Milwaukee mayor’s proposed budget seeks to hire more cops to meet state mandate

Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson’s proposed budget seeks to fund the maximum number of police recruit classes next year as the city deals with state pressure to hire more cops. 

Johnson presented his proposed 2026 budget to the Milwaukee Common Council on Tuesday. The budget calls for funding three police recruit classes of 65 recruits each.

Milwaukee needs to hire more police officers under a bipartisan law to overhaul local government funding that set first responder staffing requirements for the city.

“Again this year, I’ve included funding for training the maximum number of police recruits at our academy because I want more officers on the Milwaukee Police Department, and we’ve got a statutory obligation to increase those numbers,” Johnson said Tuesday.

The city risks losing 15 percent of its shared revenue allotment from the state if the Milwaukee Police Department and Milwaukee Fire Department do not maintain staffing levels year over year. Meanwhile, a 2019 report from the International Association of Chiefs of Police found there is a “recruitment crisis” at departments nationwide.

‘It’s always short’

The city’s 2025 budget also included funding for three police recruit classes of 65 recruits, or 195 new recruits. But so far this year, a total of 50 police recruits have graduated from two police academy classes, said Leon Todd, the executive director of the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission.

In 2024, only 87 police recruits graduated from the Milwaukee Police Academy, according to a commission report. 

“It’s always short, and it’s always short significantly,” Milwaukee Alder Scott Spiker said about the police recruitment classes.

“I know it’s a nationwide challenge, but we have to be creative about recruiting, and I have not heard anything so creative thus far,” Spiker said.

Under Act 12, the city must employ at least 1,725 police officers by the start of 2034. For the fire department, the city must maintain a “daily staffing level not fewer than 218 members of the paid fire department” by 2034, according to a Wisconsin Legislative Council memo.

Last year around this time, there were 1,567 sworn police officers in the department and 199 sworn daily firefighter positions. There are currently 1,587 sworn police officers and 206 sworn daily firefighter positions.

The 2026 proposed budget includes funding for three additional full-time firefighters, which would increase the sworn daily firefighter positions to 207 next year, according to city budget director Nik Kovac.

Kovac said the mayor’s proposed budget would increase the police department’s sworn strength to 1,645 officers in 2026. That factors in “expected attrition,” Kovac said. However, that assumes all three police recruit classes graduate the maximum number of 65 recruits. 

Milwaukee Police Association President Alexander Ayala wasn’t available for an interview Tuesday. But following a city meeting in July, he said recruiting and retaining officers is the “No. 1 issue” for the department.

“We need more officers to be hired at MPD (Milwaukee Police Department) so that we can have the staffing to be able to respond to all the calls and then also … do the investigations,” Ayala told reporters.

City closes $100 million budget gap in proposed budget 

Last year, a city budget document said there is likely to be a “persistence of significant budget gaps in the coming years.” On Tuesday, Johnson said Milwaukee was facing a budget gap of $100 million in 2026.

“That’s one of the largest budget gaps this city has ever seen,” Johnson said. 

Johnson said that gap was closed by withdrawing money from city reserves and increasing user fees and the city’s property tax levy. It also included “departmental belt tightening,” Johnson said.

The proposed budget also includes about $206 million in local sales tax revenue from the city’s 2 percent sales tax. That sales tax was implemented in Milwaukee under Act 12.

“Without that new revenue source created by the State’s Act 12 legislation in 2023, the City would have been forced to make devasting cuts across the board, and most especially into our largest levy-supported departments, Police and Fire,” the proposed 2026 budget summary document says. 

The proposed budget will go through several public hearings and committee meetings before the Milwaukee Common Council votes on the plan later this year.