UCLA has hired a 27-year LAPD veteran and top commanding officer to lead its eight-month-old Office of Campus Safety created in the wake of a violent melee last spring at a pro-Palestinian encampment, which was among the university’s darkest chapters.
LAPD Cmdr. Steve Lurie, who previously oversaw the department’s West Bureau, will begin his role as an associate vice chancellor on Feb. 1.
He will replace Rick Braziel, the former Sacramento police chief who was hired in May by then-Chancellor Gene Block to be the university’s chief safety official in a new role that included responsibility for the UCLA Police Department, Office of Emergency Management and other safety initiatives.
In announcing Lurie’s appointment Friday, UCLA Chancellor Julio Frenk said that Lurie’s “track record — combined with his leadership experience, firsthand knowledge of our campus and academic insights as an adjunct professor of law — make him uniquely qualified to lead UCLA’s efforts to strengthen and connect our campus safety initiative.”
“He will take a community-informed, collaborative approach to campus safety that reflects the diverse experiences and perspectives of those who call UCLA home,” said Frenk, who began his role this month. “Our goal is to ensure that our policies and practices are not only effective but also equitable, respecting the safety, rights and well-being of all Bruins.”
Lurie received an undergraduate anthropology degree from UCLA in 1994 and is a professor of criminal justice at USC. As a detective, he worked on domestic violence, robberies, sex crimes and homicides. He has also worked in the unit that investigates officer-involved shootings and was a liaison for the department to L.A’s Jewish community.
“I am honored and excited to return to my alma mater in this new role,” Lurie said in an interview.
“As a proud alum, I recognize the impact my UCLA education has had on my professional and personal development… I look forward to spending my first 100 days on campus listening and learning more about the Bruin community’s safety concerns, as a ‘safe’ university is defined by much more than the absence of crime.”
LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell praised Lurie, saying the department would “miss Steve’s talents and dedication at the LAPD. But we are happy that if he has to leave he will continue to be a great partner at UCLA.”
Lurie will take over a campus safety operation that has been widely criticized since the spring, when a badly coordinated response between UCLA Police, LAPD, California Highway Patrol and other law enforcement agencies led to an hours-long delay as a mob attacked a pro-Palestinian encampment overnight on April 30 and May 1. An LAPD Police Commission report as well as a report from a Republican-led House education committee in the fall cited the failed coordination.
A November report from an outside policing firm hired by the University of California, 21st Century Policing Solutions, reached similar conclusions.
“Because no codified plans existed, UCLA administrators engaged in a chaotic process in which they needed to make difficult decisions … in the midst of ongoing disruption, without clarity on who maintained final decision-making authority, lacking a commonly understood process for reaching decisions, and largely lacking the ability to react quickly to fast-changing events and dynamic circumstances on campus,” that report said.
In his LAPD role, Lurie was closely involved in the response to the campus protests. The LAPD Commission report cites Lurie several times, saying he was notified as early as 5 a.m. April 25 — by then-UCLA Police Chief John Thomas — that UCLA “may need some assistance as the day progresses” while tents went up on Royce Quad.
Reports and public records show that Lurie was also part of the LAPD response later in the week, including being informed that UCLA police were overwhelmed by counterprotesters on the night of April 30 — although there was a lag between those reports and requests for mutual police aid.
In creating the new campus safety office last year, UCLA sought to better coordinate campus safety to prevent similar future incidents.
Upon taking up his role, Braziel reassigned Thomas, who left the department in December. It is unclear whether Thomas was fired or resigned.
Braziel also faced criticism as the university opened the fall quarter with an increased presence of security workers that made some students, faculty and staff concerned, as well as new, widespread restrictions on unpermitted protest.
Braziel, who stayed in Sacramento and never moved to Los Angeles, was paid $52,000 a month. Lurie’s salary was not immediately disclosed by UCLA.
Times staff writer Libor Jany contributed to this report.