About

We are the Centers for Tactical Resilience™ and Ethical Policing who work cooperatively with The Law Enforcement Survival Institute, and www.CopsAlive.com to provide research and education to promote excellence in human performance, Tactical Resilience™ and ethical policing practices.

 

 


We believe that Tactical Resilience™ is a human quality of intentional strength and fitness exhibited through the mind, body, brain and spirit of a law enforcement or military professional that allows them to withstand the rigors and hidden emotional, physical, spiritual and physiological dangers of continuous high-threat, high-stress situations and still be able to perform their duties at a high level of excellence.

 

 

Most cadets come into a career in law enforcement with the noblest of intentions, but if that idealism isn’t nourished and if ethical clarity isn’t renewed regularly and effectively, officers can be changed by the darkness and sadness of the career – what they see, what they do.  Many officers, years into their careers, cannot recognize the people they have become and cannot understand how they got to where they are.  Spiritual exhaustion experienced by police officers, as a result of the depletions of the career, is near universal and accounts for many of the extreme destructive and self-destructive behaviors in which police officers often engage, and the police community does not equip its officers to tend to their ethical well-being.

 

 

The work we do supports all dimensions of officer wellness – physical, emotional, psychological, spiritual (not religious) – with the intention of producing ethical police behavior.  An officer at his/her best (physically capable, emotionally healthy, psychologically robust and spiritually grounded), with regular infusions of ethical guidance and support, can perform the duties of policing with integrity, decency, fairness and compassion.  Our research and training have the power to save careers, families and lives as well as transform society, but much work is needed to change the culture of policing in this country.

 

 

 We need your help!

We are looking for host agencies, sponsors and donors.  Please contact us if you are able to help.

CLICK HERE to contact us by email

 

 


Our Key Leaders:


John Marx, CPP, Executive Director

John Marx is the Executive Director of The Law Enforcement Survival Institute (LESI) and founder of CopsAlive.com.  He is the author of the book Armor Your Self™: How To Survive A Career In Law Enforcement.  He has created LESI’s primary training programs: Armor Your Self™, Armor Your Agency™ and True Blue Valor™.  John was a police officer for twenty-three years and served as a hostage negotiator for nineteen of those years.  He worked as a patrol officer, media liaison officer, crime prevention officer and burglary detective.  John also served as administrator of his city’s Community Oriented Governance Initiative through the police department’s community policing project.

 

Eric Potterat, Ph.D., Human Performance Psychologist
Dr. Potterat is a retired Commander from the U.S. Navy, where he served as the Force Psychologist for the U.S. Navy SEALs.  As their head psychologist, he provided, supervised and managed the assessment and selection programs, mental training, mental toughness and performance psychology training, clinical care, operational readiness/resilience training and neurocognitive evaluation programs for all the active duty personnel across the NSW Force world-wide.  In addition, he is an Associate Member of OPTIBRAIN, the Center for Optimization of Brain Resources to Improve Performance.  OPTIBRAIN is a joint consortium (UCSD and NHRC) focusing on researching the brain systems, neural mechanisms and cognitive processes that characterize optimal performance in extreme environments.  He is considered one of the leading experts in individual and organizational resilience and performance enhancement in high-risk operational occupations.

 

Cary A. Friedman, Chaplain
Chaplain Cary A. Friedman is a consultant and trainer on matters of stress-management and ethical decision-making for the law enforcement community.  As a hospital, prison and police chaplain, he began consulting to the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit in Quantico, VA in 2001 and contributed to the design of the Spiritual Survival for Law Enforcement course for the FBI’s National Academy.  Chaplain Friedman is the author of six books, including Spiritual Survival for Law Enforcement and Wisdom From The Batcave.  He has provided training at the FBI Academy, the FBI Training Network, International Conference of Police Chaplains, TX Department of Public Safety, CT Department of Public Safety and appeared on the History Channel.

 

Sally Spencer-Thomas, Psy.D.
As a clinical psychologist, mental health advocate, faculty member and survivor of her brother Carson’s suicide, Dr. Sally Spencer-Thomas sees the issues of suicide prevention from many perspectives.  She is a co-founder of the Carson J. Spencer Foundation and the Survivor Division Chair for the American Association for Suicidology.  Dr. Spencer-Thomas is a professional speaker and trainer, presenting nationally and internationally on the topic of suicide prevention.  She has published four books on mental health issues.

 

For more information, or to contact us please visit: www.LawEnforcementSurvivalInstitute.org

 

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