Chief Announces Special Weapons and Tactics Board of Inquiry Panel Members

Los Angeles: Today, Chief of Police William J. Bratton, in keeping with his commitment to convene a Board of Inquiry into the July 10, 2005, SWAT Officer Involved Shooting, announced the names of the board members.
The board has been directed to look at all phases of SWAT operations, including: the selection processes for personnel, training systems, deployment, leadership during operations, decision making protocols during field operations, weapon systems and policies, weapon selection processes, and on-going SWAT operations evaluation systems.
Assistant Chief Sharon K. Papa, Office of Support Services, will serve as the board’s chairperson and will oversee the eight member board comprised of:
Richard M. Aborn
Richard Aborn has over two decades of experience in litigation, public and government affairs, program analysis, management, issue advocacy, and social sector enterprises. Mr. Aborn combines his experience as an attorney and years of experience in the public sector, with an emphasis on criminal justice and organizational integrity issues, to provide clients with a wide range of services.
Mr. Aborn advises police departments and criminal justice agencies in the United States and in Europe on a variety of issues ranging from police integrity issues to use of force policy to building more effective relationships between police departments and criminal justice agencies. Current projects include the Los Angeles Police Department, the Hartford Police Department, Transport for London, the MET Police, British Transport Police and the Crown Prosecution Service.
Mr. Aborn was commissioned by the Office of the Public Advocate of New York City to conduct an investigation of the response of the New York City Department to civilian complaints of misconduct and it disciplinary system. This investigation included numerous recommendations to control police misconduct. He also investigated NYPD’s disciplinary decisions concerning officers involved with the fatal shooting of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed individual shot 41 times by police.
 
Merrick Bobb
Merrick Bobb is the founding director of the Police Assessment Resource Center (PARC), a national resource center on policing and police reform, under the auspices of the Vera Institute of Justice and funded by the Ford Foundation. Over the past 10 years, Mr. Bobb has served as a legal staff member and then as a Deputy General Counsel of the Christopher Commission Investigation of the Los Angeles Police Department; General Counsel of the Kolts investigation of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department; Special Counsel to Los Angeles County to monitor the Sheriff’s department; Special Counsel to the Los Angeles Commission to help establish the Office of Inspector General. Mr. Bobb conducted an investigation of the LAPD five years after the Rodney King incident and the Christopher Commission Report, resulting in the publication of a report in May 1996. Mr. Bobb has also consulted for the United States Department of Justice on law enforcement matters since 1998. He is a graduate of Dartmouth Collegeand received his law degree from the Universityof California, Berkeley.
William A. Geller
William A. Geller is Director of Geller