Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman applied for chief job in Austin, Texas

Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman is among the applicants for the top job at the Austin Police Department in Texas.

The news that he applied comes just a month before the Republican National Convention in downtown Milwaukee, a national special security event in which the Milwaukee Police Department is deeply involved.

“At this time, I’m on a call with the Secret Service dealing with the RNC right now,” Norman said when reached by the Journal Sentinel Tuesday. “That’s the biggest thing I’m focusing on right now. At this time, I’m just trying to make sure I’m keeping our city safe and ensuring the work that we need to get done for the RNC is still being done.”

He is one of 32 candidates for the Austin position, according to a list published Tuesday by the Austin American-Statesman. The news organization received the candidates’ names in response to a public information request.

Search firm Mosaic Public Partners is conducting the national search for Austin’s next police chief, the American-Statesman previously reported.

Norman, a lifelong Milwaukeean, first joined the department in 1996. He was sworn in as police chief in November 2021, having served as acting chief since December 2020. He had risen through the ranks, serving as a lieutenant in the homicide unit and captain of District 3 that covers parts of the central city and west side.

In his June 9 cover letter to Austin, he touted his achievements in Milwaukee, including bi-weekly meetings with a slew of partners in law enforcement, emergency responders, community groups, health care providers and victim advocates.

That effort is known as the Violence Response – Public Health and Safety Team, or VR-PHAST, and the team began meeting regularly in the spring of 2021, as gun violence surged in Milwaukee and other cities across the country. The team’s mission is to support victims of violence and their families with housing, mentoring and other resources, and to prevent retaliatory violence.

He also highlighted the work of Operation Summer Guardian, which places officers in targeted neighborhoods to quickly respond to shootings and other crimes, and communicates with residents in the area beforehand to let them know why they’ll be seeing increased police presence and to try to build relationships with them.

“This is one example on how a community engagement police strategy provided significant results in some of the most challenged neighborhoods plagued by violent crime, thus, proving we can police in a Constitutional way, a procedural justice and transparent way without sacrificing trust and approval from the community we vowed to protect AND serve,” Norman wrote in his cover letter.

Norman’s appointment as chief came after the turbulent tenure of Alfonso Morales, another lifelong Milwaukeean who had spent his career with the department.

Morales’ time with the city ended in tangled circumstances that included a demotion, retirement and lawsuit. His pending lawsuit slowed the search for a permanent chief and during that time Norman, then a candidate for the top post, applied for the open chief position in Wauwatosa.

This story will be updated.

Ella McCarthy of the Austin-American Statesman contributed to this report.

Alison Dirr can be reached at adirr@jrn.com. Ashley Luthern can be reached at ashley.luthern@jrn.com.