Scott McLaren is the Deputy Director of the Delaware Criminal Justice Council. He has served in that capacity for the past 10 years. He retired after 25 years of service from the New Castle County Police Department at the rank of Colonel, and Director of Public Safety where he was responsible for all police, paramedics, communications and emergency management. He also served as a municipal police chief and the Director of Public Safety/law enforcement for Delaware Technical Community College, a statewide higher education institution. 

Deputy Director McLaren holds a bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from Wilmington College and a master’s degree in criminal justice administration from Wilmington University. He completed training at the FBI National Academy in 2000 and the Police Executive Research Forum in Boston in 2003; he also served on the FEMA National Advisory Board Region III district.

In 1993, Deputy Director McLaren was named Detective of the Year by the state of Delaware for his work in solving a high-profile ax murder in seven days. In 1997, the International Association of Chiefs of Police presented him its very first annual Civil Rights Investigations award for his role as chief investigator for the first-ever federal prosecution of a hate crime in Delaware. Currently, Deputy Director McLaren serves on the Board of Directors of the National Criminal Justice Association, in which he has been an active member for the past 10 years.