Steve Lurie named new associate vice chancellor for campus and community safety

Murphy Hall, where the UCLA administration is headquartered, is pictured. Chancellor Julio Frenk announced in a Tuesday email that Steve Lurie – a LAPD veteran of 27 years – will be the university’s associate vice chancellor for campus and community safety. (Vanessa Man/Daily Bruin)

By Shiv Patel
Jan. 21, 2025 5:52 p.m.
This post was updated Jan. 22 at 10:39 p.m.
The Office of Campus and Community Safety will soon have a new leader – and a new name.
Steve Lurie, an LAPD veteran of 27 years, will be the next associate vice chancellor of campus and community safety, leading an office that is less than nine months old, according to a Tuesday campuswide email from Chancellor Julio Frenk. Lurie will succeed Associate Vice Chancellor for Campus Safety Rick Braziel, who was appointed temporarily to the position in May by then-Chancellor Gene Block following the attack on and subsequent sweep of the Palestine solidarity encampment at UCLA.
[Related: Chancellor Gene Block announces Office of Campus Safety]
Lurie, a UCLA alumnus and adjunct professor of criminal justice at the University of Southern California, will assume his new role Feb. 1, according to the email. Lurie also assisted in commanding the Operations-West Bureau of LAPD.
Frenk thanked Braziel for his work as associate vice chancellor and expressed his confidence in Lurie’s ability to lead the renamed office.
“Now more than ever, it is important that we stay connected and look for ways to build community and a culture in which everyone feels safe, respected and welcome on campus,” Frenk said in the email.
UCLA has previously come under scrutiny for its approach to policing protests on campus, with an external report claiming that the university suffered “institutional paralysis” during its response to the first Palestine solidarity encampment.
[Related: Report analyzes officials’ roles regarding encampment response, proposes reforms]
Lurie was one of the officers responsible for policing the encampment, according to LAPD records.
Lurie was directed by Dominic Choi – then interim chief of LAPD – to prepare patrols of the UCLA campus during the day of April 30, according to an LAPD after-action report analyzing the policing response to the encampment.
At 11:07 p.m. that day, UCPD officials told Lurie that campus police were overwhelmed by crowds as people attacked the encampment, according to the report. At 1:14 a.m. May 1, Lurie arrived on campus, but police did not start clearing the courtyard until 2:43 a.m., according to the report.
Faculty for Justice in Palestine at UCLA spokesperson Graeme Blair accused Lurie in a written statement of allowing students in the encampment to be attacked by counter-protesters.
“Lurie will take control of the Orwellian apparatus built to silence campus speech on Palestine since May,” Blair said in the statement. “His appointment as Associate Vice Chancellor for Campus and Community Safety makes clear that violent police repression of peaceful protest was not an aberration, but exactly what Chancellor Frenk and the UC Regents want.”
[Related: Pro-Israel counter-protesters attempt to storm encampment, sparking violence]
Blair – who is currently suing the UC – also claimed Lurie was responsible for the “violent mass arrests” of hundreds of protesters during the police sweep of the encampment.
Lurie had previously praised the university on the social media platform X for appointing former Chief John Thomas to lead the UCLA Police Department in a permanent capacity in January 2024. Thomas was later “temporarily reassigned” from his command following the attack on and sweep of the encampment before leaving UCPD permanently in December.
The university police department is currently led by Interim Chief Scott Scheffler, with a permanent chief yet to be appointed.
UCLA Academic Senate Chair Kathleen Bawn said in a written statement that the senate was not consulted on Lurie’s appointment, even though the body ordinarily advises the university on appointments at or above the dean level.
However, a UCLA spokesperson said in a written statement that Lurie hopes to create equitable policies once he begins in the role.
“AVC-designate Lurie is committed to taking a community-informed, collaborative approach to campus safety that reflects the diverse experiences and perspectives of everyone at UCLA,” the spokesperson said in the statement. “This approach, which he has taken throughout his career, includes meeting with all members of the Bruin community – especially the academic senate among many others.”
The spokesperson did not specify in the statement why the senate was not consulted on the appointment.
Lurie plans to work with the UCLA community to ensure the office’s policies are effective and equitable, Frenk said in the email. The associate vice chancellor of campus and community safety is in charge of supervising the UCLA Police Department, where Lurie began his career.
“He will take a community-informed, collaborative approach to campus safety that reflects the diverse experiences and perspectives of those who call UCLA home,” he said in the email. “Our goal is to ensure that our policies and practices are not only effective but also equitable, respecting the safety, rights and well-being of all Bruins.”
Contributing reports by Dylan Winward, News editor.