Recommendations

Recommendations call for primarily pre-event planning, organization and communication; and that specifically require interaction with the campus community; either directly or through posted communications.

Recommendations in this category include: 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 12, 14, 16, 18, 19, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 39, 41, 42, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, and 49.

  1. Increase and better publicize opportunities for students, faculty, staff, and others to engage with senior administrators, particularly on issues likely to trigger protest or civil disobedience events.
  2. Discuss with the Regents the possibility of increasing opportunities for students and other campus constituencies to address concerns directly with the Regents at times other than during the public comment period at formal meetings.
  3. Create user-friendly summaries of each campus's time, place, and manner regulations and policies governing the response to events of civil disobedience, and distribute the summaries at least annually during student orientations; highlight in the summaries descriptions of conduct that is or could be perceived as threatening to safety and thus might trigger a police response.
  4. Increase opportunities for routine interaction between police and students and between the police and key administrators (especially the Police Chief and the Chancellor).
  5. Establish a standing event response team on each campus to plan and oversee the campus response to demonstrations - include on the team faculty members and/or administrators recognized by students and faculty to be sensitive to the University's academic mission and values.
  6. To the extent necessary, modify police policies to require the participation of senior administrators in decision-making about any police response to civil disobedience - clearly define the respective roles of administrators (objectives) and police (tactics) in this process.
  7. During the course of an event, continuously re-assess objectives, and the wisdom of pursuing them, in light of necessary police tactics - seek to pursue only important goals with the minimum force necessary.
  8. Coordinate in advance of planned demonstrations with other police departments likely to provide assistance.
  9. Obtain input from members of the campus community (e.g., students, faculty, staff) in the process for hiring campus police officers and promoting or hiring officers for command-level positions within the department.
  10. Review UC police compensation practices to ensure that compensation is sufficiently competitive to attract and retain highly qualified officers and police leaders.
  11. Increase training of campus police officers in the areas of crowd management, mediation, and de-escalation of volatile crowd situations.
  12. Make every reasonable attempt to identify and contact members of the demonstration group - preferably one or more group leaders - in advance of the demonstration to establish lines of communication.
  13. Inform protesters, in advance of the event, of the availability of alternative avenues for communication of their concerns or proposals.
  14. Pursue a dialogue between Administration officials and the demonstration group about protest objectives and applicable rules for campus protest.
  15. Absent special circumstances, assign administrators or faculty members, rather than police, to serve as the primary University representative communicating with protesters during a demonstration.
  16. Establish senior administrators as a visible presence during protests, absent good cause.
  17. Make every reasonable attempt to establish a communication link with identified leaders or sponsors of the event - for leaderless groups, communicate broadly to the group as a whole (through social media and otherwise) until relationships form.
  18. To the extent not already available, establish a communication mechanism for promptly informing the campus community at large about material developments in ongoing protests, for use when appropriate.
  19. Establish an internal mediation function at the campus or regional level to assist in resolving issues likely to trigger protests or civil disobedience.
  20. Consider deploying this mediation function as an alternative to force, before and during a protest event.
  21. Where possible, police should pursue tactics designed to diffuse tensions and avoid tactics likely to increase tensions.
  22. Require each campus police department to include the list of weapons approved for use in response to demonstrations and civil disobedience in its use-of-force policies, and to make the list available to the public.
  23. Establish at each campus a formal program to allow designated, trained observers to gain access to the protest site for purposes of observing, documenting, and reporting on the event.
  24. Establish a program for video recording protest events designed to develop a fair and complete record of event activity solely for evidentiary or training purposes.
  25. Coordinate review of after-action reports on a periodic basis with campus event response teams, and with the Office of the President.
  26. Establish a structure and process at the system level for discretionary review of campus responses to protest activity, consistent with existing legal limitations.
  27. Establish a systemwide Implementation Manager to develop specific policy language in those areas where recommendations call for common or system policies or practices, and to track campus-level measures.
  28. Require status reports from each campus six months following the President's acceptance of this Report's recommendations concerning progress on implementation of the recommendations.
  29. Require a final report and certification from each Chancellor one year following the President's acceptance of this Report's recommendations confirming that all recommendations so accepted have been implemented.
  30. Establish similar reporting and certification requirements for future recommendations arising out of the event review process described above.