Scott Pickett

Scott Pickett, CFI, is an instructor with Wicklander-Zulawski & Associates, Inc. (WZ) he earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Police Administration from Eastern Kentucky University and a master’s degree in Homeland Security and Defense from the Naval Postgraduate School.
Scott retired from the Department of Homeland Security with more than 32 years of local and Federal law enforcement experience. He started his career as a Dallas Police Officer and was a full-time SWAT
officer in the department’s Special Operations Section. During his time at the Dallas Police Department, Scott responded to and participated in approximately 100 homicide and death investigations obtaining confessions and witness statements.
Scott then accepted a special agent position with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). He was assigned to an organized and violent crimes group focusing on Jamaican Posse members, outlaw motorcycle gangs, and violent Colombian narcotics traffickers. As a special agent and supervisor at several ATF field offices and Headquarters, Scott conducted many complex investigations, interviews, and interrogations which resulted in the task force clearing 12 homicides in the United States and Jamaica. His experience investigating Colombian drug traffickers resulted in witness statements being obtained leading to the clearance of three homicides. As the supervisor for a violent crimes task force, Scott provided leadership and oversight to task force members responding to and solving several bombing cases including a cold case bombing. In the cold case, numerous interviews had to be conducted soliciting new details to the investigation. This case resulted in a successful prosecution and murder conviction.
After the attacks on September 11th, Scott transferred to the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Air Marshal Service (FAMS) as a supervisor. He helped open the Cincinnati Field Office and later transferred to the Cleveland Field Office as the Assistant Special Agent in Charge. Scott was promoted and transferred to FAMS Headquarters where he was the Special Agent in Charge of the FAMS Investigations Division. He then transferred to the Chicago Field Office and served as the Assistant Supervisory Air Marshal in Charge for more than three years before retiring in 2016. Scott has been an international speaker, a member of a United Nations working group, a presenter at INTERPOL, and an instructor at numerous domestic firearms trafficking seminars.