Milwaukee Police outline $1 million 2026 asset-forfeiture spending plan including community grants and technology upgrades

Laura Egan, representing the Milwaukee Police Department, presented the department's 2026 Equitable Sharing (asset-forfeiture) plan, telling the finance committee that the trust had about $1.8 million at Dec. 31 and that the department proposes using roughly $1.0 million in 2026 while holding a reserve.

Egan outlined allocations across categories: about 20% (roughly $180,000) to community engagement initiatives prioritized by captains and community input (things like crossing-guard signs, speed boards, home-security cameras and security lights); a larger share for general equipment and supplies (19 projects including Chromebooks for the police academy and forensics lab equipment); technology investments of roughly $245,000 for a records-redaction system and a cloud-based management integration; training and travel about $90,000; and an annual facility lease of about $108,000 for the Milwaukee Urban Stables, which houses the mounted patrol program.

Egan said the redaction system would create an ongoing maintenance cost but would "offset the additional time" assigned staff now spend on manual redaction associated with open-records requests. She added that the department would return to the committee if it wanted to access the remaining fund balance for emergencies or changed priorities. Committee members asked for detail on how community engagement dollars are matched to neighborhood needs; Egan said community input and district-level allocations inform those decisions.

The committee adopted the substitute resolution for file 251,834 as presented.