Milwaukee homicides 4th most in nation per capita: study
MILWAUKEE - A pair of Milwaukee fatal shootings in less than 12 hours has prompted community members to ask: What is being done to protect our neighbors and our children?
Ashanti Hamilton, the city's Office of Community Wellness and Safety director, said he’s disappointed in a new study that finds the city has one of the biggest homicide rates in the U.S.
"This is not a list that we want to be on," he said.
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WalletHub, a personal finance company, released a report this week of cities with the highest homicide rates per capita. It ranked Milwaukee fourth, between much larger cities like Detroit and Atlanta.
"We’re being more aggressively involved with bringing in youth. That’s another area of growth in homicides we’re seeing as far as activity is concerned," Hamilton said about what the city is doing to address violence.
Ashanti Hamilton
Hamilton said domestic violence is also an issue – at the root of one-fifth of the city's homicides. He said he wants to see waiting periods to purchase guns and stricter background checks.
"We’ve had a strong effort this past summer to provide gun safety training, especially in these areas where these incidents have occurred the most," he said.
The mayor's office shared a different set of data, which said homicides are down almost 20% year-to-date. Overall, serious crime is down 12%.
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"Mayor Johnson is doing some really interesting things, trying to bring in business and economic activity into the city," said Alvin Thomas, an assistant professor of Human Development and Family Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "That is going to be necessary to afford people the opportunities to take care of themselves.
"At the core are things like mental health, access to jobs – jobs that will allow an individual to respectively be able to care for their children and family and community."
Milwaukee police declined FOX6 News' request for an interview. They said third quarter crime data will be released next week.