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Cal Poly San Luis Obispo appoints new police chief

July 23, 2025

Cal Poly Police Chief Robert Plastino

By KAREN VELIE

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo announced Tuesday the appointment of Robert Plastino  as police chief. Plastino will be sworn in July 25.

Plastino brings more than 27 years of experience with the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s office. In that time, he was in charge of executive management of the department’s north county and south county operations, where he oversaw more than 250 sworn and non-sworn staff, as well as criminal investigations.

Former police chief George Hughes was promoted last summer to the role of associate vice president of public safety, which oversees the police departments at both Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo and Cal Poly Solano Campus, as well as the university’s Transportation and Parking Services and Department of Emergency Services.

“With his extensive background in public safety and working collaboratively with an academic community similar to ours, Robert is going to be a perfect fit with our holistic, compassionate and progressive public safety approach at Cal Poly,” Hughes said.

Plastino holds a master’s degree in public administration as well as a Bachelor of Science in business administration, demonstrating his commitment to continued learning and professional development.

“I couldn’t be more excited to join the Cal Poly community and continue to build on the great work that the department has been doing to foster a culture of excellence, accountability and integrity,” Plastino said. “As we head into a new academic year, we will recommit to teamwork, cross campus collaboration and constant innovation so we can continue to grow trust in our community and increase support on campus.”

With 22 sworn officers, Cal Poly Police Department is actively involved in the university community and is committed to an educational, responsive, non-escalatory model.

 


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Yeaaaaaahh. See that “holistic approach” to policing? That right there is why crime is rocketing upward on campus, and off (think frat house weekends).


See Johnny getting into trouble over there? Should we arrest him? Noooo! We must explore why Johnny really needs to rape those sorority girls, and make their bodies disappear, and have a decades long shameful train wreck of justice.


A collapsed garage? Certainly, the contractor and homeowner must be at fault, for not building the shelter strong enough to handle a large drunk dancing crowd of students. Sweet little Poly Dolly and Danny couldn’t be blamed for their actions, because we looked at all the variables associated with these drunk kids. Nobody gets arrested, and all the kids get off scot-free, because “circumstances”.


And how the hell does the assistant to the assistant, rate a favorable salary and employment package over the Chief of Police??


7

And for what? They failed Kristin Smart. Poly Royal. St. Fratty’s. Pro Hamas protests. Anti semite professors. Good grief. Exactly what will this dude do that no one has done before?


8

Just padding the bureaucracy and adding to the state’s deficit. Hughes could have done the job, as he’s been doing it for years. His new position as Senior Assistant Vice Associate President of Public Safety – or whatever it is – is just a way to hire more staff and increase his pay. There are no additional duties over what he was doing – just more meetings to sleep through. And 22 officers for what? To write skateboarding tickets? Look at their Clery Report online – crime on campus has gotten WORSE as this department has grown under Hughes. They should be replacing him, not promoting him.


15

Associate vice president? The layer of bureaucracy at that university is staggering.


38

It’s not just Cal Poly or colleges, it is also staggering in government (local, city, county,state and federal), school districts, public safety and many public sector entities.


9