HALO - Core Members (Dr. Matthew Logan, Dr Robert Hare & Mary Ellen O’Toole)

Dr Matthew Logan
Dr. Matt Logan completed his Ph.D. at the University of British Columbia while he was an active police officer. He was a member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police for 28 years serving in five communities within British Columbia and a tour of duty in Ottawa and at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) in Glynco, Georgia.

Matt was working as a Psychologist with Correctional Services Canada (CSC) from May, 1999 to November, 2001 where he did Psychological Risk Assessments and worked in therapy with sex offenders. Dr. Logan retired from the RCMP in 2009 and has joined Dr. Robert Hare and Dr. Mary Ellen O’Toole (FBI ret.) in forming HALO, to provide forensic behavioural consultation and training for law enforcement and criminal justice officials.

As the first Operational Psychologist in Major Crime, S/Sgt (ret.) Logan has been involved as a consultant to Serious Crime Sections, Undercover Unit, Interview Team, Child Exploitation, and Crisis Negotiation Teams. Psychological Risk and Threat Assessments are provided on suspects in serious crime investigations and Expert Evidence is given in Court on violent and deviant sexual behaviour. An FBI trained hostage negotiator, Dr. Logan is a conference speaker and facilitator specializing in Conflict and Crisis Management, Psychopathy, Risk for Violence, Sexual Predators, and Trauma.

Dr. Logan does risk assessments and works for the courts in assessing sexually violent predator (SVP) cases worldwide. Along with Dr. Hare, he conducts PCL-R Workshops and seminars on the application of psychopathy to the criminal justice field.

He can be reached at mattlogan6@gmail.com.

Dr. Robert Hare

Robert Hare is Emeritus Professor of Psychology, University of British Columbia, where he has taught and conducted research for some 35 years, and President of Darkstone Research Group Ltd., a forensic research and consulting firm. He has devoted most of his academic career to the investigation of psychopathy, its nature, assessment, and implications for mental health and criminal justice.

He is the author of several books, including Without Conscience: The Disturbing World of the Psychopaths Among Us, and more than two hundred chapters and scientific articles on psychopathy. He is the developer of the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) and a co-author of its derivatives, the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version, the Psychopathy Checklist: Youth Version, the Antisocial Process Screening Device, and the P-Scan (for use in law enforcement). He consults with law enforcement, including the FBI and the RCMP, and is a member of the Research Advisory Board of the FBI Child Abduction and Serial Murder Investigative Resources Center (CASMIRC).

Dr. Hare also was a member of the Advisory Panel established by Her Majesty’s Prison Service to develop new programs for the treatment of psychopathic offenders. His current research on psychopathy includes assessment issues, developmental factors, neurobiological correlates, risk for recidivism and violence, the development of new treatment and management strategies for psychopathic offenders. He and Paul Babiak have extended the theory and research on psychopathy to the business and corporate world, with the development of the B-Scan, an instrument used to screen for psychopathic traits and behaviors, and a book, Snakes in Suits: When Psychopaths Go To Work. Dr. Hare lectures widely on psychopathy and on the use and misuse of the PCL-R in the mental health and criminal justice systems.

Among his most recent awards are the Silver Medal of the Queen Sophia Center in Spain; the Canadian Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Applications of Psychology; the American Academy of Forensic Psychology Award for Distinguished Applications to the Field of Forensic Psychology; the Isaac Ray Award presented by the American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Psychiatry and Law for Outstanding Contributions to Forensic Psychiatry and Psychiatric Jurisprudence; the B. Jaye Anno Award for Excellence in Communication, presented by the National Commission on Correctional Health Care; the R. D. Hare Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society for the Scientific Study of Psychopathy; and the Canadian Psychological Association’s Award for Distinguished Contributions to the International Advancement of Psychology.

He is an Affiliate Member of the International Criminal Investigative Analysis Fellowship.


Darkstone Research Group, Ltd.

Robert Hare is President of Darkstone Research Group, Ltd., a forensic consulting and research company responsible for development of procedures used for the assessment of psychopathy, and for training in the professional use of these procedures, including the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R) and its derivatives. Its web site is http://www.hare.org/


Dr Mary Ellen O’Toole

Mary Ellen O’Toole, PhD is recognized as one of the FBI’s preeminent experts in the areas of criminal, violent and aberrant behavior. Dr. O’Toole’s exemplary law enforcement career began in the San Francisco’s District Attorney’s Office as a Criminal Investigator and spans over 32 years. She was an FBI agent for 28 years, working more than half of her Bureau career in the organization’s prestigious Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU).

As one of the senior and most accomplished agents in the Unit. Dr. O’Toole consulted on many of the FBI’s most high profile and complex criminal cases, as well as white collar and political corruption cases. Dr O’Toole has consulted with law enforcement agencies throughout the world on crimes of violence and other criminal behavior. During her time in the unit, Dr O’Toole developed an expertise in Criminal Investigative Analysis (CIA) as well as offender behavior. She has provided assistance to law enforcement and prosecutors on a wide range of violent and criminal behavior including homicides, sexual assaults, kidnappings, product tampering, school shootings and extortions. Dr. O'Toole has a unique expertise in the areas of targeted school violence, workplace violence and threat assessment.

Dr O’Toole is recognized as the FBI’s leading expert in the area of “psychopathy”. Her work in psychopathy has put her on the forefront of mental health and law enforcement efforts to apply the concepts of this personality disorder to both violent and white collar offenders and their behavior and crime scenes. She lectures internationally on the application of the theory of psychopathy to real life situations.

Dr. O’Toole is a much sought after speaker who has addressed multidisciplinary audiences from both the private and public sectors. She continues to lecture at the FBI Academy on psychopathy and interviewing. She has served as adjunct faculty to the FBI’s Prestigious Leadership Development Institute (LDI) at the FBI Academy. While serving as an FBI Agent, Dr. O’Toole has been qualified as an expert witness for both the prosecution as well as defense counsel in high profile murder cases in the areas of crime scene assessment, criminal investigative analysis and offender behavior.

Dr. O’Toole is the FBI’s primary researcher and author of The School Shooter: A Threat Assessment Perspective available @ www.fbi.gov. Her other publications and writings are in the areas of psychopathy, targeted school violence, threat assessment and stalking, serial murder, child abduction and CIA.

Dr. O’Toole represented the FBI in her media appearances on Larry King Live, Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, Discovery Channel, Forensic Files, Investigative Channel, Discovery Channel and National Public Radio. She is currently an analyst with MSNBC for their new series “Criminal Mindscape” which aired November 8, 2009 and will be featured in an upcoming documentary for the Smithsonian Channel entitled True Stories: Silence of the Lambs.