Meet the expert: Joe Kennedy

Joey (Joe) D. Kennedy is the Executive Vice President for the BlueLine Training Group LLC. Joe retired as the Special Agent-in-Charge for the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) Carolinas Field Office in 2014. He attended the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, GA, and subsequently served in various offices around the world including, Virginia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, Puerto Rico, Japan, Philippines, Iraq, Afghanistan, Bahrain, and Washington, DC. Joe is a Magna Cum Laude graduate of Pfeiffer College, Misenheimer, NC where he played baseball for legendary coach Joseph Ferebee. He received a Master of Policy Management degree from Georgetown University in Washington, DC. Joe participated in Executive Education at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.

While with NCIS, Joe served in a variety of positions focusing on violent crimes and undercover operations. He was the Team Leader for the Virgin Islands Homicide Task Force. He participated as a member and supervisor in numerous homicide task forces and serial rape investigations. He served as a board member for the Department of Justice “Weed and Seed” Task Force in Charleston, SC and the North Carolina Homicide Investigators Association. Joe served as an Executive Board Member for the High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Task Force in the Caribbean and Territorial Crime Commission for the Governor of Puerto Rico. He was co-chair for the North Carolina Criminal Justice Information Network (CJIN) LiNX program and has served on several law enforcement advisory boards.

Joe was the Primary Architect and First Program Manager for the internationally acclaimed NCIS Cold Case Homicide Unit. He wrote the methodology and protocol for NCIS Cold Case investigations, which has been adopted by numerous police agencies around the globe. Joe has provided cold case homicide consultation and training to various law enforcement agencies throughout North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Middle East, and the Caribbean. He is a Consulting Committee Member of the American Investigative Society of Cold Cases (AISOCC) and Founder of the Carolinas Cold Case Coalition. He is recognized as an International Cold Case Expert.

Joe completed multiple deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, and the Philippines. He twice served as the Resident Agent-In-Charge for NCIS Resident Agency Fallujah, Iraq. Joe was the Director for the Department of Defense (DOD) Joint Counterintelligence Unit (JCIU), International Security Assistance Forces (ISAF), Kabul, Afghanistan. He was the Chief of the Transnational Crimes Unit at the Middle East Field Office, Manama, Bahrain, where he collaborated with the International Police (INTERPOL) and NATO to develop proactive law enforcement strategies designed to combat Somali Piracy and narcotics smuggling in the Indian Ocean and Gulf Region.

Joe is a member of the International Homicide Investigators Association, North Carolina Homicide Investigators Association, North Carolina Association of Chiefs of Police, and Eastern Carolina Association of Law Enforcement Executives. He has been the recipient of numerous awards and commendations. Joe received the prestigious Order of the Long Leaf Pine Award from North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory in 2014 and he was recently profiled in the book “Delayed Justice: Inside Stories from America’s Best Cold Case Investigators” by Mary Bransom. He was featured in the “Real NCIS” by StoryHouse Productions, Washington, DC. He is a Core Team Expert for the Starz TV “Wrong Man” Series. Joe serves as an expert witness for police investigative procedures and homicide investigations throughout the United States.