DANIEL CASTRO, MBA, MA, Police Commander, Retired Philadelphia Police Department
Police Inspector Daniel Castro has 25 years of law enforcement service, having commanded, and served in various capacities within the Philadelphia Police Department – the 4th largest police department in the United States. As a Commander, he served in Research and Development (the department’s hub for policy and procedures development), Counter-Terrorism, Patrol Districts, and Special Advisor to former Police Commissioner John Timoney, Crime Scene Investigation, Forensics Division, as well as Commanding Officer of the Tactical Field Division. The latter included responsibilities for managing city-wide traffic synchronization, vehicle and pedestrian traffic management, Sports and Entertainment Complex Administration and Security, and Special Tactical Operations (SWAT activity, hostage negotiation, and other special incidents including officer involved shootings), as well as Executive Protection for Dignitaries including the President of the United States. Other experience includes significant amounts of internal and external – criminal investigations.
Inspector Castro also has extensive experience in international law enforcement – an invaluable asset in a post 9/11 climate. He is the ONLY officer in Philadelphia ever granted the distinguished Eisenhower Fellowship, through which he was assigned overseas to the police departments of Metropolitan Police (Scotland Yard), Scotland, Belfast, Dublin, Amsterdam, Paris, and Rome. Through this experience, Inspector Castro developed a significant law-enforcement leadership network and the expertise to meet the challenges for finding sound solutions to complex public and private-sector security matters – from community policing to counter-terrorism.
He holds a BA in Criminal Justice from Temple University and various management certificates from Penn State University, Northwestern University, and Oxford University. While serving full time on the Philadelphia Police Department, he earned an Executive MBA from Drexel University with an impressive 4.0 GPA which earned him the esteemed Beta Gamma Sigma Honor Society. In 2006, he was awarded his second master’s degree in Security Studies, majoring in Homeland Security from the elite United States Naval Postgraduate School, which serves the interests of the U.S. Navy and the Department of Defense.