Cal's New Top Cop Explains "Why in the World" She Took Job

The new police chief at UC Berkeley, Margo Bennett, was smiling, gracious and obviously attuned to the wording of the oath when she was sworn in this past week by Chancellor Robert Birgeneau.

The official campus news release noted that "a beaming Margo Bennett" was sworn in Tuesday as the replacement for former Chief Mitch Celaya, who retired Dec. 30.

The release did not note that the Chancellor evidently omitted a part of the oath.

A news brief on the UC police department website began:

"After a slightly awkward, yet good humored, moment in the course of the swear-in itself, one when Margo Bennett, her hand raised, graciously corrected Chancellor Birgeneau in the swear-in litany, inserting a line he'd missed about abiding by and supporting "the constitution and laws of the State of California", after having sworn to uphold the Constitution and laws of the United States, her family stepped forward to pin her with the new ranks..."

The news brief also included her remarks at the Alumni House ceremony:

I want to thank everyone for being here. I want to thank the Chancellor for swearing me in today. It's a time honored tradition and it means a lot to me and to members of the police department. It's an honor to have the campus top official perform that duty and I thank you for that. Thank you Vice Chancellor Wilton for hosting this, for being a part of it, and Ron AVC Coley for being Master of Ceremonies and kicking this off.

Thanks to everyone for being here, and for the show of support, for the literally hundreds of emails I have gotten since the announcement was made. It has made me feel better about taking this job! It's true, I’ve been home late more often than not, and I’m pretty sure that trend is going to continue!

Thank you members of UCPD for your support. It's meant a tremendous amount to me. We have much work ahead of us, and we're going to have fun doing it. Thank you to Chief Harrison for taking the risk and hiring me 10-plus years ago and to Mitch Celaya for continuing my growth in the critical roles of the police department.

People have asked why in the world I would take this position. The only thing I can say is, well I lack words to describe it, other than to say I feel called to do this job, to take this role of leadership and be the leader of our police department at this particular point in time.

UCPD has and will continue to hire a high-quality employee. We have people who have the core values, who definitely identify with Berkeley. They have the core values of respect and trust, of inclusiveness. They have the desire to work with campus partners and seek sustainable solutions, they want to work with others to make it easier to get all of our jobs done, and they are willing to hold themselves accountable for their actions.

Certainly every member of our department understands that this campus expectation of timely and excellent service must be met and that is what we intend to do. My role as chief of police is to strengthen our connections on this campus, to create new ones where there are voids, and to fortify ones that need to be fortified. That's what I intend to do, and I intend to do it the only way I know how, and that is to follow the six words that best define me:

Act justly
Love mercy
Walk humbly

I promise to do that.
I'm honored and humbled to be your Chief of Police,
We have a lot of work to do, and we're going to get started
Thank you.

The UC release offered this description of her career:

"Bennett earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology/criminal justice and a master’s in counseling psychology at at West Georgia University, then rose to the level of lieutenant there before moving to the FBI, where she worked for more than a decade. From there, she went to Northern Virginia Community College Police Department, where she became police chief for the multi-campus educational institution, the nation’s second-largest community college. Bennett joined the UCPD as a captain in 2002."