Chief Rick Wall

Owner, Founder, Instructor

Rick Wall recently retired as the Director of Public Safety/Chief of Police for the California State University Los Angeles. In this capacity, he oversaw the University Police Department, Campus Parking and Transportation Program, Environmental Health and Safety, Risk Management, and the campus Emergency Preparedness and Emergency Management Programs. He was previously the Inspector assigned to oversee Threat Management and Criminal Intelligence for the University of Texas Police at Houston (UTP-H) where he helped develop the Threat Assessment Teams for several campuses in the University of Texas System, while becoming certified as a peace officer in Texas (TCOLE). Rick retired from the Los Angeles Police Department as a Captain after more than 30 years during which time he received numerous commendations for his work, including the Meritorious Service Medal (Individual); he was twice awarded the Police Medal (second highest award for valor); and the Meritorious Unit Service Citation on three occasions.  He worked in the private sector as the Director of Security for a Fortune 500 company and has been a private consultant for Rick Wall Consulting. 

Specializing in Threat Assessment and law enforcement responses to persons with mental illnesses, Rick has provided expert witness testimony and investigative assistance on use of force cases involving the mentally ill and cases of Suicide by Cop for over 15 years  and currently teaches a course on Suicide by Cop: Assessment, De-escalation, and Investigation, which has been approved by POST (or state agency equivalent) for continuing education credits in California, Arizona, Oregon, Oklahoma, Kansas, Iowa, Alabama, Colorado, Utah, and Texas.

Rick has worked to develop relationships with the various diverse communities that he has served in over 38 years in law enforcement.  While with the LAPD, he co-authored the department’s Human Relations Handbook and was involved in bringing focus groups consisting of community members from diverse backgrounds and ethnicities to the police academy to afford open dialogue with recruit officers. 

Rick also developed “Best Practices” for law enforcement responses to persons with mental illnesses and is an internationally recognized expert in law enforcement and security services in this field, testifying before the United States Congress, Committee on the Judiciary on the “Impact of the Mentally Ill on the Criminal Justice System.” He has also served on the advisory boards for the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), the Bureau of Justice Administration (BJA), and the Council of State Governments (CSG) as well as several State and local committees on issues related supporting victims of crime, Community Relations, and law enforcement responses to the mentally ill.

Rick is a certified instructor in Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Techniques, Suicide and Suicide by Cop, and Establishing Threat Assessment Teams. He is a police tactics consultant and lecturer on cases of stalking, workplace violence, and mass shootings and has served as an expert witness on the subject of law enforcement encounters involving the mentally ill and Suicide by Cop.

Rick has a both a Bachelor of Arts Degree and Master of Arts Degree in History from California State University Long Beach, and was a Fulbright Fellow in the United Kingdom in 2002 where he attended the National Police Staff College at Bramshill and the International Command Course.