Madison's Common Council passed the funding to add eight additional police officers to the Madison Police Department 17-2 early Wednesday morning.

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Madison's Common Council will vote on Tuesday night whether to amend the Madison Police Department's budget to add eight police officer positions.

The amendment would add an annual ongoing $600,000 to fund the eight positions, and $21,300 to fund three added patrol cars.

District 15's alder David Ahrens said the funds were already factored into the budget as a match for a grant. In November, MPD learned they were not being awarded this grant, which would have added 15 officers and five cars to the squad. The Common Council will now decide if the city will still use that matched funding to hire eight officers, and add three squad cars.

It's an amendment dividing alders. Ahrens said he plans to vote in favor, but knows others may not be thinking this way.

"The thing that's driving me to support this is not that there will be an immediate effect on the amount of crime, but that we'll be able to do things differently and there will be a greater level of trust and understanding of what the police do," said Ahrens.

In a Common Council blog post District 18's alder Rebecca Kemble voiced her concerns over the amendment. She shared that there has been confusion, and contradicting claims, between MPD and the Mayor's office.

In the

www.cityofmadison.com/council/district18/blog/?Id=13098" target="_blank">blog post

Kemble wrote:

"Until the following issues are adequately addressed, I cannot in good conscience vote for more budget authority to increase staffing in MPD:

-Lack of a consistent and objectively verifiable reason for more staff

-Lack of data and analysis about the effectiveness of the current staffing model

-Lack of performance data (qualitative or quantitative) that shows that MPD staff are meeting the standards of community and problem-solving policing to which they aspire

-Lack of broad community involvement in setting general standards for MPD that can be evaluated in a transparent way

-Climate of distrust and combative attitude of Chief Koval toward Common Council

-Lack of justification for the consistent and large budget and staffing increases over time that are not enjoyed by other overworked departments providing vital city services"

NBC 15 also heard from the council's vice president, District 17's alder Samba Baldeh. In an e-mail Baldeh said, "I am still gathering information and may be presenting an alternate."

Baldeh gave no further details other than it being an "amendment to the resolution," he said in another e-mail.

Ahrens said the council has received numerous e-mails from the public regarding the amendment.

"Almost all of the e-mails in favor of the transfer are from the south west side of the city, and almost all the e-mails against the transfer are from the near east side," said Ahrens.

Ahrens said public safety, and officer involved shootings are fueling much of the public's response.

The Common Council is scheduled to vote on this amendment during their 6:30p.m. meeting Tuesday night.

Prior to the meeting, Madison residents shared their thoughts both in agreement with and opposed to the amendment.

"I'm worried about the officers. I'm also worried about the public. One of the reasons I'm worried about the officers is because of job burnout. They're already working in a very high-stress position and they know that going in, but it's been compounded by an increase in high-stakes calls so they're running from one call to another without time to decompress," said Paula Fitzsimmons.

"Just after the Martin Luther King holiday, what would Martin Luther King have favored, further expansion of police in the criminal justice system or allocating those same resources, instead, to violence prevention programs and addressing root causes? Shouldn't we actually be spending the money on something that works rather than something that's been shown not to?" said Gregory Gelembiuk.