From John Jay College of Criminal Justice:

In one exchange from Session One, Arthur Rizer of the R Street Institute—a former police oficer and military policeman himself— highlighted his work around police mentalities37 and police cultures. He conducted a survey of oficers asking for their reactions to being dressed like military personnel; whether doing so made them more aggressive; and whether their doing so afected perspectives in the community. His findings were clear that the oficers who responded indeed felt more aggressive in military gear, and knew that it frightened the public.

Arthur Rizer Director, Criminal Justice & Civil Liberties, R Street Arthur

Rizer heads the Institute’s programs dealing with a variety of issues related to crime, policing, intelligence and privacy. In this capacity, he produces original research, writes for the popular press and educates policymakers on criminal justice and civil liberty issues. He is also a visiting lecturer at the University of London, University College London in the Department of Security and Crime Science, an adjunct professor of law at George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School.

Before joining R Street, Arthur was an associate professor of law at West Virginia University’s College of Law and a visiting professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center. He also served as a trial attorney with the U.S. Justice Department, primarily as a federal prosecutor in the Criminal Division, where he targeted command-and-control drug cartel leaders and narco-terrorists.

He also served as a prosecutor in the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California and in the civil division, working on immigration-related litigation, with the Federal Programs Guantanamo Bay litigation team and at the Ofice of Immigration Litigation. Early in his civilian career, Arthur worked as a patrol officer in Washington state. He also spent almost 21 years in the U.S. Army and was deployed to Fallujah, Iraq to train the Iraqi Special Forces Division.

During his military career, he was awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Meritorious Service and Iraq Campaign medals. He retired as a lieutenant colonel from the U.S. Army, WV National Guard. Arthur is the author of three books: Lincoln’s Counsel: Lessons Learned from America’s Most Persuasive Speaker (2010); The National Security Implications of Immigration Law (2013); and Jeferson’s Pen: The Art of Persuasion (2016).

He is a member of Columbia University Justice Lab’s Executive Session for the Future of Justice Policy and the Federalist Society’s Executive Committee of the Criminal Law Practice Group. Arthur earned his bachelor’s degree in political science from Pacific Lutheran University, a master of laws, with distinction, from Georgetown University’s Law Center and his juris doctor, magna cum laude, from Gonzaga University School of Law. He is also a graduate of the U.S. Marine Corps’ Command Staf College.

He is in the final stages of a doctorate at Oxford University that focuses on policing. He lives in Alexandria, Virginia with his wife, Jessi, and has two sons.

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