A 25-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department, Detective III Robert Palacios has been assigned to various specialized patrol/investigative assignments throughout his career. As an officer, he trained law enforcement personnel in the academy in the area of firearms and tactics. While assigned to the Narcotics Training Unit, he taught dynamic search warrant entries as well as rifle/shotgun tactics.

Robert's recent assignment as the Officer-in-Charge (OIC) of the Crisis Response Support Section (CRSS), Mental Evaluation Unit, gave him the opportunity to combine his extensive experience in tactics/firearms training with the challenges that first responders face when responding to calls involving mental illness. As the unit OIC, he reviewed hundreds of use of force reports involving contacts with persons with mental illness and worked on strategies to reduce the use of force component involved in these contacts thus resulting in training first responders in their contacts with mentally ill or persons in crisis.

Prior to his assignment in CRSS, Robert was assigned as the OIC of Robbery Investigations and has supervised several high profile cases and was instrumental in the successful prosecution of suspects. He has utilized his experience by training personnel in interview/interrogation techniques.

Robert has earned his Bachelor's degree in Business Management from the University of Phoenix.