Instructors
Scott Savage
Scott is the founder and lead instructor of Savage Training Group. He is a working police officer with 20+ years of experience.
Steve “Pappy” Papenfuhs
Steve “Pappy” Papenfuhs is a retired Sergeant with the San Jose Police Department. Pappy has 29 years experience including assignments as an FTO Sergeant, Training Sergeant Detective Sergeant and SWAT team member.
Dominic Gamboa
Dominic Gamboa is a 28-year veteran of both the San Francisco and Santa Clara Police Departments. Sure he has the street experience to tell you what works and what doesn’t, but he’s also an expert-level instructor. Instead of “Death by Power Point”, Dom is known for captivating students and keeping them engaged.
Dan Flippo
Dan is a recently retired law enforcement officer with decades of experience in SWAT and Patrol and is also an instructor with the National Tactical Officers Association.
Paul Grattan, Jr.
Paul is a sergeant with the New York City Police Department and a Policing Fellow with the National Police Foundation. He is a full-time digital communications officer with the NYPD where he crafts messages for command staff and manages social media messaging.
Eddie Chan
Eddie Chan is a current FTO Sergeant with the San Jose Police Department in California. Having over a decade of experience supervising and training FTOs and recruit officers, Eddie understands the unique challenges that FTOs face when training recruits.
Joshua Helton
Officer Joshua Helton is a 16-year law enforcement veteran, currently serving in Northern California. As a Detective, he specialized in sensitive investigations including domestic violence and strangulation cases.
Frank Lowe
With over 35 years of police experience he brings a wisdom and perspective that is hard to match. Frank spent 30 years with the Oakland Police Department where he retired as a Captain. Frank’s experience as an investigator, working in one of toughest cities in California, made him an obvious choice to teach our Modern Interview and Interrogation course.
Donald Anderson
As a police Sergeant in the busy city of San Francisco and the Executive Officer of a 40-officer crisis negotiation team, Donald Anderson certainly has the experience and qualifications to be an instructor. But experience alone isn’t enough. We hired Donald because he knows how to teach today’s cops!
James Tacchini
James has been with the SFPD since 2007 and has held the rank of Sergeant since 2017. In addition to his Negotiator and Instructor duties, he is currently assigned to the Officer Involved Shooting Team, administratively investigating officer involved shootings, in-custody deaths, and major use of force incidents. James helps students like you develop a working knowledge of current case laws, tactics, team planning, and outside the box thinking which are core skills for any Crisis/Hostage Negotiator.
Jason Louis
Jason Louis has been with the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office for over 20 years and is currently assigned as a sergeant in Patrol Services. As a sitting member of his agency’s use of force review board and a 15 year use of force and defensive tactics instructors, he’s developed unique and entertaining methods for teaching one of the most complex topics in law enforcement, use of force.
Max Garces
Proactivity and solving complex cases – those two factors have remained constant no matter what assignment Instructor Max Garces has held over the last 30 years. As a lead instructor for our Modern Interview and Interrogation course, now Max helps our students develop their own skills.
Chris Bernacchi
Chris spent 25 years as a police officer with the Sacramento Police Department in California where he specialized in criminal investigations. He is now an active investigator with the Sacramento County Department of Human Assistance.