Thomas Longa is a Senior Instructor at Tomahawk Strategic Solutions for close quarters training classes, leveraging his tenure as a distinguished member of one of the United States' most prolific police tactical units: the New York City Police Department’s Emergency Services Unit (ESU). With a career spanning decades, Mr. Longa has trained over 700 members of the NYPD Critical Response Command and Strategic Response Group.
Mr. Longa joined the NYPD in 1997 and was promoted to the prestigious ESU in 2001. In 2006, he joined the Apprehension Tactical Team (A-Team), the full-time SWAT arm of the Emergency Services Unit. He eventually served as the Senior Team Member, overseeing daily direct-action tactical missions and contributing significantly to ESU training. Over his career, Mr. Longa has been part of 6,300 real-world engagements, including high-risk scenarios like apprehending heavily armed suspects and resolving emotionally charged situations. He is also a nationally recognized subject-matter expert in how to implement manual and hydraulic breaching in SWAT operations.
Mr. Longa has shared his tactical instruction expertise throughout other NYPD departments as well.In 2014, he was selected to join the NYPD Police Commissioner’s Re-Engineering group, a prestigious internal think tank dedicated to refining training methodologies and operational protocols. He co-authored the Collaborative Response Team's tactical training doctrine in 2015, a cornerstone of the NYPD's approach to addressing active shooter incidents. Mr. Longa lives in New York, New York with his wife.