[media-credit name=’BRYAN FAUST/Herald photo’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]City officials, Madison residents and members of the University of Wisconsin community met Monday to discuss how Mayor Dave Cieslewicz's $100,000 safety initiative will be spent in the downtown area.

The City Council passed the $100,000 into the budget last month, but Madison Police Department Chief Noble Wray will decide exactly where the funds will be delegated to maximize safety around the city. Community members met Monday to advise Wray how residents would like to see the money spent.

"I really want this to be an interactive process," MPD Central District Captain Mary Schauf said. "I really want people's input [on] what they think their part of the plan can be."

Schauf also said in light of recent events, including Saturday's sexual assault at the corner of Langdon Street and North Carroll Street, the MPD and the UW Police Department plan to work together to improve downtown safety even though there is a "jurisdictional issue." The overall goal of the mayor's safety initiative, Schauf added, is to create a more rapid response and more readily available solutions from the police department.

Interim Dean of Students Lori Berquam said the two police departments are already working in close collaboration to solve campus-area crimes, especially since both MPD and UWPD believe the most recent incidents might be related. She also said an important investment for the university might be having SAFEwalk and SAFEride expand their hours.

"Our comfortable Madison town that we say is really welcoming to everyone is becoming a big city," Berquam said in an interview. "Students are just stressed, and so what are the things that we can do to keep safety in the forefront of their minds?"

Jacob Hahn, SAFE nighttime services coordinator, said the $100,000 initiative should go toward a "take back the night" campaign, which would pull together people and resources from both downtown and the campus area to combat a recent rise in muggings and assaults. He also suggested incorporating better transportation methods around bar-time and offering more self-defense classes at the university.

"We need to send a strong message out there," Hahn said. "We do have some self-defense type programs, but most of them are geared toward women, and we've seen attacks on more than just women."

And Cari Schulman, director of risk management at UW's chapter of Alpha Chi Omega, said the police department should look into buying more emergency call centers, like those currently dispersed throughout the lakeshore area.

According to Schulman, each call center — a tall post with a blue light on top that connects directly to the police department — would cost the city roughly between $5,000 and $8,000. But the benefits to having emergency call centers would be essential to the Langdon Street area, she said, and would far outweigh the costs of the resource.

"I think these call boxes would greatly reduce the crime, increase the sense of awareness and light up Langdon a little," Schulman said. "It's not the only solution, but it is a great solution."

— Joanna Pliner contributed to this report.