Milwaukee Public Schools and the City of Milwaukee must get at least 25 officers in schools by Feb. 27 or face sanctions or be held in contempt of court, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge David Borowski ruled Monday.
In addition, MPS and the city must evenly split the cost of bringing the school resource officers to schools.
The judge’s rulings would bring the district and the city in compliance with Wisconsin Act 12 more than a full year after the original date outlined in the law.
A school resource officer is a law enforcement officer who works full time in collaboration with a school district, according to Act 12.
School resource officers typically carry firearms, according to the National Association of School Resource Officers.
Costs
NNS reported last week that the Milwaukee Board of School Directors provided the city a proposal where MPS would be responsible for 33% of the annual cost of police officers in schools, estimated to be about $525,000, plus the cost of officer training. The city would be responsible for the rest, a little more than $1 million.
This offer had not been accepted by the city by the time of Monday’s hearing.
Borowski does not think that dispute over costs is a satisfactory reason to delay getting police officers to schools.
“I didn’t hear cause,” he said. “I heard a lot of bluster.”
Now, if amount estimates are accurate, MPS and the city would each have to pay just shy of $800,000 each year.
“Just make it 50/50 and get on with it,” said Henry Leonard, member of the Milwaukee Board of School Directors for District 7. “I’m OK with this.”
The Office of Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson is also eager to move forward.
“Today’s ruling fairly resolves the most significant issue holding up the deployment of school resource officers … ,” said Jeff Fleming, a spokesman for Johnson.
“We anticipate working with the judge and others to fully and fairly implement the program.”
MPS is ready to bring officers in “as soon as officers are made available to the district,” wrote Stephen Davis, media relations manager for the district, in an email, adding that MPS anticipates the arrival of officers by Borowski’s new deadline.
Timeline
Borowski gave MPS and the city 10 additional days to station officers in schools.
Lauren Greuel, an attorney with Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty representing Charlene Abughrin, the mother who sued the city for not meeting the Act 12 requirement, argued that the district and city should pay sanctions if they fail to comply with the order.
“That could include covering the cost of all of the MPS officers every day that they’re not in compliance, as well as attorneys’ quotes and fees,” Greuel said. “We shouldn’t have to continue to come to court over and over again just because we’re stuck in this infinity negotiating phase.”
Borowski also required the president or vice president of the school board to be present at the next hearing, as well as the mayor or a designee of the mayor.
Legally required training
Act 12 states that police officers at schools would need 40 hours of training from the National Association of School Resource Officers. Borowski said that officers did not need to complete the training by Feb. 27, just that they needed to be registered for training by then.
“They can have the training be ongoing while they’re in the schools,” Borowski said.
As of Monday morning, no Milwaukee Police Department officers have completed the relevant training since August 2023, and no officers are currently enrolled in the training at any location in Wisconsin or any surrounding state, according to a spokesperson for the National Association of School Resource Officers.
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