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 student demonstrations against the war between Israel and Hamas that have rocked the campus this spring, according to an outside source. goodbye.

THE report released Thursday by 21st Century Policing Solutions, a national law enforcement consulting agency, described a highly chaotic response in late April and early May doomed by the university’s lack of preparation and critical communications failures.

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

Clashes between demonstrators and counter-protesters on campus resulted in more than a dozen injuries, and more than 200 people were arrested during a demonstration the next day after hundreds defied orders to leave.

Police fired flash bangs to disperse the crowd and destroyed a fortified encampment’s barricade made of plywood, pallets, metal fencing and dumpsters, then tore down awnings and tents.

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

Campus police also lacked plans for interacting with outside law enforcement, leaving the Los Angeles Police Department and the California Highway Patrol to develop an ad hoc plan without help from the officers who knew the campus best.

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

“UCLA has thus far ineffectively responded to this tension, functionally excluding police from planning and engagement, but then requiring law enforcement to engage once the tensions escalated into violence,” the report said.

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