Phil Pulaski – WTC Attack

Phil Pulaski has 41 years of law enforcement experience and was the New York City Police Department’s (NYPD) Chief of Detectives where he was responsible for 3,600 personnel. During his more than 33 years serving with the NYPD, Phil Pulaski managed patrol, investigative, counterterrorism and other public safety operations.

In the immediate aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Phil Pulaski managed the NYPD’s counterterrorism and weapons of mass destruction operations. He also supervised jointly with his FBI counterpart numerous terrorism related investigations including the 9-11 World Trade Center attack and October 2001 anthrax attacks. Phil Pulaski also was responsible for NYPD’s intelligence collection and analysis operations as well as the critical infrastructure risk assessment and security programs. Due to the outstanding efforts of JTTF and Intelligence Division personnel, several serious terrorist attacks on NYC were prevented.

It has been 20 years since September 11, 2001, when four commercial airliners traveling from the northeastern United States to California were hijacked shortly after take-off by 19 al-Qaeda terrorists. The al-Qaeda terrorists were organized into three groups of five hijackers and one group of four hijackers. Each group had one hijacker who had received flight training and took over control of the aircraft from the murdered airline pilots. Their explicit goal was to crash each plane into a prominent American building, causing mass casualties and the destruction of the targeted buildings. Two of the planes hit the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, and a third hit the west side of the Pentagon in Arlington Virginia. There is strong evidence that the fourth plane was intended to crash into either the US Capitol building or the White House in Washington DC. However, due to the incredible bravery and tenacity of the passengers, the hijackers were overcome and the plane was intentionally crashed into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Attorney Experience and LLM Degree

Phil Pulaski has 41 years of law enforcement experience, and was the New York City Police Department’s (NYPD) Chief of Detectives for 5 years where he was responsible for 3,600 personnel. During his more than 33 year career with the NYPD, Phil Pulaski managed patrol, investigative, counterterrorism, community affairs, quality of life and other public safety operations.

Phil Pulaski is also an experienced legal professional and has practiced law for 40 years. Mr. Pulaski served as a managing attorney in the NYPD’s Legal Bureau, and wrote numerous legal publications. He also provided a significant amount of legal training to NYPD personnel including 10 NY State Bar Continuing Legal Education courses.

Mr. Pulaski received his Juris Doctor degree from St. John’s University School of Law at night in Queens NY while he worked during the day as a civil engineer for the US Environmental Protection Agency. Mr. Pulaski was admitted to the NY State Bar in 1981, and was subsequently admitted to practice law in the US Supreme Court, US Court of Appeals 2^nd Circuit, and US District Courts for the Eastern and Southern Districts of NY.

As the NYPD’s Deputy Commissioner of Operations and Chief of Detectives, Mr. Pulaski collaborated closely with the senior executive assistant district attorneys of the five NYC District Attorney’s Offices and the Special Narcotics Prosecutor, as well as senior attorneys of the NYC Law Department and NYC Mayor’s Office on numerous innovative criminal justice programs.

After retiring from the NYPD in 2014, Phil Pulaski received a Master of Laws advanced law degree (LLM) summa cum laude from Touro College Law School in Islip, New York and maintained a 4.0 GPA. He also is an adjunct professor of law at Pace University Law School.