Nine Associate Monitors will oversee the ten topic areas set out in the Consent Decree: (1) community policing; (2) impartial policing; (3) crisis intervention; (4) use of force; (5) recruitment, hiring, and promotion; (6) training; (7) supervision; (8) officer wellness and support; (9) accountability and transparency; and (10) data collection, analysis, and management. To share your thoughts with Monitor Hickey and the associate monitors, please fill out our feedback form. Please note, if you would like your message to be anonymous, just leave the personal information blank.
Our Associate Monitors will oversee these topics: Dr. Theron Bowman (Training and Recruitment, Hiring, and Promotion), Harold Medlock (Transparency and Accountability), Paul Evans (Use of Force), Steve Rickman (Community Policing), Denise Rodriguez (Impartial Policing), Julie Solomon (Crisis Intervention), Hassan Aden (Supervision), Cassandra Deck-Brown (Officer Wellness and Support), and Dr. Tom Christoff (Data Collection, Analysis and Management). Learn more about our Associate Monitors below.
Stephen Rickman, Associate Monitor for Community Policing
Stephen Rickman, MA, is an expert in police-community relations. He has worked for over 20 years in high-level positions in public safety and community support. Mr. Rickman is currently an Associate Monitor on the Independent Monitoring Team for the Albuquerque, New Mexico, Police Department’s Court Approved Settlement Agreement and a former Director of the Department of Justice (DOJ) Weed and Seed Program. He is also a former Division Director for the U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance, and a member of the Federal Government’s Senior Executive Service. Mr. Rickman served as the Technical Advisor to President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing.
Steve also has experience working in Chicago, having overseen several Chicago-area Weed and Seed sites. Finally, Steve’s parents and grandparents were Chicagoans, and he has spent time in the city throughout his life. As the Associate Monitor for Community Policing, Mr. Rickman will work closely with the Community Engagement Team.
Denise Rodriguez, Associate Monitor for Impartial Policing
Denise Rodriguez, MA is the Associate Monitor for Impartial Policing. Ms. Rodriguez is a leading expert on collaborative reform, police accountability, civilian oversight of police, and community-based policing. In addition to her work on the Chicago Independent Monitoring Team, she is a federal court-appointed consent decree Chief Deputy Monitor in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
Ms. Rodriguez has also worked in local government and served as Deputy Monitor for the City of Fort Worth’s Office of the Police Monitor, which provides oversight over the Fort Worth Police Department. Prior to serving with the City of Fort Worth, Ms. Rodriguez spent over 11 years leading and supporting reform assessments and monitoring of several police agencies across the country including Spokane, Washington; Fayetteville, North Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Las Vegas, Nevada. In addition to her reform work, Ms. Rodriguez directed a team of 25 staff, managed a budget of over $10 million, and oversaw the provision of technical assistance to over 300 police agencies on the implementation of body-worn cameras. Her work with police agencies has delved into issues related to racial bias, community engagement, use of force, violence reduction, officer safety and wellness, critical incident reviews, and 21st Century Policing.
Ms. Rodriguez holds a master’s degree in Forensic Psychology from Marymount University, Arlington, VA and a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice from St. Mary’s University, San Antonio, TX.
As the Associate Monitor for Impartial Policing, Ms. Rodriguez will work closely with the Community Engagement Team.
Julie Solomon, Associate Monitor for Crisis Intervention
Julie Solomon, MBA, LSCSW is the Associate Monitor for Crisis Intervention. Ms. Solomon has broad experience at the local, state, and national levels and has done expansive work at the intersection of Justice and Behavioral Health. Ms. Solomon has been recognized for her leadership in building community collaboration, integrating systems, changing state law, and improving programs to promote best practices to respond to persons experiencing behavioral health crises. Ms. Solomon served as Chief Administrative Officer with CIT International, Inc. and as Vice President of Emergency Stabilization Services at Wyandot Mental Health Center in Kansas City, Kansas. While there, Ms. Solomon was instrumental in developing a robust Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) Program, a police/mental health co-responder program, Jail Diversion Program, Justice Involved Case Management Team, a 24/7/365 crisis center, and a misdemeanor and felony behavioral health court. She served on the leadership team of the Kansas State CIT council, the greater Kansas City Metro CIT council, and as a CIT International Board Member. Ms. Solomon is currently serving as Senior Vice President of Community Integrated Health with the Kansas City YMCA.
Ms. Solomon’s career focuses on health, behavioral health, trauma informed care, system collaboration, and innovation. She has been a Sequential Intercept Mapping Recipient (SIMS), a Bureau of Justice grant recipient, and a Trauma Informed Care in the Criminal Justice System grant recipient. She has also been invited to present nationally on a wide range of topics, including “Creating Collaborative Partners with Law Enforcement and Mental Health”; “Responding to the President’s Task Force Report on 21st Century Policing”; “Program Sustainability”; “Designing Effective Law Enforcement: Behavioral Health Partnerships for People with Mental Illness; “Changing State Laws to improve CIT and Client Care: Emergency Observation and Treatment”; “Criminal Justice-Behavioral Health Partnerships: Promoting Integrated Healthcare”; and at the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) promoting the “One Mind Campaign.”
Commissioner (Ret.) Paul Evans, Associate Monitor for Use of Force
Commissioner (Ret.) Paul Evans, JD, is the Associate Monitor for Use of Force. Commissioner Evans is an expert on police use of force. He served as Commissioner of the Boston, Massachusetts, Police Department from 1993 to 2003. He then served four years as the Director of the Police Standards Unit of Britain’s Home Office, assessing and improving the performance of British police forces. Commissioner Evans is a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and has served on the Board of the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF).
During Commissioner Evans’s more than 30-year career with the Boston Police Department, he held every civil service rank and command staff position from patrol officer to Commissioner. He addressed difficult policy issues concerning use of deadly force and protection of civil liberties, created innovative strategies that dramatically reduced crime, and engaged communities to reduce tensions and build community collaborations. Commissioner Evans consults with law enforcement agencies across the country on police operations and strategy. As Associate Monitor for Use of Force, Commissioner Evans will work closely with the Community Engagement Team.
Chief (Ret.) Hassan Aden, Associate Monitor for Supervision
Chief Aden is the former Chief of Police of the Greenville Police Department in Greenville, North Carolina. Until late 2015, he was the Director of the Research and Programs Directorate of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), where he directly oversaw the day-to-day management of operational programs and research projects aimed at advancing professional police services.
Chief Aden served 26 years at the Alexandria Police Department in Alexandria, Virginia, rising to the rank of Deputy Chief prior to his appointment in Greenville. Aden is the monitor in the federal consent decree in Cleveland, the deputy monitor in the federal consent decree in Baltimore and previously served as the deputy monitor in the federal consent decree in Seattle.
Aden is a former commissioner of the governing board of CALEA and has served as a Senior Executive Fellow at the National Police Foundation. Among other academic credentials, he holds a Masters of Public Administration from American University in Washington, DC.
Theron Bowman, Associate Monitor for Recruitment, Hiring, and Promotion and Training
Theron Bowman, Ph.D., is the Associate Monitor for Recruitment, Hiring, and Promotion and Training. Dr. Bowman began his public service career in 1983 as an officer with the Arlington, Texas, Police Department, and served in numerous positions before becoming chief in 1999. He later served for five years as Arlington’s Deputy City Manager and Director of Public Safety before retiring in 2017.
Dr. Bowman has led, managed, and participated in police practices investigations and audits in multiple locations, including Albuquerque, New Mexico; Baltimore, Maryland; Battle Creek, Michigan; Chicago, Illinois; Cleveland, Ohio; Los Angeles County, California; Maricopa County, Arizona; Newark, New Jersey; New Orleans, Louisiana; and Seattle, Washington. He is a federal court-appointed consent decree deputy monitor in Baltimore and a multidisciplinary law enforcement expert on the New Orleans and Memphis, Tennessee, monitoring teams. Dr. Bowman has received much recognition throughout his career, including being named the African American Peace Officer Association of Arlington “Officer of the Year,” receiving Proclamation of Achievement from the Texas State Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives, and being designated a University of Texas at Arlington “University Scholar and Distinguished Alumni.”
Chief (Ret.) Harold Medlock, Associate Monitor for Transparency and Accountability
Chief (Ret.) Harold Medlock is the Associate Monitor for Transparency and Accountability. Chief Medlock served as Chief of Police of the Fayetteville, North Carolina, Police Department for nearly four years, retiring in January 2107. Before that, he served over two decades with the Charlotte-Mecklenburg, North Carolina, Police Department, attaining the rank of Deputy Chief in 2008. Further, Chief Medlock served as National Special Security Event (NSSE) Co-Chair for the 2012 Democratic National Convention. Chief Medlock earned an MBA degree from Pfeiffer University, and is a graduate of the FBI National Executive Institute, the Federal Bureau of Investigations National Academy, and the Senior Management Institute for Police.
Chief Medlock has also actively served on a number of law enforcement and social issue boards including the North Carolina Governor’s Crime Commission, the North Carolina Police Executives Association, the North Carolina Criminal Justice Training and Standards Commission, and the North Carolina Commission for Racial and Ethnic Disparity. Chief Medlock presented written and verbal testimony for the President’s Task Force for 21st Century Policing and is a consultant for the national Body Worn Camera, Strategies for Police Innovation, and Project Safe Neighborhoods technical assistance initiatives.
Chief (Ret.) Cassandra Deck-Brown, Associate Monitor Officer Wellness and Support
Cassandra Deck-Brown was selected to lead the Raleigh Police Department, the 41st largest police department in the nation from February 2013, until her retirement in July 2021. While navigating her way through the RPD ranks, Cassandra Deck-Brown was often the first woman or the first African American in the Department to assume a role or obtain a rank. Deck-Brown implemented and oversaw high-profile initiatives and best practices to model, including Body-worn camera program, Mental Health First-Aid training, the Raleigh Citizen’s Police Academy, and Reality-Based Training and Intelligence-Led Policing. While promoting a wellness and resilience program for the agency personnel, she created a trauma counselor position to aid victims of violence and their families, making the Department one of the only law enforcement agencies in the country to provide such a service to the public at no cost. She established a coalition of faith leaders who serve as ambassadors between police and the broader faith community while building a team of social workers and sworn officers to assist individuals in crisis by connecting them with the resources needed to meet their individual goals-both yielded interviews by CNN and other major media platforms.
She serves as an active member in multiple professional organizations. Chief Deck-Brown completed the FBI National Executive Institute (NEI), PERF-Senior Management Institute of Policing (SMIP), Georgia State University-Georgia International Law Enforcement Exchange (GILEE) Program, the US Army War College – Homeland Security & Crisis Management and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard – Homeland Security. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, recognitions and awards including UN Women (NC Chapter) Award, NAACP (Chapter) Humanitarian Award, National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE). Chief Deck-Brown holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from East Carolina University with a minor in social work and a master’s degree in public administration from N.C. State University.
Tom Christoff, Associate Monitor for Data Collection, Analysis, and Management
Tom Christoff, PhD, currently serves on the monitoring teams in Portland, OR and Chicago, IL. Between these two roles, Dr. Christoff has helped develop comprehensive systems for auditing use of force events, mental health crisis response, training, employee information systems, accountability, community engagement, and data management. As a result, Dr. Christoff has extensive experience providing technical assistance in moving police departments towards compliance using a data-driven and evidence-based approach. He has designed methodologies, performed data collection, and analyzed large data sets involving force, arrests, dispatch, community sentiment, and other processes and outcomes. Additionally, these roles have required extensive community engagement, including focus groups, outreach, coordination, and presentation of reports and findings.
Dr. Christoff earned his Master’s Degree from the University of Memphis and earned his doctorate at the University of Illinois at Chicago.