Homicide commission shifts its focus

It will pause study of killings to look at issues like overdoses

After more than a decade analyzing murder in Milwaukee, a nationally lauded commission formed to spot trends and try to prevent deadly violence is shifting focus.

The Milwaukee Homicide Review Commission will no longer do its namesake task — review homicides — at least for now, said Mallory O’Brien, a founder and director of the commission.

“There’s no funding at this moment for that piece of it, and it’s grown way beyond just that,” she said.

“Many of our partners have said, ‘This is a valuable process, we want to see it continue,’ and so we’re in the process of figuring that out.”

O’Brien and Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, a member of the commission’s executive committee, see an opportunity for the process to expand beyond the city and to study other kinds of problems,

such as fatal opioid drug overdoses.

“One approach builds off another,” Chisholm said.

The move comes as the city has experienced back-to-back spikes in the number of homicides over the last two years and amid increased calls for agencies and community partners to work together on problems, a

core goal of the commission.

How it started

When the Homicide Review Commission began in 2005, no one was examining homicides and shootings in a comprehensive way. Agencies did not routinely gather to share information and learn where they could improve.

The commission began monthly meetings, and the reviews included police officers, prosecutors, probation officers, corsame

rections officials, federal agencies, experts on domestic violence and community service providers.

Different, specialized reviews of fatal domestic violence and sexual assault cases spun off from the Homicide Review Commission.

Among its many recommendations, the commission was a guiding force behind a program to help ex-offenders re-enter the community and another initiative to tighten city ordinances in an effort to regulate taverns where violence was occurring.

Grants from state and federal government, as well as foundations, have covered the bulk of the commission’s roughly $275,000 in annual operating cost, which has traditionally included in-kind support from Milwaukee.

As the Milwaukee Police Department built its own crime data capabilities, it came to rely less on the commission.

In the early days, the commission provided weekly reports on homicides and nonfatal shootings to the department’s top brass.

“Since then, MPD has drastically increased its analyst capabilities and does comprehensive analyses of homicides and other crimes,” Sgt. Tim Gauerke, police spokesman, said in an email.

Last year, the Police Department restricted researchers’ access to its data and incident reports, which contained important details about the crime, according to O’Brien.

Commission researchers typically verified the information in the homicide and shooting database by reading and interpreting incident reports, she said.

Gauerke maintained the commission has access to police data “upon request.”

“The data originates from the same researchers and is captured in the

manner and scope the HRC accessed historically,” he said. “To maintain security of MPD’s data systems, no entity outside of the department has direct access to MPD systems.”

In 2015, the Police Department produced an indepth report on the spike in homicides that year. It was similar in form and function to older commission reports.

The department appears to be taking a step away from the commission as it contemplates its new focus and scope.

“MPD does not have a role in determining the Homicide Review Commission’s purpose, but appreciates all efforts by the community to find solutions to reduce violent crime,” Gauerke said.

The Homicide Review Commission’s 2016 report had findings similar to previous years: Deadly violence is concentrated in tight geographic spaces and disproportionately affects men and people of color. Firearms were involved in more than 80% of homicides.

So far this year, the city has seen slightly fewer homicides, with 91 compared with 96 at the same time last year, according to the Milwaukee Police Department. Nonfatal shootings are trending up 6% compared with last year, with 453 victims.

The 2016 Homicide Review Commission report was released Thursday after delays caused by changes in staff and access to data. In previous years, the latest the report had come out was May.

Still, the report is an important tool for city leaders, public safety officials, residents, nonprofit agencies and others, said Reggie Moore, director of the city’s Office of Violence Prevention.

“It’s hard to address an epidemic if you don’t know where it’s happening, who it’s happening to and how frequently,” he said.

His office and the Homicide Review Commission are housed within the city’s Health Department, which has taken a public health approach to violence that involves many partners.

For O’Brien, that collaboration is an important legacy of the commission and something she believes should continue to reduce violence.

“It can’t just be one group saying we’re going to take the lead here,” she said. “We have to respond together in a coordinated way from all perspectives.”