Department Information

As Chief of the University of Wisconsin - Whitewater Police Services Department, I am proud to serve our students, staff, faculty and surrounding community. My philosophy on policing is simple, to gain voluntary compliance through the least restrictive method of intervention possible.

The voluntary compliance of the individual is the only way the law is maintained. It is physically impossible and incongruent with a free society for the police to deter crime and enforce the law upon every citizen at all times. It is voluntary compliance which maintains order. Enforcement can only be used as a tool to educate, encourage and inform; it will not compel individual change.

We live in a country founded upon the desire for liberty and freedom. Police officers are entrusted with the authority to infringe upon the freedom of the individual based upon their own observation, evidence and belief of what occurred within any given situation. That authority requires the diligent and respectful application of the law, the protection of society and the weighing of individual rights during every action. We have dedicated ourselves and our lives to the upholding of the rights given to all of us and holding accountable those willing to inappropriately deny those rights.

Our Department motto, Honor, Integrity, Service, describes what we strive to be, strive to do and strive to uphold. It also describes the need to honor the office entrusted to us, to be an unbiased observer of the truth and assist those in need however we can. By so doing, we work to establish a level of communication with our community which is based upon trust, understanding and respect. If these are lost we have forfeited something of immeasurable value.

I welcome your input, your thoughts and your involvement in the policing of our community. Our unified commitment and trust of each other is the greatest assurance of safety our community can have.

Chief Matthew Kiederlen