A new brand of policing
It was a humid summer evening in mid-July, with a “real feel” temperature of 106 degrees. After being turned away from the Rescue Mission, a woman and three young children were preparing to spend the night in their car. Despite the brutal summer heat, it was the only place she felt she and her kids would be safe for the night.
MUPD Officer Josiah Williams came upon the family and stopped to see if they needed help. The woman explained that she and her children tried to get shelter for the night at the mission, but since she couldn’t prove that she was the children’s legal guardian, they were turned away. She went on to explain they were relocating from Texas, and the children’s father was expected to join them within the next few days. She was hopeful that once he got here, they could set up a bank account and apply for state housing.
Officer Williams knew he couldn’t let this family sleep in their car, so he asked the other officers on duty to chip in and put the family up in a hotel for the night. They agreed. Officer Williams ended up paying for an additional two nights until the father arrived. Once the father got to Wisconsin, the family was able to receive state housing.
Officer Jill Weisensel, MUPD lieutenant, spoke to Marquette Today on Officer William’s behalf, painting the scene of that night and explaining the work and values of the MUPD officers.
MU Today: What was your reaction after hearing how Officer Williams and the other officers on duty that night helped this family in need?
Officer Weisensel: Williams is one of our newer officers — he had just gone solo within the last six months of this particular incident. He’s always respectful on the road. What I can say is that he ‘gets it’. He and the other officers are supportive of the community we serve.
Chief Paul Mascari and Captain Jeff Kranz have said from the beginning that they want to have their own brand of policing, and I echo that. I’ve been at the department for 12 years, and when I graduated from the academy, I knew that when we put on our new badges and patches, we were going to be different.
MU Today: How does Officer Williams’ actions reflect the values of the Marquette Police Department?
Officer Weisensel: We live in a time where people can be scrutinizing of law enforcement, and the media can sometimes portray us in a way that is one-sided. At Marquette, we’re not just trying to be police hammering the law. We’re trying to be peace keepers and educators. Our officers are always looking to protect and give back, not just to the Marquette community, but our Milwaukee community as well. We are always being challenged to do more with less in the community.
Josiah and the other officers took the resources they had and used them — and that’s how we make an impact.
MU Today: You mention the Milwaukee community, how does MUPD make a larger impact?
Officer Weisensel: MUPD officers know they are part of the university and we are here for the students, faculty, staff and our property. But at the end of the day, the Milwaukee community knows how close we are. We receive tons of calls for service that are not Marquette related at all.
We are just shy of 19,000 calls for service this year, and there was a time when we had 36,000 calls for service in a year. I hope the community and the local police departments understand how much we handle for them. Not only do we alleviate a huge call volume, but we encourage our officers to go above and beyond when giving back to our community. We want to be an integrated part of the community, so we encourage our officers to take care of anyone who looks like they need our help. Officer Williams’ action was unique due to the monetary aspect, but our officers are always looking to give back to the community.
MU Today: What other ways do your officers engagement with the community?
Officer Weisensel: We do Shop with a Cop at Christmas, where our officers take children Christmas shopping for their families. We also engage in dialog with our community through Coffee with a Cop. There are other events throughout the year including reading with kids, Cop on a Rooftop which benefits the Special Olympics, and trick-or-treating events for example. The more events our officers participate in, the more members of the community will be comfortable around us.
“I want people to see me in the community and throw those tough questions at me. Maybe you’ve had a bad experience with police officers and you want to talk about it. Let’s see how we can improve your perception of law enforcement overall. I want people to understand what we do and I want to understand what other people have gone through. We need to have those tough conversations, and outreach is the best way to do that”
MU Today: How does MUPD support the community amidst the more difficult situations that happen on our campus?
Officer Weisensel: There was a night earlier in the semester where we had a triple robbery. A lot of people on campus were scared and nervous. The robbery that happened at 1 a.m. had a lot of witnesses. We had about 12–14 witnesses come forward to the station to tell their stories and help us out. They settled in the conference room, and the officer that was in there made everyone plates of food that we had leftover from our company picnic earlier that day. He talked with them and checked up on how people were doing. He took a bad situation and made people laugh and made them feel comfortable. The way I look at it as a supervisor is, here’s 12 students who didn’t have to come forward. If we treat them poorly when they are already nervous or shaken up, they won’t come back again. Instead, we now have 12 more allies out there.
Every week an MUPD officer does something that makes me smile because they are always trying to go that extra step.
