Christopher James Wren, known by all as “CJ”, retired from the Phoenix Police Department in December of 2024, after spending 27 years as a Sworn LE Detective. He is now taking his expansive and diverse skill set, based formatively in Intelligence, Terrorism, Leadership, Threat Assessment & Threat Mitigation into the private sector as a consultant, contractor and public speaker.

C.J. was a member of the Phoenix Police Department since 1998. In February 2003, he was selected out of 30 other applicants, by former Phoenix Police Chief Harold Hurtt, to a team of three members of the Phoenix PD, with the mission to build the Unified Command Homeland Defense Bureau. This was the first new bureau created in the Phoenix PD in over 23 years, and was the first major city to combine LE, Fire, Public Health & Emergency Management into one cohesive unit. A career highlight occurred in 2004, as he was chosen as one of 17 Phoenix officers who were deputized as United States Marshals, for the purpose of becoming a Law Enforcement Rapid Response Team partnered with National FEMA Disaster Task Force Teams that can assist and carry out Law Enforcement functions anywhere in the country where a manmade or natural disaster had occurred.

CJ has attended dozens of courses in the counter terrorism field, ranging from the FBI’s Post Blast Academy to a hands-on training on Chemical Weapons Response sponsored by the Department of Homeland Security. Due to CJ’s extensive background and training, he was assigned as a representative of the Phoenix Police Department to the Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center. In this position he created a Threat Assessment Matrix for dealing with and mitigating personal threats to employees (specifically & notably Police & Fire employees.) This matrix was adopted for use by several agencies throughout the State of Arizona, and across the US and is still in use to this day.

In 2013, Det. Wren created and developed Arizona’s Statewide Threat Assessment & Mitigation Program (S.T.A.M.P.), that allowed Law Enforcement and other statewide Threat Investigators to assess, share and manage threats made in Arizona, allowing them to work together to mitigate these cases utilizing one system! In 2019 the Department of Public Safety and Phoenix Police Department formally recognized the program and designated CJ as the first Program Manager of S.T.A.M.P.

Detective Wren has been a member of the Association of Threat Assessment Professionals (ATAP) for 23 years, serving as the AZ Chapter President from 2014-2018, the Desert Southwest Chapter President from 2023-2024 and the National Conference Committee Chair of Law Enforcement Scholarships since 2016.

It was due to this extensive experience in behavioral threat management, that in March of 2022, CJ was invited and accepted a position as a Senior Consultant with SIGMA, a RAPTOR Company, one of the premier threat assessment & mitigation companies in the United States. For SIGMA, CJ has trained thousands of adult learners both virtually and in-person across the United States.

Detective Wren is an experienced speaker and has conducted threat and counter-terrorism presentations to hundreds of groups and companies over 2 decades in Law Enforcement. CJ has an extraordinary ability to create cohesion and partnerships with any person or group that he encounters. Consequently, in March 2006, he was assigned to create and manage the public outreach section from the Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center, as the Public Sector Liaison. Det. Wren served in this capacity until 2010, where he received a Commendation from the US Department of Homeland Security, calling the program “A model for the rest of the Country to follow.”

Detective Wren has worked on a variety of other assignments including Patrol, Neighborhood Enforcement Teams, Precinct Criminal Abatement Detective, and in an undercover capacity with the Vice Squad. In 2000, he created and managed a program called the On Site Prostitution and Identification System (O.S.P.I.S.) which was used for a period of time throughout several major cities across the US, tracking the false identifications used and travel patterns of “circuit prostitutes”. This program was found to be directly responsible for the identification and rescue of several under-age females, kidnapped from their homes, and forced to work as street prostitutes.

CJ has supervisory experience in the private security field having served as a Security Supervisor for the Olympic Games in Atlanta in 1996. He also was the youngest Director of Security in Hyatt Hotels history serving from 1996 – 1998 as the Director at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Phoenix. He was responsible for designing and implementing a multi-million-dollar security upgrade to the hotel.

C.J. also served honorably for four years with the United States Marine Corps. He was with the 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Marine Division out of Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. While in the Marines, Wren served as a Vehicle Commander for a Light Armored Vehicle (LAV-25). As a lifetime highlight, Corporal Wren was awarded the Navy & Marine Corps Achievement Medal for Excellence in Leadership for his time served in the US Marines