[media-credit name=’MATTHEW KUTZ/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]In a moment of unexpected candor from the University of Wisconsin Police Department, Chief of Police Susan Riseling held a press conference Wednesday in which the department released detailed information and data pertaining to all 30 cases of UW students who have been committed to a detoxification center so far this semester.

"It's not an honor that I'm proud of," Riseling said. "But we lead the pack. We lead the country."

The university's release of this data comes less than two months after Chancellor John Wiley and other top university officials publicly debunked the Princeton Review's ranking of UW as the No. 1 party school in America.

Riseling — accompanied by Interim Dean of Students Lori Berquam, Special Assistant to the Chancellor Casey Nagy and UW spokesperson John Lucas — said she is concerned in part because at this point in the semester last year there had been 13 fewer detox commitments, even though only five home football games had been played compared to four this year, an event she said typically fills the detox center.

"I can't just keep going through yet another season here. Something has got to shift," Riseling said. "In my career, I've faced way too many parents and told them that their child is dead and I don't want to do it."

Responding to suggestions that perhaps UW would not lead the nation in detox commitments if the police department issued more citations, Riseling said "year after year after year" the department typically ranks first or second in alcohol-related arrests nationwide.

"We lead the nation in enforcement not because we're some big enforcers, but because it's so rampant, it would be impossible not for us to lead the nation in enforcement," she said.

Berquam, whose office initiated a policy this semester to call parents of select underage students caught drinking by UWPD, agreed instances of students committed to detox are their greatest concern.

"I think you'd have to agree that this is pretty scary information," Berquam said. "It's pretty eye-opening and awakening. These are near-death experiences that our students are going through."

Riseling characterized the department's release of this information as the first step in correcting the problem, which she described as an offshoot of the drinking and party-friendly culture in Madison.

"I've had colleagues here from other universities [and] they're astounded," Riseling said. "You know, Michigan has gone completely dry. Iowa has not allowed tailgates in parking lots for years. They just can't quite conceive of Wisconsin."

Despite the astonishment some out-of-state police officers experience in Madison, Riseling said she has little ambition to change the culture which is so embedded into the region and instead vowed to focus first and foremost on decreasing detox commitments.

"I police by community standards … and this community isn't quite ready to [change the culture], so what I'm trying to do is say to the community, 'I understand you're not willing to deal with the third floor to the first floor [beer bong],'" Riseling said. "I got it. I get that. Are you willing to deal with the ones that are almost near death? Can we start to talk about that now?"

Lucas, however, said as an institution, UW has been engaged in a decade-long effort to change the culture in Madison.

Ald. Austin King, District 8, whose constituents include a great deal of UW students, said change is appropriate in light of the detox statistics.

"We ought to be doing things we can to promote safer drinking on campus," King said. "A lot of that comes from changing more of the extreme parts on campus."