Gregory Mark Vecchi – A Former FBI Special Agent Expanding His Career Horizons to Law Enforcement

Threat assessment, which includes both assessment and intervention, is intended to prevent violence. It entails identifying the factors or people who pose a threat. These threats can be an intent to cause physical or sexual harm to another person and such expressions can be witnessed verbally, in writing, or through gestures. Threats can be made to the victim or others directly or indirectly, and they can be explicit or implied, occasionally, but rarely, involving guns or explosive devices.

In order to spread awareness in people of such terrifying acts, many law firms, NGOs, political figures, and organizations have started awareness programs. Similarly, Gregory Mark Vecchi has founded Vecchi Group International LLC, a firm providing education on preventive measures against alarming conditions. 

Born on February 4, 1964, Gregory Mark Vecchi is a writer, professor, consultant, and trainer from the United States. He is the principal of Vecchi Group International LLC, where he provides threat assessment, crisis negotiation, behavioral analysis, martial arts/defensive tactics, and firearms/gunfighting consultation and training. He is also a court-certified expert in violence, law enforcement policy and procedures, interviewing and interrogation techniques, and confirmation bias. Vecchi is a retired supervisory special agent and Chief of the FBI Behavioral Science Unit (BSU) and a career crisis negotiator with over 30 years of law enforcement experience. He investigated Russian organized crime, international drug trafficking, international and domestic terrorism, and violent crimes during his career.

In Des Moines, Iowa, Vecchi attended Windsor Elementary School and St. Theresa of the Child Jesus Catholic School before graduating from Dowling Catholic High School, in 1982. He graduated from Des Moines Area Community College in Ankeny, Iowa, with an Associate of Applied Science Degree in Automotive Technology in 1984. While on active duty in the United States Army, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Management/Human Resources from Park University in Parkville, Missouri, in 1991. He later earned his Master of Science Degree in Criminal Justice from the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in 1999, and his Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Conflict Analysis and Resolution from Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in 2006, all while working full-time as an FBI special agent.

Vecchi joined the United States Army in December 1985 and was honorably discharged in April 1992. He worked as a Staff Sergeant/E-6 and special agent with the United States Army Criminal Investigation Division (CID) in Fort Bliss, Texas, investigating murders, suicides, rapes, robberies, and burglaries, as well as conducting dozens of crime prevention surveys. He also worked undercover and supervised Military Police Investigators as the Noncommissioned Officer-In-Charge (NCOIC) of a CID Drug Suppression Team.

Given his continuous enthusiasm for public service, Vecchi continued his career by serving as a special agent with the U.S. Department of Agriculture-Office of Inspector General (USDA-OIG) from 1992 to 1993 in Atlanta, Georgia. He investigated violations of federal law relating to food stamp trafficking, specializing in undercover operations targeting businesses that trafficked in food stamps and individuals who used food stamps to traffic in illicit drugs. He later worked as a special agent for the U.S. Department of Justice-Office of the Inspector General (USDOJ-OIG) McAllen, Texas, from 1993 to 1996 where he focused on drug trafficking, bribery, immigration document vending, and smuggling investigations involving corrupt U.S. Immigration employees and Border Patrol agents.

Vecchi joined the FBI as a special agent in September 1996 and left in February 2014. He worked as a special agent in Miami, Florida, and Rapid City, South Dakota (March 1997 – September 2003; October 2011 – February 2014), as well as a supervisory special agent in the Rapid Deployment Unit (September 2003 – December 2004), Crisis Negotiation Unit (December 2004 – January 2006), and Behavioral Science Unit (January 2006 – August 2008).

While serving as the Chief of FBI Behavioral Science Unit, Vecchi developed and implemented the FBI National Behavioral Science Research Certificate Program, which was accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). This program established rigorous, reliable, and valid research design protocols and methodologies that meet industry standards of research in the behavioral sciences. He used the program as the basis for developing advanced behavioral techniques to determine the cause and manner of death in homicide and suicide investigations, as well as analyzing violent crime scenes and victimology to determine the perpetrator’s intent and identity.

Vecchi’s life-long journey of hard work and effort has made him win several awards. Not only that but he also became fond of carrying out in-depth research in the later phase of his life and published a vast range of books ranging from Active listening: The key to effective crisis negotiation to Fatal grievances: Forecasting and preventing active killer threats in school, campus, and workplace settings, Crisis negotiation in the law enforcement context and many more.

In continuation of his law enforcement service, Vecchi works as a Reserve Deputy Sheriff with the Clinton County Sheriff’s Office in Missouri, where he teaches de-escalation, defensive tactics, and firearms. As their crisis negotiator, he also responds to barricaded crises incidents.