Ken Stretz approaches tactical firearms training through the eyes of experience, not theory.  Ken was personally involved in a line of duty shooting with a known gang member.  The year before, he was feet away from another officer who was forced to shoot.  He has responded to numerous shootings – gang, drug and domestic violence related as a Police Officer.  He was also a deputy assigned to a County Sheriff’s Department Communication Center as a call taker/dispatcher during both a civilian self-defense shooting and a Police Involved shooting.  Ken has also been directly involved in numerous encounters with armed suspects, which were successfully resolved without any shots being fired.  This gives Ken the unique perspective of having responded to/investigated shootings at the patrol level, handling call taking/dispatching for both a civilian and police shooting, as well as having personally experienced – the technical, tactical, criminal, civil & departmental process of having been involved in a shooting. 

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Ken has been a Police Officer for over 27 years. He started his career with the NYPD and has worked for several agencies at the State, County & local level. He has worked in numerous capacities – foot patrol, Marine patrol, bicycle patrol, highway patrol, beach & park patrol, prostitution enforcement – both undercover & on apprehension teams. Ken has worked numerous uniform security details for the President & foreign heads of state during his career.  He served briefly on a small multi-jurisdictional SWAT team (Ken was the driving force behind his agency joining & was responsible for selecting weapons, equipment, coordinating with other agencies on the team, enrolling the members of his agency in the basic SWAT school and attending monthly New York State Counter Terrorism Zone 3 meetings and Tactical Sub committee meetings.), is a graduate of the FBI firearms instructor school (top gun award recipient) as well as a graduate of the FBI carbine instructor school (3rd highest shooter award recipient), FBI Officer Survival School (Top Shooter in the class), FBI Ballistics seminar, holds a Rogers Shooting School "intermediate rating" with pistol and carbine, the Academi basic sniper school & NRA basic pistol instructor course.  Ken started & ran  his current agency's first patrol rifle program for over 11 years – selecting carbines, ammunition & equipment, in addition to teaching a 3 day basic carbine operator class and full 1 day yearly requal to each officer from his agency.  Ken has also lectured on officer involved shootings numerous times at multiple police academies.  He is certified on Simunitions & Ultimate Training Munition (UTM) products.  He holds an A.A.S. in Criminal Justice from Westchester Community college.

 

Ken also spent 9 years in the army reserve (pre-9/11), enlisting in the delayed entry program while a senior in high school. He served approx. 1 ½ years in a communication support MOS (74C1P) in 1st Battalion, 11th Special Forces Group (ABN) in Newburgh, NY & when that unit was disbanded, he transitioned into the military police – serving in both the 442nd military police company & the 812th military police company.

 

A lifelong shooter, Ken has attended over 100 tactical & competitive shooting schools in areas such as: blade, pistol, carbine, shotgun, submachine gun, AK47/74, sniper, executive protection, officer survival, low light, night vision, CQB, Red Dot Pistol, live tissue & cadaver TCCC, combatives, active shooter, small unit tactics, breaching, covert entry & instructor courses. Ken has trained with: FBI (NY field office SWAT & New York Firearms Instructors), DEA, NYPD, Mount Vernon (NY) Police Emergency Service Unit, Surefire, Streamlight, Hades Consulting, Vickers Tactical, Ken Hackathorn, Bob Taubert (FBI HRT), Northern Red, Combat Shooting & Tactics, CTT Solutions, Criterion Tactical, Sheriff Of Baghdad, Viking Tactics, Gamut Resolutions, DCM Consulting, Prometheus Tactical, ATT CT, Trident Concepts, AMTAC Shooting, Defoor “Proformance”, Redback One,  Way Of The Gun, Guerrilla Approach LLC, Dynamis Alliance, Sage Dynamics, West Point Combat Weapons Team, Ronin Tactics, Greenline Tactical, Rogers Shooting School, Pistol Training.com, ITTS, Sig Sauer Academy, Modern Samurai Project, JJ Racaza, Jerry Miculek, Lena Miculek, Tim Herron, Kita Busse, Shivworks, Templar Medical, Gracie University (GST Level 1 Instructor), The Core Group, Smith & Wesson Academy, Ultimate Training Munition (UTM), Simunition, ALERRT Level 1, Lt. Col. Dave Grossman, Sheepdog Academy, Condition Red, Calibre Press & Modern Warrior. Ken is/or has been factory armorer certified for: Colt AR15/M4/9MM subgun, HK MP5, Glock & Kimber 1911 weapon systems.

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Ken has taught classes for 5.11 Tactical's ABR Academy, as well as co-teaching live fire collaboration classes with Rick Hogg of War Hogg Tactical.

 

Ken has competed locally in IDPA, IPSC, 3 gun & the colt cup.

 

Ken is a former member of the International Association of Law Enforcement Firearms Instructors, the National Tactical Officers Association, New York Tactical Officers Association & the National Rifle Association.  Ken is also a former Vickers Tactical, Vickers Shooting Method (VSM) instructor.  He has trained numerous law enforcement officers (patrol, detectives, anti-crime units, SWAT & corrections), military & nuclear security personnel, actors and responsible citizens, in the tactical application of firearms and combat marksmanship. Ken has also consulted on several law enforcement related TV & movie productions, in addition to providing firearms and tactical training to actors, stunt performers, appeared as on screen talent & provided on set armorer services.