Ashanti Hamilton resigns as director of Milwaukee's Office of Community Wellness and Safety

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- The city of Milwaukee will soon look for a new leader of the Office of Community Wellness and Safety.

Ashanti Hamilton announced Wednesday, Jan. 8, that he has resigned from his position as the director of the Office of Community Wellness and Safety, formerly known as the Office of Violence Prevention (OVP).

Hamilton tells CBS 58 he is no longer doing the day-to-day responsibilities in the office and is currently in transition with the city's department of administration.

Hamilton resigned last week, and his resignation will be finalized by the end of this week.

Hamilton has served as director of the office since August of 2022.

According to all involved, this was Hamilton's choice, not a forced resignation. Hamilton said he has accepted a position in the private sector and will resign as director.

He leaves an office that has made some progress but still faces significant challenges.

Hamilton told us, "There's a lot of pressure for this position."

And he's faced a lot of it in his nearly two-and-a-half years in charge of Milwaukee's violence prevention efforts.

Mayor Cavalier Johnson appointed Hamilton at a time when the office was under intense scrutiny. Milwaukee was in the midst of setting a homicide record for the third straight year.

Since then, some metrics have stabilized and some have gone down. In 2024, homicides were down a whopping 23%. Rapes were down 4%. And aggravated assaults, burglaries, and thefts were also down.

But it's difficult to measure how much of that is attributable to the office of community engagement and Hamilton specifically.

Hamilton said, "There's no single entity responsible when these numbers go up, there's no single entity responsible for when these numbers go down."

Throughout a wide-ranging interview, Hamilton stressed the importance of casting a wide net for people who want to help curb violence.

He said, "If we're going to have the impact that's necessary in order to change the magnitude of violence that we see in communities across the country, we want to be able to have a broad tent of people that can come in and help assist with this work."

Hamilton is a Riverside HS graduate and Marquette alum who earned his law degree from Texas Southern University.

He and his wife have five daughters.

He was first elected to the Milwaukee Common Council in 2004 and later was elected to serve as Council President in 2016.

Mayor Johnson lauded Hamilton for building community relationships, having a presence on the ground, and rebuilding trust. "I think he's done a remarkable job coming up with new programs and reaching out to people in the community."

Johnson added Hamilton helped "Re-establish that office as a force for good here in the community."

The office pulled more than $1 million in funding from the city, but Johnson said the work is invaluable.

The mayor told us, "You're tied with the resources you have, and you have to make do with what you got. And that's exactly what Ashanti has done."

But Hamilton was not always visible after major incidents. He said much of the office's work is done behind the scenes. "You don't see violence interrupters actually going into basements of actual shooters and being able to talk them down from retaliating."

He said those interrupters develop "relationships where people trust them that this would be handled in a way where they would feel they got justice, and they don't need to take street justice into their own hands."

And there are still concerning areas, like car jackings and youth violence, in particular.

Hamilton wouldn't say where he's headed but said his future role will be in the same space but allow him to visit other cities.

"It's a very difficult thing to do, is to walk away from something that you love," he said.

And he said he looks forward to remaining a committed partner and resource.

"I don't feel like I'm walking away, I feel like I'm expanding my ability to have an impact," Hamilton said.

Hamilton told us he'll end his tenure at the end of the week.

Mayor Johnson will eventually pick Hamilton's replacement, though he said he did not have an answer for who's next.

But Johnson did tell us, "I want somebody who's going to be at the forefront of doing outreach to the public. Because that's important."

The position does not need common council approval.