police officer assignment and neighborhood crime

Police Officer Assignment and Neighborhood Crime

• January 2021
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Police Officer Assignment and Neighborhood Crime

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• Corpus ID: 244460588

NBER WORKING PAPER SERIES POLICE OFFICER ASSIGNMENT AND NEIGHBORHOOD CRIME

• Bocar A. Ba , P. Bayer , +21 authors Trina Reynolds-Tyler
• Published 2021
• Political Science, Economics

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Using electoral cycles in police hiring to estimate the effect of police on crime: comment, using electoral cycles in police hiring to estimate the effect of policeon crime, more cops, less crime.

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Police Officer Assignment and Neighborhood Crime

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"police officer assignment and neighborhood crime " - patrick bayer, duke university.

Pat Bayer is the Gilhuly Family Professor of Economics at Duke University and Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

Pat Bayer will be presenting via Zoom.

We develop an empirical model of the mechanism used to assign police officers to Chicago districts and examine the efficiency and equity of alternative allocations. We document that the current bidding process, which grants priority based on seniority, results in the assignment of more experienced officers to less violent and high-income neighborhoods. Our empirical model combines estimates of heterogeneous officer preferences underlying the bidding process with causal estimates of the effects of officer experience on neighborhood crime. Equalizing officer seniority across districts would reduce violent crime rate by 4.6 percent and significantly decrease inequality in crime, discretionary arrests, and officer use of force across neighborhoods. Moreover, this assignment can be achieved in a revenue-neutral way while resulting in small welfare gains for police officers, implying that it is more equitable and efficient.

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"Police Officer Assignment and Neighborhood Crime "

Pat Bayer will be presenting via Zoom.

Pat Bayer is the Gilhuly Family Professor of Economics at Duke University and Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research.

We develop an empirical model of the mechanism used to assign police officers to Chicago districts and examine the efficiency and equity of alternative allocations. We document that the current bidding process, which grants priority based on seniority, results in the assignment of more experienced officers to less violent and high-income neighborhoods. Our empirical model combines estimates of heterogeneous officer preferences underlying the bidding process with causal estimates of the effects of officer experience on neighborhood crime. Equalizing officer seniority across districts would reduce violent crime rate by 4.6 percent and significantly decrease inequality in crime, discretionary arrests, and officer use of force across neighborhoods. Moreover, this assignment can be achieved in a revenue-neutral way while resulting in small welfare gains for police officers, implying that it is more equitable and efficient.

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Police Officer Assignment Mechanisms and Neighborhood Crime

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Abstract : In most major American cities, police officers are assigned to neighborhoods through a bidding process that grants priority based on seniority. Such seniority-based mechanisms typically give rise to an equilibrium allocation in which experienced officers are more likely to be assigned to neighborhoods with lower (violent) crime rates, raising important efficiency and equity concerns. In this paper, we estimate a model of the bidding process used to assign police officers to neighborhoods in Chicago and use it to study the economic implications of the current and alternative assignment mechanisms. We estimate the model using detailed police personnel records from 2004-2015, which provide a continuous record of the assignment of officers to police districts, including the winning “bidder” whenever a vacancy is posted in each district. The estimated model reveals clear officer preference for police districts with lower rates of violent crime. To identify the causal impact of officer seniority on neighborhood crime, we use a simulated IV strategy that uses the estimated model of the bid process to isolate a component of the evolution of the composition of each police district that is a function of only the initial conditions in each district and aggregate changes to the composition of the police force and/or crime rates in the city as a whole over the study period. The estimates imply a significant negative impact of officer seniority on neighborhood crime, but at a magnitude that is only about 25 percent of what OLS estimates would imply. A comparison of the current assignment to counterfactual simulations in which district-specific financial bonuses are used to induce more senior officers to remain in districts with higher (violent) crime rates implies that equalizing officer seniority across neighborhoods would reduce the overall violent crime rate in Chicago by 5 percent and substantially reduce the inequality in crime rates across neighborhoods.

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Recommendation 1.8: Give officers ample time to engage with community members and solve community problems.

When implementing a community policing program, department leaders should consider logistics such as time and place. Officers need time to meaningfully engage with communities and should be assigned to the same general areas or neighborhoods so they can familiarize themselves with communities and build trust with community members. To support strong police-community relationships, departments should:

Assign officers to specific geographic areas or “beats.”   Assigning officers to specific neighborhoods enables them to develop an understanding of the areas they police, which can lead to better decision-making and more effective law enforcement. Officers who patrol defined geographic areas get to know residents and become familiar with neighborhoods. This helps reduce the effects of negative implicit bias; officers who are from or who know certain neighborhoods well are better able to differentiate between suspicious and everyday conduct. [i]

When officers have nuanced understandings of the culture and norms of neighborhoods, sub-communities, and micro-communities, and of the people who live there, they are less likely to rely on assumptions or biases when assessing and responding to suspicious behavior. [ii] For this reason, leaders should assign officers to specific beats, and they should carefully consider decisions to re-assign officers so as to avoid disrupting established relationships with community members. [iii]

Another community policing strategy is to create incentives for officers to live in the communities they serve and consider community ties during recruitment and hiring processes. [iv] The IACP observes that “[h]aving some number of officers who live, shop, play, and/or have children in schools in the community they serve lends itself to creating strong community-police bonds.” [v] Whether officers live in the communities they serve or patrol the same neighborhoods over time, community policing is most effective when “officers and community members share a sense of ownership of ‘their neighborhood.’” [vi]

Give officers ample time to engage in community policing and problem-solving. To work well, community policing approaches should be implemented departmentwide and should be central to all officers’ duties. As noted above, many departments delegate community policing and engagement work to a handful of officers and assign the rest to traditional enforcement activities. Instead, leaders should give all officers opportunities to focus on community engagement.

One challenge of community policing relates to time management. Most officers spend their shifts responding to (often backlogged) service calls, which leaves little time for community engagement. Leaders can work with community members to identify the types of calls that need police attention and develop community-based responses for those that don’t. For example, a resident who complains about a neighbor who consistently plays loud music could be referred to a community mediation team. Leaders can also promote relationship-building by assigning officers to community police activities, as does the NYPD. Leaders there relieve officers from answering service calls for periods of time so they can spend time getting to know and working with the community. [vii]

[i]           Tracie L. Keese, Three Ways to Reduce Implicit Bias in Policing, Greater Good Magazine (July 2, 2105), https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/three_ways_to_reduce_implicit_bias_in_policing .

[ii]           Lorie Fridell, et al., Police Exec. Research Forum, Cmty. Oriented Policing Servs., Racially Biased Policing: A Principled Response 95–96 (2001), http://www.policeforum.org/assets/docs/Free_Online_Documents/Racially-Biased_Policing/racially%20biased%20policing%20-%20a%20principled%20response%202001.pdf .

[iii]          Gayle Fisher-Stewart, Ph.D. Community Policing Explained: A Guide for Local Governments, Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, U.S. Department of Justice 2, 3, 7, https://cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/vets-to-cops/cp_explained.pdf.

[iv]          Int’l Ass’n of Chiefs of Police, IACP National Policy Summit on Community-Police Relations: Advancing a Culture of Cohesion and Community Trust26-27 (2015), https://www.theiacp.org/sites/default/files/2018-09/CommunityPoliceRelationsSummitReport_web.pdf; see also President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, Final Report of the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing 15 (2015), https://cops.usdoj.gov/pdf/taskforce/taskforce_finalreport.pdf (recommending implementation of “resident officer programs” to house officers in public housing neighborhoods with agreement of the law enforcement agency and housing authority); San Diego Police Dep’t, Use of Force Task Force Recommendations 66 (2001),  https://www.sandiego.gov/sites/default/files/legacy/police/pdf/taskreport.pdf .

[v]           Int’l Ass’n of Chiefs of Police, IACP Nat’l Policy Summit on Community-Police Relations: Advancing a Culture of Cohesion and Community Trust27 (2015), https://www.theiacp.org/sites/default/files/2018-09/CommunityPoliceRelationsSummitReport_web.pdf.

[vi]          Wasserman & Zachary Ginsburg, Inst. for Intergovernmental Research, Building Relationships of Trust: Moving to Implementation 26 (2014), https://ric-zai-inc.com/Publications/cops-w0729-pub.pdf ; accord U.S. Dep’t of Justice, Civil Rights Div. & U.S. Attorney’s Office N.D. Ill., Investigation of the Chicago Police Department 136–39 (2017), https://www.justice.gov/opa/file/925846/download ; U.S. Dep’t of Justice, Civil Rights Div., Investigation of the Baltimore City Police Department 156–57 (2016), https://www.justice.gov/crt/file/883296/download ; Int’l Ass’n of Chiefs of Police, IACP Nat’l Policy Summit on Community-Police Relations: Advancing a Culture of Cohesion and Community Trust25-27 (2015), https://www.theiacp.org/sites/default/files/2018-09/CommunityPoliceRelationsSummitReport_web.pdf.

[vii]         N.Y.C Police Dep’t, Neighborhood Policing, NYC.gov, https://www1.nyc.gov/site/nypd/bureaus/patrol/neighborhood-coordination-officers.page .

• Executive Summary
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• Responding to Crises
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Police Officer Assignment and Neighborhood Crime | Bocar Ba, Patrick

Research Rep: 31

Economist 0aec

Stop the presses, cops don't want to work in dangerous crime ridden he ll holes??

Economist b3b0

BB claimed H. OOlig microaggressed him.

Economist f413

It seems this problem could be addressed by theory using a matching approach.

Economist 7cdc

such a delicate flower lol

Economist 907f

this actually seems like a good paper

Send Post »

Markup: a blockquote code em strong ul ol li .

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Police departments are offering big raises. Does it work?

Meg Anderson

Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara speaks to the press after a multi-person shooting in the city on Feb. 27. O'Hara says the police department is staffed 40% below what it was in 2020. Alex Kormann/Star Tribune via Getty Images hide caption

When Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara took over the department in 2022, he says it was like walking into a funeral parlor.

“People weren't even talking to each other,” he says. “A lot of members were openly telling me, ‘Yeah, if somebody asked me, they're thinking about becoming a cop, I told them, no way, don't come here. Everybody hates us. Everyone is leaving. Go anywhere else but Minneapolis.’”

After all, this is the police force where an officer murdered George Floyd. O’Hara says that took a toll. He estimates the department today is staffed 40% below what it was in 2020.

Across the U.S. since 2020, police forces in major cities have shrunk. In response, many are giving officers large pay boosts. But many say it takes far more than money to draw people to policing and keep them there.

How many police officers is enough?

According to the Police Executive Research Forum, or PERF, the number of officers employed by large agencies is around 5% lower than it was four years ago.

In Minneapolis, O’Hara says residents experience the effects of having fewer investigators and fewer officers on the street.

“It means much longer response times for certain things,” he says. “Doesn't mean that we're forgetting about cases, but it does mean we are prioritizing.”

He says officers have less time for check-ins and less direct contact with community members; They rely more now on single-officer cars, and there’s a fear that calling for backup could take longer than it used to.

Typically, city officials calculate the number of officers needed to deem a department fully staffed based on a variety of factors including population levels, crime trends and budget allocations.

But there is no magic number, and the evidence is mixed on whether more officers – or more money spent on policing – predicts crime rates, researchers say.

Planet Money

When you add more police to a city, what happens.

Ben Grunwald, a law professor at Duke University, says not enough is known to say definitively what the best number of police officers actually is.

“If you talk to police chiefs and law enforcement experts, they'll tell you we need more officers because officers help reduce violent crime and help other problems with communities,” Grunwald says. “On the other hand, you can talk to activists who will tell you, ‘No, we don't need more officers. What we need is fewer officers because police officers cause lots of social harm to communities.’”

‘Departments have had to try to incentivize.’

Chuck Wexler, executive director of PERF, says large agencies struggling to recruit and retain police is a “sign of the times.”

“The challenge of American policing right now is you have more resignations and retirements and less people who want to become police officers,” he says. “So departments have had to try to incentivize.”

In at least 20 major U.S. cities, money is the primary incentive. Thousands of police officers across the country have received large pay boosts since the start of 2023.

Consider This from NPR

To fight crime, blue cities take a page from the conservative playbook.

New cadets in Austin receive a $15,000 signing bonus. In Washington, D.C., the hiring bonus is $25,000 .

In May, the Seattle City Council approved a 23% increase to the starting salary of its officers. In Kansas City, the 2024-25 budget included a 30% increase in police salaries.

Earlier this month, the Minneapolis City Council approved a 22% raise over the next three years for officers, a pay bump that will cost the city an extra $9 million .

Critics in Minneapolis are angered by the increases to police wages, when the department has cost the city tens of millions of dollars in police misconduct payouts . O’Hara says that’s exactly why they need higher pay.

“If we want quality policing, we're going to have to pay quality wages. It is just an extremely difficult job and there are just not people interested in this,” O’Hara says. “The pay, I think, is not the only thing, but it's an essential component of being able to turn this thing around.”

Jill Snider, a retired New York City police officer, agrees.

“We chose to be law enforcement officers. People choose to be teachers, choose to be nurses. You know what you're getting into when you do it. But then you're not always happy with the paycheck when you get it,” says Snider, who is also a policy director at the R Street Institute, a think tank that promotes limited government.

‘It would have taken quite a bit of money to get me to stay.’

But just like there’s no magic number for how many police officers a city should have, the evidence that higher pay gets more people to become cops and stay in the profession is mixed at best.

“It isn't all about money. It's about quality of life,” Wexler says.

When the Los Angeles City Council voted to increase the starting salary of officers by 13% last year, the city’s police department reported an increase in applications .

A 2024 study also found that higher salaries made some college students more open to applying for the job. But it noted that nearly half of the surveyed students said there was “no chance” they’d apply, including many who had majored in criminal justice.

Another study from this year zeroed in on burnout and psychological distress as key reasons why officers leave. Compared to the general population, police officers are more likely to experience post-traumatic stress disorder . They’re also more likely to die by suicide .

Violent crime is dropping fast in the U.S. — even if Americans don't believe it

“It's honestly a lot of times not as much to do with the money. It's a lot more to do with the frustrations around the job,” says Colin Whittington, a former officer in northern Virginia.

Whittington, who left the force in 2022 after seven years, says he felt unfairly treated for the actions of other officers.

“You will be cursed at, or sent nasty messages, or left notes in your cruiser for an incident that happened states away with officers who I never met, and being lumped into their actions, even though I always held myself to a really high standard,” he says.

Whittington now offers career counseling and also wrote a book to help police officers and other first responders considering a transition away from law enforcement.

Matt Rivers, a former officer in Urbana, Ill., left policing in 2017 after nine years. For him, it was job stress creeping into life at home.

“I just remember getting upset with the kids about something super minor, like they dropped a spoon in the kitchen or something like that. And I remember thinking, ‘This doesn't feel like me,’” he says. “It would have taken quite a bit of money to get me to stay.”

‘Purpose is going to transcend money.’

There are some cities bucking the trend. In fact, according to PERF data, smaller departments have bounced back after a decline and have more officers now than they did in 2020.

In Bloomington, Minn., a suburb of nearly 90,000 people a few miles south of Minneapolis, the department is overstaffed.

“Bloomington was for sure my number one option. I’m from here. I played sports here. I care about this community a lot,” says Officer Devon Barnum, who is 23 years old and has been on the job less than a year.

On a recent afternoon patrol, he answered call after call: A tense dispute between a mom and son. A welfare check on a woman who didn't show up for work. A traffic stop. A call to secure an apartment building.

“Every day is challenging,” Barnum says. “Obviously, I would say it's an extremely stressful job, right? The things you see in this job … the average person doesn't see them.”

He says more money couldn’t persuade him to leave for another police department.

“I'm not going anywhere. We have our community support. Our chief is awesome,” he says. “You don't get into this job for money.”

To be clear, Bloomington has increased officer pay – by about 3% a year for the last few years. The city’s police chief, Booker Hodges, says he has no plans for anything more than that.

“I don't fundamentally believe that paying people these incentives works,” he says. “I want people here who are here for a purpose, because purpose is going to transcend money … Purpose is going to keep people working. Purpose is going to get you through those tough times.”

Hodges is the city’s first Black police chief, and used to be president of the Minneapolis NAACP. He understands not everyone is going to like the police. He’s aiming instead for mutual respect, toward the community and also toward officers.

He says that makes for a positive work environment. Otherwise he says understaffing, which leads to lots of overtime shifts, becomes a vicious cycle.

“If you consistently have to work 16-hour days, one: how awake are you going to be, right? Two: How much quality time are you able to take to recharge and spend with your family, right? So are you your best person overall if you're working that much? And the answer is no,” he says.

Hodges says you want the police that are out there to be healthy and happy, and not just in it for the money.

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Ohio police officers shoot, kill armed man near RNC

Five police officers from Columbus, Ohio, shot and killed an armed man early Tuesday afternoon just west of downtown Milwaukee, Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman said.

The shooting occurred near North 14th and West Vliet Streets just under a mile from the security perimeter for the Republican National Convention.

No Milwaukee police officers were involved.

Thirteen Columbus police officers were in the area for a briefing when they saw an altercation between two people, one of whom was holding a knife in each hand, according to preliminary information provided by Norman late Tuesday.

The officers ordered the man to drop the knives, he said.

The man did not do so, and then suddenly charged at the other individual, which is when police opened fire, Norman said.

Body camera and still frames released late Tuesday by Columbus police show the man was still armed with the knives, and lunging toward another man, at the time of the shooting.

Two knives were recovered at the scene, the chief said.

Norman strongly defended the out-of-state officers in the shooting.

"Someone's life was in danger," he said. "These officers who are not from this area took upon themselves to act to save someone's life today."

The officers were in their assigned zone related to RNC duties for potential demonstration response, Norman said.

The Milwaukee Area Investigative Team, led by the Greenfield Police Department, is investigating the fatal shooting.

The situation unfolded rapidly, with 15 seconds passing from when officers first noticed the man was armed with a knife to when they fired shots.

'I don't understand this': Neighbors shaken, critical of out-of-state cops

The man who was killed was well-known in the neighborhood, several witnesses told the Journal Sentinel.

He lived in one of the tent encampments, was known by the nickname Jehovah and took care of a pit bull, they said. Police could be seen removing the dog from the encampment around 2:30 and putting it in a MADACC van.

The man was identified later Tuesday as Samuel Sharpe Jr. by a first cousin, Linda Sharpe, who spoke to reporters at the scene of the shooting.

Eddie Johnson, 55, a friend of the man, said he was a "beautiful person" who was known to walk his dog and carry a Bible.

"I don't understand this," Johnson said. "He didn't deserve that."

Two people, Christina Kugler and Mark Walker, said they saw the shooting happen as the man was in the street.

Emmanuel King, 31, said he and a few others were at King Park playing cans and listening to music shortly after 1 p.m. when they saw a group of about 15 officers on bicycles. About the same time, King saw two men fighting on 14th Street and asked them to stop because of the nearby police presence.

Shelly Sarasin, the co-founder and director of Street Angels, said her outreach group goes to the area every Monday with a mobile shower unit.

Jehovah began using Street Angels' shower in April and used it yesterday, too, she said.

As he was leaving, he kept saying "I love you guys," Sarasin said.

“We might be the last people he said that to,” she said.

Sarasin said the death will impact the roughly 70 unhoused people who live in tents between 13th and 14th streets.

“He was a person. He was human,” she said, visibly shaken by the shooting. “This is more trauma on top of trauma for those who knew him and still live here.”

Aurelia Ceja of the Milwaukee Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression criticized that out-of-state police were involved. The group had planned a vigil for late Tuesday.

Vaun Mayes, a prominent community activist, said he was concerned with the plan to bring non-Milwaukee police from “red states” who may not be familiar with Milwaukee communities. He did not think the shooting would’ve happened if it had been Milwaukee police. Mayes is familiar with the neighborhood from his work and dealing with its homeless population. He has successfully de-escalated fights in the area, he said. 

Thousands of additional cops in Milwaukee for RNC

Prior to the convention, Milwaukee officials estimated about 4,000 officers from law enforcement agencies outside the city would take part in policing the city this week. 

Milwaukee police had said they intended to assign outside officers to positions that are not public-facing — such as traffic control — while Milwaukee officers would have primary contact with members of the community. Any assignments given to outside officers were supposed to include at least one Milwaukee police officer, according to the mutual aid agreement.

On Tuesday, Norman said Milwaukee police had provided briefings to visiting officers when they arrived. During the short news conference, he did not provide more details about the duties of the outside officers or any supervision the Milwaukee Police Department had over them.

Milwaukee Ald. Robert Bauman, who represents the district where the shooting happened, raised concerns about the involvement of out-of-state officers.

If the Ohio officers were by themselves without MPD, Bauman said, that would be a problem.

“If it was an MPD officer, he would have known, no, no, no this is King Park, this is a known area for homeless to camp out, lots of folks with mental disabilities in here, tread carefully, de-escalate,” he said.

He added: “They’re in unfamiliar territory and they don’t know King Park from Central Park.”

Bauman's comments came before Columbus police released bodycam footage from the incident.

Outside officers in the city providing mutual aid for the RNC are required to follow the Milwaukee Police Department's standard operating procedures on use of force, crowd control and rules of engagement.

According to an agreement signed by partner agencies, any disciplinary matters that arise with an outside officer will be referred to the home agency. 

If the matter rises to the level of probable cause for a crime, it will be referred directly to MPD or an external law enforcement agency for investigation “with appropriate notice to Contractor,” according to the agreement.

Tuesday's shooting in Milwaukee marks the eighth time this year that Columbus police have shot someone, according to the Columbus Dispatch .

Several dozen Columbus officers,  including the Division of Police's dialogue team , are in Milwaukee, as are officers from other cities around the country, to assist with security.

Multiple sources told The Dispatch that dialogue officers — who are trained to facilitate people's demonstration rights and de-escalate situations — were not involved in the shooting.

Milwaukee homeless shelter expanded services for RNC

Jehovah was familiar by a different name to Father Mike Bertram, ministry director for Capuchin Community Services, which runs the St. Ben's Community Meal, a nightly meal for the homeless and hungry.

St. Ben’s has expanded its services this week to be open as a day and overnight shelter in an effort to give homeless individuals a safe, cool place to stay as the Republican National Convention may displace some people from their usual spots.

Last night the shelter was near its capacity of 40 men, Bertram said. People have said they are eager, and grateful, for a safe place to rest, he said.

Prior to the RNC, Bertram publicly offered St. Ben’s staff to defuse any conflicts between homeless individuals and police near the security perimeter. In light of the shooting, he’s hoping that more officers reach out if intervention is needed.

One challenge is that out-of-town police may not know about St. Ben’s.

“It’s really sad, it’s really tragic,” he said. “I hope that we can make some more communication with law enforcement to say … we’re here, we’re willing to help in any way that we can, to deescalate a situation, or to simply invite someone (to stay here).”

Alison Dirr and Gina Castro of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.

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Out-of-state officers shot and killed a man wielding two knives blocks away from the RNC, police say

Police investigate a shooting near King Park during the second day of the 2024 Republican National Convention, Tuesday, July 16, 2024, in Milwaukee. The shooting occurred outside of the security perimeter for the Republican National Convention. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Police gather near King Park were reports of a person was shot during the second day of the 2024 Republican National Convention, Tuesday, July 16, 2024, in Milwaukee. The shooting occurred outside of the security perimeter for the Republican National Convention. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Charter buses detour around a crime scene where one person was shot and killed by police during the second day of the 2024 Republican National Convention,Tuesday, July 16, 2024, in Milwaukee. The shooting occurred outside of the security perimeter for the Republican National Convention. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

People speak with a police officer near a crime scene where one person was shot and killed by police during the second day of the 2024 Republican National Convention,Tuesday, July 16, 2024, in Milwaukee. The shooting occurred outside of the security perimeter for the Republican National Convention. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

A Milwaukee County medical examiner vehicle arrives where a person was shot by police and killed during the second day of the 2024 Republican National Convention, Tuesday, July 16, 2024, in Milwaukee. The shooting occurred outside of the security perimeter for the Republican National Convention. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Authorities look over a vehicle inside the crime scene where a person was shot during the second day of the 2024 Republican National Convention, Tuesday, July 16, 2024, in Milwaukee. The shooting occurred outside of the security perimeter for the Republican National Convention. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Officials close a street near King Park were reports of a person was shot during the second day of the 2024 Republican National Convention, Tuesday, July 16, 2024, in Milwaukee. The shooting occurred outside of the security perimeter for the Republican National Convention. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

People walk out of a crime seen where one person was shot during the second day of the 2024 Republican National Convention near the Fiserv Forum, Tuesday, July 16, 2024, in Milwaukee. The shooting occurred outside of the security perimeter for the Republican National Convention. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

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MILWAUKEE (AP) — Ohio police officers in Wisconsin for the Republican National Convention shot and killed a man who was wielding two knives near the convention, Milwaukee’s police chief said Tuesday.

Five members of the Columbus, Ohio, police department fired on the man, who had a knife in each hand, refused police commands and charged at an unarmed man before police fired, Milwaukee Chief Jeffrey Norman said at a news conference. Two knives were recovered from the scene, the chief said.

Police released body camera footage that showed officers on bikes talking before one of them says, “He’s got a knife.”

Several officers then yell “Drop the knife!” as they run toward two men standing in a street. When the armed man moved toward the unarmed man, police fired their weapons.

“Someone’s life was in danger,” Norman said. “These officers, who were not from this area, took it upon themselves to act and save someone’s life today.”

Thousands of officers from multiple jurisdictions are in Milwaukee providing additional security for the convention that began Monday and concludes Thursday.

The shooting fueled anger from residents who questioned why out-of-state officers were in their neighborhood located about a mile from the convention site.

The Columbus Division of Police, as well as the chief of staff for Milwaukee’s mayor and a spokesperson for the convention’s joint command center, all said there was nothing to suggest the shooting was related to the convention itself.

A cousin and others identified the man killed as 43-year-old Samuel Sharpe.

Milwaukee residents and activists quickly converged on the site of the shooting, many of them expressing outrage about the involvement of a police department in town because of the convention.

About 100 people held a vigil and march without incident on Tuesday night, pausing for a moment of silence at the blood-stained spot where Sharpe was killed.

“They came into our community and shot down our family right here at a public park,” said Linda Sharpe, a cousin of the man who was killed. “What are you doing in our city, shooting people down?”

Linda Sharpe said her cousin lived in a tent encampment across the street from King Park, where the shooting occurred.

Residents said the encampment was a long-standing feature of the neighborhood, which is home to several social service clinics and a shelter. Some said Milwaukee police officers are familiar with many of those living in the tents and might have been able to deescalate the situation.

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David Porter, who said he knew Samuel Sharpe and is also homeless, was angry that officers from outside of Milwaukee were in his neighborhood.

“If MPD would have been there, that man would still be alive right now,” Porter said, referring to Milwaukee police.

Norman, the Milwaukee chief, said 13 officers who were part of a bicycle patrol from Columbus were within their assigned zone having a meeting when they saw the altercation.

“The officers observed a subject armed with a knife in each hand, engaged in an altercation with another unarmed individual,” Norman said. They only fired after the armed man ignored multiple commands and moved toward the unarmed man, the chief said.

“This is a situation where somebody’s life was in immediate danger,” Norman said.

The Columbus Division of Police has received attention because of its special unit deployed to Milwaukee that works to improve police-community relationships and had a visible role in guiding the largely uneventful protests on Monday.

The shooting happened near King Park, roughly a mile from the convention center, where a small group of protesters gathered before marching on Monday. That demonstration was followed by dozens of Columbus police officers, wearing blue vests that read: “Columbus Police Dialogue.”

The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office said an autopsy was scheduled for Wednesday.

• officer involved shooting

Off-duty CPD officer involved in Morgan Park shootout during attempted robbery: Chicago police

Officer was on his way to work when gunmen surrounded car, officials said

CHICAGO (WLS) -- An off-duty Chicago police officer was involved in a South Side shootout during a robbery attempt Tuesday morning, according to authorities.

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The shooting happened around 5:34 a.m. in the 10800-block of Campbell Avenue in Morgan Park. It was just starting to get light outside.

The officer - who has not been identified- was getting in his car near 109th Street and Campbell to head to work when a group of suspects approached with guns, blocking him, according to Alderman Matt O'Shea.

More than a dozen shots were fired in the ensuing shootout.

"Luckily the off-duty police officer, a neighbor and a friend, is OK," O'Shea said. "But this is just another reminder - I don't care what neighborhood you live in. We are in a very safe neighborhood. This type of crime is becoming more and more prevalent."

Neighbors said they heard the gunshots on early Tuesday morning.

"It amazes me how people just stop cars and shoot. I just don't understand it," neighbor Pat Poynton said.

"It was something I've never heard before," said Mary Sheridan, who lives nearby. "Maybe on TV, gunfire, but never in-person."

Sheridan said she saw the suspect's car speeding away after the shooting, traveling east down 109th.

"I knew it wasn't a firecracker," she said.

The suspect's dark-colored sedan was found shot out, as Chopper 7 showed, about a mile away, on 112th Street.

Chicago police said they took one person into custody, but are searching for others.

No injuries were reported.

SEE ALSO: Bodycam video reveals chaotic scene of deputy fatally shooting IL Black woman who called 911

But the exchange of gunfire in their neighborhood, which is filled with police officers and firefighters, worries nearby residents.

"This could've been a nurse headed to the hospital; this could've been a teenager, heading out to a summer job," O'Shea said.

"I'm nervous about that. Just like the girl that came out next-door to me, she leaves her work at that time every day," Sheridan said. "She was just going to work, too. People getting up, going to work, and that's what that guy was doing. So, we're all going to be on-guard now, I guess, which is too bad."

Police are asking neighbors to check their cameras for any video of the suspects.

They remained on the scene investigating hours later. The officer's car remained on the scene, too.

"The idea that an off-duty police officer this is happening to is a blessing, I suppose," neighbor Jim McAteer said.

O'Shea said he believes it was the same group of suspects, who may have been involved in several other crimes overnight across the district.

He said he knows the 25-year Chicago police veteran involved in the shootout well. The officer is very involved in the community.

"Luckily, it was a trained member of law enforcement there able to protect himself," O'Shea said. "People are scared and angry, and they should be."

The Civilian Office of Police Accountability, also known as COPA, is investigating the shooting.

The officer involved was placed on routine administrative duties for at least 30 days.

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Related Topics

• MORGAN PARK
• OFFICER INVOLVED SHOOTING
• CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTMENT
• CHICAGO SHOOTING
• CHICAGO CRIME
• ARMED ROBBERY
• POLICE SHOOTING
• POLICE INVOLVED SHOOTING
• ATTEMPTED ROBBERY
• CHICAGO VIOLENCE
• GUN VIOLENCE

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Police: Boy shot after stray bullet makes it to mobile home’s bedroom in Miami-Dade

Search for shooter continues sunday.

Samiar Nefzi , Reporter

Hannah Yechivi , Reporter

Andrea Torres , Digital Journalist

MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – Miami-Dade detectives continued searching for a shooter on Sunday while a 4-year-old boy who was wounded remained hospitalized.

A dispute devolved into gunshots outside of the boy’s mobile home and a stray bullet struck him while he was in a bedroom on Saturday night in Miami-Dade County’s Tamiami neighborhood, police said. There were bullet halls on an outer wall and a cracked window.

Miami-Dade Fire Rescue personnel found the boy in “critical but stable” condition at about 9 p.m., near Southwest 127 Court and 12 Street, at the University Lakes mobile home community.

Fire rescue personnel used an ambulance to rush the boy to the HCA Florida Kendall Hospital. The boy’s mother, Hassell Oprota, said they were lucky this time, but she fears that “maybe next time” they won’t be.

“Thankfully, the child is going to be OK,” said Detective Luis Sierra, a spokesman for the Miami-Dade Police Department.

Witnesses said the boy’s parents were not involved in the dispute and were home with him. Neighbors said the two suspects ran away, but it wasn’t the first time police officers had responded because of a conflict in the area.

Detectives asked anyone with information about this or other cases to call Miami-Dade County Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.

Local 10 News Assignment Desk Editor Mercedes Cevallos contributed to this report.

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About the Authors

Samiar nefzi.

Samiar Nefzi joined the Local 10 News team in August of 2023.

Hannah Yechivi

Hannah Yechivi joined the Local 10 News team in May of 2024.

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