When I returned to the University of Wisconsin this fall, something was a little eerie. The safe, vibrant campus I had come to know had been purged by a slew of muggings and beatings that left vulnerable students as victims. No longer were my peers willing to walk alone after dark. Friends began to call cabs instead of enjoying a quick jaunt home at the end of the night. I even found myself beginning to look over my shoulder as I trekked through the shadows, wondering what threats might lie in wait.

Indeed, the incidents that have become a focal concern for students are part of a much larger trend in the city of Madison, where robberies rose 76 percent for the first six months of the year compared to the same period in 2005. A majority of them have plagued the recently revamped downtown district and the surrounding UW campus, injecting fear into a student body unaccustomed to coping with the common threats faced by young people at big-city universities.

Facing heightened public concern over these crimes — some of them disturbingly random — Mayor Dave Cieslewicz pledged to adopt a two-pronged strategy to curb downtown violence: increasing police presence while limiting the number of downtown liquor licenses. Although the latter proposal's violations of economic principle and social reality are evident (pushing students out of safe, monitored drinking venues onto the streets that have become so dangerous and the house parties that have become so infamous), the mayor has followed through on his promise to bolster the ranks of the Madison Police Department, as evidenced by the unveiling of his 2007 city budget proposal on Sunday.

Cieslewicz is seeking to add 10 new MPD officers, the most in more than a decade, as a vital piece of a two-million comprehensive public safety package for the city that includes $100,000 for downtown policing and a significant boost in child care and social service programs. Unfortunately, the new officers will be more costly to the city because the Bush Administration — supposedly tough on terrorism and crime — slashed the federal grant program for hiring new police.

Regardless, Madison residents and anxious students alike should applaud the mayor's policing priorities. The appealing aspect of the proposal is that it gets to the heart of public safety issues — not just bolstering the police force as a fix-all for the city's influx in crime. Rather, Cieslewicz is focusing on the social service sector to address the roots of criminal activities, increasing the budgets of the Office of Community Service, child-care tuition assistance programs, special neighborhoods' projects and an Allied Drive job-training plan. In addition, more funds are set aside for after-school programs, neighborhood centers, youth mentoring initiatives and programs focusing on domestic violence and sexual assault prevention.

Indeed, city officials have realized that, in the words of City Council President Austin King, there is no "silver bullet" to crime — solutions must come from all facets and angles. There is even more that city officials can do to make Madison safer, including projects that have become a focus for King, who represents most of the city's student districts. These include more adequate lighting on blocks submerged in shadows and trimming tree brushes to minimize the cover predators and thieves can use to hide from their victims.

As both a concerned student and a member of the city's Public Safety Review Board, I strongly encourage the Common Council to adopt the mayor's proposal into budget come November. However, as new downtown officers are to be distributed at Madison Police Chief Noble Wray's discretion, it is vital that they be used effectively and deployed to where the more notable crimes have occurred. Additional police presence is needed on the streets, looking for suspicious activities and quashing excessively out-of-control house parties, not checking IDs in bars or breaking up every social gathering where there's a case of beer and a liter of liquor on the premise. The focus must remain on protection and prevention, not babysitting.

The mayor has taken a bold and necessary step to help combat the recent surge in violent crime, reiterating his commitment to public safety. Such fiscal priorities are right on for citizens and city officials looking to take back their city from the reprehensible individuals who seem to have hijacked it.

Adam Lichtenheld ([email protected]) is a junior majoring in political science and African studies.