Monitor Team
Peter L. Zimroth (monitor), is currently senior counsel at Arnold & Porter LLC and has been a lawyer for more than forty years. He has served as an assistant United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, the chief assistant District Attorney in Manhattan, and New York City’s corporation counsel. The corporation counsel is the City’s chief lawyer and is in charge of, among other things, representing all the City’s agencies including the NYPD and its officers. At the time Mr. Zimroth served, there were about 500 lawyers in the Law Department, which the corporation counsel heads. Earlier in his career Mr. Zimroth was a professor at NYU Law School, where he is currently an adjunct professor and director of its Center on Civil Justice.
Mr. Zimroth has served on many boards and committees among which are the executive committee of the New York City Bar Association, the board of the Legal Aid Society and the boards of two schools for children with learning disabilities. He was appointed by the chief judge of New York State to serve as one of the three directors of the now defunct Capital Defender’s Office, which had the responsibility of ensuring legal representation for indigents charged with capital offenses.
Mr. Zimroth is a lifelong resident of New York City. He is a graduate of Abraham Lincoln High School, Columbia College, and the Yale Law School. Upon graduation from Yale, he served as law clerk to Chief Judge David Bazelon of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and to United States Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas. He was the 2014 recipient of the Interfaith Center of New York’s James P. Morton Interfaith Award for his work in public service and private practice. Also in 2014, he received one of the New York Law Journal’s Lifetime Achievement Awards for Lawyers Who Leads by Example.
Richard Jerome (deputy monitor) is a lawyer who has spent most of his career working on criminal justice issues with law enforcement agencies and private foundations. Most recently, he was project manager of the public safety performance project of the Pew Charitable Trusts. This project helps states advance fiscally sound sentencing and corrections policies that protect public safety, hold offenders accountable and control corrections costs.
Prior to joining Pew, Mr. Jerome served for six years (2002-2008) as Deputy Monitor and court-appointed Special Master for two police reform settlements in Cincinnati, Ohio. Other projects included reviews of the Denver Police Department’s and Portland, Oregon, Police Bureau’s officer-involved shootings (both with the Police Assessment Resource Center); reviews of police oversight systems in Farmington, NM, Milwaukee, WI, and Albuquerque, NM (also with PARC); and assistance to the District of Columbia Council on police department responsibilities and standards for handling First Amendment demonstrations and other assemblies. Mr. Jerome also served as a consulting expert for the City of Oakland and the Detroit Police Departments.
From 1997 to 2001, he was Deputy Associate Attorney General in the U.S. Department of Justice, overseeing the work of the Civil Rights Division and the Community Relations Service, as well as coordinating the Justice Department’s efforts to promote police integrity, including the Department’s publication of “Principles for Promoting Police Integrity.” Mr. Jerome has been a senior trial lawyer in the Civil Rights Division and has worked on Capitol Hill and in private practice.
Anthony A. Braga is the Don M. Gottfredson Professor of Evidence-Based Criminology in the School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University and a Senior Research Fellow in the Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management at Harvard University. He is also a member of the University of Chicago Crime Lab. He is the immediate Past President and an elected Fellow of the Academy of Experimental Criminology. Dr. Braga’s research involves collaborating with criminal justice, social service, and community-based organizations to address illegal access to firearms, reduce gang and group-involved violence, and control crime hot spots. Dr. Braga’s work on controlling and preventing violent crime has received many awards. He was a recipient of the United States Attorney General’s Award for Outstanding Contributions to Community Partnerships for Public Safety (2009), the U.S. Department of Justice Project Safe Neighborhoods’ Distinguished Service by a Research Partner Award (2010), and the International Association of Chiefs of Police Excellence in Law Enforcement Research Award (2011).
Dr. Braga has published numerous scholarly papers and his work has been published in top criminology and criminal justice journals such as Criminology, Journal of Quantitative Criminology, Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, and Criminology & Public Policy. His work has also appeared in important medical and public health journals such as New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, and the American Journal of Public Health. With colleagues, he has authored and edited several books such as Policing Problem Places: Crime Hot Spots and Effective Prevention (Oxford University Press, 2010), Problem-Oriented Policing and Crime Prevention (Criminal Justice Press, 2008), Legitimacy and Criminal Justice: A Comparative Perspective (Russell Sage Foundation Press, 2007), and Police Innovation: Contrasting Perspectives (Cambridge University Press, 2006).
Edward Davis is a 35-year veteran police officer. He rose through the ranks of the Lowell Police Department holding positions in patrol, detective supervisor and lead of a local, state and federal narcotics and organized crime task force. In 1994, Mr. Davis was promoted to Superintendent of the Lowell Police Department and led that agency for 13 years. During his tenure he introduced a community policing philosophy that led to a more than 60% reduction in serious crime. Lowell was recognized by Attorney General Janet Reno for its leadership in forming close relationships with the community that drive crime reductions.
In 2006, Mr. Davis was appointed by Mayor Thomas Menino to lead the Boston Police Department. Davis worked to bring the BPD closer to the community. He was a constant presence in Boston’s troubled neighborhoods. This community policing philosophy led to a reduction of serious crime in Boston of more than 30 percent. During the same period there was also a reduction in arrests of 30 percent. Davis is an accomplished lecturer in police leadership. He completed a fellowship at Harvard’s Institute of Politics in 2014. After managing several high profile cases, including the Boston Strangler, the Craigslist Killer and the tragic Boston Marathon bombing, Davis stepped down in 2013. He is the founder and president of Edward Davis, LLC, a security consulting firm located in Boston’s North End.
Jennifer Eberhardt is an Associate Professor in the Psychology Department of Stanford University. Her area of expertise is the ways that individuals racially code and categorize people, with a particular focus on associations between race and crime. She is currently working with the Oakland Police Department to design ways to improve policing and to help build and maintain the trust of the communities it serves. She is also working with that Department to study the implementation of its program of body-worn cameras.
Professor Eberhardt received a B.A. (1987) from the University of Cincinnati and an A.M. (1990) and Ph.D. (1993) from Harvard University. From 1995 to 1998, she taught at Yale University in the Departments of Psychology and African and African American Studies and was a research fellow at the Center for Race, Inequality, and Politics. She joined the Stanford University faculty in 1998. Professor Eberhardt was one of 21 people who received a fellowship from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in 2014 (MacArthur “genius grant”).
John MacDonald is a Professor of Criminology and Sociology and Chair of the Department of Criminology at the University of Pennsylvania. Professor MacDonald focuses primarily on the study of crime, race and ethnic disparities in criminal justice, and the effect of public policy responses on crime. In 2012, Dr. MacDonald won the Association of Public Policy and Management’s David N. Kershaw Award, established to honor individuals younger than 40 who have made significant contributions to the field of public policy analysis and management. He has served as a principal investigator and co-principal investigator on health, injury prevention, and crime research projects through funding provided by the American Statistical Association, the National Institute of Justice, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health. He was awarded the Young Experimental Scholar Award by the Academy of Experimental Criminology for significant contributions to experimental research.
Dr. MacDonald’s research publications include numerous studies using rigorous quantitative methods to examine the effects of social policies on crime and of institutional social justice reforms on criminal justice practices. His recent work on racial disparities in criminal justice has appeared in the American Journal of Public Health and Journal of Legal Studies.
James McCabe is an Associate Professor, Department Chair and Director of the Graduate Program in Criminal Justice at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT. He joined the faculty at Sacred Heart after completing 21 years with the New York City Police Department. In the NYPD, he held numerous command level assignments including the Commanding Officer of Labor Relations, Commanding Officer of the Training Bureau, Commanding Officer of the Police Academy, and the Commanding Officer of the 110th Precinct in Elmhurst/Corona, Queens. He was also assigned as the Executive Officer of the Police Commissioner’s Office and the 113th Precinct in South Jamaica. He retired in 2006 from the NYPD with the rank of Inspector to assume a new career in academia at Sacred Heart.
Dr. McCabe has a BA in Psychology from Queens College, an MA in Labor Studies from Empire State College, an MA in Criminal Justice from John Jay College, and a Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from the CUNY Graduate Center. He is a graduate of the 189th Session of the FBI National Academy, and of the Executive Programs at Columbia University’s Police Management Institute and the JFK School of Government at Harvard University. He has published numerous scholarly articles and book chapters on the subject of police effectiveness and has been the principal investigator in more than 40 studies examining police operations in 26 states and in every region of the country. He has lectured around the country to both police and academic audiences about organizational behavior, leadership, supervisory communications, and the impact of police operations on public safety and neighborhood satisfaction with police services.
Jane Perlov has an extensive background in risk management and a distinguished career in law enforcement, public safety and corporate security. She served more than 25 years in law enforcement, starting in 1981 as a police officer in the New York City Police Department. She rose through the ranks, ultimately commanding the 20th and 30th Precincts in Manhattan and serving as Chief of Detectives for the Borough of Queens. In late 1998, while in that position she was invited by Governor Cellucci of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to join his Cabinet as Secretary of Public Safety. There, she managed policy and fiscal oversight for 21 agencies, boards and commissions, such as the State Police and the Corrections Department.
In 2001, Ms. Perlov was sworn in as Chief of Police for the capital city of Raleigh, North Carolina. Under her leadership, the Department initiated a decentralized district policing model that fostered strong bonds between police officers and the neighborhoods they served and placed both opportunity and accountability in the hands of district commanders.
From 2009 to 2011 Ms. Perlov served as Global Corporate Security Director of Bank of America. She was responsible for developing and implementing strategies and programs that provided a safe and secure environment for employees, customers and assets worldwide. Born and raised in New York City, Ms. Perlov is now is an independent consultant residing in Asheville, North Carolina.
Facilitator and Senior Staff Members
The facilitator and his senior staff members, Michael D. Young, Deputy facilitator, and Jeanene Barrett, JRP Project Manager, are all associated with JAMS. JAMS is a private dispute resolution firm which has offices throughout the U.S. and provides facilitation, mediation and arbitration services to corporations, public entities and law firms.
Justice Ariel Belen (Ret.) is a retired Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of the New York, Appellate Division, Second Department. Justice Belen, a 1981 graduate of Cornell Law School, began his legal career as a public defender with the Legal Aid Society of New York (1981-1990). At Legal Aid, he represented indigent criminal defendants, frequently participating in suppression hearings concerning, among other issues, stop-and-frisk violations. Later, at the City of New York Law Department, he worked as an Assistant Corporation Counsel (1990-1993), Deputy Chief of the Brooklyn Tort Division (1993-1994), and Chief of the Bronx Borough Office (1994), representing, among other cases, the City of New York and police officers sued for alleged civil rights violations, unlawful detentions, and the use of excessive force.
Beginning in 1995, Justice Belen served in Kings County as a New York State Supreme Court Justice in various capacities, including in the trial court, at the Appellate Term, and as Administrative Judge of the Civil Term. Justice Belen was appointed to the Appellate Division, Second Department in 2008.
Justice Belen co-authored New York Trial Notebook, a comprehensive trial practice treatise. He was an instructor for many years at the New York State Judicial Institute where he taught all newly appointed or elected New York judges in the art of judging. Justice Belen chairs the ADR Committee of the New York County Lawyers’ Association and is a Member of the Executive Advisory Committee of the International Institute for Conflict Prevention & Resolution. He is former Vice Chair of the Cornell University Council and is a member of the Cornell University Committee on Alumni Trustee Nominations. He is a former member of the Hispanic National Bar Association Task Force on Judicial Selection.
He joined JAMS in 2012 after nearly 18 years of judicial service. Since joining JAMS, Judge Belen has acted as an arbitrator or mediator in disputes covering a wide range of practice areas.
Michael D. Young, an attorney, is a founder, shareholder and full-time neutral with JAMS. Since joining JAMS in 1989, Mr. Young has conducted mediations and arbitrations throughout the U.S. (as well as Puerto Rico) and elsewhere in the world. He has been appointed as a mediator or special master (for discovery management or settlement implementation purposes) by various federal, state and bankruptcy courts.
Mr. Young has also facilitated or otherwise conducted multiple dispute resolution or consensus building processes with respect to public policy issues, including processes in New York City (such as engaging with the City and community groups regarding the siting of waste water processing facilities) and with respect to issues affecting the federal government (such as engaging with government agencies, affected businesses and environmental advocacy groups regarding the development of environmental regulations).
Mr. Young is a 1978 graduate of Harvard Law School. Between 1983 and 1989, he served in senior positions in the New York City Law Department, including as Deputy Chief of the Affirmative Litigation Division and as a Senior Litigator. (In the latter position, he made recommendations to the Corporation Counsel regarding whether a police officer should be defended and/or indemnified when a claim was filed.) Between 2010 and 2011, he served as Interim Executive Director of Legal Services New York City (which is the largest provider in the U.S. of civil legal assistance to low income citizens) and since 2014 has been the Chair of the Board of this organization.
Jeanene Barrett has worked as a consultant for a Fortune 500 company managing a national marketing campaign and has also worked in top managerial positions and as a consultant for child welfare agencies in Illinois and New York.
Before her engagement as the Project Manager for the Joint Remedial Process, she served as a capital mitigation specialist and expert witness working on several high profile trial and post-conviction cases in Florida, Illinois and Tennessee. In addition to her private practice, she worked as a capital mitigation specialist and training coordinator for the Center for Justice in Capital Cases at DePaul University College of Law.
She is pursuing a Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from The Graduate Center of the City University of New York and is an adjunct lecturer at both John Jay College of Criminal Justice and Brooklyn College. She has taught on the collegiate level for nearly 12 years with her primary focus on juvenile justice, statistical analysis, and research methods. She has experience in research methods including but not limited to conducting in-depth interviews, focus groups, and qualitative analysis.
She holds an A.M. in Social Work from the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration, a M.S. in Human Services Administration from Spertus Institute, and a B.S. in Administration of Justice from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale.