Milwaukee Police Department has backlog impacting release of police body and dash cam video

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- Milwaukee's Interim Police Chief Alfonso Morales says the police department has a backlog of work and it could be impacting the release of critical evidence like police body and dash cam video.

Morales is blaming technology and staffing on the 6-week backlog of those open records requests.

"When we have to review the videos and that comes with the body cams, this is all new technology," Morales said. "Those things have to get reviewed before we pass them out to the public to see if there is anything that has to be redacted and it's a labor-intensive job."

When asked whether former Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn's administrative was to blame, Morales said he doesn't want to judge other administrations.

"I don't want to get caught criticizing any member of any cabinet or any opponent or things publicly just to criticize other people for their actions or how they ran their agency," Morales said. 

He says he is working on a plan to help speed up the process but doesn't want to risk the public's safety by doing it.

"I think the public would agree with what i am trying to do is to get more cops out on the street, more police officers to do more work on the streets and to review those things is just labor intensive," Morales said. 

Mayor Tom Barrett says his office hasn't been officially notified about the issues by Morales or the Fire and Police Commission. He wouldn't comment any further.