When Milwaukee was founded as a village in 1834, it had a town marshal who was
appointed by whoever was in power. However, the marshal was unable to deal with the
amount of the crime and so the citizens demanded a police force. In 1855, Alderman
Powers introduced an ordinance to create a police force. It passed after some
amending, and on October 4, 1855, the Milwaukee Police Department was established.
Chosen by Mayor James Cross, William Beck became the first Chief of Police. In an
attempt clean up the cronyism within the Police and Fire Departments, the state
legislature passed a law in 1885, creating the Police and Fire Commission. This
insulated the departments from political influence. In 1888, John Janssen became the
first chief to serve under this system, remaining in this position for 33 years.
Recently, amendments to the law empowered the Commission even greater powers of
oversight. Today the Milwaukee Police Department has about 1,800 officers and is
divided into seven districts.
