Crime & Safety

Did Shorewood Police Overreact to Standoff?

Shorewood Police Chief David Banaszynski says his department was justified in responding in force to what authorities thought was a hostage incident in an Oakland Avenue apartment in June.

He's getting some criticism for how he responded to a June standoff incident, but Shorewood Police Chief David Banaszynski says he would do it all over again under the same circumstance.

Dozens of police officers from 10 departments — including a SWAT team vehicle, the bomb squad and Milwaukee County Sheriff's deputies wearing bulletproof vests — responded to the June 21 domestic violence incident on Oakland Avenue. 

The district attorney's office decided this week that no charges would be filed against the man at the center of incident, a decision that prompted some to say Shorewood police overreacted to what was a minor incident.

"Why in the hell were so many police officers needed for something so 'trivial?" asked one Patch commenter. "Nice management of resources."

Another compared the police department's response to the comedy "Police Academy 4."

But Banaszynski defended the decision in an interview with Patch's media partners at WISN 12 News.

The chief said a 911 call that they received on June 21 made his case.

"My boyfriend got me hostage. Apartment 302," the 911 caller said.

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But when police arrived, no one answered.

"If they would've come to the door and said, 'Everything's fine, sorry I called,' but they didn't," the Banaszynski said. "And at that point we don't walk away. If it was your loved one, or somebody else's loved one, they wouldn't want us walking away either."

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