Well people, 2022 is almost over and I for one think that is a good thing for all of us. The year overall was a bad one for crime in the City of Milwaukee starting with another record year in homicides with over two hundred. There are too many guns on the streets. Reckless driving including hit and run accidents are an everyday occurrence. There were several road rage incidents on the city streets plus some on the freeways also. New Sheriff Denita Ball has promised to tighten up patrols on the freeways to better monitor these incidents. The expressways, of course, are exceptionally large and almost impossible to stop these spur of the moment incidents. Sheriff have made a few arrests on incidents that have occurred on the expressway which did not happen in the past. This gives me some hope.
We need to give the citizens of Milwaukee some ways to help them protect themselves. When I worked earlier in my career at the Crime Prevention Division we would go out and teach people how to better protect themselves. We would go to hospitals and advise nurses on ways to defend themselves plus at schools to advise teachers. How about having a series of workshops across the city, one on the north, south, east and west, led by officers in a large setting, to teach people the dos and do nots of personal safety? They would start out talking awareness of your surroundings and always staying alert. Do not walk around with headphones on and be alert when you are mobile. Park your car in a well-lit area. If someone is following you in your vehicle go to an area where there are an open business or police station.
Bring back the police citizen academy to teach people police procedure. Then when an incident occurs you will have people who know and understand how the police operate and can defend some of the incidents. Block watch needs to be a big part of this crime prevention effort. When criminal sees block watch signs in every window with porch lights on, he will go to another block. Also having ring doorbells, which hopefully we could get businesses to donate, would help to catch some criminals in the act. We also taught home security and how to crime proof your home with good locks and trimming the bushes, so your windows were visual giving the criminals less places to hide.
How about having a gun buy back to try and get some of these guns off the street? Many people do not think this work but any gun off the street helps. Some people in the home will bring in old guns that are just laying around the home.
The city right now is doing an excellent job of redesigning streets to make it harder to speed. Just the past week they did just that on West Locust from North Sherman to about four blocks east of there. There are several speed humps plus the street comes out into the road at several locations. This will make it hard to speed in this area. So, as you see I think we can make 2023 a better and safer year if we all do our part.