Task force chair Prof. Stan Stojkovic and UWM police chief Pam Hodermann discuss new UWM safety initiatives during a press conference Nov. 20.

The safety of students, faculty, staff and neighbors—which has been a high campus priority during the fall semester—will receive even more attention in coming months by way of a new UWM Task Force on Campus Safety, according to Chancellor Carlos E. Santiago. The chancellor announced the new task force on Nov. 20 at a media briefing in the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Union.

“Are we making the investments necessary to keep students, faculty, staff and neighbors safe?” asked the chancellor. “That is what we want the task force to review.”

The task force is being chaired by Stan Stojkovic, dean of the UWM Helen Bader School of Social Welfare and a professor of criminal justice within the school. It will review recommendations made in recent months by the Safe Campus Committee (PDF file).

“The UWM Task Force on Campus Safety is being organized to give us an objective analysis of what we are doing and what else could be done, both from a sense of how our campus safety initiatives are organized and the processes being used,” said Stojkovic. “In creating the task force, UWM is seeking a focused group that can bring specific knowledge and expertise to best examine the specifics of UW-Milwaukee’s safety programs.”

At the Nov. 20 event, UWM Police Chief Pamela Hodermann announced that safety proposals made by the Safe Campus Committee—including hiring additional full-time police officers and other safety personnel, and purchasing equipment—are going forward. These include:

• Hiring five additional full-time police officers. Chief Hodermann said this process is already under way and it is anticipated that at least three new officers will be on staff by the start of the spring semester on Jan. 22, 2008.
• Hiring four additional full-time security officers. At UWM, security officers act in a support role to other departmental personnel and are assigned to keep safe U-Park lots and other university property.
• Seeking to acquire two additional police vehicles. These are intended to complement existing squad car, bicycle and foot patrols of the campus and the nearby area, and are deemed needed to allow the university to more comprehensively patrol expanding campus properties, including the new Kenilworth and RiverView residence housing facilities south of our campus. State approval is still needed to acquire the vehicles.
• Lengthening the hours that the B.O.S.S. (Be on the Safe Side) late-night student transportation vans are available. Police Department employees will drive the vans beyond the previous operational hours, which ended at 2 a.m.

An initiative not recommended by the Safe Campus Committee Organizing but which will go forward, too, is neighborhood foot patrols to supplement existing police patrols. Equipped with radios, outfitted in easy-to-see reflective vests, and operating in groups of at least two, neighborhood foot patrols will make more dense the coverage of the UWM neighborhood. Foot patrols will take place between about 7 p.m. and 4 a.m., and are expected to be operational yet this semester. Initially, students will be hired for the patrols.

At the media briefing, Student Association President Rob Grover said safety is a top issue among students and called the latest action by UWM “a great step in the right direction.”

UWM administrators will invite individuals to serve on the Task Force on Campus Safety from the Milwaukee Police Department, Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office, other universities and from UWM. “We are seeking those who can provide an independent review of UWM policies and practices,” said Stojkovic. All names will be announced in the near future.

The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee has organized all of its campus safety information at http://www.campussafety.uwm.edu.

The Safe Campus Committee Report is online at http://www4.uwm.edu/safety/upload/safereport4.pdf