Louis J. Rapoli

Louis J. Rapoli was a career law enforcement officer for twenty one years with the NYPD. Throughout his career he gained vast experience working in schools, several of those years were spent working as a police sergeant in a Counterterrorism Unit.

While assigned to the Counterterrorism Unit, he conducted threat assessments, investigations, hazard and vulnerability assessments and made recommendations to the NYC School Construction Authority on placement of video surveillance cameras. He trained both law enforcement and civilians in response to active shooter, and worked extensively with the New York City Department of Education on all facets of school-based emergency planning. Louis was instrumental in implementing the NYPD Active Shooter Response Program and the Tactical Emergency Casualty Care Program (TECC) in conjunction with ALERRT at Texas State University, where he is currently an adjunct instructor.

During his tenure with the NYPD, he has received extensive training in many areas to include but not an exhaustive list: emergency preparedness, threat assessments, hazard and vulnerability assessments, tactical combat casualty care, active shooter and terrorism. He currently holds various firearm instructor certifications.

Louis has been engaged in many law enforcement debriefs of many incidents to include but not limited to: Columbine High School, Platte Canyon High School, Virginia Tech University, Northern Illinois University, Amish School, Beslan (Russia) school terrorist siege, Beltway sniper incident, Kenya shopping mall terrorist attack, and Oslow (Norway) terrorists attack.

Prior to his retirement, the New York City Police Foundation recognized his accomplishments, awarding the Hemmerdinger Award for efforts in active shooter response and school safety. These awards are given annually to a select number of individuals working for the NYPD, acknowledging outstanding achievements within their area of expertise.

Louis has spoken at venues across the United States and has co-presented with the FBI on “Targeted Acts of School Violence.” He is a subject matter expert in school emergency preparedness and school violence and has contributed to the Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice School Safety Technical Working Groups.

He has received instructor certification through the United States Department of Homeland Security, and he is a current member of the International Police Association.

Louis is a graduate of SUNY Empire State College, where he received a B.S. concentrated in Emergency Management.