News Releases

Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón announced today the formation of an independent team that will re-examine fatal use-of-force incidents by law enforcement officers and recommend further action when appropriate.

“Significant concerns have been raised by law enforcement officials, civil rights attorneys, activists and others regarding the handling of numerous police use-of-force cases,” said District Attorney Gascón. “In order to restore trust and move forward as a community, I am convening this group to thoroughly review the evidence and make recommendations on cases that we may need to examine more closely.”

The Factual Analysis Citizen Consulting Team (FACCT) is a group comprised of community members, civil rights attorneys, scholars and constitutional police practices experts. They will identify and prioritize use-of-force cases to review, including those where there is contrary forensic evidence or witness testimony, evidence from a civil or criminal case or impeachment evidence.

Once cases have been identified, FACCT will work with law students at the University of California, Irvine, who will review the case files and make presentations to FACCT members on their findings. The group also is assisted by students from the Dornsife Trial Advocacy Program at the University of Southern California.

FACCT, either as a group or as individual members, will not opine whether charges should be filed. Instead, the team will present findings and additional evidence that may be contrary to the prior decision to decline to prosecute.

The District Attorney’s Office will make the final decision on whether additional investigation is necessary, the matter is assigned to a special prosecutor or criminal charges will be filed. There may be compelling or dispositive confidential or otherwise unavailable evidence that FACCT did not review

“Until there is a standard that mandates a shooting is lawful when it is absolutely necessary and the last resort, we are going to continue to have unnecessary shootings that cause public outcry and skepticism,” District Attorney Gascón said. “We eventually need to create legislation that gives the county the ability to create a separate entity that can independently review these cases.”

District Attorney Gascón first announced his intention to launch FACCT in a letter he sent to the county’s police chiefs on the day of his inauguration. As the nation’s first Chief of Police to be appointed as a District Attorney, he has taught use-of-force policies and made disciplinary decisions on officers who had inappropriately used force.

Those who are part of FACCT are:

Civil rights attorneys, scholars and activists:

• Shimica Gaskins --Executive Director of the Children’s Defense Fund, California, and former Acting Deputy Assistant Attorney General in the Office of Legal Policy of the U.S. Department of Justice
• Je Yon Jung -- Civil rights attorney; former senior trial attorney for the Civil Rights Division, U.S. Department of Justice and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
• Erwin Chemerinsky --Dean of the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, and constitutional scholar
• Barry Litt -- Civil rights attorney and Partner at McLane, Bednarski and Litt, LLP
• Paula Minor – Black Lives Matter, Los Angeles organizer and activist
• Carlos Montes -- Centro CSO-Chicano activist and organizer; Boyle Heights Neighborhood Council board member
• Melanie Ochoa -- Director of Police Practices, American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California
• Olu Orange --Director of the University of Southern California Dornsife Trial Advocacy Program and the Agents of Change Civil Rights Advocacy Initiative; civil rights attorney at Orange Law Offices, P.C.
• Robert Saltzman – Commissioner, Los Angeles County Probation Oversight Commission and West Hollywood Business License Commission; former Commissioner, Los Angeles Board of Police Commissioners; former Associate Dean, USC Gould School of Law

Academic law clinics/programs:

• Professor Paul Hoffman --Director Civil Rights Clinic and partner at Schonbrun, DeSimone, Seplow, Harris, & Hoffman, LLP
• Professor Katie Tinto -- Director Criminal Justice Clinic and Clinical Professor of Law; former public defender, Alternate Public Defender’s Office of Los Angeles County
• Melanie Partow -- Lecturer, Civil Rights Clinic and civil rights attorney

Police practices experts and advisors:

• Theron Bowman -- Former Chief of Police Arlington, Texas; former Deputy City Manager/Director Public Safety for Arlington; and CEO, Theron L. Bowman Inc.
• Allwyn Brown – Former Chief of Police, Richmond, California and LERT Ops lead at Tik Tok
• Roger Clark – Former lieutenant, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and CEO, Police Practices Consultant, Inc.
• Frank Fernandez  -- President of Blueprints 4 Safety; former Deputy Chief and Chief of Operations for Miami Police Department; and Public Safety Director for the City of Coral Gables