We’ve received a lot of questions about how LRIS is coping with the economic slowdown produced by the pandemic and what our plans are for future seminars and other LRIS activities. I wanted to express our thanks for the expressions of your concerns and interest and to let you know what we’re thinking.

Seminars

The pandemic caused us to change our plans for two seminars. We postponed our April 2020 seminar on Health & Wellness Programs For Public Safety Agencies until October. We have also had to cancel our June 2020 Rights of Police Officers seminar. This leaves us with three seminars in the Fall of 2020:

• Grievances, Arbitration and Past Practice. September 23-25, 2020. The Flamingo, Las Vegas.
• Health & Wellness Programs For Public Safety Agencies. October 21-23, 2020. The Embassy Suites, Nashville. We will be making a slight adjustment in the program for this seminar to allow us to devote a segment of the seminar to the health and legal issues facing public safety employers and employees that have arisen out of the pandemic.
• Advanced Police Discipline. November 18-20, The Flamingo, Las Vegas.

While our intention is to hold the seminars as planned, we won’t hold a seminar if we have concerns about the safety of our attendees or if doing so would contravene CDC recommendations. We’ll also be i observing new safety protocols at these seminars. That means plenty of disinfectant/hand sanitizer, appropriate spacing on seating, moving away from buffets to other lunch options, and even changes in how coffee is served.

If we have to cancel a seminar, we’ll refund all registration fees and give those who has signed up priority registrations for future LRIS seminars. We will also waive the late cancelation fee for those who have to cancel their registrations because of travel restrictions or health concerns.

We’re excited about our 2021 seminar lineup. In the first half of the year we’ll hold seminars on Union Leadership, Collective Bargaining, and The Rights of Police. We’re moving from the Flamingo to the Luxor, which will bring a change of scenery and an upgrade to the seminar experience.

Books

Earlier this year I finished researching and writing the eighth edition of The Rights of Law Enforcement Officers. The official publication date is set for July 1. There are numerous changes from the previous edition of the book, including new chapters on social media and body cameras and significant expansion to areas such as the Brady rule, free speech, and discipline. Before we go to press I’ll add a chapter about the legal issues posed by COVID-19.

Other authors have started on new editions of The FLSA – A User’s Manual and The Rights of Firefighters. We hope to have both books published within the next 12-18 months.

Podcasts

We’re maintaining our regular schedule for our First Thursday podcast and have supplemented First Thursday with free mid-month podcasts focused on COVID-19. We plan to continue the same approach for the duration of the emergency. If anyone has questions you’d like us to address on the podcasts, please get in touch with us. You can find the topics we’ve covered at https://lris.com/category/podcasts/.

Public Safety Labor News and the LRIS Mobile App

Our monthly newsletter, Public Safety Labor News, is being published as scheduled. There never seems to be a shortage of new court decisions involving the public safety workplace. Our mobile app program is not only going strong but has found tremendous use as a communications system during the pandemic. You can learn more about the app at https://lrismobileapp.com/.

LRIS Staffing

Our seminars produce over 90% of LRIS’s revenue, with our other activities largely being labors of love. Without the seminar income, we’ve had to temporarily lay off LRIS staffers Claire Cowan and Victoria Leyva. We’re in touch with Claire and Victoria on a regular basis and both are doing as well as can be expected under the circumstances. We hope to have both of them back on staff as soon as possible. In the meantime, Marc Fuller is handling all day-to-day activities and questions. Feel free to reach out to Marc at 503.282.5440 or marc@lris.com.

If you’ve got any questions about any of this, feel free to email me at will@lris.com.