NLETC
The National Law Enforcement Training Center is a not-for-profit organization managed solely by the five listed board members below.
Trainer Board Members
Trainer Board Members are all Board Members with a history of being both Police Officers and Trainers of Police Officers. Each member has decades of experience in Law Enforcement as a line officer as well as training officers and security at all levels (Academy, In-Service, and Instructors).
In the late '80s, Lee began working in retail security and was tasked to put together a regional seminar on handcuffing for the retailer. A referral led him to Officer Michael Waddell who was then a student of Taika Seiyu Oyata, running a Ryukyu Kempo Dojo in Gladstone, Missouri as well as a Liberty MO Police Officer and their trainer. Mike Waddell ran a small D.T. agency called Sundown Self-Defense Systems at the time and trained many small agencies in the Greater Kansas City area. Lee began training with him regularly at his dojo after the seminar. Lee is currently the head of OyataTe International.
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In 1992, Lee joined the Kansas City Missouri Police Department where he worked until 2018. After graduating from the police academy he continued training with Sundown Self-Defense Systems and eventually returned to the academy as an instructor where he became a National Trainer and eventually was picked to be the President. After retiring from the Kansas City, Missouri Police department he obtained a job teaching at the Warrensburg, MO Police Academy at UCM as well as the Sedalia, MO Police Academy located within SFCC.
Sonny Lynch has been in law enforcement since 1985. He served in the United States Army as a Military Policeman and was the Assistant Chief of Police at the Clinton, Missouri Police Department where he was employed since 1990 to 2019. Sonny has been a trainer for the National Law Enforcement Training Center since 1994. He is a National Trainer and has conducted training sessions throughout the United States.
Sonny is a police academy instructor for the Central Missouri Police Academy in Warrensburg, MO and the Missouri Safety Center.
For many years Sonny taught defensive tactics during in-service classes throughout the state for the Missouri Sheriff's Training Academy.
Sonny is certified in Force Analysis by the Force Science Research Institute to further his efforts as a trainer and consultant. He is an accomplished author, and has been published in several professional journals.
Sonny Lynch
Vice President
Trainer Board Member
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Robert Bragg is the past Program Manager of Fitness and Force Training at the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Center in Seattle, Washington, starting employment in 1980 and having retired in September of 2020. As the state’s Program Manager, Bob was responsible for ensuring that training in the area of Physical Force tactics is up to date and on the leading edge of the profession in both tactics and scientifically based instructional methods. In his 40-year career he has personally trained thousands of line officers and in-service instructors across all areas of the criminal justice arena in Washington as well as across the country.
Bob received his undergraduate and graduate degrees at the University of Washington. His early work included the biomechanics of baton and PR-24 baton use through high-speed cinematography and the effects of Oleoresin Capsicum exposure on the eye. He has combined his formal education in Motor Learning, Biomechanics, Exercise Physiology, Sports Medicine, and experience in the Martial Arts with the input from hundreds of active law enforcement trainers to deliver a cohesive and state-of-the-art statewide academy and instructor programs for Control and Defensive Tactics.
Bob was a past chairman of the board of directors for the American Society of Law Enforcement Trainers (ASLET) for which he coauthored a regular column in the ASLET trainer. Bob has been a regular presenter at the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Associations (ILEETA). Past presentations ranged from Sudden In-custody Deaths; separating the hype from hysteria, The Science Behind Motor Skill Instruction, Training Injuries; who is really at risk?, Functional Fitness for the LEO, to a wide variety of motor skills classes in the area of Control/Defensive Tactics.
Stuart has been a Law Enforcement Officer for over 25 years. He has taught Defensive Tactics throughout his career. He has also taught Use of Force and served as a Firearms Instructor for 15 years. He has also served as an expert witness in Use of Force. Stuart believes in Integrated Use of Force Training. Stuart has attended multiple Instructor Programs in both Firearms and Defensive Tactics from FLETC as well as holding certifications as a Defensive Tactics Instructor from multiple organizations. He has studied martial arts from his teenage years through adulthood and also co-owns a gym in the Kansas City area where brazilian jiu-jitsu and kickboxing are taught. He currently serves as a Sergeant with a 100 sworn person agency in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. Stuart is also a Missouri POST Certified Police Academy Instructor and is presently an Instructor at the University of Central Missouri Police Academy.
Advisory Board Members
Advisory Board Members are all Board Members with a history of knowledge that is useful in various areas of Law Enforcement and Security trainings. Advisory Board Members may have expertise in legal, medical or other aspects which apply to training.
Wayne Stewart is a licensed Doctor of Chiropractic and was on the Kansas City, Missouri Police Department for 30+ years in a sworn capacity as well as a Detention Officer. Near the end of his career he served as the Director of the Kansas City Missouri, Regional Police Academy as well as had several positions at this facility during the course of his career. As a Sergeant on the Police Department he was responsible for the Professional Training Section which helped develop all of the initial training modules within the NLETC and getting them approved with the Missouri Peace Officers Standards and Training (POST).
For many years Dr. Stewart has helped to develop portions of our curriculum dealing with medical implications.
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Dr. Stewart, though retired from Law Enforcement as a full time Major with KCMOPD, has remained on in an Auxiliary Member status, donating time weekly to the academy as well as the NLETC.
