Madison will have $100,000 to work with for fighting downtown crime following a city council vote Thursday night.
Mayor Dave Cieslewicz announced his plans to bulk up the central city police presence in early October. At the time, Cieslewicz said, ""Public safety is the single most important service that local government can provide.""
The city has been dogged by muggings and assaults throughout 2006, especially in the spring, when groups of men attacked UW-Madison students with alarming regularity. Police Chief Noble Wray will have the final say on how the $100,000 is spent, but has yet to make any plans public regarding the money.
Ald. Zach Brandon, District 7, emerged as an early opponent of the mayor's downtown safety initiative. Brandon, who represents a west-side district several miles away from State Street and the UW-Madison campus, argued that pledging $100,000 to downtown safety without first demanding detailed outlines for its use was irresponsible.
However Brandon, a consistent opponent of city spending projects, eventually agreed to drop an amendment to the mayor's budget that would have stripped the city of the $100,000.
Both Public Information Officer Mike Hanson and Central District Police Commander Mary Schauf have complained that student assault victims are frequently drunk when attacked. As a result, they said, detectives are rarely able to gather more than the most basic information. For example, most suspect descriptions in this year's muggings have contained only gender, race and occasionally clothing.
UW-Madison Junior Andrew Soerens lives on West Johnson Street, near a number of off-campus bars as well as the sites of several muggings. He said he was encouraged by the prospect of extra police help downtown.
""In the last year, I've actually started thinking about whether it's safe to walk alone sometimes,"" Soerens said. ""That's not a comfortable feeling.""
Although his girlfriend lives only a couple of minutes away, he said he usually walks her home late at night in the hopes of staving off potential assaults.
Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, has long supported efforts to prevent downtown violence and address the safety of UW-Madison students. He applauded efforts by Wray and Cieslewicz to tackle crime.
""We know all too well about the unfortunate increase in downtown assaults this year,"" Verveer said. ""So I'm pretty happy that we have this extra pot of money to look for solutions to the problem.""
