Keynote Sessions

Latest FS Research into the Human Performance Elements of a Use of Force (Lewinski)

Use of Force Concepts and Analysis for Police Leaders and Trainers (Dillon)

Keynote Description: Today every use of force incident is scrutinized frame by frame on a video and judged by untrained individuals creating distrust and false narratives. Use of force analysis, investigation and training is a complex continually evolving issue. This training workshop is designed for Police Leaders who, reviews, reports, instructs or investigates police use of force incidents and trainers who develop curriculum and training and practices. The training will examine the most recent and up to date issues that specifically impact management, training units, front line supervisors and internal affairs investigators concerning police use of force incidents. This course breaks down multiple issues ranging from daily officer citizen complaints, failure to engage issues, development of quantifiable evidence, curriculum design, use of force reporting, and tracking and trending or investigating incidents. Instruction uses lectures, demonstrations and case studies. Just one improper technique changed the country!

The Impact of Human and Organizational Factors on Use of Force Investigations (Taylor)

Session Description: This presentation will examine how human and organizational factors can influence use of force investigators and investigations. It will lay out ways to minimize the impact of these potentially biasing factors on the investigation and adjudication of these cases.

Use of Force Current Trends & The Legal Balance Between Duty of Care and Use of Force (Daigle)

Keynote Description: The 2023 DLG Use of Force Summit opening keynote by Attorney Eric Daigle will delve into current trends in the industry related to the use of force. His keynote, titled “The Legal Balance Between Duty of Care and Use of Force,” scrutinizes how the concept of ‘duty of care’ actively reshapes our understanding of liability and duty, guiding the evolving responsibilities of law enforcement toward individuals and society while upholding our duty to protect and serve.

In a world where every decision holds significant weight, comprehending the nuances of Duty of Care has never been more critical. This topic is of paramount importance in today’s fast-evolving legal landscape. As we find ourselves at the crossroads of change and responsibility, it becomes imperative to address the pressing and highly controversial question: “Do officers have a duty to care to intervene in crises, and what defines this duty in the contemporary landscape of law enforcement?”

The concept of ‘Duty of Care’ serves as a pivotal starting point for discussion. This concept notably manifests itself in scenarios involving both criminal and non-criminal barricades. The differentiation between ‘suspect’ and ‘subject’ language transcends mere semantics; it forms the basis for evaluating governmental interests and anticipating potential liabilities for our officers.

Duty of Care brings to light the multifaceted challenges officers face daily, necessitating their navigation of the thin line between moral obligation and legal duty. This balancing act demands both knowledge and training. It signifies a transition from historical approaches, which often leaned toward direct intervention and the possible use of deadly force, to modern strategies that prioritize de-escalation and scrutinize the role of armed officers during crises.

Science of Violence®:  Biomechanics from Video Evidence (Desmoulin)

Keynote Description: This course aims to teach the basics of video necessary to obtain physics derived from video evidence and relate it to complex human injury investigations involving use of force incidents.

By the end of this course, you will:

• Identify how Newton’s laws of motion related to Use of Force investigations can be derived from video.
• Demonstrate how video analysis is currently limited to distance and timing.
• Discuss how biomechanics including applied load can be obtained from video footage.
• Demonstrate how specific video analysis can prove threatening positions vs. non-threatening positions.
• Explore multiple case studies where deriving biomechanics from video was critical in understanding the violent event in both 2 and 3-dimensions.

Training Sessions

Why Things Almost Always Go Right. A Reverse and True Look at Police Use of Force (Duggan)

TBA (Creter)

Questioning Everything: The Art & Science of Questions in Use of Force (Duggan)

NTOA Standards – Public Order Use of Force (Fomby)

Description: Captain Spencer Fomby (Ret.) will cover the best practices for police use of force during a protest event. This session will address individual uses of force by officers, use of chemical agents and impact munitions, mass detentions/arrests, arrest team tactics, planning, and command and control. 

How We Train Matters as Much as What We Train: Teaching Use of Force Decision Making (Creter)

Description: How you present and share information during training is just as important as the material you are training. This course will discuss training methods and techniques to build better use of force decision makers.  Our goal is training new officers to retain, retrieve and transfer their knowledge to perform sound decision making in use of force situations where time is of the essence. 

Development of Psychomotor Skills and Effective Training Strategies for Resistance and Aggression (Dillon)

Description:  The training workshop will examine the most recent and up to date issues that specifically impact training units and law enforcement / correctional instructors. This session breaks down multiple issues ranging from failure to engage issues, developing quantifiable evidence, curriculum design and selection. Instruction uses lectures, demonstrations and case studies. Is training important? Just one improper technique changed the county!    

• Develop instructor skills and teaching methodologies to effectively deliver psychomotor skills.  
• Develop instructor skills to coordinate and facilitate effective police combat psychomotor drills in a safe and realistic environment.  
• Are we checking the box or measuring the training?  
• Failure to engage incidents – taking corrective steps.  
• Development of use of force psychomotor skills for long term potentiation.  
• Curriculum selection, what, when, how and WHY?  
• Discuss techniques for the development of skill.  
• Developing a “preprogrammed” response.  
• Developing adaptive thinking skills under stress.  

Chemical Agents: What Rules have Changed, and What Rules Remain the Same? (Case)

Description: New laws, expectations, and technology has changed the way we train and use chemical agents.  This course is designed to prepare your agency for using chemical agents as a patrol response and during crowd control.  Concepts covered include:

• Use of Force Standards for Chemical agents
• The use of PepperBall® in patrol applications
• What chemical agents should be used and how should they be used during a crowd control incident?
• Tactics prior to Using Force

Addressing the Reluctant Officer: Is It Failure or Hesitancy (Case)

Descriptions: With calls for police reforms across the country, anti-law enforcement legislature, politicians, mainstream, social media all judging and scrutinizing every action of a law enforcement officer. All these factors play heavily on police officers’ reluctance to use force. There is a call from experts and trainers from across the county on how to deal with these issues.  There are multiple reasons why officers failed to act during a use of force incident. This workshop identifies an array of reasons why officers do not respond to use of force incidents. Discussions will be based upon use of force investigation, cognitive interviewing, non-disciplinary retraining, adaptive thinking under stress and quantifiable measurements.

Legal Sessions

You’ve Just Been Involved in a Shooting – Now What? (Pugliese)

Description: Being involved in a shooting or a serious use of force incident can be one of, if not the most, stressful event in an officer’s career. The steps taken in the immediate aftermath can make all the difference and potentially save an officer’s career. This course will cover the steps officers and supervisors need to take to protect the scene and the rights of all officers involved. We will cover securing the scene and safeguarding important evidence, when and who to talk to, and the importance of a public safety statement. We will also discuss how best to leave the scene while assuring the involved officers’ wellbeing is addressed and what to expect during the ensuing multiple investigations.

Use of Force Review Boards (Daigle)

Tag: You’re It! The Duty to Intervene & Bystander Liability (Atstupenas)

Description: This seminar will discuss how the duty to intervene, and bystander liability have suddenly become household terms across the country, with many civilians touting such concepts as innovative and revolutionary to the law enforcement profession.  These terms are not new, however, and those actually in the profession know as much.  This session will cover the concepts of the duty to intervene, applicable legal and policy standards, and modern approaches to these concepts.

Tactical Operation Legal Update (Daigle)

Description: This seminar will review the standards and case law applicable to the use of a tactical team and tactical-related issues. The purpose is to identify the current legal challenges and successes directly related to tactical operations and tactical-related equipment. These cases are reviewed for operators and commanders to understand the basis of force decisions and how to meet the constitutional requirements of the Fourth Amendment. 

So, You’re an Expert? (Daigle)

Officer Involved Shooting: Different Perspectives (Daigle)

Description: This seminar will examine the investigative best practices for providing a standardized and systematic approach to deadly force and in-custody death investigations.

Crowd Control First Amendment Protection (Daigle)

Description: This seminar examines the who, what, when, where, and why of interviews for force investigations. From the unique aspects and challenges of interviewing a law enforcement officer, to when an interview should be conducted after a critical incident, this seminar cuts through the controversy with a science-based approach for maximizing memory retrieval and communication.

4 Legal Hacks to Reduce Officer Injury Liability (Atstupenas)

Description: Officers and deputies will get injured.  That is well established and understood as a risk inherent in the law enforcement profession.  However, agencies must be poised to respond to those injuries and to take certain precautions to protect officers from injuries, consistent with state and federal law.  This seminar will examine Workers’ Compensation issues, contemporary trends in disability discrimination law, a discussion on defective training, and best practices in agency training protocols.

Force Investigations Sessions

The Investigator’s Checklist: You Won’t Find What You Don’t Look For. (Kliem)

Description: Having been involved in some of the most high-profile use-of-force cases in the country, Von Kliem, CEO and Director of Consulting for Force Science, will share how he guides investigators and attorneys in their understanding of human performance during threat assessments and responses. Attendees will be introduced to an investigator checklist and shown how it can be immediately incorporated into their current investigative approaches.

Perception-Response Times for OIS Investigations (Taylor)

Description: This presentation will survey the research on perception-response times for shooting tasks and will demonstrate how these important studies can be appropriately applied to the analysis of real world OIS cases.

Investigative Considerations for the Role Policy Can Play in Creating Goal Conflicts and Unwanted Outcomes (Gonzalez)

Description: This presentation will examine the role policy can play in officer decision-making and outcomes during potential use-of-force encounters. We’ll explore ways to identify the potential goal conflicts an officer faced during a use-of-force event and the importance of taking policy driven decision-making and goal conflict into account during both the criminal and administrative phases of a use-of-force investigation.

Introduction to Interviews for Force Investigation (Taylor)

Description: One of the most important and controversial aspects of any use of force investigation is the interview with the involved officer(s). This presentation will examine the who, what, where, when, and why of use of these critical interviews while demonstrating the merits, both to the quality of the data collected and to officer wellness, of taking an inductive approach.

Force Reporting and Force Investigation 101 (Daigle)

Description: This seminar will review the operational standards to identify an effective force reporting and investigation process. Developing an effective report form and collection of necessary data to identify risk. Identify a process to evaluate policy and training interpretation.

Developing a Dedicated Use of Force Unit: Review, Analysis, Data Collection, and Training (Botterbusch)

Description: This presentation will examine how to create a cutting edge Use of Force Review Unit dedicated to accurate data collection, analysis, and training based on the thorough examination of every use of force incident within an agency. This in turn will aid in the development of policies, innovative strategies, and improved outcomes through data driven proactive training and guidance to enhance officer performance.

Cooperation During Use of Force Investigations (Selverian)

Description: The comprehensive analysis of a use of force encounter often requires cooperation amongst participants with varied manners of expertise. This presentation will explore a real-world case in which investigators were required to examine the manner of death of a subject following the application of less-lethal force by responding officers. The speaker will demonstrate how information drawn from experts in the disciplines of law, psychology, biomechanics, engineering, and decision-making was combined to reach a reliable conclusion to the matter at hand.

Civil Liability Considerations for Use of Force Investigations (Wallentine)

Corrections Sessions

Use of Force in Corrections: Legal Update (Hill)

Description: Now more than ever, the discussion surrounding the use of force is critical for all commanders and staff.   This seminar will discuss the legal developments in the use of force including an extensive review of the Kingsley case.  Discussions will include how the public’s perception of the use of force has changed over the years with an emphasis on legal based report writing, the duty to intervene and de-escalation efforts.  The impact of video will also be a focal point as well as the importance of consistency in training throughout the entire agency.

Use of Force – Are We Seeing it Clearly? (Celetti)

Description: The focus of this class will provide an overview on how we view a use of force in the 2020’s with an emphasis on the officer’s perception. These officer’s perceptions drive our decision-making process while focusing on the facts and totality of circumstances at hand. Some key topics of discussion are “Use of Force and today’s Optics”, “Perception and the Use of Force” and “Use of Force and Trauma”.

Navigating through Corrections in the 21st Century (Celetti)

Description: The focus of this class will provide an overview on how law enforcement has changed due to correctional and police reforms in the way we operate today. These changes and operational overhauls have impacted both our staff and the inmate population we serve. Some key topics of discussion are the “seasoned” officer vs. the “new” officer, bridging the generational gap in a post COVID atmosphere, training in the 2020’s, and the “New Normal” of today.

Excited Delirium (Leach)

Duty to Intervene: Where to from Here? (Hill)

Description: The Duty to intervene involves the obligation of deputies and officers to intervene when force is inappropriately applied or no longer required. Join Carrie Hill as she shares with you the standard for use of force and the theory of bystander liability in the correctional setting.  Understanding the law and having legal based policies and procedures can protect you, your colleagues and those persons under your care.

De-Escalation Tactics (Zawilinski)

Description: Is your agency actually training in this area? Are the results being tracked? Quantified? Covid has significantly impacted staff, staffing levels, morale and increased periods of lockdowns. Has your agency re-visited its protocol/amended it to include the effects of the pandemic?  

Civil Liability Avoiding a Pattern or Practice Finding (Hill)

Description: The Duty to intervene involves the obligation of deputies and officers to intervene when force is inappropriately applied or no longer required. Join Carrie Hill as she shares with you the standard for use of force and the theory of bystander liability in the correctional setting.  Understanding the law and having legal based policies and procedures can protect you, your colleagues and those persons under your care.

Applying Kingsley v. Hendrickson to a UOF Report (Zawilinski)

Description: Taking the eight principles of this landmark case and implementing them in line staff UOF reports. Report out with the same standards that staff will encounter years later in potential litigation

Command Sessions

Use of Force – The New Social Contract (Wilfong)

Why Words Matter (Terra)

Use of Force for Our New Generation of Officers: Retention, Resiliency, and Leadership (Case)

Description: We face challenges to recruit, train, and retain our current generation of officers including increased dependence on technology, an uncertain policing environment, and a generation of applicants with different values from our veteran officers.  We have seen an increase in mental health concerns from our officers, introduction of the “degrees of truth” concept, and officers having a difficult time grasping fundamental concepts of policing.  These challenges create inconsistencies which lead to a decrease in productivity, efficiency, and public trust.  Concepts covered include:

• Increasing resiliency after a use of force
• Retention during difficult times
• Different leadership for a different culture
• Understanding why our officers learn differently than we do

The Gold Standard: Flipping the Narrative on Police Use of Force (Case)

Description: In 2020, approximately 53.8 million people aged 16 or older had one or more contacts with police.  Approximately 2% (or just over 1 million) result in some level of force.  The most dramatic change to policing, specifically use of police force, came after the events of 2020.  We now find a collision between the demand to use less force while increasing number of officers and their pay.  Police leaders need to create a gold standard to ensure the use of force culture within our departments do not react to the narrative but rather create the narrative.  Concepts covered include:

• Awareness of the use of force culture
• Knowledge of attitudes held by officers (patrol, specialty teams, & training)
• Ensuring there is a high level of competency and knowledge surrounding use of force.
• Professionalism increasing with experience.
• Tabletop exercises with city managers, PIO’s, DOJ, elected officials, trusted partners within the media, and public interest groups.

Tactical and Operational Decision-Making Frameworks (Selleg)

Description: This seminar aims to expose the students to high-level, tactical decision-making from the perspective of a law enforcement leader. Research has shown that the best decision-makers possess a problem-solving methodology. This course exposes students to a systematic decision-making model for tactical (happening right now) incidents and a framework for problem-solving at operational level courses of action during more complex incidents. The concepts are supplemented with video decision-making exercises to reinforce the models.

The Implementation of Social Workers into Law Enforcement Operations (Race)

Description: In the ever-evolving landscape of law enforcement/community relations, the integration of social workers into law enforcement operations has emerged as one approach for addressing complex societal issues with empathy, compassion, and a focus on community well-being.  The role of law enforcement in our society has expanded greatly beyond our core functions of patrol operations and criminal investigations.  Today, our officers’ calls for service consist of a myriad of non-criminal “investigations” and other community welfare situations. To address these ever-expanding responsibilities, while adhering to our core functions and upholding our duty of care to our communities, some agencies have implemented social workers in various capacities, into their operations.  This presentation will examine the various administrative structures for implementing social workers into your law enforcement operations including challenges presented by each administrative model.

Chiefs Perspective: What’s After a Significant Use of Force (Riddick)

Description: Chief Vernon Riddick provides a glimpse through the lens of a police chief how policy, training, and supervision can impact what will occur after an incident involving a significant use of force. Moreover, he will focus on what the “book” does not tell you and delve into the real world applications of being a police chief and the considerations that must be contemplated during these types of incidents. Conversations will include: leading and managing – the art of decision making; fairness vs equality; chief’s counsel; internal and external relationships; trauma; “doing the right thing.”

(ALL NEW) CALEA Accreditation Standards for Use of Force (Race)

Description: This course will explore the use of force accreditation standards that are part of every law enforcement accreditation process, whether CALEA or state accreditation.  However, rather than focusing on the incident itself, we will focus on the issues following the incident itself.  We will examine accreditation standards and reporting requirements – including how we document de-escalation, the administrative review process and the annual analysis.  Additionally, we will discuss new use of force technologies and how these fit into the accreditation standards, even if the standards haven’t yet caught up to the technology.