John Miller (journalist)

Background and personal life

Miller is the son of Lucinda Miller of Manhattan and the late John J. Miller, a syndicated columnist and freelance writer whose range of roles included Hollywood gossip columnist, foreign correspondent, Broadway critic, crime investigator, and political pundit. "My dad wrote seven columns under six different names... Antonio from Rome. Pierre from Paris. Nigel from London," Miller has said. His father was also a close friend of Luciano crime family boss Frank Costello, whose wife, Lauretta, was Miller's godmother.

In 2002, Miller married Emily Helen Altschul, daughter of banking mogul and Goldman Sachs Group partner Arthur Goodhart Altschul and member of the Lehman family. Miller's brother-in-law, Arthur Altschul, Jr., worked for Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley before becoming chairman of Medicis Pharmaceuticals Corporation.

Career

Miller began work as a journalist in 1983 for WNEW, a local New York City television station. From 1985 to 1994, he worked as an investigative journalist for WNBC, another local New York television station.

From 1994 to 1995, he served as deputy police commissioner of New York City, where he was the chief spokesman for the NYPD, a move that some of his colleagues considered "going over to the dark side." He was hired at the request of then Commissioner William Bratton.

Miller then worked as an ABC News correspondent from 1995 until January 2002, when he took the post of co-anchor with Barbara Walters of the ABC News program, 20/20. During his tenure at ABC, Miller is also recognized for covering the September 11, 2001 attacks, where he sat alongside Peter Jennings for the duration of the day listening in to radio conversations from the FBI, FDNY and NYPD, informing Jennings and viewers of their content.

In January 2003, he left ABC News to rejoin Bratton who by then was at the Los Angeles Police Department. Miller served as the police department's Bureau Chief for the Counter-Terrorism and Criminal Intelligence Bureau, which included the Major Crimes Division, and the Emergency Services Division and the Special Investigations Section (SIS). While there, Miller launched Project Archangel which included the Automated Critical Asset Management System (ACAMS), among other platforms, and which has been adopted by other cities and states for ongoing risk-assessment of potential terrorist targets. Miller was also one of the original designers of the Los Angeles Joint Regional Intelligence Center (JRIC), which combines intelligence and analysis for the LAPD, LA Sheriff, and the FBI.

In September 2005, Miller became the Assistant Director for Public Affairs at the FBI in Washington, D.C.. In this position, he was tasked with overseeing the FBI's internal and external communications, including relations with the news media and handling of fugitive publicity, community relations, and other communications support. Miller also established an Employee Communications Unit to build stronger internal communications to the bureau's 31,000 employees. Among his collateral duties was to serve on the Strategic Execution Team (SET) to establish performance measurement standards for intelligence operations across the FBI's 56 field offices. The system, adapted from the CompStat process used by major police departments, is overseen by FBI Director Robert Mueller.

Awards and honors

Miller's journalistic awards include two Peabody Awards, a DuPont-Columbia Award, and nine Emmys.

In December 2013, Miller announced that he would be resigning from CBS in order to take a position as the Deputy Commissioner for Intelligence & Counterterrorism with the NYPD. Miller will be rejoining William Bratton, who had earlier been announced as the new NYPD Commissioner by Mayor Bill de Blasio.

Memberships and affiliations

He is a member of the International Association of Bomb Technicians and Investigators and the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

Miller is an instructor at the FBI's National Executive Institute, as well as the Leadership in Counterterrorism (LinCT) course and has attended training in organizational change at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government as well as the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.