Tom Aveni has been a career law enforcement officer, having served on the local and state levels in three states (NJ, UT, NH). His police career began in 1978, and he has served as a police trainer since 1983. From 1990 to 2001 Tom served as a police “Training Coordinator” with the once prestigious Smith & Wesson Academy. There he was instrumental in training over 12,000 police and military personnel from across the United States and 23 other countries. Since 1995, Mr. Aveni’s police training focus became oriented toward researching so-called “questionable” police shootings, which routinely involve suspects who were unarmed and non-assaultive when shot by police. Tom’s research in this area contributed to the creation and advancement of the first (1995) and most comprehensive low light instructor training program. In 2001, Mr. Aveni co-founded the Police Policy Study Council, a multi-disciplinary organization that brings together the diverse talents of clinicians, physicians and police practitioners in an ongoing effort to elucidate complex criminal justice issues.
