Akil Davis has been named special agent in charge of the FBI Phoenix Field Office.

FBI Director Christopher Wray announced the appointment Tuesday, Oct. 11. Davis most recently served as a section chief in the International Operations Division at FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C.

Davis grew up in Mesa and joined the FBI as a special agent in 2005. Prior to joining the bureau, he was an officer for the Scottsdale Police Department, according to an FBI release.

Upon joining the FBI, Davis was assigned to the Palm Springs Resident Agency — a satellite of the Los Angeles Field Office — where he investigated violent crime, organized crime and narcotics trafficking, the release stated.

He was also a member of the Los Angeles Field Office’s SWAT team. In 2008, Davis deployed to Kabul, Afghanistan, working with the U.S. Army’s 10th Special Forces Group.

In 2011, he was promoted to supervisory special agent and transferred to the Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate at FBI headquarters. In 2014, he returned to the Los Angeles Field Office to manage the Transnational Organized Crime Program.

He served as the FBI’s acting assistant legal attaché to The Hague, Netherlands, in 2017.

Davis was named assistant special agent in charge of the Los Angeles office in 2019 and was responsible for the violent crimes, crimes against children, human trafficking, violent gangs and organized crimes programs.

In 2021, he was promoted to section chief in the International Operations Division, the release stated.

Davis earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of California at Los Angeles and a master’s in educational leadership from Northern Arizona University.