MILWAUKEE, WI — The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin has filed a lawsuit against the city of Milwaukee over claims that the city's police department has engaged in unconstitutional stop-and-frisk procedures against "tens of thousands" of people.

In the bombshell lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin's Milwaukee Division, the ACLU claims the Milwaukee Police Department has pursued an aggressive and unconstitutional policing strategy promoting large numbers of stops-and-frisks citywide. As a result, the ACLU claims, the Milwaukee Police Department's unlawful stop-and-frisk program caused the city's black and Latino communities to feel alienated from the police, damaging the trust between police and the public central to achieving public safety.

As a result, the ACLU claims that the combined number of MPD traffic and pedestrian stops skyrocketed from just 66,657 in 2007 to 196,434 in 2015 — a staggering, nearly threefold increase. According to language in the ACLU's lawsuit, Collins v. Milwaukee, a 2011 Milwaukee Journal Sentinel analysis of MPD traffic stop data found that black drivers citywide were seven times more likely — and that Hispanic drivers were five times more likely — to be targeted for a traffic stop than white drivers.

Police React

In a prepared statement in response to the lawsuit, Milwaukee Police Chief Edward Flynn says his department has never done "stop and frisk" and does not have quotas for traffic stops.

Flynn said, "The Milwaukee Police Department has never used the practice of 'stop and frisk,' nor has there ever been a quota for traffic stops. However, traffic stops in high crime areas have been proven to reduce the number of non-fatal shootings, robberies, and motor vehicle thefts. No discussion of our crime tactics is complete without reference to the hyper-victimization of disadvantaged communities of color by high rates of violent crime. But MPD considers it our moral duty to confront violence where it occurs. Towards that end, our officers take physical risks every day implementing the ethical and constitutional anti-crime strategies of the MPD." MPD released 2016 crime data recently that indicated 79 percent of homicide victims and 75 percent of aggravated assault victims were African-American. Eight-one percent of homicide suspects and 85 percent of aggravated assault suspects were African-American.