Wisconsin’s Morning News spoke to Milwaukee Police Association President Andrew Wagner after the shooting of a Milwaukee police officer Thursday night.
The shooting took place at 21st and St. Paul during a wellness check conducted by a 26-year-old Milwaukee police officer. The officer suffered non-fatal injuries and is being treated in the hospital. The suspect, identified as a 22- is in custody and is also being treated in the hospital after sustaining injuries from the gunfire exchange.
Wagner told WTMJ the officer is currently in stable condition and appears to be doing well. This is the third member of the Milwaukee area law enforcement shot this month, and the in second just two days. In response to the violent streak, Wagner said “I think we’ve seen an escalation in crime over the last two years that has just been getting to this point. You hope it’s going to go down at some point but without some kind of fix to come in, or hiring of new officers, or something to happen to cause the problem to go down, it’s not gonna happen.”
The Milwaukee Police department is short 200 officers of their budget this year and 400 officers short of their budget just two or three years ago. Wagner said “What we need is some really strong funding to hire a large amount of officers. But, we then have the recruitment issue as well, where we can’t find officers right now.”
Wagner believes positive messaging about police within the community could help with recruitment as they plan to hire 195 officers next year. “The narrative has to change, to the right narrative, police are helpful, they are there to help the community. They took an oath and they are there to enforce laws and put the community before themselves.”
