SCOTT WALKER - GOVERNOR WISCONSIN 2012

During the primary battle to become the Democrat nominee to take on Governor Scott Walker in next week’s general election, failed Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett touted his record on public safety as a cornerstone of his ability to lead this state.

The recent report by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel showcases how far from reality the two-time statewide loser is when it comes to violent crime in his city. He continually promotes that violent crime is down in Milwaukee when in fact the incidences of violent acts committed against the residents of the state’s largest city has risen by more than a full percentage point.

Acts like those discussed in the ad and over 800 more since 2009 were falsely reported to the federal government, making Milwaukee look like it is a much safer place than it is under Mayor Barrett’s watch.

Governor Walker and legislative leaders have asked for an independent audit into how the information is collected from the officers on the beat and disseminated to those in charge of forwarding on the information to federal authorities.

The actions of the police department and their attempt to cover up this information are also discussed in the article. During the beginning of the investigation by the paper, the Milwaukee Police Department readily gave 100 copies of incident reports to the reporters and then reversed course and said that the additional 750 reports requested would cost more than $4,500 and would take the department nine months to comply.

This reaction was challenged as a violation of state open records laws and was eventually taken to the Wisconsin Supreme Court. The court is expected to rule on the case by the end of June. However, this begs the question as to what the Mayor, who oversees the Police department as the highest elected official in the city, knew about an ongoing two year investigation into falsified police records being sent to federal authorities.

Whether the falsifying of these records was an oversight or malicious may never be known. But one thing is for sure, Tom Barrett either has no control over the actions of his staff and those that work for him or he sat idly by as misleading information, that will require a State Supreme Court ruling to be released, was continuously sent to the federal government under the pretense that it was factual.

Misreporting a few numbers may not seem like a big deal in the grand scheme of things, but the more than 1300 people who were the victims of these vicious crimes would probably not agr ee.