Community Prosecution Unit Teams Evolving
Jan 14th, 2012
Safe & Sound significantly expanded its capacity to reduce crime and violence in Milwaukee when it brought on three Community Prosecution Unit (CPU) Coordinators in March of 2010. Since then, the CPU Teams across the city have evolved and realized numerous accomplishments.
The CPU Coordinators assist in tracking and managing the process of criminal nuisance abatement while bringing the tools of the CPU team to bear on problematic properties in targeted high-crime neighborhoods. Each of the Community Prosecution Unit Teams have an assigned Assistant District Attorney who works out of a police district. Unlike traditional prosecutors, the Community Prosecutors see problems first hand and develop their understanding of crime issues at the street level with stakeholders and law enforcement. In addition, 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.
In 2010, Safe & Sound began working in Districts 3, 5 and 7 managing criminal nuisance properties. Many of the 527 properties were newly identified through community complaints while others were old complaints that needed to be verified and services brought to bear. The files are opened or verified based on complaints and information from community stakeholders and law enforcement. Over 232 criminal nuisance properties were successfully resolved and closed in 2010. Already in 2011 over 300 new nuisance property case files have been created by CPU Coordinators in Districts 4, 5, and 7. The tools used to address these issues rely on the strengths of each of the CPU Team members and involve landlords, tenants and surrounding neighbors.
While all of the Milwaukee Police Districts have had Community Prosecution in place, many are missing one or more of the team members. Currently Safe & Sound employees two Coordinators while the Southside Organizing Committee has one on staff, leaving five districts without a Coordinator. Some districts even have to share a prosecutor. The lack of dedicated staff can unfortunately reduce the overall effectiveness significantly. Another issue is the time it takes for CPU Teams to learn how to effectively work together and utilize each others skills and resources.
These issues were at the top of the agenda for the managers who have staff contributing to Community Prosecution in Milwaukee. The organization and development of the CPU Teams intensified in the first four months of 2011 with a series of bi-weekly managers meetings. The meetings were intended to solidify the commitment of the collaborating partners while developing more refined objectives and benchmarks. The outcome of the discussions was presented to the Milwaukee Homicide Review Commission Executive Committee, which also serves as a monitoring and review committee for the strategies and processes of the CPU. This brought about a broader understanding, leveraged support, and gain buy in for the CPU approach. Additionally, in 2012 a series of trainings will be held to help the partners learn more about each others role and how they can best work together.
Although there is still more to be done coordinating the teams, everyone remains focused on identifying and resolving criminal nuisance property issues in their efforts to reduce crime and improve the quality of life in Milwaukee neighborhoods. Safe & Sound has seen the effectiveness of the CPU strategies and is committed to supporting the CPU Teams with coordinators and organizing staff in 2012 and in years to come.
