“As a matter of honor, I refused to lie to Congress, which also is a federal crime,” Titus explains. “Consequently, I experienced harassment, bullying, and retaliation from senior management because I did the right thing and actually provided the truth.”

He resigned and sued DHS — where he had won the agency’s Award for Excellence — and received all of his demands for relief in a settlement.

“Many people underestimate the impact of workplace bullying, harassment, and retaliation,” Titus says. “This affects people in very serious ways, including having a detrimental effect on one’s health, finances, family relations, and more. In extreme cases, workplace abuse can lead to fatal workplace violence or suicide.”

He used his settlement award to establish the Whistleblower Anti- Bullying Resource Network (WARN), which provides complaint review, legal representation, and support systems for whistleblowers, survivors of workplace bullying and harassment, and people who have experienced police abuse.

“In addition to helping whistleblowers, WARN’s equally important objective is to confront police harassment and brutality issues in America,” says Titus, the organization’s chief counsel. “We plan to address racial profiling and promote professional, ethical policing.”

Titus worked in government leadership positions for 21 years. He was the human rights director of two cities in Massachusetts, served on the Attorney General’s Task Force on Hate Crimes there, and was the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority Police Department’s director of community policing and partnership programs.

He unpacks his jarring experience at DHS in his book — The Whistleblower: Defeating Bullies, Harassers & Management Gang Retaliation. Available on Amazon, it has a five-star rating among dozens of reviews.

“It’s been wonderful knowing that my story and insights have helped people cope better with their experiences and become stronger and wiser in dealing with workplace bullies,” Titus says.

Having earned four degrees, mainly from Cornell and Harvard, his quest for learning continues in Berkeley Law’s executive track LL.M. Program.

“Most prestigious law schools are rather staid, conventional, and uninteresting,” he says. “In the social justice arena, Berkeley Law was always my top choice for an LL.M. degree due to its reputation for producing change agents.”

Now back in Washington, he sees “public ignorance and apathy” as the most daunting hurdles to creating positive reform within workplace culture and police mistreatment.

“At WARN, we hope to change these attitudes,” Titus says. “We view workplace abuse as well as police abuse as human rights violations. And we’re fully committed to bringing about needed change.” — Andrew Cohen