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Members of Milwaukee’s Community Collaborative Commission are looking to Baltimore as they work to give residents a greater voice in how policing is carried out in Milwaukee.
Community policing, a core focus of the commission’s work, calls for police and residents to work together to identify and respond to neighborhood problems.
Baltimore’s “Community Policing Plan” spells out who is responsible for that work, what it involves and how it can be put into practice.
“What works in Baltimore may or may not work in similar ways here,” said Tim Baack, president and CEO of Pathfinders, an organization that supports homeless and runaway children, and a member of the commission. “But there’s enough of the framework that it’s not like we have to start from scratch.”
In recent years, the commission has worked on police policy reform, community-oriented policing and oversight of other reforms. Its members include community activists and leaders of local nonprofits.
Earlier this summer, the group said it was in the late stages of completing a community policing plan for Milwaukee.
Community policing already happening, Milwaukee Police Department says
The Milwaukee Police Department says it has already implemented the framework for community policing in the city.
The department has a community-oriented policing policy and has worked with the Community Collaborative Commission to gather community input and develop a plan.
“MPD has always been a part of the conversation with the (Community Collaborative Commission)” in developing the plan, a spokesperson for the department said.
MPD worked with the Community Collaborative Commission and Fire and Police Commission beginning in 2022 on community engagement sessions across the city, according to MPD’s 2025 Community and Problem Oriented Policing Review.
Here are four lessons from Baltimore and how they compare with what MPD is already doing.
1. Every officer is responsible for community policing
Baltimore’s plan states that “every officer is a community policing officer.”
In other words, community policing is not supposed to be limited to officers with specialized community-related duties.
“Community policing should shape everyday interactions/enforcement encounters/training and decision-making across the department,” said Bridget Whitaker, executive director of Safe & Sound and a member of the commission.
Safe & Sound is an organization that works to unite residents, youths and law enforcement.
MPD has an official policy that requires all department members to engage in community and problem-oriented policing daily.
The department is “committed to the principle that community policing is the responsibility of every officer,” a spokesperson for MPD said.
However, the Fire and Police Commission has questioned how fully that principle has been put into practice.
In a January memo to the Milwaukee Board of Fire and Police Commissioners and MPD command staff, the Fire and Police Commission argued that MPD relies too heavily on command staff and specialized community liaison officers for community engagement.
2. There’s a difference between engagement and being present
Baltimore’s plan distinguishes police simply being visible in a neighborhood from engaging with the people who live there. Officers are expected to have informal conversations with residents to help build relationships.
“Presence matters, but meaningful engagement requires interaction, listening, relationship building and collaboration,” Whitaker said.
MPD’s 2025 review similarly says community events alone do not amount to community-oriented policing.
However, the review says such events can still contribute to community policing by allowing residents and police to exchange information and develop solutions together.
The Fire and Police Commission memo makes a distinction between community involvement and collaboration.
With involvement, police largely identify problems and decide what to do. With collaboration, residents help identify problems, shape responses and determine whether they worked.
MPD says residents already participate in that process through district crime and safety meetings, community partnership units, community organizations and various other forums.
Ralikh Hayes, deputy director and co-founder of Baltimore-based Organizing Black, a grassroots civil rights and advocacy group, said his city’s residents still lack a formal way to ensure their input influences what the city actually does.
“There’s no formal mechanism of ‘we want this specifically,’ and then accountability if they see it or don’t,” Hayes said.
3. Focus on root causes
Problem-oriented policing focuses on the root causes of crime, rather than only enforcing laws or responding to individual incidents.
Baltimore uses a four-step process: identify the problem; analyze its causes; develop a response; and assess whether it worked.
MPD said it already uses the same approach, known as the SARA model.
Baack said Milwaukee will still have to adapt ideas from other cities to Milwaukee’s own circumstances.
“One thing we realized in looking at what works and sometimes what didn’t work in other communities — it’s never really an apples to apples,” he said.
Hayes said even different neighborhoods within Baltimore require different approaches.
“Baltimore is not a one-size-fits-all place,” he said. “Every neighborhood is different and has different issues.”
4. Reward officers for community policing work
Baltimore makes community policing part of how officers are evaluated, including annual performance reviews and promotions.
That stood out to Whitaker.
“Organizations ultimately demonstrate their priorities through what they measure, reward and hold people accountable for,” she said.
The Fire and Police Commission memo recommends problem-solving work should factor into performance evaluations, promotions and transfers.
Baack said the ultimate measure should be what residents think.
“The plan will be successful when the community says it’s successful,” he said.
Jonathan Aguilar is a visual journalist at Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service who is supported through a partnership between CatchLight Local and Report for America.
What Milwaukee can learn from Baltimore’s community policing plan is a post from Wisconsin Watch, a non-profit investigative news site covering Wisconsin since 2009. Please consider making a contribution to support our journalism.
