He’s solved international crimes, protected the Dalai Lama. He also grew up in Lakewood
.jpg "Clifton Funkhouser and his wife, Rachael, at the U.S. Department of State after he was sworn in as a Diplomatic Security Service Special agent April 16, 2009.")
A Pierce County man whose investigative work closed a cold-case murder in Arizona and a disturbing abduction case in Mexico has received a national award for helping put the criminals away for life.
The name’s Funkhouser. Clifton Funkhouser.
Funkhouser grew up in Lakewood and now is a special agent of the Diplomatic Security Service. His work has taken him to the skies of Baghdad, the poaching fields of Mozambique and steps away from his Royal Highness Prince Charles at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow.
“Our job is definitely unique and weird,” Funkhouser, 43, said in a phone interview with The News Tribune. “We are the only law enforcement that is not only a diplomat but also a special agent.”
Funkhouser now works as the assistant regional security officer at the U.S. Embassy in Riga, Latvia, the capital city of the northeastern European country on the coast of the Baltic Sea.
The Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association in October named Funkhouser its recipient for the 2020 National Award for Investigative Excellence. The award recognizes his work from 2016 to 2018, when he served as an assistant regional security officer-investigator at the U.S. Consulate in Nogales, Mexico near the southern border of Arizona.
Within days of Funkhouser’s arrival there, he was thrown into a kidnapping case, helping facilitate safe passage into the United States for a woman and her children who had just escaped from 19 years of captivity under the hold of her stepfather.
Through collected statements and evidence, Funkhouser was able to help secure charges against the man who abused and repeatedly raped the woman since she was 12 years old, fathering her nine children.
During the same tenure, Funkhouser worked a cryptic tip about the 2010 fatal shooting of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry in Arizona that eventually led to a bi-national manhunt for the killer, who was tracked to a remote location by Mexican authorities.
Growing up in Lakewood
Funkhouser says he wanted to be a special agent in law enforcement ever since he was a kid. He grew up in a home of international influences. His mother, Cecilia, worked for a time as the director of Tacoma’s Sister Cities program and helped establish a relationship with Vladivostok, Russia as a sister city. Both of his parents were involved in Tacoma’s Rotary Club, and Funkhouser recalled them often hosting exchange students.
“I was always experiencing people from different cultures from around the world,” he said.
A 1996 graduate of Bellarmine Preparatory School, Funkhouser recalled a childhood of swimming in the lakes of Lakewood, riding bikes and spending time at the local racket club. He played tennis in junior high and some rugby in high school.
While earning his bachelor’s degree in criminal justice at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Funkhouser studied abroad in Italy, where his career sights really started to focus on the DSS.
Following the 1998 terrorist bombings of U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Nairobi where more than 200 people were killed, Funkhouser visited Nairobi and witnessed the remnants of the embassy .
“It was still fresh in my head when I finished college,” he said. “I think that was probably one of the key factors, you know, living overseas, seeing embassies and also seeing the wreckage.”
Life as a Diplomatic Security Service agent
Before being sworn in as a special agent of DSS in 2009, Funkhouser spent eight years in various federal law enforcement agencies. When he made it to the DSS, what stood out to him first was how much responsibility he was immediately given.
Just a month after completing his training, then-president of Pakistan, Pervez Musharraf, had speaking engagements where Funkhouser was stationed, and he quickly found himself directing resources for protective details.
“[Diplomatic security] is traditionally where you walk into a room and are like, ‘Who’s giving the briefing?’” Funkhouser said. “’You are.’ ‘Oh, all right.’”
Funkhouser’s work has involved protective details around the world alongside criminal investigative work requiring partnerships with law enforcement, security and immigration organizations both U.S. and foreign.
Assigned to Mozambique, Funkhouser assisted local law enforcement in helping train and equip rangers to aid anti-poaching efforts, particularly for rhinos. At the same embassy, he also worked security at Nelson Mandela’s funeral.
Funkhouser has worked protective details for U.S. Secretaries of State over the course of three presidencies, providing security for Condoleezza Rice, Hillary Clinton and Mike Pompeo. He’s also worked details for the Dalai Lama, Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan and the British royal family.
“Kind of like how the Secret Service will do heads of state and the president, we’ll do the secretary of state and the U.N. secretary and then all visiting foreign diplomats and royalty, too,” he said.
He calls his work “one of the coolest jobs” but says being a special agent takes a toll.
Funkhouser’s job requires moving every two to three years. Still, he said his wife, Rachael, and their 6-year-old son, have supported him greatly. When he eventually retires, Funkhouser said Rachael has first pick on their next destination.
“I owe her some payback,” he said. “Wherever she wants to move I’m happy to support it.”
This story was originally published January 4, 2022 at 5:00 AM.
