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Students organize campus watch

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by Peter Sielski

Monday, April 9, 2007

The University of Wisconsin student government will take part in a proactive nighttime safety program aimed at curbing crime around campus.

Students and volunteers will be patrolling campus streets on weekend nights for the Neighborhood Watch Program, starting April 20.

The program will run through the Associated Students of Madison for three weekends, when five volunteers will circle down Park and Regent streets to Randall Street, and then to University Avenue.

"[Volunteers] will be walking around, looking for suspicious behavior, people who will need SAFEwalk, SAFEride, or help people who look like they're in trouble," said Kelly Arendt, Neighborhood Watch Program volunteer coordinator. "It is basically there to put more students out on the street, so that if a student is walking, they won't be walking by themselves."

According to Arendt, volunteers will be walking the streets from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday in special T-shirts with flashlights and reflector armbands. They will also be in communication with officer Kraig Knutson from the Madison Police Department during their patrols.

"[Knutson] is going to give [the volunteers] training — how to look for suspicious people — and give them a contact card for SAFEwalk and SAFEride," Arendt said. "So if they see a person who needs a ride, they will have a direct contact for that number. There will also be a team leader who will have a cell phone."

The watch program was created in response to increased student concern about nighttime safety following a recent spate of crimes on and around campus, according to Christie Penn, campus safety coordinator for the Associated Students of Madison.

The start of the ASM watch program will come less than a month after the UW Greek community began a similar program for the Langdon Street neighborhood.

Aside from educating students on safety, Penn said students across various student organizations wanted a larger student presence on the streets.

"Our goal was to do something other than what other people were doing, but still help safety on campus." Arendt said.

The pilot program will serve as a test run to flesh out future problems as ASM works to expand the program to additional neighborhoods.

"We are piloting the program for the last few weeks during this semester," Penn said. "Then, starting next fall, we will be starting the program across six areas across campus."

Although there are already numerous student organizations that help to promote student safety, Arendt said the ASM watch program is different, since it is more proactive and does not focus simply on educating students on safety.

"We didn't want to do something that was already being done," Penn said. "This is where we thought there was a really good opening for us to do some work."

Though the program will only start with one group patrolling city streets, Arendt said it would nonetheless make a difference.

"This year, it will not be as effective as next year, but I think that if you are helping at least one neighborhood, you are at least helping some people." Arendt added.

Although there are already many programs under ASM to keep students safe at night, Arendt called the watch program a positive step forward on top of what already exists.

"The other orgs have done a lot of good work, and we appreciate that," Penn said. "And I think [NWP] will complement a lot of the other programs already on campus."

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Anonymous (April 9, 2007 @ 3:15am):

Looks like the Greeks proved to be model students for the rest of the campus again.

Anonymous (April 9, 2007 @ 4:08pm):

Should we expect a wave of date-rape then, 3:15am?

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