James D. Steffens

Law Enforcement Consultant
Steffens.james505@gmail.com
727-808-2090

History and Specialties

James Steffens began his career with the Clearwater Police Department in 1988, where he specialized as a Community Policing officer, a Burglary/Grand Theft Detective and a Robbery/Homicide detective. In 1997 he was promoted to Patrol Sergeant and oversaw the Community Policing Team. In 2000 he was selected to become the Personnel & Training Unit Supervisor, and shortly after, promoted to Lieutenant in 2001. Lieutenant Steffens took command of the Special Operations Section responsible for many high liability units including, but not limited to, The Special Weapons and Tactics Team; The Emergency Response Team and The Canine Team. He served as an operational member of SWAT from 1991-2006 and served as the Team Commander for four and a half years. In 2006 he took command of the District II/West Side of the city, and was reassigned command of the SWAT Team in August of 2008. He commanded the Beach District until his retirement on January 30, 2009 after twenty years of pensioned service at the Clearwater Police Department. Following his retirement, he went to work in the private sector developing/promoting tactical lines of equipment for law enforcement. In May 2011 he was hired as the Operations Lieutenant for the New Port Richey Police Department. In June 2011 he was asked by the Pasco County Sheriff to be the SWAT Commander for the unified Pasco and New Port Richey SWAT teams. In October 2011 he served as the Acting Police Chief and was then officially appointed Chief of Police in December 2011. In March 2013 he accepted a position with the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office as the Forensic Services Section Chief Forensic Investigator. In October 2013 he was promoted to Captain and assigned command of the Special Operations Division. He later took command of the Field Operations District I Patrol in July 2016 until March 2018. He has also served as the Acting Field Operations Bureau Major. In March 2018 he returned to the private sector providing law enforcement consulting and training.

Credentials

In 1999 he became an adjunct instructor for St. Petersburg College in conjunction with The Florida Regional Community Policing Institute (RCPI). His three main disciplines are: In Harm’s Way Law Enforcement Suicide Prevention Program, Community Policing Based Problem Solving, and Introduction to Community Policing. He also joined the college’s Multi-jurisdictional Counter Drug Task Force Training (MCTFT) group. He instructed on surveillance Operations and the Mt. Everest portable rock climbing experience. He was invited to pilot and then instruct in Central America, specifically El Salvador, teaching Community Policing principles to multiple Central American countries partnering with the US Embassy stationed in San Salvador. He traveled to the region three times to co-instruct a 40-hour course. He instructed the Pinellas County Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) School for approximately nine years. He holds numerous training certifications, citations, commendations. Additionally he is a four-time recipient of the Supervisor of the Year Award (FOP Lodge #10). He attended St. Petersburg College and St. Leo University. He is a proud 2004 graduate of Leadership Pinellas, and the 2015/2016 Southern Police Institute’s (SPI) 74th Command Officer Develop Course (CODC), where he was named Class President. He has been repeatedly invited to be a Law Enforcement and general topic motivational guest speaker. He has consulted for several articles in publications such as Law and Order, Counter Terrorism, and Tactical Response.

• home
• toolkit
• speakers
• events
• resources
• about us