Oct 4, 2022

Dear campus community,

Administered from February to April, the purpose of the 2022 Community Safety Survey was to provide UCI community members an opportunity to share their experiences and perceptions of the UCI Police Department and to hear suggestions for ways to improve campus safety. Such input previously helped form the 2021 report from the UCI Public Safety Advisory Committee and the 2019 UC Presidential Task Force on Universitywide Policing.

I am particularly grateful to the nearly 4,000 undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, staff and University Hills residents who completed the survey. Their responses provided valuable insight about campus policing and strategies for improving safety for all. The report is available at this link: 2022 Community Safety Survey Report. An interactive visualization of survey results is also available on the OIE Dashboard.

Below are several highlights:

  • Campus community respondents identified friends, peers and colleagues as their principal source of safety and security, followed by UCI personnel in general, with the UCIPD as the third source among faculty and staff, but living arrangements and social/academic clubs third among students.
  • Respondents reported positive overall perceptions of the UCIPD, including professionalism and fostering a greater sense of safety, though some respondents wanted better communication with the UCIPD.
  • Some respondents differed in their experiences and perceptions of the UCIPD, with room for improvement especially seen among students, underrepresented ethnic groups, sexual minorities, and individuals with nonbinary gender identities.
  • Survey respondents supported redistributing non-criminal service requests to unarmed and/or non-law enforcement experts and professionals—e.g., public safety personnel and mental health professionals—and more de-escalation approaches in UCIPD responses.
  • Community members expressed high support for working with the UCIPD and very low support for abolishing the UCIPD or relying on other law enforcement jurisdictions.

In sum, respondents endorsed a holistic, tiered and service-oriented model of community safety—one that includes the UCIPD as part of a diverse configuration of safety resources, approaches and responses but nonetheless understands, engages with, and is personally invested and integrated into our campus community.

Thank you again to everyone who provided their responses to the survey. Being able to hear directly from the campus community is a valuable part of our decision-making as a university, and we strongly encourage you to share your voice during these and other opportunities.

UCI Office of Inclusive Excellence