MPS unanimously votes to end contract with Milwaukee Police Department
MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) – In a unanimous vote Thursday night, June 18, MPS passed a resolution to end their contract with the Milwaukee Police Department.
The resolution immediately terminates all contracts with MPD and directs the superintendent to stop any contracts to buy or keep metal detectors, facial recognition software and social media monitoring software.
The Milwaukee Public Schools Board of School Directors received nearly 900 written testimonies and heard about an hour of spoken testimonies during the meeting Thursday.
Students, alumni, parents and educators supported it, with one speaker raising concerns about getting rid of metal detectors.
According to the district, there aren't officers stationed at school buildings every day, but they helped at after school activities and events.
The Board of Directors discussed the resolution for a few hours and included a few amendments to the resolution. The Board is holding $400,000 as part of a truancy program that it is required to have under state law, while it waits to hear from lawyers about how to proceed.
The Milwaukee Police Department released the following statement Thursday night:
"The Milwaukee Police Department fully supports the Milwaukee Public School system if it decides to remove all School Resource Officers from its schools. We agree with the many voices from our community who believe that the funding should be reinvested into our public school system to support social services. Regardless of the vote, MPD will continue to support MPS and MPS students."
Dakota Hall, Executive Director of Leaders Igniting Transformation released the following statement:
Tonight’s vote is a victory by and for Black and Brown students. This resolution is the culmination of 2.5 years of work by LIT student leaders to defund police at MPS.
Students, the Milwaukee public, and the Milwaukee School Board Members unanimously are more engaged than ever in reimagining our schools so Black and Brown students can thrive. The hard work starts now to truly transform our Milwaukee Public Schools. Creating safe schools must start with centering the voices and experiences of the young people, providing proper staffing levels for therapists, counselors, and other emotional and mental health support positions, and hiring educators of color who share similar life experiences to the students.
This is not the end of our fight. We will continue to work to hold public institutions and systems accountable for their over policing and racist practices and procedures that have harmed BIPOC communities for centuries. The work does not stop tonight. It’s time we all take our activism for Black and Brown lives to the next level.
The full resolution can be viewed below: