LOS ANGELES – The University of California, Los Angeles should develop clear plans and policies, communication lines and decision-making authority in advance of major protests such as the large student protests against the Israel-Hamas war that shook the campus this spring, according to an outside review.
The report released Thursday by 21st Century Policing Solutions, a national law enforcement consulting agency, described a highly chaotic response in late April and early May doomed by the university's lack of preparedness and critical communication failures.
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The University of California requested it after UCLA's controversial handling of the protests. In a statement, UC said consultants examined tens of thousands of documents and interviewed current and former UCLA administrators, faculty, staff, students and law enforcement personnel.
“The purpose of the investigation was to develop a detailed set of recommended reforms designed to prevent recurrence of the shortcomings that occurred last spring,” the university system said.
Clashes between protesters and counterprotesters on the campus led to more than a dozen injuries, and more than 200 people were arrested at a demonstration the next day after hundreds defied orders to leave.
Police fired flash-bangs to break up the crowds and tore apart a fortified encampment’s barricade of plywood, pallets, metal fences and dumpsters, then pulled down canopies and tents.
As events unfolded, UCLA administrators at times shut out campus police from key meetings and information, the report noted.
Campus police also lacked plans to engage with outside law enforcement, leaving the Los Angeles Police Department and California Highway Patrol to develop an ad hoc plan without guidance from officers who best knew the campus.
The report notes that the “central tension” of whether and how police should provide public safety is part of a national conversation and one UCLA should have with its community.
“UCLA has thus far responded to this tension ineffectively, by functionally excluding police from planning and engagement but then asking law enforcement to engage once tensions have escalated to violence,” the report says.
The university said in a statement that it was committed to campus safety and will continue to implement the recommendations, some of which are underway.