Madison Common Council members raised concerns about the Madison Police Department’s alleged “intimidation” of the Public Safety Review Committee and subcommittee members during meetings.
The PSRC acts as an advisory body to the mayor and city council and reviews the capital budget priorities of MPD. The PSRC has several subcommittees, including a budget subcommittee that examines the MPD budget.
Matthew Mitnick, who serves as a committee member on the PSRC and chairs the PSRC’s budget subcommittee, said he sometimes felt members of MPD would challenge certain aspects of committee discussions without viewing items holistically. While Mitnick said the challenges themselves are not “necessarily bad,” he said the methods often came off as “combative.”
well, ed, just to make it clear, i am speaking on behalf of the madison professional police officers association and not the madison police department. my association represents the rank and file of mpd. ed, all i can do is try to give your viewers a glimpse of what is possible between the relationship, between police and protesters and do that by telling a wisconsin story. ed, back in february and march, as you re well aware, we had hundreds of thousands of people converge on our capitol to have their voices heard. we had people from all personal persuasions, all walks of life, coming together to express their views. at its height, the largest protest was 150,000 strong, with people from both sides of the issue. despite the scope of those protests, ed, there were very few arrests and no violence between the police and protesters. so what s the formula here?