Chris Lawton has over 40 years experience in Policing, United Nations security work and the security industry both in New Zealand and internationally. His Police experience includes passing selection for Armed Offenders Squad in Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city and was also for many years, a firearms trainer as well as Officer in charge of the Auckland firearms training section, responsible for selection and training other trainers in Police weapons and tactics for dealing with armed offenders.

His work in the United Nations brought him close to the terrorists operating in East Timor. A story itself, with Chris protecting vulnerable people from marauding offenders carrying machetes and guns, responding to attacks on bloody attacks on women, children and elderly. In one event he has to take control and physically disarm an armed offender intent on taking local people – likely to their death.

Chris’ private security work in the international environment included protecting high-risk people, high net worth individuals, and their families while operating in crowded places such as Olympic games and international events such as the Río de Janeiro carnival in Brazil. While investigating the Marriott Hotel bombing in Jakarta, Indonesia Chris established a course for hotels at risk of bomb attacks and utilised experienced trainers from New Zealand Police and military.

With his fairly unique experience in this field he currently coordinates the NZQA New Zealand Diploma in Security, which in includes a unit standard on terrorism.

Chris also runs courses for consultants wishing to become security auditors for protecting crowded place from attack and is runs the Security Institute of New Zealand and is one of the owner and director in New Zealand’s leading security training company,. C4 Group Ltd.