Gerard Easley, originally from Buffalo, New York, always aspired to help people as a public servant. While in high school, Gerard’s dad received a promotion where the family moved from Buffalo, New York to Marietta, GA.

Early on, at 21 years old, Gerard graduated from the 57th Georgia State Patrol Trooper school in Atlanta as a “State Trooper”. Gerard was assigned to the former trooper office known as Post #9 in Marietta and the Metro Traffic Enforcement Unit at Charlie Brown Airport off I-20 in Fulton County.

Five years later, Gerard was recruited by a prosecutor at the Fulton County Solicitor’s Office to be a criminal investigator in the Fulton County government. He spent his first year as an undercover operative for the former Metro Drug and Vice Squad which was a multi-jurisdictional drug enforcement task force that was led by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

Shortly thereafter, the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in Atlanta heard about Gerard’s investigative work and decided to recruit him. He worked as a task force agent for six years. Gerard wrote historical crime cases, operated in an undercover capacity to infiltrate criminal organizations that were involved in major drug trafficking operations and was assigned a collateral duty as a Narcotic’s Canine (K-9) Handler (drug dog handler).

The DEA sent Gerard to train with the City of Miami Police department’s K-9 unit in Miami, Florida for more than a month to learn how to train drug dogs. Two years were spent with the Fulton County Police department as a Uniform County police officer, patrolling South Fulton County and assigned to the Community Oriented Policing Program also known as “COPS”.

After ten years with Fulton County, Gerard was recruited by the U.S. Federal Protective Service while they were conducting operations in Atlanta and preparing for the subsequent Olympic event activities that were scheduled to occur in Atlanta.

After graduating from the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Georgia, Gerard was selected as a Federal Police Officer. Thirteen months later, Gerard was promoted to Supervisory Federal Police Officer in Atlanta and supervised investigations for the Federal Protective Service for multiple states in the southern United States.

Gerard is one of 35,000 world-wide members of “ASIS International” (formerly known as the American Society for Industrial Security), the largest security educational organization in the world. As a part of ASIS International, Gerard has held various leadership roles, most recently as an Assistant Regional Vice President for Savannah, G.A., Bluffton, S.C., Brunswick G.A. and Charleston, S.C. He is currently serving as a member of the ASIS National Security Steering Committee.

Gerard spent five years in the private sector, working as a private investigator while owning and operating a luxury 24-hour limousine business in Fulton County, GA.

Gerard received a telephone call from the White House inquiring if he wanted to return to the U.S. Government service at the White House in Washington, D.C. After pondering the idea, Gerard relocated to Washington, D.C. and was assigned to the New Executive Officer Building located on the White House complex while President George W. Bush and Barack Obama were serving in office. Gerard served as a Security Specialist/Facility Security Officer where he facilitated full field background investigations and allowed facility access for those seeking access to work on the White House complex.

Gerard was selected by the U.S. Department of Justice, Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF) in Washington D.C. as a GS-13. He held three primary roles with ATF; Operations Security Specialist (Threat Assessment Branch), Personnel Security Specialist (Adjudicator) and Intelligence Research Specialist within a Crime Gun Intelligence Center and Field Operations. He cross-trained in investigations, criminal intelligence, physical security, personnel security, Federal Law Enforcement instruction, emergency management and threat/risk assessment.

Introduced by colleagues from ASIS International, Gerard applied and was accepted into the U.S. State Department’s, Bureau of Diplomatic Security, Antiterrorism Assistance Program (ATA) as a “Staff Instructor”. The ATA program helps its partner nations deal with security challenges within their borders to defend against national and regional stability to deter terrorist recruiting and terrorist operations.

As a part of the ATA program, he was vetted as an expert to deliver select antiterrorism courses of instruction to foreign law enforcement agencies around the world for the U.S. Department of State. Gerard is an Anti-Terrorism Assistance program as a Government Contractor for the U.S. Department of State, Diplomatic Security, Anti-Terrorism Assistance Program (ATA) to delver instruction to foreign law enforcement partners of the U.S. Government in northern Africa, Tunisia, eastern Africa, Nairobi Kenya and southeast Asia nations such as Bhopal, India and the country of Maldives.

After a long career in law enforcement, Gerard made the natural shift to the private sector by opening a security and investigative company. His background in law enforcement operations and, in turn, his experience in intelligence operations, report writing, interviewing, conducting surveillance and identifying deceptive and truthful individuals gives him an advantage in the field of private investigations.

In the fall of 2020, Gerard opened ESA Investigations & Security, LLC, an armed security, armed private investigator and security consulting company. ESA Investigations trains new staff internally and does not have to outsource any aspect of the state licensing process. Gerard is State licensed as an instructor to deliver the courses of instruction needed for State licensing for new hires in the following areas: firearms instructor, private investigator instructor and security officer/guard instructor.

Gerard’s background in law enforcement and security makes him a critical thinker and innovator where he recognizes how to adjust and adapt to changing conditions.

“With investigations there’s not a playbook for everything we do”, Gerard said. “We have to be able to think quick on our feet. We have to be able to be innovative, creative and make results happen for our clients.”

To keep up with the exponential growth of ESA Investigations, Gerard’s long-term goals for the company include recruiting/training qualified security personnel and investigators and expanding state licensing into South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida and Alabama.

Aspects of ESA Investigations that are different from competitors include: delivering results, mentoring and developing young security professionals, leveraging the latest technology for efficiency, training team members to a very high level and selecting the brightest and best employees. We inspect what we expect.