An approval by the Milwaukee Common Council has finalized the plan to send 36 city police officers to assist St Paul Police at the Republican National Convention. The aldermen voted 13-0 Tuesday night for the deployment, two of the alders were not present. Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn is a strong believer in mutual aid activity such as this. He calls it, “our obligation as an American city to help another American city when it polices a national event.”
Flynn recalls four years ago when he was Massachusetts Secretary of Public Safety and coordinating security for the Democratic National Convention in Boston. He says mutual aid was critical as personnel from the state patrol and Boston Police were not staffed to handle such a large task.
The police chief says all of the embarking officers are Major Incident Reponse Team (MERT) members which means, in addition to their regular tasks on the job, they have special training in handling riots and crowds.
Milwaukee's finest are coming from out of state therefore they'll have limited police powers. Flynn says his unit will still be allowed to restrain or handcuff people. However they'll be witnessing officers where as Minnesota based law enforcement will be the arresting officers.
The deploying officers will all be paid time and half by the federal government for their work
AUDIO: Brian Moon reports (MP3 :66)
