"Do they have a 24 hour phone line available to assist with speaking to LE post event?
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Kind of. I'll explain.
The first line of defense should be hour own attorney. To help members find attorneys, we have been working dilligently for the last 3 years to establish a member referral network of attorneys. I think we have 46 of the 50 states covered, with over 200 attorneys. This is a long term project, but eventually, our goal is to have attorneys from every county bar association in the country as part of the Network. But, this is only to help the member find their own attorney. The members need to do some work on their own, to establish that attorney/client relationship.
But, we also know that not all members have attorneys in their area they can locate and get hooked up with, so in the event that occurs, we have the "boots on the ground" program. We recognize that having an advocate with "boots on the ground" in your area, to interact with family, and to help locate the attorney you need and pay him or her a retainer on your behalf is critical. So, having said that, a member or his family can call our office during daytime hours, or my personal cell phone after hours, and we will activate this program. Either I will personally hop on a plane and fly to your location to start your legal defense, or if we have a trusted instructor, board member or other person who is closer and can perform that for you, we will call upon them to do this. In any event, you should have your legal defense started within 24 hours of us getting a phone call.
In the one incident we have had so far where a member needed our assistance, we recieved a call from his father about 10:00 am, and we were fortunate enough to have a network affiliated attorney in the local area. A call to his office resulted in him meeting with the member within a few hours to start that legal representation. In the lag time between insuring he had this legal representation and confirmation that he did, I had made plans to have one of our Network Affiliated Instructors start working on the case for him, and to pick me up at the airport the next day if needed. But, as it turned out, that wasn't necessary.
One of the reasons for this program was born out of the Hickey case, where I felt after reviewing what occured in the immediate aftermath of the incident, if he would have had this in place, things may have gone much smoother for him to begin with. (now, having said that, after seeing what type of prosecutor's office Pima County Arizona has, I have my doubts, but perhaps it would have helped.) At least we could have arranged for an attorney who understood what was needed, and started an immediate investigation of our own, which WOULD have helped immensey.
Okay, there you have it folks. I think I covered the main questions and issues. Please feel free to ask any other questions while I am around.