ASUCD Student-Police Relations Committee - Davis

The goal of the Committee on Student-Police Relations will be to strengthen the relationship between the greater UC Davis student population and local law enforcement agencies including, but not limited to: the Davis Police Department (DPD), and the UC Davis Police Department (UCDPD). The committee will strive to:

Initiate dialogue between the students and the UCDPD and DPD
Address student concerns with police procedures
Educate the student population on rights, laws, and safety practices

ASUCD Senate Bill 50 created the committee on January 25, 2007.

ASUCD Student-Policy Relations Website

NOTE: This committee has not had regular or well attended meetings since it's re-establishment in 2007.

Membership

As of restructure in January 2007

Chairperson
Davis Police Department Representative
UC Davis Police Department Representative
ASUCD Director of City/County Affairs
Cross Cultural Center Representative
Davis Collegiate Panhellenic Association (DCPA) Interfraternity Council /Panhellenic Representative
African-American Greek Letter Council (AAGLC) Representative
United Sorority/Fraternity Council Representative
ASUCD President (or his/her designee)
Graduate Student Association Representative
Davis City Council Representative
Undergraduate Student At-Large Representative
ASUCD External Affairs Commission Representative
Cowell Student Health Center Representative
UCD Office of Campus and Community Relations
Davis Student Liaison Commission Representative
A Student Representative From the Residence Halls
Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Resource Center (LGBTRC) Representative
Office of the Student Assistants to the Chancellor Representative

History

There is a long history of conflict between UCD students and the police. However, the specific impetus for the committee were several alleged misconduct cases in the fall 2004 and the "Sterling Riot" in spring 2004. This prompted ASUCD officials to create an organized, sustained dialog between students, the city council and the police. Consequently, the Student Police Relations Committee was created in the winter quarter of 2005 by then ASUCD senate candidate Avi Singh, then ASUCD Senator Donald Cohen-Cutler and then student activist James Schwab. A bill was authored by the three and it was passed by the ASUCD Senate.

The Committee was empty and inactive until June 2005 when then Director of the ASUCD Office of External Affairs James Schwab hired the first position, Tanya Bermudez as Chair. Months later, Tanya Bermudez was offered an internship at the capital and no longer had the time to be involved in student government, so her successor, Wenche Molenaar took over the committee and then became Chair in Spring of 2006. The Student Police Relations Committee was overseen by the ASUCD Office of External Affairs until the Spring of 2006. After Spring 2006 the Committee was in limbo and without a Chair. At the end of Fall 2006 ASUCD President Darnell Holloway authored and passed legislation which changed the composition of the Committee, adding numerous officials from different areas of campus and the city.

The ASUCD Committee was ineffective from 2005 through 2006 in terms of achieving it’s purpose and has been dormant since the restructuring of ASUCD’s External Affairs division. In 2005 the City of Davis also formed a body to address student-police relations. The Student-Police Relations Sub-Committee of the Student Liaison Commission was charged with strengthening the relationship between the 30,000-strong student population, the City of Davis and the UC Davis Police Departments. The ultimate goal of the sub-committee was to promote sustained dialogue to decrease the number of negative police-student encounters, alert the Police Departments to student concerns, and increase student knowledge of police procedure and protocols. However, the sub-committee had also proven to be ineffective at achieving its goals for various reasons including a lack of sustained student involvement and the fact that the sub-committee was only permitted to meet on City property. The sub-committee was disbanded by the Student Liaison Commission on January 10, 2007.

Past Chairs