Jeff Golden
Executive Director
Jeff’s passion for juvenile justice and law enforcement training began as a deputy county attorney when he was shocked by the lack of youth-specific training officers received. Jeff has served law enforcement as:
- Chief of the Juvenile Justice Division of the Nebraska Commission on Law Enforcement and Criminal Justice and the state’s Juvenile Justice Specialist,
- Chief of Policy for Florida’s Department of Juvenile Justice Residential Services,
- Appointee to the IACP Juvenile Justice Committee 2006-11,
- Appointee to Florida’s Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention State Advisory Group 2012-15, and
- has led multidisciplinary teams developing programs, facilities and innovative training to help officers work more safely and effectively with troubled youth.
Jeff was trained in multiple nationally known de-escalation programs, none of which were designed by, with and for public safety and education professionals. He developed DE-ESCALATE with support from every Nebraska state law enforcement association and secured grants to develop, implement and independently evaluate training and training of trainers programs. This training development process was then replicated in Illinois and Kansas with similarly strong support from law enforcement. This drew the attention of state probation and school systems and led to development of those field-specific trainings.
An animated and dynamic speaker, Jeff has presented DE-ESCALATE at IACP, NSA, ASLET, NASRO, SSAC and numerous state law enforcement and education conferences and continues to advocate for enhanced training specific to the unique needs of public service and education professionals so that they and all youth can interact safely.
