Dear Campus Community,

Chief Mike Lane is retiring from the University of California, Riverside Police Department on June 29 after 24 years of dedicated service. Mike served the campus as a resident director in Housing for 3 years prior to his time with UCPD. We thank Mike for his service and wish him the best in his retirement.

Given the current campus closure related to COVID-19, I have not felt comfortable with starting the recruitment for our next Chief of Police. While some positions may lend themselves to remote interviews and recruitment, I think it would be best to have candidates for the Chief of Police position available to host on campus, so the students, faculty, and staff of our campus community may interact with them.  

We will therefore wait until it is safe and feasible to provide opportunities for a wide variety of in-person, on-campus involvement from campus stakeholders. I hope that will be this fall sometime, but we will continue to monitor the situation with the virus so that we can make sure that everyone involved is safe. I will keep everyone updated on the plans for the search including the search committee and process, so that input can be received before we proceed.

Until a recruitment can be completed, Assistant Chief John Freese has agreed to fill the role of Interim Chief of Police. As second in command at the police department John meets all state requirements for this interim role, and is an appropriate and logical choice.   

John has over 25 years of experience with UCPD and has served in all the department ranks. John received his Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from UC Riverside in 1994 and he is deeply committed to the campus and to leading the campus police department during this interim appointment, coinciding with a national debate regarding the next generation of law enforcement. I very much appreciate John’s willingness to step up into this interim position. John’s interim appointment will be effective July 1, 2020.