Robert Wasserman is one of the most trusted and experienced senior experts in policing in the world today. Over more than five decades, Robert has been a strong advocate of Constitutional policing and has worked with many police agencies to address issues that impact the legitimacy of police in the eyes of the community. Robert currently serves as a Fellow at the Policing Project at the New York University Law School, and through this relationship, Robert and our team are providing design leadership for the Chicago Police Department. In addition, through the Newark (New Jersey) Police Department Federal Monitor Program, he continues to provide oversight of the Newark consent decree.
Before joining Jensen Hughes, Robert founded the Strategic Policy Partnership, LLC, a group that assisted police and government agencies with policing strategy development, performance improvement, personnel selection and application of technology and policy development. Recently, he served as the Transition Coordinator for Police Commissioner William Bratton at the New York Police Department joining him as a Senior Advisor during his recent tenure and advising him on reform-related priorities impacting the NYPD.
Robert has coordinated the implementation of suspicious activity reporting (SARS) in rail systems throughout the United States for the office of the National SARS Initiative (NSI), under the direction of the departments of Justice and Homeland Security. He has been a facilitator for the Bureau of Justice Assistance Roundtables in a number of cities focused on building communities of trust and is the author of the recent monograph “Guidance for Building Relationships of Trust,” which was published by the U.S. Department of Justice. He previously worked with the Office of the Program Manager (DNI) and DHS/FEMA on refining aspects of the intelligence CONOPS for Fusion Centers.
Robert has had an extensive career in law enforcement. He has served as a senior executive in several large American police agencies, including Boston and Houston. He was the Director of Public Safety for the Massachusetts Port Authority. He served as Chief of Staff of the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy and was tasked to Bosnia following the war, as both Deputy Commissioner/Operations and Commissioner of the United Nations International Police Task Force where he oversaw the restructuring of that country’s police.
Robert completed his undergraduate study in Sociology at Antioch College in Ohio and his graduate work in Police Administration at Michigan State University.