
Other affiliations
Phone
17038553536
Biography
Arthur is director of justice and national security policy for the R Street Institute, where he heads institute programs dealing with a variety of issues related to national security, crime and policing. In this capacity, he produces original research, writes for the popular press and educates policymakers on national security and criminal justice issues. Arthur is also a Visiting Lecture at University College London in the Department of Security and Crime Science.
Arthur joined R Street in August 2016, having previously served as associate professor of law at West Virginia University’s College of Law and visiting professor of law at Georgetown University Law Center.
From 2005 to 2014, he was a trial attorney with the U.S. Justice Department, primarily serving as a federal prosecutor with the Narcotic and Dangerous Drug Section, specifically targeting command and control drug cartel leaders and narco-terrorists. He also served in the civil division, working on immigration-related litigation, and with the Federal Programs Guantanamo Bay litigation team, where he coordinated with federal agencies to conduct extensive terrorism investigations through merits trials. He joined the Justice Department after a three-year stint as a patrol officer with the police department of Cheney, Washington, having graduated the Washington State Police Academy with high honors.
Earlier in his career, Arthur served in the U.S. Army, originally enlisting as a private before later receiving a commission. He served as an armor officer, later becoming the commander of a military police company and a Reserve Officers’ Training Corps assistant professor. He deployed to Fallujah, Iraq, with the mission to train the Iraqi Infantry and served as an MP acting battalion commander and executive officer. He retired as a lieutenant colonel from the U.S. Army National Guard (WV). During his Army career, Arthur received the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, Meritorious Service and Iraq Campaign medals.
Publications
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ALR Rizer, Washington’s Will: Mastering Leadership (ABA Press 2019) (forthcoming) -
ALR Rizer and Lars Trautman, 'A prosecutor’s case for FOSTA' (2018) Huffington Post -
ALR Rizer and Caleb Watney, 'Artificial Intelligence Can Make Our Jail System More Efficient, Equitable and Just' (2018) 23 Texas Rev. of L. & Pol. (forthcoming) -
ALR Rizer, Abdul Rad and Jonathan Haggerty, 'Can Deterrence Theory Explain the Stephon Clark Shooting?' (2018) The American Interest -
ALR Rizer and Dennis McGlothin, 'Can NFL Owners Discipline Players Who Disrespect the Flag and the Military?' (2018) Inside Sources (also appeared in Newsday and The Albany Times-Union) -
ALR Rizer, Rachel Liebman and Jonathan Haggerty, Can the On-Demand Economy Open Doors for the Formerly Incarcerated? (R Street Policy Paper 2018) -
ALR Rizer and Rachel Liebman, 'Challenging the ‘life sentence’ of unemployment upon re-entry' (2018) Inside Sources (also appeared in The Sun-Sentinel, The Progress-Index, The Journal Courier, and The Providence Journal) -
ALR Rizer, Equip police more like Batman and less like G.I. Joe (R Street Policy Paper 2018) -
ALR Rizer and Shoshana Weissmann, 'Occupational Licensing Laws Make Us Less Safe, and Prevent Good People from Getting Jobs' (2018) The Blaze -
Charles Duan, ALR Rizer, Zach Graves and Mike Godwin, Policy Approaches to the Encryption Debate (R Street Policy Paper 2018) -
Nila Bala and ALR Rizer, 'Trump's death penalty for drug dealers proposal is bad policy' (2018) The Baltimore Sun -
ALR Rizer and Megan Reiss, 'Trump's nuclear threat policy is moving US in the right direction,' (2018) The Hill -
Stacey Eunnae and ALR Rizer, 'We Need to Stop Incarcerating Children for Status Offenses and Nonviolent Misdemeanors' (2018) Huffington Post -
ALR Rizer and Alyse Ullery, 'What conservatives should like about Larry Krasner’s criminal justice ideals' (2018) The Philadelphia Inquirer -
Jonathan Haggerty and ALR Rizer, ''Tough on crime' used to win votes. Now it's all about criminal justice reform' (2017) Washington Examiner -
ALR Rizer, 'A new conservative approach to jail reform: police diversion' (2017) Washington Examiner -
ALR Rizer and Anne Hobson, Cross-Border Data Requests: Evaluating reforms to improve law enforcement access (R Street Policy Paper 2017) -
ALR Rizer and Daniel Oglesby, 'Do Criminal Courts Threaten Privacy More Than FISA Courts?' (2017) RealClearPolicy -
Jason Pye and ALR Rizer, 'Federal ‘tough on crime’ policies have failed — here’s a new path forward' (2017) Washington Examiner -
ALR Rizer and Daniel Semelsberger, 'Feds taking social media passwords at the border sets a bad precedent' (2017) The Hill -
ALR Rizer and Daniela Velázquez, 'Ferguson still struggling with racial bias' (2017) USA Today -
ALR Rizer and Alyse Ullery, 'Fighting crime by putting fewer people in jail' (2017) St. Louis Post-Dispatch -
ALR Rizer and Ashkhen Kazaryan, 'Granting NSA permanent bulk surveillance authority would be a mistake' (2017) The Hill -
ALR Rizer and Marc Schindler, 'How to Reduce Juvenile Crime: Use Separate Courts' (2017) American Conservative -
ALR Rizer, 'Is reform on the horizon for Section 702 surveillance?' (2017) The Hill -
Josiah Neeley and ALR Rizer, 'Kansas’ juvenile justice reforms are working' (2017) The Topeka Capital-Journal -
ALR Rizer and Easton Randall, 'National crime isn't the epidemic the FBI would have us believe' (2017) The Hill -
ALR Rizer and Caleb Watney, 'New Jersey sets an example in data-driven justice' (2017) The Bergen Record -
ALR Rizer, 'New Orleans is ripe for justice reform' (2017) The Advocate -
Jonathan Haggerty and ALR Rizer, 'President Trump’s police militarization again raises the question: do we want warriors or guardians?' (2017) Huffington Post -
ALR Rizer and Jonathan Haggerty, 'Stop mandating burdensome background check for Uber, Lyft drivers' (2017) The Hill -
ALR Rizer and Jonathan Haggerty, 'Technology has already created innovative solutions for our bloated jail populations, we just have to implement them' (2017) Washington Examiner -
ALR Rizer, The Conservative Case for Jail Reform (National Affairs 2017) -
ALR Rizer and Amie Stepanovich, 'The next security risk may be your vibrator,' (2017) Wired -
ALR Rizer and Carrie Wade, 'The opioid epidemic is changing what it means to protect and serve' (2017) Inside Sources (also appeared in The Sun-Sentinel, The Progress-Index, Newsday, and The Oklahoman) -
ALR Rizer and Jonathan Haggerty, 'To Protect and Serve or To Search and Destroy?' (2017) US News & World Report -
ALR Rizer and Jonathan Matt, 'Tom Cotton lone holdout on juvenile justice reform bill' (2017) RealClearPolitics -
Jarrett Dieterle and ALR Rizer, 'Troops shouldn't have to wait until they're 21 to drink' (2017) Military Times -
ALR Rizer and Jonathan Haggerty, 'Want less crime? Put fewer people in jail' (2017) The Arizona Republic -
ALR Rizer, 'What would Jesus do about criminal justice reform?' (2017) Washington Examiner -
Ian Adams and ALR Rizer, 'Autonomous Vehicles Could Change Everything You Know About Traffic Stops' (2016) Inside Sources (also appeared in San Diego Union-Tribune, The Roanoke Times, The Daily Progress, The Times-Tribune, Prescott News, and The Northwest Indiana Times) -
ALR Rizer, 'Criminal Justice Reform Doesn’t Have to Mean ‘Soft of Crime'' (2016) Washington Examiner -
ALR Rizer, Criminal-Justice Reform is No Boon to Illegal Aliens (R Street Policy Paper 2016) -
ALR Rizer, 'FBI fingerprinting for Uber and Lyft in Maryland would do more harm than good' (2016) Washington Post -
Alyse Ullery and ALR Rizer, 'For-profit policing undermines confidence in justice system' (2016) The Hill -
ALR Rizer, Jefferson’s Pen: The Art of Persuasion (ABA Press 2016) -
ALR Rizer, 'Make Congress great (or at least relevant) again with criminal justice reform' (2016) Washington Examiner -
ALR Rizer, 'Much Ado About Nothing, The Phantom U.S. Crime Wave' (2016) R Street Blog -
ALR Rizer, 'Policing is a Profession: You don’t get to Pick and Choose Whom You Serve and Protect' (2016) Washington Examiner -
ALR Rizer and Nathan Leamer, 'The case for criminal justice reform in lame duck' (2016) The Hill -
ALR Rizer, 'The Ever-Changing Bogeyman: How Fear has Driven Immigration Law and Policy' (2016) Louisiana Law Review -
ALR Rizer, 'Trading Police for Soldiers: Has the Posse Comitatus Act Helped Militarize Our Police and Set the Stage for More Fergusons? ' (2016) 16 University of Nevada Las Vegas Law Review 467 -
ALR Rizer, 'Yet One More Unimportant Article About Colin Kaepernick' (2016) Huffington Post -
ALR Rizer, '‘Demilitarize’ the Police?' (2016) The Weekly Standard -
ALR Rizer, 'Hannibal at the Gate: Border Kids, Drugs, and Guns - and the Mexican Cartel War Goes On ' (2015) 27 St. Thomas Law Review 48 -
ALR Rizer, 'Lawyering Wars: Failing Leadership, Risk Aversion, and Lawyer Creep—Should We Expect More Long Survivors? 90 Ind. L.J. 935 (2015)' (2015) 90 Indiana Law Journal 935 -
J. Berkeley Bentley and ALR Rizer, 'Mission Creep: The Danger of Blurring Police Blue with Soldier Green' (2015) Huffington Post -
ALR Rizer and Bardia Bastin, 'Police Violence: The Symptoms of Deeper Societal Issues?' (2015) Huffington Post -
J. Berkeley Bentley and ALR Rizer, 'The Militarization of the Police: Is It a Battle of Equipment or Mentality?' (2015) Huffington Post -
J. Berkeley Bentley and ALR Rizer, 'The Militarized Mentality of the Police' (2015) Huffington Post -
ALR Rizer, The National Security Implications of Immigration Law (ABA Press 2013) -
ALR Rizer, 'Asking Our Soldiers to Do Police Work: Why It Can Lead to Disaster' (2012) The Atlantic -
ALR Rizer, 'Lessons From Iraq and Afghanistan: Is it Time for the United States to Sign the Ottawa Treaty and End the Use of Landmines? ' (2012) 49 Willamette Law Review 35 -
ALR Rizer, 'Why It's Criminal to Lie About Military Honors' (2012) The Atlantic -
ALR Rizer, 'Why Veterans Celebrate Tax Day' (2012) The Atlantic -
ALR Rizer and Sheri Glaser, 'Breach: The National Security Implications of Human Trafficking' (2011) 17 Widener Law Review 69 -
ALR Rizer, 'Citizenship and its Exclusions ' (2011) 58 Fed. Law 66 [Review] -
ALR Rizer, 'How the War on Terror Has Militarized the Police' (2011) The Atlantic -
ALR Rizer, 'The National Security Threat of Energy Dependence' (2011) 2 Harvard National Security Journal -
ALR Rizer, 'Dog Fight: Did the International Battle Over Airline Passenger Name Records Enable the Christmas Day Bomber?' (2010) 60 Catholic Law Review 77 -
ALR Rizer, Lincoln’s Counsel: Lessons from America's Most Persuasive Speaker (ABA Press 2010) -
ALR Rizer, 'In the Common Defense' (2008) 55 Fed. Law 52 [Review] -
ALR Rizer, 'Investigating Identity Theft: A Guide for Business, Law Enforcement, and Victims' (2007) 54 Fed. Law 53 [Review] -
ALR Rizer, 'Mandatory Arrest: Do We Need to Take a Closer Look?' (2005) 36 University of West Los Angeles Law Review 1 -
ALR Rizer, 'The Filibuster of Judicial Nominations: Constitutional Crisis or Politics as Usual?' (2005) Pepperdine Law Review 847 -
ALR Rizer, 'Does True Conservatism Equal Anti-Death Penalty?' (2004) 6 Howard Human Rights Law Review 88 -
ALR Rizer, 'Graduate’s Verdict: Students Well-Served by Gonzaga Law School' (2004) Spokesman-Rev. -
Jesse Matthew Ruhl , ALR Rizer and Mikel J. Wier, 'Gun Control: Targeting Rationality in a Loaded Debate' (2004) 13 Kansas Journal of Law and Public Policy 413 -
ALR Rizer, 'Prosecutors: The “Other” Defenders of the Constitution' (2004) 38 The Prosecutor 37 -
ALR Rizer, 'The Lincoln Lawyer' (2004) 54 Fed. Law 59 [Review] -
ALR Rizer, 'The Race Effect on Wrongful Convictions' (2003) 29 William and Mitchell Law Review 845
Centres
Research Interests
Exploring how police institutions think about the problem of militarization and violence. More specifically, how do police institutions, who are the repository of legalized violence, think about controlling that aspect of their mission.
Options taught
Criminology and Criminal JusticeBlog posts by Arthur Rizer

Police are heroes, but they’re also human
By Arthur Rizer
Centre for Criminology
Building a new narrative around policing
By Arthur Rizer
Centre for Criminology
What happens when billions of dollars in military equipment are transferred to local police departments
By Arthur Rizer
Centre for Criminology
Duty to destroy or duty to protect? The dangers of police mission creep
By Arthur Rizer
Centre for Criminology