Police reforms proposed after Milwaukee shooting

MILWAUKEE (AP) - A group of Milwaukee aldermen are pushing a host of police reforms after prosecutors declined to charge an officer who shot a man 14 times, including equipping police with body cameras and identifying officers prone to violence.

The plan comes as the city's black community grapples with District Attorney John Chisholm's decision Monday not to charge former officer Christopher Manney with any criminal wrongdoing in the death of 31-year-old Dontre Hamilton in April. Manney fatally shot Hamilton in a downtown park, emptying his service semi-automatic's magazine into him. Manney is white; Hamilton was black.

Scores of protesters gathered at the park Tuesday evening, then marched on the Bradley Center arena - where police mounted a strong show of force - and then returned to the park. Other demonstrators staged a brief "die-in" at a busy shopping mall in suburban Wauwatosa.

Earlier in the day, Alderman Russell Stamper began a news conference to promote the reforms proposal Tuesday by saying he was disgusted with Chisholm's decision.

"This is a sad time for our community," Stamper said. "This situation is painful and it hurts."

The proposal calls for spending $1 million to equip every Milwaukee officer with a body camera and creating an "early warning system" that would use citizen complaints and performance reviews to identify aggressive officers who may pose a threat to the public and get them counseling.

Also on the agenda is creating a panel to advise the police on community relations and re-evaluating diversity training for officers. The plan also calls for pushing Mayor Tom Barrett to name two more members to the Fire and Police Commission, the entity that oversees the police. The commission currently has seven members but Barrett can name up to nine.

Barrett's chief of staff, Patrick Curley, said the mayor doesn't oppose the plan. Barrett had been planning to make the last two commission appointments next year anyway, as soon as he fills the commission's vacant executive director slot.

The mayor has already said he will push to get all 1,400 or so officers and dispatchers 40 hours of training on how to deal the mentally ill.

Police spokesman Mark Stanmeyer issued a statement saying the agency welcomes the aldermen's interest. Michael Crivello, president of the Milwaukee Police Association, the union for the city's officers, didn't respond to an email message.