Mark Potter, head of ATF in Philadelphia, is headed to the mothership in Washington in January to become the agency’s assistant director/chief financial officer, Office of Management.
Potter, who has been with ATF for more than 23 years, has headed up the Philly office for the past 7 1/2 years.
At his new post at headquarters Potter will serve as principal assistant to the Director and oversee ATF’s financial management, human resources, asset forfeiture and seized property, procurement, internal controls and facilities and space management.
Potter says the new job isn’t what he envisioned doing when he entered law enforcement to put away bad guys.
Nonetheless, he says: “I’m eager to take on the new challenge. I think it’s an important job to help ATF grow and manage our resources.”
Over the years, he said his office, which covers Pennsylvania — and south Jersey up until last year — has worked a number of complex gang cases, which resulted in a some very dangerous gang members going off to prison.
His office also worked a number of key arson cases including one last year in which atown was terrified by a series of fires that burned down numerous homes in Coatesville, a suburb of Philadelphia. He said eventually three people were arrested and calm was restored.
The strangest case he said was one that involved a conviction this week of a woman involved in a plot to rob a bank in Erie, Pa. A pizza delivery man, who wore a explosive bomb collar, robbed the bank and then was killed when the bomb detonated.
That, he said, was “the most bizarre case.”
