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Washington D.C.
Tuesday, October 15, 2024

Christopher W. Hinkle

Christopher W. Hinkle is a retired Supervisory Special Agent (SSA) with over 20 years service with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He is also a 13-year veteran of the United States Air Force spending his last five years as a Special Agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) with tours in South Dakota and Mississippi. While with the AFOSI, he was in the first generation of Computer Field Forensic Examiners (CFFE) which trained field agents to collect, preserve, and analyze computer-based evidence. He conducted investigations in support of the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) inspections between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union, computer crimes, suspicious deaths, violent crimes, counterintelligence, and counterterrorism. He was recruited by the FBI in 1998 and upon completion of the FBI Academy, was assigned to the Washington Field Office (DC) National Computer Crimes Squad. He is considered a pioneer in the area of Cyber Online Undercover Operations and was highly sought by other FBI field offices seeking to mirror his success at developing online undercover networks. On September 11, 2001, he was among those who responded to the terrorist attacks on the Pentagon conducting interviews, interrogations, and evidence collection on persons of interest. He was also assigned to the investigation of the Washington D.C. Sniper in 2002 conducting surveillance, interviews, and evidence collection. In 2003, he was promoted to Supervisory Special Agent (SSA) in the FBI’s Cyber Division in the Cyber Operations Deployment Unit (CODU). SSA Hinkle lead a team of fellow agents, computer scientists, and contractors around the U.S. and overseas to provide investigative assistance by collecting, processing, and analyzing large volumes of data in record time. His team was able to reconcile investigations in days which would have traditionally taken months. In 2006, he was promoted as an SSA Field Supervisor in the FBI Jackson Division (Mississippi) where he was responsible for managing the Civil Rights, Violent Crimes, Drugs, Cyber Crimes, and Computer Crime Programs. He also supervised the Violent Crimes and Cyber Crimes Task Forces consisting of partnerships between the FBI, other federal, state, and local law enforcement. As the Civil Rights supervisor, he managed the re-opening of the Mississippi Burning Investigation and subsequent arrest and conviction of Ku Klux Klansman James Ford Seale in the 1964 deaths of three civil rights workers in Mississippi. His Civil Rights supervision included investigations of Color of Law violations of federal, state, and law enforcement officers accused of misusing their position to deprive individuals of the Constitutional rights. A noted example included investigation of the former Mayor of Jackson, Mississippi accused of unsubstantiated harassment of private citizens and local business owners. A second was the investigation and subsequent conviction of two state law enforcement officers accused targeting and battery of a same sex couple. During his tenure, the FBI Jackson Division Civil Rights Program was rated the highest among other office’s programs. SSA Hinkle became a certified Hostage Negotiator, Undercover Coordinator, Human Intelligence expert, certified Counterintelligence Investigator, and designated Subject Matter Expert (SME) on Integrated Program Management (IPM) which measured the effectiveness of the FBI’s Investigative and Administrative Programs. He was deployed for four months to Baghdad, Iraq and embedded with the U.S. military based on is interview and interrogation skills where he conducted interrogations of battlefield combatants. He completed his FBI career in the Jackson, Mississippi FBI field office as one of 80 selected Private Sector Coordinators coordinating and maintaining relationships with Fortune 500 companies, local agencies, and private business owners to share pertinent cleared intelligence to enhance the public-private partnership and the FBI’s national security objectives. He is currently President of JJN & Associates LLC, which is an investigative services firm providing consulting, investigative, and training assistance to law firms, private companies, and individuals. His business also provides state-certified law enforcement training to state and local law enforcement as part of their continuing education. He is a graduate of the University of Southern Mississippi with a B.S. in Education and Psychology, the John E. Reid and Associates Advanced Course on Interviewing and Interrogation, the Kellogg School of Management on Navigating Strategic Change, to include other certifications.
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