Guest Blogger: Jerry Cooper

I met Jerry at the 2010 Writers' Police Academy - he was the instructor for FATS, the firearms training simulator.  I have him to blame for falling in love with firearms sims, so when my friend Double Tap started looking into one for training, I was all about it.  So, by proxy, Jerry was an enabler for Double Tap, too.

I'm not sure Jerry remembered me from my time through the sim, as he was putting through 4 to 5 writers every half an hour or so for two days.  But then, I whined on Facebook when I saw that Jeffery Deaver got to shoot the M4 and I didn't.  Believe it or not, after that bit of whining, Jerry and I became fast friends (albeit long-distance friends).  Since that time, we've been bouncing ideas off of each other and I'm thrilled to host him as a guest blogger.  He does not yet have his own blog, but it is in the works.  Until then, I'm excited to call him one of my visiting "GunDudes".

Jerry P. Cooper

Jerry Cooper earned a B.A. in Education from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.  He is a graduate of the Police Supervision Course, Central Missouri State University, and is a graduate of the North Carolina Public Manager Program.  Jerry has been a sworn law enforcement officer for more than 41 years.  Law enforcement agencies include Caswell County (North Carolina) Sheriff’s Department, Burlington (NC) Police Department, and North Carolina Alcohol Law Enforcement (ALE).  While working with ALE, Jerry supervised enforcement agents in a ten-county district, and was awarded the Governor’s Award for Excellence.  He retired from the State of North Carolina November 1, 2005 after serving for eight years as the Basic Law Enforcement Training Coordinator at Guilford Technical Community College.  Jerry is a Certified Human Behavior Consultant, and has recently started Performance Excellence, a business that provides consulting and training in areas of leadership and supervision, use-of-force, interview and interrogation, workplace violence, and anti-terrorism.  He also serves as a Reserve Officer with Cleveland (NC) Police Department.  Jerry has a wife who is an RN, and a daughter who works at the Institute for Defense and Business in the Depot and Arsenal Executive Leadership Program.  Jerry and his wife reside in Graham, NC.