Lexipol was founded by merging Bruce Praet’s acclaimed policy manual work with Gordon Graham’s innovative “Five Pillars of Success” approach to risk management.  Dan Merkle brings his business acumen to the team.

This confluence of real world experiences in the areas of law, public service and business gave rise to the Lexipol system of risk management tools. Today, Lexipol is comprised of an all star team of public safety veterans.  Former executives of fire and police services lead the major divisions of the company.  In fact, the majority of all Lexipol employees are former or active duty public safety members.  

EMAIL Bruce Praet

Bruce started his law enforcement career in 1973 as a police officer in Laguna Beach. In 1974, he moved to the Orange Police Department where he worked Patrol, Detectives, SWAT and K-9. After finishing law school, Bruce went to work as Assistant General Counsel to the Los Angeles Police Protective League with Mike Stone.

After L.A., Bruce became the Assistant City Attorney for the City of Orange exclusively handling police litigation. In 1987, he and his partners formed their current law firm, Ferguson, Praet & Sherman, which specializes in aggressively defending police civil matters such as shootings, dog bites and pursuits, while representing management in personnel matters.

Bruce also sits on several P.O.S.T. committees including those which created the current K-9 standards and pursuit guidelines. He also currently teaches the Executive Development Course, Internal Affairs, K-9 Liability, Officer Involved Shootings and Use of Force with P.O.S.T., Cal. State Long Beach, California Peace Officers Association and the California Department of Justice. Bruce has been a guest speaker for numerous statewide police associations, the FBI Academy, CHP Academy, and national peace officer associations.

EMAIL Gordon Graham

Gordon Graham has been actively involved in law enforcement since 1973.   He spent nearly ten years as a very active motorcycle officer while also attending Cal State Long Beach to achieve his teaching credential, USC to do his graduate work in Safety and Systems Management with an emphasis on Risk Management, and Western State University to obtain his law degree.  In 1982 he was promoted to Sergeant and also admitted to the California State Bar and immediately opened his law offices in Los Angeles. 

While serving as a field sergeant, he started to combine his legal education and experience along with his graduate education in Risk Management to develop processes designed to improve the quality of law enforcement.  His early work included developing the “Five Pillars of Success” – which today serves as the foundation of Lexipol.  Additionally, he was instrumental in developing the Drug Recognition Expert program and the “daily training bulletin” (DTB) concept.  In 1995 he promoted to Captain and retired from active duty in 2006. 

He regularly serves as an educator and trainer to public safety professionals from around the world.  He was the first recipient of the California Governor’s Award for Excellence in Law Enforcement training in 1995, and in 2005 received the “Presidential Award for Excellence” from the International Association of Fire Chiefs for his lifelong work in improving firefighter safety and performance.  He is constantly in pursuit of “the next best way” to do things.  And most importantly, he has assisted his beautiful wife in raising two great children who have given them great happiness.

Dan is a senior executive with over 30 years experience excelling at building enterprise value through alliances and strategic partnerships. He is recognized as an innovator in crafting and implementing competitive strategies through collaboration in rapidly changing environments. He has served as Chief Executive Officer of several companies both public and private.  Dan’s Board experience at startups through multinational organizations includes Ascolta Training, e-manufacturing of Toronto and Vice Chairman of REI (Recreational Equipment Inc.) a billion dollar outdoor sporting goods retailer.

Mr. Merkle currently serves as a Chairman of the San Juan Capistrano Utility Commission and is a founding Board Member of the Center for Unconventional Security Affairs at the University of California at Irvine.  Dan holds a bachelor degree in Chemistry from Chapman University and an Executive Certificate from Harvard University. He has served on advisory boards for the US Department of Energy, State of Oregon, City of Portland, City of San Juan Capistrano, Dean’s Advisory Board for the Argyros School of Business & Economics at Chapman University and as Chairman of the Forum for Corporate Directors.