Madison wrap-up

Well, while I'm rubbing shoulders with colleagues in Madison at the Problem-Oriented Policing conference, all manner of mayhem breaks out in Lincoln. Overnight yesterday we had a downtown stabbing that left the victim in critical condition, and an early morning domestic-related homicide. This creates a huge amount of work for the street officers and sergeants, investigators, duty commanders, public information officer, and even the Records Unit. They all performed superbly, though, and by mid morning, Assistant Chief Peschong emailed me to report that both cases were cleared, with suspects located and in custody.

My two presentations at the POP Conference went quite well. The attendance was good, participation and discussion great, and I think the topic (strategies to reduce high-risk drinking and wild parties) was well received by officers from across the country who deal with the same issues in their own community. Two other conference presentations dealt with similar issues, from Anaheim, CA to Lancashire, UK. The moderator of my presentation was Dr. Deborah Lamm Weisel, from North Carolina State University. She's a pretty significant reputation in our field, so her compliments were particularly encouraging. She was especially impressed by our analysis and assessment: the extent to which we gathered data from survey research, police reports, detox admissions, arrest records, and our geographic information system to both inform our strategies and monitor our impact.

Yesterday, an early morning informal discussion with Herman Goldstein, the "father" of problem-oriented policing was a highlight, as was an evening discussion for chiefs and executive officers facilitated by Michael Scott, the POP Center's director. These were provocative discussions, and we all reflected on the need to do a better job studying the literature of our own profession. There is a widespread feeling that we don't do enough in our field to ensure that our officers and managers are familiar with the growing knowledge from research about "what works" in policing.

Madison continues to impress me as Lincoln with a Lake. Actually, two lakes. I will say this, though, Lincoln's a little cleaner (thank you DLA), and downtown Madison seems to have a much larger population than downtown Lincoln. Madison has the more eclectic street people though. . I snapped this photo directly across the street from the State Capitol. Note that this guy has a 17" laptop, with his A/C adapter plugged into the City light post on the left. I debated about posting this photo, for fear of appearing insensitive to the homeless, but I just thought there was some sort of obscure social commentary here. I don't know what, though, so it must really be obscure. I showed this photo to a Madison police captain. She said, "That is so Madison."