Paul A. Cappitelli is a career law enforcement professional with over 42 years of experience. He served with the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department (SBSD) for 29 years, retiring at the rank of Captain.
During his tenure at SBSD, he worked a number of assignments at all ranks. His command assignments included: Adelanto Detention Center, West Valley Detention Center, Sheriff’s Regional Training Center, and Chief of Police for the City of Chino Hills Police and Sheriff’s Station. He has extensive experience working in administration, patrol, traffic, custody, homicide investigation, public affairs, gang enforcement, and academy director to name a few. Commensurately, he completed several hundred hours of formal training related to the duties as a California peace officer. He is a member, past and present, of numerous professional groups and associations. His most notable affiliation has been with the California Peace Officers’ Association (CPOA) where he has been a member for over 30 years. He held numerous leadership positions in CPOA including Association President, 2006-2007. Additionally, Paul served for 5 years as Executive Director of the California Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) from 2007- 2012. In that capacity, he was responsible for providing leadership to POST Staff in the development and administration of training for approximately 75,000 California Peace Officers and 10,000 professional staff. The POST Training Standard is applied to over 600 law enforcement agencies in California including over 30 training academies.
Since 2013, Paul has been a public safety consultant. From 2013-2015, he worked directly for the law firm of Best Best & Krieger LLP (BBK). As an independent consultant, under the banner of his company Del Sur Strategies, Paul provides a variety of services to municipal and private clients including, but not limited to: critical incident administrative/personnel investigation support; assistance with litigation; assessment of ethics and public integrity issues; development and enhancement of training and administrative policies; analysis of complex problems to determine viable solutions; security consultation; public policy advocacy and strategic guidance.
Paul holds an Associate’s Degree (AA) in Administration of Justice, a Bachelor’s Degree (BS) in Business Management and a Master’s Degree (MA) in Public Administration/Public Policy. He has been a contributor and author for several publications related to law enforcement leadership.