Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley’s administration used tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars to lobby state lawmakers to remove police officers from Milwaukee Public Schools, the Heartland Post has learned exclusively.
Under the terms of Act 12, the signature shared revenue package that Crowley repeatedly touted during his run for governor, MPS was legally required to return school resource officers to its schools but refused for nearly a full year before complying only under the threat of contempt of court charges.
Act 12 also included a number of other Milwaukee-specific requirements for the city and county to receive increases in shared revenue from the state and also impose new sales taxes. Crowley, who had heavily lobbied for the passage of Act 12, was able to nearly double Milwaukee County’s sales tax (taking it from 0.5% to 0.9%), while the City of Milwaukee was allowed to issue a new 2.0% city sales tax.
Last November, Socialist Wisconsin Represenative Ryan Clancy introduced legislation to remove many of those Milwaukee-specific provisions, including the requirement that resource officers return to MPS schools. According to state lobbying records, the lone registrant in support of this bill was Milwaukee County.
Clancy’s bill, AB 684, would have allowed Milwaukee County and the City of Milwaukee to keep their new sales taxes, but repeal the conditions and reforms contained in the original Act 12 agreement with the Republican-controlled Wisconsin Legislature, including restrictions involving DEI spending, advisory referenda, and the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission.
In addition, it completely repealed Wisconsin Statute § 62.90 of the original Act 12, which includes the requirement that MPS employ at least 25 school resource officers as well as the the portion of the law that included cut state aid by 15% for any communities that cut funding to law enforcement. In effect, this bill would have allowed municipalities to defund their police departments without any loss of state revenue.
Crowley’s lobbyists registered in support of this measure, which did not advance in the Legislature before the end of the 2026 session. All told, state records reveal that Crowley’s administration spent more than $200,000 on lobbying during the 2025-2026 legislative session.
Crowley Championed Act 12
Crowley was a driving force behind the Act 12 agreement, which provided additional state aid to local governments while allowing Milwaukee County and the City of Milwaukee to impose new sales taxes. Crowley has repeatedly celebrated Act 12 as one of the signature accomplishments of his tenure as Milwaukee County Executive. He even marked the County Board’s approval of the sales-tax increase by cutting a celebratory cake with Board Chairwoman Marcelia Nicholson.
Securing Republican support new taxes, however, came with conditions addressing a series of Milwaukee-specific issues including the Milwaukee streetcar, advisory referenda, DEI-related positions, the Milwaukee Fire and Police Commission, and public-safety funding.
The most consequential provision, though, was Act 12’s requirement that, starting in January 2024, MPS have at least 25 school resource officers present during normal school hours.
MPS officials strenuously objected to this, and delayed implementation for as long as they could. After more than a year and contentious litigation, a Milwaukee County judge ordered the MPS to comply with the law. The 25 resource officers finally returned to MPS schools in March 2025.
Within a matter of weeks, those officers proved how badly they were needed back in Milwaukee’s most troubled schools; intervening in multiple incidents involving firearms and “preventing multiple cases of gun violence from happening in school hallways.”
“We’ve had some firearm recovery in schools where officers have taken away multiple firearms from students ranging in age from 8 years old to 17 years old,” Milwaukee Police Captain Vynetta Norberg told WTMJ Radio. “I believe in ensuring safety and that we can be there on-site as schools when incidents like that come up and if there are resources needed after and incident occurs that we can be there on site to provide additional resources to students and faculty outside of the Milwaukee Police Department.”
In spite of this, Clancy authored legislation to remove them and Crowley authorized his lobbyists to support that bill.
Crowley a Longtime Opponent of School Safety Grants
This was not Crowley’s first involvement with legislation concerning police officers in schools. While serving as a member of the Wisconsin Assembly in 2018, Crowley voted against bipartisan legislation creating grants to school districts who employ a school safety officer. Just a few months later, he received a maximum $20,000 donation from California megadonor Quinn Delaney, the co-founder of the Akonadi Foundation.
This foundation previously led an initiative in support of “police free schools,” fighting to remove school resource officers from Oakland Schools.
“The initiative invested in an ecosystem of movement organizations to mobilize directly impacted people to win and implement police free schools, reimagine school safety and school discipline, close youth prisons, and realize other critical efforts to transform youth justice in Oakland,” the Akonadi Foundation boasted on its website. The foundation has also repeaedly advocated for defunding the police.
Crowley has repeatedly denied supporting the “Defund the Police” movement.
