Robinson, you probably recognize her because shes the former assistant attorney general for the office of Justice Programs both in this administration with president obama and also in the administration with president clinton. And to professor robinsons left is Police CommissionerCharles Ramsey, and to those in the district who also recognize him hes been the Police Commissioner for, i want to say, six years and was the District Police chief for eight, almost nine years and has spent time in chicago. The way we will do this today is we will have a series of a panel of experts that will provide testimony to the task force, and that testimony will then be considered by the task force as it goes into deliberations. Let me say this. For the witnesses we have today, one, thank you for being here. For the first time of the task force, were also going to have several witnesses come in through and im going to get myself in trouble because im not a tech person so i apologize ahead of time through skype. Because of some of the weather conditions, efforts to get here some flights were canceled people couldnt make it. But to show you the level of commitment that our witnesses have and the country has in dealing with this topic, not only did they try to get here ask maneuver on any plane they could, some were able to do it some logistically just couldnt, but they agreed to still participate, so were going to take our hand using 21st Century Technology to talk about 21st Century Policing, and if it doesnt work blame the other side of the equation no im just kidding. Well do our best in letting them accommodate, and we are glad they did their best try and get here and dont read anything into it other than Mother Nature spoke and we have to respond. Ill turn it over to the cochairs in you. Ron, thank you very much. And before proceeding further, i do want to thank ron davis and the terrific staff of the cops office for all of their support through the task forces work. They have been terrific and really want to recognize all of their assistance. I am Lori Robinson as ron said, a professor at George Mason University formerly with the department of justice. And it has been a distinct honor to cochair the task force. The president gave us a clear mission. He gave us 90 days in which to get the job done. He asked us for very practical recommendations and gave us direction to come back with a very distinct and clear path that can be recommendations that can be implemented. Ron davis laid out the fact that weve already had six listing sessions and we are now on our last two hearings, today and tomorrow. The subject of our hearing today on officer safety and wellness is very much one of interest not only to those who are gathered here today asknd watching us around the country but to so many working in this field and to communities around this country. I look forward to hearing from our witnesses today. We have a wonderful panel here, and those succeeding them. I also want to recognize the fact that one of my students from george mason is here with us. I know others are going to be joining us later today. Im very pleased at the number of people who have come to our listening sessions and who have been watching us through the streaming of these sessions. Ive had many comments from people who have watched our hearings, and i think that reflects the interest from communities around the country in the subject matter of these hearings. With that, let me turn to my distinguished cochair Charles Ramsey ramsey. Thank you, lori, and welcome everyone. Its good to be with you here again. Lori has already described how the task force came about and what our charge is so i wont repeat that, but it is truly a pleasure to be here with all of you today and i look forward to listening to all of the testimony that will be presented. My name is chuck ramsey. Im currently the Police Commissioner in philadelphia, pennsylvania. Ive served in that capacity now for seven years. Prior to that, i was the district of Columbia Police chief for nearly nine years, and i began my career in chicago im a native chicagoan and began my career in the Chicago PoliceDepartment Spending nearly 30 years in that department. So ive been in Law Enforcement for quite some time. Before i introduce or allow the other panelists or Task Force Members to introduce themselves, we do have two that are not physically with us here today. Connie rice will be joining us Via Conference Call throughout the session today, and Brian Stevenson is on travel. He is going to join us later this evening. Hes coming in all the way from australia, and obviously you can imagine if you had trouble flying across the United States, try to trying to get back from australia would really prove a bit challenging. So he wasnt able to make it on time for this session but he is going to be here later on today were told. So with that, let me begin having our Task Force Members introduce themselves. Were going to start with dr. Cedric alexander to my far right. Good morning. Can you hear me . Okay. Good morning. Anyway im Cedric Alexander. Im currently a Public Safety director in caffe county, georgia. I also serve on the black noble executives. I subsequent went to miamidade Police Department where i originally finished my career and decided to go back to school and get a doctorate in Clinical Psychology where i practiced psychology for a number of years before returning back into police as an administrator. Id like to say welcome and thank you, all for being here as well, too and looking forward to what testimony you have to share in regards to the health and wellbeing of officers across this country. Thank you. Good morning. My name is jose lopez. Im the leader organizer of make the road new york, a communitybased organization in new york city and new york state. Most of my work focuses on issues of Police Account dability housing rights and workers rights. Our community is partnering with the community Graduate Center doing work on the impacts of the stop, question and Frisk Program in new york city on young people between the ages of 14 and 24, so ive been engaged in some of that work as well. I echo sentiments to the panel. Thank you for coming out, folks in the audience. Happy to be here. Good morning. My name is brittany packnet. In my fulltime role im executive director of teach america in st. Louis, which is my hometown. The other hat ive been wearing has been as a ferguson activist and working to make sure that the 20,000 young people that teach for america st. Louis are that disenfranchised people across this country their voices are heard making sure this is a process full of justice for them as well. Look forward to the testimony here today and thank you all for coming. Good morning. My name is tracy meers. I havent had enough coffee. I have for the last 20 years, been a legal academic first at Chicago Law School and now at yale law school. My research focuses on criminal law and criminal procedure but i emphasize study of police and policing especially in urban communities, and like my coTask Force Members, im really interested in hearing more about officer safety and wellness. The written testimony has been fascinating. Im also hopeful to hear about how officer safety and wellness affects the health and safety of the officers families. Good morning im sue rohrere retired after 33 years from the Seattle Office in the metropolitan area. Ive been training all the officers in the state of washington. Im very much looking forward to todays testimony. We spent a lot of time talking about what Police Officers should do, and now i think its time to really focus on the other side of the equation. Ive had the privilege of dealing with Police Officers that come in on the beginning of their career, wanting to do good and save the world so im anxious for us to discover what we can do to keep that attitude alive in them. Thank you. Good morning. My name is shawn smoot. Im director and chief counselor for the Police BenevolentProtection Association of illinois and the National Police associations. I join my colleagues in welcoming all of you to the Task Force Meeting today and i am very grateful for the opportunity to serve on the task force with this esteemed group of experts, and very grateful to the president for convening this task force because i think its something that needed to happen, and frankly, is overdue. I think its very fitting that today were going to have our last full day of public listening session on officer wellness and safety. And because weve heard so much over the past several weeks in terms of testimony with regard to the challenges facing Law Enforcement officers and communities around this country, i think its very fitting that we have a day dedicated to officers wellness and safety and the impact of officers wellness on their families also. Because those things really i think, make the challenges even greater and im not sure there is a good public appreciation for that. So i very much look forward to the testimony of the witnesses today. We have several excellent panels, and i just want to thank the cochairs for their leadership and director davis and his staff for their assistance in this process. Thanks. Good morning. My name is Roberto Signor i am chief of police for tucson, arizona. I grew up through that agency. Ive been a Police Officer for 35 years, ive wenbeen a chief for six years. Along the border we have a lot of unique issues dealing with immigration and dealing with the border and Homeland Security issues, so its been just a wonderful experience for me to sit and listen to some of the brightest minds in the country when it comes to police work and talking about different ideas. This has been a growing and learning experience for me so im very grateful for the opportunity to serve on the panel, and im also in awe of the panelists that we have had come before us and talk because ive taken away a lot of fantastic information i hope to use at my own agency. Thank you for being here this morning. So thank you very much. Just a couple reminders. As you can tell, this task force listening session is being televised live through our webcast. For those that are watching on line, there will be you can send your comments throughout the day. We will have a Public Comment period at the end of the day, which well talk about later, but i wanted to give you a headsup on that. One thing i didnt say at the beginning, and if i may my background is 20 years of Law Enforcement including eight years as a police chief in alton, california. Im very glad the task force has taken to talking about this issue. Im glad the chiefs recognize that ive had to make that phone call. I think some of those on the task force have had to make that phone call when an officer is killed in a line of duty. So anything we can do to keep our officers safe and healthy improves not only their service but the service to the community, and there is a very strong link, so this is a very good day to focus on the wellbeing of our outstanding men and women who serve so we dont have to make those phone calls, and many times injuries come in many ways, not just gunshots. We look forward to that testimony. At this point i think, madam cochair, we are ready to proceed with the panel. Commissioner ramsey will be starting off. Thank you very much. Panel 1 will focus on officer wellness. We have three panelists here with us and one that is joining us through skype. Something we did not mention but i think its very important the biographies of all of our panelists can be found on the cops cops website. So our introductions throughout the day will be very, very brief, but we appreciate all of them being here. Were going to begin this discussion with dr. Lawrence miller, a clinical psychologist. Doctor . Esteemed Task Force Members fellow panelists, and guests, good morning on a cold morning in washington, d. C. As i look around the room, i see we have at least a few brass with us today, so id like to begin with a question that applies to Law Enforcement leaders, and that is, as a Law Enforcement supervisor would you send one of your officers on patrol with an insufficiently maintained vehicle . Would you send one of your officers into a crime scene with an unserviced duty weapon . What about a radio that didnt work . Or just an illfitting utility belt or uncomfortable pair of shoes . And, of course, the answer is for liability reasons and safety reasons, of course not. Yet we know the tools of law en enforcement get banged bruised and worn out and they need continued assessment and repair. Ironically, far less attention is often paid to the care and maintenance of what is arguably a Police Officers most important resource and that is his or her brain. So to provide effective and sciencebased interventions for Law Enforcement stress syndromes, its important to understand that stress is not one uniform thing there are different types of stresses that apply to policing, and thats how i want to begin this discussion today. Im honored to have that opportunity to begin this discussion so we can understand what it is the average man and woman in policing faces on a daily or occasional basis. The daily stressors involve numerous interactions that Police Officers have with citizens in their patrol communities. We have to realize that 90 of what an officer does every day involves talking to people. And this ranges from casual conversations to dangerous confrontations. So therefore, training in behavioral resilience communication skills, verbal deescalation strategies can often help officers defuse potentially hostile situations and present that Tipping Point from turning it into a deadly force encounter. I believe dr. Ramey will be elaborating more on officer wellness training. Then there are the cumulative stressors that build up over time, and this can include not only work stressors but family stressors as well. We know that family can bump up work stress, and can sometimes off set the corrosive effects of a home life. But when both of these systems begin to fray some of these suppressed emotions can punch through in the form of alcohol abuse, Domestic Violence, overaggressive policing, and most tragically officer suicide that dr. Velonte will be expounding upon subsequently. Critical incident stress refers to the acute life and death encounters such as officerinvolved shootings hostage scenarios, injury or death of a fellow officer, and particularly disturbing homicide, child abuse or disaster scenarios. In these cases, its important that officers receive a postincident psychological checkup. And if necessary are provided access to Specialized Services to help them deal with the stresses of these traumatic events. Posttraumatic stress disorder which we heavy a lot about, is actually a very simple clinical syndrome that could include heightened avoidance arousal and avoidance in functioning. Fortunately, acute posttraumatic stress syndrome is actually quite rare, and we can make it more uncommon if we allow our officers and colleagues to health and intervention strategies that i believe sergeant orr will be telling us more about ptsd in a few minutes. But if you ask most rank and file cops what stresses them out the most, theyll probably not tell you things like difficult civil encounters or even gun or car chases. Theyre going to tell you about stresses from within, the organizational stresses. What bugs these men and women are the messages they perceive as sometimes confusing or perhaps unsupportive from the very top brass that they expect to be on their side. So Law Enforcement leaders need to learn proper, constructive organizational management, discipline and communication skills. Because the example of fair and honorable policing does begin at the top. So to summarize, recognizing the potential effects of Mental Health and organizational interventions in Law Enforcement stress doesnt mean we should oversell this. Not every Police Officer needs counseling. Not every even the best stress Management Program is not going to guarantee that the stakes are not going to be made and bad policing is not going to occur by impulsive immature or corruptible cops. But the vast majority of Police Officers, if they believe theyre being treated unfairly by their leaders, and if they feel that support as an indication for the brass and what they do these officers are like toll participate in their daily patrol efforts, these officers are less likely to