Paul Vernon, Lieutenant, was the Public Information Officer for the Los Angeles Police Department from January 2005 to April 2007. Currently he is the commanding officer in charge of detectives for the Central Police Station in downtown Los Angeles. He is a graduate of Cal Poly, Pomona, with a Bachelor’s Degree in History. Before becoming a police officer, Paul was a secondary-education teacher for four years in Southern California. He joined LAPD in 1988. His assignments have included patrol, field training officer, field supervisor, training supervisor, Internal Affairs investigator, watch commander, gang lieutenant, and PIO.

As a sergeant, Paul coordinated recruit training for three years at the Los Angeles Police Academy, graduating 40 classes and over 2,000 new officers. In 1997 and 1998, he wrote 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 a three-day POST-certified course for Internal Affairs investigators, which is offered by LAPD. He has also designed a course on ethics, which he taught to Iowa law enforcement.

As a lieutenant, Paul helped to design the Complaint Management System, a subsystem of LAPD’s TEAMS II program, a multi-layered police accountability tracking system. He automated many procedures at Internal Affairs and created timely reports for police managers on risk management issues. He designed oversight systems at Internal Affairs and as a Gang Coordinator of five divisions to ensure compliance with Federal Consent Decree provisions.

Paul graduated from 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. He is an instructor for LAPD’s West Point Leadership Program and teaches at the POST Management Course for Lieutenants.Paul also teaches media relations for POST and consulted on the production of a POST tele-course on media relations.

As a PIO, Paul has appeared on camera and radio hundreds of times. He oversees the Media Relations Section, which handles on average 500 media requests and 10 news conferences a month.