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Council criticizes emergency communications after City Hall lockdown; DPW and emergency management promise fixes
Summary
Council President Perez and committee members said City Hall staff and visitors were left without timely information during a May 15 lockdown; city officials acknowledged a PA system failure in part of the complex and pledged after-action work and improved alerts.
Milwaukee Common Council President José Perez told the Public Safety & Health Committee on May 22 that the city's response to a May 15 City Hall security incident left employees and visitors uncertain and exposed communication failures that must be fixed.
"This could have been a tragedy because it wasn't," Perez told the committee, summarizing staff accounts that no formal notification reached many building occupants for 20 to 30 minutes after emergency responders arrived.
City emergency-management and public-works officials described a fragmented response. Ryan Zollicoffer, the city's emergency management director, said a 911 call prompted on-site…
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