Draft:Chuck Wexler

• Comment: Citations written by Wexler cannot be used to support information about Wexler as they have done here. Another issue is using citations about subjects related to Wexler's work to write about Wexler. That cannot be done. For example, for the New York Times piece "Nice City's Nasty Distinction: Murders Soar in Minneapolis", Wexler is not mentioned at all. However, you've written is as "". This is but one example. The whole article as written needs to be scrapped and re-done. Bobby Cohn 🍁 (talk) 19:28, 14 November 2025 (UTC)

---

Chuck Wexler (born October 25, 1950) is a non-profit executive and expert on U.S. policing. Since 1993, he has served as Executive Director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a Washington, D.C.-based research organization.

Early life and education

Wexler was born and raised in Boston and graduated from Newton South High School. He received his bachelor's degree in 1972 from Boston University. Wexler has a master's degree in criminology from Florida State University (1975) and a PhD in urban studies and planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1984).

Career

In 1975, while studying at MIT, Wexler worked as an intern for the Boston Police Department, where he worked alongside William Bratton, a Boston Police sergeant at the time who went on to lead the police departments in Boston, New York City and Los Angeles. Later, as Operations Assistant to the Boston Police Commissioner, Wexler led the police department's Community Disorders Unit, which focused on prosecuting and preventing racially motivated crime.

On July 25, 1979, Wexler was on the scene when Police Superintendent Edward F. Connolly, the No. 3 official in the department, was shot in the chest while negotiating a hostage situation. Wexler, Patrolman Frank Delaney and others helped to get Connelly to safety and receive life-saving medical attention.

Wexler served as Director of the Professional Services Division of the International Association of Chiefs of Police from 1986-1989. In 1989, he was hired as a special assistant to William Bennett, the first director of the newly created Office of National Drug Control Policy under the administration of President George H. W. Bush.

In 1993, Wexler became Executive Director of the Police Executive Research Forum. Wexler's approach to police research is largely grounded in the real-life experiences of police departments and their leaders. Working with the U.S. Department of Justice, Wexler led the development of recommended policies and practices on police use of TASERS, body-worn cameras and vehicle pursuits.

At PERF, Wexler has focused on ways to minimize police use of force through de-escalation and related tactics. Wexler oversaw the creation of ICAT: Integrating Communications, Assessment, and Tactics, a use-of-force training curriculum used by police agencies across the United States.

In 2007, Wexler moderated the "Policing the Future" conference in Northern Ireland, which brought together various factions that contributed to the 1999 Patten Report to examine the newly created Police Service of Northern Ireland and its implementation of the Patten Report's recommendations.

In 2010, Wexler chaired the Cambridge Review Committee, the panel created to identify lessons learned from the 2009 arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

In 2013, Wexler facilitated a series of meetings among top officials of the Israel Police and the Palestinian Civil Police Force, designed to strengthen the rule of law and enhance cooperation among police agencies.

In 2011, various groups accused Wexler of attempting to develop a coordinated strategy for the police response to the Occupy protests in U.S cities. Wexler said he hosted two conference calls of police chiefs to share information about common concerns, such as traffic control, sanitation and safely facilitating protests.

Awards

In 2006, Wexler was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for his work with British and American police agencies. In 2016, he was selected by Politico as one of the "Politico 50," an annual list of "thinkers, doers and dreamers" who are changing America.