One of the most important divisions within the Milwaukee Police Department is the Sensitive Crimes Division. This division is responsible for investigating crimes against children and crimes of sensitive nature which includes domestic violence, sexual assault, child abuse and neglect, interference with child custody, missing persons, prostitution, and human trafficking. Some of these duties were added as the years went on. Today I will discuss a female officer who started out as a police officer in the unit and eventually worked there as a sergeant and lieutenant during different time periods.
If you have read my articles in the past you know I usually like to look at the background of police personnel before they came on the force to see why they became officers in the first place. Claudia Morris was born and raised in Milwaukee. She attended North Division High School and worked at Wisconsin Bell, that later became Ameritech, after school. The company downsized and she was out of work. She was staying with her mother who advised after a year it’s time to look for another job. She attempted to call a friend to vent about her situation but got a stranger instead. It turns out she was talking with Lenard Wells who was working for the police department at the time. He was having trouble with his computer and she volunteered to come over and fix it for him. Wells chewed her out for coming over to a strangers house but it eventually led to her becoming an officer herself. She had never thought about becoming an officer before that.
In addition she was a correctional officer and deputy sheriff before becoming a police officer. She attended the academy and did district work before going to sensitive crimes as an officer. Upon promotion she did some district work and eventually came back to sensitive crimes. While working there she was responsible for detectives, police officers, police aide and civilian personnel. Missing children usually was very labor intensive and took a lot of manpower in some cases. Many people don’t understand why we check the houses again after the police come. Lots of time the child is found hiding in the house itself even though the parents said he/she were not there. Sometimes we have to get the school involved and talk with some of the classmates who might know where the child might be.
Lieutenant Morris help start the family violence unit when she worked there. There was many cases coming in so they saw a need for this. They wrote a SOP and draft for the unit. In addition they met with district attorney’s on how the cases should be handled. During slower times all the personnel had missing folders which they were responsible to check and see if these could be located and brought back home. Usually an officer and detective would be assigned if there was a sexual assault of a child. The lieutenant would go out depending how severe the situation was.
So as you can see the Sensitive Crimes Division does very important work for the police department and protect the many who might need help.