IT'S TIME FOR COPS IN SCHOOLS

Pressure is growing to put police officers inside the Milwaukee
Public Schools. Fearing she would have fewer officers to deploy to
crimes in the community, Milwaukee Police Chief Nannette Hegerty is
resisting. All parties are slated to discuss the issue in a meeting
with Mayor Tom Barrett on Wednesday. Advertisement

Proponents cite a recent spate of violent activity in the schools. A
police union official went so far as to describe as "ineffective" the
present system of safety aides.

Proponents have failed to back up that claim with facts, but,
nonetheless, it's time to start stationing cops in schools, perhaps
on a trial basis. The officers' presence might improve safety. And,
as Superintendent William Andrekopoulos suggests, the police could do
more than just respond to crime. They should serve as resource
officers, patrolling the buildings, relating to students.

Yes, MPS appears to be seeing an uptick in violence. But advocates of
assigning officers to schools have failed to show a single case in
which police would have responded better than safety aides, who seem
to be doing a decent job.

Take the admittedly alarming incident Oct. 30 at Madison High School,
where a hooded, masked figure - allegedly a 16-year-old student -
entered a class and indecently touched a teacher. Safety aides
responded immediately and apprehended the alleged assailant in the
school's parking lot. It's hard to imagine police improving on that response.

Nonetheless, police should set up shop in schools, at least as a
pilot program. Their presence might be a better deterrent to crime
than that of safety aides. They might improve the feeling of security
- - an important outcome. And particularly if they're properly trained,
the officers could build beneficial relations with students. Besides,
police must respond to incidents anyway. They come out to a typical
big school roughly twice a day, according to a Journal Sentinel spot check.

Milwaukee Aldermen Bob Donovan, Tony Zielinski and Jim Bohl and
leaders of the Milwaukee Police Association are gung-ho about
assigning police to schools. They want to put all $1 million the
School Board recently allocated for school security toward that end.
Andrekopoulos and School Board President Joe Danneker have said they
want a large part of the $1 million to go toward police beats in
schools. The rest would go to increasing by 10 the current force of
213 safety aides.

And that may be the most prudent plan: hiring more safety aides and
putting some police officers into school buildings.