My name is Earnell Lucas. On Nov. 6, 2018, you – the people of Milwaukee County – entrusted me with the high honor of serving as our community’s 65th sheriff. You entrusted me, too, with a prodigious task: restoring honor, integrity and trust to a once-proud organization that has lost its way. Over the past 18-months, as my staff and I have worked to transform our organization, I have drawn daily on the lessons I have learned over 44 years in law enforcement and public safety. Some of these insights struck home on my first day on the job; others settled in over decades of lived experience. But there is another lesson that weighs on me daily, one that I learned long before I put on a uniform and placed a badge over my heart. It is a lesson I learned not in the safety of the classroom but amid the uncertainty of a world governed too often by fear, loathing and prejudice: that I am a black man in Milwaukee and in America. When I watch the video footage that has transfixed our nation depicting the brutal murder of George Floyd at the hands of four former Minneapolis police officers and the tragic killing of Rayshard Brooks in Atlanta, I am reminded of another stolen life: Daniel Bell, of Milwaukee. On Feb. 2, 1958, Bell was pulled over by a Milwaukee police officer for a broken taillight, only a mile or so from the housing project where I was born later that year. The second Bell stopped his car, he jumped out and ran. Why did he run? Because in 1958, a Black man in Milwaukee knew all too well what he might expect from those sworn to serve and protect him. And as Bell ran for his life, unarmed, a pursuing officer drew his service weapon and shot him in the back. Then, as he lay dying on the ground, the officer dropped a knife next to his body and, claiming self-defense, walked away a free man. Our world and our community have changed immeasurably since 1958, and for the better. Black people are no longer met with brickbats when we cross the 16th Street viaduct or redlining when we cross the city boundary. Our law enforcement organizations have grown in diversity and in compassion, and on a daily basis, courageous men and women in uniform perform lifesaving work throughout our community. But the Milwaukee where I grew up – the Milwaukee where Bell was shot in the back, the Milwaukee that introduced me to law enforcement when my 12-year-old self “matched the description” of a thief who had stolen a white woman’s purse – still exists for far too many of our young people. It exists just as surely and just as painfully for young black and brown Milwaukeeans as Floyd’s Minneapolis or Brooks’ Atlanta. It exists, at least in part, because we in law enforcement have failed to close the breach, widened over so many decades of oppression, between our organizations and the community that we are entrusted to serve. I joined the Milwaukee Police Department as an 18-year-old recruit because I wanted to repair this breach. I entered law enforcement because I saw the awesome authority that an officer exerts on others’ lives, and I wanted to harness that power for the betterment of the community that nurtured me. And I am serving as your sheriff today because I am committed to confronting and correcting the injustices that hold us back from achieving true equality in our community. Since taking office in Jan. 2019, my staff and I have taken decisive action to restructure the operations of the Sheriff’s Office, to align our organizational values with the demands of our community, and to root out racism and all forms of institutional prejudice from the mechanics of Milwaukee County law enforcement. In this critical moment, it is my hope to share the progress that we have made, and to affirm our commitment to building upon these sweeping reforms as we infuse our efforts with the “fierce urgency of now.” Affirming Human Rights and Dignity in the Milwaukee County Jail Among my foremost responsibilities as sheriff are the welfare and safety of all individuals detained in the Milwaukee County Jail. For too long, the jail was synonymous with dysfunction and the ill-treatment of vulnerable residents. Within the past 18-months, we have worked successfully to restore the jail to compliance with medical and correctional standards for safe and efficient correctional operations. • In early 2019, the Sheriff’s Office worked with other Milwaukee County stakeholders to transition medical care in the jail to a new healthcare provider, which has attained full staffing and provide a high quality of care to those in our custody. • Working with the jail medical provider, the Sheriff’s Office replaced inmate wellness checks conducted by law enforcement officers with high-frequency medical checks performed by trained nursing staff.