School resource officers in Milwaukee Public Schools; questions and answers

Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) have until Monday, Feb. 17 to bring on 25 school resource officers (SRO). That is more than a year after state law set the January 2024 deadline. 

Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS)

If MPS fails to get those officers in place, they will be expected to show up in court and provide an explanation. 

Questions and answers

FOX6 News asked viewers for questions related to SROs – and it is our intent to answer many of those questions. 

Question:

 Will they be trained in handling teenage adolescence? - Paul from Milwaukee.

Answer:

Yes. Wisconsin law says the officers will have to complete the 40-hour course of the National Association of School Resource Officers. 

"Anyone who goes through our training gets a healthy, healthy dose of adolescent brain development. It’s at least a 2-hour block, depending on how the class goes," said Mo Canady, President of the National Association of School Resource Officers. "When they do, it helps them better deescalate situations with adolescents and better understand how the adolescent brain works, especially in stressful situations…Adoloscents respond to you differently than adults do and you can’t expect adolescents to respond and behave like adults do. They’re not capable of that yet. It’s not an excuse, it’s just a fact. There still has to be accountability, there still has to be consequences."

Question:

Will they be properly trained on how to deal with problematic children and not handle them like they are common criminals? - Robin from Butler.

Answer:

"The last thing we want to do is treat adolescents like criminals. Is it possible that an adolescent is going to commit a crime? Yes. It’s not probably going to happen, it is going to happen," Canady said. "Something like disorderly conduct, we can filter most of those, because quite frankly we have other resources available to us in a school environment that we don’t have out on the street. Our fellow officers out on the street don’t have school counselors or mental health specialists or school administrators to help resolve an issue that hopefully doesn’t have to lead to arrest."

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Opponents of SROs say they are worried. 

"I think putting SROs in schools like the thing is that you treat kids as criminals it will have an effect on their psyche," said Milwaukee County Supervisor Juan Miguel Martinez. "I know there is this alarmist rhetoric around like police and putting police in schools and everything but kids brains are not fully developed yet and there are kids that act out more and those are kids that need more guidance and attention."

Question:

Will officers have training in verbal de-escalation, some cultural competence and empathy training? - Greg from Milwaukee

Answer:

"De-escalation is almost like a thread that runs through our training, in every aspect of what we do. We’re really engaged in training officers about implicit bias issues and diversity issues. We’re really engaged on the adolescent brain development, which helps with de-escalation. But we do have a standalone block itself on de-escalation," Canady said. 

Question:

Several FOX6 News viewers wanted to know which schools will get officers. 

Answer:

Wisconsin law says started in 2026, the district is to consider statistics. State law requires all Wisconsin public high schools to report on certain crimes on school property or school buses – like disorderly conduct during school days. It also lists crimes like theft, battery, arson, possession of alcohol or drugs, and possession of a firearm. 

Wisconsin Capitol, Madison

The law requires 25 officers. The district will have to figure out how to divvy up the officers in its 156 schools and among its roughly 70,000 students. 

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"The tough part is when you don’t have enough officers to put at every school building. It’s easy sometimes to say: well, let’s start with the high schools and the middle schools. And that sounds great. That sounds like a simple answer. Right? But elementary schools deserve that presence as well. so, it really is a hard thing to spread those officers out," Canady said. "There’s a different level of relationship you begin to build in an elementary school. Obviously, younger children are a little more open, a little bit more prone to want to connect with the officer….I got this experience, as a lot of SROs do, and then you see them begin to grow into the middle school, and then grow into the high school-age, that relationship is much easier to sustain."

Local perspective:

Back in 2009, the contact between MPS and the Milwaukee Police Department listed five schools for ten officers. 

  • Bradley Tech
  • Custer High School
  • Hamilton High School
  • Pulaski High School
  • Vincent High School

A lot has changed since then – and this new program will be larger, 25 officers.  

The Source: Th information in this post was produced by FOX6 News.


 

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