By Linh Tat
Daily Bruin Staff
The university has launched a formal investigation against a
university police officer and the UCPD chief after members of the
Undergraduate Students Association Council and several student
organizations complained they mistreated students.
A complaint filed March 15 alleged that Officer Bryan Washburn
and Chief Clarence Chapman have fostered a hostile relationship
with students by using excessive force in their dealings with
minority groups on campus.
“We immediately launched an internal affairs investigation
against the officer,” said Allen Solomon, associate vice
chancellor of administration. The investigation against Washburn is
ongoing.
After consulting with the UC’s Office of the General
Counsel and the lawyers working for the UC system, the university
decided that the investigation against Chapman should go through an
administrative review process that is expected to conclude within
the next two months, Solomon said.
The complaint was filed by Cori Shepherd, chair of the African
Student Union. Chapman is accused of responding inappropriately
when he called on the Los Angeles Police Department to be present
during a May 1998 student demonstration against the loss of
affirmative action when students occupied Royce Hall and by
authorizing police to videotape students at an October 1999 rally
against globalization that took place in Westwood Plaza.
“The UCPD has violated the good faith and trust
relationship and protocol that has been established between UCLA
administrators and student leaders to maintain safe and peaceful
student activities,” the complaint reads.
Chapman declined to comment on the complaint made against him.
Washburn was unavailable for comment.
Shepherd further complained that Chapman authorized an excessive
police presence during ASU’s Hip Hop Xplosion this year.
“We believe that his actions foster a negative and
antagonistic relationship between student of color groups on campus
and the UCPD,” the complaint reads.
The complaint also alleges that Chapman was
“insensitive” by sending Washburn to investigate last
quarter’s hate crimes and vandalism in Kerckhoff Hall after
students had issued a complaint against the officer.
“Chapman has been hostile and confrontational with
students,” said USAC President Mike de la Rocha.
The complaint also alleges that Washburn overreacted to student
demonstrators during a Feb. 29 march to protest against two ballot
propositions.
The complaint alleged that Washburn used “excessive force
… when he ran his motorcycle into the marchers, attempting to
push them onto the sidewalk…” and that he threatened Center
for Student Programming advisors who were assisting marchers off
the street.
University officials said they have given serious considerations
to their handling of the investigation.
“We wanted (the investigation) to be full and assertive in
its discovery of facts and to be scrupulously objective,”
Solomon said. “We really took those assertions (against the
UCPD) very seriously in terms of its impact on campus.”
To investigate Chapman, the university has decided to create an
administrative review panel of three people consisting of a former
university administrator with mediation expertise, a UCLA Law
School alumnus with administrative expertise, and a police chief
from one of the other UC schools, all to be appointed by a UC
coordinator in the next two weeks.
The panel is responsible for identifying the underlying causal
problems that have resulted in tension between student groups and
the UCPD and to recommend the next course of action to the
university.
It took the university so long to determine the review process
because this investigation has set a precedent at UCLA.
“It has not been done before,” Solomon said.
“We needed to generate an acceptable approach. Other policies
on other campuses don’t make them applicable to
UCLA.”
Once the panel has finished its investigation, it will submit
its findings to an executive review committee consisting of vice
chancellors Peter Blackman and Winston Doby, and Solomon.
This group will then submit the report and proposed course of
actions to Chancellor Albert Carnesale and an executive committee
consisting of provosts, the chair of the academic senate and
faculty members, among others. A copy of the report will also be
submitted to student leaders.
Chapman said that work at the UCPD has not been disrupted by the
investigation.
“It hasn’t affected the police department at
all,” Chapman said. “There’s been no negative
fallout. Morale is high, and everyone is doing their
job.”