Publication of Public Safety Co-Chairs’ Final Report

Tyrone Howard and Rasha Gerges Shields sent the following message to the UCLA campus community.

Dear Bruin Community:

We write today — in our capacity as co-chairs of UCLA’s effort to address public safety concerns on the campus — to share our final report and recommendations with the UCLA community. Earlier this week, we shared a copy of our final report with Chancellor Block, and we understand he will be following up with the campus soon regarding next steps. 

Our report, which was commissioned in April 2021, summarizes the varied perspectives on campus policing that exist at UCLA, based on the feedback we received from the Bruin community during town hall sessions and in writing. In it, we also propose several tangible steps that UCLA can take to reimagine public safety and to ensure that everyone feels safe and respected on campus. We welcomed all voices and perspectives in this effort. 

The report is the product of substantial engagement with individuals and groups across UCLA. Over the course of the past year, we hosted six town halls to hear directly from students, faculty and staff about their opinions and perspectives related to policing and campus safety. We also held two separate sessions with UCPD to hear from officers and leadership. More than 250 stakeholders took part in the various sessions, and many others submitted comments in writing. We thank these community members — who represented a diverse set of voices, opinions and perspectives related to policing and campus safety — for their input.

Part of our work also entailed commissioning an independent, third-party review of the June 2020 Jackie Robinson Stadium incident, in which LAPD officers used the UCLA-leased stadium’s parking lot to detain protesters following the death of George Floyd. This independent review was completed in March of 2022, and we include the review in full as an appendix to our report.

Additional information about the report and our engagement is available at https://publicsafetyinitiative.ucla.edu/.

For UCLA to effectively serve its mission, it is critical that the university protect the safety, rights and well-being of every member of its community. We are grateful to have had the opportunity to work towards this goal over the past year, and hope our report will provide a framework for the continuous improvement of UCLA’s public safety efforts in years to come. We thank the full Bruin community for supporting this deeply important work.

Sincerely,