Learning Objectives:
Students will be able to understand how UWPD became a “real” police department.
Students will be able to understand how the Dow protests and their aftermath are central to the history of UWPD.
Students will be able to understand how the University and University Police leveraged the Dow protests and protests more generally to increase campus police powers.
Podcast Questions:
How did UWPD become real cops? What were some of the processes involved in establishing UWPD as formal officers?
Why were campus protests typically correlated with the expansion/justification for university police and issues concerning UWPD conduct?
By 1973, how distinguishable are university police officers from regular police officers? How about by 1997? Explain your reasoning.
What do you think John Sloan means by the quote below and why is this integral to the claim that university police are different than regular police?
So what we do in basic training is we teach cops to be afraid because the number one, most important thing is you come home from your shift. So we are going to train you to be suspicious of certain kinds of people or certain situations or, you know, and, that gets drilled into them. You must go home at the end of your shift, you know, and so if that’s the message that the officers from the University of Wisconsin at Madison Police Department have here, not in the back of their heads, but in the front of their heads coming out of the academy.
Why is the backdrop of the 1960s an important part of contextualizing the expansion of UWPD and campus policing more broadly?
When discussing ASM’s alarm over UWPD officers carrying AR-15 semi-automictic rifles, Ryan highlights the ongoing concern from students about power differentiation and that they had no advisory power over UWPD. Why is this an important tension?
Primary Sources:
A Turning Point: Timeline of 1967 Protest: View Timeline Here
Protection and security services for the University of Wisconsin: a review, with recommendations for improvement. Read Report Here
- This is an abbreviated version of the recommendations.
Chapter 36.11 subsection (2): Police Authority: Read Source Here
- Please note the timeline and description were created by The Office of Strategic Communication, which is an important factor to interrogate and consider.
Badger Herald Article, “Police Rifle Causes Campus Commotion:” Read Article Here
Recommended Readings:
Yalile Suriel, Grace Watkins, Jude Paul Matias Dizon, John J. Sloan III, “Introduction: A fresh perspective on campus policing in America,” in Cops on Campus: Rethinking Safety and Confronting Police Violence, ed. Yalile Suriel, Grace Watkins, Jude Paul Matias Dizon, John J Sloan III (Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2024), ix-xxviii. Read Book Here
Sloan, John J. “Why universities turn to the police to end student protests − and why that can spiral out of control.” The Conversation, May 1, 2024. https://theconversation.com/why-universities-turn-to-the-police-to-end-student-protests-and-why-that-can-spiral-out-of-control-229158
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
Other Resources:
Police and Policing at UW–Madison Teaching Guide: View Teaching Guide Here
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
Primary Source Citations
A Turning Point: Timeline of 1967 Protest. https://1967.wisc.edu/timeline/index.html
Goldstein, Herman. Protection and security services for the University of Wisconsin: a review, with recommendations for improvement. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin, 1968.
Wisconsin Statutes, Chapter 36: University of Wisconsin System. Chapter 36.11 Powers and duties of the Board of Regents, subsection (2): Police Authority. https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/1997/statutes/statutes/36.pdf
Newspaper Clipping, Tom Giffey, “Police Rifle Causes Campus Commotion,” Badger Herald, April 1, 1997. Department of Protection & Security Subject Files. University of Wisconsin-Madison Archives, Madison, Wisconsin.