The Community Advisory Board (CAB) was formed by President Folt to be an action-oriented board committed to an inclusive process that strengthens the trust between the university, DPS, and the broader community, and creates an environment where everyone feels safe and respected. 

During the 2020-2021 academic year, our 19-member Inaugural CAB spent 10 months conducting a thorough examination of USC’s public safety practices, including hiring, finances, accountability, and bias training. To ensure an inclusive community-wide process, the CAB held dozens of co-design and small group conversations with more than 700 people from across the USC community and our local neighborhoods. We conducted an evidence-based analysis of everything we learned and studied best practices from campuses across the country.

The result of these efforts was a ONE USC Safety Vision, which describes an environment where everyone feels safe, respected, and protected from being a crime victim, and where the diverse experiences and needs of all USC students, faculty, staff, and neighbors throughout USC’s spheres of influence are addressed. To achieve these two broad goals, the CAB presented 45 recommendations grouped into four thematic pillars: accountability, alternatives to armed response, community care, and transparency.

Following the July release of the CAB’s ONE USC Safety Vision report, USC immediately formed the CAB-IT  (Implementation Team), a working group to thoroughly examine the operational path toward implementing each of the CAB’s recommendations.