Audrey McNeill
Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (Retired)
Audrey McNeill is a 28 year law enforcement veteran who served eight years as a Police Officer employed by the Washington D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, and 20 years as a Special Agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. As a Police Officer, Ms. McNeill’s assignments or details varied to include plainclothes burglary tactical team, patrol, recruitment, and working crimes of a sexual nature undercover.
Ms. McNeill was selected to be a Crisis/Hostage Negotiator on the elite Emergency Response Team (ERT), making her the first black African-American negotiator in the history of the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department. On the ERT, she became the Lead Team Negotiator and a lead instructor on the dynamics of crisis/hostage incidents to include first responders’ approach to high-risk incidents. Having created the courses, she taught them to patrol officers and police executives alike where they were well received.
In 1996, Audrey was contacted by the executive director for the movie, Light It Up, starring Usher and Vanessa Williams. Sis. Audrey served as the technical consultant. Impressed by her knowledge of crisis/hostage incidents, the director named the main character played by Vanessa Williams, “Audrey McDonald.”
Later, Ms. McNeill was recruited by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 1998; completed her training at the FBI Academy; and retired in 2018. As a field special agent, Ms. McNeill worked federal violations under the FBI’s Violent Crimes/Major Offenders Program, which included but was not limited to bank robberies, fugitives, gangs, and online & traditional crimes against children, while assigned to the Newark and Washington Field Offices. She also was a member of the FBI Crisis/Negotiations Team.
In time, Ms. McNeill entered the management ranks of the FBI, becoming Supervisory Special Agent. As a manager, she supervised teams of investigative analysts and special agents who conducted international & national online child sexual/pornographic exploitation investigations known then as the Innocent Images National Program, which was an online covert operation. Simultaneously, while supervising teams, she served as a National Program Manager over field operations pertaining to Innocent Images investigations.
Additionally, Ms. McNeill oversaw and expanded the Innocent Images International Task Force by extensively traveling overseas; building law enforcement partnerships and liaisons that created real-time exchanges of information regarding online child sexual investigations.
Ms. McNeill went on to oversee the field operations of transnational syndicate crime investigations. She managed national security investigations, particularly the Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force by supervising the development of target packages on terrorist subjects. Once again working with a team of intelligence analysts, Ms. McNeill served as a Training Coordinator/Program Manager who created and facilitated national security training for federal, state, and local law enforcement officers to include supervisors, assigned to FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces.
Ms. McNeill is a graduate of Carlow University. She has been married for the past 25 years to Rev. Charles W. McNeill, Jr. and is the proud mother of a daughter.
