MILWAUKEE – 2024 will see the return of school resource officers employed by the Milwaukee Police Department to Milwaukee Public Schools, as required by a provision of Wisconsin Act 12 mandating that 25 officers be stationed in MPS schools.
WTMJ confirmed with Milwaukee Public Schools that there are no officers currently in district schools, but that MPS and MPD are collaborating on a plan that “redefines the previous role of the school resource officer.”
President of the Milwaukee Police Association Andrew Wagner is in favor of the SRO program returning.
“We’ve heard from some teachers that they’re happy the SRO’s are returning,” Wagner said. “I know there’s some pushback with the administration or with the school board on it but I think that they will learn to understand that these officers will better be able to serve them and more efficiently serve the needs of the schools.”
MPS has not had school resource officers in schools since 2016, with the district ending its contract with police entirely in 2020 amid protests sparked by the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis and calls from local activists to remove police from schools.
Although the language in Act 12 calls for 25 officers to be employed as school resource officers, Wagner said that due to the high volume of calls the district receives – over 1,600 calls for service from MPS schools per semester – the program won’t result in any staffing difficulties.
“We’re not really taking any more officers out of service than they would have been last year,” Wagner said. “Officers are already tasked to go to schools for assignments, it just wasn’t the same ones and they weren’t specially trained.”
Wagner said that the officers will have at least three years of experience and receive that special training before becoming a school resource officer, adding that he expects officers who remain on the force who have experience as SRO’s to be given priority if they want to go back.
The decision by the Legislature to require officers in schools is not popular with everyone, with some complaining that the decisions of the school board are being overridden in Madison.
Ben Fisher is a Professor of Civil Society & Community Studies at UW-Madison who has been researching the impacts of police in schools for a decade. He said that his research has showed that police do not necessarily make schools safer.
“It doesn’t really provide any benefit on average for improving safety or reducing crime or violence or weapons in schools,” Fisher said. “On the other hand it is associated with an increase of suspension of students and it seems to be particularly Black and brown students that are experiencing those increases in suspension.”
Fisher has not researched Milwaukee specifically, but he told WTMJ he has studied a Midwestern city of similar size and demographics in its school district. Fisher declined to disclose which city in particular. That research included interviewing nearly all of that city school district’s resource officers.
“The main threat that the officers were concerned with wasn’t necessarily one coming from outside that could do harm to the students, but they really viewed the students themselves as a threat,” Fisher said.
Fisher said that another thing that impacted how SRO’s though about students was how they ended up in schools – whether it was requested by the schools’ community or pushed by police. He said Milwaukee’s situation, of having once had officers in schools and now only returning to it because of the Legislature’s mandate, is unique.
“I’m curious how that will shape the on-the-ground work the officers are doing, how they view students, how they view their purpose in the school,” Fisher said.
No timeline was provided by either MPS or MPD for when officers will return to schools. The district said in a statement to WTMJ, “We look forward to submitting our plan to the Milwaukee Board of School Directors.”
