Media Kit

OWNER INFORMATION

Our founder and owner, Jeff Felts, started CMI to solve problems related to law enforcement equipment and training. He proudly served our country as a soldier in the U.S. Army from 1984 to 1996, in both active and reserve duty capacities. At the end of his military career, he had attained the rank of Sergeant First Class (E-7), and was serving as an infantryman, as a Senior Drill Sergeant, in a reserve basic training unit. Jeff earned an associate degree in 1997 from Schoolcraft College in criminal justice, is a 1999 graduate of Northwestern University’s School of Police Staff and Command and earned a bachelor’s degree from Northwood University in business management in 2003.

In 1991, Jeff started his civilian law enforcement career and served as an officer and sergeant in the Detroit suburb of Plymouth Township. During that time, he served on a multi-jurisdictional SWAT Team in a part-time capacity, as an operator, sniper, and sniper team leader.

Jeff graduated from basic police sniper school in 1992. The instructor for this course was the legendary Marine Corps Sniper, Carlos Hathcock. Jeff found it fascinating that this humble, iconic, military hero credited information gleaned from his data book as being a big factor in his incredible success on the battlefield. A data book is a compilation of shooting information that a sniper uses to increase the odds of a first-round hit. To this day, Jeff credits Carlos Hathcock for stoking an internal fire to become more educated, more dedicated to the profession, and more confident in taking calculated risk.

Jeff was involved in two separate shootings in the early 1990’s. Those events highlighted flaws in the training and equipment that officers were receiving at the time. The results of these events were invaluable lessons being learned and an insatiable quest to improve law enforcement firearms training and equipment.

In one of these incidents, Jeff responded to a hostage rescue operation where the suspects had robbed a bank, fled, shot at pursuing cops, and then took a family hostage in their home. During this operation and many others, Jeff quickly learned that the police sniper was rarely in a prone shooting position and the ability to elevate the rifle on a stable platform to observe and shoot accurately from was badly needed, but no commercial tripod mounted product existed at that time. The result of this need was the 1995 creation of the Sharpshooters® Rifle Rest, CMI’s first product. We were amongst the very first commercial rifle rest manufacturers to the market as is evident from this October 1999, Tactical Shooter Magazine article. Today, everyone under the sun in the tactical shooting sports or the sniping profession runs some sort of rifle rest that mounts to a tripod. CMI is very proud to have played a role in starting that trend.

In 1996, Jeff started Center Mass® to create equipment and training that would forever improve the police profession. Today, the Center Mass® brand is known by law enforcement officers nationwide. CMI-created equipment and training has been used with great success by our nation’s most elite military units, federal, state, county, and municipal law enforcement agencies.

CMI’s success has not been without bumps in the road. As a cop who did not possess any business experience or education, Jeff found his fledgling company was quickly failing. The problem was cash flow and Jeff found a way in 1997 to correct that by becoming the first dealer of the SWAT Operator® Insignia. Jeff put the insignia on a new platform called the “internet” and CMI’s cash flow problems were solved virtually overnight. CMI has since bought all rights to this insignia and designed many other insignias that are currently worn by law enforcement officers worldwide. Eventually the Sharpshooters® Rifle Rests were sold into the military and CMI was off to the races.

CMI expanded in 1998 by starting Center Mass® Training Institute (CMTI) for law enforcement clients. Our first course offerings were a patrol rifle® instructor school, an active shooter response school that we believe may have been the first in the nation, and a basic police sniper school.

In 1999, Jeff was attending Northwestern University’s School of Police Staff & Command. CMTI featured an active shooter response class that was, for the time, extremely cutting edge. During Staff & Command School, the Columbine Massacre occurred, and debate raged amongst fifty of Metro Detroit’s highest-ranking police officials. Throughout this debate, Jeff advocated a new approach that required a more aggressive response by rifle-armed patrol officers to interdict and stop these mass killings faster. Jeff’s concept was sternly rejected by nearly all his classmates, but he held his ground. A year later, CMTI’s model for active shooter response became the accepted model and standard used by many police agencies throughout the State of Michigan and beyond. CMTI is proud to have been one of the leaders who helped change the paradigm of how law enforcement responds to active shooters.

In 2000, Jeff created what is now known as the National Patrol Rifle® Championships (NPRC) as a means for individual law enforcement officers and their organizations to test their readiness for active shooter and other types of violent incidents. The event quickly expanded from a local/regional event into one that is now attended by first responders throughout the country.

In 2002, CMI instructors wrote a white paper on patrol rifle® training, policy, and equipment for the law enforcement profession. The work was donated to the National Tactical Officers Association who sold copies of it for years to assist police agencies across the nation who were then standing up this new rifle concept (replacing the shotgun with the rifle). Today, nearly every law enforcement agency in the nation conducts active assailant training and deploys patrol rifles and we are happy to have played a part in that progression. Also, in 2002, Jeff began helping solicit police sniper utilization surveys to assist the fledgling American Sniper Association in gathering data about real police sniper shootings. This work resulted in the 2005 release of the compiled report and helped debunk assumptions while giving police snipers and their agencies information that could be used to justify training, equipment, and policy.

While working the street, teaching patrol rifle schools, and at the NPRC, Jeff noticed throughout the early 2000s that many patrol officers either did not carry a second patrol rifle® magazine or did so in a haphazard manner. In 2007, Jeff began development of the Patrol Rifle® Integrated Magazine Pouch. The product was a finalist for the most innovative product award at its launch during the 2009 Shot Show. Today patrol officers throughout the nation use the patented Patrol Rifle® Integrated Magazine Pouch in conjunction with their pistol magazine pouches, tourniquets or electronic control devices. In addition, in 2023, CMI launched a MOLLE-compatible version of the Patrol Rifle® Integrated Magazine Pouch for use on external body armor.

In 2008, Jeff settled a whistleblower lawsuit and resigned in good standing from his police agency. Center Mass® subsequently experienced explosive growth in 2009 and 2010. In December 2010, CMI purchased its first commercial property with the intent of eventually expanding into the civilian firearms market

In 2011, Jeff returned to the police profession to finish the final three years that he needed to secure his pension. He proudly served as a police officer for the City of Wayne (Detroit suburb) and honorably retired on October 24, 2014.

In June of 2012, the renovations of the property CMI bought in December 2010 were completed and the business transitioned into the 9,000-sqare foot facility. This change allowed Center Mass® to begin sharing its collective knowledge on shooting, safety, and the use of deadly force with the citizens of Metro-Detroit.

In 2013, Jeff embarked on a project that he has wanted to accomplish for the public safety profession since 1999 and began designing a risk management software, Force LMS, that would save public safety organizations time and enormous amounts of money by giving them the detailed information that they need to improve officer performance, save lives, and obliterate many training-related lawsuits. He combined his unique experiences as an officer, entrepreneur, whistleblower, and as a trainer in the military and law enforcement with extensive research to develop the most comprehensive training documentation and liability management software on the market. The product launched in January 2015 and in June 2017, Jeff sold his rights to the developer.

As an extension of the NPRC, in 2018 Jeff created and instituted a Patrol Rifle® Engagement Survey to begin the process of gathering data on real officer involved patrol rifle® shootings. We believe that the cumulative data that is derived from these individual surveys will yield facts where assumption currently exists. This information will prove invaluable as it relates to the justification of certain types of patrol rifle® training, equipment, and policy. It could also be beneficial to an organization’s defense in the aftermath of a patrol rifle® OIS.

In 2019, CMI’s manufacturing arm developed additional insignia to help build esprit de corps between all the stake holders that impact the outcome of life or death to the victims of crime, terrorism, and mother nature herself. From patrol officers who risk their lives, to the fire and medical personnel making entry to do medicine in dangerous places, to the definitive care professionals, our mission is the same; to save lives. One team, one mission, one unifying symbol. Rescue Task Force and SWAT Medic.

In 2024, CMI’s manufacturing arm developed the Patrol Rifle® Holster. The device allows the user of a patrol rifle® to holster the weapon and go hands free, similar to the way officers can holster their handguns.