Paul Vernon was the public information officer (PIO) for the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) from January 2005 to April 2007. During that time, he developed this course and continues to teach it twice a year.

Paul retired from the LAPD in 2021 as the captain of COMPSTAT Division. He had previously served as captain over two LAPD patrol divisions. Before becoming captain in 2015, he served as a detective lieutenant for about 10 years.

Throughout his 33+ year career, Paul was involved in several special assignments and projects. He authored two well-regarded manuals used by LAPD, Personnel Complaint Investigations: A Guide for Supervisors and The Management Guide to Discipline. Both documents have been referenced in scholarly works and police-related studies by oversight commissions. He designed and taught a three-day POST-certified course for Internal Affairs investigators and designed an ethics course for Iowa law enforcement.

He was a consultant on the Complaint Management System, a subsystem of LAPD’s TEAMS II program, a multi-layered police accountability tracking system. He designed oversight systems as a Gang Coordinator of five divisions to ensure compliance with Federal Consent Decree provisions.

Paul is a graduate of Cal Poly, Pomona, with a bachelor’s degree in history. He earned a graduate degree in criminal justice from Fort Hays University, KS, in 2020. He as since taught policing, crime analysis, and criminological theory for the Cal State system.

Paul is a graduate of the FBI’s National Academy, Session 204, in 2001. He co-taught a public corruption seminar with the FBI for law enforcement in Nairobi, Kenya, and recently traveled to Seoul, South Korea, as part of a multi-cultural leadership visit.

As a PIO, Paul appeared on camera and radio hundreds of times, and he is still called up by media outlets for advice and comment.