About The Author

Walter Philbrick is a retired police officer, but is still active as a Reserve Lieutenant, He is a former World Police Judo Champion, law enforcement trainer, counter-terrorism instructor and safety and security consultant. He has experienced many things during the course of his life as a civilian, businessman and as a police officer. In truth, there is not much I have not seen during my 30 years of law enforcement.

He started his police career in 1977 and graduated from the South East Institute of Criminal Justice, the police academy for all law enforcement agencies in South Florida. After graduating from the police academy, he worked as a patrol officer for several years before being reassigned to a plain-clothes unit. His assigned unit specialized in stopping crimes in progress.

This undercover unit targeted armed robberies, commercial and residential burglaries, and auto thefts. It was a fun unit to be in because we apprehended hundreds of criminals, actually in the process of committing a robbery or burglary. You may wonder? How is that possible? We would read and analyze all of the police reports, and chart criminal behavior and patterns. Burglars will work an area until it is fished out, meaning there is nothing left. Then they will move to another area. Usually police officers respond after the fact. My unit preceded the criminal. Using intelligence from reports, and crime analysis, we anticipated where the criminal was going to be by his patterns of movement. My undercover unit proactively set up surveillances and waited for criminals to arrive. Many times, they did.

In 1984, he was transferred to the detective bureau. In the detective bureau, he was promoted to the rank of Detective Sergeant in charge of homicide investigations. As a homicide sergeant, he supervised a team of homicide detectives that also investigated other crimes specifically against people. This included robbery, sexual battery, aggravated assaults, shootings, stabbings, and other serious crimes.

During his 25 years in law enforcement, he was proud to be a member of the Hialeah Police SWAT Team for over thirteen years. He was assigned the duties of a SWAT team leader and as the SWAT team training coordinator. He was responsible for developing new and improved training for the SWAT team. At that time our S.W.A.T. Team had 20 members. As a supervisor and team member, I can say that everyone on the Special Weapons and Tactics Team (SWAT) was fearless. We were called out when the situation exceeded the capability of the patrol officers.

During his career, Walter also supervised a vice and narcotics unit, police training division, police honor guard, and police communications. He was also a patrol officer and sergeant in the uniform patrol division for several years. During my tenure as a full-time police officer, I instructed at the police academy for more than 12 years. Walter has taught defensive tactics, use of force, and arrest techniques for over 20 years.

Walter has an extensive background in the martial arts and is a fifth degree black belt in Kodokan Judo and Jujitsu. He has competed in judo tournaments for more than 20 years, winning championships at the World Police and Fire Games, Gold Medals at the International Police Olympics, United States Masters Judo Championship, and many other titles and tournaments. He also spent several years in karate and wrestling and enjoyed the change from judo.

He is currently the owner operator of the 911 Store located in Hollywood, Florida. He recently added the corporate division of the 911 Training Academy, Inc. Walter's company has trained more than 150,000 students all over the Florida and many other states. The 911 Training Academy offers training and instruction in firearms, Self-defense, bodyguard techniques, personal protection, knife and gun defense, rape prevention and concealed Weapons and Firearm training.

Walter has appeared on the Today Show, 60 Minutes, CNN, ABC Primetime, the Learning Channel and in Newsweek, Time Magazine, and Good House Keeping magazine as well as on numerous television shows and in other periodicals and newspaper articles.

To buy Walter Philbrick's book Surviving, A citizen's guide to surviving violent street crimes and terrorist attacks, click here.