MPD officers have not undergone required SRO training ahead of Thursday deadline

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- The city of Milwaukee and Milwaukee Public Schools have yet to finalize a plan to return MPD officers to schools.

The court-imposed deadline to have officers in schools is Thursday, Feb. 27.

On Friday, Feb. 21, a city hall spokesperson told CBS 58 in a statement: "The city will comply with the judge’s order, the state statute, and the specifics of a memorandum of understanding – which has yet to be finalized with MPS. And, our intent is to promptly resolve any ambiguity in or between those expectations."

But several issues remain, including training the 25 officers who will be SROs.

Officers are required to undergo 40 hours of specialized training in order to serve as an SRO.

So far, MPD officers have not undergone that training.

The National Association of School Resource Officers conducts the required training. A NASRO executive said the organization was hoping MPD had enrolled in a weeklong training session that just wrapped up in Appleton.

Mo Canady, NASRO's Executive Director, told us, "This is the most unique assignment in law enforcement, period."

For half of his policing career, Canady worked as a school resource officer.

He said a school resource officer is a highly specialized assignment.

For 35 years, NASRO has taught its weeklong curricula in three parts:

• The first is law enforcement, which Canady said is different than being on city streets.
• The second part is to be informal counselors that mentor and advocate for students. That counseling is not meant to replace formal, on-site counselors.
• The third part is to be law-related educators who share information in classrooms when invited to do so.

Much of NASRO's required training focuses on adolescent brain development.

Canady said, "Adolescents respond to things differently than adults do. You can't expect them to respond like an adult. They're not."

He added, "By knowing that, they can be much better equipped to de-escalate situations."

One factor is recognizing not everyone wants officers in schools, especially in Milwaukee, where they were removed from schools several years ago.

Canady said teaching about diversity is another way to make connections. That part of the program has grown and expanded in recent years.

Canady told us they focus on "Things like implicit bias and explicit bias. Thos are important issues for SROs to have a good handle on."

He said it's a misnomer that SROs want to make arrests. "Good SROs, who are carefully selected and specifically trained, view themselves as filters to arrest."

Canady said problems occur when people aren't trained properly or they're not the right person for the role.

And one way to combat that, he said, is to help SROs understand all the other resources available in a school, like teachers, counselors, coaches, mental health specialists.

"We're better off when we rely on one another as a team in that environment, to try to keep from having to take a student out of school."

The deadline to have officers in place is Thursday, but MPD officers will not complete the five-day training in time. This week, the judge said simply being registered for training by the deadline would be satisfactory, for now.

We asked MPD Friday if they had registered for training or if officers have been selected to be SROs yet.

But MPD cited the ongoing court case and deferred questions to the city attorney.