University of California police departments Information

Police departments in the University of California system are charged with providing law enforcement to each of the systems campuses.

The University of California was established in 1868, and moved its first campus to Berkeley in 1873. The San Francisco and Los Angeles campuses followed in 1873 and 1919, respectively. The original UCPD department at Berkeley was founded after World War II. In September 1947, the Regents of the University of California established UCPD as a state law-enforcement agency.

The UCPD is one of several police agencies in California having a statewide jurisdiction and authority (other examples include the California Highway Patrol, the California State University Police Department, and the California Department of Fish and Game). UCPD officers, like most California police officers, are empowered by section 830.2(b) of the California Penal Code, giving them authority as duly sworn peace officers throughout the state of California. As specified by Section 92600 of the California Education Code, their primary jurisdiction extends to the campuses and properties owned by the Regents of the University of California, as well as lands within a one-mile (1.6 km) radius of those campuses.

The department consists of ten departments (one for each UC campus), each led by its own chief of police. Unlike other police departments in the state, there is no single chief of the UCPD, however one chief is selected as the departments central coordinator (currently Chief David S. Rose of UCSD). The coordinator is responsible for compiling crime statistics from each campus, as required by the Clery Act, and for ensuring that the various departments are operating within the UCPDs mission. However, the coordinator does not dictate the day-to-day operations of the department, and each department sets its own Standard Operating Policies.

Still, the UCPD is more coordinated than this organization would suggest. The department shares a central mission and philosophy, including that of community oriented policing. The departments maintain communication with each other and frequently call upon each other for mutual aid, which is facilitated by a department standard uniform and duty gear (including using the same trunked radio system at all departments, allowing personnel to use their issued radios at any campus). UCPD officers wear LAPD-style dark blue uniforms with departmental patches; in the 1960s and earlier uniforms were Highway Patrol-style tan. The badge is a gold seven-point star with a colored California state seal in the center, a common badge style used by various other state agencies.

Almost all of the departments have a Community Service Officer (CSO) program. CSOs are non-sworn student employees that perform various tasks for the department. Although their job description varies slightly from department to department, most utilize CSOs to perform night escorts, building checks, and general citizen assistance. Because CSOs have no legal authority, their main purpose is to act as additional "eyes and ears" of the department.

Seven of the ten UCPD departments use tasers (UC Los Angeles, UC San Diego, UC Santa Barbara, UC Irvine, UC Riverside, UC Davis, UC Merced). UC San Francisco, UC Santa Cruz, and UC Berkeley currently do not intend to purchase Tasers.

In addition to CSO programs, UCPD departments each have a Communications Division, which is the police dispatch center and the 9-1-1 access point for each UC campus. Each department also staffs a Detective Division to investigate crimes and other cases reported by citizens and the patrol officers.

In addition to these standard police bureaus, several UCPD departments also staff more specialized police and public safety units. These include: Emergency Medical Services (EMS), Bomb Squad, Crime Prevention Units, Special Response Teams, Crime labs, Dignitary Protection Units, Negotiation and Entry Teams, and others.

The University of California was founded in 1868, shortly after California became a state. The university moved to the present site in Berkeley in 1873 with 191 students and 20 faculty members. Other campuses were added over time, resulting in a system which includes ten campuses spread out from San Francisco to San Diego. The university also manages four national laboratories and is affiliated with the Hastings School of Law in San Francisco and the San Francisco Art Institute. Now, the University of California, Berkeley, alone, has about 31,000 students, 1,600 full-time faculty members, and 11,000 staff members.

The original UC Police Department started on the Berkeley campus after the First World War. The very first security employees were three watchmen who wore full-length street carmens coats. They each carried keys, a sidearm, and a flashlight as well as a switch to chase errant dogs from the Greek Theater stage during weekend concerts. In 1925, Captain Walter J. Lee was appointed to lead the department, which he did for the next thirty plus years. Captain Lee is given credit[by whom?] for the eventual growth and efficiency of the police department.

In 1947, The regents established the University of California Police Department in its own right as a fully constituted police agency with authority based on Sections 20221 and 20222 of the State Education Code. By 1959, UCB Police consisted of about twenty-two sworn personnel, whose duties had been generally construed as "Big Brothers" to students needing guidance. There was a heavy emphasis on personal service and one-on-one contact with the campus community. Panty raids were considered[by whom?] to be a major student disturbance.

Captain Lee was succeeded by Captain W. W. Wadman. Captain Wadman was the first university staff member in the country who was selected to attend the FBI National Academy. Campus police duties during his tenure included patrolling the campus, enforcing traffic regulations and controlling traffic, investigating reports and complaints, conducting escorts, and policing an assortment of events. Officers usually walked their beats and rarely used cars.

The only communications between dispatchers and officers in the field were staggered hourly call-ins and, at night, the use of the light on top of the Campanile, a regional landmark used to summon officers in emergencies.

In 1959, the state established the Commission on Peace Officers Standards and Training (POST) to develop minimum standards and requirements for all police officers in the state, thus leading to the development of a fully professional police force.

In the fall of 1964, the Free Speech Movement began in Berkeley, a phenomenon which spread to many other college campuses in the following years. In December 1964, the police arrested 774 people in the Sproul Hall Sit-in, the largest mass arrest undertaken in the country up to that time. After the Free Speech Movement, there were seven years of frequent, and sometimes violent demonstrations, including draft protests, strikes, bombings of the ROTC building and PGandE Towers, arsons, and street battles.

One of the most notable on-going protests has been about a piece of university property called Peoples Park. Peoples Park history is long and appears to be never ending. The University purchased the land in 1967 to build dormitories, but were prevented from building due to protests. Since that time, all efforts to develop the land have continued to be met with resistance from community activists.

On May 1, 1969, William P. Beall, the retired chief of the Berkeley Police Department, became the chief at UC Berkeley. In addition to his duties at Berkeley, Chief Beall became the first university-wide coordinator of the nine-campus police department system. Chief Beall oversaw the instituting and managing uniform system-wide policies governing recruiting, training, personnel, and performance standards. The nine campus police departments continue to work together closely. The chiefs meet every three months at one of the campuses.

Chief Beall was succeeded by Chief Derry Bowles. Chief Bowles had been the chief of the UC Police Department on the Santa Barbara campus. Chief Bowles led the department through the early 1980s, a time that included massive sit-ins and demonstrations surrounding the universitys investments in South Africa.

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