MPD Dismantled Street Takeover Unit Weeks Before Dozens of Street Takeovers

The Milwaukee Police Department shut down the special unit established to stop street takeovers just weeks before there were 20 street takeovers in Milwaukee in a single night over Labor Day Weekend.

Sources tell “The Dan O’Donnell Show” that Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman’s insistence that there was a directed patrol mission (DPM) for street racing and street takeovers is “nonsense.”

“They cancelled the entire DPM and sent all of those resources downtown to Water Street to supplement the existing patrols there to prevent shootings and homicides downtown,” the source said. “We haven’t had an actual street takeover deployment in a month.”

That has coincided with a major increase in street racing in Milwaukee, as the “usual weekend racers” have now been joined by hundreds more spectators as word has gotten out on social media that police officers are no longer actively patrolling for street racing.

“There are the usual weekend racers and now there are new social media takeover guys,” a source said. “It’s gotten completely out of control.”

Milwaukee Police arrested just three people after hundreds descended on the downtown area for hours Saturday night and into Sunday morning. Officers received calls about at least 20 street takeovers but, according to sources, simply did not have the manpower to break them up.

The Milwaukee Police Department has been chronically understaffed for months and has been forced to redeploy officers to downtown following a spate of violence and reckless driving on Water Street. In July, seven people were shot and one died in the popular bar and entertainment district.

Last month, Republicans in the Wisconsin Legislature sent a letter to Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson demanding action as homicides in the city have increased this year.

Officers have been working without a new contract and have not received a pay increase since 2022, and the Milwaukee Police Association has gone public with its extreme frustration over stalled negotiations.

One of the critical sticking points is the union’s demand that the city hire more officers so that existing officers are not required to work so many overtime hours.

Milwaukee Police Association President Alex Ayala said this week his is considering sending a letter to President Trump asking for a federal troop deployment to the city to assist with crowd control.