Welcome Week, a Badger home football game and Labor Day weekend usually mean trouble for both the Madison police and the University Police Department.
But this past weekend moved along without much incident at all.
In fact, at the first football game of the season on Saturday, the UWPD reported very low arrest numbers.
In its report, only four UW-Madison students were issued citations and arrested. In addition, 14 UW students received ejections from Camp Randall.
The statistics come as a surprise to most officers because not only was it the first game of the season, but it was also a 2:30 p.m. kickoff.
UWPD Lt. Karen Soley said usually the number of citations given is much higher and of those citations given, UW students receive more than 75 percent.
Lt. Soley said she had no explanation as to why so few problems occurred on Saturday at Camp Randall. She said it has been a point of emphasis by all the area police to start taking a more stern approach to stopping out of control drinking and behavior.
“I really hope people are getting the message about drinking responsibly, otherwise I really don’t know why there were less [arrests] this time,” Soley said.
Still, the football game was not the only hurdle police had to clear this past weekend.
Later today, the Madison Police Department is set to announce statistics from the weekend.
The MPD said all along it planned to make its presence known throughout Labor Day weekend, which included increasing foot patrol in order to keep an eye on house parties and check bars for underage drinkers.
MPD Capt. Mary Schauf said the amount of arrests would most likely exceed 100.
Schauf said so many factors combined to make the weekend a huge burden for the staff and added it would not have been possible without the extra money provided by Mayor Dave Cieslewicz’s $100,000 Downtown Safety Initiative.
However, Schauf said the weekend events were nothing police were not prepared for.
“It was extremely busy, but we felt that we were able to keep a lid on it to some degree,” Schauf said.
