Joseph L. Kibitlewski, Ph.D.

Dr. Joseph Kibitlewski began his law enforcement career over 25 years ago.  He started out working with the Shelby County Sheriff’s Department in Memphis, where his duties included jail operations, patrol, and special assignments on the fugitive squad.

On moving to Fort Worth, Texas, he joined the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Department in the patrol division.  Greater opportunities offered themselves with a city department on the southwest side of Fort Worth, where he was employed in patrol and as a detective.

Geoscience and Services took him on board to investigate the application of computers to assist law enforcement, through image enhancement via satellite, in locating bodies in remote areas, as well as visual enhancement of photo negatives and slides.  It was in this capacity that he came to the attention of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians.  They hired him to establish their new tribal police department, since they wished to separate themselves from relying on the Bureau of Indian Affairs for their law enforcement needs.  In addition to building the department, by becoming certified in Indian Law, he was able to perform as a “special” prosecutor in Tribal Court.  He also ran the tribal security force, which oversaw the security needs of the hospital, schools, and factories spread over 1200 square miles under the jurisdiction of the reservation.  He was selected to spend some time as counselor to the National Police Academy in Marana, Arizona--a division of FLETC (Federal Law Enforcement Training Center) headquartered in Georgia.

Dr. Kibitlewski left active law enforcement in August of 1989 to begin his college teaching career in criminal justice, at Morris Brown College in Atlanta.  He later taught at Kennesaw State University. He was employed by the Department of Justice as a consultant to train the entire replacement civilian police force of Haiti, conducted mainly at Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri. 

Dr. Kibitlewski has delivered many seminars on “The Use of Psychology in Interrogation,” most notably to the Mississippi Academy of Sciences.  He is certified as a Life Master in police combat pistol shooting and has been decorated for saving a life.  He has written numerous articles for an international publication, The Gun Report.  He also wrote regular articles each month for the Choctaw tribal newspaper, which is distributed internationally.  In Atlanta, he was a frequent guest political analyst for “Atlanta Forum” on WGNX TV.

Dr. Kibitlewski was the recipient of a grant by the European Union to conduct research in the summer of 2000 on the effects of hate groups, and hate crimes.  This research resulted in a major paper that was delivered in May 2000 at the annual convention of the European Community Studies Association in Madison, Wisconsin.

Dr. Kibitlewski was selected by the State of Missouri to be a “state” witness at executions.

Dr. Kibitlewski has a B.S. degree in criminal justice from the University of Texas at Arlington, with a minor in psychology.  His master’s degree is from Mississippi State University and his Ph.D. is from Atlanta University, and are both in political science. 

Dr. Kibitlewski is currently a full-time professor and program chair on faculty at International College in their criminal justice program.