalling disparity of violent crime victimization nearly nine of every 10 shooting and homicide victims in our city are African-American African-Americans are8 and a half times more likely than whites to be murdered in our city African-Americans are 17 times more likely to be shot we the police have a moral obligation to do something about it now this requires us to use data analysis technology and targeted deployments to affect the most violent and vulnerable neighborhoods and we have to accept the risk that our liiving attempts will be used by some to accuse us of racial profiling overp policing and contributing to mass incarceration that harsh reality demands that no discussion of police tactics takes place separate from the discussion of dispar victimization in our most disadvantaged neighborhoods we accept the responsibility to be fair impartial respectful and restrained as well as effective and we expect political and Community leadership to direct the same level of concern about the unacceptable levels of neighborhood violence in their communities as they do with police attempts to reduce that violence we must address concerns about both procedural Justice and substa of Justice we cannot fairly or effectively affect one without full consideration of the other it is time for the parallel conversations to stop our Collective effort toward these Mutual mus haves procedurally sound policing and substantively effective policing will generate exponential progress now not withstanding the high levels of community support for our policing efforts as measured by that police citizen survey commissioned by the fire and police commission and as exemplified by our leading work on the building neighborhoods capacity initiative and the burn criminal justice initiative and is highlighted in our Community Partnerships with organizations like safe and sound and the local initiative support Corporation the fact remains that the building of Community Trust is a permanent issue as it should be no police leader can assert that he or she has forever secured the trust of the community they are responsible ible for protecting each of us understands that one critical incident can strip Decades of training progress reform and success from our agency's reputation the fact remains that critical incidents Drive public opinion more than data Although our data plainly demonstrate that there is neither a pattern nor a practice of unlawful unethical or improper policing in Milwaukee concerns about Community Trust motivated me to request that the United States Department of Justice enter in to a collaborative reform agreement with the Milwaukee Police Department we will be working with the office of community oriented policing services to examine our existing systems and processes aimed at building community support and I am confident that the cop's office will be very impressed with the strides we have taken in organizational reform and community policing in no uncertain terms we will implement the recommendations of those consultants and the justice department and we will continue to become better additionally I'm pleased to again subreport that the response from our local state and federal Partners indicates a broad willingness to collectively attack the problems of violence and crime afflicting some of our neighborhoods I will continue to pursue every available resource from strategic and technical assistance to National academic research to good old-fashioned focused overtime deployments I welcome the Attorney General's recent assignment of two assistant Attorneys General to help us more aggressively prosecute armed criminals and I will continue our active engagement in high impact task forces with the FBI ATF DEA and the United States Attorney I will also continue my eight-year advocacy for common sense changes to permissive gun laws that arm criminals and give them relative impunity while putting our communities at risk it is time for our elected leaders to stop using gun laws as a wedge issue and accept their ethical responsibilities to protect the lives of Americans changes today may not have an impact on tomorrow's crime but they will save lives in the future while we have no idea how many lives Liv would have been saved in the last few years if Common Sense had prevailed sooner we must remember that government is accountable for the future not just the present eight years ago I made specific Promises to the officers supervisors and commanders of this agency the elected and appointed leaders of this city and the residents of our neighborhoods and communities today I want to remind us all of those promises as they are as alive today as they were eight years ago not withstanding the progress we have achieved to our officers I recommit myself to do all that I can to see that you are properly trained equipped supervised and supported we have made strong strides in each of these areas from our aggressive implementation of Crisis Intervention training to our continual investments in technology and I promise to never stop the evolution of this department I continue to believe in you I maintain my confidence in you I recognize that police work today more than any time in my nearly five Decades of police experience is extremely difficult and brings with it real emotional and physical dangers and I remind you that our work has meaning and that the greatest antidote to cynicism is a sense of accomplishment in an environment of support and acceptance to My Command Staff and supervisory officers I recommit myself to empowering you in developing your potential As Leaders our experience with the leadership and police organizations model is but the start your growth as managers and leaders is essential to the long-term success success of this agency in achieving its mission to those in my authorizing political environment the board of fire and police Commissioners to the mayor council district attorney Attorney General and all of our system Partners I recommit to The Prudent management of the resources of my authority and the authority you grant to this police department and I will R double my efforts to engage in true Partnerships with you as we work to overcome the challenges of our time to our communities neighborhoods and residents I recommit myself to an open accountable accessible Police Department responsive to your concerns and dedicated to partnering with you to solve problems we will continue to learn from our mistakes and missteps together we will continuously earn your your trust at the same time as we work with you to create neighborhoods truly capable of sustaining Civic life now this year marks my 45th year as a police officer this month marks my 28th year as a law enforcement chief executive I've seen many changes during those years but I have never seen the profession I love so challenged as today as I look at out at my colleagues in the audience I want them to know that not every generation of police officers faces the same level of challenge dealing with both crime and public confidence as we do now but I remind them even as I remind myself we do not have to do this we get to do this we accept the privilege of this Challenge and I exort all of us to strive to be the best version of ourselves to be the best police officers we can to be the best police commanders we can be to be the best police department we can be so that all of our profession can look to us as an examp example of the potential for both effective Crime Control and strong community relations when a single Police Department accepts the challenge of being the best version of American policing now I would be proud to have all sworn and recruit members of this department stand and join me in reciting our oath of Honor raise our right Hands On My Honor I will never betray my badge I will never betray my badge my Integrity my integ my character my character or the public trust for the public trust I will always have the courage I will always have the courage to hold myself to hold myself and others and others accountable for our actions account for our actions I will always uphold the Constitution I will always uphold the Constitution protect my community protect my community and accomplish the mission of the Milwaukee Police Department and accomplish the mission of the Milwaukee Police Department I will demonstrate confidence I will demonstrate confidence have courage have courage be a person of Integrity be a person of Integrity exhibit leadership in leadership show respect show respect and act with restraint and act with restraint that is my that is my thank you Chief Flynn congratulations on your third term I would like to thank everyone for being here today as Chief Flynn begins his third term and continues to lead the members of of the Milwaukee Police Department with the highest ethical and Professional Standards please join us for light Refreshments immediately following our program and there will also be a receiving line at the front of the stage uh to congratulate Chief Flynn and his wife Susan I would also like to thank all of you for coming I would like to thank the academy staff um for always uh putting on a great show here and for doing everything that they do thank you all Milwaukee Police Officers for being here today and for doing this job have a great day thank you thank you so much thank you very much I know thank you so much [Music] [Music] [Music] for