Update from UCLA Public Safety Co-Chairs

We are writing to provide you with an update on the progress of our work as co-chairs of UCLA’s effort to address public safety concerns.

Since our appointment in April 2021, we held a series of community conversations to hear directly from students, faculty and staff about their opinions and perspectives tied to reimagining policing and campus safety. To facilitate open discussion during the community conversation sessions, we asked UCPD to not attend those sessions, even though they are undoubtedly part of the Bruin community. We held separate sessions with UCPD last month, to hear from UCPD officers and leadership about their opinions and perspectives relating to campus safety as well.

We thank the stakeholders who took the time to participate in these sessions, and we are truly grateful for your willingness to engage with us in these thoughtful and important discussions.  We also thank those of you who have provided your comments in writing through our feedback form or email. Your inputs and feedback will certainly help to inform our report and recommendations to the chancellor.

In terms of next steps, we are in the process of summarizing the feedback we have received and making recommendations for UCLA’s path forward to addressing the varied and sometimes contradictory public safety concerns brought to our attention. We are also awaiting the report  of the independent, third-party review of the June 2020 Jackie Robinson Stadium incident.

As we noted during our community conversation sessions, UCLA is part of a much larger framework, and we understand the UC Office of the President (UCOP) is soliciting feedback for its Presidential Campus Safety Plan. We encourage you to provide feedback on that plan. Please note, however, that our work is entirely independent of UCOP, and our recommendations will focus on the specific needs of the UCLA community, which will have to have some alignment with the larger 10 campus UC-wide plan.

Finally, a special note for our 2021 graduates — congratulations! We acknowledge that you were some of the essential voices in raising concerns about UCLA’s current public safety structure and operations. As you transition from students to alumni, we hope to continue hearing from you as alumni are also among the important voices for us in our process. Thank you for your previous participation and we look forward to you continuing to participate.

We encourage all of our Bruin stakeholders to stay engaged throughout this important process, and we continue to welcome written submissions through our feedback form or email at UCLAPublicSafetyCoChairs@gmail.com.