Milwaukee North News

With law enforcement staffing shortages an issue across the country, Wisconsin area residents are especially paying the price as crime rates in the area continue to rise. 

"When we look at Wisconsin, unfortunately, we had over 200 murders in the last year, in our area, in Milwaukee County," Assembly Speaker Robin Vos said in a recent video posted to Fox6 News Milwaukee's Facebook page. "We also see at the same time we are seeing rising crime rates, we are seeing the lowest number of police officers in a decade."

Across the country, violent crime (a heading that includes murder, rape, aggravated assault and robbery) jumped by 4.6% to a rate of 398.5 crimes per 100,000 people during a yearlong period from 2019-2020, a report from the FBI's Crime Data Explorer said. 2020 is currently the last full year such data is available from the Bureau.

In Wisconsin, over that same period of time, the uptick was even steeper, rising by 8.9% to 323.4 incidents per 100,000 people.

Many place the blame on how the public views law enforcement as the debate over such issues as police reform and use of deadly force continue to play out, a recent Fox News report said.  

"Knowing that you might not have a partner to respond fast because of the low number of officers right now at departments is one of my fears," 22-year-old Eastern Missouri Police Academy recruit Joe Marones said in the Fox report.

In 2021, a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report showed that the murder rate across the country rose by 30% from 2019 to 2020, the largest single-year increase in well over a century.

Many of those taking notice are now pushing the VICTIM ("Violent Incident Clearance and Technological Investigative Methods") Act as the answer. Introduced in 2021, the bill would provide funding to local police agencies to hire and retain police officers, along with required training and equipment. The bipartisan bill already has at least 30 co-sponsors.

"Police departments across the country are fighting to contain this increase in violent crime but they are understaffed, under-resourced and struggling to hire and retain good, qualified officers," Andy Edmiston, director of Government Affairs for the National Association of Police Organizations, recently told AzBigMedia.com.

Locally, Gov. Tony Evers announced $50 million in funding for police, sheriff's offices and criminal justice programs, a recent WBAY report said. Of those funds, $19 million is earmarked for local and tribal law enforcement agencies for training, community policing, recruitment bonuses and other uses.

As the staffing shortages have persisted, GOP lawmakers moved earlier this year to push a $25 million package to recruit and retain more officers, with the funds coming courtesy of federal coronavirus relief money.

State colleges are also doing all they can to help alleviate the problem by providing hands-on training for each new class of police academy students.

"There's more that we can do, and this is another public health crisis that deserves our attention and our action," Evers said during a recent news conference, quoted by WBAY.