The column below reflects the views of the author, and these opinions are neither endorsed nor supported by WisOpinion.com.
As families across Milwaukee prepare to gather at their holiday table, the Milwaukee Police Association (MPA) is alarmed about the empty seat at their bargaining table – the one held by the city’s labor negotiator.
We urge the Common Council to confirm its labor negotiator when they meet December 17 so that the MPA – together with the city of Milwaukee – can address the crisis in recruitment and retention of our police officers, detectives and forensic investigators. Current officers have been working with a holdover contract that expired in 2022. Working without a current contract as the demand for police service continues to increase is demoralizing to officers and leads to officer burnout, frustration and negatively impacts officer wellness. The lack of a contract has caused our community to experience a shortage of experienced officers that leads to a reduced capacity for policing and slower response times in emergencies.
The lack of a contract between the city of Milwaukee and its police critically impacts the superior police services city residents expect and deserve. We cannot have uncertainty surrounding public safety.
To recruit, train, and retain the best police officers in the country, members of the MPA need a contract that provides for similar pay as the raises being received by their brothers and sisters in uniform across the country. Currently, Milwaukee is hemorrhaging officers and is unable to fill empty positions because other local and national municipalities offer far more competitive wages. We need a labor negotiator in place now to bring these negotiations to a close.
Minneapolis police officers recently received a 21.7 percent increase in wages through the end of 2025. In Austin, the most recent labor contract was a wage increase of 28 percent for their officers. The city of Louisville increased its police salaries by 22 percent through now and 2027. Despite having a contract in place, Omaha passed an emergency amendment to the existing labor contract that immediately increased wages by 14 percent for many officers in August of 2023. These large wage increases are indicative of the acknowledgment by cities across the country that they must stop the attrition in police positions to make their communities safer. We must do the same here.
Moving to another police agency for a higher salary was the reason most commonly cited by officers for voluntary resignation, according to the International Chiefs of Police 2024 Survey on the State of Recruitment and Retention. As we have seen in the city of Milwaukee when it comes to policing, there is a worker shortage not a shortage of work.
The report points out, “if agencies are unable to recruit new officers to replace those who have retired or otherwise left the law enforcement profession, it will significantly increase the strain on police organizations and officers. As vacancy numbers increase due to the inability to fill positions and as more officers continue to become eligible for retirement, existing officers are becoming overworked and burned out. At a time when the importance of officer mental wellness is more widely recognized, powerful efforts to recruit, hire, and retain officers become increasingly important.”
Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson said recently that he “wants crime in this city to be rare,” but Milwaukee is consistently ranked in the top five most dangerous cities in the country for violent crime. The urgent first step to halt this trend is to ensure we have a full staff of officers to work the challenges we face. On a recent evening in the city’s District 6, there was one squad available to a 22.7 square mile area with a district population of more than 117,000 people. Just. One. Officer. When we say that we are short 241 law enforcement positions, it means our officers are working in an extremely dangerous environment, often with backup far away when minutes, or even seconds matter. Residents must have the police staffing they deserve. Milwaukeeans deserve better than the current “sloppy” negotiating process (as one Common Council member put it) that is occurring right now.
City leaders cannot continue their handwringing on how to keep Milwaukee safe – especially when we all know the solution. Being a police officer is an inherently dangerous and often thankless job. The city must immediately fill the critical seat of the labor negotiator so that a new contract that treats our officers fairly can be ratified. We want the Milwaukee Police Department to recruit, train, and retain the best officers in the country and we know that this can only occur with a contract that treats our officers with the respect and dignity that they deserve. We put that contract on the table. The time is now to ratify.
–Alexander Ayala is president, Milwaukee Police Association
