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Police have greater presence during game weekend
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by Abby Peterson
Monday, September 27, 2004
Although the University of Wisconsin Police Department did not staff more officers at Saturday night’s victory against Pennsylvania State University, many students said they experienced a heightened police presence during the first and only night game of the season.
“There was no additional security beyond what we usually do for a game,” Steve Malchow, assistant athletic director at UW, said. “It was a standard Big Ten game for us.”
Malchow did concede, however, police prepared for additional safety problems that go along with games later in the day, most particularly caused by fans who have had time to drink all day before arriving at Camp Randall.
“I think it’s safe to say that people have more time to do their pre-game rituals [at a later game] … and that has to be taken seriously,” Malchow said.
Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, said security concerns Saturday caused the Madison police to place approximately 15 extra officers on duty near the stadium in the city’s jurisdiction to crack down on open intoxicants on the sidewalk and noise violations.
“Because Penn State was a night game, there were more police on duty,” Verveer said. “The cops aren’t stupid. They know that students and adults alike have had more time to liquor up. They know the intoxication levels are higher.”
Police ejected 61 UW students from the game and issued 30 citations, primarily for underage drinking. Penn State game statistics are higher than typical infraction numbers for a normal football game day, though not particularly unusual for a game held later in the day.
“I don’t think the number of citations or ejections were out of the ordinary for any night game,” Verveer said, noting the numbers reported are lower than those for the Ohio State game a year ago.
However, Verveer added though fan behavior did not appear to pose a bigger problem this weekend, police were forced to more aggressively patrol the aisles due to students throwing free compact discs distributed outside the stadium.
“I didn’t see any additional problems with the exception of people throwing the Burger King CDs around,” Verveer said.
Some fans said they appreciated the heightened security presence because of the CD issue.
“I would much rather see the cops around because of the throwing of CDs,” UW sophomore Liz Prange said. “[It] is scary because if they hit someone, that would be painful.”
Although some fans said they took comfort in the more aggressive officials, many students did note the higher patrolling of the security guards as out of the ordinary — even though the same number of officers was on the scene.
“I definitely felt there was more security than usual,” UW senior Allison Bichler said. “We saw security guards walking up and down the aisles in the stadium and that is not something you see on a usual game day. That was surprising.”
“To be honest, I never have felt threatened at a game before,” Bichler continued. “To me, I didn’t see the reason we needed so much security.”
Many students also noted police were more confrontational with unruly students on Saturday.
“You could see [they were] more agitated where people were coming in and out. They looked very aware,” UW senior Laura Nelson said.
UW senior Mike Olson reported the police repeatedly checked his ticket because he was not standing on the bleachers during the game.
“I don’t know what the cops’ deal was,” he said, adding he had never been confronted at a game by the police before.
Yet, despite increased run-ins with security and rowdier crowds, many UW students said they prefer the night games to their earlier counterparts anyway.
“The whole atmosphere seemed more festive because it was a night game,” Bichler said.
