Community Safety Concerns

Speeding

The U.W. Oshkosh campus is an area with a Very high volume of pedestrian traffic. It is imperative that drivers obey the speed limit and be aware of their surroundings. The speed limits on all streets crossing and bordering campus is 25 MPH. The speed limit in all university parking lots is 5 MPH. No one wants to be involved in a crash....please be careful.

Speed related stopping distances:

Stopping distances graph

Drunk Driving

Drunk driving continues to be an ongoing problem at U.W. Oshkosh. The U.W. Oshkosh Police Department actively enforces Wisconsin's drunk driving laws. Our officers attend the state Standardized Field Sobriety Testing and Impaired Driver Detection courses.

Drunk driving has been a major cause of traffic accidents and fatalities across the country and Wisconsin is no exception. Wisconsin has recently passed a law making fifth offense drunk driving a felony offense punishable by incarceration in a state prison.

If you are under 21 years of age, you may not have any alcohol in your system and operate an automobile. Winnebago County has statistically had a very rate of repeat drunk driving offenses and the U.W.O. Police Department is commited to keeping our community safe through the apprehension of impaired drivers.

Don't drink and drive picture

Underage Drinking

The State of Wisconsin has set the legal drinking age to be 21. This means that anyone under this age is not allowed to consume alcoholic beverages. Whether or not you agree with the law...it is the law. The U.W.Oshkosh Police Department created the Options program for deferred prosecution for first offenders. This program has been so sucessful that it has been adopted by the City of Oshkosh Police Department and the Winnebago County Sheriff's Department. The program gives first offenders a chance to attend alcohol abuse classes and have an underage drinking citation dismissed upon successful completion of the course.

Alcohol consumption plays a factor in the majority of criminal activity at U.W. Oshkosh. Our annual reports have shown that the majority of people we arrest had their judgement impaired by alcohol. Our department is commited to controlling underage drinking through education and enforcement.