Detective William “Bill” Hanson retired from his Law Enforcement career in November 2016. He left with over twenty-six years of experience in law enforcement and worked thousands of Death Investigations in the capacity of Patrol Deputy, Police Officer, Scene Detective, and Lead Investigator. Bill started his career as a Patrol Deputy in Mohave County, AZ, District 2/Bullhead Sector. While with the Sheriff’s office, Bill was an FTO, SWAT Operator and SWAT Team Leader. Bill transferred to Tucson Police Department in 1993. In 1998, Bill received a promotion to Detective in 1998 and worked in the Burglary and Aggravated Assault Units. While in the Aggravated Assault Unit, Bill carried his own homicide cases and assisted the Homicide Unit beginning in 2000. He was a member of the Homicide Unit from 2005-2015 and continued to work on his Cold Case Homicide cases until his retirement in 2016.
Detective Hanson was a general instructor and taught basic recruits various job courses: Ethics in Law Enforcement, Courtroom Demeanor, Crime Scene. and Death Investigation, at the Southern Arizona Law Enforcement Training Academy (SALETC). Bill was a Detective trainer for new investigators during his career and trained hundreds of professionals. Detective Hanson is currently a Technical Advisor for the University of Arizona’s course, “The Nature of Murder, PA347” which is an upper division course at the University of Arizona. As a guest lecturer for the class, Bill leads the class in discussions concerning important topic areas: Death Investigation, the Degrees of Murder, and the Investigation of Deadly Force by the Police, and Crime Scene Investigations.
Bill is an associate with the National Criminal Justice Training Center. Detective Hanson instructs in Suspicious Death, Death Investigations, and Crime Scenes.
Detective Hanson has been affiliated with the Arizona Homicide Investigators Association, serving as a Board Member, Secretary, Vice-President, President, and is currently a Past President for the association.
Bill appeared in eight episodes on “The First 48” and “After the First 48” on A & E.
Bill’s Medal of Valor story was in the book: “Police Heroes” (Chapter 14), written by Chuck Whitlock.