[media-credit name=’JEFF SCHORFHEIDE/Herald photo’ align=’alignright’ width=’336′][/media-credit]

The Madison Police Department laid out a plan Thursday night to bring safety measures at the upcoming Mifflin Street Block Party “back to basics.”

According to Lt. Mark Brown, “Lock your windows, lock your doors and lock your valuables,” are three messages police want to emphasize for Mifflin and Bassett street and West Washington Avenue residents May 3, when thousands of University of Wisconsin students will take to the streets to party.

“It’s just amazing how many people will leave expensive laptops laying around when they’ve got a hundred people in their house they don’t even know,” Brown said at the Downtown Coordinating Committee meeting.

Residential and commercial burglaries have been a prevalent issue for MPD this year, with about 30 incidents reported to police since March 1.

Ald. Eli Judge, District 8, also a UW junior, said he will work with Brown to get the safety messages out to the masses at Mifflin. Judge said it’s challenging to communicate the warning to students without “sounding like mom and dad.”

“We need more unique ways to translate the message you’ve been hearing since you were a kid,” Judge said.

An effective technique Brown said police have used in previous years at Mifflin is walking up and down the street just talking with people. Brown added he introduces himself as Mark rather than Lt. Brown to make students more comfortable.

“It puts a name with a face,” Brown said. “The kids like to have their pictures taken with the cops.”

In the 20 years Brown has worked for the MPD, he said the last four to five block parties have “gotten progressively better.”

In 2007, Brown said Mifflin residents followed police instruction and turned off their music at 8 p.m., adding, “It was dusty quiet.”

Rosemary Lee, a member of the DCC and long-time Madison resident, said with “more and more older people like me” present it helps keep the peace at the party, which has seen outbreaks of violence in past years.

Brown said awareness of safety precautions is extremely important this year as the community is on edge in wake of the April 2 homicide of UW junior Brittany Zimmermann in her nearby West Doty Street home.

“A lot of cops take this one very personal,” Brown said. “Whatever I can do to get the message out, please, please, please lock your doors. Don’t make it easier for people to get in your house.”

Judge said he has noticed the UW community “looking out for each other more than ever.” If he walks home late at night alone, he said people come up to him asking if he wants someone to walk with.

“If there’s any silver lining to this terrible tragedy, it seems to have really started a discussion (about safety) that we’ve needed to have for years,” Judge said.