MILWAUKEE – Earnell Lucas, Milwaukee County Sheriff and candidate for mayor of Milwaukee, today issued the following statement regarding Milwaukee’s ongoing reckless driving epidemic:
“Each and every day that goes by the people of Milwaukee see or hear a story about reckless driving that results in serious injury or death. For far too long this issue has been plaguing our city and negatively impacting quality of life for our residents.
“As a community, we can no longer simply treat the symptoms – we must use every tool available to us to solve this problem once and for all. Leadership requires taking bold, meaningful action. The calls for lowering the speed limit to 20 miles per hour on residential streets where there are no signs limiting speed will not solve the problem.
“As reported on Saturday, one teen died while another was left in critical condition after a car driving recklessly struck a tree near 36th and Lincoln. Our community must act in order to stop seeing our children killed on our streets.
“Stronger enforcement is one of a myriad of solutions being put forth in our community. Engineering solutions such as redesigning our city streets to make them more pedestrian-friendly with infrastructure to slow cars down offer hope but not immediate relief. Getting unlicensed cars off our streets and deterring reckless driving by exploring enhanced penalties has merit but warrants more thoughtful consideration as to their disparate impact on some communities.
“Automakers have the ability to impact this issue but what will it take from our government officials, advocacy groups, parents and communities to get them to act. I am convinced that whatever it takes, we must begin calling on them to act now because our children and innocent people are dying.
“Every segment of our community must be resolved to solving the problem of reckless driving. It has become a public health crisis requiring the attention of everyone including law enforcement, government officials, health care professionals, academia and the public. To paraphrase the late President John F. Kennedy, “humankind must put an end to reckless driving, or reckless driving will put an end to humankind.”
Milwaukee County Sheriff Earnell Lucas was born and raised in the City of Milwaukee and served 25 years in the Milwaukee Police Department, rising to the rank of Captain. He then joined Major League Baseball, working in several capacities, including as Vice President of Security & Facility Management where he was head of security. Sheriff Lucas was elected Milwaukee County’s 65th Sheriff in November of 2018. Since taking office, Earnell has spent every day working to help build safe and strong communities. Now he’s running for mayor of Milwaukee to bring his critical life experience and bold vision to City Hall. For more information, visit lucasformayor.com
Authorized by Lucas for Mayor
