A top Madison Police Department official says the city should reduce or freeze building low-income housing because the tenants are overwhelming police services.

In addition, Jay Lengfeld, captain of the West District, wrote an e-mail to Madison Alderman Thuy Pham-Remmele, 20th District, on Monday in which he suggested the city should license landlords to "weed out the bad ones" and give landlords more leeway to reject applicants with a history of bad behavior.

"The city needs to reduce or freeze the number of subsidized housing units in the city," he wrote. "The at-risk population in Madison has exceeded the ability of service providers to service them."

Lengfeld's comments, part of an exchange of e-mails between Lengfeld and Pham-Remmele over quality of life issues on the West Side, sparked the wrath of at least one affordable housing advocate.

"We have leadership in the police department that ... have bought into the stereotype that poor people cause crime," Ald. Brenda Konkel, 2nd District, wrote on her blog Thursday. "Poor people are poor. Criminals cause crime. Some poor people are criminals. Not all poor people cause crime. Limiting places for poor people to live will not prevent crime."

But Pham-Remmele Thursday said she agreed with Lengfeld's suggestions. "I guess it takes many people some extra time to realize the issue is not racial (or) discrimination, but the negative behavior and the repeated lack of consideration and respect for others that generate conflicts," she said.

Pham-Remmele had her e-mail correspondence with Lengfeld forwarded to all members of the City Council.

Pham-Remmele said she supported Lengfeld's suggestions 100 percent.

"We must not continue to welcome into Madison more at-risk populations from elsewhere because we will never have sufficient resources to provide for them," Pham-Remmele said in an e-mail Wednesday to Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and others.

Lengfeld's e-mail to Pham-Remmele Monday said city leaders should share responsibility for neighborhood problems. "Many of these neighborhood problems could have been prevented with better city policies."