It’s been a busy time for courts of late, and Milwaukee Circuit Judge David Borowski’s court has been no exception. In late February, he held the City of Milwaukee in contempt for failing to comply with an order he issued requiring Milwaukee P.D. to have officers assigned to Milwaukee Public Schools by February 27 — a 10-day extension from the original deadline of February 17. Borowski then stayed the order, giving the city yet another chance to comply, this time by March 15. After that time, the city would pay a $1,000-per-day fine.

How could a judge make a police department assign officers to a school, one might ask? Even more concerning, why would a department not be eager to work with their dedicated colleagues over at the school?

To understand the situation, it’s best to start at that last query. The P.D. may well be wary because the school kicked them out in the first place. The story starts way back in 2020, when angry activists across the country were calling for abolishing all the police departments, shutting down the COPS TV show and even kicking the little police dog off the Paw Patrol cartoon. As we all well remember, many large cities decided they didn’t need to support cops. Milwaukee Public Schools terminated their contract with the police department, doing away with cops at their schools.

Then, reality kicked in. Apparently, we live in a dangerous world where we need police officers. In 2023, the Wisconsin Legislature passed Act 12. Among other things, this piece of legislation requires that a certain number of police officers be assigned to Milwaukee Public Schools. Judge Borowski got involved because Charlene Abughrin, a parent at one of the schools, sued to make the city comply with Act 12 and put officers back in schools.

The City of Milwaukee (on behalf of the police department) argued that it was having trouble getting officers selected and trained to go back into the schools. It also wanted a memorandum of understanding in place before officers returned. As most school resource officers are aware, an MOU between the department and the district clearly defines the role of the officers, so that the principal doesn’t send them to mop the floors in the cafeteria. Borowski, though, was having none of it. According to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, he hoped “that the aldermen of Milwaukee have enough sense to understand the predicament that they’re in relative to the state law.”

As the deadline loomed, it appeared things were finally moving along after what Borowski had called “an enormous amount of foot-dragging” by both the city and the school board. WKOW News reported on March 11 that 30 officers were finally beginning their school resource officer training — which was scheduled on such short notice that no instructors were available for the full week, so four different people had to teach the course in shifts. On March 17, officers returned to 11 of the city’s public high schools.

Just to recap, Milwaukee police officers are being forced back into the school system, after being forced to leave in 2020. That year just won’t end.