Police Talk to UW-Milwaukee Audience about Homicide, Campus Crime

The year 2015 in Milwaukee will be remembered as an infamous year that generated the most homicides in the city since 1993. Capt. Aaron Raap, the commander of the Milwaukee police Investigative Management Division which houses the Homicide, Cold Case Homicide and Robbery Units, is optimistic about making 2016 a year of improvement.

“On a positive note, we are trending in the right direction,” said Raap, who also addressed campus crime, gun issues, and other topics. “There were 23 at this time last year, while there are 16 so far this year. That is still 16 too many.”

Why did this happen? That is the million-dollar question. Raap, along with Sgt. Tim Gauerke spoke to worried crowd at UW-Milwaukee’s School of Continuing Education to address people’s growing concerns about the increase in homicides, as well as firearm violence and robberies in the year 2015.

“We are not alone in this,” said Gauerke. “A lot of cities saw a sharp increase in the number of killings in 2015.”

The officers said criminals are getting younger, better parenting is needed, gun laws play a role, and they had a message for UWM students concerned about crime: Be aware of your surroundings.

Police data proves this to be true, as cities such as New Orleans, St. Louis, Baltimore, Los Angeles, and many others have had an increase. Raap sternly states that Milwaukee’s increase in 2015 was stark, even in comparison to some of those cities.

The year 2015 concluded with 145 homicides, while 152 were reported with seven being additional self-defense homicides. Raap says one of the primary reasons people are concerned about the drastic increase in homicides is because of how low the numbers were in 2014, when there were “only” 86. They said their average over the last decade has been 93 per year.

The crowd was disturbed and confused about why juveniles have been committing more crimes and whether the police can stop them when they are young so there won’t be as many crimes, such as homicides, in the future.

Captain Raap confirms that the age in committing crime has been getting lower, but a lot of it has to do with parenting. “It can be tough to hold young people accountable when once they move out of the justice system they are right back with their friends or their parents who either won’t continue the punishment they experienced, or are the bad influences,” he said.

But why aren’t they punished more severely? Why aren’t they sitting in jail? Because that is simply the way our criminal justice system in set up. It focuses more on the rehabilitation process of young people who aren’t expected to make the decisions in a conscience experiential manner like adults are expected to.

A woman addressed the issue of gun control. “What about stricter gun laws? What does the department think and are background checks effective?”

Raap replied by saying they enforce the gun laws they do have, but the department’s role is to make the whole system as effective as possible with the authority they are granted. Both officers agreed that everyone should not be banned from owning a firearm, yet everyone shouldn’t be armed because not everyone can make a smart conscious decision. When asked whether background checks work, he answered, “in some ways yes and in some ways no. If someone really wants to get a gun, they are going to get a gun.”

Gauerke explained how every time you are charged with carrying a gun without a permit is a misdemeanor under Wisconsin law. On Nov. 1, 2011 Gov. Scott Walker made Wisconsin the 49^th state in the Union to provide a conceal and carry permit for normal citizens.

UW-Milwaukee students in attendance addressed the issue of crime around the UWM campus. Though the Milwaukee Police Department’s records show a drop of crime by more than 30 percent on the UW-Milwaukee campus from Jan. 1, 2014 to Oct. 15, 2015, there have been spikes in crime at certain times. On April 19 to the 20, there were reports of nine robberies, six of which were strong armed robberies. While the overall count of crimes on campus are down, many come in bunches. UW-Milwaukee students asked what they could do to protect themselves and to make UWM a safer campus.

“Whenever I patrolled throughout the campus at night, I constantly see people with their heads down looking at their phones,” said a frustrated Gauerke. “Smart phones take away our perspective of what is happening around us and that makes you vulnerable, especially at night.”

He advises all college student to always have someone with you as well as using the UWM BOSS system because the police simply can’t always be there at the exact moment in a time of need. “BOSS is a great idea because there is nothing worse than walking home late at night by yourself, but if something does happen, and you’re completely defenseless, it makes more sense to just give them your wallet than to start a fight when they are with a group.”