UCLA's police chief, who was attacked for the lack of security that led to the violence of the protest, has resigned

UCLA Police Chief John Thomas, who was accused of poor security and failing to protect students during a riot at a Palestinian encampment last spring, has resigned from the university, the university's police department said Wednesday night.

In a post on social media site X, the UCLA Police Department said Thomas' last day with UCLA was Tuesday. UCLA Police Capt. Scott Scheffler will serve as interim police chief until a full chief is selected, the post said.

The post did not specify whether Thomas resigned voluntarily or was fired. Rick Braziel, the vice chancellor in charge of the newly created Office of Campus Safety, informed Thomas after the violence that he would be reassigned while internal and external investigations looked into campus security deficiencies. During the violence in early May, UCLA students and others involved in the protest camp had to fend off attackers for three hours before law enforcement moved in to quell the unrest.

Braziel declined to answer a question Wednesday about whether Thomas had been terminated and said he did not have a statement.

Thomas could not be reached for comment. He told The Times in May that he did “everything I could” to provide security and keep students safe during a week of protests that left UCLA reeling.

He said he advised the leadership from the beginning not to allow the camp to be set up because it violates the institution's rules against camping at night and he was afraid that it might cause problems as he was examining other protests across the country.

The university leadership, he said, decided to allow the tents as “an expression of students' 1st amendment rights” and ordered that the police not be included in any security plan. He also told The Times that he created a system that relies on private security and made sure to alert the Los Angeles Police Department of the need to respond quickly if problems arise. Thomas said he gives daily briefings to the agency's leadership about the latest situation, the amount of resources and response, and the roles of those suspended.

But an independent review of the University of California released last month found that UCLA failed to protect students because a “chaotic” decision-making process, a lack of communication between campus leaders and police, and other deficiencies led to the institution's paralysis.

The review, conducted by a national law enforcement consulting agency, found that UCLA did not have a detailed plan for handling large-scale protests, as problems were “visible” as camps on other campuses drew sometimes violent clashes. Campus police did not have an effective plan to work with outside law enforcement and failed to take command on a night of chaos – leading the LAPD and California Highway Patrol to conduct a temporary response.

The review recommended how to prepare future responses to crises or emergencies. Braziel has begun to address those shortcomings by overhauling UCLA's safety and security operations.