Deputy Chief Michael P. Downing of the Los Angeles Police Department will deliver the fifth annual Susette M. Talarico Lecture April 15 at 11 a.m. in the North Tower of the Miller Learning Center. His lecture, “Policing Convergent Threats in the 21st Century” is open free to the public.
With additional support from the Susette M. Talarico fund, the lecture is co-sponsored by the Criminal Justice Studies Program, the Criminal Justice Student Society, the School of Public and International Affairs’ political science department and the Franklin College of Arts and Sciences’ sociology department.
Downing is the commanding officer of the Los Angeles Police Department’s Counter-Terrorism and Special Operations Bureau. He has worked with the New Scotland Yard’s Metropolitan Police Counter-Terrorism Command and served as a member of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Advisory Council working group on developing a strategy for countering violent extremism.
In 2010, he was elected the president of the Leadership in Counter-Terrorism Alumni Association. This association works with FBI’s LinCT program to develop a global enterprise of networked counter-terrorism practitioners from the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Downing also has worked with the Department of Justice, traveling to South America, Africa, Turkey and Poland in an effort to help large national police organizations transition into democratic civilian policing models.