Goals of the Course
The goals of the course are to Improve Safety and Professionalism while Reducing Animosity and Stress. This course represents the best practices in the law enforcement industry and celebrates what has been utilized in a variety of public service concerns for generations. Formerly referred to as training in "people skills", the authors of this program understand this vital skill set needs to be practiced. Extensive research and development has been devoted to this program, coupled with collaboration with subject matter experts with special emphasis on presenting time honored methods of instruction to ENCOURAGE VOLUNTARY COMPLIANCE. This is known as the ability to get people to do what you need them to do, while allowing them to think it was their idea. Additionally a goal of this course is to encourage students to learn how to leave people better than they found them, when they found them at their worst.
It is available in three formats, half day, full day and two full day iterations. This comprehensive training represents an amalgamation of ancient eastern martial arts philosophy and contemporary western psychology. Our state of the art pedagogy enlists the “team teaching“ concept. We utilize the combined experience of a veteran police trainer, a licensed psychotherapist along with a cadre of professional actor trainers. This serves to provide a unique environment for course participants to experience, practice, refine and improve their ability to deescalate verbal conflict, engage in active listening strategies and respond to persons in emotional crisis. Additionally it serves to greatly improve their job performance, and personal lives as well.
Professional Trainers
James T. Shanahan
Founder & Chief Instructor Detective,
NYPD Hostage Negotiation Team (Retired)
James recently retired from the New York City Police Department. He began his career as a uniformed police officer in public housing developments and concluded as a detective assigned to the Special Investigations Division. He was a decorated veteran with over thirty five years of distinguished service. He draws from his extensive experience as a investigator, hostage negotiator and trainer to provide a fast paced authentic and practical training environment. For twenty years he served as the NYPD’s senior instructor. He taught and certified over 100,000 students ranging from Police Academy recruits, In Service personal, newly promoted detectives, supervisors and executives. He was the co-creator in the following subjects: Police Methods and Tactics, Conflict Resolution, Critical Incident Stress Management, Tactical Communication, Criminal Investigations, Hostage Negotiation, and Crisis Intervention Team training.
James represented the Office of the Police Commissioner, in select advanced and specialized training venues for NYPD and outside agencies throughout New York City. He taught at police academies and military installations throughout North America, the Caribbean and Japan. Additionally, he was an adjunct lecturer at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and remains a accomplished stage, television and screen actor as well as a life long practitioner of traditional Japanese martial arts.
Kathleen M. Garrity
LCSW Clinical Director & Program Coordinator
Kathleen is a New York State licensed psychotherapist with a private practice in Manhattan. She specializes in addiction: recovery and aftercare. She also provides active and caring treatment for people with a variety of mental health conditions. Additionally she treats first responders, members of the military service and their families. The insights she has gleaned from her practice informs and enhances her effectiveness as a trainer for law enforcement officers and related personnel.
She graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and earned her masters degree from Fordham University School of Social Work. Kathleen has worked in numerous mental health clinics in each of the five boroughs throughout the New York City metropolitan area. She served as a contributor, trainer and facilitator for the New York Police Department’s Hostage Negotiation and Crisis Intervention Training Teams. She was responsible for introducing training in building resilience and managing the effects of work related stress. Kathleen has a background in acting, theater arts and is a member of the Writers Guild East.
Executive Advisory Board
Jack Cambria
Lieutenant Detective Commander
Commanding Officer of the NYPD Hostage Negotiation Team. (Retired)
Jack recently retired from the New York City Police Department where he contributed over 33 years of exemplary service. His career took him from uniform and plain clothes patrol in Brooklyn as a police officer, sergeant and lieutenant, to service in those same three ranks while assigned to the Emergency Service Unit (ESU) for 16 years. The primary focus of ESU is to provide Rescue, Tactical, and Counter-Terrorism services to the City of New York.
While assigned to ESU he responded to many high risk, high hazard and high profile assignments. As a result of this commendable service, he was promoted to Lieutenant Detective Commander and selected to command the NYPD’s elite Hostage Negotiation Team. His duties consisted of coordinating the efforts of over 100 negotiators, who responded throughout New York City to all hostage and related assignments. During his time with the hostage team, he responded to well-over 5000 crisis assignments.
He was responsible for the training and certification of all new negotiators and bi-annual refresher training of all current members of the team. He has conducted in-service training for many International, Federal, State and Local Law Enforcement agencies. Additionally, he also served as a technical consultant in the entertainment industry. He authored several scholarly articles on negotiations and has achieved a Master’s Degree in Criminal Justice from the John Jay College. Additionally he has served as an adjunct professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and as well as Empire State College.
David A. Fullard, Ph.D.
Captain NYC DOC Hostage Negotiation Team (Retired)
David retired from the New York City Department of Correction after 30 years of exceptional services. He served as a Correction Officer and was promoted to Captain while working on Rikers Island, in a variety of line and staff assignments. As a New York State licensed psychologist he provided individual and group counselling to persons remanded to the criminal justice system. He supervised the Applicant Investigation Unit and Toxicology Division. He taught at the Correction Academy, and served as both Compliance Enforcement and Forensic Suicide Prevention Coordinator. Additionally Dr. Fullard served as the Senior Mental Health Consultant for the DOC’s Hostage Negotiation Team.
His educational background includes two masters of arts degrees from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, in Forensic Psychology and Criminal Justice, and a Ph.D. from the Union Institute and University in Forensic Psychology/Applied Forensic Behavioral Science.
Dr. Fullard is a lifetime member of the Harvard Medical School postgraduate training program, and an associate professor and mentor in criminal justice, forensic psychology and other studies in the social and behavioral sciences at State University of New York, Empire State College Metropolitan Center. He continues to write and publish scholarly articles on how to address mental illness while reducing violence in hospitals, jails and prisons. He is devoted to developing significant measures of improvement concerning conditions for both detainees and those responsible for their care.