Current role: Police chief
Founder and lead instructor: Agile Training & Consulting
Primary specialties: Reasonable use of force, defensive tactics, OC spray and intermediate-force options, firearms, weapon retention, active-killer response, instructor development, and police training systems
Professional Biography
Chuck Haggard is a current police chief, veteran law-enforcement leader, instructor, and founder of Agile Training & Consulting. His current chief position was confirmed directly by Haggard to Primary & Secondary in 2026; the agency is intentionally not identified here.
Before his current executive role, Haggard served more than 28 years with the Topeka Police Department, retiring as a lieutenant. His assignments included Field Training Officer, field-training supervisor, rangemaster and armorer, Response Team or SWAT squad leader and team leader, watch commander, and other patrol, training, supervisory, and leadership responsibilities. He also served in the Kansas Army National Guard from 1985 through 1998.
Haggard has remained active in law enforcement and professional education while teaching police officers, military personnel, security professionals, instructors, and private citizens. His career joins command responsibility with extensive experience in firearms, defensive tactics, policy, training design, and the practical application of reasonable force.
Agile Training & Consulting
Through Agile Training & Consulting, Haggard provides training and consultation tailored to the needs and circumstances of the client. That emphasis is central to his approach: a person’s physical ability, occupation, family situation, environment, legal authority, available equipment, and likely problems all affect which defensive options are realistic.
His instruction has included pistol, rifle, carbine, shotgun, low-light work, OC spray, baton, electronic-control weapons, weapon retention, disarming, empty-hand skills, handcuffing, ground control, active-killer response, and reasonable use of force. Agile has also offered policy and program development, security assessment, armorer services, use-of-force analysis, and expert consultation.
Haggard has worked as a National Law Enforcement Training Center national trainer and in instructional roles associated with Strategos International, Survival Operations Systems, and Hardwire Tactical. His continuing education has included Rangemaster, Defensive Shooting Academy of Tulsa, HK law-enforcement training, Lethal Force Institute, SureFire Institute, Safariland Training Group, Glock, PPCT, Taser, IALEFI, and other professional programs.
Intermediate Force and “Between a Harsh Word and a Gun”
Haggard is especially associated with expanding serious defensive discussion beyond a false choice between verbal resistance and deadly force. His work commonly known as “Between a Harsh Word and a Gun” helped place OC spray and other intermediate-force options into the training conversation for armed citizens, instructors, and security-minded professionals.
The point is broader than any single tool. A firearm is appropriate only for a narrow range of grave threats. Many dangerous or escalating encounters do not yet justify deadly force, while empty-hand engagement may expose the defender to unnecessary risk. Suitable intermediate options can give a trained person more ways to respond proportionately and disengage.
Haggard’s treatment of OC spray emphasizes selection, carry, access, deployment, environmental considerations, verbal communication, movement, aftermath, and the limits of the tool. Possessing another option is useful only when the person understands when it is appropriate and has practiced integrating it into decision-making.
Use of Force and Defensive Tactics
Haggard’s law-enforcement instruction addresses reasonable force as a decision problem rather than a collection of disconnected techniques. The officer or defender must perceive what is occurring, recognize lawful options, select a proportionate response, communicate when circumstances permit, and adjust as the subject’s behavior changes.
His defensive-tactics background includes suspect-control methods, weapon retention, disarming, ground defense, baton systems, handcuffing, and less-lethal tools. This broad base supports an important principle: firearms competence cannot compensate for the absence of movement, communication, physical control, intermediate options, or sound judgment.
Haggard has also taught the practical implications of major use-of-force decisions and has been admitted as an expert witness in state and federal courts on subjects including firearms, firearms training, reasonable force, police policy and training, and SWAT operations.
SWAT and Active-Killer Response
Haggard spent approximately 18 years associated with his agency’s SWAT or Response Team, including leadership assignments. He has taught workshops, classroom programs, live-fire training, and practical exercises for tactical teams and other professional personnel.
His work on active-killer response is informed by direct law-enforcement response experience as well as historical study. He has advocated rapid first-responder intervention when an attacker is actively harming people, while emphasizing that effective action depends on preparation, individual competence, communication, and an understanding of the problem rather than a slogan.
Professional Significance
Haggard is best understood as a law-enforcement leader and instructor who treats personal defense and police force as systems of options. Firearms, intermediate weapons, empty-hand skills, movement, communication, policy, and judgment must work together. More capability should produce more appropriate choices, not a reflexive preference for greater force.
His current role as a police chief adds contemporary command-level responsibility to a career already spanning patrol, tactical operations, training, supervision, private instruction, and expert consultation.
Connection to Primary & Secondary
Chuck Haggard is a longstanding contributor to the Primary & Secondary community. His participation has shaped discussions of OC spray, pocket pistols, shotguns, low light, reasonable use of force, active-killer response, police training, and defensive decision-making. His work reinforces a central P&S principle: context determines whether a technique, tool, or response is appropriate.
Selected Sources and Further Reading
- Agile Training & Consulting — About Chuck Haggard
- Agile Training & Consulting — Training programs
- Agile Training & Consulting — Articles and professional references
Profile last reviewed: September 10, 2026. Current service as a police chief was confirmed directly to Primary & Secondary by Chuck Haggard.
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- Chuck Haggard: current police chief, retired Topeka police lieutenant, instructor, and use-of-force consultant
- Agile Training & Consulting: founder and lead instructor
- Law-enforcement experience: field training, firearms, armorer work, SWAT leadership, watch command, policy, and executive leadership
- Intermediate force: OC spray, baton, electronic-control weapons, and “Between a Harsh Word and a Gun”
- Firearms: handgun, rifle, carbine, shotgun, low-light training, and pocket pistols
- Defensive tactics: weapon retention, disarming, ground defense, control tactics, and handcuffing
- Additional associations: NLETC, Strategos International, Kansas Army National Guard, and Primary & Secondary