Charlie's Butler, PA Overlap: The National Tactical Officers Association (NTOA)

NTOA and Related Professional Networks of Six Utah Public-Safety Figures

See comments for footnotes and applicable context.

Scope and principal finding

Public records place the six individuals at different levels of the National Tactical Officers Association (NTOA) network. Jason Mudrock and Steven R. “Randy” Watt held national NTOA leadership positions; Mike Ikemiyashiro is a repeatedly documented national instructor; Lane Critser is an NTOA-published contributor; and Mike Smith and Bruce A. Champagne are documented members whose more substantial leadership occurred in local or state organizations. Utah’s tactical association—formerly UTOA and now UPTA—is a separate 501(c)(3), not an NTOA chapter or subsidiary. NTOA also prohibits concurrent service on its board and a state-association board. (1)(2)

Individuals and network intersections

Lane Critser

Critser’s direct NTOA record is narrow but verifiable: he coauthored “Do Ballistic Vests Save K9 Lives?” with Brad Smith and Lee Palmer for the Fall 2017 Tactical Edge. (3) The connection extends through K9 Tactical Operations and Consulting, whose founder Brad Smith was NTOA’s national canine chairman and with which Critser has served as an instructor. Critser’s provider biography says he spent twelve years as a leader of the 46-member Utah County Metro SWAT team, developed its selection course and policy, and instructed or judged patrol, narcotics, and SWAT-dog programs for Utah POST. (4) His commercial network includes Curtis Blue Line, where he is a tactical product specialist who advises agencies on equipment; Center Mass also lists him on its law-enforcement advisory board. (5)(6) He also participated in the Mountain States SWAT Training and Competition, whose proceeds supported the Utah 1033 Foundation for families of fallen officers. (30)

Spanish Fork emphasis: Critser’s professional geography includes the Utah County Sheriff’s Office headquarters in Spanish Fork, but no employment with Spanish Fork Police was found. A 2022 K9-trials program placed Critser on the judges roster while Spanish Fork and Pleasant Grove police K9 teams competed; this establishes event-level proximity, not a direct employment or advisory relationship with either department. (7)

Mike Ikemiyashiro

Ikemiyashiro is the clearest currently active NTOA practitioner in this group. NTOA records from 2023 through 2025 identify him as instructor for Police Counter Ambush Tactics, Advanced Response Police Officer, and Manual/Shotgun Breaching. (8)(9)(10) These assignments cover tactical medicine, vehicle and counter-ambush response, threat-survival decision-making, rescue, and forcible entry. Separately, UPTA lists him as treasurer, a former UTOA regional representative, and an NTOA instructor. His agency base is Unified Police of Greater Salt Lake. (1) No Spanish Fork, Pleasant Grove, separate business, philanthropic board, or partisan affiliation was substantiated.

Jason Mudrock

Mudrock served as NTOA Western Region director from 2017 through 2025, chaired the 2018 Tactical Response and Operations Standard committee, and taught Basic SWAT and Team Leader Development. His NTOA résumé also documents earlier UTOA executive-board and presidential service and his work coordinating NTOA’s 2015 Salt Lake conference, making him the strongest bridge between national governance, Utah association leadership, and local tactical command. (11)(12) NTOA’s October 2025 conference guide still listed him as a director; the 2026 board does not. (13)(29)

Mudrock is now a regional sales manager for law-enforcement supplier Curtis Blue Line, which was also an exhibitor at the 2025 NTOA conference while he remained a director. NTOA’s IRS-derived 2024 return reported zero NTOA compensation for him. These records establish a contemporaneous association-and-industry network, but do not themselves show that he influenced vendor selection or acted improperly. (13)(14)(15) His résumé also lists “Leading in Harm’s Way,” a course from Watt’s SRW Inc., creating a documented training link to Watt. (11) No Spanish Fork or Pleasant Grove connection or reliable party affiliation was found.

Mike Smith

Major Pleasant Grove connection. Smith’s résumé documents NTOA membership, but no NTOA board, committee, instructor, standards, or advisory position. His substantive tactical work instead came through Utah County Metro SWAT from 1998/1999 through 2017: team leader, forward-operations commander, organizer of the tactical-medic program, lead “Hell Week” instructor, and adviser to newly formed Utah teams and school active-shooter programs. (16) Those years overlapped Critser’s leadership tenure on the same multiagency team, although the sources do not establish their precise working relationship.

Smith served Pleasant Grove City’s police department from 1994 until becoming sheriff in 2018 and was its police chief from 2012. Thus, among the six, his is by far the strongest direct Pleasant Grove City connection. His résumé also locates his reserve-deputy and Metro SWAT work in Spanish Fork, where the county sheriff’s headquarters sits, but no separate Spanish Fork Police employment was found. (16) Smith subsequently served as president of the nonprofit Utah Sheriffs’ Association and is now immediate past president; he also sits as that association’s representative on the Utah Sentencing Commission. (17)(18) A&E later featured him as the sheriff in 60 Days In, connecting his office to a commercial television production centered on jail assessment. (31) His election record establishes Republican affiliation. (19)

Steven R. “Randy” Watt

Watt has the deepest historical NTOA record. NTOA identifies him as an instructor since 1995, a past Command Section leader, and author of an eight-year Tactical Edge leadership column. His court-filed CV supplies the more exact claims: section chair from 1997–2010, 2009 SWAT Standards committee chair/contributor, and recipient of the 2000 John A. Kolman Award. NTOA continued to feature him as a presenter in 2025. (20)(21)(22)

Watt founded the private training and consulting company SRW Inc./Warrior Creed. More significantly, NTOA announced a commercial member partnership in 2024 with Power of Awareness, whose leadership page identifies Watt as chief operating officer. (23)(24) His professional influence therefore extends from historic NTOA governance and publishing into a current NTOA-affiliated training product. Both Mudrock’s résumé and Champagne’s CV list SRW’s “Leading in Harm’s Way” training, connecting Watt’s business to two other people in this report. (11)(25)

Spanish Fork-area philanthropic emphasis:

Watt chaired Hand in Hand Outdoors, now associated with the American Heroes Project, which provides outdoor programs for veterans and people with disabilities and is based in Spanish Fork. Its current page calls him an honorary board member and past chairman. (26) His CV also lists Scouting executive boards, the Salvation Army advisory board, Cottages of Hope, a juvenile-justice center, and child-abuse-prevention organizations. (22) This is a Spanish Fork nonprofit connection, not evidence of a Spanish Fork Police Department role. No reliable partisan affiliation was found.

Bruce A. Champagne — Pleasant Grove training connection

Champagne’s CV reports NTOA membership since 2008, NTOA tactical courses, a 2011 NTOA conference scholarship, and 2017 NTOA training, but no national NTOA office or instructor appointment was located. His leadership instead spans UTOA, UPOA, the Utah Gang Investigators Association, Utah Forensic Divers Association, and Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 4. (25) An official UPOA publication independently identifies him as president-elect in 2020. (27)

Champagne’s off-duty business, Quadrant Operations, markets expert-witness, use-of-force, human-factors, investigative, and tactical-training services. (28) His CV identifies instruction at Krav Maga Utah in Pleasant Grove, giving him a direct professional/off-duty Pleasant Grove City connection, though not employment by the city or police department. (25) No reliable partisan affiliation was found.

Assessment

The network’s central nodes are professional rather than partisan: NTOA governance and curriculum (Mudrock and Watt), national instruction (Ikemiyashiro), K9 publishing and equipment/training commerce (Critser), Utah County tactical leadership (Smith and Critser), and state-association or consulting activity (Champagne). The clearest Pleasant Grove links are Smith’s city-police career and Champagne’s private training. Spanish Fork connections are institutional or nonprofit—Smith and Critser through county operations and Watt through American Heroes Project—not documented Spanish Fork Police employment.