Evening Speaker Series: Patrick Skinner

Patrick Skinner, Savannah Police Officer, former Director of the Soufan Group and CIA Operations Office

Topic: The Spy who came home

Our speaker will share his career journey from the CG Search and Rescue team to a CIA Operative to private sector intelligence analysis, to his current role as a beat cop with the Savannah Police Department. He will discuss the militarization of Police; the focus of everything being treated as a ‘war’ and what real community police work entails both from a tactical and strategic approach.

Biography

Patrick Skinner is a beat cop in his hometown of Savannah, GA.  From 2011 to 2017, prior to joining his local police force as a then-46-year-old rookie, he was employed with the Soufan Group, a well-respected private sector intelligence analysis firm. As the Director of Special Projects, Mr. Skinner advised governments and corporations on matters of geopolitics and risk, working with senior officials to develop solutions to intelligence and conflict resolution challenges.

 In the summer of 2003, Mr. Skinner joined the CIA’s third post 9/11 class as a prospective case officer, working under diplomatic cover.  With the CIA through 2010, he served as an Operations Officer, in the agency’s Counterterrorism Center, running assets in Afghanistan, Jordan and Iraq.  

 Earlier in his career, he served as a Federal Air Marshal, a US Capitol Police officer where he was assigned to plainclothes duty in the Senate, and in the US Coast Guard; 2 years working search and rescue followed by 3 years working on an icebreaker in the Hudson River.