With a new semester afoot, two new “Neighborhood Oriented” police officers are monitoring campus areas.

Officers John Patterson and Rodney Wilson are taking over the role of acting as Madison Police Department’s Neighborhood Police Liaisons for the Langdon and State Street neighborhoods, respectively.

Since the semester is only in its third week, Patterson said the two are “still learning the processes for this role,” but have goals of being “more of a resource to the students in the neighborhood and to the university.”

Patterson, a former UW student himself, said his former student days were a draw for taking on the new position.

“[It’s a] positive opportunity to have this role with the students and the University,” he said.

Incidents within the first three weeks of this role have been limited and have been “all related around alcohol,” Patterson said.

So far, Patterson’s biggest problem occurred with an “unnecessary scuffle with an inexperienced drinker, typically underclassmen not being able to handle themselves in drinking situations.”

He said he has yet to identify the main problems of the area.

“For the most part, students do a good job of policing themselves,” Patterson said, noting that the Langdon Street Greek System has their own security system and means of handling incidents. “[My] goal isn’t to write up tickets and get students in trouble, but rather to be a resource.”

Part of the new police officers’ jobs also includes establishing a relationship with the students in the neighborhood. Patterson added he has no intentions of preventing anyone from having a good time, “as long as they’re being smart about it.”

Though the officers must adhere to job requirements of writing tickets when necessary, most transgressions are based on “common sense errors,” Patterson said. He said some examples include underage students walking in public with open containers of alcohol.

Neighborhood officers differ from traditional police officers in that they are assigned to deal with issues and concerns within a specific neighborhood, Patterson said.

“My role is much more concentrated, and rarely would I be called away from the area.”

Some Langdon Street residents, such as Aubre Andrus, a member of Alpha Chi Omega, were unaware of these services because of security hired by fraternities and sororities.

“I’ve never heard of [them]. We have our own security, I thought it was because there are no police that are actually assigned to Langdon.”

Although the weather has not let Patterson do a lot of foot patrol, he hopes to attend various campus meetings with intentions of meeting the students in his neighborhood. He also expects to do “more foot patrol to meet more people” in order to familiarize neighborhoods with what to expect from him so they may have a different, hopefully safer, feel to them.