So this is interesting: According to @UofCalifornia Regent board docs, several UC campuses, including @UCLA and @ucdavis, are projected to increase their campus policing budgets for this new school year. Source: regents.universityofcalifornia.edu/regmeet/july20… 
The campus police forces oversee a range of staff, from 270 officers, 150 higher ranking personnel, and other parking, security and dispatch staff.
In the absence of campus police, municipal police are allowed to enter UC campuses to address complaints, UC General Counsel Robinson says during this session. He says leadership needs to decide which force do they want responding to safety issues.
Chancellor Gillman, UC Irvine: Local control matters. "The concept of policing on my campus may end up being different in some respects, from what the Berkeley community expects of its public safety officials." He says UCI campus is dispersed across housing, medical centers, etc.
Gillman: He says there's going to be a "comprehensive review" at his campus on policing. "They know to think in bold and innovative terms, and I'm really eager to benefit from their advice," Gillman said of the experts and consultant doing the review.
.@ucsc Chancellor Cynthia Larive says "our platitudes are not enough." Later she said "I don't believe there is a single formula for a successful Campus Safety Program. But I do believe that the strategies must come from the campus communities themselves."
Larive says her campus will do annual review of police practices. There will also be a survey of students and other campus members gauging their attitudes about campus police.
Next up is Chancellor May of UC Davis. "More than 30 members of our community are charged with recommending how safety can be best achieved on our Davis and Sacramento campuses." He adds that the focus should also be whether students, community "feels safe," too.
He says 22 of the 50 UCD campus police officers are UCD alum.
He says "police officers are not deployed to protest, they simply monitored from a distance giving students space for freedom of expression." He says campus is much different than it was in 2011, the recent nadir of campus policing from which the pepper spray meme emerged.
"I have some concerns over the idea of disarming police," he said. There have been some armed robberies and other incidents with suspects with weapons. He is unsure about sending campus police onto those sites unarmed.
Next up is @_UCSA Varsha Sarveshwar. She lists numerous incidents of police violence against student and campus members.
Sarveshwar says it's disheartening to see UC policing budgets go up in time of fiscal unrest for students. For next steps, she says UC leadership must "listen to, consult with, and follow the lead of black students," not just student associations.
During @UCSC graduate student protests, "the most severe police scrutiny at the picket line and harsh discipline was levied against students of color," said President at University of California Graduate-Professional Council Gwen Chodur.
One of her calls for reform: "campus safety officers do not need full military uniforms. Officers responding to lockouts or reports of stolen bikes can do so" in polo shirts, which are less imposing, Chodur said.
It's question time. "I'm incredibly frustrated by this item," said John A. Pérez, Chair of the Board of Regents. He says he's upset that the student comments didn't sync with the official pronouncements of UC officials. He says he aligns more with student voices.
"The first time that I was stopped for nothing, put in handcuffs and thrown to the ground, was when I was 13 years old, walking home from junior high school" -- Pérez
"The last time that I was handcuffed for nothing was the month before I was elected to the state legislature, where I was stopped at a broken windows random stop of individuals," Pérez said.
"When we asked for an introspective look at our policing. I expected more than what we got," Pérez said. He said he only got the 100+ report on police reforms yesterday. He wanted a broader discussion of comparing UC policing to best practices. "That's not what I've heard today."
He says the UC Santa Cruz statement of its policing practices in the report is not consistent with news articles that show the contrary. "My observations stand in conflict with that assessment," Pérez said.
.@EloyOakley, a regents member but not on this committee: "I have great respect for the way" students characterized the issues on policing. He had hoped UC leadership would have "taken the same intentional and courageous steps that they may mentioned."
"we continue to ask ourselves why we only have 4% enrollment of black students," Oakley said. Part of it is admissions. But part of it is "also the culture that we have on campus."
"This issue is not new to many of us in the community, and we've been saying things for quite a long time," said UC Regents member Jamaal Muwwakkil.
Muwwakkil asks of mutual aid agreements in which UC police give land access to local police, to say, park vehicles. UCI Chancellor Gillman said most campuses have mutual aid agreements. He says it's used for disaster response typically.
A UC chancellor said mutual aid requests have to be approved by the chancellor.
Regent Stegura asks if there are "no concrete recommendations on what types of force are prohibited. It's only says that officers would be trained on the use of force." I think I heard there's a systemwide report/policy/something being created now.
Napolitano: More work needs to be done. We just begun the kind of deep excavation that needs to happen. We just begun identifying best practices and implementing recommendations from 2019 report. And now it’s all about the follow-up. She says safety is Chancellor's responsibility
She also recommends that the UC Regents not create its own working group yet.
Chancellors should be directed to lead here. they heard your comments today. This is not something that'll be blown off. "Let the chancellors continue being chancellors ... and for them to keep working on reimagining policing at the UC." -- Napolitano.
Regent Vice Chair Estolano says when the public thinks about policing at the UC, they think about what the system is doing. So sure, let the chancellors make change, but the regents have to be involved. We can provide a way to address student concerns.
Estolano: She wants to see a task force or working group for the Regents. She says students who presented today were eloquent and to the point. They gave the system their charge to improve policing.
She says that campus chancellors' efforts in any other time would seem transformative, but in this epoch of national reckoning about racism and its impact, more needs to be done.
The head of the UC academic senate reminds the regents that the senate called for a substantial defunding of UC police forces "those funds be spent to think about how to develop campuses as safe spaces for all the community on a campus." Also called to make officers unarmed.
For those who are watching/reading, here is the policing report that the Regents only got yesterday. It's 142 pages long. ucop.edu/policing-task-…
A regent asked @ucsc's police chief Nader Oweis how he hires officers for the campus police force. He says background investigators look out for officers who fled their police agencies under ignoble terms. Oweis says such folks are not hired. Says he hires a lot of UC grads.
Regent Butler also asks if there's UC policing hiring policy to bar hiring of candidates who have questionable backgrounds at previous posts. Two UC officials couldn't answer that (because they wouldn't know and those who would aren't speaking now).
Regent Reilly asks if UC officials on call know what the racial and demographic breakdown is of the UC police officers. The responding UC official did not know.
Oh! Chair Pérez is changing his mind on creating a working group on policing following Napolitano's advice and instead let the chancellors figure this out. Ironically, UCR Chancellor Wilcox says there may be a role for UC Regents here if it's complementary to chancellor role.
Chancellor of UCSD says policing is both a local issue and one that needs a standardized response from the Regents. He also cautions that some UCs are rural, others urban. "There's a role for a working group ... but it should not impinge on the local authority."
Several chancellors have spoken up to say they support a regents role in this.
That committee is over. I didn't hear anything about creating a new working group. We're now on a 5-minute break. Pérez wants to move the governance committee to tomorrow because the board is an hour behind. We'll see if we just hear about item G6 (appointing chancellors) today.
Ok, final word on this policing item. The report that the regents received yesterday has been out since June. I can't comment on the normal processes of sharing board docs with board members. Anyway, read my colleagues' excellent reporting on UC policing: calmatters.org/education/2020…
