One of the first people to speak at the public hearing was Chris Ahmuty, executive director of the ACLU of Wisconsin. He raised an issue that’s been all over the news lately – integrity within the Milwaukee police department. Ahmuty said the proposed city budget wisely allocates $850,000 to improve the police data collection system. Questions have been raised about the accuracy of the department’s crime reporting, and Tuesday, four officers were charged in an investigation of illegal strip searches.
“Even if this money is spent, it’s going to be awhile before the improvements are set in place, perhaps not even until 2014. I’d urge you to spend whatever it takes and do whatever it takes to expedite that so that the chief will have the information that he needs to identify officers who may be problematic, as well as really do the data-driven deployment that he talks about,” Ahmuty says.