Athens, Ga. – 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, titled “Policing Convergent Threats in the 21st Century,” is free and open 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’ department of political science 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, Downing 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 transition large national police organizations into democratic civilian policing models.
“We are honored to have Deputy Chief Downing deliver this year’s Talarico Lecture,” said Susan Haire, criminal justice studies program director. “He is an extremely influential law enforcement leader, not just in American policing, but throughout the world. As responsibility for national security is increasingly shared with state and local governments, his guidance on countering violent extremism is invaluable.”
The lecture is named after longtime UGA professor Susette Talarico, who was a faculty member at UGA for more than three decades. Talarico was Albert Berry Saye Professor of American Government and Constitutional Law, Josiah Meigs Distinguished Teaching Professor and served as director of the criminal justice studies program for 22 years.
