Judge rules police must be in Milwaukee schools within 10 days

Milwaukee Public Schools and the city of Milwaukee will split the costs of putting police officers in schools, ending the ongoing fight over moving the issue forward, a judge ruled Monday. 

Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge David Borowski ruled both entities have 10 days to have officers in schools or possibly face sanctions and a potential contempt of court ruling. 

If MPS and the city fail to meet the deadline, Borowski wants to have school board members and a representative of the mayor come to court to explain why police have not been put in the schools, he said.

“This ongoing violation of state law, this flaunting of legal and court authority will end,” Borowski said. 

Under Borowski’s ruling, the city and MPS will equally split the estimated $1.6 million annual cost of staffing the schools with police officers.

The judge said their fights over the details of the split, which led to the delay, did not make sense in the context of their total budgets.

“I did not hear good cause. I heard a lot of bluster,” Borowski said. “The reality is, city taxpayers pay the cost.” 

In a statement after the ruling, MPS officials said they are ready to move forward.

“Milwaukee Public Schools remains ready to implement a School Resource Officer program as soon as officers are made available to the district,” the statement says. “MPS anticipates the arrival of School Resource Officers within 10 days as ordered by the court.”

The district estimates its cost and share of officer training will total $795,979.

On Jan. 23, Borowski ordered the city of Milwaukee to work with MPS on a resolution to get 25 officers in the buildings by Monday. 

A shared revenue law passed in 2023 required MPS to station the school resource officers, or SROs, in its schools during school hours beginning on Jan. 1, 2024.

At first, school district officials resisted the idea. 

They later said officers would be placed in schools when they were provided by the city of Milwaukee. Milwaukee officials said it is not their obligation to pay for the SROs.

In October, Milwaukee parent Charlene Abughrin filed a lawsuit against MPS, saying her children were repeatedly victimized because there were not cops in schools to protect them.

“I’m pretty satisfied with the judge’s decision,” she said after the decision. “MPS basically forced his hand and left him no choice, and I think what he did was awesome.”

Last week, MPS School Board Director Missy Zombor said the district offered the city to pay for one-third of the cost for the officers. 

“Right now, we have an offer on the table with the city, 33 percent plus training,” Zombor told reporters. “We’ve offered to go to mediation, and so that’s where it stands right now.”

Following Zombor’s comments, Jeff Fleming, a spokesperson for the city, said it was “highly disappointing MPS broke its promise to maintain confidentiality about the status and terms each side was proposing.”

“The city of Milwaukee first recommended mediation and MPS subsequently appeared open to that,” Fleming’s statement said. “The city continues to act in good faith and it is our hope we can resolve any differences through our mutually agreed upon process.”