How the Brown arrest could change MPD

Officials call it ‘pivotal moment’ for policing

Hours after Milwaukee Bucks rookie Sterling Brown was arrested and tased by Milwaukee police in January, city leaders and residents vowed to push forward on police reform.

Building on a Justice Department review of the department, organizers outlined steps for community input at a City Hall news conference.

The federal report was never finalized, but a draft was made public last August and contained 110 recommendations for the department.

Since then, the Milwaukee Police Department has a new chief, the police oversight board has a new director and two videos of violent arrests have gone viral.

“This is a pivotal moment for the direction of policing in Milwaukee,” said Reggie Moore, director of the city’s Office of Violence Prevention.

Although the arrest itself occurred

under the prior chief’s watch, new Chief Alfonso Morales has pledged transparency and to restore policecommunity relations.

In a departure from his predecessor, Morales apologized about the Brown incident when he released the video but did not take any questions. He spoke to reporters later in the week, saying he remained committed to community policing but that change will take time.

“I won’t say that it doesn’t mean anything to me, but we have to use some actions,” Markasa Tucker, director of the African American Roundtable, said in response to Morales’ apology.

“These situations continue to happen in Milwaukee way too often.”

From parking violation to taser

In the days since the video’s release one question keeps coming up: How did a parking violation lead to eight officers responding, taking Brown to the pavement and using a taser on him?

“We keep hearing about the training and investments that are being made in providing de-escalation tactics and here we saw things go in quite the opposite direction,” said Darryl Morin of the League of United Latin American Citizens.

On Friday, Morales said all eight officers involved in Brown’s arrest will be retrained on professional communication.

“Clearly, we have to do a better job in de-escalating these situations,” Mayor Tom Barrett said. “There’s no question about that.”

The department already mandates Crisis Intervention Team training, a 40-hour specialized course that teaches police how to identify a person struggling with mental illness and how to de-escalate a tense or dangerous situation.

The mandate came at the urging of the family of Dontre Hamilton, who was shot and killed by a Milwaukee police officer in Red Arrow Park.

“I think there have been a lot of positive changes, and I think there’s still a lot more work to be done,” said Attorney Jonathan Safran, who has represented victims of police misconduct in Milwaukee and was on the Hamilton family’s legal team.

‘Totally unacceptable’

The interaction speaks to the need for procedural justice training, said Fred Royal, president of the NAACP Milwaukee branch.

Procedural justice refers to the idea that a process — for example, a traffic stop — is fair and impartial. It is a recurring theme in the Milwaukee Collaborative Community Committee, which grew out of the stalled Justice Department review.

“As to correcting this type of behavior, it goes in direct line with what the collaborative has pointed out,” Royal said. “To escalate the entire situation to where he was tased was totally unacceptable.” The Milwaukee Police Association, the union representing rank-and-file officers, has strongly backed the officers involved and said the use of force is “always dictated” by the person responding to the officer.

The union blamed staffing levels, suggesting if the first officer responding to Brown had a squad partner, he would not have needed to call for backup. Milwaukee police typically patrol in one-officer squads.

Spotlight on the new police chief

The video release was a major test for Morales, who has been chief for four months.

“This is an opportunity, under new leadership, to really demonstrate a new direction for what true community policing should look like,” Moore said.

Common Council members and city residents have called for Morales to be more transparent in explaining the process. Others, including Tucker from the African-American Roundtable, have called for him to fire the officers involved in Brown’s arrest.

“If the new administration wants to distinguish themselves from previous administrations, they are going to have to break away completely from the old and walk in something new,” Tucker said.

Morales initially declined to say what discipline three department members were facing, citing legal restrictions. Late Friday, he said an officer received a two-day suspension and two sergeants received 10- and 15-day suspensions, confirming previous reporting by the Journal Sentinel.

La Keisha Butler, the newly appointed director of the Fire and Police Commission, said she believed Morales had good intentions in releasing the video.

“As with anything, there’s always room for improvement going forward,” she said. “I think going forward, you will probably see a different response.”

Looking forward

A shift has already happened, Council President Ashanti Hamilton said.

“I would say, 10 years ago, this would not have been a punishable offense,” Hamilton said. “People would have defended the actions of the police officers, they would have maligned the character of Sterling Brown, and this would be a different story right now.”

He and other city officials are well aware of challenges in the department: recruiting diverse officers, ballooning costs of police misconduct lawsuits, rewriting policies, updating training and following other recommendations for reform.

“Is everything fixed? Obviously not,” Hamilton said.

On Friday, the mayor told reporters he and Morales want to make “the changes that are necessary” so the police and community can work more closely together.

“I think it’s an opportunity for us to do better,” Barrett said. “We have to do better.”