Superintendent Michael Harrison will meet with House Speaker Paul Ryan on Monday (Jan. 16) about new approaches police departments are taking on police training regarding de-escalation, decision-making and use of force tactics.

The meeting, which will take place in Janesville, WI, will focus on the Police Executive Research Forum’s (PERF) new ICAT or Integrating Communications, Assessment, and Tactics training guide. PERF introduced the ICAT guide at a conference in New Orleans last month. The conference included a presentation from the NOPD on the department’s new peer intervention program known as EPIC, or Ethical Policing Is Courageous.

Chief Harrison will be joined by Janesville Police Chief David Moore, Camden County New Jersey Police Chief J. Scott Thomson, Burlington, Vermont Police Chief Brandon del Pozo, Tucson, Arizona Police Chief Chris Magnus, Volusia County Florida Sheriff Mike Chitwood, and PERF Executive Director Chuck Wexler.

Under the direction of Mayor Mitch Landrieu, Chief Harrison and the NOPD have led the national conversation on police reform. Last August, the NOPD hosted top leadership from the Baltimore Police Department to discuss the significant progress the NOPD has made to strengthen and reform the police department under a federal consent decree. In October 2016, Chief Harrison participated in a roundtable discussion on consent decree implementation and police reform in Chicago with the Chicago and Baltimore Police Department leadership and later at a panel at the International Association of Chiefs of Police Conference. And in November 2016, Chief Harrison participated in a national conference on consent decrees where the department outlined its model for police reform. The audience included law enforcement, judges and federal monitors from cities undergoing consent decree implementation.