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Milwaukee police fighting a staffing shortage?
The City of Milwaukee and the Milwaukee Police Association are fighting over the number of officers on patrol in Police District 7, where an officer was shot on Thursday night.
MILWAUKEE - Milwaukee police officers are very busy, but are they also fighting a staffing shortage?
Staffing shortage?
What we know:
It is a fight over public safety and the number of police on patrol. The City of Milwaukee and the Milwaukee Police Association are fighting over that in Police District 7, where an officer was shot on Thursday evening, June 12.
Before the shooting, the police union complained that only one squad was on patrol Tuesday night in the busy district.
FOX6 News viewed the scheduling document – and it showed that was indeed the case. But Milwaukee police officials say the document did not correctly list the others the department brought in to help patrol District 7.
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Thursday night's scheduling document showed the district had more than ten officers.
The police union is fighting the city over pay and the number of new recruits coming in, which is less than half of what the city budgeted for.
What they're saying:
"The budgets that I have been producing have enough funding for 65 recruits in each of those three classes, the max that we can produce, so to say that we’re lackadaisical as it relates to recruiting for the police department is ludicrous. It’s absolutely ludicrous," said Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson.
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"When they’re budgeted for 65 per class and there’s a failure somewhere because you’re only getting 20 to 25 recruit officers per class, there’s a problem. How come they’re not talking about the problem there. So, it’s not ludicrous and it’s not ridiculous," said Alex Ayala of the Milwaukee Police Association.
No deal on a contract
What's next:
This is also a fight over public tax money. The city and the police union have not reached a deal on a contract. Many attempts at negotiating have failed. Now, arbitration will decide the future contract.
The Source: The information in this post was provided by the Milwaukee Police Department and Milwaukee Police Association.