Studying Time: 8 minutes
This story was produced in partnership with the College of Wisconsin-Madison’s Investigative Journalism class taught within the College of Journalism and Mass Communication.
Editor’s notice: A UW-Madison police officer is beneath investigation after a pupil journalist introduced allegations the officer engaged in unsolicited textual content communications with college students and provided to assist college students keep away from underage consuming tickets.
Wisconsin Watch is just not naming the officer as a result of he hasn’t been formally disciplined or accused of a criminal offense. The allegations within the following story are based mostly on interviews with 11 college students who all spoke on the situation of anonymity, partly for worry of retaliation, but in addition so as to talk about actions, comparable to underage consuming and possessing faux IDs, that would lead to authorized or disciplinary penalties.
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Eventually October’s bustling homecoming soccer recreation at Camp Randall, a College of Wisconsin-Madison police officer approached a sophomore who acknowledged him from a current security presentation he had given at her sorority.
The officer struck up a dialog with the sophomore and her pals, finally asking Kate — whose identify is a pseudonym — for her cellphone quantity.
“I don’t know why he wanted my quantity within the first place,” Kate stated. “Each time he would stroll by us, he’d cease and speak to us — you understand how they patrol the bleachers? — he was simply at all times hanging out round us there.”
Minutes later the officer started texting Kate to ask if she and her pals needed meals from the concession stands. The group agreed.
“Free meals!” Kate recalled considering.
He texted once more: “Sizzling chocolate subsequent recreation (eyes emoji). When you’re good,” based on textual content messages Kate shared from the officer.
After supplying the stadium snacks, the officer requested Kate to get espresso with him later that week.
Kate dodged the query, hoping to snicker it off and watch the sport. However after the sport ended, one other textual content popped up at 11:47 p.m. that night time asking if she had chosen her espresso spot but.
Kate texted her sorority chapter president and requested, “What ought to I do if (the officer) requested me to get espresso?”
The sorority president texted again, “Simply don’t reply.”
“I actually simply by no means responded to that,” Kate stated. “It bought to the purpose the place he was making an attempt to go on dates … as a result of I used to be good to him, he took it too far and needed to make it extra.”
Kate was not the one pupil to expertise unprofessional interactions with the identical officer.
Accounts from 11 college students, all of whom are affiliated with UW-Madison Greek organizations, describe how the identical officer instigated texting relationships, requested feminine sources on espresso dates, relayed confidential police info to help college students in underage consuming and took college students for rides in his squad automobile with out first having them signal a legal responsibility waiver. Two male college students interviewed for this story described their interactions with the officer positively, however feminine college students considered the contacts as inappropriate.
The officer’s habits has persevered for at the very least 4 years, however was by no means the topic of a proper grievance, based on the UW-Madison Police Division. Not one of the college students alleged the officer made any bodily advances, and none agreed to go on a date with him.
“The UW-Madison Police Division grew to become conscious of the officer misconduct allegations when requested by the creator for a remark for this text,” Assistant Chief Kari Sasso stated in an announcement. “We’ll evaluate and examine these claims as applicable. There have been no formal complaints from group members, college students or others concerning this officer. We maintain our officers to the best requirements and take all allegations of officer misconduct significantly. We’re dedicated to transparency and accountability inside authorized and coverage boundaries.”
A spokesperson for UW-Madison Chancellor Jennifer Mnookin confirmed that an inside investigation is underway at UWPD.
The officer didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Gaining belief at security displays
The UW-Madison police officer serves as a downtown liaison group officer for an space that features Langdon Road, the place most of the college’s sorority and fraternity homes are positioned.
Preliminary communication between the officer and college students typically started throughout the bounds of his job description. Scholar leaders reached out to arrange semiannual security displays at their organizations, largely for college students beneath the authorized consuming age.
The displays cowl campus security, medical amnesty and behavior-based policing and are discussions meant to assist college students really feel knowledgeable and educated from a good police supply.
Whereas meant to element the potential penalties of underage alcohol consumption — not encourage it — the officer’s displays had been peppered with recommendation for college students on the right way to proceed illegally consuming with out getting caught, based on an audio recording of 1 presentation.
In a single presentation the officer informed college students he would alert underage college students forward of time concerning pre-planned bar checks to assist them keep away from potential citations — a breach of confidential police info.
Bar checks, typically referred to as “raids” by college students, serve to make sure bars aren’t serving college students beneath the authorized consuming age of 21. Law enforcement officials enter the premises whereas others block exits, requesting IDs from all patrons. Underage patrons within the bar face a superb of as much as $1,250 for utilizing a faux ID.
The scholar sources stated over the past 4 years the officer shared confidential police info concerning bar checks with them over the cellphone, warning them upfront of the bars Madison police could be checking and the final timeline of the verify.
One pupil in a management place additionally stated he inspired them to share the data with their private contacts.
“It’s useful to us, clearly — additionally sort of loopy that he goes behind the police station’s again,” Kate stated.
In audio recorded as a part of this investigation throughout one of many officer’s normal security displays this previous college 12 months, he informed freshmen and sophomores, “I promise you I’ll at all times allow you to. If I’m ever concerned in a bar verify, it’s as a result of I wish to make it possible for town cops are literally treating you all with respect.”
“And from time to time I’d maintain no matter door I’m manning open for the three or 4 of you to go away with none actual penalties — however don’t inform my boss that. I say that as a result of I’ve really executed it,” he continued. “I don’t like bar checks. I hate the truth that you all are within the most secure place to be consuming alcohol, quite than a basement or a home occasion or an condominium, and we’re jamming you all up by supplying you with tickets.”
The officer additionally examined the scholars’ faux IDs, checking if they’re real looking sufficient to permit entry at native bars. Kate was one of many college students who provided her ID for inspection.
“That’s the way it began,” Kate stated. “He was mainly like, ‘I owe you a espresso for volunteering.’”
Seth Stoughton, a College of South Carolina legislation professor and a nationally acknowledged policing knowledgeable, reviewed parts of the audio and stated the UW-Madison officer’s presentation is just not a typical police presentation on underage consuming.
“What these talks normally appear like are how college students can keep away from breaking the legislation, how college students can keep away from bother — not how college students can break the legislation and never get in bother for it,” Stoughton stated.
Texting relationships with college students
The officer solely contacted college students about bar verify alerts over a cellphone name, a number of sources stated.
“This could be the kind of proof that we use to determine data of guilt; when he’s telling of us, ‘Oh no, I don’t wish to put any of that in writing, I don’t need there to be a document of it,’” Stoughton stated. “Properly, that’s since you are conscious that the document could possibly be used in opposition to you indirectly. In order that appears problematic.”
After acquiring college students’ cellphone numbers, the officer started reaching out to them outdoors {of professional} protocols: frequently checking in, calling and asking them to satisfy up.
For the 9 feminine college students interviewed for this story, his frequent check-ins rapidly precipitated discomfort.
“Whenever you’re in it, you suppose all these items are that will help you, after which the additional down within the 12 months it bought, once I was working with him particularly, I felt like I used to be placing myself at risk greater than being protected,” stated a former sorority govt member. “I didn’t wish to work with him ever, and I additionally warned different individuals, like don’t contain your self. He’s not doing something for us.”
Caroline, a pseudonym for a lately graduated senior at UW-Madison, felt equally.
“I keep in mind us being like, ‘Oh my god, he’s texting you now?’ He went by way of individuals, he was at all times texting completely different individuals,” Caroline stated.
Whereas females in management positions stated he straddled the road between an expert and private relationship, others who didn’t serve on govt boards or in organizational management, together with Kate, are much less sure about why he was texting them within the first place — saying there was no skilled justification for his outreach.
“All of our texts are very playful and joke-y in what he was saying — it wasn’t like he was skilled,” Kate stated.
Providing rides with out waivers
Some college students and former college students claimed that the officer provided them rides in his squad automobile.
One supply took him up on that supply.
Allen, a lately graduated UW-Madison pupil additionally recognized with a pseudonym, claimed he went for a drive with the officer in January 2023 when he was a sophomore.
“He picked me up in his automobile and we drove round for like 20 minutes. He requested me about myself. He actually made an effort to determine a friendship and a relationship with me, which I actually appreciated,” Allen stated. “He was only a actual beacon of steerage.”
Data of ride-along waivers signed between Jan. 1, 2022, and Jan. 1, 2025, present solely two individuals signed legal responsibility waivers for UW-Madison police ride-alongs over the previous three years.
Allen’s identify didn’t seem in any of the signed waivers. He additionally doesn’t recall signing a waiver.
“I really feel like I’d keep in mind if I needed to signal one thing,” he stated.
Stoughton stated it’s a legal responsibility subject, ought to a police officer select to ignore necessary waivers. Sometimes officers will alert dispatchers of a pickup and drop-off to make sure nothing inappropriate occurs.
“There are procedures which are in place to assist defend everybody’s curiosity: the police companies, the person officers and the group members,” Stoughton continued. “(It) seems like he’s simply utterly ignoring these normal protocols.”
Male college students appreciative, feminine college students uncomfortable
Three UW college students, two males and one feminine, expressed gratitude for the officer’s assist in conserving them out of police bother, particularly those that are beneath 21.
“I do suppose there’s a very deep appreciation for him making himself as obtainable as potential to everybody, in a plethora of various occasions and conditions,” one fraternity chief stated.
Allen felt equally. “I used to be very blown away by his willingness to not simply be an administrator, however to be a buddy. Not a parental determine — an adviser, however greater than that, way more pleasant than that,” he stated. “We developed a private friendship.”
However the feminine college students largely interpreted the officer’s habits in another way.
“His actions blurred the road between authority and familiarity, leaving college students not sure of his true intentions,” the sorority chief stated. “What I’d’ve modified was his method. As a substitute of making an attempt to be our ‘buddy’ and making us really feel like we had an inside reference to campus legislation enforcement, he ought to have taken a extra conventional {and professional} position.”
College coverage W-5048 covers relationships between these in unequal ranges of energy, stating {that a} relationship between an worker and pupil is “not applicable after they happen between an worker of the college and a pupil over whom the worker has or probably can have supervisory, advisory, evaluative, or different authority or affect.”
Stoughton stated there’s a line in policing, with making your self obtainable on one facet, however affirmatively searching for out people in a nonorganizational capability on the opposite.
“It doesn’t shock me that the feminine college students have a barely completely different perspective than male college students as a result of male college students could also be — for a number of sophisticated causes — simply much less cognizant of that energy dynamic,” Stoughton stated. “Feminine college students could also be way more conscious of that energy dynamic. It’s the officer’s job, although, to additionally concentrate on it.”
If in case you have a grievance concerning the conduct of a UW-Madison Police Division officer, you may file a grievance on-line or name the division and communicate with a supervisor, based on UW-Madison spokesperson John Lucas. The division usually requires an individual’s identify and doesn’t settle for nameless complaints.
That is an ongoing story. When you or somebody you recognize has had related encounters with a UWPD officer, please tell us at suggestions@wisconsinwatch.org.
Republish our articles without cost, on-line or in print, beneath a Inventive Commons license.
