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MPD response time is shaping up to be big news
Every now and then a news story comes along in Milwaukee that captures attention for longer than normal. It either already is or gets to be a big story that dominates the news.
I think the next story like this is starting to rear its head and you can just feel the momentum building.
It's a controversy about the response time of the Milwaukee Police Department.
Various news outlets have looked for and found instances when it seems like it took longer for police to answer an emergency call than it should have. Assaults and stabbings and robberies and break-ins have all been used as examples of situations where it looks like the cops should have been their faster.
We are likely going to be deluged with stories about this problem for awhile and there's going to be lots of back and forth and accusations and defenses.
What it's going to boil down to in the end is really pretty simple.
Should cops spend more time preventing crime or answering calls after crimes have already been committed? It's a very fine line and sometimes it's difficult even figuring out where the line is.
There is no easy answer to this dilemma, but this story has all the earmarks of a story "that has legs," as they say in the news business, and we are likely to be talking about it for quite a while.
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