Joel Justice is the Chief of Police for Ventura County Community College District (VCCCD) Police Department for over 6 years with over 35 years of law enforcement experience. Prior to being selected as the Chief of Police for VCCCD Police Department, he served the City of Los Angeles with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) at various levels for over 29 years. He moved up through the ranks of the LAPD and held the position of for over 10 years, which is the rank he retired from. As a Captain and now as a Chief, he has been the incident commander during hundreds of tactical situations and have served as the Director of the Department Operations Center during several Emergency situations. Chief Justice has extensive experience in Field Operations, Investigative and Administrative Assignments.
While he was employed by the LAPD, he built a state-of-the-art Crime Center that included Predictive Analytics, Crime Stoppers for the Los Angeles region, and he started a program where Detectives could track violent gang members that were being paroled back into the City.
He has taught over 500 classes on how to respond to Active Shooter incidents to faculty, staff, students and other law enforcement personnel. He has coordinated many Active Shooter exercises that included neighboring law enforcement agencies. He learned as a young police officer the importance of community policing and building relationships with the Community.
He obtained my Bachelor’s degree in business management and his Master’s degree in Homeland Defense and Security from the Naval Postgraduate School, where he wrote his Thesis on law enforcement response to Active Shooter scenarios. Chief Justice is the President of the California Colleges and University Police Chief’s Association.
He assisted the Louisiana State University’s National Center for Biomedical Research and Training with curriculum development for law enforcement response that was modeled after his Master’s Thesis. He is an adjunct professor for the College of the Canyons.
Chief Justice is responsible for the safety and security of approximately 36,000 students, faculty and staff as well as various crime reporting and preparation of statistics for local, state and federal agencies. Most notably, he is responsible for the preparation and distribution of the Annual Security Report, in compliance with Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, which requires postsecondary institutions participating in HEA’s Title IV student financial assistance programs to disclose campus crime statistics and security information.
Chief Justice has been married to his best friend, Margie, for nearly 28 years. Their son, Matthew is a senior at University of Arizona in Tucson. He enjoys playing racquetball and scuba diving.