Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales says crime has reduced in city since he’s taken over as top cop

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Milwaukee Police Chief Alfonso Morales is saying since he’s taken over, crime is down for the city.

But he acknowledges that certain neighborhoods continue to struggle.

“It’s identifying who’s doing it, and how we’re going to prevent the next one.”

Morales says the department has made strides over the last two years to prevent violent crime.

There were 119 homicides in 2017, 99 in 2018, and 97 last year.

Non-fatal shootings are down from 558 to 452.

And carjacking’s decreased from 410 to 346.

Although this is promising news, Morales says there's still more work to be done.

“We have over 100 neighborhoods in the city of Milwaukee, but I can tell you that over 40% of our violent crimes occur in 14 neighborhoods.”

Neighborhoods like Garden Homes, Walkers Point, and Lincoln Creek still see a high rate of violent crimes.

Morales says building relationships with the community and getting people involved can help the downward trend continue.

“There’s always a lot to be done, but most importantly we need to work together,” said Morales.

“It’s part of police legitimacy. If the community does not believe that the police care in addressing their problems, and sometimes the problems can be fixed by the community, then nothing gets accomplished.”

Chief Morales says they will continue to work on their targeted enforcement strategies to locate problems within neighborhoods and decrease crime even further.