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UC makes progress on Community Safety Plan implementation

University of California Office of the President spokesperson Stett Holbrook said the UC has made progress in implementing its Community Safety Plan goals, including increasing community involvement in public safety decisions and reforming UC campus policing. (Daily Bruin file photo)

By Rebecca Rottenberg

April 20, 2022 4:42 p.m.

This post was updated April 20 at 10:37 p.m.

The University of California has implemented many of its Community Safety Plan goals, including the formation of advisory work groups, but is still awaiting the findings of multiple reports.

The Community Safety Plan, released Aug. 16, outlines the UC’s goals for public safety and policing reforms with deadlines for specific action items ranging through 2023. As of March, multiple action items were due, including the establishment of a holistic campus safety response service, implementation of restorative justice approaches to penalizing crimes and the establishment of advisory roles for UC community members in UCPD hiring and campus safety decisions.

However, its plans to update UCPD policy recommendations and develop a systemwide data dashboard to report crime response statistics remain incomplete. Stett Holbrook, a spokesperson from the UC Office of the President, said in an emailed statement that UCOP has made progress in its goals to reform campus policing, integrate the UC community into public safety decisions and formulate systemwide workgroups to provide public safety recommendations.

According to the Community Safety Plan, the UC has established two systemwide workgroups to develop recommendations for a comprehensive data dashboard and UCPD equipment regulations.

Holbrook said the UC has remained focused on meeting the plan’s goals. He said all UC campuses have been identifying and appointing officials to execute these plans at the campus level and will ensure ongoing updates about their progress.

Holbrook added that the UC safety data dashboard workgroup, which includes representatives from UCOP as well as members from all UC campuses, has compiled and published crime, use of force and UCPD workforce data on the UCOP website and is currently in the preliminary steps of developing a systemwide data dashboard.

He added that the vehicles, uniforms and equipment workgroup, which includes UC students, faculty and staff, is still in the process of drafting recommendations for UCPD equipment policy.

UCLA spokesperson Bill Kisliuk said in an emailed statement that UCLA has been consulting with the community to address the history of negative policing experiences and to implement the public safety response model outlined in the community safety report. UCLA has also developed procedures for UC students, staff and faculty to serve in an advisory role in UCPD affairs, Kisliuk added.

In January 2021, UCLA’s public safety co-chairs Rasha Gerges Shields and Tyrone Howard conducted a series of town halls to discuss implementing community safety goals with the UCLA community.

The co-chairs plan to publish a report outlining recommendations to improve campus engagement in public safety decisions informed by the feedback they have received from the community.

“Their report will also include recommendations based on the findings of an independent, third-party review of the LAPD’s use of the parking lot at Jackie Robinson Stadium to process the arrests of protesters in June 2020,” Kisliuk said in the statement.

According to an update published Feb. 15 on UCLA’s safety plan progress through Dec. 31, Shields and Howard’s report was delayed awaiting a response from the LAPD, which UCLA received in late December.

UCLA has also paused the hiring of its four vacant UCPD officer positions to allocate funds toward the plan’s tiered response model, Kisliuk said.

Kisliuk added that in line with the Community Safety Plan’s call to invest in restorative justice approaches, all UCPD misdemeanor cases at UCLA are reviewed for processing through the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office’s restorative justice programs.

According to the UCOP website, a UC-wide report will be published in July that covers Community Safety Plan progress made at each campus through June 30.

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Rebecca Rottenberg
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