Organization: Curtis Blue Line
Role: Regional Sales Manager
Background: Retired law-enforcement officer, SWAT operator, instructor, and public-safety equipment professional
Professional Biography
Jason Richards is a retired law-enforcement officer, former SWAT operator, instructor, and Regional Sales Manager for Curtis Blue Line, the law-enforcement division of L.N. Curtis & Sons.
Richards’ tactical background includes SWAT service with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office in Florida and North Davis SWAT in Utah. His later industry work connects firsthand operational experience with equipment support, product education, and relationships across the public-safety community.
Mountain States SWAT Training & Competition
After recognizing a shortage of demanding regional opportunities for Utah tactical teams to train together, Richards helped create the Mountain States SWAT Training & Competition.
The annual multi-agency event emphasizes training over trophies. Teams apply their own tactics to live-fire exercises and scenarios using non-lethal training ammunition, then receive evaluations identifying strengths and deficiencies they can take back to their agencies.
Scenarios test communication, command and control, movement, target discrimination, teamwork, weapons handling, decision-making, and adaptability in environments relevant to tactical operations. The format does not require every team to adopt one doctrine; it asks whether each team’s existing system works when exposed to pressure and realistic problems.
Interagency and Community Value
Bringing teams together allows agencies to compare approaches that might otherwise remain inside organizational silos. Observing how another capable team solves a problem can expose assumptions and create useful questions for future training.
The event also supports families of fallen Utah law-enforcement officers through proceeds benefiting the Utah 1033 Foundation. This connects performance improvement with service to the broader police community.
Professional Significance
Richards’ career links operational law enforcement, tactical training, public-safety equipment, and regional professional relationships. Within the Extended P&S Network, his principal contribution is creating systems that help teams discover weaknesses safely and return home with specific training priorities.