A DARING DOCUMENTARY

Officer Involved began in mid-2013 as a culmination of multiple influences and events colliding in the life of the director.  While he had previously studied social systems and conflict resolution, his choice of a career in public service brought about a paradox in understanding human interaction with authority.  He began to observe how both internal and external perceptions change in the progression from an ordinary citizen to a police officer. While the idea for a film exploring the concept of humanity in policing had been a budding interest, it was a conversation over dinner one night with an acquaintance that helped set in motion the actual process of moving forward with Officer Involved....."Why can't you just shoot the tires off of the car instead of the driver..." asked a friend. The next 2 years would be spent combing through volumes of knowledge regarding officer-involved shootings, their impact, and general perceptions.  During this time, what began as a small project with a handful of officers and a move to sort through his own experiences, soon developed into a cross-country trek to gather and organize the stories of those men and women who are involved through their personal recollections of circumstance and change. After Officer Involved was released on DVD and Digital in 2017, Patrick began filming his second feature-length documentary Dinkheller. This new documentary explores the life and story behind fallen Laurens County Deputy Kyle Dinkheller. More information on that film can be found here.

Filmmaker

Patrick W. Shaver is a filmmaker, writer, speaker, and law enforcement instructor whose work focuses on the lesser seen side of law enforcement and efforts in community engagement. A former Atlanta Police Officer, he began his law enforcement career with a Bachelor's Degree from the University at Buffalo and Master's of Conflict Management from Kennesaw State University.

His first film ‘Officer Involved’ explored what happens to law enforcement officers after being involved in a shooting and has been seen around the world. His followup film ‘Dinkheller’ shines a light on the humanity of the Deputy behind one of law enforcement’s most notorious dash cams and challenges long told rumors about what happened in the lead up to the shooting. In July 2017, he left full-time law enforcement and moved to Charleston, SC with his family. He is now a Deputy on special projects with Tazewell County Sheriff’s Office.

Art Director

Peter Knudsen is an art director and motion theorist who has been working in broadcast design for over 25 years. After graduation, he hustled his way into a night shift camera operator job at WJXT in Jacksonville, FL. There he learned how to make TV with some of the most talented people in the business. For the last 19 years Peter has been plying his trade for a cable news organization based in Atlanta. There, he has been on the front lines of the visual assault that has been blasted into your living room for over 2 decades. He has worked on visual treatments for many of the most newsworthy events during this time to include show openers and backgrounds, animated explainers, major event re-enactments and 3d models to help illustrate global safety issues. His work each day is driven by the news cycle and he likens it to working in a trauma unit.

Peter first met Patrick in an official role and they came to know each other through their shared interest in community-oriented policing. Not long after Peter completed a Citizen's Police Academy, he found out about Officer Involved and came aboard bringing his craft to help draft visual mediums for storytelling.

COMPOSER

Ryan Touron is an amateur guitarist/songwriter who grew up a block from Patrick. He's performed with various original and cover bands since the 90's. Over the last 10-years, he has expanded his passion into home recordings of personal projects. Ryan is a medical professional in North Carolina where he resides with his wife and daughter.