Markus H. F. Mohler is a graduate from the FBI National Academy in Washington, D.C. and received his doctorate in Law (LL.D.) in 1971 for a thesis about particular dogmatic problems in criminal law from the University of Basel in Switzerland.

In his professional career he held several executive positions. For 13 years he worked as a public prosecutor at the Attorney General’s Office in Basel; and over 21 years he was Commander of the Cantonal Police of Basel. In addition he was head (“CEO”) of the interdisciplinary (multi-departmental) Catastrophe Organisation of the Canton of Basel-Stadt for 18 years.

Markus Mohler was a member of the Board of Officers of the Conference of the Cantonal Police Commanders of Switzerland (highest professional co-ordinating body of the police services in Switzerland) for 6 years, presiding this conference from 1993 until 1996. Furthermore he was chairman of the Permanent Commission for International (Police) Affairs (CAI) of this conference for 8½ years. In addition he held the membership of the Board of Officers of the Swiss Police Institute (police training institution) for 8 years and of the International Policy Advisory Committee of the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) for 4 years.

While being a police commander Markus Mohler directed the Swiss Commissioned (Senior) Police Officers Courses (operations and tactical level, managerial skills) and co-directed the Seminars for Police Commanders of Switzerland (strategic and operations level, leadership) from 1984 until 1998. Over and above he acted as a speaker and instructor at many training institutions in various countries focusing most notably on topics like ethics in policing, police leadership and management, international police co-operation and disaster management.

Besides the police work mentioned above he was appointed to head a Swiss working party to evaluate the reorganisation of the National Criminal Police of the Czechoslovak Republic in 1992. From 1991 until 1994, he consulted the Presidency of the Hungarian National Police in matters of police reorganisation, democratic transparency and the rule of law. In 2000 he chaired the international conference "Human Rights and Policing beyond 2000" organised by the Council of Europe (40 countries and 18 NGOs participating) in Strasbourg/France.

His academic work includes lectures on public law, esp. safety/security and police law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Basel. Occasionally he is also a Guest Lecturer at the Faculty of Political Science of the University of Belgrade/Serbia.

Markus Mohler published extensively on a variety of subjects including ethics in policing, human rights and policing, legal aspects of co-operation between police and private security enterprises; and he developed a manual for the application of the Swiss-German Police Treaty. His extensive research paper “Intertwined Safety and Security” is about to appear in September 2006 as a contribution to a multi-author book on security- and safety-related provisions of the revised Swiss Constitution.