Jody Stiger Appointed UC’s First Systemwide Director of Community Safety

Monday, July 18, 2022

Following a national search, Jody Stiger, a seasoned leader and nationally recognized expert in law enforcement and community and civilian oversight and outreach, has been appointed as the University of California’s first Systemwide Director of Community Safety. This position reports directly to UC Office of the President Chief Operating Officer Rachael Nava, with a dotted line reporting relationship to President Drake. 

“We chose Jody for this role because he is a thoughtful, effective leader and a nationally recognized expert in community and civilian oversight of law enforcement agencies” said President Michael V. Drake, M.D. “He has a long history of outreach and broad engagement with communities of color, providing educational seminars on constitutional rights.”

Jody’s early focus will be to work with campus leadership to continue the full implementation of the UC Community Safety Plan. He will be working with campuses to promote ongoing community engagement, implement a tiered response model, build consistent and transparent data processes, and establish and sustain independent, civilian campus police accountability bodies. One of his early priorities will be to convene a working group and lead the work to update the “gold book” (more formally, the Universitywide Police Policies and Administrative Procedures document) to UC’s policy standards and format. Jody will frequently work with senior leadership, faculty, students, chiefs of police, campus and systemwide legal counsel, campus compliance officers, risk services, student health and wellness, student affairs, chief diversity officers, Title IX officers, human resources and others across the University.

Jody has testified as an expert witness in numerous cases involving police use of force, including testifying to when use of force has been excessive. He has most recently served as the aide to the Inspector General of the Los Angeles Police Commission, where his duties included revising the department’s system for investigating use of force, workplace and community complaints and increasing oversight. Jody has worked with POST (Peace Officer Standards and Training) in revising their Basic Academy Workbook to incorporate procedural justice into statewide training for officers in California and advised the University on trainings.

Jody is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps and has served as an officer for 7 years in the Los Angeles Police Department. He then became an instructor in the academy, training over 3,000 officers in de-escalation techniques and best practices in patrol work. Jody later served as a sergeant for 8 years, where he partnered extensively with business and community leaders and conducted reviews and oversight of all use of force incidents. He is the president of the Oscar Joel Bryant Foundation, representing African American employees within the Los Angeles Police Department.

The UC Office of the President is very grateful to members of the search committee, who gave their time and expertise to this important effort: Terry Dalton, Professor, Criminology, Law and Society department, UCI; Alex Bustamante, Senior Vice President, Ethics, Compliance and Audit Services, UCOP; Gary C. Matthews, Vice Chancellor, Resource Management and Planning, UC San Diego; Marisa McAuliffe, Chief Policy Advisor, President's Executive Office, UCOP; Phillip Van Saun, Executive Director, Risk, Security and Resilience, Risk Services, UCOP; Suzanne Taylor, Systemwide Title IX Director, Systemwide Title IX Office, UCOP; Jerome Mayer-Cantú, Principal Counsel, Litigation, UC Legal, UCOP; Joseph Farrow, Chief of Police, UC Davis and systemwide convener of the chiefs of police; Liz Halimah (equity advisor to the search), Associate Vice Provost, Graduate, Undergraduate and Equity Affairs, UCOP; Genie Kim, MPP DSW, Director of Student Mental Health & Well-being, UCOP; Naomi Waters, Undergraduate Student, UC Riverside and UC Student Association Executive Officer.

A special thanks to Kelly Howard, Executive Recruitment Manager, UCOP, who managed the search.