Department of Police Services

A Follow-Up Message from Chief Fernandez

Dear CSUN Community,

Last spring, I wrote to you about the concerns our community raised regarding equity and safety in how our campus is policed, and about our commitment to meet those concerns with honesty, humility, and concrete action. I said then that this work would continue well beyond that message, and this is the update I promised.

Over the summer session, the Department of Police Services advanced four initiatives to completion and made meaningful progress on two additional workstreams that will carry into the fall.

Progress Achieved This Summer

•   Alternative to Prosecution: In partnership with the District Attorney and the City Attorney, we established a program offering a path away from formal prosecution in appropriate cases. It has already been used successfully twice.

•   Restorative Justice Outreach: We reached out following recent student arrests to create opportunities for restorative justice outcomes that support everyone involved, rather than defaulting only to traditional punitive processes. 

•   Police Therapy K9: We launched the first Police Therapy K9 program of its kind in the CSU system, adding a new tool for building trust and supporting wellbeing across our campus community.

•   Student Outreach & Problem Solving: We brought together Student Affairs, Facilities Planning, and the student community to address concerns through dialogue and shared problem-solving rather than enforcement alone. We will continue to draw on this approach when similar circumstances suggest communication and education can mitigate the necessity of police response.

Work Still Underway

Two additional workstreams are moving toward implementation, and I expect to report further progress on each in the coming months:

•   Stop Racial Identity Profiling Act (RIPA) Data Analysis: The disaggregated analysis I described in my spring message is ongoing. This is deliberate as we are prioritizing accuracy over speed. We expect to share findings and a resulting plan with the Police Advisory Committee this fall, and I will make this information available to our community once the review is complete.

•   Community Service Expansion: We are developing a care-based problem response team that will work under the leadership of the Police Services Director of DEI and Community Outreach. This expansion strengthens our response options appropriate to the situation.

Looking Ahead to Fall 2026

The Police Advisory Committee provides a structure for bringing together faculty, staff, students, and community members to examine our data, raise concerns, and shape recommendations for which we remain accountable. We are strengthening this structure and our engagement with it, with great intentionality. Further, this fall, in partnership with the Commission on Diversity and Inclusion, we will continue expanding opportunities for community listening and dialogue, so that the work ahead is informed directly by the people it affects in our community. 

Our work is not finished, and I do not want this update to read as though it is. The initiatives above are steps, not a conclusion. As a learning organization, we remain committed to the training, accountability structures, and community input I described in my last message, and to following our data wherever it leads.

A Continued Commitment

I am grateful for the students, faculty, staff, and community partners who have engaged so generously with this work because they believe this campus can do better. If you have questions, concerns, or evidence you believe we should be examining, please continue to bring them to me directly. I have always taken this responsibility seriously, and I always will.

As your Chief, and as a member of the Matador community for more than 25 years, thank you for continuing to engage with this work, raising concerns, asking hard questions, and giving us the chance to better align our practices with our campus values. We have further to go, and we will keep going.

Sincerely,

Alfredo B. Fernandez 

Chief of Police