MILWAUKEE — A group of Milwaukee police officers are training this week to become school resource officers (SROs) in Milwaukee Public Schools. This comes after months of delays and court hearings over implementing SROs.
What You Need To Know
- Thirty-eight MPD officers are participating in the 40 hours of SRO training, which is well over the 25 officers required
- Judge David Borowski ruled that the City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee Public Schools will evenly split the $1.6 million cost of putting SROs in public schools
- The training was scheduled after Borowski held the city in contempt of court and set a deadline of March 15 to have 25 MPD officers trained and working in MPS as SROs
- If that deadline is not met, the city could face $1,000 in daily fines
Judge David Borowski ruled that the City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) will evenly split the $1.6 million cost of putting SROs in public schools.
The training was scheduled after Borowski held the city in contempt of court and set a deadline of March 15 to have 25 Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) officers trained and working in MPS as SROs. If that deadline is not met, the city could face $1,000 in daily fines.
Thirty-eight MPD officers are participating in the 40 hours of training, which is well over the 25 officers required.
Instructors from the National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO) are leading the course at the Milwaukee Police Academy through March 14. The Milwaukee Police Department declined to let media sit in on the training.
NASRO Executive Director Mo Canady came to town to oversee everything. He said the training goes over school-based law enforcement, ethics, crisis intervention, armed assailant response, human trafficking and building positive, trusting relationships with students.
“Averting school violence takes place through relationships,” said Canady. “It really is good community-based policing. It’s the very first thing they need to focus on, relationships in that school environment.”
Canady noted that many of the MPD officers in the training are already well prepared.
“Some of the officers in there have had experience working in schools before, so that’s great,” he said. “A lot of them have had experience volunteering in youth programs such as Boys & Girls Clubs, those kinds of things.”
Leaders with the City of Milwaukee and school district have not yet said whether SROs will be in MPS schools on Monday, March 17. But by the end of training on Friday, March 14, they must provide the judge with a final list of trained officers, proof of course completion and details on school assignments.
Canady said the sooner the officers are in schools, the better.
“Every school in this country could benefit from carefully selected, specifically trained and properly equipped school resource officers,” he said.
