Timing is Everything at the Campus Police

As blog readers will know, at the start of the turmoil last spring, the then UCLA police chief recommended the kinds of policies that are now in effect in the fall. But the chancellor, at the time, rejected those recommendations. In the end, as the situation deteriorated, he brought in Rick Braziel who essentially put the rejected policies into effect. 

The fallout from all of that seems to be contining "fluidity" at the top of the campus police. From the Bruin:

The UCLA Police Department appointed a new acting chief for the second time this year. In what appears to be his first public appearance as acting police chief, UCPD posted a video of Scott Scheffler on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday with the caption, “A message from Acting Chief Scheffler.” Scheffler replaced the previous acting chief Gawin Gibson, who was placed on administrative leave Sept. 27, according to a statement from UCLA Media Relations.

Scheffler previously worked as administrative bureau captain, department spokesperson and served on the Campus Safety Oversight Committee. He has been with UCPD – previously working as a dispatcher and detective – since 2003 and received an undergraduate degree from UCLA in mathematics/applied science. 

Gibson – who has been with UCPD for 28 years – served in the role for less than five months, after then-chief John Thomas was announced as “temporarily reassigned” in May. Thomas’ reassignment came after UCLA formed the Office of Campus Safety in May, headed by Rick Braziel, administrative vice chancellor for campus safety. In an earlier post to X, Braziel was pictured briefing UCPD officers for Oct. 7 protests on campus...

Full story at https://dailybruin.com/2024/10/08/ucpd-appoints-scott-scheffler-as-new-acting-chief-of-police.

Apparently, being ahead of your time at the police department is not a good career strategy.