MADISON, Wis. --
Every few feet, in every corner and on every floor of the state Capitol, there are officers, deputies and troopers from all over state. For the first time on Thursday, Milwaukee police joined the forces.
"The state put out a call for mutual aid. This is an event that really stresses the limits of law enforcement for one agency," Milwaukee Police Department Capt. Stephen Basting said.
Basting and 36 other Milwaukee officers are part of the major incident response team. They're on patrol and specifically trained to deal with crowd control.
"Our mission here is, again, to facilitate everybody's right, that they can have their voice heard and to protect life, safety and then property in that order," Basting said.
Even though there are only two entrances the public can use to go in and out of the Capitol, there are still officers stationed at every door.
But no matter what the 11th day of protesting brought, the Milwaukee officers are no stranger to big events.
In 2009, they worked at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn., and last year, they helped out Pittsburgh police at the G20 Summit.
"Much more behaved here than we've experienced in the past," Basting said.
And they're goal is to make sure it stays that way.
Milwaukee police officers were on duty until 8 p.m. Thursday. They will stay in Madison and be back on patrol in the morning.
Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke Jr. has ordered 17 deputies deployed to Madison on Friday and 60 on Saturday to assist with public safety efforts associated with the demonstrations.
Clarke said the state will reimburse Milwaukee County for the costs incurred, and the deployment will not affect the level of public safety service in Milwaukee County.
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