By Savana Robinson
Just after nine p.m. on April 29, a Cal Poly Humboldt Police SUV pulled up to a barricade made of chain-link fence, dumpsters, metal chairs, and tables. Protesters and journalists looked on as tension rose. With its red and blue lights flashing, it parked between the Music B building and the stairs to Founders Hall.
“I am Peter Cress, the Chief of Police for the Cal Poly Humboldt Police Department. I hereby declare this to be an unlawful assembly,” a loud, crackly recording of the voice of Cress emitted from the vehicle’s PA system. “Break up this assembly and leave the area. If you do not do so, you may be arrested. You may also be subject to other police action including the use of … rubber bullets, plastic bullets and tear gas.”
After five hours of this recording playing in various locations around the epicenter of the pro-Palestine protest, more than 100 Unified Command officers forcibly broke up the protest. 32 protesters were arrested in the early hours of April 30. 20 days later, Greg Allen began his tenure as the new police chief of Cal Poly Humboldt’s University Police Department, with the administrative title of Associate Vice President for Safety & Community Wellbeing.
Why was there a change of chiefs?
According to Cal Poly Humboldt News & Information, Allen’s onboarding was a result of a several-months-long process that began at the start of the year. Allen clarified that his introduction to the department was not influenced by the protest, and the timing was due to the lengthy hiring process. The university had also been looking for a permanent chief for two years since the departure of Anthony Morgan in 2022, with Cress acting as interim chief during the protest. Cress and previous Interim Chief Fernando Solorzano had been taking turns every six months. Cress was interim chief from Jan. 2022 to June of that year, then Solorzano took control for the remainder of the calendar year. They continued this process until Allen assumed the position in May.
Allen’s background
Allen is an alumnus of Humboldt State University, having graduated in 1994 from the social work program with a minor in ethnic studies. The late renowned R.W. Hicks was a mentor to Allen and was a large part of why he came to the university, played sports, and became the President of the Black Student Union on campus.
Police activity at the protest
Allen was one of the responding officers on the evening of April 22, the night that the pro-Palestine protest began. Protesters barricaded themselves inside Siemens Hall that evening and dozens of police officers from various local agencies responded to the incident. After hours of the protesters and police clashing verbally and physically, the officers retreated at almost 11 p.m.. The protest continued for seven more days.
“What I saw was [that] most of the people out there protesting were doing it legally and lawfully,” Allen said. “When you have big protests like that, you have a very few that come and decide to cross that line to where now you make it illegal. There has to be some type of response, because now we’re talking about safety, accessibility for everybody on campus.”
Allen said that it would be difficult at this point to determine what he would have done differently if he were chief of police during the protest. He also expressed how he felt about how the protest was forcibly broken up.
“It’s unfortunate it got to that point,” Allen said. “It is hard to prevent illegal activity. If somebody wants to do something then that’s their choice. Then, there’s got to be consequences to that. We want to work with people. When we have a protest, we want to be able to protect that First Amendment right. We also want to be able to make it accessible to everybody because there’s always two sides to the story. We want to [create] a safe environment for everybody to do that peacefully. I think that I still have to look to figure out what was actually done and why it was done. So, all that stuff is being reviewed as we speak.”
What will change?
Stepping into the role of university police chief after a historical protest and occupation of campus buildings for over a week is a daunting task. However, Allen has a plan.
“I think right now is a time for, basically, assessment and evaluation of all our processes and all our programs that we’re doing to see if we do need to improve on [them] to see if they’re efficient, if we’re doing them the most effective way that we can do them,” Allen said. “See if there could be an innovative way to do things differently and all that’s in play right now.”
Allen plans to build trust with the campus community by focusing on communication and community engagement.“Community engagement will always be a priority, and that’s a priority in all law enforcement,” Allen said. “Engaging with your own community to understand their wants and needs, as well as to explain some of the things that you do and why you do those things. Communication; whether that’s written or oral, we have to communicate effectively. Even if … we don’t agree on things, we have to have those kind of difficult conversations to basically understand each other.”
One Comment
I enjoyed being able to see the new UPD cheif’s opinions on the protest. Great story!