Instructor: Don Kester served over twenty-three years with the Pima County (Tucson, AZ.) Sheriff’s Department, retiring in 2015. While with the Sheriff’s Department he served in many assignments to include; Training Director, patrol district commander, Special Operations, Tactical Response, and Staff Services Section Commander, as well as the Support Operations and Criminal Investigations Division Commander. Don’s SWAT experience spans the majority of his career, having served as a trainer, SWAT Team operator, team leader, team sergeant, and SWAT Commander. He is certified as a chemical agents, FSDD, and less lethal Instructor, and as a Master Taser Instructor. He is also a firearms, defensive tactics, and use of force instructor and instructs many other specialties such as Rapid Deployment, Warrant Service, Hostage Rescue, TEMS, Incident Command, and Leadership, and has authored several articles on such topics. In 2015 Don was hired as the Director of Training and Education for the National Tactical Officers Association. He has conducted several tactical team and incident reviews, and has spoken at dozens of conferences and special events. He has been instructing for the NTOA since 1999. Don has served as a use of force consultant/expert in cases in Superior and Federal Court, and he served on the Law and Legal and Defensive Tactics subject matter expert committees for Arizona POST. He served as a delegate to the International Law Enforcement Forum (ILEF) for Minimal Force Options as well as on the Advisory Council for the Office of Law Enforcement Technology Commercialization (OLETC) and as a member of the SWAT Technical Support Working Group (TSWG). Don was the Less Lethal Section Chairperson for the NTOA from 2001 until 2008 and then served seven years as a member of the NTOA Board of Directors. He has a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Arizona and is a graduate of the FBI National Academy.
Instructor: David Pearson is a lieutenant with Fort Collins Police Services. He has been a police officer since 1990. David was promoted in 1998 and spent 13 years as a sergeant and served as a supervisor in patrol, traffic, internal affairs, and property crimes. As a sergeant, David served in a collateral assignment as a SWAT team leader for 8 years before being promoted to Lieutenant in 2011. As a lieutenant, David has served as the Criminal Investigations Lieutenant, Professional Standards Lieutenant, Commander of the Northern Colorado Drug Task Force, Patrol Watch Commander, and as an Acting Assistant Chief for the Criminal Investigations Division. David has been a law enforcement instructor since 1996 and has taught defensive tactics, officer safety, building search, crowd control, incident command, active shooter, less lethal technology, tactical decision-making, and SWAT tactics. Since 2005, David has been an instructor for the National Tactical Officers Association and has taught the SWAT Team Leader Development Class, the Civil Disturbance class, Tactical S.C.B.A., the Top 20 Concepts class, and the basic SWAT course. David’s focus at the NTOA, however, has been in less lethal technology and tactics. Since 2005, he has taught the 40-hour Less Lethal, Chemical Agent, & Flash Sound Diversionary Device Instructor course. David has certified over 1200 less lethal instructors in the Unites States and Canada. Since 2013, he has served in the role of Less Lethal Section Chair for the NTOA.
Case Law Summaries
Click on each of the following case law summaries to open and study. Each case law summary is mandatory reading and is referenced in your course of instruction. It is imperative that you familiarize yourself with these summaries, as they will be included in the on-line discussions and quizzes.