Menomonie, Wisconsin History/Bramigkj0779

Clock tower (Bowman Hall), located within the University of Wisconsin Stout.

Home to the beautiful University of Wisconsin Stout, Menomonie is always thriving with activity from both college students and many locals, filled with opportunities for crime around every corner. Beneath the many trees and historic buildings that cover this unique town, is a rich history of different crime activities that offer a wide variety of ways to learn from them. From getting information from these past events, people acquire the ability to prevent such things from happening again by learning from their mistakes, and learning the hot spots for this kind of activity. Keeping up with the daily crime logs and using the archives provided by UW-Stout's very own campus police can help update anyone what is going on around the area. As a college student, it is extremely important to use the resources provided to them, and to gain knowledge of the area they are residing and studying in, along with knowing the risks of doing certain crimes.

Sexual Assaults and Sex Offenders

In a few interviews conducted in the residential halls HKMC of Stout University, people were asked whether or not they felt safe in the Menomonie/Dunn County area. Out of the 12 who were asked (eight being males and four being females), all eight men said they felt relatively safe, a few worried about getting items taken from their dorm or having their property damage. However, three out of the four women said they did not feel safe, and one reason stood out to why; they are afraid of being sexually assaulted or taken advantage of by their fellow students. There have been 4 reported sexual assault cases in 2014, and that number doesn't seem to change that much over the course of the history of this town. With resources like the UW-Stout Police Department's part of the University's website, it is easy to figure out exactly where sex offenders, and where offenses like these and others are occurring.

Drug and Alcohol

For many years it’s been no secret that Stout has had the reputation of being a party school, and statistics don’t show anything different. “UW-Stout had 269 alcohol arrests and 59 drug arrests in 2011… (And) 140 alcohol arrests and 45 drug arrests in 2012". This ranks this university number 2 in the United States with the most drug and alcohol arrests per 1,000 student’s on-campus. This isn’t just trend that is happening recently, this is a long standing problem. According to the UW-Stout police crime archives, from 2008-2012 there have been two to four times more crimes while college was in session in the months of October-December, while in the summer there was a steep declines in criminal activity, showing a direct correlation between crime in Menomonie and college students.

There are many different cases related to the drug and alcohol scene in this quaint town. Filled to the brim with ambitious college students, there is bound to be a select few that decide to make money for tuition or personal use by selling illicit substances. In the case of sophomore Joshua Schuster and freshman Michael Auckland of 11/13/2014, it became the largest drug bust in the Dunn County area. UW-police chief Lisa Walters says police seized more than six pounds of marijuana, marijuana based candy, other controlled substances, and 52-hundred dollars in cash. Like most other college campuses, this one is not immune to the incoming flow of illegal drugs. Students expressed in an interview conducted by WEAU News that they were not very surprised at the drug bust, saying "“Unfortunately I know that drugs are very common on UW-Stouts' campus and I wasn't overly surprised about this, especially the majority of it being marijuana, and then Adderall would make sense too”.

Another example of this provided again by WEAU News goes back to April 2008. Three college students who attended UW-Stout “died of carbon monoxide poisoning from prolonged exposure to fire gases”. After investigating the scene and taking blood samples of each who died they found they were all very under the influence of alcohol, at the time of death the lowest B.A.C. was .173 and the highest being .305.  Back in 1998 president Bill Clinton endorsed having a .08 blood alcohol content as the legal limit to operating vehicles, thus implementing the notion that this is the point where you become legally drunk. The determined cause of death of these three students was the carbon monoxide gas poisoning, but the alcohol in their system definitely contributed due to the fact that their ability to think critically was impaired. This is not a unique case sadly, as this pandemic of binge drinking affects hundreds of people at this University alone annually causing injuries and sometimes death.

Property Damage and Theft

From the aforementioned survey taken in the residential halls of the University, All four girls said a variation of locking their dorm rooms and walking in groups when you’re out is a big step in preventing property crimes. When the guys were asked, none of them came up with a solid answer. Three fourths of them explained that they don’t even lock their doors on a regular basis, leaving their valuables in the open to take, which was the most feared crime by these particular people. A quote from areavibes.com provides a great statistic on how Menomonie compares to the state of Wisconsin as a whole, and also on a national level; “The crime data reveals that the overall Menomonie, WI crime rates are 16% higher than in comparison to the Wisconsin mean and are 7% lower than the nation's mean. In regards to violent offenses, Menomonie, WI has a rate that is 46% lower than the Wisconsin average; compared to the United States, it is 59% lower than. Looking at crimes involving property, Menomonie, WI is 23% higher than its state's mean, and 0% lower than the country's average”. When taking proper precautions, most of these crimes can be avoided, as long as individuals remember incorporate safety into their daily activities and schedules.

Murders and Assaults

Averaging about 15 violent crimes a year, Menomonie, Wisconsin is rated in the bottom 19% safest cities in the United States. On a broader scale, violent crimes are the least prevalent when compared to all of the United States, and the state of Wisconsin. Having a murder on average only every two to three years on average in the whole Dunn County area, it is a relatively safe place in regards to crimes involving violence. User eworne15 explains the tragic story of a brutal violent crime that happened at a gas station just a few years ago under his Violent Crime section in the Wiki.

External Links

http://www.weau.com/

http://www.uwstout.edu/police/alertstatslogs.cfm

http://www.areavibes.com/menomonie-wi/crime/

Menomonie, Wisconsin History/eworne15