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South District Blotter

Captain Balles' Updates: Building Community in the South District, Summer 2012

July 1, 2012 8:41 AM

Besides a tad bit on the dry side, it has been a beautiful summer throughout the South District.  Our officers and detectives have been busy, though we have not been as busy some of the other MPD police districts.  What a lot of us have been busy with is attending or participating in many different community activities.

In this summer edition of our newsletter you will find several articles about different "youth academies" which were held recently.  Lt June Groehler heads up the MPD "Technology Committee" which started a "cyber camp" for youth a few years ago.  Last week, another "Cyber Detective Camp" was held at the West District.  Check out June's article for more on that.  Another MPD work group, Amigos En Azul (aka Friend in Blue) held their second annual Latino Youth Academy.  MPD officers in conjunction with officers from Fitchburg and Dane County Sheriff's Office organized a three day summer held at the Taft Street Boys and Girls Club.   Check out Officer Nick Ryan's article for more on that event.   Another group of primarily South District officers, led by Sergeant Lori Chalecki, organized the department's first "Black Youth Academy" held also at the Boys and Girls Club the three days following the Latino Youth Academy.  Check out the WSJ story we have re-printed in our newsletter about this new effort.   All together, these summer camps allow MPD officers to establish strong relationship with local youth, expose these youth to the police profession, and perhaps for more than a few of them, their summer MPD youth camp experience will turn out to be a life changing event!

The start of a new school year is upon us.  UW and Edgewood students are now moving into apartments throughout the Regent Street corridor.  During the week of August 27th, South CPT officers along with residents from the Regent Street Neighborhood association will be knock on student housing doors during the evening, welcoming the students back, and providing them with information on how to protect their property.  Last fall, several dozen student homes were burglarized and laptop computers stolen.  Let's hope we do not see a repeat of that this year.  By policing our neighborhoods in partnership with those who live there, we feel we are building community amongst us one home at a time.

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