William J. Sorukas, Jr., was elected as a Director on the Board of Directors of the U.S. Marshals Survivors Benefit Fund in March 2012.
A native of South Bend, Indiana, Billy Sorukas earned a bachelor’s degree in Criminology from Indiana State University in 1982 and shortly after graduated from the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy in Plainfield, Indiana. He was a police officer with the State of Indiana for nearly three years, following a brief assignment as an undercover narcotics officer for the La Porte County, IN, Sheriff’s Department.
After completing U.S. Marshals Service Basic Training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center in Glynco, Georgia, he graduated from the USMS Special Operations Group Basic Training at Camp Beauregard, Pineville, Louisiana. Mr. Sorukas was appointed a Deputy U.S. Marshal in the Southern District of California in 1986 until 1998, rising to the position of Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal. Assignments in San Diego included supervision of the district warrant squad and Coordinator for the Fugitive Group of the San Diego Violent Crime Task Force. In 1998, he transferred to USMS Headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, where he served two years as Senior Inspector within the Domestic Investigations Unit, before moving to the Technical Operations Group (TOG), where he became the TOG Chief Inspector in Chicago, IL. From 2006 to 2014, he served as the Chief Inspector for the Domestic and International Fugitive Investigations Branches.
In 1997, he completed the Leadership Development Program at the Center for Creative Leadership in San Diego, California. In 2001, he graduated from the Department of Defense Technical Surveillance Counter Measures Course at Fort Washington, Maryland. In July 2008, he attended the 40th Session of the Senior Management Institute for Police with the Police Executive Research Forum in Boston, Massachusetts. During 2010, he served as a Senior Fellow to the International Association of Chiefs of Police, where he coordinated the establishment of the Center for the Prevention of Violence Against the Police, in addition to assisting with several other projects and initiatives.
Throughout a distinguished career in law enforcement, he worked on numerous high-profile assignments, earning numerous awards and honors. He was presented the Top Cop Award by the National Association of Police Organizations for his investigative effort in the Washington D.C. “Beltway Sniper” case and the arrests of John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo. In 2000, Chief Sorukas was recognized with a national award by the Executive Office for the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force for his role in “Operation Purple Gang.” He has been the recipient of the Attorney General’s Distinguished Service Award and received the Chairman’s Award for Heroism from the San Diego Federal Executive Association, and received commendations from Attorneys General Edwin Meese, Richard Thornburgh, Janet Reno, John Ashcroft, Alberto Gonzalez, Michael Mukasey, and Eric Holder.
Mr. Sorukas is a member of the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association, the Police Executive Research Forum, the National Association of Police Organizations, the National Sheriffs’ Association, International Association of Chiefs of Police, and the U.S. Marshals Service Association.