LOS ANGELES – The University of California, Los Angeles should develop clear plans and policies, lines of communication and decision-making authority before major protests, such as the large-scale student protests against the Israel-Hamas war that rocked the campus this spring, according to an external communication. review.

The report published Thursday by 21st Century Policing Solutions, a national law enforcement consulting agency, described a wildly chaotic response in late April and early May, doomed by the university’s lack of training and critical communication failures.

The University of California requested this after UCLA’s controversial handling of the protests.

Clashes between protesters and counter-protesters on campus resulted in more than a dozen injuries and over 200 people were arrested at a demonstration the day after hundreds defied the order to leave.

Police fired flares to break up the crowds and tore down the barricade of plywood, pallets, metal fences and dumpsters of a fortified camp, then tore down awnings and tents.

As the events unfolded, UCLA administrators sometimes excluded campus police from key meetings and briefings, the report said.

Campus police also had no plans to engage with outside law enforcement, leaving the Los Angeles Police Department and California Highway Patrol to develop an ad hoc plan without guidance from the officers who knew best the campus.

The report notes that the “central tension” of whether and how police should ensure public safety is part of a national conversation and one UCLA should have with its community.

“UCLA has so far responded to this tension ineffectively, functionally excluding police from planning and involvement, but then requiring law enforcement to step in once tensions have escalated to violence,” the report said.

The university said in a statement that it is committed to campus safety and will continue to implement the recommendations, some of which are ongoing.