Murphy's Law

What is it about the Milwaukee Police Department that makes it so adverse to computerization?

Back in July 1986, Milwaukee Magazinedid a story on then-Milwaukee Police Chief Robert Ziarnik. Ziarnik revealed that the department he took over from Harold Breier in 1983 was technologically far behind the times, with computerization almost nonexistent. "We're so far behind, we can steal the best from everybody," said an official at the time.

Not much of that theft went on, to judge by a Milwaukee Magazinestory that Tom Bamberger and I co-wrote in 1990. The story found the department had detailed data on murders that went back only one year, had no data on police response time and could not provide multiple year averages of crime by neighborhoods. In response to the story, then Greater Milwaukee Committee president Robert Milbourne went to Philip Arreola, then the police chief, to offer the group’s help in improving the department’s data system Incredibly, Arreola turned Milbourne down.

By the late 1990s, the department concluded it was indeed behind the times, and that its computer-aided dispatch system was falling apart and in need of replacement. In 2001, the department asked companies to bid on the creation of both a new computer-aided dispatch system and a records management system. Six years later, a report by the Milwaukee comptroller’s office found the $7.3 million project was not very successful (a conclusion the department contested). The comptroller blamed the project’s failures on the department’s use of police officers rather than IT professionals to handle the project.

As preposterous as that sounds, it reinforces the dynamic of a department that resists outsiders taking control or getting access to its data. Not without reason, department leaders have feared interference and simplistic political grandstanding by city aldermen. Common Council members, in turn, are left frustrated over a police department that remains a mystery, and seems to cost a lot while delivering not enough policing.

Back in 1986, the department had one of the nation’s largest police forces per capita at 3.23 officers per 1,000 people. The most recent statistic of 3.28 officers per 1,000 people is even higher, and still ranks the city ahead of most. Yet, despite all these officers, the department has very high costs for police overtime, another comptroller report found. Maybe the problem is all those police were working on the IT project.

All of which brings us to new Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn’s speech last week to business leaders of the Greater Milwaukee Committee. Some 17 years after the GMC approached the department to offer help in fixing its data problems, Flynn has reversed the process, asking the GMC to help improve the department’s IT capacity. The current system, Flynn said, is not providing rapid or reliable enough information.

Given the history of the department, Flynn’s openness about the problem is radical. It also bodes well for Milwaukee. For, if there’s anything that successful police departments like New York City’s have shown, it’s that a sophisticated, rapid response computer tracking system can determine patterns that help police solve crimes. It’s just possible that Milwaukee would need less police – or less police overtime – if it had a truly efficient system of data analysis.

Tommy Thompson’s Smelly Deal

You scratch my back; I’ll scratch yours.

While Tommy Thompson served as secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Social Services, the La Crosse-based Logistics Health Inc. company had a contract that paid it $185 million to perform

After Thompson resigned, Logistics Health hired him as its president, serving under chief executive Don Weber. Since the company is privately held, it need not disclose what Thompson is getting paid, but Tommy was getting rich serving on various corporate boards, a well-done Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story by Cary Spivak has suggested. “People … want to tap into his connections with the federal government,” explained Mark Bugher, who held cabinet posts when Thompson was governor.

Last June, Thompson and Weber hired another former government official, William Winkenwerder Jr., as a consultant and board member. Winkenwerder had supervised military health programs as assistant secretary of defense.

Three months later, Logistics Health was awarded a new, $790 million contract with the U.S. Department of Defense to give soldiers medical and dental exams. Logistics won the contract even though two other companies bid anywhere from $80 to $100 million less. “It was wired. There is no doubt in my mind,” claimed Fran Lessans, president of Passport Health, one of the losing bidders.

The story was reported by the Los Angeles Times, but a more recent story in Salon.com added more details. Winkenwerder had put together the bid requirements before he quit the Pentagon, and Logistics fit the requirements the best, the Defense Department decided, giving Winkenwerder a nice present for his new company. Raising more questions was the fact that Logistics had made its bid with a partner firm, QTC Management Inc., meaning the two companies would together provide the services needed by the Pentagon. Yet, even though QTC withdrew from the partnership and Logistics wrote no amended bid, it still won the contract.

The protests of losing companies led the Government Accountability Office to investigate, and last week, it ruled that nothing nefarious went on. Thank heavens for that.

The good news for Wisconsin: Logistics will probably increase its La Crosse payroll. The bad news for federal taxpayers: There’s nothing to stop Thompson and Winkenwerder from continuing to lobby the federal government for more high-bid contracts that, just perhaps, include a premium for the cost of back-scratching.

The Buzz

-Milwaukee City Attorney Grant Langley promised to debate “anytime anywhere,” and his challenger, state Rep. Pedro Colon, has responded by suggesting eight debates. Maybe Langley’s 2004 challenger Fred Tabak could moderate.

-Journal Sentinel editors had hoped to convince retired reporter Whitney Gould to continue writing occasional articles about architecture. That idea died as Gould accepted an appointment to the City Plan Commission last week and endorsed Sam McGovern-Rowen this week for alderman in the race to succeed retiring East Side Common Council member Mike D’Amato. The Plan Commission post in particular creates an automatic conflict for anyone writing about architecture.

-Voters will get a chance to pass a referendum ending the so-called “Frankenstein veto,” which allows the governor to stitch together parts of a budget bill to create new law. Republicans liked the veto fine while GOP governors ruled, but now that they have Democrat Jim Doyle stitching together monsters, they joined Democrats in voting to end the practice. Yes, Republicans look hypocritical, but the result is good news for the voters, who get to end an obviously undemocratic procedure.

-Small Business Times Editor Steve Jagler, the latest Milwaukeean targeted by talk radio host Mark Belling, strikes back.

-And the Sports Nut overcomes Packers despair.