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The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

Independent Student Newspaper Since 1969

The Badger Herald

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MPD awaits breakdown of Halloween arrests

As soon as calculated Halloween arrest statistics are available, University of Wisconsin officials will discipline students as they see fit. But those numbers have yet to be released, according to Mike Hanson, public information officer for the Madison Police Department.

Hanson said any numbers printed regarding what schools the 468 people arrested on Halloween attend are misleading.

"We won't know where they came from for a few weeks," Hanson said. "One of our captains released a preliminary map with various states colored in because we received pressure from a news network. However, that preliminary information cannot be considered accurate."

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Hanson said the difficulty in determining where offenders came from is that a lot of them have two addresses, a hometown address and a school address.

Interim Dean of Students Lori Berquam said she does, however, have a pretty good idea of how many UW students were arrested over the weekend, but the university has not yet issued any sanctions because the numbers have not been confirmed by the MPD.

"Our preliminary numbers are that around 100 UW students were arrested," Berquam said. "We were at the arrest-processing center from 10:30 through the rest of the night, both nights, so we were able to find out about how many of our students were arrested. However, we won't have any final numbers until the police department releases the final count."

Berquam said she was disappointed to learn a larger percentage of arrests this year were UW students, although she said she was somewhat encouraged by the timing of the arrests.

"I was happy to see that the majority of UW arrests came on Friday night," Berquam said. "I was out both nights and I recognized so many people on the street on Friday. But Saturday was different, I didn't recognize anyone on Saturday and the people I did talk with told me they were from as far away as UCLA."

For UW students who broke the law, the administration will vary its repercussions according to the specific laws broken, Berquam said.

UW will not punish students who violated alcohol laws or the glass ban, but more serious charges such as disorderly conduct or mistreating a police horse would garner stricter measures.

"The extent of our punishments will depend on if the students have any prior violations," Berquam said. "For instance, if a student was arrested for disorderly conduct, and he or she had been charged in the past for a similar violation, our sanctions would be stricter. However, if a student was only charged with a first offense, they could only face probation."

According to Berquam, students involved with antagonizing police officers at the end of the event will also receive serious sanctions from the university, but said she doubts there were many UW students who took part in that behavior.

"I just don't think they were our students," Berquam said. "I saw it all happen, and when the crowd dispersed, the majority went back to their cars and cursed the city and things like that."

Berquam added she had a "good conversation" with Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and said he also believes UW students are not the cause of major problems.

According to Hanson, the UW administration is not the only university requesting the MPD's final tally of arrests.

"The chancellor from the University of Minnesota was asking me how many of his students had been arrested," Hanson said. "Apparently he's got something in store for his students as well."

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