Director
Colonel Keith D. Squires
Utah Department of Public Safety
Colonel Keith Squires was appointed in 2007 to serve as the Deputy Commissioner of the Utah Department of Public Safety. He oversees law enforcement, homeland security and emergency management services for the state. He has over 25 years of experience in local and state law enforcement in Utah.
He began his career with the Utah Department of Public Safety as a State Trooper in 1989 after three years with local agencies. He has promoted through all ranks of the department during his career. He currently directs Homeland Security and Emergency Management services. He has previously served in other key positions, including the Director of the State Bureau of Investigation and Assistant Superintendent of the Utah Highway Patrol.
In September 2007, Col. Squires was appointed by Governor Jon M. Huntsman Jr. to serve as his Homeland Security Advisor and continues to hold that responsibility for Governor Gary R. Herbert. Each state and territorial governor has a designated homeland security advisor. Governor Huntsman gave Col. Squires the responsibility of designing and establishing a state criminal intelligence fusion center for Utah. That fusion center is called the Utah Statewide Information and Analysis Center (SIAC) and began operation in 2008. The SIAC is a cooperative effort between state, local and federal agencies to receive, analyze and share information related to criminal activity and counterterrorism through a central location within the state. It is one of 72 state and regional fusion centers located throughout the country that form the National Fusion Center Network and is recognized for its foundational structure and operational effectiveness.
Col. Squires regularly presents information to senior federal, state, local and tribal agency officials on matters related to effective information sharing and state’s roles, responsibilities and participation in the national homeland security mission. He was recently elected by his peers to serve as the Chairman of the National Governors Association (NGA) Homeland Security Advisors Council for 2012. He currently serves on the National Criminal Intelligence Coordinating Council (CICC), the advisory board for the National Counterterrorism Center’s Interagency Threat Assessment Coordination Group (ITACG), the Director of National Intelligence’s (ODNI) State, Local, Tribal Partners Board, the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) Committee on Terrorism (CoT) and the Rocky Mountain Information Network (RMIN) Executive Board.
Colonel Squires has a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice Administration and a master’s degree in Homeland Security and Defense from the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, CA. His 2009 master’s thesis is titled Critical Accountability: Preventing and Interdicting Terrorist Activity in the U.S. by Effectively Utilizing State and Local Law Enforcement.