Community Based Prosecution: Finding Solutions Through Team Work
A total of 316 new criminal nuisance property case files were opened by CPU Coordinators in Districts 4, 5, and 7 since January of 2011. The files are opened based on complaints and information from community stakeholders, law enforcement, and Safe & Sound Community Partners Organizers. Many instances are gang, drug and gun activity which can significantly impact the surrounding neighborhood.
Of 841 newly opened or active files total, 470 were closed since January. This is almost a 56% percent case closure rate. An outcome of the CPU Teams effectiveness at addressing ongoing criminal nuisance activity is measuring police calls for service that are associated with the problem property. Calls for police service were measured within a subset of 209 properties tracked from 2010 to 2011. First, a 90 day period prior to CPU Team strategies being applied was measured, then properties were monitored on a monthly basis once the team resolved the issues. The outcome was a more than 50% reduction in calls after 90 days. Although there may be many factors influencing calls for service, the information gathered is of interest and consistent with residents feedback. Residents more often than not find the CPU Team approaches to problem sovling are more responsive to neighborhood concerns, better for community-police relations and better for the overall health of the community.
The City of Milwaukee COMPASS system is being used to track the criminal nuisance properties being addressed by the Community Prosecution Unit (CPU) Teams across the City. The idea behind COMPASS is simple; a community can collaborate better, if it has a better picture of how problems and opportunities are really interrelated. The web based application was designed to help the Community Prosecutors Project store ongoing complaints and collaborative efforts to address criminal nuisance properties. The application was expanded to include Safe & Sound Community Partners Organizers input. COMPASS also allows the Community Prosecutors to download data of selected information to map out queries by criminal, civil and nuisance categories.
CPU strategies bring the teams resources to bear and work with residents, landlords, disruptive individuals and others. Community Prosecution Unit Teams have an assigned Assistant District Attorney who works out of a police district with a Coordinator to assist in the process. The Community Prosecution Unit Teams work towards addressing resident complaints and ongoing criminal nuisance issues medium to long term, while at the same time increasing the utilization of a range of resources rather than just policing. The teams include staff from the Milwaukee Police Department, Probation and Parole, City Attorneys Office, Department of Neighborhood Services, Sojourner Family Peace Center, Safe & Sound Community Partners Organizers and other community based organizations. Together the partners share their wisdom, experience and perspective on problems and work together towards finding more nuanced and less harmful approaches to safer neighborhoods.
