A message from President Michael V. Drake, M.D., and Executive Vice President-Chief Operating Officer Rachael Nava
To the University of California Community:
Over the past two years, people across our campus communities have been working together to implement the University of California Community Safety Plan, a transformational change toward a more holistic, data-driven, service-oriented and community-centric approach to safety and security across the University.
We are very pleased to announce several significant developments made possible by that work — the appointment of UC’s first Systemwide Director of Community Safety and endorsement of the recommendations of two key systemwide Community Safety workgroups.
UC’s First Systemwide Director of Community Safety
Following a national search, Jody Stiger, a seasoned leader and nationally recognized expert in law enforcement and community and civilian oversight and outreach, has accepted the position of Systemwide Director of Community Safety. This position reports directly to Chief Operating Officer Nava, with a dotted line reporting relationship to President Drake.
Jody’s early focus will be to work with campus leadership to continue the full implementation of the UC Community Safety Plan. He will be working with campuses to promote ongoing community engagement, implement a tiered response model, build consistent and transparent data processes, and establish and sustain independent, civilian campus police accountability bodies.
Jody has a long history of working with communities of color, providing educational seminars on constitutional rights and use of force by officers, and has testified as an expert witness in numerous cases involving police use of force. He most recently served as the aide to the Inspector General of the Los Angeles Police Commission, where his duties included revising the department’s system for investigating use of force, workplace and community complaints and increasing oversight. Jody has worked to incorporate procedural justice into statewide training for California police officers. You can read more about Jody here.
We look forward to working with Jody in the months and years ahead, as we strive to achieve our goal of creating an inclusive and safe environment for our entire university community.
The search committee for this appointment included representatives from across UC, and we are very grateful to members of the search committee, who gave their time and expertise to this important effort.
Progress of the Community Safety Workgroups
To ensure that the Community Safety Plan is implemented in close consultation with students, faculty, staff and community members from across the UC system, considerable work has been delegated to diverse systemwide workgroups. With great appreciation for their many hours of thoughtful work, we have accepted the following recommendations.
Vehicles, Uniforms and Equipment
Informed by the workgroup’s careful analysis of the needs and existing standards of our campus and medical center safety personnel, the Vehicle, Uniforms and Equipment Workgroup recommendations will ensure consistent practices that will help us achieve our equity and inclusion goals. People on our campuses must not only be safe, but they must feel safe, as well as respected and heard. Implementing these standards is an important step toward achieving that goal.
In consultation with the UC community, UC locations are now tasked with developing an implementation plan by March 31, 2023, for these guidelines and recommendations.
Community Safety Data Dashboards
The charge of the Community Safety data dashboard workgroup was to develop a process for the collection of community safety data that reflects systemwide standards and to report that data in a public, systemwide dashboard with campus-level detail. In collaboration with the Office of Institutional Research and Academic Planning (IRAP), the workgroup has delivered six public, interactive dashboards featuring community safety data for each campus location on stops, use of force, crimes, calls for service, complaints, and police department budget and workforce.
As part of the process to produce these dashboards, campuses have agreed to a standard set of data collection templates, data definitions and reporting cycles. Data shown as of this date is for the first quarter of calendar year 2022–23, and campuses will continue to submit data to UCOP on a quarterly basis for the foreseeable future. The milestones, progress to date and full recommendations are outlined in the workgroup’s letter regarding their recommendations.
We want to thank the members of our UC Community Safety Plan workgroups for their dedication and hard work on an issue that affects every single member of our community. We are deeply grateful for the groups’ careful consideration and commitment to making the University of California a welcoming, inclusive, safe and equitable place for all.
Sincerely,
President
Executive Vice President-Chief Operating Officer