Learning Objectives:
Students will be able to understand how UWPD operated before there was formal oversight and the contradictions that arose from that lack of oversight from 1938 to 1973.
Students will be able to understand how UWPD Chief, Joseph Hammersley, was at the center of many UWPD controversies.
Podcast Questions:
Watkins mentioned that as the campus population significantly expanded in the post-WWII era, UW administrators claimed they needed more security. Why would the university think this?
Why do you think Joseph Hammersley was so despised?
Why was there so little oversight of campus policing in the post-WWII years?
Balto mentions that there was a “disconnect” between the needs of the students and the administration. How does Hammersley highlight that disconnect?
Balto and Watkins mentioned that while Hammersley was indeed bad, he was not atypical for police at the time. What does this insight reveal about the nature of policing and campus policing more broadly during this time and why?
What challenges would historians encounter in trying to determine when UWPD became official? How does access to archives and sources affect what history is and is not told?
Primary Sources:
Letter from Richard Bardwell to Frederick B. Wilcox: Read Letter Here
Daily Cardinal Article “Brash, Outdated Police Practices Need Action, Now:” Read Article Here
Rough Draft of Statements by Students before Special Advisory Committee on Police Policies and Procedures: Read Report Here
Recommended Readings:
Public History Project Blog “The Hammersley Method: The History of Mistrust between the UW–Madison Community and the UW–Madison Police Department.” Read Blog Post Here
Grace Watkins (2020) ‘Cops Are Cops’: American Campus Police and the Global Carceral Apparatus. Comparative American Studies an International Journal, 17:3-4, 242-256. Read Article Here
Balto, Simon Ezra. “Occupied territory”: police repression and black resistance in postwar Milwaukee, 1950–1968.” The Journal of African American History 98, no. 2 (2013): 229-252. Read Article Here
Other Resources:
Police and Policing at UW–Madison Teaching Guide: View Teaching Guide Here
Primary Source Citations:
Letter from Richard Bardwell to Frederick B. Wilcox, February 6, 1952, Dean of Men’s Records – Kenneth Little, Series 19/2/3/4, Box 28 “Campus Police Problems” Folder, UW Archives.
Newspaper Clipping, “Brash, Outdated Police Practices Need Action, Now,” Daily Cardinal, May 23, 1951, Dean of Men’s Records – Kenneth Little, Series 19/2/3/4, Box 28 “Campus Police Problems” Folder, UW Archives.
Rough Draft of Statements by Students before Special Advisory Committee on Police Policies and Procedures, March 19, 1952, VP of Business and Finance Records, General Correspondence Files, Ce-Coll, 1951–1952, Series 24/1/1, Box 289, “Buildings and Grounds University Police” Folder, UW Archives.