| claimed that Jones practiced "reverse discrimination" in his promotions of police officers to the rank of captain, a suit that went against Jones in 2005. The Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) had been the province of White males since it had been founded in 1855 and had 120 years to solidify the hold of White males on the department before people of color and women began to join the department in significant numbers. With a long tradition of White male privilege, people of color and women would have to fight their way up the ladder of advance, oftentimes only after filing a complaint or a lawsuit. Jones found a system at MPD where African American officers were essentially segregated into positions and districts that offered no meaningful avenue to advancement. While Milwaukee police officers did belong to a union, Jones and other African American officers formed the League of Martin in 1974 as a forum for the officers to trade stories and complaints and to eventually do something about the conditions they faced. The straw that broke the camel's back for Jones in 1978 was when he was order to have his afro cut three times in one week. "I filed the first equal employment opportunity complaint against the city of Milwaukee and the police department," Jones said. "As a result of that lawsuit and I was the first president of the League of Martin, the League of Martin versus the city of Milwaukee lawsuit became -- at first I filed in my name -- a class action lawsuit. There were no African Americans who worked on the south side of Milwaukee. There were no African Americans who worked in the communications bureau. There were no African Americans who worked in the administration bureau. There were no African Americans who worked in so many of the bureaus and districts. There were only two Black detectives in the whole city of Milwaukee." The city had set up a convoluted system that had acting and regular detectives. Jones applied to become a detective in 1978, but faced an uphill battle. "They had 150 detectives and 150 acting detectives," Jones recalled. "On the squad, you'd have two acting detectives, but they weren't detective because they hadn't been promoted to the rank of detective. So they had gotten to the point where there were 150 of each. And most of the 150 real detectives worked days because of seniority. So on the second and third shifts; you had almost all acting detectives who weren't really detectives. The police union and the Police and Fire Commission came to that realization and they said 'We're going to have to open up the exam for detective to police bonus, one point for every year they acting detectives. "I came out 14 on the second list without having any of those points," Jones said. "Therefore, I became a detective January 8, 1978 along with 111 others. Well, most of them were acting detectives. One or two acting detectives did not make the cut and had to go back to their districts and uniform. Some of them hadn't had a uniform on for years. I know two of them were African Americans. It was only 3-4 that happened to. At any rate, I was a detective." The next promotion that Jones set his sights on was lieutenant of detectives. Jones took the exam in 1987 and ended up being ranked 14, but there were only 13 positions. As a part of the process Jones received a department mark of 70, the lowest mark you can receive before the chief has to explain the mark in writing. Jones had received the lowest department mark of the 90 people who applied. Jones wanted some answers. "I went to the police chief's office and I asked them how I got a 70," Jones said. "The chief told me he didn't have anything to do with it. I went to the Fire and Police Commission and talked to the executive director. He said it was the police department and that he had nothing to do with it. Then I filed a retaliation lawsuit based on the original lawsuit because I got such a low department mark. But even though I got the lowest department mark, which was 40 percent of the overall exam, I still came out 14 on the list. Theoretically, I was number one on the list and I wasn't going to allow them to treat me like that. As a result of that particular lawsuit, there was an agreement and it eliminated the department mark in the police department completely along with some other steps that had to be taken." While Jones won the battle, he started to lose the war. While he was appointed lieutenant of detectives in November 1987, he wasn't assigned any cases until January 1, 1988 only because he was the only lieutenant of detectives working in his district on New Years Day. Jones was also treated differently when he was the roll call lieutenant. "There was one lieutenant we rotated who made out all of the assignments for the whole shift," Jones said. "And once the roll call lieutenant made out the assignments for the next day, another lieutenant couldn't change it. If there were changes that had to be made, the captain was the only one who could change it. Well, they routinely changed mine. So I went to the captain and told him I wasn't going to be the roll call lieutenant anymore. It was the least favorite job of being a lieutenant. And you were also the relief lieutenant. When the captain went out to lunch, you had to come off the street and run the detective bureau. I told him that he set the standard and said what happens. If it wasn't going to be adhered to, if I couldn't make the assignments, then why should I do it? He called everyone in and told them this practice was going to have to stop. He knew he was going to have anarchy if I was the only one who didn't have to be the roll call lieutenant." Jones also ran into problems as it related to selecting vacation time. "We had to pick vacations for 1988," Jones said. "On my shift, I was the lowest lieutenant. So I had to wait until everyone else picked. The captain told us at least two lieutenants had to be working every day. They had a board in which you picked your vacation -- all of the weeks of the year were on there -- and you put your name down for the weeks. Summertime, deer hunting season, and Christmas were the premium times when everyone wanted to be off. And two lieutenants had to be working. They sat there and would laugh and pass the sheet back and look at me and say 'When we're through, you'll get the sheet and you'll get to pick your vacation.' They all picked their vacations and I looked at the board and of course, all of the summer weeks were gone. Deer hunting season and Christmas were gone." "I looked and one week and the Fourth of July were open," Jones continued. "I honestly couldn't believe it. I counted and recounted. I triple counted to make sure that week was open and there were three lieutenants working. So I put my name on there for that week. The next day, one of the lieutenants came up to me and he was cursing. 'How in the ____ did you get the Fourth of July off? We want to know how you did it.' I replied 'Because the captain said there has to be two lieutenants working and there were three of us scheduled. I put my name in and that's the day I picked and that's the week I got and that's the vacation I'm going to have." Now the captain called a lieutenants' meeting. And he said 'I understand there are some discrepancies in picking vacations. I trusted you guys that you could pick your own vacations and I'm not going to have this kind of thing going on. So here's what is going to happen. We're going to pick over and if you can't get it right this time, then I'll assign people vacation.' I told him 'You know, things like this have happened to me in the past. I want to tell you something. Somehow, through hook or crook, ever since I've been on this job, I've gotten a summer vacation. So you are messing with me now and there's nothing I can do about it. But we'll see what happens." Jones got his justice sooner than he expected. John Norquist was elected mayor in April 1988 and asked Jones to head his security detail. Jones left his district and relocated over to city hall. That left a mess back at Jones' old district. "All the supervisors on that shift in the detective bureau had to repick their vacation because I was one of the two people that had to be working through the whole summer, deer hunting season and Christmas," Jones recalled. "And they were one lieutenant short. They didn't get another lieutenant. They lost a lieutenant. So there were only four lieutenants when I left and they still had to have a minimum of two lieutenants working. And I got off anytime I wanted to." However, the powers that be in the police department weren't finished messing with Jones. "The head of the mayor's security was a captain," Jones said. "I became the head of the mayor's security. In order for me not to become a captain, the police department removed that position out of the budget in 1989. No one paid that much attention. They had moved one captain's position out of the budget so that I would not be promoted to captain. They did that over at the police department. Well the mayor got wind of it and wrote a letter to the chief and said he expected that I would get the next captain's vacancy. Jarneck was the chief then. In 1989, I was promoted to captain and I stayed in the mayor's office as head of the mayor's security." Jones left the mayor's security detail in 1990 and became captain of District Seven, a move that would allow Jones to work in the patrol area, something he hadn't done since 1978. After one year, Chief Arreola assigned Jones temporarily to the field deputy supervisor position for one year and then, Jones returned to District Seven. Jones was permanently assigned to the field deputy supervisor position in September 1992. "That's where you were in charge of the police department at night," Jones said. "All of the other command officers go home and you're in charge. I was the only field deputy inspector. Usually there was two, one on the second shift and one on the third. I was responsible for what happened on the police department in terms of responding and taking care of situations from 4 p.m. to 8 a.m. I was on call and when something serious happened, I had to go take care of it. I had to get up, get dressed and go. But that was the best place I could have been in terms of preparing me to be chief of police. I was seriously responsible for a custodial worker to whatever happened including tactical situations. I responded to Jeffrey Dahmer. You name it, I had to be there. They had to bring it to my attention and I would make the decision based on what it was, whether I could just advise them over the phone or actually respond to it." In 1995, Jones was assigned by Arreola to set up the special operations bureau, which consisted of the tactical enforcement unit, the motorcycles and other units. "It brought together all of the specialty operations and I became its commanding officer," Jones said. "Then there was a vacancy in the patrol bureau, which is all of the uniform officers in the city. So I'm already in charge of the special operations bureau. And now temporarily, I took over as the commanding officer of the patrol bureau for 3-4 months. There are 1,500 uniform police officers. Then another person got promoted to the rank of inspector and was in charge of the bureau and I went back to the special operations bureau, which was day shift. At that time, there were no field deputy inspectors. So I still handled some of the field deputy inspector's duties." Then, in 1996, Jones was appointed chief. Next Issue: Life as chief of police |
| The Story of Arthur Jones, Milwaukee's First Black Top Cop And Still I Rise By Jonathan Gramling Part 2 of 3 |
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| As we sit in his living room on Milwaukee's northwest side, it's hard to think of former Milwaukee Police Chief Arthur Jones as a controversial figure. Jones is mild-mannered and very polite and talks freely about his tenure as Milwaukee's first African American police chief from 1996 until 2003. And yet, a simple Google of his name shows that he has been a central figure in the mix of race relations in the Milwaukee Police Department from his successful suit through the League of Martin to fully integrate the Milwaukee Police Department (MPS) in the late 1970s to the federal lawsuit of 17 White police officers who |
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