MPS, City Feud Over Paying School Resource Officers

A Milwaukee Police Department SUV in downtown Milwaukee. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.

Milwaukee Public Schools and the City of Milwaukee have a court deadline to place 25 school resource officers or SROs, in the schools by this Monday, February 17. The chances of that happening are very low.

MPS has made a new offer to pay 33% of the annual costs for these officers, plus the costs of training them, with the city paying the rest, Milwaukee School Board Director Missy Zombor told Urban Milwaukee.

When asked what the city’s response was, Jeff Fleming, spokesperson for Mayor Cavalier Johnson, accused MPS of double crossing the city:

“At the most recent negotiating session, MPS agreed to maintain confidentiality about the status and terms each side had proposed. It is highly disappointing MPS has broken that promise,” Fleming stated. “The city continues to act in good faith, and it is our hope we can resolve any differences through the mutually agreed upon process. So, for the time being we will not comment further on what is taking place at the negotiating table.”

Zombor responded that she disclosed the 33% offer last night after a board meeting because a member of the media has asked about negotiations and “I thought I should be transparent.”

Fleming also complained that Zombor suggested MPS wanted to submit the matter to arbitration. “To correct a misstatement made last evening, the City of Milwaukee first recommended mediation, and MPS subsequently appeared open to that,” Fleming said.

Beyond that are questions about the MPS offer. Zombor says “we need the officers for 176 days,” the number of days school is in session. She estimates the cost of police officers for those days at nearly $1.6 million, meaning MPS would pay $525,346 for its 33% share.

But Mayor Johnson has made a proposal based on a full year of employment for the police, which raises the cost to at least $2.3 million, with the city paying for their employment during the summer months when school is not in session. Zombor, by contrast, would seem to view the officers as working on other matters for the police department when not stationed at the schools, and thus paid for by the Milwaukee Police Department. But Police Chief Jeffrey Norman has made comments suggesting the department can’t devote any current manpower or financial resources to the SROs because they are all needed to police the city.

Meanwhile, even if the city and MPS came to an agreement by next Monday, there won’t be any officers available to work as SROs. That’s because none of them have the proper training.

The training is required by Wisconsin Act 12, the law that enabled the city to levy a sales tax while requiring it to maintain a certain level of policing while also requiring 25 SROs be stationed at MPS. The law states that the school resource officers must have 40 hours of training through the National Association of School Resource Officers.

But according to Mo Canady, the group’s executive director, no Milwaukee Police officers have completed or are scheduled to take the weeklong training before February 17, the deadline for their placement at MPS, as he told Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service. “We are never going to recommend that an officer start working in a school without first being put through this training,” he said.

Beyond that is the question of whether many police officers would want to serve as SROs. Milwaukee School Board Director Henry Leonard told Urban Milwaukee he had a conversation with Chief Norman and Norman said “there’s no way I can assure you I can get 25 trained officers.”

Leonard believes the job is not that attractive to many officers. “I wouldn’t say no one is interested,” he said, but he suggested it could be an issue.

Milwaukee Police Association President Alexander Ayala has been very vocal in demanding the Milwaukee Public Schools hire the 25 school resource officers. He told WISN TV that Milwaukee police responded to Milwaukee Public Schools 3,141 times in the past school year. “If they don’t want police officers at the schools. Why are they calling?” Ayala said. “Obviously, they want us there, they need us there.”

But for the police union, 25 new jobs could mean more union members and union dues. Ayala did not respond to questions from Urban Milwaukee as to whether current Milwaukee police consider an SRO job a less attractive job.

Nor did the Milwaukee Police Department respond to Urban Milwaukee’s questions as to whether police consider SROs dead-end jobs and whether Chief Norman will have to require some officers to sign up for the training. “You can contact the City Attorney’s Office or MPS regarding the agreement negotiations,” said MPD spokesperson Sgt. Efrain Cornejo.

Of course the department could simply hire 25 new officers. Except that’s not so easy either. The city has been struggling to hire new officers to keep up with state requirements for a certain level of sworn officers and has been unsuccessful even with a $10,000 signing bonus, as Urban Milwaukee has reported.

All of which would suggest there’s not a snowball’s chance in hell of getting 25 trained officers in the schools by this Monday. It might not even happen this school year. Which should make for a very interesting discussion at Monday’s meeting before Judge David Borowski. Bring popcorn.