'Nobody's celebrating': Milwaukee has reductions in serious violent crimes halfway through 2023 but police aren't satisfied

Milwaukee continues to see mixed results in crime trends through the first half of 2023, as serious violent and property crimes overall dropped 13% while homicides and shootings remain elevated despite their own reductions.

The figures were discussed at a press conference Thursday with Mayor Cavalier Johnson, Police Chief Jeffrey Norman and Office of Violence Prevention Director Ashanti Hamilton.

Each of the three said they were pleased by the overall numbers but had reservations about the city’s gun violence.

“Nobody’s celebrating,” Johnson said. “I think I can speak for all of us that there remains work to do.”

The figures come as the Council on Criminal Justice, which studies criminal justice issues, released its own report looking at trends in several dozen cities through the first half of 2023.

Here’s what to know about the numbers in Milwaukee and across the U.S. through the first six months of the year.

Homicides and gun violence in Milwaukee

After six months, Milwaukee has seen a 31% reduction in homicides, which has relieved officials and community members. However, nonfatal shootings remained flat from the year prior – declining just 1%.

The discrepancy between the two has puzzled and frustrated officials in Milwaukee. And despite those reductions, Milwaukee’s six-month homicide count (72) is still three-quarters of the total homicides the city saw in all of 2019 (98). Nonfatal shootings are still happening at virtually twice the rate of 2019.

The 30 cities included in the Council on Criminal Justice’s report reported a 9.4% drop in homicides. Gun assaults – a term that is broader than nonfatal shootings – dropped 5.6%.

The U.S. saw a historic increase in homicides – mostly committed by firearms – from 2019 to 2020. Criminologists and public health experts have pointed toward the disruptions of the pandemic and increased police-community tensions after the murder of George Floyd as possible explanations.

Milwaukee isn’t the only city that has not returned to pre-pandemic violent crime rates. The 30 cities studied by the Council on Criminal Justice this year reported a 24% rise in homicides compared to the first half of 2019.

“The rise in homicides was very, very abrupt. Historically, it happened suddenly,” Richard Rosenfeld, an author of the study, told the Journal Sentinel. “The unwinding has been anything but abrupt.”

Robberies, burglaries and theft in Milwaukee

The numbers are more mixed locally than the rest of the nation, but Milwaukee has still seen bigger drops.

In Milwaukee, burglaries are up 13% while theft is down 12% and robberies are down 13%. In total, property crime in Milwaukee is down 18%.

Nationally, all those categories have gone down this year – robberies by 1%, residential burglaries by 3.8%, nonresidential burglaries by 5% and theft by 4.1%.

However nonresidential burglaries and robberies are up from 2019 levels, the study said,

It noted that a rise in crimes committed to acquire money or property could reflect a return to normalcy after the pandemic, along with inflation rates rising sharply in 2021 and early 2022.

Car theft, however, is on a path of its own compared to burglaries, robberies and general property theft.

Car theft in Milwaukee and the nation

After car thieves began exploiting a security design flaw in certain models of Kia and Hyundai vehicles in late 2020, reports of car theft ballooned in Milwaukee. They hit a peak in 2021 and have steadily fallen since then.

That has continued into 2023 with car theft reports down 32% from last year and 39% from 2021 in the city.

Milwaukee appears to have been at the forefront of a nationwide surge in vehicle theft. As car thefts began to fall in Milwaukee in 2021, they began to rise nationally and hit a peak in April of this year, the study said.

Through June, national reports of car theft are more than double that of figures from 2019. The study said much of the national increase is also likely due to targeted thefts of Kia and Hyundai models.

In Milwaukee, carjackings have continued to rise as car thefts have fallen, but carjackings (215) are still far more rare than thefts (4,022), according to police data.

Norman credited the fall in thefts to initiatives of the department’s motor vehicle task force and partnerships with community groups.

Where to find gun safety classes and free gun locks

At Thursday’s press conference, Hamilton, the city’s Office of Violence Prevention director, encouraged members of the public to attend an upcoming series of gun safety classes after the city has seen an increase in accidental shootings.

The classes will be held from noon to 2 p.m. July 22 and 29 at the Prince Hall Masonic Temple, 128 W. North Ave.

From noon to 4 p.m. Aug. 5, a gun lock giveaway will be held at the same location.

The events are open to all ages. They are organized by the city’s Health Department and the Office of Violence Prevention.

Anyone looking for additional information can contact Tracey Dent, at 414-326-8347, and Lionel McAllister, Sr., at 262-286-7036.

Contact Elliot Hughes at elliot.hughes@jrn.com or 414-704-8958. Follow him on Twitter @elliothughes12.

This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: 2023 Milwaukee crime numbers mixed. How do they compare nationally?