CHRIS BUTLER
CEO and Chief Instructor
Chris Butler retired as an Inspector after 34 years in law enforcement.
Chris Butler retired as an Inspector after 34 years in law enforcement. Prior to joining municipal law enforcement, Chris was a Search and Rescue Technician for six years responsible for conducting high angle mountain rescue, swift water rescue and avalanche rescue. During this time Chris was involved in developing and delivering intensive training for Search and Rescue Technicians. This began his passionate study into human factors, human error, decision making and effective motor learning.
After joining policing, Chris became a full-time instructor in the academy, teaching both recruits and in-service police officers a variety of physical use of force techniques as well as combat firearms instruction. For the last several years of his career, Chris developed and instructed advanced Incident Command training to Sergeants, Staff Sergeants and Inspectors.
Chris has an extensive background in law enforcement use of force and has been certified as an instructor or instructor trainer in numerous incident command, firearms, physical combatives, less lethal/chemical agents and emergency vehicle operation disciplines. In addition, Chris has worked with law enforcement trainers at the local, state and federal and international levels.
Chris has made presentations at National and International law enforcement conferences and has been qualified in court as an expert in firearms safety, police firearms training, law enforcement use-of-force training and evaluation. Chris has testified over 40 times as a use of force expert in criminal matters and coroner’s inquests pertaining to officer involved shootings and in-custody deaths.
Chris is also certified as a shooting incident reconstructionist through TriTech Forensics and the International Association for Identification. As a result of working with some of the worlds best human performance researchers, coaches and practitioners, Chris developed the Advanced Methods of Instruction (MOI) for Training Practical Professional Policing Skills course. Chris’s driving ambition is to ensure training methods for first responders are based upon the most current science and research in human factors and learning, and to ensure our valuable protectors have the skills needed to succeed and survive.
Chris was honored to be inducted into the National Law Enforcement Officer Hall of Fame in 2025 as Trainer of the Year.
When Chris is not working, you may be able to find him poking around in the backcountry of the Rocky Mountains.
Chris can be reached at chris@raptorprotection.com.
Testimonial
“Over the past twenty years of my career in policing in Calgary I have had the extreme good fortune to have worked directly with Inspector Chris Butler in his role as our officer in charge of the Chief Crowfoot Learning Center, wherein he lead the entirety of our training as it applied to Officer Safety Skills for both new recruit officers and that of our in service members. In that time Chris began to demonstrate his unique capacity for true research and knowledge transfer in the areas of lethal force encounters, as well as other use of force encounters as they became subject of various Inquiries, criminal code investigations and Professional Standard investigations. Chris is nationally recognized for his comprehensive use of force opinions, bringing precise technical knowledge of officer safety skills as well as a specific understanding of brain science as it applies to the human brain under the influence of extreme stress.
Amongst his many significant accomplishments were his comprehensive research and subsequent policy development in the areas of Lateral Vascular Neck Restraints, which was recognized by the International Association of Chiefs of Police. He also led our services foray into Conducted Energy Weapons, and the deployment of Carbine rifles for front line officers. All these comprehensive research projects led to deployment of these use of force modalities, through policy and curriculum development, that are all still in place today in the Calgary Police Service.
Chris subsequently moved into the areas on incident command and major emergency event planning where he again bought with him a high degree of precise knowledge of command and control principles, as well as emergency preparedness and subsequent training for our entire service.
Amongst all the knowledge and experience that Chris harnessed to establish his national credibility in this field, perhaps his most enduring attribute is that of his values based leadership, coupled with his morality and character. I would be hard pressed to say in over three decades of policing and international travels that I have met anyone who is a more detailed in his knowledge of the complete spectrum of officer safety skills, but all the while being an impressive family man, community and police leader.”
