Crime levels have remained steady in Madison's central district—encompassing most, if not all of campus and the surrounding areas—but recent violent crime, such as sexual assaults and robberies, has prompted both students and city officials to identify safety as a key issue.
Statistics compiled by the Madison Police Department show that the city has experienced an increase in sexual assaults and robberies over the last three years, despite an overall decrease in total crimes during the same period.
The statistics show that in January 2007 alone, eight reported sexual assaults occurred. Sexual assaults hit a five-year high of 64, in 2004, dropped to 44 in 2005 and climbed to 57 in 2006. Included in those 57 are three highly publicized assaults that took place on or near the UW-Madison campus near the end of the fall 2006 semester.
The first sexual assault occurred in an alley on the 500 block of University Avenue Sept. 4, 2006. In that case, police reported that multiple male suspects sexually assaulted a 23-year-old woman.
The other two assaults, which police linked to one man, happened in a span of two weeks. The first occurred Nov. 29, 2006 when a UW-Madison student was abducted on Observatory Drive, driven off campus, sexually assaulted and returned to campus. The second, nearly identical assault, took place Dec. 9, 2006 when a UW-Madison student was abducted on Carroll Street.
The two incidents frightened UW-Madison students and residents for weeks while police searched for the attacker. Antonio Pope was arrested for the crimes Dec. 15. The sexual assaults caused concern that led officials and students to meet repeatedly to discuss what actions needed to be taken.
One of those actions—Mayor Dave Cieslewicz's $100,000 Downtown Safety Initiative—had already been put in place. The initiative is meant to target downtown crime, specifically in the areas surrounding State and Langdon Streets.
The initiative is intended to target all crimes, but the police hope that the extra police presence will help control the increase in downtown robberies that Madison has experienced. In 2004, 73 people were robbed in the central district, 79 were robbed in 2005 and in 2006, the number of robberies rose to 112, according to police statistics.
Madison Police Central District Commander Mary Schauf has led the efforts behind the mayor's plan and helped compile downtown crime statistics that showed that the bulk of the city's crime takes place in a centralized area.
""The problem areas lie between Langdon and University and Lake and Wisconsin,"" Schauf said.
