National security - Protecting America

At age 13, Jim Cawley ’82 had a paper route like no other.

Pedaling around Floral Park, N.Y., a suburb east of Manhattan, he was watched — closely — by the New York Police Department. But he was no juvenile delinquent. Far from it — his father, Donald, served as the NYPD Police Commissioner in 1973, when terroristic assaults against officers were common. After threats against the Cawleys were called in anonymously to police headquarters, young Jim soon found himself under police protection.

Years later, Cawley found himself in countless presidential motorcades, rolling down thoroughfares across the country. Special Agent James Cawley was a member of the Counter-Assault Team, a tactical unit tasked with responding to any attack on President Bill Clinton’s entourage and one of the Secret Service’s most critical components.

Did his childhood experience lead to a calling? “I’m not sure if it had anything to do with it,” Cawley says. “But being a 13-year-old protectee, I had a loose connection to this line of work.”

Cawley, armed with an economics degree and a deep police pedigree (aside from his father’s being the NYPD commissioner, his maternal grandfather also was a career police officer), did stints with the White House, the Secret Service’s New York and Baltimore field offices, its Washington, D.C., headquarters, and its Training Division in suburban Maryland.

Earlier this year, Cawley came back home: In June, he was named Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office, where he oversees 300 agents and support personnel. Cawley and his agents contribute to an investigative mission that dates back to 1865. They work with various agencies, academic institutions, and corporations to investigate Internet crimes and money laundering and provide protection for U.S. officials and foreign dignitaries visiting the New York area.

“9/11 was obviously a stark reminder of the challenges everybody faces day to day, but also of our evolving mission — that every day there’s a new type of threat that must be addressed,” he says.

Cawley lives in New Jersey, with his wife, Bernadine, a University of Miami graduate and Westfield native he met while on assignment in Miami; their two sons; and twin daughters.

He admits that the Secret Service is generally viewed as having a “mysterious flavor,” but urges Bucknellians with a drive for national service and law enforcement to check out the department’s application process (www.secretservice.gov).

“It’s a very satisfying career,” Cawley says. “It’s been exciting, challenging, and rewarding.”