STARS HOPE TO SHINE AT TWILIGHT COMICS
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University of Wisconsin-Madison
Poor weather impairs the UW track teams’ training, but not their morale SPORTS
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Weekend, May 2-4, 2008
Slain student’s call mishandled by 911 operator By Abby Sears THE DAILY CARDINAL
ISABEL ALVAREZ/CARDINAL FILE PHOTO
MPD Central District Capt. Mary Schauf and Lt. Joe Balles warn that the large crowds Mifflin Street Block Party generates create a crime-conducive atmosphere where strangers can easily access residents’ homes.
Police gear up for Mifflin block party Large crowds offer ideal setting for criminal behavior By Alex Morrell THE DAILY CARDINAL
At its best, Madison’s annual Mifflin Street Block Party has been a peaceful day of revelry, music, celebration and relaxation the weekend before UW-Madison final exams. A chance for students and other residents to blow off steam, socialize and soak up a nearly 40-year-old tradition—along with a few beers. At its worst, the block party has been a hellish, drunken debacle breeding riots, sexual assaults, fights and dangerous, alcohol-related accidents. A crowd of thousands bathed in booze that becomes a safety nightmare for police. “There’s nothing more difficult for the police to try to provide security and safety for than an unsponsored,
ill-planned and poorly coordinated event that revolves simply around drinking alcohol that 10 to 15,000 people—depending on the weather—will show up to,” Madison Police Department Lt. Joe Balles, who helps plan the police presence and strategy for the Mifflin party, said. Ald. Mike Verveer, District 4, is one of the few vocal defenders of Mifflin, but he said he recognizes the potential dangers the party creates. “I was a witness to every painful minute of the 1996 riot at this event. So I know that this has the potential for getting out of hand, but I also know that we have more police now than ever at this event,” Verveer said. More cops, stricter standards To mitigate the chances of another wide-scale riot and to control the large crowd, MPD has increased their presence—but this increased presence has also chaperoned a stricter enforcement of the law. “What we’re definitely doing is setting a stronger tone. We’re estab-
lishing a safer tone earlier in the day,” Balles said, adding with the increased police presence, arrests have multiplied, increasing from 261 in 2006 to 489 in 2007. Partiers can be given citations for underage drinking, selling alcohol to minors, noise violations or public urination, but, according to Verveer, the most common citation is for possessing an open alcoholic beverage in public. Tom Wangard, a UW-Madison junior and a Mifflin Street-area resident who organized a petition to relax enforcement of noise violations at the party, believes the strict ordinance enforcements are a misuse of police power and efforts. “The police should be focused on preventing theft and violent crime from happening rather than being concerned about whether you set foot on the sidewalk with a can of beer,” Wangard said. However, Balles believes the dan-
Brittany Zimmermann, the UW-Madison junior killed in her apartment last month, called 911 before she died, officials confirmed Thursday. Dane County 911 Center Director Joe Norwick said at a news conference Thursday Zimmermann made the call from her cell phone but was disconnected after a dispatcher did not hear anything and mistook Zimmermann’s call for a “hang up.” Madison Police Chief Noble Wray said police were not notified of the call but should have been summoned to Zimmermann’s residence by the dispatch center. “It would be accurate to state that there is evidence contained in the call, which should have resulted in a Madison police officer being dispatched,” Wray said at a news conference. According to Wray, dispatching an officer would have been consistent with both MPD policy and national 911 standards. Both police and Norwick
said audio, content and time of Zimmermann’s call will not be released at this time to avoid compromising the ongoing homicide investigation. After receiving Zimmermann’s call, Norwick said the dispatcher answered a second call, which was determined to be an actual hang up. The dispatcher then called the second number back, confirmed it was an accidental call and proceeded to answer a third 911 call regarding an unwanted person in a residence. According to Norwick, Dane County 911 Center policy instructs dispatchers to call back hang-up calls, from both landline and cellphone calls, to verify there is no emergency. If a hang-up call is made from a landline, the 911 Center automatically dispatches police to the residence to determine if an emergency occurred. “The technology of landline telephones allows [us] to get a reading for the address. That’s not so in cell-phone technology 911 page 3
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UW officials implement emergency texting
By Melanie Teachout THE DAILY CARDINAL
Registration for the campus-wide safety alert text messaging system WiscAlert-Text began Thursday and will be available to all students through the My UW server. Events like the shootings at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University and the homicide of UW-Madison junior Brittany Zimmermann prompted university officials to create the new method of communicating to students across campus. The new form of communication at UW-Madison will be used to alert students in cases of emergency when using text messaging proves to be more efficient than
other alert systems. “The police department would evaluate the situation and determine whether we need to make the community aware of the situation through text, e-mail, voicemail, reverse 911, the WiscAlert website or WiscAlert on Facebook,” Lt. Michael Newton of the University of Wisconsin Police Department said. The text message system will not take the place of these other alert forms but rather work with them to improve the flow of communication between the law and students, staff and faculty. “All of the systems work in conjunction with one another. Different situations bring up different modes of communication,” Newton said. Several hundred students have already registered and the Wisconsin Police Department strongly encourages students, faculty and staff of
UW-Madison to register for this alert system. WiscAlerts-Text does not charge registered users, but cell-phone companies will apply normal text charges. According to Newton, an extraordinarily high number of registered users could cause an initial delay in the system. “If all 90,000 eligible people register for this system, it will take a while to send the messages through the system,” Newton said. Students can register their cell phone numbers through the WiscAlerts-Text portal on their My UW accounts. “One of the main things we are looking forward to is SOAR and getting incoming freshmen to sign up,” UW spokesperson John Lucas said. The University of Wisconsin Police Department hopes the majority of students will register by the fall 2008 semester.
LORENZO ZEMELLA/THE DAILY CARDINAL
Dane County 911 Center Director Joe Norwick said police are dispatched to a hang-up call only if the call came from a landline.
ASM Student Council elects new leaders, loses prominent SSFC chair By Erin Banco THE DAILY CARDINAL
The Associated Students of Madison voted on leadership positions and received the resignation of one committee chair at a meeting Thursday. Student members spent a considerable amount of time listening to the vice chair nominees—Hannah Karns, chair of the Legislative Affairs committee, and Student Services Finance Committee Chair Alex Gallagher, attest to their strengths as leaders. Karns and Gallagher discussed time
commitments, academic flexibility and past experience as ASM members. Each nominee discussed his or her plans if elected vice chair. Karns expressed the importance of communication, while Gallagher said ASM should “think big” and promote outreach to UW-Madison’s large campus. The board voted to elect Karns as the vice chair of ASM for the 2008-’09 academic school year and to postpone the election for chair position. Before the meeting’s close, asm page 3
“…the great state University of Wisconsin should ever encourage that continual and fearless sifting and winnowing by which alone the truth can be found.”