Page 21 - EPIC Conference Third Annual Program

BIOGRAPHIES
Presenters
Christopher Abbott
Senior Police Officer
Officer Assistance Program; Peer Support and Critical Incident Stress Management Coordinator New Orleans Police Department
Senior Police Officer Christopher Abbott has been a fixture at NOPD for 30 years. During his tenure, he was one of the city’s first community policing officers, developed the COPS for Kids program and is now the NOPD’s Peer Support Coordinator. Officer Abbott brings with him a history that makes him uniquely qualified to provide fellow officers counsel and assistance. In 1998, Officer Abbott was wearing a ballistic vest when he was shot twice in the chest in the CJ Peete housing development. The force of the shooting resulted in a fall through a second story window and broken ribs. In 2001, he was shot five times, two in the torso, one in the shoulder, and then twice in the back of the head. As a result of the shooting, Officer Abbott still carries three bullets inside him – one in the head, one in the chest and one in the torso. Most recently, in 2017, Officer Abbott was working a neighborhood watch detail when he was shot in a drive-by shooting that hit him just below the right knee. Despite experiencing all this trauma, Officer Abbott remains dedicated to NOPD and committed to helping other officers who are experiencing trauma as a Peer Support Coordinator with the NOPD Officer Assistance and Peer Support Program.
Jonathan Aronie
Partner, Sheppard Mullin
NOPD Consent Decree Monitor Chair, ABLE Project Board of Advisors
Jonathan S. Aronie is the Federal Monitor over the New Orleans Police Department Consent Decree, appointed by Judge Susie Morgan of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. As Monitor, Jonathan leads a team of seven police professionals, two academics, and two lawyers. Jonathan began his career as law clerk to the Honorable Patricia A. Wynn, District of Columbia Superior Court. Jonathan subsequently joined the D.C. office of Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson. While at Fried Frank, Jonathan served as the deputy police monitor over the Washington, DC Metropolitan Police Department. Jonathan joined his current firm, Sheppard Mullin Richter and Hampton, in 2003, where he is the leader of the firm’s Government Contracts & Investigations Practice Group. Jonathan counsels and represents clients in some of the country’s largest and most prominent classified and unclassified Government contracts matters. In addition to serving as the NOPD Monitor, Jonathan is a pro bono member of the NOPD EPIC Working Group and the Chair of the Georgetown Law Center’s Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement (ABLE) Project Board of Advisors.
20. | Third Annual National Police Peer Intervention Executive Leadership Conference