With MPS 8 months late on bringing officers back into schools, GOP lawmaker threatens city funding

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- A Republican lawmaker who leads a legislative education committee said Wednesday the Legislature should consider reducing state aid for the city of Milwaukee if Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) fails to bring school resource officers, known as SROs, back into its buildings.

Sen. John Jagler (R-Watertown) said he was losing patience with MPS, which is required to return SROs to its schools as part of a state law that took effect in January. 

The SRO mandate is part of a sweeping law Gov. Tony Evers signed in June 2023. It increases state aid for local governments across the state, and it allowed Milwaukee to enact a city sale tax.

The law also imposed several conditions on Milwaukee. One of those requirements calls for MPS to station 25 SROs in its schools during classroom hours and be available during extracurricular events.

As a new MPS school year begins this week, the district has yet to develop a plan to place SROs in its schools. MPS removed officers from schools in 2016, and it ended its contract with the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) in 2020. 

"I don't care how it gets done," Jagler said. "But the fact is it has to get done by state law."

Other state officials, including Gov. Tony Evers, have called for patience as MPS and MPS spokespersons say they're working out an agreement for sending officers back into schools.

"Well, I don't know what the consequences would be," Evers told reporters Tuesday at South Division High School. "All I know is both sides are working hard to make it happen."

Jagler said if the delay continues, the consequences should be the Legislature moving to take back some of Milwaukee's increased state funding.

"Perhaps, that's the next avenue we need to take," he said. "Start looking at clawing back some of the money to the city of Milwaukee because they gotta be more active, I think, in getting this done, as well."

Henry Leonard, a member of the Milwaukee Board of School Directors, said the biggest holdup was figuring out who would pay for staffing the officers at MPS buildings, as well as covering the cost of their training.

"We have nothing on real finances" Leonard said in an interview Wednesday. "We don't have anything to say, and I believe finance is what it always comes down to."

MPS did not benefit from the shared revenue provisions as school districts are separate governmental bodies. They receive their funding from separate streams of state aid and property taxes.

Leonard said board members had seen a draft memo of understanding between MPS and police, and he said he was largely on board with it. However, Leonard said the draft did not have any details on who would cover the costs.

"I am hoping that no later than the end of September, we will have a lot more information forthcoming," Leonard said. "That's my hope."

State Superintendent Jill Underly said in an interview she'd met last week with interim MPS Superintendent Eduardo Galvan. Underly said she trusted the district was close to finalizing an agreement with MPD.

"We need to follow the law, but I also feel we need to give them some grace as far as implementing things, too," Underly said.

Jagler said he believed Republicans had already given MPS enough grace.

"This was the agreed upon deal," he said. "Get it done."

Calls for service at MPS buildings

Alex Ayala, president of the Milwaukee Police Association, which represents MPD's rank-and-file officers, provided data the union received from MPD listing calls for service during the 2023-24 school year.

Between August 2023 and May 2024, MPD call logs showed 3,139 calls for service to MPS buildings. Many of those calls were for fights or batteries, but others were for issues not directly related to the school, such as reports of reckless driving and ShotSpotter alerts.

Leonard said he took part in a trip to Georgia last fall to see how SROs are deployed in Atlanta and a rural district in the state. He said he believed MPS could successfully bring back officers if it included a control room with real-time video feeds, allowing for quicker responses.

Leonard also said he was encouraged by the draft memo calling for students to have a voice in the hiring of SROs, including them in the process of selecting which officers go into schools.

"I like that they have a part in there for student involvement of actually being part of the interview team with SRO officers, candidates," he said.

How would officers be deployed?

Another potential hurdle is determining how SROs would be assigned to MPS schools. Leonard said he didn't think it was practical to station 25 officers in school buildings all day.

Instead, he said an ideal outcome would be officers who are familiar with schools and students in their patrol district, but they wouldn't sacrifice other aspects of being a beat cop outside of their MPS assignment.

"They have a building they are working with or centered around, but that they're not necessarily always in the buildings," Leonard said.

Jagler bristled at that idea. He said the point of having SROs return to MPS was having officers fully entrenched in schools.

"I think they should be in the schools. That's what a school resource officer is," Jagler said. "It's not just there to respond to incidents."

Both Jagler and Leonard agreed a priority for the SROs must be building relationships with students, so they're better prepared to de-escalate situations.