Promotions, retirement at police department

The University Police Department has promoted two of its lieutenants to the rank of captain.

Brian Bridges will oversee the department’s support services and Todd Kuschel will be in charge of security operations at UW Hospital and Clinics. They will assume their new assignments Tuesday, Jan. 1.

Dale Burke, currently the support services captain, will head up Field Services following the retirement of Capt. Debra Hettrick Monday, Dec. 31.

Debra Hettrick joined the UWPD in 1979 as a police officer. She later became a detective, and was promoted to patrol lieutenant in 1991. She became captain of Field Services in 1994. She was the first woman in the department to reach the ranks of lieutenant and captain.

Hettrick was a member of the UW Police mounted patrol from 1989 to 1997, and was the department’s first certified ethics instructor. She has been the principal coordinator of the university’s crisis response plan. She earned a B.A. in sociology from UW–Madison in 1974, specializing in correctional administration, and credits her major professor, Michael Hakeem, for encouraging her interest in law enforcement.

“My career with the UW Police Department has been more rewarding than I ever could have imagined,” she says. “I’m very grateful to Chief Riseling for the faith she had in me when I was first promoted in 1991. And I find it incredible that Dale Burke and I started with the department on the same day, went to the police academy together and both ended up as captains.”