Autonomous Vehicles Are Coming: What Law Enforcement Needs to Know

Brian retired from the Washington State Patrol in February 2010 after 30-years of service, the last five years as Assistant Chief. Brian was appointed Director of Law Enforcement for the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators in March 2010. Brian is a graduate of the 196th Session of the FBI National Academy and has also attended the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard. Brian has a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and an M.B.A. in Managerial Leadership from City University in Seattle, Washington. In October 2016 Brian received the IACP's J. Stannard Baker Award for Lifetime Achievement in Highway Safety.  

Capt. Richard Arnold enlisted with the Michigan State Police (MSP) in 1994, graduating as a member of the 110th Trooper Recruit School. In his current assignment as commander of the Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Division (CVED), Arnold is responsible for providing leadership and administrative oversight of statewide commercial vehicle enforcement operations and special programs for the MSP.  Arnold has served at the Bridgeport, Bay City, Flint, and Detroit posts, the Bay Area Narcotics Enforcement Unit, Seventh and Third District Headquarters, and at Lansing Headquarters. During his twenty-six-year career, Arnold has held the ranks of trooper, sergeant, lieutenant, first lieutenant, inspector, captain, and lieutenant colonel. Arnold served as the MSP Director's appointed chairperson to the Michigan Impaired Driving Safety Commission, represented MSP on the Michigan Council on Future Mobility, and is currently a member of the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA) Autonomous Vehicle Subcommittee. Arnold graduated with a bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan “ Ann Arbor in 1994. He is a graduate of the 238th Session of the FBI National Academy (FBINA) and Michigan State University Fourth School of Staff and Command.  Arnold is a member of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), IACP Division of State & Provincial Police, Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police, and the FBINA Associates. 

Chief Chris Childs has been a member of the California Highway Patrol for 26 years, having worked in the Los Angeles, Sacramento and San Francisco Bay Areas.  He is a graduate of the FBI's National Academy for law enforcement executives. Chief Childs has served as the commander of multiple CHP areas including Napa, Santa Rosa, and Golden Gate Communications Center.  His most recent assignment was at the CHP's Enforcement and Planning Division, where he represented the Department in the implementation of autonomous vehicles in California.  Chief Childs has taken command of the CHP's Information Management Division and will serve as its Chief Information Officer.

Bernard C. Soriano is a Deputy Director for the California Department of Motor Vehicles and is responsible for the regulations governing autonomous vehicles on California's roadways.  He is has over 35 years of engineering and management experience in the private and public sector. He previously held engineering and management positions at Hughes Space and Communications, where he designed satellite attitude control systems and was involved in their launch missions.  He was also the Assistant Technical Director at the USGA Research and Test Center in New Jersey.  In the public sector, Bernard was the Chief Information Officer for the Office of the Secretary of State and was the information technology task force leader on Governor Schwarzenegger's California Performance Review.  Bernard was also a member of the part-time faculty at the California State University, Sacramento, where he taught courses in the College of Engineering and the College of Business Administration. Bernard holds a Ph.D. in Engineering from U.C. Irvine, a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Southern California, and a B.S. in Mechanical and Aeronautical Engineering from U.C. Davis. He also holds an M.B.A. from California State University, Sacramento.    He was a Lieutenant in the U.S. Navy Reserve and was selected as a finalist in the NASA astronaut program.