Officer Tom Burns has worked with the Seattle Police Department since 1989. During that time Tom has been assigned to Patrol, Anti Crime Team and SWAT and a pro-active bicycle patrol unit. During his tenure in SWAT, Tom was a member of the chemical agent/less lethal cadre and was cadre leader for two years. He developed the concepts for the chemical agent response teams (CART) for WTO in Seattle in 1999. Tom was also a lead instructor in crowd control for WTO and the patrol-CART (Chemical Agent Response Team).
Tom is a certified Master Instructor for Specialty Impact Munitions, Chemical Agents, NFDDs, and ECDs. Tom was a lead instructor in Rapid Intervention Tactics and consulted with the Department of Homeland Defense. Tom has taught crowd control tactics and the use of less lethal/chemical agents throughout the United States, and Canada. Tom spent seven weeks in Georgia training law enforcement and military personnel for the G-8 conference held in 2004, was a lead instructor working directly with numerous agencies in Denver and Minneapolis/St. Paul in preparation for the democratic and republican conventions in 2008, and worked directly with the Vancouver Police Department in setting up a less lethal program for the 2010 Winter Olympics. He serves on the NIJ TWG (Technical Working Group) for Less-Lethal.