MILWAUKEE, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – More than two dozen officers from the Green Bay Police Department (GBPD) will be working in Milwaukee during the Republican National Convention (RNC) next week.
GBPD Chris Davis says approximately 30 officers will be assisting the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) with security and policing during the downtown RNC event from July 15-18.
Obviously in a team that big, not everybody can go down there for three days, but the plan is to send most of our mobile response team with their bikes and their public order policing capability,” said Davis.
GBPD is bringing some equipment to Milwaukee, as well.
“We’re also sending four motorcycle officers to help with escorts of dignitaries in the Milwaukee area, and we’re also going to send one boat from our marine unit down there with two crews so that they can operate 24 hours a day on the river and Lake Michigan, around there, to support the Milwaukee Police Department.”
Davis said the city of Milwaukee will reimburse GBPD for the costs of sending its officers and equipment to assist during the RNC. He added that MPD recently trained GBPD’s mobile response team on police bike patrol operations for free — a commitment that lasted about two weeks.
“We do have the small matter of the NFL Draft coming up, and then who knows? Maybe we call our friends in Milwaukee and ask for some help with that.”
He believes the willingness to support and help one another is an example of the great partnerships between law enforcement agencies throughout Wisconsin.
I think things like this really show how we try as police agencies in the state to help each other out, because we recognize that every once in a while, even in a city as big as Milwaukee, something happens that just exceeds the resources that you have, so I think it’s a good reflection of the relationship that we have in the policing community in Wisconsin.
Davis also stressed that sending the police officers to Milwaukee will not leave the Green Bay community at a disadvantage.
“When we made our offer of what we could afford to send them, that’s one of the things we considered. Our first and primary responsibility is to our community, to keep our community safe, and so we’ll have adequate resources here also to make sure the job gets done here, so it will not have an impact on our public safety service in our community,” Davis said.
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