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One week after a robbery outside the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority on Langdon Street, some University of Wisconsin students expressed anger about police response to the incident during a panel of Madison leaders on safety Tuesday.

Members of the panel and audience stressed the need for both immediate and long-term action to reduce crime on Langdon.

At one point, a female student in the audience spoke out angrily about the perceived lack of an immediate response.

“It’s a reoccurring problem. You’re having robberies. You’re having houses broken into. Something needs to be done. How many times is this going to happen until someone steps in to make it not happen?” she said.

Suggestions for long-term solutions included expanding current systems such as SAFEwalk, neighborhood patrols, emergency phones and the bus system by increasing their hours of operation and saturation on campus.

The most popular idea discussed was the installation of better pedestrian lighting. Several students noted streetlights are currently intermittent at best, giving those with malicious intentions plenty of opportunities to act.

One member of the Greek community added lighting would further increase safety by drawing more foot traffic to the area.

“There are so many students who don’t feel safe walking on Langdon, and they’ll take State Street and turn onto Langdon at a different point. Bringing more pedestrians off that street is one of the safest things you can do,” she said.

Members of the panel generally agreed with the need for more lighting, but some stressed it will not solve the problem entirely.

“At some point, the person walking has to choose the safest route they know of,” said Madison Police officer Rene Gonzalez, who supervises the Langdon area. “I don’t want you guys to get a false sense of security because there is a light there.”

Short-term solutions discussed included covered porch light initiatives, temporary lighting and student education.

Dean of Students Lori Berquam stressed that students should always be aware of their surroundings when walking at night, noting that talking on a cell phone or wearing headphones is not always safe.

Others expressed confusion over why the WiscAlert system was not used after the recent robbery outside of the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority.

Berquam responded by saying the robbery was not a situation that would call for an alert to be sent out, but in the future the “threshold” used to determine when to notify students could be expanded.

Some audience members preferred WiscAlerts only be used for extreme cases such as a bomb threat or shooting, as the amount of crime in Madison would make the amount of text alerts excessive if the threshold were lowered.

UW Police Lt. Eric Holen, one of the panelists, was pleased with the turnout for the forum. He said that at this point, raising awareness in the student body would be the best step.

“People need to perceive a need to know things about personal safety before they are going to learn about personal safety,” Holen said. “I think this goes a long way in increasing that awareness so people know there is something out there that will help make them safe.”