After more than a year of meeting with the community and listening to feedback and concerns, the UW–Madison Police Department has launched the UWPD Equity Dashboard, a one-of-a-kind approach to sharing key data with a focus on racial equity.
The dashboard is the result of a collaboration with community members and stakeholders to develop a unique and powerful tool that promotes transparency and provides a set of success metrics that speak directly to the UWPD’s commitment to equity in policing.
“We’ve worked very hard alongside our UWPD Police Advisory Council and other community members over the past 18 months to find ways to further build trust and create opportunities for more engagement,” UWPD Chief Kristen Roman said. “We acknowledge we have a long road ahead in our efforts in promoting change — but we believe the UWPD Equity Dashboard is a significant step forward in deepening collaboration, inspiring partnership, and continuing important conversations about policing.”
On the Equity Dashboard, users can view a wide variety of data points — all with a laser focus on equity. UWPD calls for service, arrests, citations, use of force, and more can all be viewed and filtered by year, demographics, etc. Users can also view complaint data, including the total number of complaints, how the complaints were resolved, how many complaints involved use of force, and the number of officers with multiple sustained complaints.
The processes through which UWPD collects equity-focused data are verified through three separate and independent accreditation audits. UWPD has long maintained triple accreditation through the Wisconsin Law Enforcement Accreditation Group, the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, and the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators.
“I commend UWPD’s efforts to continue promoting transparency and building community trust by demonstrating its practical commitment to equity,” UW–Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank said. “The Equity Dashboard is another example of the power of collaboration and partnership, and I am confident it will bring great value to the entire UW–Madison community.”
In addition to the numbers, the dashboard also shares general information about programs and services offered by the UW–Madison Police Department — department policies, staff demographics, department programs, and how community members can get involved in UWPD’s work are all highlighted.
UWPD acknowledges there is much work to be done and few simple solutions. They hope the dashboard inspires the questions, discussions, partnership, and critical examination needed to fully align with the department’s mission.
The Equity Dashboard is a product of UWPD’s Racial Equity Initiative, a comprehensive action plan for identifying, adopting, and continually assessing areas in need of improvement within the department in the short and long term.