Milwaukee school resource officers; emails shine new light on effort
The Brief
A FOX6 News open records request is shining new light on the effort to get school resource officers back in Milwaukee Public Schools.
Those emails share information about the debate happening between the city and school district.
MILWAUKEE - FOX6 News has a new look at the behind-the-scenes scramble to get police officers back in Milwaukee Public Schools. It is what was uncovered in hundreds of emails.
What we know
Back in January, a fed-up Milwaukee County judge ordered school resource officers (SROs) to return to Milwaukee Public Schools by Feb. 17. They were not back in buildings until March 17.
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What happened in between those two dates? We now have a better answer.
Timeline
Judge David Borowski issued an order on Feb. 17 that Milwaukee Public Schools and the City of Milwaukee would split the cost of SROs to get them back in schools. After that court appearance, we now have the detailed notes shared internally.
That same day, a redacted email shows police were still working on the memorandum of understanding agreement.
On Feb. 19, the city attorney was editing and adding comments as the judge's deadline approached.
FOX6 News obtained emails through an open records question, filed during the height of the MPD and MPS SRO drama. Police were supposed to be back in schools in January 2024, because of state law. But Feb. 28, 2025, Milwaukee police landed on the organization NASRO to train officers.
Alderwoman Marina Dimitrijevic wanted to know the training plan, where the officers would be pulled from to be at schools, and which schools they would patrol. Milwaukee police did not have all those answers.
On March 4, Milwaukee Police Chief Jeffrey Norman received an email from the executive director of the Fire and Police Commission.
"Just a heads up, Commissioner Burgos said that he would like you to address the SRO situation during your performance review. He expressed some frustration with the pace at which the situation was addressed in his email to me." The chief responded, "Understood."
Norman's review happened March 6.
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By March 10, Milwaukee police officers began training inside the police academy. After a crush of requests, police refused to let media inside the building to see training.
At this time, sergeants were putting together a schedule and figuring out where the officers would be placed. They worked down to the wire. Officers returned to MPS buildings on March 17. The FOX6 News records request ends on April 7.
Dig deeper
During a week 2 SRO report, officers had already deal with vandalism and a battery at a school. In mid-April, Rufus King student athletes approached a school resource officer about a teacher inappropriately contacting them throughout the school year. She was charged with sexual misconduct.
The Source
The information in this post was produced from emails and other materials recovered after a FOX6 News records request.
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