Question for certified instructors

On this site, and in several publications and websites, I've seen instructors who teach various MA related courses referring to themselves as being "Certified Instructors" in various LE and Military capacities. Without calling into doubt the legitamacy of those who are such and do teach to civilians, I want to ask how many of the LE certified instructors would teach courses to civilians instead of fully retiring after your time on the force? This also applies to anyone here who has been LE, is retired from that, and does so.

I am not sure I understand your question.

I am actively employed in my field. I instruct tactics within my agency and to other agencies in an official capacity as well as in a contracted professional one. I am "certified" (I hate that word) in several programs and am currently a staff instructor in one (the ISR Matrix).

I also teach civilians SD and run a MA program (specifically BJJ via the SBG). I do not see a conflict of interest. Should I?

Never mind. I get it now. The answer is yes. I look forward to teaching when I retire from LE.

I'm not sure if I understand your question either but I will comment.

In North Carolina, in order to teach law enforcement, you must first be certified (by the state) as an instructor. Then you take specialized training to obtain other instructor certificates. I am certified to teach what we refer to as Suspect Control and Arrest Tactics. I am also certified in other areas as well. I do not teach civilians in any capacity except an occasional public service type seminar for certain citizens group.

I have learned on this site that there are many doubters in terms of some in regards to the skills, training and experiences of others so I really hesitate to even talk about in anymore.

Intrepid, I take everything I see posted on the web with a grain of salt, unless it is supported by a reputable entity in the real world. You've pretty well answered my question, except that the idea is, would you teach a civilian course, such as firearm safety? If you would never teach such a course, that's fine, and if you would, that's also fine. Also, another way to look at it is, would you teach a MA course that drew heavily on your experience as a LEO?

Bushi,

I don't have any certifications in firearms instruction so I don't teach LEO or civilians on this. However, if I was teaching civilians (self defense) I would probably draw from my experience as a LEO.

Intrepid

While certification is important I would recommend relying on instructors reputation more than the papers on the wall. There are just as many if not more "certified instructors" that don't know how to teach as there are instructors that don't have to wave their certificates in the air to get business.

Gruhn

Very well said. That is the primary reason that I do not put much stock in "certifications".

At this point in my career, I am more interested in sharing info than being "certified" by someone. I have many certificates that were issued by people whom have sought me out for training.

There may be questions about the legitemacy of certain "certified instructors." However, in North Carolina your either certified (by the state) to teach law enforcement or your not. There is only one entity that oversees this. You cannot teach Basic Law Enforcement Training Suspect Control and Arrest Tactics without it. Many major sources of police equipment require certification, ie; Taser, Armour Holdings, ASP Expandable Baton, etc. and yes I am certified by all these groups.

Intrepid, that's exactly the type of certification I am talking about, one that is either directly issued by the State DOJ/HP or Police/Police Academy, or by the DoD, one of the four Military Departments, or by a private company that works under contract with such an entity. That's also what I'm trying to differentiate between, because there are hundreds of con artists that produce a fancy piece of paper and call themselves "certified". I wanted to know how many people who are actually certified by a federal/state or private contractor would teach outside of their LE/Military job, and would they teach info that was a part of the course (excluding any classified info, of course).

Perhaps the main point of this thread is that anyone who is considering taking classes from someone who claims certification should find out who the issuer of such is, ie was it his home state's Police Academy or State Police.

Interesting question. I know that KM when they certify you to teach LE do not authorize you to teach the general public. They're very specific about saying that you can only teach within your agency. I do teach civilians, but they're civilians inside my agency that work field duties (police service aids for example). I would eventually like to teach anyone that I choose but I did intend to wait till I retire.

This teaching restriction is based on a commercial perspective of controlling who sells what to whom. The requirements to become a certified KM or any other "1st level Instructor" are realatively low on the grand scale. There is a balance between perpetuating the program and keeping it organized and profitable for the main office.

That's just the way it works. Royce Gracie does a similar thing with his week long LE Instructor program, except he just expires their instructor status after six months if they don't attend another seminar.