A report on the response by the University of California, Los Angeles, to pro-Palestinian protests this past spring found that problematic decision-making processes, poor communication and other errors put campus safety at risk, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The review, conducted by the law enforcement consultancy 21st Century Policing Solutions on behalf of the University of California system, found that UCLA did not have a policy in place for handling large protests. Officials also failed to assign a lead decision-maker for responding to the protest, leading to communication errors. In addition, the campus’s police force had no plan for coordinating with other law enforcement agencies.
“Because no codified plans existed, UCLA administrators engaged in a chaotic process in which they needed to make difficult decisions … in the midst of ongoing disruption, without clarity on who maintained final decision-making authority, lacking a commonly understood process for reaching decisions, and largely lacking the ability to react quickly to fast-changing events and dynamic circumstances on campus,” the report said.
The review recommended that going forward, the institution develop a response plan, train staff and police for such events, improve real-time communication, and hire nonpolice public safety staff to respond to conduct violations.
