The Evolving Trend toward Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement: Building Trust and Legitimacy

With more than 32 years veteran of law enforcement with Fairfax County Police Department, Colonel Edwin C. Roessler Jr. serves as the Chief of Police following his appointment on July 30, 2013. Colonel Roessler has served as a consultant with the IACP Team for many years as well as a vast array of consultant work with other national and international law enforcement agencies. As a consultant to many small, mid-sized, and large law enforcement organizations in the United States and globally, Colonel Roessler's core skill set has been an invaluable asset in the following areas for the IACP Team: • Management Studies • Strategic Staffing Analysis • Accreditation and Accountability Processes by Civilian and Auditor Programs • Patrol Area Re-designs • Executive Searches • Testing and Assessment Centers • Technical Assistance • Career Development and Leadership Programs • Officer Wellness and Suicide Prevention • Use of Force • Internal Affairs • Budgeting and Personnel • Transformational Leadership and Organizational Culture Change • Transparency and Public Trust • Proactive technology deployment studies and pilot projects to include Body Worn Camera policies and deployments  Colonel Roessler previously served as Deputy Chief of Patrol managing crime fighting efforts across all eight district stations in a county of 400 square miles serving over 1.2 million community members. One of Colonel Roessler's first actions as Police Chief was to form the Chief's Council on Diversity Recruitment. The Council engages community leaders to guide and advise the Chief and the Department's leadership team on how to achieve recruitment goals and better represent our culturally diverse communities within the sworn, civilian, and volunteer workforce; while also creating and nurturing a robust dialogue with all communities served. The strategic plan for diversity recruitment embraces the Department's ongoing goal of improving engagement with the community to prevent and fight crime, improve the culture of safety both internally and in the community, and to keep pace with urbanization.  Colonel Roessler's prior senior command assignments included the Internal Affairs Bureau, the Criminal Justice Academy, the Administrative Support Bureau, and a Patrol Bureau division. Colonel Roessler currently serves as a senior advisor to the International Association of Chiefs of Police for its International Police Education and Training program in partnership with the United States Department of State and the American University.  Colonel Roessler serves as the chairman of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's taskforce for the conversion to NIBRS as wells as serving as the representative to the Bureau's CJIS Advisory Panel Board as the representative of the Major Cities Chiefs. Recently Colonel Roessler has increased public safety employee wellness endeavors locally and nationally through innovative suicide prevention and awareness programs led by the Major Cities Chiefs Association, the Department of Justice, and several not for profit organizations.  Colonel Roessler also continues to build upon transparency with his community and co-producing transformational organizational change with all community and department stakeholders in critical areas such as use of force, responding to mental health calls for service, and meeting the needs for the delivery of essential police services that rapid urbanization produces.  Colonel Roessler received his undergraduate degree from Arizona State University and his graduate degree from the George Washington University. Colonel Roessler has graduated from a variety of professional development programs including the Federal Bureau of Investigation's National Executive Institute and National Academy, the American University's Key Executive Graduate Program, the United States Military Academy West Point Leadership Program, and Leadership Fairfax.

Richard G. Schott has been the Independent Police Auditor ('IPA') for Fairfax County, Virginia, since that office was launched in April, 2017.  Prior to that, Schott served nearly 28 years with the F.B.I., as an agent in Birmingham, Alabama; as the Associate Division Counsel in Atlanta; and in the Office of the General Counsel (OGC) from 2000-2017.  As a member of OGC's Legal Instruction Unit, he spent 17 years training and instructing at the FBI Academy in Quantico, VA, to two primary audiences: FBI new agent trainees and attendees of the FBI's National Academy ('NA') program.  The primary courses he instructed in the NA program (204th Session through the 267th Session) were:  1. Legal Issues Impacting Law Enforcement Operations; 2. Employment Law Issues for Law Enforcement Executives; 3. International Legal Issues for Law Enforcement.  Schott also guest lectured for various Leadership and Communications courses at the NA, and at various conferences and seminars throughout the United States.