Regents committee hears UC community safety plan update, accountability boards and mobile crisis response expanded

The University of California Board of Regents Compliance and Audit Committee heard an update on the UC Community Safety Plan and related public-safety efforts during an open session meeting.

The presentation, led by Jody Steiger, systemwide director of community safety, summarized systemwide actions since the plan’s 2021 launch and highlighted campus-by-campus differences in public-safety needs. “Since its inception in 2021, the UC community has wholeheartedly embraced the community safety plan,” Steiger said.

Why it matters: The briefing covered accountability structures, accreditation of campus public-safety units, expansion of non-police crisis response and work to standardize certain positions — steps that affect students, faculty, staff and patients across UC’s campuses and medical centers.

Steiger told the committee six UC campuses now hold accreditation from the International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators (IACLEA), up from three previously. She said the accreditation process is based on 227 standards intended to reflect best practices in campus public safety. Each campus is supported by a police accountability board (PAB) composed of students, faculty and staff to review complaints of alleged misconduct by sworn UC Police Department officers.

Steiger said systemwide PABs received eight formal complaints in the most recent reporting period, which she cited when explaining why some PABs have met infrequently. She described the complaint process: a complaint is routed to the independent PAB; UC Davis is contracted to perform investigations; the PAB makes recommendations to a campus chief of police; the chief makes the final disciplinary decision; if the PAB and chief disagree, the matter can be elevated to the chancellor.

The committee also heard campus-level detail from Aaron Gore, senior vice chancellor for finance and administration at UCSF, who described the integrated public-safety model used at UCSF medical facilities. “We do have 10 hospital facilities across the SF Bay area with about 2,700,000 square feet,” Gore said, and said UCSF employs just over 100 health safety ambassadors and just under 30 sworn officers to cover multiple beats. Gore reported roughly 47,500 incidents responded to systemwide for the 12 months from December 2023 to December 2024 and 31,586 incidents within health facilities during that same period (not including recently acquired facilities added after the period).

Jeannie Kim, director of student mental health and well-being for Graduate and Undergraduate Equity Affairs, provided the committee with an update on mobile crisis response efforts. “Developing mobile crisis response teams and programs is a new operational area for many of our campuses,” Kim said. She reported seven campuses currently staff mobile crisis response teams with on-campus practitioners; one campus contracts with a local nonprofit; two campuses coordinate closely with county mobile crisis teams. Kim said recruitment and retention are the primary challenges and that the system worked with UC Human Resources to develop a behavioral intervention specialist job description to make hiring more consistent across campuses.

Steiger said the Office of Systemwide Community Safety is automating daily data-collection for key safety metrics with completion expected by fall 2025. She also described two outside reviews: an independent analysis by Nolan A. Milani (a graduate student at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy) on vehicles/uniforms/equipment recommendations, which found “one size fits all” approaches do not suit all campuses and medical centers; and a review by 21st Century Policing Solutions (21CP) into spring violence at UCLA. President Drake asked chancellors to implement 12 recommendations from the 21CP report; Steiger said those recommendations chosen for systemwide use will be adopted where appropriate.

Committee members pressed for clearer public communication about PABs and for more visible recruitment and meeting information. Regent Riley asked how the PABs are functioning and whether the public can access complaint processes; Steiger said each campus posts a website through which complaints can be filed and noted that some PABs meet only when they have investigations to review. Regent Lang suggested auditing campus PAB web pages and adding clearer language about who serves and how members are chosen. Regent Daphne Brooks and Regent Bahari urged improved outreach to students and clearer listing of PAB membership, meetings and application processes.

Additional items mentioned during discussion included state-funded prevention and early-intervention student mental health programs and a state partnership that makes the Saluna behavioral-health app available to students ages 13–25 under the Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative (the age limit comes from statute). Regent Lang asked why the app is limited to age 25; Kim said the statutory program covers that age range.

The meeting included multiple requests from regents for the Office of Systemwide Community Safety to (1) make PAB membership and meeting logistics more visible on campus websites, (2) continue training for PAB members, and (3) provide on-campus assessments in addition to the current semiannual written progress reports.

Votes at a glance

The committee approved the minutes from the November meeting by roll call.

(See “Actions” for motion details and vote record.)

The committee closed the item and moved on to other business.