Milwaukee puts officers in schools, ends dispute

A dispute about putting police officers in Milwaukee Public Schools is over.

Last year, Milwaukee Public Schools parent Charlene Abughrin sued MPS and the city of Milwaukee for not assigning school resource officers, known as SROs, months after a state law required it to do so.

On Monday, Judge David Borowski ruled that MPS and the city had — “finally,” in his words — complied with the law.

“It’s unfortunate that this case had to be filed, but it’s resolved,” Borowski said after his ruling.

It was the case’s fourth hearing in Borowski’s court. At its second hearing on Feb. 17, the judge had given MPS and the city a 10-day deadline to have SROs in schools.

Ten days passed and the officers weren’t there. At a Feb. 27 hearing, Borowski ruled the city of Milwaukee was in contempt of court.

He ordered the city to pay $1,000 per day until the SROs were in schools — but gave the city a lifeline by delaying the fine’s enforcement until Monday’s hearing.

At Monday’s hearing, Borowski ruled the city had met the three conditions he’d set for avoiding the fine:

• Signing a memorandum of understanding with MPS about SRO plans.
• Training SROs according to guidelines set by the National Association of School Resource Officers.
• Providing a list of 25 SROs and the schools they’d be assigned to.

In the memorandum, the city estimated putting SROs in schools would cost about $1.6 million a year. That cost will be split between the city and MPS.

Four Milwaukee alders — Andrea Pratt, Milele Coggs, Larresa Taylor and Marina Dimitrijevic — voted against adopting the memorandum.

Dispute has roots in bargain with Legislature

The lawsuit stammed from a deal Milwaukee leaders struck with Wisconsin’s GOP-controlled Legislature.

The Legislature let Milwaukee raise its sales tax as part of a 2023 legislative package. In return, the city had to bring back 25 officers it had taken out of schools in 2020. The shared revenue deal set a deadline of Jan. 1, 2024, for having resource officers back in MPS schools.

But for 14 months, that didn’t happen. According to past statements from city and school district leadership, the delay was fueled by a dispute over who would pay for the police officers assigned to the schools. After the two sides reached an agreement on that issue, city leaders said training requirements for the officers pushed back compliance again.

Borowski called the city’s failure to assign officers to the schools an “ongoing violation of state law” at an earlier hearing.

If dispute restarts, Borowski wants a say

Borowski said a possibility crossed his mind when deciding how to close the case — “to have MPS put the officers in and then, when I’m not looking, or when the case is closed, to yank them back out.”

Though he dismissed the case, Borowski said he’d make it subject to reopening in his court.

“I’m not going to allow another judge to handle this,” he said.

Meanwhile, Abughrin, the parent who sued, said her son’s school was not on the list of schools MPS sent officers to Monday. She said it made her feel “slighted.”

“I’m not entirely satisfied at the schools that they placed them at because there are some schools with greater needs that have greater violence,” she said.

Last week, Republicans in the state Assembly passed a bill specifically requiring MPS to have 25 police officers in schools. They argued the bill would stop future delays in SRO placement. No Democrats voted for the bill.