Local residents gathered at the Nigerian Community Center, hosted by Alderwoman Nikiya Dodd. The meeting included lawmakers, police chiefs and a local judge. It was broadcast on Facebook Live and angry residents kept showing up. They were frustrated and fearful for their lives because of the rise of reckless driving and fatal accidents in the city of Milwaukee.
In the past several years, the number of fatalities and injuries associated with reckless driving incidents has increased exponentially in Milwaukee. Hit-and-runs within the last few months have accounted for three deaths, including two children. In a five-year span, there have been nearly 230,000 traffic-offense cases. A task force and lawmakers say a majority of them are from reckless driving.
Milwaukee County has the highest number of fatalities and reckless driving crashes in the state. According to WisDOT, from 2014-2018 the average fatalities per year was 75. As of December 9, Milwaukee County has had 67 fatalities.
City officials, community leaders and residents acknowledge the problem is widespread throughout Milwaukee, although North Side neighborhoods appear to be suffering the most. The most dangerous streets are West Capitol Drive, West Fond Du Lac and West Hampton avenues.
“For me I just want to be able to drive on the streets without you know, having eight sets of eyes,” Celia Jackson said.
Jackson is from Milwaukee but lives just outside of the city. She has been an active community member for a few years now. Her involvement has been out of concern for the safety of the community; however, she has also been a victim of a reckless driver.
Jackson started a campaign called Slow Down Life Matters. Her messages have been wrapped around Milwaukee County Transit System buses and distributed in notebooks, yard signs, window decals and folders.
There is no clear explanation for the rise of reckless driving in Milwaukee, but officials, community leaders and residents have their theories.
Roots of Reckless Driving
The causes mainly fall into three categories: taking driver’s education out of schools, the police pursuit policy and the depreciation of driver’s licenses due to laws and fines, which makes it difficult for people to get their license,
For the last decade, driver’s education programs have not been as accessible to teens as they once were. The lack of driver’s education in public schools has left a generation of youth without basic understanding and appreciation of the rules of the road.
“My hope is to start with the new drivers with our driver’s education classes and I’m hoping they realize that they don’t have to watch their influencers when they do bad things,” said Jodie Donabar, recreation supervisor of MPS Drive. “They have the choice to not do it. So my hope is that I affect them which affect them, their parents, which affects their friends so that everyone can be safer.”
The MPS Drive program works to prevent reckless driving by educating young people on safe driving. The program was implemented in 2016 as a way to bring driver education back into the district after a decade of only having a fee-based option at a limited number of locations. Since the program pilot in the spring of 2016, 5200 students have been served, many of whom would not have had access to driver education otherwise. Of the students who participated:
98% earned permits
60% obtained probationary driver’s licenses
92% were students of color
74% were economically disadvantaged
The police pursuit is a policy that allows police officers to chase a vehicle that has either committed, is committing or is about to commit a violent felony. This policy has been going back and forth since 2010. As of 2017, the policy has once again allowed police to chase vehicles because of the growing community concerns surrounding reckless driving and vehicle-based drug dealing.
“There has to be a bridging of relationship between the community and the police department,” said community activist Celia Jackson.
According to the City of Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission, Milwaukee police chased fleeing drivers 940 times during 2018, a 155% increase over the previous year. Between 2012 and 2014 there were nearly double the number of pursuits (from 50 to 99) and an increase of 166% in the number of vehicle pursuits between 2014 and 2015 (99 to 263).
The systemic consequences of driver’s license laws and fines make it impossible for some to obtain a license. Residents at City Hall meetings complained that citations they received years ago are blocking them from pursuing or renewing their licenses.
Critics say not only is the depreciation of driver’s license stopping people from doing the right thing, but it is also making it difficult to access employment and daily needs.
Recommendations
To combat this epidemic, The Milwaukee City Council Carjacking and Reckless Driving Task Force, along with state and local leaders, has been meeting throughout the year. During recent community meetings at South Division and Rufus King high schools, the group approved a draft of several recommendations.
Milwaukee residents gathered at community meetings hosted by state and local leaders about how to “combat” the issue of reckless driving. Photos: Dazia Cummings
Some recommendations include:
- Increasing reckless driving penalties
- Mandating driving safety classes
- Conducting victim impact panels for carjacking and reckless driving convictions
- Narrowing lanes in urban environments
- Adding roundabouts
Milwaukee residents do not support all the recommendations the task force has made. Some residents say these are punitive measures that continue to put black and brown people down.
“If we’re going to make some great changes and some long term changes we really need to let city hall and the county of board of supervisors know we expect them to change our culture,” said Andrea Rodriguez of the Southside Organizing Center. “They cannot do business as usual where they create a task force with friends and other task force. They have their conversations and they create a list of recommendations for citizens which is not coming directly from them.”
Letter of recommendations draft by The City-County Carjacking and Reckless Driving Task Force.
Rodriguez has been a Steering Committee Member and appointed member of the City of Milwaukee Safety and Civic Community Commission for two years. In addition, she is a representative of District 13. She has been active on both the south and north side regarding reckless driving.
Rodriguez also runs a campaign called Slow Down Milwaukee, which reaches out to lawmakers about their movement to help combat the issue.
Activists say Milwaukee should and can be a safer city to drive in.
“We’ve got to give people an opportunity to be successful and thrive,” Jackson said.