• New Police Chief Flynn addresses Law School forum
• Flynn: There's a "communal will" to improve
• Looks forward to challenge of the job
• Focuses on community-policing approach

Just days after being sworn in as Milwaukee's new police chief, Edward Flynn said at Marquette Law School on Thursday that the city is determined to improve and he's ready to take on the challenge.

"I think there's a communal will here to see things improve and to be better," said Flynn, who spoke during the Law School's "On the Issues" series hosted by former local television anchor Mike Gousha.

Sworn in Jan. 7 as the 18th police chief in the city's history and only the second to come from outside the Milwaukee Police Department, Flynn said he was drawn to his new position because of both the challenges and opportunities the city faces.

"If you love what you do, you want to do it somewhere where all of your abilities are going to be thoroughly challenged," Flynn said. "I love policing in urban environments. I think urban policing in a diverse, democratic society is some of the most important work there is."

Flynn brings to Milwaukee 37 years of law enforcement experience, including his most recent role as police commissioner in Springfield, Mass. Now just one week into the job, Flynn hopes to deal with challenges that aren't unique to Milwaukee, he said.

Last week, the FBI Uniform Crime Report for the first half of 2007 reported violent crime in Milwaukee rose by 13 percent, with aggravated assaults up 23 percent. Flynn said while the numbers on the first six months of 2007 are good to know, crime measures are just as important as the measure of citizen satisfaction – that is, how safe people feel about being in their neighborhoods.

"Feelings of safety drive behavior," Flynn said. "If we can make people feel safer about their public spaces, they're going to use their public spaces. If they use their public spaces, other good things happen."

Flynn said 20 percent of what police officers do is enforce the law and the other 80 percent is time spent patrolling the community. With a focus on community-oriented policing in mind, Flynn said he will emphasize problem-solving skills in his force of nearly 2,000.

Community-based training – acquiring "local knowledge" of the communities officers patrol – is also important, he said.

"The building block of effective policing is the neighborhood and the policing districts are made up of neighborhoods," Flynn said. "Our challenge is to make sure that neighborhoods feel that the police department is responding to their priorities."

But citizen calls for non-emergency services increase police response time for serious emergencies and takes officers away from the "public space," Flynn said.

"One of the challenges of community policing is how do we get communities to accept that maybe it's not a good idea to have us go to your house for every single thing if you still want us to deal with the abandoned cars, graffiti, gangs, kids on the corner and the stuff that makes you afraid to go outside," he said.

Lt. Karl Robbins, an MPD shift commander who attended Thursday's discussion, said he agreed with Flynn's assertion that police are drawn away from the streets because of too many unnecessary service calls. If officers didn't hear their radios constantly, they would have more time to interact with the community, Robbins said.

"We have to get officers out of the squads and talking to people," Robbins said.

Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm, who was also in attendance Thursday, said his Community Prosecution Unit complements Flynn's community-based policing approach. Chisholm said former Police Chief Nannette Hegerty helped set up a partnership between the two offices based on strong community efforts.

"Now you're going to see a complete commitment to the infrastructure she's already developed," Chisholm said.

Flynn said even the best policing cannot solve problems best solved by stable families in stable neighborhoods.

But in referencing an African proverb, Flynn suggested police can create an environment in which stability can occur.

"Police departments can help raise villages," he said.