UC Santa Cruz Introduces New Police Chief

SANTA CRUZ, CALIF. (KION-TV)- New Police Chief of UC Santa Cruz Kevin Domby was welcomed to the campus as they hosted a meet-the-chief barbecue event at the Hay Barn on campus.

Former co-workers and UCSC faculty members enjoyed some food and got to talk to the new chief.

“Your welfare is my top priority, and I pledge to ensure a safe and secure environment that fosters effective growth, personal development, and a sense of belonging for everyone,” Domby said to the people in attendance.

Those words of safety are something people on the campus have some concerns about.

How will this new chief make sure things like the recent incidents that have happened on campus don’t happen again? Domby responded to those concerns when asked.

“When it comes to some of the things that occurred on the campus in the past, those have been lessons that the police have learned from and that we've all moved past with how we interact with people, our tactics, our engagement, our dialog,” Domby said. “I think what you're going to see going forward is that community engagement solving problems before there becomes some issue in the future.”

Domby also hopes to reassure students they have the right to speak up.

“Our number one goal is to protect the campus and the students, including their constitutional rights,” Domby said. “So I think that the community engagement that the Department already is involved in and that we hope to increase and the transparency with our processes is just going to allow us to engage and earn that trust every single day.”

Chief Domby also saw this opportunity as a way to use his teaching background as he was also a former college and high school instructor.

Other key issues that Chief Domby will look to work on for the police department are how they respond to 911 calls received by the campus and also recruitment to add to the campus police.