Paul Cappitelli

APB Columnist Paul Cappitelli is the former executive director for the California Peace Officer's Standards and Training Commission (POST). He provided leadership for the development of visionary training curricula for 80,000+ peace officers. Before that, Paul spent 29 years with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department retiring as a Captain. His experiences were as a street cop, homicide investigator, first-line supervisor, PIO, training commander and more. He is now a consultant and police practices expert.

School policing: a paradox of the defund movement

November 1, 2021

Starting in mid 2020, the anti-police activists focused their rage upon not only municipal law enforcement agencies but school police as well. For reasons that defy common sense, the narrative suggests that having uniformed officers in schools is somehow detrimental to the student population. Read More

Defending the honor of the LE profession – finally!

September 29, 2021

Ever since Memorial Day 2020, law enforcement officers have been publicly castigated and vilified more than any time in recent history. In response to this criticism, many law enforcement leaders have been noticeably contrite and at times sheepish as the politicians, zealots and the media pummeled the profession with allegations of impropriety and bigotry. Read More

Op-Ed -The police reform challenge: preserving high standards

September 23, 2021

For years, the law enforcement profession has struggled to increase the number of female and minority officers within the ranks. Law enforcement leaders continually beat the drum for diversity and […] Read More

The dichotomy of the defund movement: reality setting in

August 24, 2021

The words “defund the police!” have been chanted ad nauseum for over a year. No one has ever really explained the term in detail. Instead, the “defund” narrative has been aligned with the allegations of racism in American policing, and failure to defund was promoted as being unsupportive of police reform. Read More

Self-reform: making adjustments for career survival

July 27, 2021

The idealistic buzzwords are chanted and repeated ad nauseum: “reimagine policing,” “defund the police,” “reform the police,” etc. By now, the average beat cop is sick of hearing them. Sadly, public opinion of law enforcement has taken a dip in the past year. Read More

Crowd control force options: a cacophony of mixed messages

June 1, 2021

In the wake of anger-fueled protests and riots, it appears that activists, politicos and judges are all over the map regarding what officers should or should not do in response to active threats during civil unrest. The goalposts are constantly being moved as the police profession grapples with methods to counter aggression. Read More