Over the past weekend, the city of Milwaukee saw multiple incidents where street intersections were taken over by multiple people blocking intersections and doing various illicit activities. 

Street takeover includes various activities such as drifting, lighting off fireworks and collections of people in the middle of intersections. Weeks before the take overs happened, the Milwaukee Police Department had disbanded a special unit dedicated to preventing street takeovers. Over the Labor Day weekend, there were 20 takeovers. (RELATED: ‘Nerve Racking’ Milwaukee Violent Crime Wave Hits Public Transportation) 

Sources tell The Dan O’Donnell Show that Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman’s insistence that there was a directed patrol mission (DPM) for street racing and street takeovers is “nonsense.”

“They cancelled the entire DPM and sent all of those resources downtown to Water Street to supplement the existing patrols there to prevent shootings and homicides downtown,” the source said. “We haven’t had an actual street takeover deployment in a month.”

Milwaukee Police Department reportedly received calls on about 20 different take overs, but did not have enough personnel to break up the take overs. The MPD only reported 3 total arrests of the hundreds of people who made their way to these take overs. (RELATED: Water Street’s Nightlife Tarnished by Crime and Violence)

“We are always making sure that we will respond to these calls,” said Chief Norman when asked by CBS 58 if there were enough personnel. CBS also mentions, “The chief said incidents like these, with crowds on streets, reckless driving, fireworks and more, are a nationwide problem and the department doesn’t want officers responding alone.”

The city of Milwaukee passed legislation this summer to punish people who participate in these takeovers, sponsored by Chief Norman and Mayor Johnson.