President, Workplace Violence Mitigation Institute
Dan Skoczylas is a founding member of CLS Background Investigations. He also spearheads the Active Shooter Response Training for Hawkeye Active Shooter Response. Dan is a recognized authority in the background investigations, security and active shooter response training arenas and a certified Workplace Violence Prevention Specialist. Dan is the founder of the Workplace Violence Mitigation (WVM) brand and concept and the Workplace Violence Mitigation Institute. Dan is the author of “If You’re Looking for a Victim…KEEP LOOKING”, A Civilian’s Response to an Active Shooter.
Dan began his career in law enforcement as a patrolman with the Hickory Hills Police Department (a suburb of Chicago) in 1989. He spent a number of years serving in a patrol function before taking on the assignment of developing the agency’s first Gang/ Narcotics Unit. After overseeing this project for a couple of years Dan was assigned to the United States Customs Task Force where he served from 1997-1999, working international narcotics smuggling and money laundering cases in a federal jurisdiction. Dan returned to the Hickory Hills Police Department as a Detective until being promoted to Sergeant in 2001 and then to Lieutenant in 2007. He retired from the Hickory Hills Police Department in 2014.
During his time in law enforcement and engaging with victims of many different types of criminal offenses, Dan recognized a huge disconnect between the justice system and the community it was supposed to serve. Victims became victims, in many cases, because they ignored warning signs and talked themselves out of common-sense indicators that bad things lay ahead on the current path. Many of these events took place in the workplace and had devastating long term effects on companies and the people who worked there; to include going out of business and in some unfortunate cases loss of life.
