Numerous Madison groups, including the Madison Police Department, assembled Monday night in an attempt to counter the problem of crime and violence in the downtown area.
The meeting, run by the MPD, came after two instances of sexual assault since Nov. 29""both involved students walking alone after dark.
Views of different organizations, students and residents throughout the Madison area were given. In addition, a brainstorming activity was held to help spur ideas on how to keep everyone in the community safe.
The main objectives of the meeting were to find ways to reduce violent street level crime, increase police efforts to get the community engaged, ultimately reducing fear and improve voluntary compliance with alcohol related ordinances.
The focus of our prospect is the street level criminal activity because that is what drives public fear,"" said Madison Police Captain Mary Schauf. ""People want to be able to come downtown and be safe.""
Police used the meeting to relay their ideas involving ways to keep residents safe. One idea was to develop a response plan, which would deal with any variety of problematic situations.
""One of the things that we want to be able to do is to have a flexible response plan, so no matter what problem would pop up, the police department would have a rapid response plan,"" Schauf said.
Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, suggested some possible preventative measures including increasing visible foot patrol, promoting a public education campaign and adding more neighborhood watch programs.
""To have a prevention oriented focus much like the public info campaign, [the city should] increase neighborhood watch programs for downtown,"" Verveer said.
Expanding the program into other neighborhoods was an idea that arose during the meeting. Currently, Langdon Street has the only neighborhood watch program in the downtown area.
""[The neighborhood watch program] really attacks the problem in a few ways,"" said Langdon Street patrol officer Tony Fiore. ""It provides a deterrent effect, a visible presence and it improves the community members' sense of well being.""
One potential measure in curbing the fear on campus deals with the idea of more self-defense classes. The classes would be meant to decrease the sense of fear and equip students with other means of protection.
Jacob Hahn, SAFE program coordinator, said more self-defense classes at the Southeast Recreational Facility or Natatorium would go a long way in helping students cope with the fear of being attacked.
""We do have some self-defense classes, but most of them are geared towards women,"" Hahn said. ""We see that women are not the only ones that are victimized.
