This is the fourth article of five in a series examining social issues facing Milwaukee.

Milwaukee ranks 17th in the U.S. Census Bureau's list of the top 20 largest cities in the United States, between Columbus, Ohio and Memphis, Tenn., and its estimated population of 628,000 puts it on the smaller side of most "major American cities," yet crimes that occur in Milwaukee are similar to those of larger cities.

"Milwaukee is no longer one of the top dozen cities in terms of population," said Thomas Jablonsky, associate professor of history and a Milwaukee expert, "but it continues to face the same urban issues including crime and law enforcement that larger cities, such as Los Angeles, New York or Chicago face."

"It matches patterns in cities that are five and 10 times its size. This shows that Milwaukee is still a very typical urban center that faces the same problems as its larger brothers and sisters" Jablonsky said.

One of the greatest challenges the Milwaukee Police Department faces is building trust between the community and the department, according to Anne E. Schwartz, public relations manager for MPD.

"So many things have happened that have not earned (MPD) positive headlines," Schwartz said.

But she said that 2,000 officers come to work every day to protect the people of Milwaukee and to work together with the community.

MPD has recently implemented a series of cultural competency training programs to enhance understanding between community members and police officers.

These programs vary from addressing how to handle situations with various ethnic groups to the mentally ill.

The most distinctive effort is the Milwaukee Commission on Police Community Relations, which was established in December 2003.

The commission aims to connect directly with various populations in the Milwaukee community to better understand their needs.

"We want to find out what they are hearing and what we can do to get our message out to the people and the community," Schwartz said.

MPD has also been able to improve the quality of its work through technological development within the department.

Police are now able to use DNA technology to solve crimes that would have been more difficult to solve 10 years ago, Schwartz said.

An identification system has been installed in police squad cars to check for fingerprints. Soon, video cameras will be installed in the squad cars.

The improvements have correlated with a decrease in crime in the Milwaukee area in the past 10 years.

In 1994, a total of 51,872 crimes were reported within MPD's jurisdiction, and in 2004, 41,884 were reported.

All areas, ranging from homicide to robbery to arson to motor vehicle theft, have seen a decrease in reported crimes over the past decade.

MPD has also been able to follow a national trend in implementing the Amber Alert into its system.

The system is used to notify the media and spread the word over a wider area for crisis situations in which police are looking for a specific suspect or a critically missing person.

Amber Alert was used for the first time just last month, when Chicago resident Kendale L. Coats abducted his six-week-old daughter from her mother's home in the 700 block of North 29th Street.

Coats engaged in a domestic dispute Feb. 23 with his girlfriend, the child's mother, a situation to which MPD responded.

He left the house but then returned, taking his daughter from her home. Coats threatened to hurt himself or his daughter if authorities were contacted, according to MPD.

A search began immediately, and after unsuccessfully checking several locations, MPD decided to activate the Amber Alert around 7 p.m. that night.

Just an hour and a half later, officers surveying the area saw Coats' car and found the child, unharmed and alone.

"What the Amber Alert does for us is allows us to cast a wider net when we're looking for a suspect or a critically missing person," Schwartz said.

Amber Alert, which stands for "America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response," was implemented in Wisconsin in April 2003.

"We wanted to find her as soon as possible. It was good police work that helped find her, but we found the Amber Alert helped us get the word out and is a good tool to use in the future," Schwartz said.

This article appeared in The Marquette Tribune on Mar. 15 2005.