Law Enforcement Practices And Liability

Coffee Service will be available.

Speaker: Summer Stephan, San Diego County District Attorney

Participants will learn the recommended steps that should be taken immediately after a critical incident, including coordinating with law enforcement, involved officers, public officials, controlling the release of information and responding to press inquiries. The discussion will include invoking critical incident protocols, preparing for community protests, initiating investigations, and the effective use of body-worn cameras. It will also include responding to Public Record Act requests and the impact of SB 1421 / SB 16 on such requests.

Moderator: John Appelbaum, Deputy Attorney General – California Attorney General

Panelists:

• Tony Sain, Partner – Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith, LLP
• Cory Brente, Senior Assistant City Attorney – City of Los Angeles
• Christine Wood, Partner – Best Best & Krieger, LLP

Robert Greene is the Pulitzer Prize winning commentator on police issues for the Los Angeles Times.

About Robert Greene

Robert Greene has been an editorial writer for the Los Angeles Times since 2006, writing on criminal justice, the courts, policing, mental health, Los Angeles County government, California state government, water and drought. His awards include the 2021 Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing for a series on the intersection of public health, criminal justice, race and politics during the nation’s most tumultuous year in a generation;  the Society of Professional Journalists Sigma Delta Chi award for editorials on criminal justice reform; the News Leaders Association Burl Osborne Award for Editorial Leadership for editorials on jail, money bail and courts; and the Scripps Howard National Journalism Award for editorials on California’s budget crisis.

Greene previously was a staff writer for the LA Weekly, a reporter and associate editor for the Metropolitan News-Enterprise, and an attorney.  He’s a graduate of the University of Southern California and Georgetown University Law Center, and lives in the Highland Park community in Los Angeles.

This panel will discuss the role of race on policing, including racial profiling. The panel will discuss the requirements of the Racial Identity Profiling Act and its impacts on policing and policy. The session will cover best practices for avoiding racial bias in policing, including traffic stops, Terry stops, and strategies for deploying police in “high crime” locations.

Moderator: Megan McClurg, Assistant City Attorney – Chula Vista City Attorney’s Office

Panelists:

• Howard Jordan, Consultant – Sloan Sakai Yeung & Wong LLP (former Police Chief, City of Oakland)
• Dr. Brian L. Withrow, Professor – Texas State University School of Criminal Justice and Criminology
• Elizabeth Lashley-Haynes, Deputy Public Defender – Los Angeles County
• Dr. Deepak Premkumar, Research Fellow – Public Policy Institute of California  

Speaker: Todd Gloria, San Diego Mayor

Registration opens at 8 a.m.

Coffee and light breakfast will be available.

This session will discuss effective training, re-training, and policies for addressing individuals with mental health issues or suffering from altered mental states caused by various substances. The panel will discuss effective crisis intervention strategies to minimize the need for using deadly force in these circumstances, as well as and legislative updates. The discussion will include officer mental health and its impacts on effective policing in minimizing the need for deadly force.

Moderator: Chris Whitman, Deputy City Attorney – City of San Francisco

Panelists:

• Howard Jordan, Consultant – Sloan Sakai Yeung & Wong, LLP (former Police Chief, City of Oakland)
• Mark Stadler, Crisis Intervention Team Program Administrator – Ventura County (former Commander, City of Ventura Police Department)
• Missy O’Linn, Partner– Manning, Kass, Ellrod, Ramirez, & Trester, LLP

This panel will discuss the impact of the change in California governing the use of deadly force (AB 392) and its impact on law enforcement and society. The panel will also discuss current critical issues confronting law enforcement including force options, political issues, peace officer personnel records disclosure, de-certification of police, and more.

Moderator: Ed Obayashi, Deputy Sheriff/ Policy Advisor – Plumas County Sheriff’s Office: Ed advises numerous law enforcement agencies and joint power authorities in use of force and police practices. He is a former deputy public defender and special prosecutor who is a prominent and  widely cited national and California Use of Force expert.

Panelists:

• Mike Rains, Principal – Rains, Lucia, Stern, St. Phalle & Silver: Mike’s firm is a premier law firm representing the majority of California peace officers in disciplinary, criminal, and labor matters. Mike has defended officers in highly publicized criminal cases and has been a Super Lawyer for many years.
• Gene Iredale, Founder – Iredale and Yoo: Gene’s firm specializes in defending significant, high-profile, complex criminal and plaintiffs’ civil rights cases. Gene is a renowned civil rights attorney who has been selected as San Diego Super Lawyers for numerous years.
• Vern Pierson, District Attorney – El Dorado County: Vern has served as the President of the California District Attorneys Association and is an eminent authority for both California and national law enforcement advisory groups and extensively advises and trains both law enforcement officers and prosecutors.

Attendees will learn about legal developments affecting officers’ First Amendment rights to engage in speech, including on the internet, on matters of public interest versus department policies restricting speech determined to be detrimental to public safety or that would discredit the department. Such speech can include whistle-blowing on corruption and excessive force, but also can include comments that are based upon race, religion, sex, or national origin and even non-biased speech. Panelists will discuss the boundaries for effective policies that meet First Amendment concerns, while recognizing the need to enforce against inappropriate officer comments.

Moderator: Ed Obayashi- Deputy Sheriff/ Policy Advisor – Plumas County Sheriff’s Office: Ed advises and trains law enforcement agencies and joint power authorities’ members in Social Media Misconduct in Law Enforcement. He developed the first California Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) course for this discipline.

Panelists:

• Edward Medrano, President and CEO – Integrated Leadership Solutions (former Police Chief, City of Gardena): At DOJ, Edward was accountable to over 1000 personnel in the Division’s four bureaus—Investigations, Gambling, Firearms, and Forensics. Edward serves as an adjunct professor at the University of Southern California (USC) at the Sol Price School of Public Policy teaching community policing, crisis communication and ethics.
• Katie Reisner, Senior Counsel – States United Democracy Center: Katie is a leading authority on Free Speech and countering political violence. She served as Counselor to the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security as a presidential appointee in the Obama Administration.
• Alison Berry-Wilkinson, Principal Attorney – Berry Wilkinson Law Group and Of Counsel, Messing, Adam & Jasmine: Alison is a premier law enforcement representation attorney who trains public entity groups and law enforcement on public employees’ free speech rights. She has litigated numerous high profile Public Safety Officers Procedural Bill of Rights Act (POBR) cases.

Discussion will include legal and ethical use of tracking devices, cell-site simulators or stingrays (IMSI catchers), license-plate reader data, online monitoring, facial-recognition technology, and the use of robots, including the adoption of such technology by San Francisco, and its use in other jurisdictions, including Dallas. The panel will address best practices and advice on the use of advanced policing technologies in areas where courts have not yet addressed.

Moderator: Stephen Vong, Regulations Counsel – California Department of Consumer Affairs

Panelists:

• Jay Stanley, Senior Policy Analyst – ACLU Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project
• Edward Medrano, President and CEO – Integrated Leadership Solutions (former Police Chief, City of Gardena)
• Jeb Brown, Senior Counsel – Liebert, Cassidy & Whitmore