As police prepare to re-enter MPS, research shows school resource officers have little impact on crime

 

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- One of the provisions from the shared revenue agreement will begin in January when 25 school resource officers (SROs) will roam the halls of Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS).

So far, no information on where the process stands has been released to CBS 58 despite the nearing deadline. The Milwaukee Police Department (MPD) shared a statement about their efforts that read:

"The Milwaukee Police Department has been in communication with Milwaukee Public Schools on fulfilling the school resource officer requirement in a manner that best meets the needs of our community. MPD anticipates a collaborative positive partnership with MPS and its students.

The shared revenue agreement, signed by Gov. Tony Evers last June, included a provision that starting Jan. 1, 2024, 25 school resource officers would be added to MPS. The school board would also be required to collect statistics of how many crimes and disorderly conduct violations occurred on school grounds to send officers to appropriate districts beginning in the 2025-26 school year.

In 2020, MPS ended its contract with the Milwaukee police department following protests in the wake of racial justice protests over the killing of George Floyd. As the clock ticks to meet the state requirement, neither MPS nor MPD have shared a proposed cost agreement or which of the nearly 150 schools, from Head Start through high school, would be assigned an SRO.

An Associate Professor of Civil Society and Community Studies at UW-Madison, Ben Fisher, has researched the impact of SROs for a decade.

"I think they intend for them to make schools safer to reduce crime and violence, and the evidence does not support that happening on the aggregate," Fisher said.

Fisher, who created a meta-analysis summarizing all the research on school-based law enforcement, tells CBS 58 that studies show that safety has stayed the same in schools with officers.

"On average, when schools had police there, there weren't any higher or lower levels of violence, of drugs, of weapons presence. It was essentially no impact across the board," he explained. "The place where we did see an impact was increases in student suspensions. So, their students are getting in trouble more, even while there's not any change in the level of school violence or crime."

The suspensions, which Fisher said research shows are given more to black students than their white peers, can cause issues later in life.

"It leads to more suspensions down the line, more behavior problems, lower likelihood of graduating and succeeding in school, greater chances of being arrested and incarcerated," he said.

The "why" or "reason" behind school resource officers being placed in schools also plays a role in how they act, according to Fisher, who researched how SROs perceive threats in their schools.

"For example, I worked closely in a school district that after this shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, they essentially over the weekend, but the police and all their elementary schools and when we talked to those police, they were super concerned with not being the next Sandy Hook," he said.

This finding, when applied to MPS, where officers are going to schools because of a state mandate, is something Fisher said will be interesting. 

"If there's not a particular problem that [SROs are] responding to other than like the legislature, I'm curious to think about what things they'll be doing in those schools, what they'll be prioritizing, how they think about what counts as safety and what counts as a threat," he said.

One aspect that they do not have a concrete conclusion on is when it comes to how students feel about having SROs in schools.

"We've seen plenty of times where students like their SROs are glad that they're here and they make them feel safer. We've also seen times where they want the police out of their schools, and they feel less safe because they have police there," Fisher said.

MPS released a statement on Wednesday: 

"Milwaukee Public Schools continues to collaborate with stakeholders, including student groups, the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association (MTEA), the Administrators and Supervisors Council (ASC), district staff, community members and the Milwaukee Police Department (MPD). Our goal is to develop a plan, in partnership with MPD, that redefines the previous role of the school resource officer.

In addition to working with local organizations, MPS conducted site visits at public schools in Washington, D.C.; Atlanta, GA; Fulton County, GA; and Bibb County, GA. During these visits, district representatives observed school resource officer programs that implement a variety of practices focused on improving relationships between schools, law enforcement, youth, and the greater community.

We look forward to submitting our plan to the Milwaukee Board of School Directors. MPS anticipates a collaborative, positive partnership with key stakeholders moving forward."

The next MPS school board meeting is at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday.