Gilbert M. Escontrias was with the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) for over 36 years and retired at the rank of Detective III. His assignments include Patrol, Juvenile Narcotics; School Investigative Buy Unit, Narcotics Buy Team, Community Relations, and Detectives. His investigative assignments included Homicide, Sex Crimes, Art Theft, Burglary, Auto-Theft, Pawnshop Unit, Cargo Theft, Violent Crimes Special Section and Receivers of Stolen Property Units. Escontrias’ last assignment was Juvenile Division, Los Angeles Regional Internet Crimes Against Children (LAICAC) Task Force. He was the Senior Detective investigating those who were interested in the Sexual Exploitation of Children using the Internet or other electronic devices as a means of contact. Prior to the ICAC assignment, Escontrias was assigned to the Mental Evaluation Unit as a supervisor where he was responsible for the development and presentation of training programs for Law Enforcement personnel, both sworn and civilian, in the identification, understanding and dealing with persons with Mental Illnesses. He was also a Field Supervisor for assigned sworn and civilian personnel responding to law enforcement calls for service in dealing person with the mental Illness. He was the Co-Founder of the LAPD Autism Support Group for Department personnel. Escontrias has been an instructor at the LAPD’s Basic Detective School, the Robert Presley Institute of Criminal Investigation (ICI) in the areas of Art Theft, Receivers of Stolen Property, Sting Operations, Pawnshop Procedures, and Metal Theft. He was the primary instructor for the LAPD Crisis Intervention Technique (CIT), the Mental Illness Orientation for Dispatchers and Mental Illness Orientation for Adult Correctional Officer courses. Escontrias is the President and lead trainer of Blue Line Dogs, a nonprofit group that provides trained Therapy Dog Teams to First Responders at no cost to the Agency. He is a military Trained Dog trainer with over 45 years of experience.