Our History:  Police Legal Sciences, Inc. (PLS) was founded in 1999 by attorney Gerald N. Partridge. PLS began by providing state-specific legal update training to law enforcement officers in Missouri and Iowa. 

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In 2008, PLS began producing online reality-based dispatcher training. Now, dispatchers at PSAPs in 39 states and Canada take these lessons each month. The sizes of subscribing PSAPs range from three to hundreds and include sheriff’s offices, city police departments, county and consolidated PSAPs, state patrols, park rangers, airport dispatchers, campus police departments, privatized PSAPs, Native American reservations, and federal agencies (military bases, NASA, etc.).

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In 2020, PLS developed reality-based, online training specifically designed for jail officials (correctional officers, jail supervisors, sheriffs, and medical and mental health staff).

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Our Mission:  Our mission is to help public safety professionals make good decisions.

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The PLS Difference:  PLS's reality-based training is based on actual 9-1-1 calls and the facts of actual court cases, used to approximate the situations law enforcement officers, correctional officers, and 9-1-1 emergency face in operational settings. This reality-based approach promotes understanding of how to apply the law in a variety of situations, appreciation of the legal and financial consequences of decisions, mental sharpness, situational awareness, and confidence.

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Our Leadership Team

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Founder: Jerry Partridge, JD

 

Attorney Jerry Partridge founded Police Legal Sciences, Inc. (PLS) in 1999. Mr. Partridge holds a juris doctorate degree from the University of Iowa College of law and is licensed to practice law in the State of Iowa. He served nearly two decades as an elected prosecuting attorney, co-authored three books on police science published by Lexis Law Publishing, lectured at police academies and training conferences (state, regional, and national) in more than 38 states, and served more than 6 years as an adjunct instructor at the National College of District Attorneys in Columbia, South Carolina.  He has done volunteer work at state correctional facilities in Iowa for 15 years. He presently teaches a half-day, continuing education webinar, “One Giant Leap for Criminal Justice – A Crash Course in Using Restorative Justice in Criminal Cases,” and provides pro bono services as a facilitator for the Johnson County (Iowa) Attorney’s Office in its Restorative Justice Project.

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General Manager: Kelly Terrill, JD

 

Attorney Kelly Terrill has been the General Manager of Police Legal Sciences, Inc. (PLS) since 2018. Prior to that, she served as the PLS Director of Legal Training for four years. Ms. Terrill has authored or co-authored hundreds of courses on: criminal law, criminal procedure, state and federal constitutional law, use of force, civil and criminal liability/qualified immunity, the Prison Rape Elimination Act, ethics, domestic violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, elder abuse, child abuse, use of force, drones, eyewitness identifications, report writing, officer safety and wellness, implicit bias, racial profiling, de-escalation, diverse communities, the Civil Rights Movement, procedural justice, mental health, working with people with disabilities, substance use, bloodborne pathogens, and hazardous materials and hazard communication. She has lectured on Fourth Amendment law for the University of Iowa Student Practicum in Policing. Ms. Terrill is admitted to practice law in the State of Iowa. She is an Iowa Law Enforcement Academy certified jail instructor on various legal topics.

 

Prior to joining PLS, Ms. Terrill spent several years in private legal practice with the law firms of Simmons Perrine Moyer Bergman PLC in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Godfrey & Kahn, S.C. in Madison, Wisconsin.

 

Ms. Terrill interned for Justice Holland on the Supreme Court of Delaware. She graduated third in her class from the University of Iowa College of Law, Class of 2006. She is a member of the Order of the Coif, was a student writer on the Iowa Law Review, and graduated with Highest Distinction. She graduated summa cum laude from the University of Missouri with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Administration.

 

Ms. Terrill was an advocate at The Shelter in Columbia, Missouri, a residential advocacy center for survivors of rape and domestic abuse, where she underwent extensive training on domestic violence, sexual assault, and working with victims of violent crimes. She was President of the Board of Directors of the Domestic Violence Intervention Program in Iowa City, Iowa.

 

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Director of Jail Pro and Iowa Legal Update: Patrick Logan, JD

 

Attorney Patrick Logan has been the Director of Iowa Legal Update and Jail Pro at Police Legal Sciences, Inc. (PLS) since 2022. Before joining PLS, Mr. Logan served as an Assistant Attorney General at the Missouri Attorney General's Office. He managed the Habeas Corpus Unit, which responds to collateral challenges to criminal convictions filed in state and federal court. The Habeas Unit also represents the State and the Department of Corrections in other original writ and declaratory judgment actions. While an Assistant Attorney General, Mr. Logan litigated cases in both state and federal trial-level courts. He also advocated in state and federal appellate courts, including the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit and the United States Supreme Court, and he argued multiple cases of first impression (cases on which the court had not previously considered the issue presented) in the Supreme Court of Missouri. In 2017, Mr. Logan was awarded the Missouri Attorney General's "Best Brief" award. Before joining the Missouri Attorney General’s Office, Mr. Logan was an Assistant Prosecuting Attorney in Audrain County, Missouri.

 

Mr. Logan is admitted to practice law in Iowa, Missouri, and New Jersey state courts. He is also admitted in the United States District Court for the Western District of Missouri, the District of New Jersey, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, and the United States Supreme Court. He graduated from the University of Missouri School of Law, Class of 2015. He also graduated cum laude from the University of Missouri with degrees in History and Sociology.

 

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Missouri Legal Update Writer: Linda Lemke, JD

 

Attorney Linda Lemke is a Legal Writer at Police Legal Sciences, Inc. (PLS). She has worked for PLS since February 2020.

 

During her second and third years of law school, Ms. Lemke worked for the Office of Legislative Research and General Counsel for the Utah Legislature. She performed research, wrote memoranda, advised legislators, and helped draft legislation.

 

During her last year of law school, Ms. Lemke was the Editor-in-Chief of the Education and Law Journal.

 

In 1998, Ms. Lemke graduated Cum Laude from the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

 

Upon graduation, she began working for the Missouri Attorney General’s Office in the Criminal Appeals division. She researched and wrote hundreds of briefs on behalf of the State of Missouri. These cases included felony convictions, denials of post-conviction relief, sexually violent predator commitments, driver’s license revocations, and state appeals. She argued approximately 75 cases in the Missouri Court of Appeals and 14 in the Supreme Court of Missouri, including several death-penalty cases. She also second-chaired the penalty phase retrial in a death penalty case, represented the state in a POST license revocation hearing, managed new attorneys through the process of briefing and arguing their first appeal, helped plan and execute office-wide CLE training and new attorney appellate training, and worked with the Governor’s Office to extradite criminals. She researched and wrote Attorney General Opinions on a wide variety of matters including the interpretation of tax law, municipal law, traffic law, Sunshine Law, and many other topics. After more than two decades of working for the Missouri Attorney General’s Office, she left to work for PLS.

 

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Director of Dispatch Pro: Kristen Pattie

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Kristen Pattie has over 15 years’ experience in emergency communications.  She has worked in four communications centers in three states and has dispatched for police, fire, and EMS.  Her most recent experience is as a Police Dispatch Supervisor for the Chula Vista Police Department.  She has extensive experience training dispatchers in both a one-on-one setting and in the classroom. 

 

In 2019, Kristen obtained her Emergency Number Professional (ENP) Certificate through the National Emergency Number Association (NENA) and she graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Management from California Coast University.  She holds both an Advanced and a Supervisor Certification through California Police Officers Standards and Training (POST), and she is a certified Communications Training Officer. 

 

Kristen joined Police Legal Sciences in 2021 and is now the Director of Dispatch Pro.

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Lesson Contributors

 

PLS works with many additional attorneys, dispatchers, dispatch supervisors, law enforcement officers, corrections officers, mental health professionals, professors, and others who co-author or contribute to PLS lessons.