How police citations, arrests and school discipline work in Milwaukee Public Schools after officers’ return

Police returned to MPS under a court-ordered plan

Milwaukee Public Schools began hosting school resource officers again on March 17, 2025, after a legal and political dispute over compliance with Wisconsin Act 12. The law, enacted in 2023, required at least 25 school resource officers to be present in the district during normal school hours and available for certain additional events by Jan. 1, 2024. That deadline passed without implementation, leading to litigation and a series of court deadlines.

In early 2025, Milwaukee County Circuit Court Judge David Borowski issued orders directing the City of Milwaukee and MPS to place officers in schools and to split costs evenly. The city was found in contempt after missing a court deadline and faced fines set at $1,000 per day tied to continued noncompliance.

Where officers were assigned and what their role is supposed to be

By mid-March 2025, the initial deployment placed resource officers at 11 MPS high schools. City and district leaders approved a memorandum of understanding (MOU) establishing a framework for how officers and school staff are expected to interact. The agreement describes officers’ primary function as responding to reported crimes at MPS sites, while school administrators remain responsible for routine discipline.

The MOU also set expectations for program oversight and reporting, including recurring assessments and annual reporting intended to track calls for service, arrests and citations connected to schools with assigned officers.

• School discipline is generally handled by MPS staff through school-based rules and disciplinary procedures.

• Police action—including citations or arrests—typically involves suspected violations of law rather than violations of school policy alone.

What the early data showed after March 17, 2025

Records from the initial months of the program show significant interaction between schools and police. From March 17 through June 13, 2025, Milwaukee Police Department records reflect 893 unique calls for service originating from MPS schools during that period—about 16 calls per school day. The same records show that 155 of those calls were classified as “official incidents,” a category that can include suspected violations of law as well as non-criminal matters requiring documentation, such as welfare checks and missing-persons reports.

Separate records from the same time window document multiple incidents in which officers used force on students. In several cases, the events began as school policy issues rather than an initial report of criminal conduct, but ended with a use-of-force encounter and a request to pursue criminal charges.

Training requirements and transparency questions

Wisconsin Act 12 includes a 40-hour training requirement tied to the National Association of School Resource Officers curriculum. Court proceedings in early 2025 addressed how quickly that training needed to be completed versus being scheduled and underway as officers entered schools.

In the program’s early stages, questions persisted about how consistently the boundary between school discipline and law enforcement would be applied, and what public reporting would ultimately show about citations and arrests over time.

As the district and city continue operating under the MOU framework, the most consequential measures are expected to be the recurring program reviews and annual reporting intended to quantify citations, arrests, and broader school safety outcomes.