Christopher Betts
chrisbetts.131@gmail.com

Christopher Betts is a detective for the Columbus Police Counter Terrorism Unit assigned to Ohio’s Statewide Terrorism Analysis and Crime Center. In that capacity, he often conducts briefings to senior members of the local, state, and federal government, as well as U.S. military personnel. He also has extensive professional experience related to racially motivated violent extremist groups and has investigated criminal cases involving ideologically-motivated extremists who threaten to commit acts of mass violence.

He obtained his Master’s in Homeland Security with a focus on counterterrorism from Penn State University and a Bachelor’s from The Ohio State University in International Studies with a focus on security and intelligence.

His primary research interests currently include the expanding Russian and Chinese influence in multiple regions of the world, as well as international terrorism trends in West Africa, specifically the ongoing security situation in the Sahel and Russian PMC activity in the region. He has elementary proficiency in Russian and continues to study in the language.