Our ABLE Team

Hello, again. Randy Means here. One of the greatest pleasures in my work has been to assemble our ABLE Team – Allied to Benefit Law Enforcement – the subject matter experts who assist us with special projects, consultative matters and of course training. A 60+ person group, they come from every size and type agency and from every region of the country. In the aggregate, they have more than 1,500 years of professional experience working in or with law enforcement.

Three brilliant law enforcement officer-leader-trainers shaped my career and have worked long and well with our ABLE Team.

Chief of Police (ret.) Dennis Andrade, B.A., FBI National Academy

Career criminal investigator extraordinaire and consummate police leader, has been my dear friend and mentor for almost my whole career, patiently showing me what good police work looks like. A former professional golfer, he is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts and the FBI National Academy and still trains budding police officers.

Captain (ret.) Greg Seidel, B.A., FBI National Academy

Left an extraordinarily active Virginia police department to become a project director for my company for nearly 20 years. In his police career, he led SWAT teams, headed professional standards and commanded patrol and investigative divisions. He is the best-rounded law enforcement professional I have ever met. He taught me almost daily for years.

Lt. (ret.) Brian Fitch, M.S., Ph.D., (deceased)

Was a watch commander with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and taught in the psychology departments of California state universities, in a law school, and at the LAPD Academy. For 20 years and until his untimely death in 2019, he took time out regularly to guide my professional development and teach nationally with me in my training programs.

Three amazing career police-focused attorneys mentored me through almost all my career. Their thinking has so affected mine over the years that today I am unable to tell exactly where theirs ends and mine begins.

Professor Reece Trimmer, J.D., Attorney at Law, (deceased)

A wonderful friend and now deceased, he was a Harvard Law School graduate who himself taught at a fine law school and who devoted nearly four decades to the police legal field. He was my full-time mentor for the first three years of my career and remained “with me” for years thereafter. To me he will always be the Dean of the school of police law.

Professor Robert (Bob) Farb, J.D.

*Although Professor Farb is not actually an official member of our ABLE Team, his work has helped me so long and well that I feel compelled to acknowledge him here.
Also a Harvard-educated attorney, he is a long-tenured Professor of Public Law and Government at the University of North Carolina. For years, I studied his books on police law. Eventually, at his request, I reviewed his police law texts prior to their publication in order to add what I could. Though I no longer participate in that arduous work, I still keep his books close at hand.

Career Police Attorney Robert (Bob) Thomas, J.D.

Has been a recognized leader in the police law profession since 1974. He was my law partner for 30 years. Before, for nearly ten years, he was my mentor and supervisor as we worked together as in-house counsel to a major city police department. He is simply amazing and I thank him from the bottom of my heart for making me the beneficiary of his trailblazing.

Another personal mentor and long-time team member must be mentioned here.

Professor and Army Lt. Colonel (ret.) Robert (Bob) Hoffman, M.S., (deceased)

Was a career Army Ranger and combat veteran who also taught at West Point. After military retirement, he began a law enforcement physical readiness company that assisted the police profession nationwide. He then worked with my company for many  years, continued my education in leadership, and became a dear personal friend.

May Reece, Brian and Bob rest in peace, knowing that they are of ever-honored memory, here and now. This said, let’s talk more about our amazing ABLE Team.

All of them have worked extremely successfully as full-time law enforcement officers, leaders and trainers – or in related support professions. Some are attorneys, some licensed psychologists, one a medical doctor. Some have other doctorate degrees, others assorted master’s degrees. Many teach as adjunct faculty at colleges or universities. Their combined expertise includes law, liability prevention and risk management, ethics, supervision, management and leadership, police psychology and medicine, policy and training, and all aspects of patrol and investigative work.

There are too many to list all of them here but they are acknowledged individually in the front of my books on police law, leadership and risk management, or shown in the ‘senior consultants tab on this website. I thank them for their service to the law enforcement profession and to their country, and of course for their help to me.