Aldermen want MPD report

Calls for federal findings intensify

Members of the Common Council are calling on the U.S. attorney general to release a delayed federal report about the Milwaukee Police Department.

The vast majority of the 15-member council — with the exception of Ald. Terry Witkowski — signed on to a letter asking Attorney General Jeff Sessions to help release the U.S. Department of Justice’s collaborative reform assessment with the department.

“We respectfully ask that you use your authority to either release this report to the public immediately or that you provide a date certain on which it will be released,” their letter reads. “Public safety and policing in our city is paramount in importance for our citizens, and for us as elected Common Council members who are sworn to protect the health, safety and welfare of our citizens.”

Their letter follows similar comments made by a coalition of nearly two dozen local faith and civil rights groups.

On Friday, the coalition called for the immediate release of the long-awaited report, as well as all drafts.

Calls to release the report come in the wake of a lawsuit accusing the Milwaukee Police Department of illegal stop-and-frisks targeting African-Americans and Latinos.

Federal authorities have not said when the report will be released.

Federal officials previously said the first report from the collaborative reform process, operated by the Justice Department’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, or COPS, was expected to be released in January.

Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn requested the voluntary review more than a year ago on the same day federal prosecutors announced they would not charge a former Milwaukee police officer with the on-duty fatal shooting of Dontre Hamilton.