Firearms, less-lethal, and tactical training, plus security licensing courses for Alabama and Tennessee. Taught by instructors who have been there. You walk out ready for the moment that counts.
Shieldwall Tactical Protection Academy (STPA) exists to fix a simple problem. Too much security training checks a box and sends people out unprepared for the actual post.
We train security, law enforcement, military, corrections, and public safety professionals, drawing on experience from the Army, the Federal Protective Service, law enforcement, 911 and public-safety systems, and contract security. We teach the way the work really happens. Every STPA course is built on documentation that stands up in an audit and in a courtroom, because on the post, that is what protects you and the people you cover.
STPA’s instructors combine experience from military service, law enforcement, federal protective work, emergency communications, and contract security. They deliver practical instruction in firearms, de-escalation, lawful use of force, less-lethal tools, officer safety, threat response, executive protection, women’s marksmanship and safety, and security-team development. Open a profile to see each instructor’s teaching areas and supporting qualifications.
Instruction focus: women’s marksmanship and safety, firearms, de-escalation, lawful use of force, officer safety, public safety, and security-team development.
Instruction focus: security-officer and firearms training, executive protection, active-threat response, force options, officer safety, public safety, and security-team development.
Instruction focus: federal security-officer and firearms training, executive protection, active-threat response, defensive tactics, force options, officer safety, public safety, and security-team development.
Unarmed and armed officer licensing, renewals, and handgun qualification.
General guard, armed classroom, marksmanship, and Dallas’s Law.
Pistol, rifle, shotgun, Personal Protection in the Home, RSO, and Women On Target.
The Executive Protection Specialist Course, a modular, stackable certificate. Coming soon.
Tactical de-escalation, lawful use of force, conflict management, and report writing.
Active shooter and active threat response, plus threat assessment and awareness.
OC pepper spray, baton, handcuffing and tactical restraints, and defensive tactics.
Safety teams from unarmed foundations to firearms qualification, with refreshers.
Carla co-founded STPA with her husband, Frank, and runs the academy’s operations, student experience, and women-only programs. Born into a military family and the daughter of two police officers, she grew up around dispatch radios and the firing line. She spent six years as a 911 dispatcher in the Atlanta metro, then nearly a decade as a Senior Test Engineer and Product Owner at Motorola Solutions, building and testing the mission-critical 911 and public-safety radio systems that keep first responders connected. She is a Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO) and Scrum Master.
That engineering discipline shows up on the training floor as clean scheduling, smooth student onboarding, and audit-ready records. A survivor and longtime victim-advocacy volunteer, she leads STPA’s women’s marksmanship and safety programs, including NRA Women On Target, with instruction that is practical, supportive, and confidence-building. She teaches de-escalation, lawful use of force, officer safety, public safety, and church and business security team training, and she supports unarmed and armed security officer instruction. Her aim is simple, to turn first-time and hesitant students into calm, capable, and confident shooters who own the fundamentals.
Frank co-founded STPA and sets the standard the academy is built on: instruction backed by documentation that holds up in an audit and in a courtroom. He began in the fire service, five years as a Training Officer, then served nine years in the United States Army as cadre and a Modern Army Combatives instructor, training soldiers in marksmanship, combatives, and multiple weapon systems.
From there he moved into federal protective work with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Federal Protective Service (FPS), and into private and contract security. He provided executive protection for United States senators, members of Congress, and senior corporate officials, responded to terrorist threats, secured sensitive and restricted sites, and managed high-risk terminations.
At STPA he owns curriculum design, live-fire qualification, and the academy’s documentation standards, and he is committed to instruction that includes students of every background, including veterans and people with disabilities. His current instructional areas include executive protection, de-escalation, lawful use of force, active shooter and active threat response, combatives, officer safety, public safety, OC pepper spray, baton, handcuffing, tactical restraints, and church and business security team training.
Jon is a retired law enforcement officer, tactical team (SWAT) instructor, and career trainer with more than two decades of tactical, street, and federal experience. He spent more than fifteen years with the Homewood Police Department, rising to Corporal in the Training and Special Operations Division, serving as a SWAT operator and instructor, and working as the department’s Senior Firearms Instructor.
He conducted criminal investigations and testified in court, including expert testimony in use-of-force cases, which is why his instruction is built around force that is effective and defensible. He is federally qualified to train Protective Security Officers (PSOs) and trains federal security officers through the Federal Protective Service (FPS) Alabama contract, conducting firearms qualifications and officer development to a national standard. At STPA, he teaches executive protection, de-escalation, lawful use of force, active shooter and active threat response, defensive tactics, combatives, officer safety, public safety, OC pepper spray, baton, handcuffing, tactical restraints, and church and business security team training. He also oversees the Defensive Tactics Training Program and owns and leads Blue Line Combatives, training civilians, churches, schools, and law enforcement.
