Milwaukee police address gun violence: Operation Summer Guardian

By
Published  May 21, 2026 5:49 PM CDT
FOX6 News Milwaukee

Milwaukee Police Department (MPD)

The Brief

    • Milwaukee police revived Operation Summer Guardian, increasing weekend officer deployments through September to combat gun violence.
    • The data-driven initiative places extra patrols in high-crime areas and mandates constitutional refresher courses for all deployed officers.
    • MPD measures success by the absence of gunfire rather than arrests, officials say. 

MILWAUKEE - The Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) announced on Thursday, May 21, the launch of the fifth annual Operation Summer Guardian initiative to address gun violence. The initiative will run every week, Thursday through Sunday, until the end of September. 

Operation Summer Guardian

What we know:

A news release from MPD says Operation Summer Guardian was created five years ago. It is a targeted response prioritizing community engagement in areas that were identified as having the most gunshots fired. The initial deploys additional officers in high-frequency neighborhoods.  

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Summer Guardian has occurred each summer since.  To ensure the constitutionality of all stops, MPD requires those officers assigned to this deployment to attend a constitutional policing refresher course.  In addition, MPD organizes community feedback sessions, neighborhood pop-up events and door hanger canvassing to ensure that the community is satisfied with the MPD presence. Feedback from the community has been positive throughout these annual deployments. Summer Guardian is an example of a multi-faceted community and problem-oriented policing approach to crime encompassing data, community input and regular feedback to reduce and mitigate the occurrence of violence in neighborhoods. 

Measuring success

By the numbers:

Officials say the measure of success of Summer Guardian is not in the number of arrests made or traffic stops conducted. They say success is based on what does not happen, that is, shots being fired or shootings. 

For all four prior Guardians (2022-2025), there have been a total of 143 arrests by officers (including arrests for reckless endangerment of safety and first-degree intentional homicide), 1041 park and walks conducted, and 78 illegal firearms removed from our community.  

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The most recent Summer Guardian (summer of 2025) yielded 41 arrests and the removal of 16 firearms from the community.

Where Guardian is deployed

Dig deeper:

Summer Guardian is deployed in city-wide neighborhoods that include Muskego Way, Historic Mitchell Street, Lincoln Village, Layton Park, Forest Home Hills, Walnut Hill, Midtown, Cold Spring Park, Avenues West, Concordia, Silver Spring, Havenwoods, McGovern Park, Fairfield, Thurston Woods, Old North Milwaukee, Franklin Heights, Arlington Heights, Wahl Park, Lincoln Creek, Grasslyn Manor, Capitol Heights, Roosevelt Grove, Sunset Heights, Sherman Park, Saint Joseph, Uptown, Metcalfe Park, Amani, and North Division.

Learn much more about Operation Summer Guardian.

The Source: Information in this post was provided by the Milwaukee Police Department.

Crime and Public SafetyMilwaukee Police DepartmentMilwaukeeNews