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Seminar Title: Use of Force, Deadly Force and Officer Involved Shootings
DATES: 6/7/2021 through 6/9/2021
INSTRUCTOR(S): Mark Kollar
LOCATION: St. Louis Airport - Drury Inn & Suites - 10490 Natural Bridge Rd., St. Louis, MO 63134
HOTEL: Drury Inn- Airport - St. Louis, MO 888-368-3479
$89 single/double - Booking link coming soon.
COURSE REGISTRATION FEE: $350.00 Includes all training materials, and a Certificate of Completion.
Instructor Bio
Mark Kollar currently serves as a special agent supervisor for a state-level criminal investigative agency. In that capacity, he commands the Major Crimes Division, Special Investigations Unit for one-quarter of the state. The special agents he supervises conduct high-profile criminal investigations including: officer-involved shootings, homicides, serial crimes, public official corruption, sexual assaults, and large-scale financial crimes. In his over 25 year law enforcement career, he has served in multiple capacities to include: patrol, narcotics, crime scene, detective bureau, and in various supervisory roles. He has an associate degree from Hocking College and a Bachelor of Science degree in Criminal Justice from Ohio University. Additionally, he is an author who has written several books and is a regular contributor to PoliceOne and other law enforcement publications.
The Ohio Peace Officer Training Commission has awarded Mark the designations of “Master Criminal Investigator” and “Master Evidence Technician” based upon the successful completion of specialized courses of study in those areas. He has additionally received multiple commendations and honors for the cases he has been involved with, including the Ohio Attorney General’s Distinguished Law Enforcement Group Achievement Award on multiple occasions. He has lectured extensively to audiences from 8 countries in the areas of officer-involved shooting and homicide investigation, public corruption, and other topics such as “Management of Multi-Fatality Crimes Scenes” during a FBI National Academy Associates retrainer.
Mark is married with two daughters, both currently in college. He is a licensed private airplane pilot and enjoys alpine mountaineering, running, skiing, and woodworking (primarily making fountain pens). In addition to his primary career, he also owns two small businesses and is in the process of completing his third book.
Pre-Payment is not required to register or attend IN-PERSON seminars. Pre-payment is required for WEBINARS and ONLINE COURSES.
Overview: How many officer-involved shootings has your agency experienced
in the last five years? Fortunately the answer for most agencies in the United
States is zero. Because law enforcement agencies experience so few officer-involved
shootings, the response to these events is not always a well-trained response.
Agencies may have supervisors and investigators who have never experienced
or responded to an officer-involved shooting or a serious use of force incident,
yet the agency expects a comprehensive response to one of the most critical
events an agency may face.
The purpose of this program is to prepare officers, supervisors, investigators
and prosecutors in the proper response and investigation of serious use of
force incidents and officer-involved shootings. What can an agency expect
when an officer wounds or takes the life of a person? First, the agency can
expect the onslaught of media attention. Second, the agency should expect
that a criminal investigation will be conducted by the agency or some
outside entity. Third, the agency must recognize its responsibility to conduct
an administrative investigation into the shooting or use of force. Finally,
the agency that experiences an officer-involved shooting or any serious use
of force should expect that a lawsuit will follow. Throughout all of this,
the agency must ensure the well-being of the involved-officer.
Scene Response: This session will focus on issues related to the initial
response to the scene by supervisors and investigators. It is imperative
that evidence and witnesses are secured in a fashion that does not, in any
way, taint the investigation or lead to charges of a cover-up by the involved
agency. At the same time critical pieces of evidence that will assist agencies
in documenting the event for later use in all of the expected forums, i.e.
criminal investigation; administrative investigation and civil suit may forever
be lost without a proper response. The agency’s treatment of the involved-officer
may have resounding impact on the police agency and must be considered when
dealing with the initial response.
Legal Issues: This session will examine the current legal trends in
the use of force. Many of these trends are identified by examining lawsuits
that both officers and agencies have faced following the use of deadly force.
A clear understanding of the law relating to the use of force by law enforcement
officers is essential in order to properly supervise, investigate or manage
an officer-involved shooting event or serious use of force.
Administrative Investigation: The most important Internal Investigation
that an agency will be faced with an officer-involved shooting. This investigation
will be reviewed at multiple levels by persons outside the agency. This investigation,
if not properly conducted, will be the subject of attack through lawsuits,
outside commissions and the media. This session focuses on the best police
practices relating to the internal investigation of officer-involved shootings.
The session examines the distinction between the four necessary investigations;
examines investigative techniques and emergency provisions for employees
and supervisors.
Agency Review Process: Agencies must have a mechanism in place for
reviewing use of force incidents. Low-level uses of force may be reviewed
at the first-line supervisory level, while serious uses of force, including
deadly force should be reviewed by a specified review panel. This session
will focus on the process of use of force review and the options an agency
may employ in the review process.
Officer Well-Being: The most important aspect of any police agency
is people. The agency must always be focused on caring for the well-being
of its personnel. Obviously, when an officer is faced with the traumatic
event of an involved-shooting his or her well-being may be impacted. This
session will examine the best-practices with respect to agency response to
officers who have been involved in these critical incidents and focus on
psychological issues relating to police shootings.
The Lawsuit: Participants will examine the common issues in a lawsuit
involving a police use of deadly force including: failure to train issues;
policy issues; agency response issues which affect liability; distinguishing
agency liability from individual liability, and the concept of qualified
immunity in the context of use of force cases.
Policy Development: Participants utilizing the foregoing sessions
will identify the best practices in officer-involved shooting events and
put those practices into an officer-involved shooting policy which can be
tailored for any size agency. The policy should serve as a roadmap for officers,
investigators and supervisors who are faced, for the first time, with an
officer-involved shooting.
Media Issues During Officer Involved Shootings: An agency’s initial
and follow-up response to the media can have a far-reaching impact on citizen
reaction to the shooting and to allegations in the expected lawsuit. This
session will focus on the best police practices with respect to media responses
during these critical police incidents. Participants will be asked to prepare
a press-release regarding an actual police shooting. These statements will
be critically analyzed in order to outline the best police practices and
heighten the participant’s sensitivity to responses that may come back to
haunt the involved-officer, investigators, supervisors, agency executives,
and ultimately the agency itself.
Criminal Investigation: In every police shooting involving injury
or death, a criminal investigation will be conducted. This investigation
takes a two-faceted approach that includes an investigation of the suspect’s
acts as well as a determination of whether the officer’s use of force was
consistent with the criminal law. The subject officers have 4th, 5th, 6th,
and 14th Amendment Rights just like every other citizen of the United States.
These rights must be considered for any investigation to be complete and
valid. This session will focus on investigative issues relating to officer
involved use of force.
Don’t Jump The Gun-A Gunshot Wound To A Suspect’s Back May Not Indicate
A Problem: This session focuses on what every investigator needs to know
before drawing any conclusions relative to the appropriateness of an officer-involved
shooting. A suspect who has been shot in the back does not always mean that
the officer fired a shot after the threat had passed. Numerous studies have
lead to the conclusion that reaction time may account for wounds to a suspect’s
back. Participants will learn how these studies can be applied in a practical
manner to an officer-involved shooting investigation.
