CHIEF TALK: Episode #15
Walter Pullen - NJOHSP Chief of Detectives
Walter Pullen serves as the Chief of Detectives for the New Jersey Office of Homeland Security and Preparedness (NJOHSP) at its Hamilton headquarters. He has held the position since 2014. He began his career in 1998 as a detective with the state’s Attorneys General office, Division of Criminal Justice, assigned to the Prosecutor’s and Police section. He also was a member of the AG’s Shooting Response Team.
Pullen joined NJOHSP as a counterterrorism investigator following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks where he conducted investigations into suspicious activity related to terrorist activity and developed confidential human sources. In 2005, he was promoted to lieutenant overseeing the investigative squad and the CTWATCH at the Regional Operations and Intelligence Center. Two years later, he was transferred to the FBI’s Newark Division Joint Terrorism Task Force where he was assigned to the Threat Mitigation Squad as a threat coordinator.
As NJOHSP Chief of Detectives, Pullen oversees and administers all matters related to New Jersey threat mitigation efforts, including investigations, counter-intelligence operations and mass gathering security efforts.
Pullen is a New Jersey Police Training Commission certified instructor in terrorism, asset forfeiture and financial crimes, and physical training. He has lectured at numerous police academies and training seminars and holds training certificates in a variety of disciplines, including Homicide Investigator, Internal Affairs and Analysis, and serves as a State Certified Master Resilience Trainer.
Pullen is Vice President of the County Chiefs of Detectives Association and a member the New Jersey State Association of Chief of Police, The International Association of Chiefs of Police, The Attorney General’s Human Trafficking Task Force, the Attorneys General Diversity Council, and the Attorney General’s Legislative Committee. He is an Executive Board member of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, Newark and Philadelphia, and an Executive Board member of the newly created Statewide Behavioral Threat Assessment Management Team.
Pullen earned a Master of Business Administration Management degree from the University of Denver’s Graduate School of Business and Public Management, Denver, Colorado, and a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration and Economics from the University of Denver.
Pullen volunteers at local soup kitchens and coaches recreational youth soccer, basketball and lacrosse.
