The Madison Police Department Podcast

Lt. Brian Austin of the MPD’s Central District joins the podcast to talk about this weekend’s big event. Tens of thousands are expected to fill State Street for Freakfest, yet Austin – MPD’s chief planner for the annual celebration – expects no problems. He and Chief Koval talk about the history of the Halloween party, and how it has changed into something positive for the City of Madison.

Investigative Services Capt. Jen Krueger-Favour joins Chief Koval to talk about a new interactive community crime mapping system that has just been made available on the MPD’s website: madisonpolice.com.  Users will be able to track crimes happening in their specific neighborhoods and around Dane County. The new software also gives people the opportunity to send anonymous tips on specific cases as police look to identify criminals.

Central District Det. Grant Humerickhouse is a member of a cyber safety team at the MPD that routinely goes out into the community to talk about how parents and others can best protect themselves – and their children – from being victimized. In this podcast Det. Humerickhouse provides many tips to listeners as he talks about a variety of cyber issues: from sexting to identity theft to bullying.

In this podcast MPD Use of Force Coordinator, Sgt. Kimba Tieu joins the team to talk about all the tools an officer carries on her duty belt. It can get so heavy, that many – over time – develop hip and back problems. Now, some are finding innovative ways to distribute the weight. Sgt. Tieu also explains a new long distance, less-lethal weapon being used by the MPD. It likely will save lives.

Now that they have taken the oath of office, MPD’s new recruits face a challenging academy as they learn to police the Madison way. The MPD prides itself on providing recruits the best cutting edge training available in the country. In this podcast, Capt. Mary Schauf - who is in charge of the MPD’s state-of-the-art Training Center - and Chief Koval – who teaches law to recruits – talk about what makes the academy special. First, Koval turns the tables on Public Information Officer Joel DeSpain – the host of the podcast - asking DeSpain what drew him to the MPD. It was a question DeSpain posed to Koval and Schauf in the last podcast.

More than 30 new Madison Police officers take the oath of office this week after being selected from hundreds of applicants. In this podcast, Capt. Mary Schauf, who heads up recruiting and training for the MPD, talks about the diverse and unique class and why many walked away from other worthy careers for the opportunity to become a member of one of the country’s best police departments. Capt. Schauf and Chief Koval also speak to their own personal journeys that brought them to the MPD so many years ago.

Officer Dan Swanson joins the podcast to talk about the launch of the MPD’s Madison Addiction Recovery Initiative. Community partners - to include UW-Madison clinicians and the Dane County District Attorney’s office - are teaming up with MPD to make MARI a reality. It will give many heroin addicts the chance to avoid the criminal justice system if they opt to get into treatment immediately. A $700,000 federal grant is helping fuel the pilot program.

In this podcast, Chief Koval talks about the possibility of eliminating safety education officers from Madison schools, as well as cutting Traffic Enforcement Safety Team ranks and nixing a neighborhood officer position as a tight 2018 budget looms. Koval also speaks to the recent success the Violence Reduction Initiative has had in reducing incidents of gun violence.

With increasing scrutiny placed on police use of force, last year the Madison Police Department created a Use of Force Coordinator position for increased transparency and accountability to the public. Chief Koval speaks with Sergeant Kimba Tieu about his responsibilities in this new role.

Each summer, the MPD hosts around 20 summer interns, many of whom go on to become officers with the Department. In this podcast, intern Ammar Mujanni talks about growing up in Aleppo, Syria, and moving to Madison as a young man, a city he now hopes to someday protect and serve. Interns are selected from a large pool of applicants and are assigned to a supervisor in one of the Department’s five districts. Ammar is spending his summer with the Burglary Crime Unit and says the experience has been “fantastic.” Interns get a chance to experience all aspects of the Department. For Ammar that has meant helping recover evidence at a homicide scene, learning what it takes to be a police officer at the MPD’s Training Center, and assisting crime victims. He talks about it all in this podcast.

This summer has seen an increasing number of serious batteries in parts of the downtown. Central District Captain Jason Freedman has called some recent trends and patterns alarming. In this podcast, he joins Chief Koval to talk about challenges of policing the eclectic and beautiful Isthmus. The Central City is home to a diverse set of shareholders: students, transients, business owners, tourists, and residents living in upscale condominiums. Capt. Freedman explains the need for deploying additional officers, and how his staff is working with bar owners and the downtown alderperson on innovative ideas to reduce violence.

A veteran member of the MPD’s Mounted Patrol joins Chief Koval in this podcast to talk about the many benefits of putting officers in saddles, and how the Madison team has now become a model unit for other departments’ to emulate. Officer Sarah Mulry grew up in Northern Wisconsin and was a trail guide for numerous stables in her youth, so her life has sort of come full circle. From crowd control, to finding lost people, to recovering evidence, to building better community relations, she knows well the many good things the Mounted Patrol does for the community. And, thanks to the fantastic not-for-profit Friends of Madison Mounted Horse Patrol, the unit functions without tax dollars. Officer Mulry talks about it all in this podcast.

This August an important MPD project – years in the making – will begin to take root, as ground is broken for the new Midtown Police Station. It will be located on Mineral Point Rd. in the Westmorland Neighborhood. In this podcast MPD’s quarterback for the project, Capt. Jay Lengfeld, joins Chief Koval to talk about how the new station, and the officers who will staff it, will greatly improve police services to West Side residents.

The MPD works to keep the community safe by partnering with many agencies and organizations. A key group of caring professionals work out of the Dane County District Attorney’s Office. They are the members of the Crime Response Program and work hand-in-hand with officers as they respond to violent calls where victims and their families are in need of many levels of support. Julie Foley from Crime Response joins Chief Koval in this podcast to talk about her team and the vital role they play in the lives of victims.

In this podcast Capt. Jen Krueger Favour joins Chief Koval to talk about how taxed the MPD’s Violent Crime Unit has been this summer with multiple homicides and weapons offenses. Krueger Favour oversees VCU and she and Chief Koval discuss those things that are driving forces behind the violence.