INTRODUCTION

Randy Means is the founding partner of the Thomas & Means Law Firm, where he specializes entirely in police operations and administration and assists a broad national clientele. For more than 30 years, he has consulted with, lectured, advised, trained and led many of the best, and some of the most challenged, American law enforcement agencies.

A pioneer in risk management and leader in professional training for law enforcement, Mr. Means has seen it, dealt with it, understood it, examined it and fixed it. When agencies want clarity, precision and specialized insight, Chiefs, Sheriffs and Training Managers reach out to Randy Means!

Mr. Means has been developing professional online training for the military and for law enforcement for 40 years, including, for the last 15 years, computer-based training on constitutional law and human relations skills applications for police officers. He spent 30 years in Criminal Investigation.

This is why The Response Network Inc. has chosen to partner with him to bring you the very best in online training courses for law enforcement agencies. So now, in addition to his active national training and consulting practice, he serves as Director of Curriculum Development and Quality Assurance for The Response Network.

PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND SKETCH

Randy Means is a graduate of the University of North Carolina School of Law. While attending and completing his degree he was the in-house counsel to a major city police department for a 10-year period. Earlier, he worked in a private firm then served as head of legal training for a state law enforcement training center and coordinator of legal training for a state bureau of investigation. For nearly twenty years, he was the primary legal and risk management instructor for the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

Mr. Means career has included many accomplishments in the professional law enforcement profession. As a key member of a small team of lawyers, he and others were responsible for handling the Graham v. Connor, the landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court on use of force by police.

The Labor Relations Information System, a prominent police union think tank, publishes his book, The Law of Policing, and he has authored more than a hundred published articles on law enforcement issues. For several years, he managed the “Chiefs Counsel Column” for Police Chief magazine and now writes the law and risk management column for Law & Order magazine. He has conducted law enforcement training in every state and in Canada, and estimates to have instructed/ taught at least up to 500,000 professional law enforcement officials nationally!

During 2013, he worked as a contract consultant on leadership and accountability for the Houston Police Department. Currently, he is in a four-year contract to do likewise for the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office in Phoenix, AZ. He serves on the Legal Advisory Board for Taser International. From 2007 to 2009, he was head of the National Association of Police Legal Advisors (IACP-LOS).

His work has been referred to and mentioned in the Wall Street Journal and discussed on 60 Minutes. He has appeared on both the Law Enforcement Television Network (LETN) and the FBI Training Network.

As previously referred to, he worked with the small team of lawyers that handled Graham v. Connor, the landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court on use of force by police and has taught nearly half-million law enforcement officials. He taught them police ethics to explore the reasons behind unethical behavior & ways to minimize those problems through leadership management. He has hosted police officer survival training as well as harassment prevention & human trafficking awareness trainings held at major agencies throughout the land.

MILITARY SERVICE

Before his work with law enforcement, Mr. Means was a naval officer. His last active duty position was Executive Officer on a small combatant naval vessel. In subsequent reserve duty, he was a training officer and – in 11 years of creditable service – was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Commander. He was twice awarded the Navy Achievement Medal, once for his active duty service, again for his reserve service.

RANDY MEANS’ CLIENTS

He has conducted in-house leadership and risk management training or consulting for the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, the Phoenix Police Department, the Houston Police Department, the Honolulu Police Department, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, the Tucson Police Department, the Detroit Police Department, the Oregon State Police, the Alaska State Troopers, the Colorado State Police, the New Jersey State Police, the Kansas Highway Patrol, the North Carolina Highway Patrol, the Missouri Command College, the St. Louis County Police Department, the Fairfax County (VA) Police Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Pentagon Police (PFPA) among hundreds of others.

He has also taught for the British Columbia Police Complaint Commission, the Los Angeles County Police Chiefs Association, Northwestern University, the Institute for Police Technology and Management, the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement, California POST, Nevada POST, Arizona POST and the San Diego Regional Government Training Center.

CONFERENCES- GUEST SPEAKER

Mr. Means has been a speaker at national annual conferences of the FBI National Academy Alumni Association (FBINAA), Southern Police Institute (SPI) Alumni Association, International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association (ILEETA), Public Risk and Insurance Management Association (PRIMA), State Risk Manager’s Association (STRIMA), Public Agency Risk Manager’s Association (PARMA), National Association of State Personnel Executives (NASPE), National Association of Government Training and Development Directors (NAGTADD) International Association of State Directors of Law Enforcement Standards and Training (IASDLEST), International Personnel Management Association (IPMA), National Association of Field Training Officers (NAFTO), National Intelligence Academy (NIA), International Association of Law Enforcement Planners (IALEP), American Society for Law Enforcement Training (ASLET), Labor Relations Information System, International Association of Arson Investigators, North American Wildlife Enforcement Officers Association, National Information Officers Association (NIOA), National Conference of State and Provincial Police Planning Officers, Mid-Atlantic Law Enforcement Executive Development (LEED) Conference, the California Association of Police Training Officers (CAPTO), and COPSWEST (California Peace Officers Association), as well as state police chief’s conferences in Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Maine, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Hawaii, Missouri, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Illinois, Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Oklahoma, Ohio, Oregon, and Pennsylvania.

Risk Management Insurance Clients

He has presented law enforcement risk management training for: California Joint Powers Insurance Authority, Maine Municipal Association, Redwood Empire Municipal Insurance Fund (CA), Florida League of Municipalities, Gallagher-Bassett Services (Chicago), Independent Cities Association (Los Angeles), Southern California Joint Powers Insurance Authority, Carl Warren and Company (San Diego), Tennessee Municipal League, Contra Costa County (CA) Municipal Risk Management Authority, Public Risk Management Exchange (PRIMEX), Utah Risk Management Mutual Association (URMMA), New Hampshire Municipal Association, Colorado Intergovernmental Risk Sharing Agency (CIRSA), Texas Municipal League, Virginia Municipal League, Missouri Intergovernmental Risk Management Association (MIRMA), the Oregon Cities and Counties Insurance Trust, the Minnesota League of Cities and the Association of Bay Area Governments in California.

NATIONAL GROUP OF “ABLE TEAM” SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTS

Comprising up to 50 highly-experienced veterans of professional law enforcement creating a combined 1,000 Years of Law Enforcement Experience, The Thomas & Means ABLE Team is the group of national subject matter experts that assist Mr. Means with special projects, consultative matters and, of course, training from time-to-time to insure accuracy and national best practices in all fields of web-based instruction content, classroom training or consulting advice. These consultants come from every size and type agency, and from every region of the country. Among them, they have more than a thousand years of full-time law enforcement experience. From tactics to ethics, leadership to liability prevention, patrol procedures to personnel practices, human relations to interrogations, the ABLE Team can do it all!

All Team Members have worked, extremely successfully, as law enforcement officers, supervisors and leaders. Some have worked at the very top of major agencies. Naturally, they are all highly skilled trainers and experts in training development. Many are also attorneys; several are licensed psychologists. One is a medical doctor. Some have other doctorate degrees; most have graduate degrees of one sort or another. One Ph.D. specializes in Human and Organizational Development and teaches at the LAPD Leadership Academy. Another has been inducted into the world Martial Arts Hall of Fame. Many teach on the adjunct faculties of colleges and universities.

Most importantly, they are ABLE – Allied to Benefit Law Enforcement – and participate as needed in Mr. Means’ consulting and training work – which includes Mr. Means’ role as the Director of Curriculum Development & Quality Assurance for The Response Network!