Mission

The University of California, Santa Cruz Police Department is committed to cultivating a transparent, accountable, and collaborative environment embracing the broad diversity of our stakeholders to protect the life and property of our community.

We develop and maintain a well-trained and properly equipped police agency – an agency that is innovative and dedicated to fostering an environment that encourages dialogue, compassion, commitment, service and integrity.

We are a community resource that shares in the responsibility to recommend and deliver preventative measures to minimize potential risk and enable a timely and effective response to incidents and emergencies.

We are committed to serving all individuals, promoting diversity and operating in a manner that safeguards the university’s academic and research mission so that all members of the campus community are able to actively engage in UC Santa Cruz’s distinctive living-learning environment.

Vision

To meet the challenges of tomorrow, the vision of the University of California, Santa Cruz Police Department is to actively engage in a comprehensive, evidence-based, community-oriented policing model that pursues excellence, and fosters, maintains, and protects the trust of our dynamic community.

We respect the broad diversity of our colleagues and community and strive to cultivate a safe and secure environment where our students, faculty, staff and visitors can learn, engage and discover.

We will adhere to the highest standards, and develop a creative and forward-thinking workforce, that is professional, and dedicated to serving with a level of excellence that exemplifies integrity, and demonstrates respect for each individual.

To make this vision a reality, we must emphasize, enable, and support the professional development of our employees, and supply them with emerging technologies, police strategies and tactics to effectively safeguard public safety, university resources, and individual rights.

Everything that we do individually and collectively to accomplish our public safety mission, will be done in accordance with the UC Statement of Ethical Values and UC Santa Cruz’s Principles of Community.

Values

We Value Human Life. Our highest priority will always be the protection of human life. We are committed in using all reasonable means to prevent injury to the public.

We Respect All Members Of The Community. Valuing human life, we are committed to delivering high-quality customer service in a compassionate, courteous, fair, responsive, and professional manner for all individuals regardless of the reason for the contact. Our actions must be ethical so there can be no question or suspicion among the community about our integrity. We will maintain our integrity to keep personal, political, or religious views from affecting our actions.

We Are Dedicated To Preserving and Advancing The Rights Of All Individuals. We respect and protect the rights of all individuals as guaranteed by the United States and the California State Constitution. We will not be biased by the opinions being expressed nor by race, gender, sexual orientation, physical disabilities, appearances, religion, or political affiliation.

We Recognize That Our Department Members Are Our Greatest Asset and We Support Their Professional Development. We embrace the wide diversity of our members by fostering a workplace based on mutual respect that reflects an appreciation of the unique qualities of each individual who contributes to the overall good of our team. We maintain high standards of training and expertise in order to know and use the most effective techniques for enforcing the law and maintaining order, as well as develop a safe and secure environment for our community.

We Are Responsible and Accountable. We strive to maximize our delivery of quality customer service, at minimum costs. We effectively manage our resources with collaboration and open communication with our community. We admit our mistakes and take responsibility for our actions as we strive to continuously enhance the trust and support of our community.

We Are Committed To Open and Honest Communication. Adopting community service as the overarching philosophy of the organization, we are dedicated to Community Oriented and Problem-Oriented Policing strategies. We encourage and empower individuals to act in partnership with the Police Department on issues of crime and quality-of-life issues. We understand the need to collaborate with our community to increase the public's understanding of law enforcement actions and meet their expectations. We seek the input of our community and department members and involve their input in the decision-making process.

We Believe In Crime Prevention. We are dedicated to providing a highly visible presence as well as use effective technology to deliver preventative measures and minimize potential risk to the community.