Office of Inclusive Excellence | Inclusive Excellence and the UCI Police Department ♥ ★ ✚

To the Anteater community:

We are writing to announce several actions to further align the UCI Police Department with our commitment to inclusive excellence and confronting anti-Black racism. This commitment is grounded in a community where all expect equity, support diversity, practice inclusion and honor free speech. Realizing this commitment mandates a campus police department that serves our university community according to these principles. These actions further UCI Police Department’s work to continuously improve service and relationships with the University’s diverse community and build on the recommendations of the 2019 Presidential Taskforce Report on Universitywide Policing. We are also acting in solidarity with the millions of people who are demonstrating in the streets of this country in support of Black Lives and protesting policing techniques and practices that promote anti-Black racism.

Setting Expectations: Communicating and Reporting

1. The UCI Chief of Police will communicate to students and employees that equity, diversity and inclusion will inform the duties of the members of the UCI Police Department in the performance of their duties. In clarifying these expectations, the chief will regularly encourage all community members to submit an anonymous report about any alleged behavior that either falls short of our campus expectations or violates university policy or relevant laws. The Chief will assure that anonymous complaints will be accepted.
2. The Vice Chancellor for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion and the Associate Chancellor, Equal Opportunity and Compliance will review the disposition of complaints that have been filed against members of the UCI Police Department on a quarterly basis. The purpose of this review is to help ensure that each reported complaint is addressed and that patterns of concerning police conduct are flagged for further monitoring or action.
3. The Chief of Police will designate at least one member of the department’s command and one patrol officer to complete the UCI Inclusive Excellence Certificate Program.
4. A staff member from the Office of Inclusive Excellence will be added to the Public Safety Advisory Committee, a group representative of the University community established in 2018.

Accountability and Reporting: Police Department Review, Stop and Arrest Data and Surveying Campus Community About Police Encounters

1. Building on a commitment to ensure accountability to the community it serves, the Public Safety Advisory Committee will conduct an evaluation of the UCI Police Department every three years, beginning in AY 2020-2021. This evaluation will examine both internal procedures and practices to ensure accountability and UCI PD’s relations with the multiple communities it serves.
2. Following relevant state laws, the UCI Police Department will continue to maintain and regularly update data on all police initiated stops and arrests, as well as use of force/weapons drawn. The department will fully participate in systemwide auditing.
3. The Office of Inclusive Excellence, in consultation with the Public Safety Advisory Committee, will administer a scheduled enterprise-wide survey to learn about campus experiences and interactions with the police, as well as the campus community’s perceptions and feedback regarding the quality of police services. This survey will be designed with sound methodology to ensure the questions consistently and accurately capture perceptions of the police department and its behavior. All members of the UCI community will be encouraged to participate by announcements, public communications, incentives, and special outreach to racial and ethnic minorities and other minoritized populations.

Leading Organizational Change: Performance Review

1. On behalf of its members, the chair of the Public Safety Advisory Committee will participate in all scheduled performance reviews of the UCI Chief of Police.
2. The Chief will report to the Public Safety Advisory Committee on trend data and officer complaints as an integral part of the Chief’s scheduled performance review.
3. The Chief will report on efforts to diversify the leadership team of the UCI Police Department.
4. The Chief will be expected to commit to and engage in continuous improvement to align the department to inclusive excellence.

Together, we will bring forward the continued changes—UCIPD, in partnership with the UCI community, will continue to strive to provide services based on integrity, respect, transparency, fairness, and teamwork. Every member of the UCI community has a voice in these changes, and we encourage you to offer feedback and suggestions to inclusion@uci.edu, psac@uci.edu or police@uci.edu.

Sincerely,

Doug Haynes
Chief Diversity Officer and Vice Chancellor, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

Ronald S. Cortez, JD, MA
CFO and Vice Chancellor, Division of Finance and Administration

Elizabeth “Liz” Griffin
Chief of Police, UCI Police Department