[Gradstudents] Statement on Proposed Revisions to University-wide Police Policies and Administrative Procedures

[Heather Killeen]

Dear GSOE Graduate Students,

Please find the message below from colleagues Aubrey, Anna and Briana.

-Heather

________________________________

Hi, friends! In response to some proposed revisions to UC policing policies, some of us in the GSOE drafted a statement that has just been sent out to UC administrators. Please consider signing our petition here<http://chng.it/GgD2HHV2Mp> and sharing with everyone you know! The letter is attached in the email below.

All best,

Aubrey Lancaster
gp: they/them
alanc008 at ucr.edu<mailto:alanc008 at ucr.edu>

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Aubrey Lancaster <alanc008 at ucr.edu<mailto:alanc008 at ucr.edu>>
Date: Wed, Apr 21, 2021 at 2:30 PM
Subject: Statement on Proposed Revisions to Universitywide Police Policies and Administrative Procedures
To: <jason.stajich at ucr.edu<mailto:jason.stajich at ucr.edu>>, <chancellor at ucr.edu<mailto:chancellor at ucr.edu>>, <gerard.bomotti at ucr.edu<mailto:gerard.bomotti at ucr.edu>>, <mariam.lam at ucr.edu<mailto:mariam.lam at ucr.edu>>, Tasha Hudson <tasha.hudson at ucr.edu<mailto:tasha.hudson at ucr.edu>>, <john.freese at ucr.edu<mailto:john.freese at ucr.edu>>, <christine.bender at ucr.edu<mailto:christine.bender at ucr.edu>>, <regentsoffice at ucop.edu<mailto:regentsoffice at ucop.edu>>, <president at ucop.edu<mailto:president at ucop.edu>>, <Cheryl.Lloyd at ucop.edu<mailto:Cheryl.Lloyd at ucop.edu>>
Cc: Anna Acha <aacha009 at ucr.edu<mailto:aacha009 at ucr.edu>>, Briana Savage <bsava002 at ucr.edu<mailto:bsava002 at ucr.edu>>

Statement on Proposed Revisions to Universitywide Police Policies and Administrative Procedures

21 April 2021

Addressed to:
Jason Stajich, Chair of the Riverside Division of the Academic Senate
Kim A. Wilcox, Chancellor, Riverside Campus
Mariam Lam, Vice Chancellor, Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion, Riverside Campus
John Freese, Interim Chief of Police, Riverside Campus
Christine Bender, Director of Residential Life, Riverside Campus
Gerry Bomotti, Vice Chancellor, Planning, Budget, & Administration, Riverside Campus
Board of Regents, University of California
John A. Pérez, Chair, Board of Regents, University of California
Michael V. Drake, President, University of California
Cheryl A. Loyd, Interim Vice President, Systemwide Human Resources



UC Students, Staff, Faculty, and Community Members:

Today, it has come to our attention that the UC Academic Senate is considering revisions<https://senate.universityofcalifornia.edu/_files/underreview/gold-book-systemwide-review.pdf> published by the UCOP to the Universitywide Police Policies and Administrative Procedures<https://policy.ucop.edu/doc/4000382/PoliceProceduresManual>, affecting UCPD practices systemwide.

Oppositions to Proposed Revisions
We, the undersigned as UC students and community members, comprehensively object to these police revisions that expand the UCPD’s use of force standards and that create new taskforces without community oversight and stakeholder inclusion. Specifically, we oppose the creation of a specialized tactical team--identified in Chapter 16 of the proposed revisions as a Systemwide Response Team (SRT)--that is trained in “crowd management and control tactics” (1604.3.2.b). While the proposal understands its creation as an intent to “emphasize de-escalation” and incorporate “‘less lethal’ weapons,” the proposal to create a specialized tactical team that would be deployed against any campus protestors implies a hostile campus climate that discourages student and community voices.

Additionally, the ambiguity of the SRT’s responsibilities in section 1605.2 permits an unspecified group of UCPD officers to develop “training guidelines” in 11 broad response categories without any oversight. Again, new policies must not be developed by the UCPD, but by community stakeholders in collaboration with the UCPD, if it is to continue to exist. If we are to create a safer and more equitable UC climate, no longer may those affected by new policies be left out of these conversations. Furthermore, we reject the issuance of specialized, military-style equipment to the SRT that includes chemical agents, helmets with face shields, 36” batons, kinetic energy projectiles, and riot gear (sections 1606.1, 1606.2). We believe that this equipment discourages and undermines the de-escalation tactics that the UCPD supposedly seeks to expand. This equipment, which also includes unspecified “[s]pecialized equipment for defeating protestor devices” (1606.2) is specifically motivated by recent antiracist global protests against police brutality and further targets UC communities of color by both the intimidation and actualization of physical violence against protestors.

Current Campus Reality & Address to Police Practices
The UC system does not exist outside of the ongoing pervasive realities of systemic racism and antiblackness: these structures are as endemic to our UC institutions as much as they are throughout higher education and the United States at large. Students of color have long been subject to racial profiling on UC campuses, including hostile UCPD responses to peacefully protesting students. Most notably, in 2011, a UCPD officer went viral for pepper-spraying seated students who were peacefully protesting and, in 2013, UCR officers implemented new policing policies to combat robberies that directly correlated to more frequent stops and harassment of Black students due to the latent racial profiling within policing.

In line with principles of academic freedom, if the UC system encourages critical thinking at the intersection of social justice, students must be guaranteed the freedom to protest injustice without fear of academic, physical, or administrative retaliation. The aforementioned UCPD revisions are antithetical to these espoused UC values. If UC espouses these principles, it is critical to address the ongoing practices of the UCPD. At our campus, UC Riverside, reform efforts include a comprehensive review of campus police practices by the Graduate Student Association, which is intentionally undermined by this proposal’s expansion of the UCPD’s use of force standards and the implementation of the SRT.

The UC system must capitalize on the momentum of recent nationwide protests against inequity and injustice to address its policies that deter safe and accessible campus ecologies and that perpetuate systemic racism. We protest these proposed revisions that prevent the work of the larger UC community’s efforts to transform our racial climate, and work to reinforce the oppressive systems that subjugate students of color.

In addition to our sponsorship of this letter, please see our petition at http://chng.it/GgD2HHV2Mp(published 21 April 2021) for additional signatories to this letter. Please also note that our petition speaks directly to current police reform proposals, but does not discount the demand for police abolition.

Thank you for your attention to this troubling proposal and your ongoing actions in creating safer campuses for all students, staff, faculty, and community members.

Attentively,

Aubrey Lancaster
M.Ed. Student, Higher Education Administration and Policy
University of California, Riverside

Anna Acha, M.Ed.
Ph.D. Student, Higher Education Administration and Policy
University of California, Riverside

Briana Savage, M.Ed.
Ph.D. Student, Higher Education Administration and Policy
University of California, Riverside

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