UWPD makes case log available online

The UW Police Department is now posting its daily case log online to make it easier for community members to learn about the types of incidents occurring on campus.

Increased accessibility is designed to raise awareness of students, faculty and staff about the nature of recent incidents, says UWPD Capt. Karen Soley. Awareness can translate into better crime prevention and use of campus resources.

The log is being updated daily, Monday through Friday, excluding holidays. Each log item carries a status listing, reflecting the current state of the case and indicates if an arrest was made or a ticket or warning was given.

The Jeanne Clery Act requires university police departments to have case logs for the previous 60 days available for the public to review. In the past, the log was available to any member of the campus community or public visiting UWPD, 1429 Monroe St. during normal business hour. That service remains available.

Associate Dean of Students Kevin Helmkamp, who chairs the Campus Safety Task Force, believes that electronic posting is a useful tool for anyone living, working or studying on campus.

“We’re generally supportive of finding any way that works for students to get more information about safety issues on and around campus, and certainly hopeful that everyone will take advantage of this additional effort,” he says.

The department has been testing the posting of the log for about the past three weeks and it has already become one of the more popular sub-pages visited on the department’s Web site, Soley says.

To view UWPD’s 60-day incident log, visit http://www.uwpd.wisc.edu.