Dianna Scotto is a retired New York City Police Department
Sergeant with 23 years of law enforcement experience. The first seven years of her career were spent as a uniformed
patrol officer in Staten Island. Upon promotion to Sergeant in 1994, she was transferred to Brooklyn where she served as supervising
patrol officer for four years. From 1999 through 2009 she was assigned to the NYPD’s Gang Division (The Nation's largest
Gang Unit) where during her tenure she served with over 350 assigned officers.
The Gang Division
is a plain clothes unit whose sole purpose is to identify gang members, conduct investigations and arrest gang members.
As a sergeant in the Gang Division she supervised search warrants, undercover narcotic and gun buys, debriefings and takedowns
of gang members. Dianna has
been involved in supervising some of the largest “Blood, Crip and Latin King” takedowns in New York City, resulting
in hundreds of arrests and convictions. These takedowns included arrests for murder, drug trafficking,
robbery, assault, weapons possession and other gang related crimes. It was through these arrests that she
was able to debrief prisoners and obtain further information in combating gang crime in New York City.
In addition, she has assisted in numerous gang related homicide investigations lending
her experience and expertise to other divisions in the NYPD and law enforcement agencies.At that time, she held the honor of being the only Gang Liaison
Sergeant in the NYPD conducting over 2500 gang presentations to law enforcement officers and community organizations. In addition
to identifying gang members for the NYPD, she has worked hand in hand with the Department of Education, Department of Corrections
and the military in helping to identify gang members. While working
in the Gang Division, she completed the Secret Service Dignitary Protection course and has, over the span of her career, aided
in the protection of foreign and domestic diplomats as well as the President and Vice President of the United States.
Following her retirement from the New York City Police Department,
she was recruited by the Morris County Prosecutor’s Office to serve as an Agent in their Intelligence Crime Task Force,
Gang Unit. There she continued to aid in the investigation, identification and debriefing of gang members for the purpose
of prosecution.
One of her proudest accomplishments was preventing the murder of a New Jersey police officer.
It was during a debriefing that she obtained information from a Bloods member that a ”hit” had been ordered
from a high ranking Blood for the killing of a police officer and his family. Measures
were taken to protect the officer and his family and those responsible where prosecuted. She left Morris
County in August of 2010, but continues to teach law enforcement personnel on gang trends, investigations, safety and identifiers.Among the number of National presentations her
notable East Coast appearances include participation in MAGLOCLEN, (Mid-Atlantic Great Lakes Organized Crime Law Enforcement
Network), NJGIA, (New Jersey Gang Investigation Association), NYGIA, (New York Gang Investigators Association) and Diamond
State and MARGIN conferences.
