A Milwaukee (Wisc.) police sergeant assigned to the communications center has been disciplined after encouraging other supervisors to promote a ticket-writing slowdown by officers, all to protest on-going problems with the city’s public safety radio system. Sgt. Willie Murphy was handed 20 days off without pay for sending a text message to 33 other sergeants urging a protest, in violation of a department regulation. Milwaukee police officers and their union have been critical of the city’s radio system since it was installed in 2003, saying the OpenSky, digital system has bad coverage and other problems. The city originally paid $17.5 million for the radio system, but now faces additional expenses to cure reception problems. According to the complaint against Murphy, he sent a text message to other sergeants while off-duty, asking them to urge their officers to stop writing traffic tickets, as a way of protesting the city’s claim they are working with Harris Corp. to fix the problems. The union has turned up their spotlight on the radio system lately, resulting in many news stories. Download (pdf) the complaint filed against Murphy here.
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This officer was saying that cops should avoid minor traffic stops such as headlight out small things just to make them less likely to be in danger while the faulty radio system is fixed…he was concerned about all the stops cops make that could put their very lives in danger when calling for back up if the calls aren’t going through to dispatch…he never said not to respond to imminent dangerous situation…His department should know that many officers are killed when making minor stops so how do you have a radio system in place where cops have to worry if their emergency call for back up is going to be heard.
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