Dean of Students Lori Berquam, the University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Department and the Madison Police Department held a tweet chat Wednesday as the first in three upcoming events designed to share information and seek community input on campus safety following a recent increase in crime near campus.
“We thought this would be a really great opportunity to be able to share what’s been going on and what we know, as well as share some important safety tips,” UWPD spokesperson Marc Lovicott said.
Under the hashtag UWSafety, Lori Berquam, UWPD Chief Susan Riseling, MPD Captain Joe Balles and the UW-Madison twitter account answered questions from students and community members.
Some of the main questions raised during the session were the cause for the increase in crime, how the community can create a dialogue between students and police, as well as general questions about the Sept. 18 incident where a shot was fired on Langdon Street.
UWPD responded that off-campus robbery incidents have increased from 26 in 2012 to 34 in 2012 from the period of May 1 to Sept. 23.
A few suggestions from participants included providing WiscAlerts to the community, bringing a SAFEride system back for students and adding more streetlights.
During the chat, Berquam encouraged students walking at night to take off headphones, put away cell phones, walk in groups larger than 3 through well-lit areas and call SAFEwalk.
The university will host two additional informational sessions with Berquam and Riseling in addition to other campus stakeholders such as SafeWalk and Associated Students of Madison.
