The LOM, League of Martin, is a group of black Milwaukee Police Officers. They came together to fight discrimination within the MPD. In 1981 the LOM filed suit against the City of Milwaukee regarding promotion, transfer, and assignment practices in the Milwaukee Police Department. I came on the job in July 1979, and we could only work on the north side of the city. There were mostly no promotions, and you could only work in certain areas of the department. We won the lawsuit, and many things were changed as a result. Later in my career I became a vice-president of the LOM for a brief period. Now I would like to talk about some off-duty activities of the LOM that we attempted to make it more community friendly.
We realized the department had to better represent the city and it needed a more diverse force to properly police the city in a fair manner. First, we started to have recruitment drives in the city by holding job fairs at various locations. Once we signed up potential recruits, we held sessions on test taking skills, the physical agility test and how to answer questions on the background investigation. In addition, we recruited police aide candidates, who were 17 to 19, to eventually become police officers. The Fire and Police Commission collaborated with us to help in the process. They also had a recruiting part of their department but did not mind our help. This eventually helped to recruit more minorities and make the department a little more diverse.
I have seen how having more minority officers, Black and Latino, at a scene helps to calm everyone and make them cooperate more with you. You only want to use the force that is necessary at a scene and no more. People tend to feel more comfortable and at ease when they see minority officers at a scene. They also feel more comfortable giving you information that you really may need to help. Recruiting for the police department is not an easy thing but it is something that is especially important and necessary. We must find a way to impress upon our neighbors, friends, and people in general that police work is a good occupation. It also has a decent salary and good benefits.