Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn stopped by UW-Milwaukee on Tuesday, March 9 courtesy of the Criminal Justice Student Association (CJSA), who organized the event.

CJSA Vice President David Jacobs introduced Flynn, who spoke for about 45 minutes concerning community policing, successful traits of Milwaukee Police Department officers and some personal career history before taking questions from the audience.

Flynn spoke of his initial interest in policing after graduating from college with a degree in Liberal Arts, noting that during that time, policing was a controversial career choice.

“Whatever was going on in American society, police were at the middle of it,” Flynn said.

According to Jacobs, earlier in the year CJSA members completed a survey indicating a preferred guest speaker, and Flynn had the most requests.

“The purpose of policing is to create neighborhoods capable of sustaining civic life, and nowhere is that more important than in a representative democracy,” Flynn said.

CJSA is a campus organization that seeks to help students develop relationships with criminal justice agencies and advance their knowledge of the field outside of the classroom, according to their Web site.

In addition to scheduling guest speakers, CJSA also organizes tours of local law enforcement agencies for members.

“We were fortunate to have Chief Flynn address our group and very happy with the event overall,” Jacobs said. “He is a nationally recognized police chief and his speech to the over 250 attendees was phenomenal.”

Flynn also spoke of the technological advances in policing that he has witnessed, particularly with DNA, finger prints, crime maps and trend analysis.

“In order for the police to have legitimacy, they must be perceived as useful and empathetic to the communities they’re trying to protect,” Flynn said. “People want to know and trust their cops.”

Flynn wrapped up his speech noting that service and personal risk are what policing is all about, and that the three essential qualities of any police officer are an empathetic sense of humor, compassion and good judgment.

“We’ll teach you everything else you need to know,” Flynn said.