Greg Sancier, Ph.D.
Dr. Sancier began his law enforcement career at the Atherton (Calif.) Police Department as a Reserve in 1978 and then became a regular in 1980. While working at APD Greg worked patrol and also worked in a collateral assignment as a Hostage Negotiator. While working full time as a police officer Greg applied and was accepted into the Master’s Degree program in Clinical Psychology at SJSU. He worked at APD until 1985 when he went to the San Jose Police Department. While at SJPD Greg became a Hostage Negotiator as a collateral assignment as he worked in patrol, the training unit, and then in the Crisis Management Unit (CMU) where he worked the last 7 years of his career.
Upon joining the SJPD Greg earned his Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology in 1989. During his tenure of nearly five years in the training unit at SJPD Greg taught in service police officer’s classes such as Psychology of Survival, Officer Safety / Survival, High Risk Car stops, Defensive driving tactics, Fitness and Nutrition, Defensive Tactics, to name only a few. Greg applied and was accepted to the Ph.D. program at the Western Graduate School of Psychology in Palo Alto in 1992 while he worked full-time in the training unit at the police department.
Greg returned to patrol after his time was up in the training unit and completed his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology 2002 while still working in patrol. Shortly thereafter Greg requested to be transferred to the Crisis Management Unit (CMU) and he was granted his request. While in the Crisis Management unit Greg received training, and became a trainer of Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) techniques. Greg also trained the SJ city council, the SJ city attorney’s office, the Civil Grand Jury, the California Judges Association, in classes of all the Mental Illnesses. Greg has trained nearly 3,000 officers in CIT techniques. Greg is also on the board of directors of the Chicago Graduate School of Forensic Psychology, Los Angeles branch. Greg retired from SJPD in April 2010 after 30 + years in law enforcement. He also retired as the Senior Hostage Negotiator with over 25 years on the M.E.R.G.E. unit (S.W.A.T. team). Greg is presently has his own consulting business: Harlow Consulting, and conducts Danger Assessments for silicon valley companies as well as the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF). He also co-hosts a cable TV Talk show called the COP/DOC & DOC show with his business partner and colleague, John Greene, MD. He has been married for 21 years and has two teenage sons.
Contact Greg Sancier
