CCJ Directory

Ronal W. Serpas, Ph.D., is a full-time faculty member and Professor of Practice, Criminology and Justice, Loyola University New Orleans, teaching undergraduate and graduate courses since August of 2014. Dr. Serpas retired from a 34-year career in American law enforcement in August 2014. From 2001 – 2014 he served as the Police Superintendent in New Orleans, LA, Police Chief in Nashville, TN, and Chief of the Washington State Patrol. From 1980–2001 Serpas rose from Police Officer to the Assistant Superintendent, Chief of Operations, of the New Orleans Police Department. In October 2017 at the 124th Annual Conference of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), Serpas was designated by an act of the membership as the fifth Honorary President of the IACP. Throughout his career, Serpas has participated and contributed on the national and international level of police leadership through his unopposed election as the 4th Vice President of the IACP in October 2011.

When he retired from law enforcement, Serpas was the 2nd Vice President and was responsible for providing oversight to the following IACP standing Committees: Civil Rights; Diversity Coordinating Panel; Police Professional Standards, Image, and Ethics; Police Administration; and the Torch Run. Dr. Serpas also served for many years as the founding Co-Chair of the Research Advisory Committee (RAC) of the IACP. Dr. Serpas is a past Chair of the IACP’s Community Oriented Policing Committee. He has also served as the Parliamentarian, to the IACP Board of Directors. Dr. Serpas is the founding Co-Chair and Executive Director of Law Enforcement Leaders to Reduce Crime and Incarceration, a project in cooperation with the NYU-School of Law Brennan Center, which unites nearly 200 current and former police chiefs, federal and state chief prosecutors, and attorney’s general from all 50 states to urge for a reduction in both crime and incarceration.

Dr. Serpas is the Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Policing Institute (formerly the Police Foundation). He has served as a member of the National Advisory Board for Cure Violence (Chicago Cease Fire). Dr. Serpas’ expert commentary on crime rates, policing and criminal justice reform has appeared in the New York Times, USA Today, The Hill, NBC News, CBS News, Fox News, The Atlantic Monthly, Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, NPR, Governing Magazine, The Economist and MSNBC among other outlets.