Ex-Sacramento inspector general tapped to review attack on pro-Palestine protesters at UCLA

Ishani Desai
·2 min read
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Rick Braziel, a former Sacramento police chief and Sacramento County inspector general, has been appointed by UCLA to lead a new University of California agency that will examine the campus police’s response after an attack upon pro-Palestine protesters broke out last week.

UCLA Chancellor Gene Block created Sunday the Office of Campus Safety that will oversee UCLA’s police department and Office of Emergency Management. Braziel, who will serve as the school’s associate vice chancellor, will partner with UC Davis Police Chief and Council of UC Chiefs of Police Joe Farrow and other UC personnel to oversee safety and emergency management operations.

“I fully support this appointment and believe that it is an important step towards restoring confidence in our public safety systems and procedures,” Block said in a statement.

Former Sacramento police Chief Rick Braziel and inspector general for Sacramento County is seen during an interview with The Sacramento Bee in 2018. Braziel will probe law enforcement’s response into an attack on pro-Palestine protesters at UCLA. Paul Kitagaki Jr./Sacramento Bee file
Former Sacramento police Chief Rick Braziel and inspector general for Sacramento County is seen during an interview with The Sacramento Bee in 2018. Braziel will probe law enforcement’s response into an attack on pro-Palestine protesters at UCLA. Paul Kitagaki Jr./Sacramento Bee file

The new office will investigate if any campus security lapses occurred when a large group of counterprotesters mounted an attack against pro-Palestinian demonstrators April 30 on the Westwood campus. It took about three hours for law enforcement officers — from the California Highway Patrol, the LAPD and elsewhere — to arrive and quell the violence, according to the Los Angeles Times.

A day after the bloody clashes between protestors, police dismantled the encampment outside Royce Hall and arrested over 200 people.

Braziel served as chief of the Sacramento Police Department from 2008 to 2012 before assuming the post examining the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office use of force incidents as a neutral arbiter.

Serving as the inspector general from December 2015 until November 2018 proved to be a tumultuous time. Braziel was locked out of county facilities by then-Sacramento County Sheriff Scott Jones after he disagreed with Braziel’s report over the 2017 shooting of Mikel McIntyre on Highway 50.

Braziel left the Sacramento County post and became the president of his own consulting company, Braziel Consulting Inc., according to his LinkedIn page.

He has since served on panels created by the U.S. Department of Justice to review law enforcement’s approach to mass casualty incidents. In the latest instance, Braziel was tapped to review authorities’ response to a mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that killed 19 students and two teachers at an elementary school.