Senior campus officials suspended the search for a new UC Berkeley police chief last week following preliminary plans to merge the campus and UCSF police departments.

In an effort to reduce department expenses, officials at both campuses are considering plans to appoint a single police chief for the two departments, said campus spokesperson Dan Mogulof. The merger might also involve combining some administrative functions and recruiting and training efforts.

The plans come at a time when both campuses are anticipating budget cuts of up to $100 million each.

The top candidates named to replace current UCPD Chief Victoria Harrison were the department's Assistant Chief Mitch Celaya and Oakland Police Department Deputy Chief David Kozicki, Mogulof said.

UC Berkeley Vice Chancellor Nathan Brostrom phoned Celaya and Kozicki last week to inform them that the search for a new chief had been suspended indefinitely.

"The vice chancellor called me and said that they were going to explore some other alternatives regarding mergers, basically due to some developing budgetary concerns," Kozicki said.

Harrison and UCSF Police Chief Pamela Roskowski will meet early this week to frame a process to examine the feasibility of a merger, Roskowski said.

The decision of whether or not to merge the departments would be made by senior officials and heads of the two departments, Mogulof said.

The possible merger will not alter plans for Harrison to retire at the end of July, and Brostrom will appoint a temporary acting chief if necessary, according to Mogulof.

He added that it was too early to comment on who would be appointed to the single police chief position should the merger go through and that specifics of the merger have not yet been discussed.

Kozicki said he had not been offered the unified chief position but would like to be considered.

"I have a span of control right now of about 650 people," he said. "I don't think that it would be beyond something that I could take."

Celaya could not be reached for comment.

While the merger is only in

preliminary stages, officials from both departments emphasized that no changes would be made that would jeopardize public safety.

"We would have to be assured that a merger would in no way, shape or form compromise the operations of the UC Berkeley Police Department," Mogulof said. "Everything is on the table, but the bottom line is that nothing will be done to undermine the high standards of both departments."

Consolidating law enforcement departments is not a new idea and has been used by agencies across the country to save money, police officials said.

"It's a double-edged sword," Kozicki said. "You do lose a certain amount of autonomy and local control, but you can consolidate resources such as training and budget, and a lot of the business operations of the police departments."

Tags: UCSF, UCPD