James McElvain

James P. McElvain, PhD

James P. McElvain is an Assistant Professor for the Master of Public Safety (MPS) program at the University of Virginia.  Among the classes offered in the MPS program, he has co-taught Transformational Leadership, Community Dialogue, Data for Public Safety Leaders, and the Capstone course. 

Before joining the MPS team, Dr. McElvain spent 36 years in law enforcement. His first 28 years of service was in southern California working for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, Perris Police Department and Riverside County Sheriff’s Department. During his tenure with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, he commanded the Perris Station and served as Chief of Police for three contract cities (Perris, Menifee, and Canyon Lake). In his last assignment, he oversaw the Ben Clark Training Center (BCTC), a regional police training campus for the Basic Peace Officer Academy, Correctional Academy and Dispatch Certification courses, as well as dozens of Advanced Officer and Jail Training classes for law enforcement officers and agencies from the Southern California Region. In his last eight and half years in policing, Dr. McElvain was the Police Chief for the City of Vancouver, WA. Before his retirement, the Vancouver Police Department served a population of about 195,000 and was allocated 234 sworn officers and 65 professional staff. 

Dr. McElvain’s law enforcement tenure includes administering and enhancing public safety across organizations, jurisdictions, specialty teams and competing interests. He has demonstrated the ability to lead cooperative partnerships in community policing, building nonprofit partnerships and enhancing productive relationships with diverse communities. This includes working with a Community Resource Team outlining a business case to address key performance gaps in policing to increase police resources through a five-year staffing plan. Following community concerns over a series of police shootings, he coordinated with the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) to review the department’s policies, training and use of force incidents, which resulted in 84 recommendations made by PERF for improvement. Following the PERF analysis, City leadership and Dr. McElvain commissioned a Community Task Force on Policing to address the recommendations. In one year, 74 of the recommendations were accomplished. 

Dr. McElvain has a Master of Arts degree and Ph.D. in sociology with a specialization in criminology and race/class inequality from the University of California, Riverside, and a Master of Arts degree in criminal justice and a Bachelor of Arts degree in social science and criminal justice from California State University, San Bernardino. With his academic background, he has taught undergraduate and graduate courses at Riverside Community College, Loma Linda University, and Washington State University. 

In his spare time, Dr. McElvain enjoys traveling with his family, working out, playing the piano, golfing, reading and playing with his Australian Shepherds.