[media-credit name=’AJ MACLEAN/Herald Photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]Campus police officers in the University of Wisconsin System say their resources are limited due to underfunding. Limited resources have led to staffing shortages and a lack of crime-prevention outreach programs, which the UW Board of Regents plans to review soon.

A report surveyed by the UW System Office of Operations Review and Audit covered four-year UW institutions, all of which maintain their own university police or security departments.

According to the report, "UW police and security departments report that they do not always have adequate funds for equipment replacement programs and other tools necessary to meet operational needs."

Staffing and arming officers were also cited, and the authors of the report made several recommendations to curb such problems. Because each individual university is responsible for maintaining its campus police department, varying degrees of protection are offered among the campuses.

A combined staff of officers, security guards and, in some cases, student patrols, are used to different extents at the police departments.

The recommended ratio of officers to population is two to 1,000, the report states.

While the UW-Madison Police Department does not meet this ratio, UW Assistant Police Chief Dale Burke said this is neither uncommon nor a large issue.

"I know for a fact that we're in better shape than a lot of our peers, like in the Big Ten," Burke said, defending UWPD's status. "Two officers to 1,000 is kind of idealistic. We've been very well supported budget-wise on this campus. We've been very happy with this university's recognition of our goals and values."

In fact, UW is second only to Northwestern in the ratio of officers-to-population in the Big Ten.

Steve Johnson, deputy chief of police for the University of Minnesota, cited a report from February 2005 which put Northwestern at 3.1 officers per 1,000 students, UW at 1.6 officers per 1,000 and Minnesota bringing up the rear at 0.8 officers per 1,000.

"We are at the bottom of the heap in the Big Ten," Johnson said. "We are funded for 45 officers; we currently have 43. And we are the second-largest campus by population in the country."

While some university policing systems use similar ratios to determine proper amounts of staffing, others look on these ratios with skepticism.

Dave Peters, police commander for the University of Illinois-Chicago Police Department, believes such ratios do not always apply to every institution.

"I can make up a formula like, 'We need X number of officers per number of trees on campus,' but that won't work, either," Peters said. "That [ratio] may apply to 'Cornhusker University' in the middle of a cornfield, but it doesn't apply to this campus."

While the low ratios are a problem for some, the report also suggests there is a lack of crime-prevention programs and other outreach programs due to understaffing.

UW-Milwaukee Police Chief Pamela Hodermann faces such a situation.

Although the department is equipped for standard services, Hodermann said understaffing has limited the number of extended programs and specialized training opportunities in her department.

But the situation is quite different on the UW-Madison campus.

The UWPD has actually added more outreach programs to its repertoire, including community policing teams, emergency-management planning, crime prevention, a campus-housing liaison and training for SAFEwalk.

Still, these types of services and outreach programs are not present on many other UW campuses.

"Each campus has a lot of autonomy and says how they run their individual universities," Burke said. "It's not that they just don't care. There's a lot more to it than that."

The UWPD also boasts a decline in the crime rate, which, according to Burke, has been down in 14 of the last 15 years.