2012 Award for Administrative Excellence

Corporal Matthew Stern of the University of California Santa Barbara

Corporal Matthew Stern graduated from the University of California Santa Barbara with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 2003 and also completed the police academy that same year. In addition, Corporal Stern worked as a student employee with the UCSB Police Department as a Community Service Officer and after completing the basic police academy training, started his campus law enforcement career and has been a very profound asset to the department and campus community ever since.

Corporal Stern's primary responsibility has been patrol-related duties but he has also excelled at working with department student employees and CSO personnel around crime prevention projects. One visible and highly regarded item that illustrates Corporal Stern's commitment towards administrative excellence is the development and implementation of a quarterly department newsletter, Gaucho Guardian, shared throughout the campus community. The newsletter highlights individual officers, crime prevention efforts, and the accolades that have been bestowed on various members of the campus police department. To view an issue visit:http://police.ucsb.edu/Web/Docs/Gaudian_Guacho_Volume_2_issue_4_FINAL.pdf

Many campus senior administrators have commented repeatedly about the positive nature of this publication and the enhanced transparency and positive image it provides for crime prevention, builds and strengthens partnerships, and increases trust between the community and the UCSB Police Department.

Corporal Stern has been the genesis and cornerstone around the development of numerous campus police peer education public service announcements. These custom and hand-developed videos are tailored to address various safety concerns and strive to educate and enhance wellness and crime prevention on the UCSB campus. These peer-education videos have been tremendously popular and have been shared with both campus and local governmental officials with very positive feedback. Below are a few links that illustrate Corporal Stern's administrative prowess, a continued commitment to crime prevention, and his contemporary use of technology:

• UCSB Party (Featuring Orlando Johnson of the UCSB Basketball Team)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0W5C_RMNKk
• UCSB Alcohol Poison Music Videohttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wq2SKu6sO80/li>

With approximately 20,000 bicycles being operated on the UCSB campus daily, Corporal Stern has developed another clever and creative administrative combat bicycle theft on campus. The program includes a peer education public service announcement, a GPS bait-bike program, and a sticker that is affixed to all registered bicycles that displays a "QR" code that can be read by all smart phones and is linked to a PSA dedicated to prevention measures associated with bicycle theft prevention measures.

• How to Steal a Bike:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DR5lNMh5xxA&feature=channel_video_title
• Bait Bike feature:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QEum6XnNH-8&feature=channel_video_title/>

Additionally, Corporal Stern has worked with local courts and judges to develop an alternative program that addresses bicycle safety issues. Corporal Stern teaches the alternative classes to students who are issued a citation for improper bicycle safety operations. Instead of the student offender paying a nearly $200 fine to the local courts the one hour bicycle safety course costs only $35./p>

Corporal Stern has enhanced the campus bicycle and skateboard safety guidelines, rules and also worked with various departments to enhance existing bicycle and skateboard signs and awareness on the campus overall.

Finally, Corporal Stern has worked closely with the residential life staff and recently hosted an event with campus residents to provide a safety presentation before a well anticipated friendly competition between the UCSB Police Officers and the student residents. The event was named the "Call of Duty Challenge." Prior to the new release of this popular video game (Call to Duty - Modern Warfare), Corporal Stern worked to carefully market his safety presentation to all 8,000 campus residents and to provide the student winner of the event with a copy of the newly released Call of Duty-Modern Warfare video game. This event was a well attended and was a huge success with the students and the staff.

Corporal Stern is a commissioned Reserve U.S. Army Officer and was deployed twice to the combat theatre of operations in Iraq where he successfully led U.S. Army troops in various missions and returned home safely to continue his campus law enforcement career. Since his return from active duty in Iraq, Corporal Stern has worked closely with student veterans returning from active duty and mentor them and work closely with them to assist them in competing their education at UCSB. Corporal Stern has also taught a credit course to veteran students and he has received great accolades for his performance and achievements as a leader and teacher./p>

Nominated by Chief Dustin Olson, University of California Santa Barbara