Wednesday, November 01, 2017 7:00 am to 8:00 am Check-In 8:00 am to 8:30 am Greeting and Opening Remarks Captain Steve Hirjak, Seattle Police, SIFIR President 8:30 am to 10:25 am Issues with and Reliability of Digital Video Evidence Grant Fredericks The world has become video-centric. We assume every encounter is recorded and might wind up on YouTube and, eventually, the news. The camera never lies...or does it? Grant will lead us through some examples where the camera actually DID lie and explain how video in modern devices work, leading to information about what can and cannot be relied upon. 10:25 am to 11:45 am Preparing for Critical Incidents Officer Daniel King, Henderson Police Department Events in Baton Rouge led to the deaths of officers in Dallas. A shooting in Missouri, led to protest in Dallas and Los Angeles. In light of national protests, agencies should have a plan if an event transitions from a critical incident to a controversial incident. This plan requires internal coordination amongst units in the agency. It also requires educating city leaders, groups that are effected by the incident, and the media that reports it beforehand. 11:45 am to 1:05 pm Lunch 1:05 pm to 4:30 pm Forensic Case Studies, Less Lethal, and Latest Forensic Evidence Capabilities Rick Wyant Rick has been a forensic scientist for over 15 years and an expert witness in some of the nation s most noteworthy cases. He recently testified in the nationally watched Walter Scott incident. Rick runs experiments as well as investigating scenes and testing new equipment. In this segment, he walks us through some real-life cases where forensic mistakes were made and shows us what we need to watch out for when reconstructing scenes at our shootings or less lethal force crime scenes.
Thursday, November 02, 2017 8:00 am to 9:35 am NYPD Officer Involved Shooting Walk Through and Issues Inspector Kevin Maloney and FIT Team NYPD is the largest police department in the US, serving the largest city in the nation. This creates unique demands, especially in the current climate surrounding police use of force. Inspector Maloney and his team will introduce us to their Force Investigation Division, explaining the structure, statistics, and their various use of force investigations. They ll also show us how they present their work to the Executive Staff at the NYPD including laser point 3D modeling. They ll also show us some lessons learned from notable incidents that occurred in New York City. 9:35 am to 11:05 am Seattle PD FIT Walk Through and Issues Capt. Steve Hirjak The Seattle Police Department embarked on a comprehensive overhaul of its use of force policies and reporting. Starting in a brand new unit with a brand new policy that changed the landscape of policing in Seattle under the eye of the DOJ and court appointed monitor, SPD created a Force Investigation Team (FIT) from scratch. FIT quickly became the first passing grade in the Settlement Agreement assessments for Seattle PD which eventually won national praise from the DOJ for the department s quick reform. Aside from how SPD operates, Steve will talk about the growing pains in creating a unit on a shoestring budget during a sea change in department operations. 11:05 am to 12:15 pm Lunch 12:15 pm to 1:45 pm Georgia Bureau of Investigation Independent OIS Investigation ASAC Rocky Bigham With growing demands and proposals to make a single agency responsible for all Officer Involved Shooting incidents across a state, the Georgia BI has had years of running this practice. Rocky will talk about the nuts and bolts of responding to OIS scenes while operating from an office halfway across the state and explain the logistical demands of a small agency policing the police agencies with minimal resources. An agency of under 400 sworn that also performs regular law enforcement duties across almost 60,000 square miles investigates the shooting incidents of the state s 27,000 LEO s. We will see the pluses and minuses of statewide investigation and the hurdles of investigating other disparate law enforcement agencies. 1:45 pm to 3:15 pm Las Vegas Metro Police Officer Involved Shooting Investigations Capt. Kelly McMahill The LVMPD entered into a collaborative agreement with the DOJ regarding use of force policy and reporting. Since then, Metro has become a model for use
of force investigations. From public affairs response to multi-unit investigative response, Metro has become a model for police agencies across the nation for their methodology in investigating use of force incidents. Kelly will walk us through their model and show us how things roll in Vegas. 3:15 pm to 4:30 pm Round Table Run Down All of today s presenters We take advantage of having these presenters together in one room where we will rapid-fire questions at them as a group to see the differences in how they operate from West to East Coast to see the differences and similarities in our current political climate. Friday, November 03, 2017 8:00 am to 10:00 am Memory and Officer Involved Shootings, the IACP sleep recommendation and updates on memory contamination and reliability Jocelyn Roland, PhD, ABPP Dr. Roland serves on the IACP psych services section board and was the chair when their current recommendation (let the involved officer sleep 24-48 hours) was issued to police departments across the nation (and world). This standard practice is echoed across the country but she will explain why we operate this way. Additionally, new scientific studies have since come along to add fuel to this controversial practice. She will present the new research and give us her pros and cons and allow us to pick her brain about the practice from an evidentiary standpoint as well as from an officer care standpoint. 10:00 am to 12:00 pm In-Custody Death Issues Off. Kerry Zieger, Seattle Police Police critics frequently point to Excited Delirium as a police liability defense for tasing or beating someone to death when they are at their neediest. As Seattle Police s in-house subject matter expert on Taser and Excited Delirium, Kerry will talk to us about the latest trends in drug impairment and use of force leading to in-custody death cases. 12:00 pm to 1:10 pm Lunch 1:10 pm to 3:10 pm Human Error in Officer Involved Shootings Paul Taylor, Force Sciences Institute This presentation examines human error within the context of officer involved shootings. It provides investigators and administrators with the basic set of tools and terminology needed to identify, discuss, and help their agencies learn from OIS errors. It discusses why errors occur within the context of officer involved shootings and explores the four categories of shooting errors including how to
identify them, their unique characteristics, and their estimated prevalence in the field. Example videos of each officer involved shooting error type will be shown and discussed. The presentation examines the benefits and potential pitfalls involved in all human error investigations and how other high risk occupations (e.g. the military, medicine, and aviation) approach the endeavor. Finally, it explores the ways in which law enforcement agencies can learn from shooting errors and how we might use this information to improve our agencies, our profession, and, perhaps most important, our outcomes on the street. Presenter Backgrounds JOCELYN E. ROLAND, PH.D., ABPP Dr. Roland received her doctorate in clinical psychology in 1992. She served as a committee member, representative, or chair of the IACP Psychological Services Section since 2007 (serving as General Chair when the most recent psychological services section OIS recommendations were issued). She is a California POST certified instructor and is currently serving on the board of the American Board of Police and Public Safety Psychology. She was a reviewer of the California POST Psychological Screening Manual for California Law Enforcement and is a trained Crisis Negotiator (trained at LAPD, FBI, and San Jose State University). She has been awarded the LA Sheriff s Department Meritorious Service Award 3 times as well as receiving the LA Sheriff s Award. She has presented at countless law enforcement conferences from the local to the national level and has completed psychological work for well over 70 emergency response agencies. GRANT FREDERICKS A former police officer turned video expert, Grant has been a consultant and trainer regarding video evidence across three continents. Recent video analysis has landed him in the news for cases we ve all watched such as the Tamir Rice shooting, the Walter Scott shooting, and the University of Cincinnati trial of Officer Ray Tensing who fatally shot Ray Dubose through the driver-side window of his car during a minor traffic stop. Grant is an instructor at the FBI National Academy and does video forensic work and training across the country. CAPTAIN STEVE HIRJAK, SEATTLE POLICE Steve Hirjak has served with Seattle Police for 24 years, working from entry-level officer to his current position as the Force Investigation Team commander. Steve served in the creation of the Force Investigation Team and its procedures and manual, taking the unit through creation to compliance with a Department of Justice Consent Decree assessment during Seattle Police s current Settlement Agreement with the DOJ. He has been on the opposite end of an Officer Involved Shooting incident as an involved officer and now runs SPD s response to OIS incidents as well as Type 3 (Categorical/Serious Injury) Use of Force investigations. He has presented to the Washington State Legislature Deadly Force Task Force as well as the IACP Legal Officers Conference. He has presented to police leaders from Brazil, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and others on use of force investigation as well as meeting and consulting with police executives from small to large police departments nationwide.
RICK WYANT, M.S. Rick is supervising forensic scientist in the firearms unit with 20 years experience, currently in the Seattle state crime laboratory. He is also a founder of WD Forensic, Inc. and a 15-year reserve deputy. He is a certified Safariland and NTOA less lethal instructor and has been scientifically evaluating less lethal weapons for over a decade, including publishing a textbook. Rick has assisted in cases throughout the US, Canada and abroad including the UK and Australia. He is a member of the NIJ Technical Working Group for less lethal weapons and has contributed to the International Law Enforcement Forum (ILEF). He has served as an expert witness on multiple cases of national attention including the Walter Scott incident. OFFICER KERRY ZIEGER, SEATTLE POLICE DEPARTMENT Kerry has 26 years of experience as a law enforcement officer. He is a Master Instructor for Taser International. He is also certified on Excited Delirium by the Institute for the Protection of In-Custody Deaths and certified as a Less-Lethal weapons instructor by Safariland Corp. He currently serves as the Seattle Police Department s subject matter expert for Excited Delirium, Crowd Control, and Taser. He assisted the Seattle Police with policy development regarding Taser and Excited Delirium as well as a subject matter expert for the Washington State Legislature. ASSISTANT SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE ROCKY BIGHAM, GEORGIA BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION Rocky currently serves as the Asst. Special Agent in Charge of the Atlanta regional GBI office. He currently instructs across the state of Georgia regarding use of force investigations. He also instructs internationally on the topics of interrogation and interviewing. NYPD FORCE INVESTIGATION DIVISION NYPD FID Commanding Officer - Inspector Kevin Maloney: 26 Year veteran of the NYPD Founding Member of the NYPD Force Investigation Division (2015) Commanding Officer since July, 2016 Captain Anthony Marino: 13 Year veteran of the NYPD Founding Member of the NYPD Force Investigation Division FID Investigative Zone Commander since July, 2015 Lieutenant Commander Detective Squad Jonathan Amass: 21 Year veteran of the NYPD Founding Member of the NYPD Force Investigation Division Tactical Review Team Leader since July, 2015 Lieutenant Kevin Yeh: 16 Year veteran of the NYPD Founding Member of the NYPD Force Investigation Division FID Investigative Team Leader since July, 2015
OFFICER DANIEL KING, HENDERSON POLICE DEPARTMENT, NV Dan has been a police officer for almost two decades. He is an instructor for Caliber Press, holds an advanced and analyst certificate for use of force from the Force Sciences Institute, and is a Master Taser Instructor. He currently serves as a Use of Force Instructor and Analyst for the Henderson Police Department PAUL TAYLOR Paul L. Taylor is an instructor for the Force Science Institute and a PhD candidate at the University at Albany, State University of New York where he studies police decision making and human error within the context of use-of- force encounters. He is also the Managing Editor of Justice Quarterly, a top ranked academic journal in the field of criminal justice. Paul has over eleven years of practical law enforcement experience including time as a department training manager, patrol sergeant, and use-of- force instructor. Paul is a graduate of the Advanced Specialist Course at the Force Science Institute and has presented research on police decision making and training at academic and professional conferences across the nation.