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MPD and OCWS tell council recent downtown shootings appear retaliatory; department outlines short-term steps
Summary
Milwaukee Police and the Office of Community Wellness and Safety briefed the Public Safety & Health Committee on an apparent uptick in retaliatory violence centered on Water Street; MPD cited resource limits, social-media amplification, and noted a major July 12 shooting outside Element.
Milwaukee Police Department officials told the Public Safety & Health Committee on July 30 there has been an uptick in violent acts in downtown entertainment districts and that many incidents appear retaliatory or linked to licensed premises. Inspector Lau summarized a sequence of incidents starting in June and culminating in a July 12 incident outside the Element venue where five to six people were shot and two people later died. “We had shooting incidents that took place on June 8, June 15, June 16, [and] July 12,” Inspector Lau said, and described several investigations as ongoing.
MPD and the Office of Community Wellness and Safety (OCWS) framed short-term operational actions that include stepped-up curfew enforcement, targeted foot and squad patrols at hot spots, additional overtime staffing when available, bar checks and de-escalation inside venues, and community outreach. OCWS interim director Karen Tyler said the office is taking a public-health approach and that data show midnight–early-morning spikes in nonfatal and fatal shootings within the North Water Street neighborhoods. “A lot of it is retaliatory violence…a lot of it is associated with licensed premises,” Tyler said, adding that OCWS is mobilizing outreach, mediation and critical-response teams where feasible.
