Students from Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) seek better accountability and transparency from school resource officers (SROs). An effort led by Youth Empowered in the Struggle (YES) successfully got a resolution passed with the school board arranging for better SRO protocols and policies in order to keep MPS students as safe as possible.
Introduced by school board president Missy Zombor, the resolution calls for clearly defined roles and responsibilities of schools and SROs with regards to school behavior, and for more regular data reporting to the board and public. It also requests limited SRO intervention in disciplinary matters, limited law enforcement access to student records, the banning of strip searches, that SROs not interrupt classroom instruction, annual evaluations of SROs, the implementation of a complaint process with the Fire & Police Commission and other provisions.
While drafting the resolution, Zombor had met with students to hear about day-to-day issues with SROs they had or observed. She also consulted Krissie Fung of the Milwaukee Fire & Police Commission as well as Amanda Markwae of the ACLU of Wisconsin. “We want students to know their rights when they interact with SROs,” Zombor states. “Right now, that process isn’t well-known.”
State Mandate
SROs had previously been in MPS prior to 2020, but in the summer of that year, the school district terminated its contract with Milwaukee Police Department (MPD). However, the city required SROs return to MPS as part of Act 12, passed in 2024, which mandates at least 25 SROs be present in schools…