Leading in Turbulent Times: Effective Campus Public Safety Leadership for the 21st Century

This free webcast will discuss how campus public safety leaders can effectively incorporate things like the Clery Act, Title IX, customer service, ‘helicopter’ parents, and more into their safety plans and strategies.

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Being the chief of a university public safety department is not for the faint of heart. As a leader, you are faced with a whole host of issues that were probably not even on your radar in your previous career, especially if you come from the world of traditional municipal law enforcement.

Before you started in your position as an executive in higher education, you may have never even heard of, let alone addressed things like the Clery Act, Title IX, customer service, “helicopter” parents, emergency notification, town-gown relationships, brand management, Greek Life, student recruitment, faculty, and more.

This free webcast will discuss how campus public safety leaders can effectively incorporate these and many other additional responsibilities into their roles and develop the necessary skills to successfully lead their departments through both the Good and Turbulent times.

Attendees will learn:

• Key components/traits of being an effective campus public safety leader/chief/director.
• How to develop relationships with key stakeholders, such as executive campus administrators, faculty, staff, students, parents, and members of the community surrounding your campus.
• Steps you can take to work with, and possibly even partner with individuals or groups who may have a history of challenging relationships with law enforcement and campus public safety.
• How to effectively manage and motivate both sworn law enforcement officers and nonsworn security officers.

Speaker:

John Thomas, UCLA Interim Chief of Police

John Thomas is a native of Los Angeles. Prior to his appointment to Captain at the University of Southern California (USC) Department of Public Safety (DPS) in October 2006, he spent twenty-one years as a member of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) where he retired at the rank of Lieutenant in December 2005 to accept a position as Deputy Chief of Police for the University of the District of Columbia Department of Public Safety & Emergency Management in Washington D.C. He was promoted to USC Department of Public Safety’s Assistant Chief in February 2009 and its Chief in January 2013.

He retired as Chief of the USC Department of Public Safety in January 2022, and transitioned to the position of Special Advisor to the Senior Vice President of USC Administration; a position that he’s held until December 2022 when he accepted the position as the Interim Chief of Police for the UCLA Police Department. He is also a member of the Consent Decree Monitoring Team for the Aurora Colorado Police Department since it commenced in 2021.

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