The research in this blog post was completed as a part of the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Public History Project. The three-year project aims to reckon with the university’s history of racism, exclusion, and discrimination. The project will culminate in an exhibit in the fall of 2022, an interactive online website, and curricular tools. By sharing research before the opening of the exhibit, we hope to begin conversations about the history of UW–Madison and discuss how we can all work toward building a more equitable campus community. The nature of historical research is that it will always be incomplete. It is impossible for us to know everything that happened in the past. Therefore, the research in this post is imperfect, as all history is. Our student researchers have completed the research below with all of the historical documents available to them at the time of publication. There will be alternative perspectives to those detailed below. We believe that the discussions that arise out of these differing perspectives are an integral part of the process of reckoning with our history. We welcome responses and discussion. Responses submitted by email will be posted in a response and discussion post within one week after the original publication date. Responses with vulgar or offensive language will not be posted.
Content Warning: The UW–Madison Public History Project blog aims to provide a space where our community can begin the difficult work of reckoning with our history. Some of the content and language in this blog post is offensive and disturbing. In this post, you will encounter descriptions of police violence. You will also encounter descriptions of police investigations including those into student sexuality, sexual assault, and rape.
A note on language: For most of its existence, the University of Wisconsin–Madison Police Department was referred to as the Department of Protection & Security. However, even when it was formally titled the Department of Protection & Security, it was also referred to as “campus police,” “University police,” and “the campus police department” in archival documents and newspaper articles. For clarity and consistency, we will be referring to the department as the University of Wisconsin–Madison Police Department (UWPD).
In the summer of 2020, following the widespread social upheaval in the United States reacting to the murder of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department, the UW–Madison Police Department (UWPD) released a statement explicitly condemning many historically oppressive practices of policing. The statement outlined the efforts of the department to combat racism and to create more equitable work practices. The UWPD clearly outlined the problems facing the department as they attempted to make meaningful changes, highlighting the long history of racist policing practices in the United States:
“The history of policing is stained by its complicity in perpetuating racial injustice. Over the course of its history, policing has played a direct role in the preservation of slavery, segregation, political corruption, xenophobia, the infringement of constitutional rights to free speech and peaceful assembly, and the destabilization of communities via mass incarceration.”[1]
As a project, we have been tasked with studying the history of racism, discrimination, and resistance on campus. The history of police on campus, as shown by the UW–Madison Police Department’s statement, is clearly an area that fits within the scope of our investigation. In order to truly bring to light the structures at the university that impede the development of a more equitable environment, we must grapple with the history of university police, and their relationship to students on campus.
The troubled relationship between students and police was not created in 2020 and it long predates this summer’s uprising. It is clear from the historical record that the underlying conflict between community and police stems from a fundamental fissure in understanding about the role of police. There is a sizable disconnect between the way the police see their role on campus and in society and the way students understand the police on campus and in society. This gap has never been properly addressed. Further, the woeful misremembering of the history of police on campus exacerbates this misunderstanding and contributes a flawed understanding of our university’s history as a whole. The Public History Project was created to address just that.
This research began in January 2020, but calls for research on the history of UWPD long predate the project. While researching history is rarely without challenges, we, the authors of this piece, struggled to uncover this history. The intimate nature of police records, the secrecy of police structures (and university structures), multiple departmental reorganizations, and poor archival records have left this research with unanswered questions. Yet, during our research the behavior of one individual high ranking UWPD officer seemed to illustrate the fragile nature of community trust between campus communities and police. For this reason, we have focused this article on Officer Joseph Hammersley and his 20-year career at UWPD. Despite research limitations, we wanted to outline the continually shifting role police have played on our campus over the last half century and to show how individual actions can create a culture of secrecy, mistrust, fear, and violence.
The first iteration of the University of Wisconsin–Madison Police Department (UWPD) was markedly different from what we now know as campus police. UWPD was created during the 1930s as a group of night watchmen who worked in the Buildings and Grounds Department. Their primary responsibility was to patrol campus looking for unlocked doors, vandalism, or other activity that threatened the physical infrastructure of the university. This role quickly expanded to include investigations, interrogations, and detailed incident reporting. During the early stages of their professional development, the department did not have law enforcement authority in Dane County or the State of Wisconsin. Their authority was instead granted by the Board of Regents to enforce university disciplinary structures.[2] If a case was found to violate city or state law, it was then transferred to the appropriate local or state authorities. The confusing and competing jurisdictions and responsibilities that governed the earliest years of UWPD helped create an environment of mismanagement, disorder, poor police practice, and distrust between police and the UW community.
By the 1940s, despite UWPD having only been operational for less than ten years, there were multiple serious complaints from students and Madison community members. By the 1950s, the department was fully reorganized in response to the complaints and public outcry that had continued to plague university officials. In the span of less than 15 years, how did the relationship between police and community sour? The increasingly uneasy relationship between UWPD and the UW–Madison campus community can be largely attributed to a sole perpetrator. In op-eds, student testimonies, and newspaper articles, one officer in particular was singled out as a malevolent force in the department — Officer Joseph Hammersley. Today, Hammersley’s history has largely been rewritten by UWPD. He is often embraced as UWPD’s first police chief, though he never held this title. In various UWPD annual reports, Hammersley’s actions are often celebrated, if not excused. Yet, the history Hammersley’s behavior is instructive about the pattern of mistrust between the UW–Madison community and UWPD.
Hammersley’s archival record paints a clear picture of a man who could not be controlled by the university and who regularly acted aggressively, belligerently, and with impunity. Starting at UW in 1938 as emergency laborer, Hammersley quickly moved into his role as a night watchman, then police officer, and finally became the department’s sole investigator.[3] Concerns about his behavior first made the news in less than five years after he began his post. In 1943, an op-ed published in the Wisconsin State Journal alleged Officer Hammersley had “grown too big for his pants,” describing him as a “sort of combined Keystone cop, a Sherlock Holmes, and the gestapo.”[4] Officer Hammersley’s behavior again made the headlines in 1945 when the Madison Taxi Cab Drivers Association went on strike, refusing to drive cabs in Madison as long as Hammersley was employed by the university.[5] They accused Hammersley, then the only officer patrolling campus, of ticketing without cause, provoking drivers with violence to solicit more serious criminal charges, and using abusive language to “torment drivers,” including using anti-Semitic slurs.[6] In response, the Student Board launched the first investigation into UWPD. Based on the testimonies of 15 students and Madison community members, they passed a resolution that stated, “Hammersley’s conduct is inexcusable, completely inconsistent with University standards and constitutes a real detriment to the welfare of the student body.”[7] No action was taken to remove Hammersley from his position.
Between 1946 and 1950, concerns about Hammersley’s behavior continued to mount. It is important to note that while Hammersley was just one investigator, he made up a third of the Police Department at the university during the 1940s and early 1950s. His actions had an outsized impact upon the campus reputation of UWPD. Student complaints regarding the attitude and role of UWPD on campus reached fever pitch in 1950. In response, the Wisconsin Student Board asked for the establishment of a special investigating committee to look into the university police.[8] The Student Board recommended to the Regents that Hammersley be transferred. On the basis of 12 unsigned testimonies, they charged that he did not “live up to the qualification of an officer and is generally disliked by the student body.”[9] The Regents and the university administration took no action. Students again raised concerns in 1951 noting that he had “compiled anything but an admirable record” – citing his overzealous and legally questionable tactics.[10] The Regents once again took no action against Hammersley.
What had started out as individual complaints about Hammersley’s behavior spiraled into complaints about the department at large. When President Fred refused to act, the Student Board again launched their own investigation into the conduct of the whole of UWPD, and by May of 1951 passed a resolution urging a “re-evaluation of the philosophy of the department” and the creation of a committee to study the issue further.[11] The university complied, and in June of 1951 created the Advisory Committee on University Police Procedures and Policies to investigate the issue of policing on campus and provide future recommendations to the university.[12]
In the year that followed, more students began to voice their concerns. Following the Student Board resolution, the Daily Cardinal editorial board published a scathing op-ed expressing their view on current campus police practices. Criticizing the lack of action on the part of the university, they stated, “Throughout this period the strained attitude between the university police and the student and faculty community has continued. Rudeness, imprudence, police flaunting of the law, and the acute failure to provide any satisfactory student police policy has persisted.”[13] They continued: “Gruff, antagonistic, blunt and belligerent conduct has surrounded the police with a cloudy myth that cannot be refuted.”[14] They ended the article by listing incidents that had happened in the past years – throwing leaded billy clubs at students, disrupting class to arrest students, searching dormitories without warrants, threatening students with firearms, and improper “handling and methods of approach to student sex activity and homosexuality.”[15] The scathing article highlighted rampant abuses of power that produced serious tensions between the student body and UWPD.
Numerous students were brought in to testify privately before the Advisory Committee. The testimonies concerned a variety of issues, but all condemned a police department that was at best, not properly trained in police protocol, and at worst, flagrantly defying the laws they purported to uphold. In one case, a student’s car was illegally searched.[16] In two others, students were falsely accused of crimes – one a charge of homosexual activity, and another a charge of indecent exposure.[17] In another case, an officer implied that students were being illegally watched, saying “I’ve got my eye on you. It may take a while but I’ll get you.”[18] In yet another, an officer committing libel, telling a student’s roommates, landlord, and the Dane County District Attorney that they were a “troublemaker and a law breaker” when he had no criminal record.[19] Some students reported these incidents to Officer Hammersley, then UWPD’s lead investigator, but no action was taken. Others did not report for fear of reprisal. As the Student Board aptly summarized, “students have been reluctant to testify in writing against men who still represent the forces of law and order on campus.”[20] Others still did not report because they did not know what reporting processes existed within the university.[21]
Students were not the only members of the UW–Madison community to raise concerns. Committee notes from the Student Affairs Disciplinary Committee, composed primarily of UW faculty, revealed significant concerns about Officer Hammersley’s conduct and reliability. In one meeting when the committee questioned Hammersley on facts reported, he became “huffy,” and went on to describe a sexual act in graphic detail. They noted “His desire to introduce crude details and his manifest opposition to professors made the committee wonder about his reliability in the matter — one member thought that he was getting vicarious thrills from his job. Practically every member of the committee could tell of difficulties which he or some close friend had had with this officer.”[22] History Professor William B. Hesseltine wrote a letter to UW administrators expressing concern after campus police interrupted his class to make an arrest, stating: “There is no question whatsoever but that the actions of our policeman on this occasion were wholly unwarranted.”[23] A letter from Alice Fosse, a university librarian, stated that a UWPD officer approached her in an “insinuating and caustic manner such as I have never heard.”[24] Sociology Professor Howard Gill wrote in a memorandum that he was “shocked by some of the methods reported to me as currently in use in the enforcement of law on the campus.” Gill was quick to add that he was “equally dismayed at the hatred expressed toward the campus police by both students and faculty.”[25] The relationship between UWPD and the student body appeared to be reaching a breaking point, but the harm caused by UWPD was not limited to the university campus. The Madison community as a whole was also impacted by the actions of the campus police.
The most damning critique of UWPD came not from students or faculty, but from the Dane County District Attorney Richard Hardwell. In a private letter in February of 1952, Hardwell detailed two cases handled by UWPD that should have resulted in arrests, but due to poor police practice could not be pursued by the county. He stated:
The manner in which these cases were handled hardly measures up to what might even be remotely considered efficient police practice… If the university intends to operate its own police force on anything approaching a reasonably efficient basis, decisions on criminal matters should not be left to people devoid of legal or police experience as background.[26]
He continued:
The absurdity of waiting an entire week to report a case of grand larceny to this office would appear to be a thinly disguised attempt to pass the buck to this office on decisions that should be made at the police level at the University. In other words, if the University is desirous of maintaining its own police force, it should be operated as a police force.[27]
He concluded, “It is my urgent suggestion that somebody be placed in charge of the University police that has some idea of what law enforcement is all about. The ineptness of the present system is apparent from the manner in which the foregoing cases were handled.”[28]
Hammersley’s handling of cases involving male students suspected of participating in consensual, same-sex sexual acts, was particularly disturbing. Wisconsin State Law made consensual sex acts between same-sex individuals illegal. Largely referred to as sodomy laws, Wisconsin did not remove its sodomy ban from the books until 1983.[29] Hammersley played an outsized role in the Gay Purge of 1948. Hammersley was the officer who originally discovered two men in a vehicle together in May of 1948 and accused them of illegal sexual conduct.[30] He interrogated one of the men, a student, zealously, and without legal representation, forcing the student to incriminate others in his social group. He then pursued the case with the District Attorney, and led the raid on the men’s home searching for “obscene literature and other evidence indicating unnatural sex activity.”[31] Over the entirety of his time at UW–Madison he continued to pursue morals cases, setting up sting operations in university bathrooms, and accusing people of homosexual behavior with little to no evidence.[32] Hammersley’s aggressive pursual of “morals cases” directly contributed to a creating a moral panic around the sexual activity of students that would last for at least another 15 years.[33]
While the majority of cases being handled by UWPD were break-ins, thefts, vandalism, and parking violations, the department occasionally handled serious criminal offenses like sexual assault or rape. These cases, though indicative of attitudes and police practice of the period, are nonetheless alarming. As UWPD’s only investigator, Hammersley was solely responsible for investigating these offenses. In various police reports, it is clear that Hammersley refused to take women’s reports seriously. He repeatedly accused victims of lying and fabricating their stories. He forced women to undergo rigorous interrogations and lie detector tests and to provide evidence to him, only to dismiss findings that did not support his view of the cases. He also frequently found witnesses to testify against the women such as university doctors, landlords, and male acquaintances of victims (including ex-boyfriends), whom he treated as more credible. The majority of the assault and rape cases handled by Hammersley were dismissed by the District Attorney with no charges filed.[34] Hammersley was successful, however, in policing women’s sexuality in other ways. In various police reports, women who are caught kissing or doing other consensual sex acts with men were quickly reported to campus authorities. Between the end of World War II and the early 1960s, there were 49 conduct cases against female students who were charged with illicit sexual activity.[35] Often, they were forced to seek mental health treatment, or worse, were expelled from the university.[36]
Following the publications of the Advisory Committee’s report, in April of 1952, at the direction of President E.B. Fred, the police department began a formal reorganization. In a public statement, Fred emphasized that the reorganization was not in response to police misconduct, even though that is what began the committee investigation.[37] He repeatedly deemphasized the committee’s role, and their investigation, favoring an approach that ignored the student action that compelled this change. It is clear from committee meeting notes and letters that the university hoped that a reorganization would solve the problems plaguing UWPD. UWPD was moved from the Buildings and Grounds department, and now reported to the Vice President of Business and Finance, bringing the department into the administrative chain of command. The department moved to hire a full-time director, one trained in modern police practices, who became the Director of Protection & Security (the defacto Chief of Police). In the meantime, Frederick B. Wilcox was assigned as temporary Director. Hammersley was immediately given a suspension with pay pending a full reorganization.[38] However, rather than firing Hammersley, the university established a new position for him – Investigator – that reported directly to the Director of Protection & Security and had no authority over any other officers in the department.[39] He was “assigned specifically to investigatory work” and had no supervisory capacity.[40] It appears that while the administrators were seemingly compelled to keep Hammersley at the university, they no longer wanted him patrolling campus, interacting with students, or training new officers.
In October of 1952, the Director search was completed and UW hired Albert Hamann to direct UWPD. Before his departure, Wilcox wrote a letter about Hammersley and his behavior to the VP of Business and Finance stating that he wanted it to become part of the “written record.” He detailed Hammersley’s attempts to sabotage his fellow officers, as well as Wilcox. In one case Wilcox said, “It resulted in the firing of a man who was lured into a bad situation through a faked telephone call – more of the Hammersley method.”[41] He ended the letter “I must assume that Hammersley is again trying to run things as he wishes. His attentions are resented by the officers, and someone is going to get hurt.”[42] The university took no action.
After Hamann began as Director, he quickly moved to professionalize the police department and to repair trust between community and the department. Officers were required to wear uniforms while on the job. These uniforms were designed to be distinct from other local agencies so as to minimize the chance of confusion.[43] Officers were encouraged, but not required, to attend all local law enforcement training performed by Dane County Sheriff’s department, the Madison Police Department, and federal agencies. The department’s cars were painted to be more conspicuous.[44] The department was given an official headquarters at 324 N. Charter St. in what used to be student housing.[45] Outdated police practices such as entrapment, fear filled interrogation, forceful or physical arrests of minors, “roughing up” offenders, improper search and seizure, unreasonable overzealous and harassing enforcement were all forbidden (though officers were rarely fired for these offenses when they did occur).[46]
Beyond Hammersley’s individual behaviors, it is clear from the Special Advisory Committee on Police Policies and Procedures that there was a fundamental confusion concerning the role of police on campus. A detailed memorandum compiled by Sociology Professor Howard Gill at the request of the committee wrestles with the complexity and the unique challenges of law enforcement on campus. Gill begins by arguing that universities, operating “in loco parentis” or as parental figures for students, had “a responsibility to protect the youth in its charge from the severe consequences of their immaturity as far as possible and to develop and educate them rather than merely punish them… In other words, the university cannot regard its police functions in just the same way that a community does toward ordinary mature citizens.”[47] Even as he explained the possible role of police on campus, he struggled to rationalize it, often doing the exact opposite, and making a strong argument for why police should not be on campus. For example, he stated that “it is a concept well established in society in general that interference or even participation of the police in school, the church, or the home is repugnant to American standards and to be avoided as far as possible.” He went on to note that juvenile cases are handled by private or state social service agencies and “not to punishment as criminals.” He continued, “In other words, every other means of dealing with erring youth but be exhausted before authoritarian police methods are tried.”[48]
Despite the student and community involvement in numerous conversations regarding the role of police on campus, the reorganization of UWPD implemented by university administrators seemed to largely ignore or bypass the concrete suggestions put forward for change. The reorganization did not meet most of the main suggestions laid forth by the Student Board and Professor Gill. They had both argued that UWPD should report to someone with experience in “human relations and youth counseling,” but the police force was reorganized to report not to the Dean of Students, who had clear training in these areas, but to the VP of Business and Finance. They also argued that the department needed a philosophical reevaluation that prioritized education and prevention rather than punitive, criminal punishment. Yet, with more trained officers, more staff, and more financial resources, UWPD reported apprehending and ticketing more people after the reorganization than before. Further, complaints against Officer Hammersley, now the department’s “investigator,” continued to pour in. The Student Board had also urged for a continuous committee, made up of students and faculty, that would consult on police issues. The university instead created a committee with no student members and no obligation to consult with students that worked to protect UWPD from “unjust criticism.”[49]
Even after the complete reorganization of UWPD, Hammersley’s behavior continued to be a problem for the university. In 1953, immediately following the reorganization, Genevieve Dohse, UWPD’s first deputized female officer, lodged a formal complaint with the Governor of Wisconsin alleging misconduct by Hammersley and others within UWPD. She resigned from her post, citing “intolerable” behavior in the department.[50] An Attorney General’s investigation found there was not enough evidence to formally charge Hammersley. Instead, then-Governor Kohler urged the UW Regents to create rules and regulations to “avoid complaints of the type that had been made.”[51]
Moreover, Hammersley’s behavior outside of his official role in UWPD was a constant source of bad press for the university. In these articles, Hammersley is never without his official UW title and is, by association, clearly linked to the university. Both of Hammersley’s divorces, first in 1944, and again in 1958, made front page news in the Wisconsin State Journal. His first divorce in 1944 from then-wife Violet described his violent, drunken rages, and alleged that he had threatened her life and their two daughters including “describing how he would dispose of the bodies.”[52] His 1958 divorce trial gained even more sensational press attention. Lasting eight days, it included testimony from his fellow officers of violent outbursts, abuse, and infidelity. In 1959, Hammersley was charged with drunk and disorderly conduct after Madison police arrived to find him staggering and yelling obscene remarks. The charges were later dropped due to lack of evidence and Hammersley was again reinstated to UWPD.[53] A few months later, in September of 1959, Officer Joseph Hammersley died when his vehicle rolled over into a creek.[54]
Hammersley’s 20-year record of student complaints and legal violations is vast, and well documented. In fact, it is Hammersley’s behavior, and the behavior of the officers he was tasked with leading, that clearly began the student outcry about police on campus. If the reports, letters, and newspaper articles do not focus on Hammersley exclusively, they point to officers close with Hammersley, and those trained by him. Yet, he was never punished, reprimanded, or fired from the university. We were unable to locate any letters that indicate that university administrators or regents ever considered seriously reprimanding Hammersley, let alone dismissing him.
Maybe more concerningly, even after Hammersley had left UWPD, his presence lingered. As one of the longest-serving members of the force, Hammersley was responsible for training dozens of UWPD officers. His aggressive approach, particularly towards “morals cases,” can be traced through the department years after his departure. One of the officers who trained directly under Hammersley, Detective Peter Rordam, led the 1962 gay purge.[55] His primary tactics — sting operations in university bathrooms — came directly from Hammersley. His rigorous and often overzealous interview tactics mirror those of Hammersley, including physical aggression and threats. And towards the end of the purge, when Rordam was challenged by university faculty and officials about the effectiveness of these tactics, Rordam followed Hammersley’s lead. He confronted university doctors and administrators claiming that these tactics were necessary.[56]
It would be easy to simply chalk up Officer Hammersley’s behavior to that of the typical policeman during his time. It would also be easy to do that for subsequent officers. To be sure, the policing of the 1950s and 1960s was often categorized by Hammersley-esque behavior — brutish, aggressive, unprofessional, and often, questionably legal. As a direct result of this type of categorization, police departments across the country have spent decades trying to repair their reputations through increased professionalization. In this way, UWPD’s history is directly in line with the histories of many police departments. After several repeated high-profile incidents, UWPD has continually moved towards further professionalization — more funding, more training, more institutionalization, more credibility, and hopefully, more trust. Yet, in this case, further professionalization did not fix the problems plaguing UWPD. The university, when faced with mounting calls for Hammersley to be removed (and men like Hammersley to be removed), failed to take action. What resulted was an incalculable loss of trust between police and community that spanned decades and affected untold numbers of students, faculty, and community members.
It would also be easy to chalk up all distrust of UWPD to Officer Hammersley’s behavior, to excuse his actions and their consequences as the act of one “bad apple.” Yet, decades after Hammersley left UWPD, and decades after the officers he trained left UWPD, the distrust between community and police has remained. In the 1960s, student activists clashed with UWPD both in the Dow Protests and the 1969 Black Student Strike. Students noted, then and in oral history interviews since, that these violent events hardened relationships between students and the police, even when relative peace returned to campus in the 1970s.[57] In the 1980s, UWPD faced criticism for overaggressive tactics during a TAA Strike, and internally, faced lawsuits from UWPD officers alleging racial discrimination and sexual harassment.[58]
Controversies over the actions of UWPD continued into the 1990s and early 2000s, and continue to the present day. In 2016, UWPD arrested King Shabazz, also known as Denzel McDonald, for allegedly spraying anti-racist graffiti around campus. The arrest and subsequent protests began the #TheRealUW campaign in which students of color shared their experiences dealing with racism on campus. Most recently, students have criticized UWPD for their handling of the protests following the murder of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis Police Department. UWPD provided “mutual aid” to the Madison Police Department at these protests, helping to deploy pepper spray (oleoresin capsicum), as well as smoke grenades and other crowd control methods, at the cost of $6,500.[59]
In an effort to repair community trust, UWPD announced their Racial Equity Initiative in June of 2020. The stated goal is to ensure that the department demonstrates its commitment to racial justice in policing in ways that are meaningful to members of the community, particularly those from marginalized groups. The plan will solicit and collect feedback; review departmental policies and practices through a workgroup of external and internal stakeholders; share results of this review with the public; and install a long-term accountability mechanism that is transparent and easily accessible to the public. Despite these actions, distrust remains, and in fact, appears to have intensified. In recent months, student activists from the BIPOC Coalition and the TAA have advocated for defunding UWPD, holding a “Cops Off Campus” rally in early October of 2020. In September, the Associated Students of Madison voted “no confidence” in UWPD to show their “lack of trust” and their frustration with UWPD’s policies.[60] Chief Kristen Roman released a statement in which she stated she was “disappointed” in the vote.
While UWPD has recognized the complicity of policing in perpetuating racial injustice, they, like most police departments across the country, have not recognized their specific histories of mistrust and violence. UWPD has stated they are committed to creating a more equitable police force on campus, yet, the legacy of Hammersley still lingers as a pointed reminder of the decades of mistrust between UWPD and the UW–Madison campus community that have gone unrecognized. Hammersley’s history has largely been rewritten by UWPD. He is embraced as UWPD’s first police chief. In various UWPD annual reports, Hammersley’s actions are often celebrated, if not excused. For example, in the 1991 Annual Report, he is described as “something of an institution on campus” and remembered for his “oftentimes zealous efforts to uphold moral standards among students.”[61] This failure to address uncomfortable histories, to own up to misdeeds of the past, and to repair the trust that was broken continues to haunt our departments and units across campus. How we address our historical wrongs is not only indicative of our character but of our commitment to our values and principles.
The following statement was provided by the UW–Madison Police Department:
The UW–Madison Police Department would like to thank the Public History Project, its researchers, and its writers for their work on this piece. We denounce the actions of Joe Hammersley, and are deeply dismayed by the pain he inflicted on so many he was sworn to serve and whatever legacy of mistrust he sowed within our campus community. This blight does not represent today’s UWPD — your UWPD — in spirt, policy or practice.
We believe it’s important to acknowledge and learn from our history. This chapter serves as another reminder of the many significant strides we have made and more importantly, the work still to be done in ensuring a more just future for our campus. Guided by our core values, every member of our department cares deeply about the community we serve and, collectively, we are committed to continuing to do our part in cultivating a campus environment in which all students, faculty, and staff are safe.
In that spirit, last summer UWPD launched our Racial Equity Initiative — a comprehensive action plan for identifying, adopting, and continually assessing needed changes within the department in the short-and-long-term. A core part of this plan, which is ongoing, is to ensure our department demonstrates its commitment to racial justice in policing in ways that are measurable and meaningful to members of our community, particularly those from marginalized groups. It is our hope this important project furthers fair and just policing practices and contributes positively to our shared desire for lasting reconciliation.
Individuals are not often taught to think of themselves as sources of historical knowledge, but they are. Individuals hold intimate knowledge of their campus, their neighborhoods, and their communities. That is why we want to hear from you. We believe that this project will be the most successful when it deeply engages all of those in our community. If you have a story to share, an event you think should be researched, or a person you think has been overlooked, please contact us. publichistoryproject@wisc.edu
[1] The University of Wisconsin–Madison Police Department, “A Message from UWPD,” 2020.
[2] In letters, individuals given parking tickets or moving violations often reference this fact. They often state that they are refusing to pay the fine because the University has no state authority and therefor the unpaid violations will not affect their driving record. See Letter from E.A. Bulkley to University of Wisconsin–Madison re: parking ticket, September 25 1958, VP of Business and Finance Records, General Correspondence Files, Ce-Coll, 1958–1959, Series 24/1/1, Box 418, “Department of Protection and Security 1958–1959” Folder, University of Wisconsin–Madison Archive, Madison, Wisconsin (henceforth referred to as UW Archives).
[3] Conduct for Police Officers – Building and Grounds Department, August 1, 1951, Dean of Men’s Records – Kenneth Little, Series 19/2/3/4, Box 28 “Campus Police Problems” Folder, UW Archives.
[4] “File This Under Civic Improvements,” Wisconsin State Journal, March 31 1943.
[5] “Cab Strike Called Off,” Wisconsin State Journal, August 15 1945.
[6] “Cabbies Insist on Suspension of Hammersley,” Wisconsin State Journal, September 13, 1945.
[7] Student Board Hammersley Report, March 4 1946, Hammersley Papers, Locked Cabinet Drawer 3, Item 2, UW Archives.
[8] Letter from George Wheeler, President of Wisconsin Student Association, to President E.B. Fred, April 3, 1950, 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.
[9] “Campus Cop Joe Hammersley Ends Twelve Years on Campus,” Daily Cardinal, September 19, 1950, UW Archives.
[10] 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.
[11] Letter from John Seale, President of Student Board, to President E.B. Fred, May 10, 1951, 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.
[12] Progress Report: Advisory Committee on University Police, March 4, 1952, Dean of Men’s Records – Kenneth Little, Series 19/2/3/4, Box 28 “Campus Police Problems” Folder, UW Archives.
[13] 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.
[14] Ibid.
[15] Ibid.
[16] 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.
[17] Ibid.
[18] Testimony of Elliot Riggs on Police Incident, May 16, 1952, Dean of Men’s Records – Kenneth Little, Series 19/2/3/4, Box 28 “Campus Police Problems” Folder, UW Archives.
[19] Rough Draft of Statements by Students before Special Advisory Committee on Police Policies and Procedures, March 19, 1952.
[20] Student Board Hammersley Report, March 4 1946, Hammersley Papers, Locked Cabinet Drawer 3, Item 2, UW Archives.
[21] Ibid.
[22] Committee Notes on the Mary Catherine Weaver and Robert Clark Case, ca. 1942–1944, Student Affairs Discipline Records, Series 19/5/1, Box 4, “Weaver & Clark” folder, UW Archives.
[23] Letter from A.W. Peterson to Professor William B. Hesseltine, July 13, 1950, 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.
[24] Various Letters about UWPD, 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.
[25] Memorandum to the Committee Re: Proposed Statement on University Police, May 8, 1950, Dean of Men’s Records – Kenneth Little, Series 19/2/3/4, Box 28 “Campus Police Problems” Folder, UW Archives.
[26] Letter from Richard Hardwell 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.
[27] Ibid.
[28] Ibid.
[29] Joyce Murdoch, “Laws Against Sodomy Survive in 24 States,” The Washington Post, April 11, 1993.
[30] Joe Linzmeier, “Beneath Madison’s Veneer: 1948: Red-baiting and Gay-bashing,” May 1984, Out! Newspaper, Vol. 2, No. 7.
[31] “Raid Reveals Obscene Reading; Two Men Arrested on Morals Counts,” June 9, 1948, Wisconsin State Journal.
[32] Richard Wagner. We’ve Been Here All Along: Wisconsin’s Early Gay History. [Madison, Wisconsin]: Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2019. P. 231.
[33] Susan Riseling, Staff, et. al, University of Wisconsin–Madison Department of Protection & Security 1991 Annual Report, Physical Plant, Protection & Security Subject Files 17/1/1 Box No. 1, UW Archives.
[34] It is important to note that many cases of sexual assault and rape are reduced to this type of investigation still. Investigations which fail to take victims seriously, which take no forensic exam of the victim or fail to analyze these exams, and which use police methods like lie detector tests which are inaccurate.
[35] Wagner, R. Richard. We’ve Been Here All Along: Wisconsin’s Early Gay History. Madison, Wisconsin: Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2019. Page 246.
[36] For individual female cases, see Student Affairs Discipline Records, Series 19/5/1, Box 4, UW–Madison Archives.
[37] Outline of Proposed Reorganization of Police, May 8, 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.
[38] Outline of Proposed Reorganization of Police, May 8, 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.
[39] Letter from A.W. Peterson to President E.B. Fred, April 2, 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.
[40] Ibid.
[41] Letter from Frederick B. Wilcox to A.W. Peterson re: Hammersley, November 12, 1952, VP of Business and Finance Records, General Correspondence Files, Ce-Coll, 1952–1953, Series 24/1/1, Box 307, “Department of Protection and Security 1952–1953” Folder, UW Archives.
[42] Ibid.
[43] Letter from Albert Hamann to A.W. Peterson re: police practice, December 7, 1953, VP of Business and Finance Records, General Correspondence Files, Ce-Coll, 1953–1954, Series 24/1/1, Box 325, “Department of Protection and Security 1953–1954” Folder, UW Archives.
[44] Letter from Albert Hamann to A.W. Peterson, April 17, 1953, VP of Business and Finance Records, General Correspondence Files, Ce-Coll, 1952–1953, Series 24/1/1, Box 307, “Department of Protection and Security 1952–1953” Folder, UW Archives.
[45] Letter from Charles Olson to A.W. Peterson about 324 N. Charter St, May 21, 1953, VP of Business and Finance Records, General Correspondence Files, Ce-Coll, 1952–1953, Series 24/1/1, Box 307, “Department of Protection and Security 1952–1953” Folder, UW Archives.
[46] Letter from A.W. Peterson to the Board of Regents on Department of Protection & Security Rules and Regulations, May 1, 1953, VP of Business and Finance Records, General Correspondence Files, Ce-Coll, 1952–1953, Series 24/1/1, Box 307, “Department of Protection and Security 1952–1953” Folder, UW Archives.
[47] Memorandum to the Committee Re: Proposed Statement on University Police, May 8, 1950, Dean of Men’s Records – Kenneth Little, Series 19/2/3/4, Box 28 “Campus Police Problems” Folder, UW Archives.
[48] Ibid.
[49] Letter from Albert Hamann to A.W. Peterson re: committee formation, February 17, 1954, VP of Business and Finance Records, General Correspondence Files, Ce-Coll, 1953–1954, Series 24/1/1, Box 325, “Department of Protection and Security 1953–1954” Folder, UW Archives.
[50] “Kohler promises to investigate charges against U.W. Police,” Wisconsin State Journal, January 10, 1953, accessed at https://newspaperarchive.com/madison-wisconsin-state-journal-jan-10-1953-p-1/
[51] “U.W. Police Cleared, But New Rules Set,” Wisconsin State Journal, May 9, 1953, accessed at https://newspaperarchive.com/madison-wisconsin-state-journal-may-09-1953-p-1/
[52] “Officer Hammersley Siued For Divorce,” Wisconsin State Journal, September 21, 1944, accessed at https://newspaperarchive.com/madison-wisconsin-state-journal-sep-21-1944-p-1/
[53] “Hammersley is Cleared of Drunk, Disorderly Charges,” Capitol Times, July 9, 1959, Madison, Wisconsin, accessed at UW Archives.
[54] “Crash Kills Hammersley, U Policeman,” Capitol Times, September 14, 1959, Madison, Wisconsin, accessed at UW Archives.
[55] R. Richard Wagner, We’ve Been Here All Along: Wisconsin’s Early Gay History. (Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society Press, 2019), 288.
[56] Minutes of the Committee on Student Conduct and Appeals, April 17, 1962.
[57] “13 Demands: The 1969 Black Student Strike,” UW News, 2019.
[58] “UW Teaching-Aide strikers intensify picketing,” Wisconsin State Journal, April 12, 1980; “Madison policemen sue fellow officers,” Kenosha News, June 15, 1983, 8, accessed at https://www.newspapers.com/.
[59] Mary Magnuson, “Records reveal UWPD spent over $6,000 on pepper spray, smoke grenades during George Floyd BLM protests,” October 16, 2020, Badger Herald.
[60] Savannah Kind, “ASM votes ‘no confidence’ in UWPD, votes to support UW BIPOC Coalition,” September 29, 2020, Badger Herald.
[61] Susan Riseling, Staff, et. al, University of Wisconsin–Madison Department of Protection & Security 1991 Annual Report, Physical Plant, Protection & Security Subject Files 17/1/1 Box No. 1, UW Archives.