Thom Kirk

Thom Kirk is Deputy Secretary and General Legal Counsel for the Department of Homeland Security.

Kirk has more than a quarter-century of law enforcement experience, including as superintendent of the West Virginia State Police and as the founder and first commander of its W.Va. Bureau of Criminal Investigations. He was also the first deputy secretary of the department when it was Military Affairs and Public Safety, and is the creator of the West Virginia Intelligence Exchange (WVIX) at the State Police. 

The West Virginia Fusion Center is part of the Department of Homeland Security, and Kirk became its first director in March 2008.

Kirk is on the executive board of the National Fusion Center Association.  He has taught at a number of universities, and those attending his coursework include police officers from Maine to Florida.  He has been certified as an expert witness in both federal and state courts in seven states in the areas of undercover operations, drug investigations, organized crime, police administration, behavior sciences and major case felonies. 

In addition to his tenure as Superintendent of the West Virginia State Police, Kirk has previously served as a special assistant United States Attorney, an assistant state prosecutor, and a corporate manager for Toyota. He is a graduate of the West Virginia University College of Law, the FBI Executive Institute, Northwestern School of Staff and Command, Naval Post Graduate School, and the Washington School of Protocol and Etiquette.