Changes at Police Department
Morales focuses on trust, putting cops in districts
Interim Chief Alfonso Morales is making plenty of changes at MPD.
Ask Interim Police Chief Alfonso Morales what he wants to achieve leading the Milwaukee Police Department and he answers quickly:
Rebuild trust in the department. Move more cops to neighborhood patrols. Work with governmental partners and community groups. Focus on who is causing the most violent crime in the city.
But in his first three weeks what has been noticed more than his actions within the department is the shift in tone he has brought to the agency.
Days after he was appointed Milwaukee’s top cop, he quietly stopped by a sentencing of a triple-homicide suspect and spoke with the victims’ families.
He went to the opening of the Southside Safety Summit and encouraged more than 100 residents gathered to freely share their thoughts and experiences with the department.
Then he left, saying he respected the process of not having law enforcement present so residents could talk more openly.
And when a photojournalist tried to take his portrait, he asked if the department’s new spokeswoman, Sgt. Sheronda Grant, could join him because he did not want the impression to be that he was working alone.
“I don’t think when you reflect upon the police department that you only know one person, and that’s the person from the camera,” Morales said in an interview.
“That’s not my purpose,” he said.
Moving cops into districts
Morales has had a hectic first three weeks on the job.
He has ordered assessments and audits of the department internally to help guide his decisions. He is getting his command staff in place. He has met with the city’s Fire and Police Commission and is meeting with each of the city’s 15 aldermen, as well as community groups.
“He’s not just going through the mo-
tions,” said Ald. Bob Donovan, chairman of the Common Council’s Public Safety and Health Committee.
“I think he has a real desire to be successful, you can tell that,” Donovan said. “He’s excited about the opportunity that’s been presented to him.”
Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm said Morales is approaching his new job from two perspectives: showing strong leadership and vision internally for the department, and spending time working with community leaders outside the department.
“He’s also a lifelong Milwaukee native and I think that’s the thing that resonates with the community the most when he talks to them,” Chisholm said.
Morales’ top priority has been moving more officers into each of the department’s seven districts, which in some ways function as mini-cities of their own.
As of this Sunday, 80 officers will have been moved back into the districts and Morales plans to reassign another 20 by the start of summer.
Many of those officers were previously assigned to the Neighborhood Task Force, a unit that deployed around the city to crime and traffic hot spots. Morales has disbanded that task force.
He sees the redeployment of resources to the districts as essential to building community relationships and helping combat officer fatigue.
“Every day they report to work, they’re going to know their neighborhood,” Morales said, adding that officers will be held accountable for how many positive interactions they’ve had with residents and their knowledge of the neighborhood.
“One commander said we’re just throwing a net out there and seeing what we catch. You can’t throw the net out there,” he said. “You’ve got to know specifically what you want to do in these neighborhoods.”
‘Leave your egos outside the room’
Morales also supports Community Prosecution Units and sees them as a “core” of his community policing strategy. The units include a prosecutor, a police officer and a community organizer who focus on blight and other quality-of-life issues.
The popular program has suffered without sustained funding. The units only exist in three of the seven police districts. Morales said he is planning to apply for federal grants with the district attorney’s office to try to get more funding.
“The goal is to have one in every district,” he said.
The new chief also plans to implement shooting reviews, which bolster information-sharing to get violent criminals off the streets or work with community groups to get them resources.
Morales said he wants to include prosecutors, corrections officials and other partners in the shooting reviews so they have “real-time” information.
“Everybody has to understand that our violent crime is important and we have to work on it under a sense of urgency,” Morales said.
He also sees value in working with grass-roots organizers and resident leaders who have more influence than law enforcement in certain neighborhoods. And he says he does not mind if those same leaders also criticize the department.
“The way I look at it is I don’t really care if you like the police or not, but if we can work together and you can play a role in reducing violent crime, then we’re going to work together,” he said. “It’s leave your egos outside the room and let’s work on the common goal.”
He expects to bring the same approach to other crime problems, including sex trafficking and prostitution. The department is working with service providers and local, state and federal law enforcement partners for an initiative in April.
“That will be something the public has not seen,” Morales said. “We’re going to bring other partners into the planning for that. … It’s a bigger thing than just saying we’re going to go out there and make arrests.”
Visible leadership
Morales, 47, has had many different roles in the department during his 25year career.
Each new position took at least a year to get familiar with it, another year to make changes and then a third or fourth year to measure the effectiveness of those changes, he said.
“To change the culture that has been established in the last 10 years cannot be done in 30, 60 or 90 days,” Morales said. “We can set things in motion but to really change the culture, you have to look at some time.”
Regardless, Morales has “hit the ground running,” Mayor Tom Barrett said.
“He’s very friendly and he wants to reach out to a lot of people and that’s a good thing,” Barrett said. “I think the more he can build those direct ties to the community, the better off he’ll be and the better off the department will be.”
Fire and Police Commission Chairman Steven DeVougas said Morales has a difficult job after out-going Police Chief Edward Flynn left the agency in “shambles.”
“It will be tough, but with an emphasis on community policing, implementing the (Department of Justice) recommendations and improving training and morale, I am more than confident that Chief Morales will lead the department through this chapter,” DeVougas said.
Common Council President Ashanti Hamilton said although some questions remain about how the commission chose the interim chief, he does not believe they hold back Morales from bringing stability to the department. Morales was chosen over another internal candidate on a 4-3 vote.
“You can see the effort to try to change the culture,” Hamilton said of Morales. “I like that approach.”
Morales will serve as interim police chief until a permanent chief is named by the city’s Fire and Police Commission, which has yet to determine that selection process.
“My goal is to be the chief,” Morales said. “I am the chief of police and my goal is to continue for a period of time.”
In the meantime, he is pledging to be visible and accessible to city and community leaders.
“If they want to see the leadership in the police department, they will be able to see that,” Morales said during an interview in his seventh-floor office at police headquarters.
“We’re not going to hide up on this floor and send other people to talk on our behalf.”