Michael Brave is the President of LAAW International, Inc., and the former President of the International Force Institute, Inc. He is also the Director of Law Enforcement and Security Consulting for API Services, Inc. His experience includes involvement in a wide-range of comprehensive law enforcement and private security risk/liability and litigation management services including: training programs, policy development and review, liability/risk assessments, training appraisals, department audits, post critical incident analysis, etc. He has also served as a litigation consultant and an expert witness in federal civil rights issues; sudden custody and/or unforeseeable death; positional asphyxia; restraint; handcuffing; law enforcement policy, training, supervision, discipline, retention, and termination; use of force (including deadly force, batons, pepper spray, electronic restraint, physical restraint, neck restraints, defensive tactics); vehicle operations (including pursuits, road blocks, emergency operation, occupant restraint); canines; jail issues (including suicides); failure to protect; failure to provide medical care, failure to act; and numerous other cases.

Mr. Brave is formerly the Chief of the Intelligence and Investigative Operations Unit, Office of Enforcement Operations (OEO), United States Department of Justice (DOJ), in Washington, D.C. In that position, he oversaw several highly sensitive law enforcement programs. Mr. Brave also held the concurrent position of Deputy Director for International Operations of the Federal Witness Security Program where he coordinated the foreign aspects of the Program, including a portion of Plan Colombia, for the official who oversaw the Program in the DOJ. Mr. Brave=s other DOJ duties included: OEO Use-of-Force and Firearms Training Officer, Criminal Division Security Officer, and Division Watch Officer. Mr. Brave was also a Special Deputy United States Marshall and his National Security Information security clearance was above Top Secret.

As a certified, and nationally recognized, instructor in several facets of deadly force, many non-lethal, and less-than-lethal programs, several law enforcement vehicle operation programs, and others, Mike has presented hundreds of law enforcement risk/liability management programs across the country, and numerous internationally (including the United Kingdom and Mexico). Mike has also served as the lead attorney for the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) and the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration for their Occupant Restraint Risk Management Program. Mike is (since 1983) a certified Wisconsin law enforcement officer. Additionally, he has served as a (part-time) police legal advisor, trainer, field training officer, and patrol captain. 

Mike is the Legal Advisor and an Ex-Officio Advisory Board member of the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association. Mike has served on the National Advisory Boards of the Police Law Institute, the Jail Law Institute, and Defense Training International, Inc. He is a former member of the Executive Board of the American Society for Law Enforcement Training (ASLET). He also served as a member of the Executive Committee of the Legal Officers' Section of the IACP and is a former consultant to the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Manual. Mike has published articles in periodicals including the Police Chief, American City & County, the Prosecutor, Police & Security News, Public Risk, the ASLET Journal, Casino Enterprise Management, the International Use of Force Journal, the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Manual, and others; and has also presented several programs on the Law Enforcement Television Network.

Mike's prior experience includes being an attorney for a St. Paul (MN) law firm with special emphasis on municipal and liability defense, and being the personnel and special projects director for the National Institute for Trial Advocacy, a leading provider of attorney litigation education. Mr. Brave holds a Juris Doctor degree from Hamline University School of Law, a Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration and a Master's Degree in Management Technology from the University of Wisconsin - Stout. He has been certified as a Certified Protection Specialist and a Certified Security Trainer. He is admitted to the U.S. Supreme Court; the 7th, 8th, and D.C. Federal Circuit Courts of Appeal; Wisconsin and Minnesota State Courts; and others.

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