Longtime Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center director to retire


YODER – Ed Pavey, longtime director of the Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center (KLETC), will retire in June after leading the institution for nearly a quarter-century.

Pavey has led KLETC – a unit of KU Professional & Continuing Education, which serves as the headquarters for all law enforcement training in Kansas – since 1995. He was acting director for a year before that and has been on staff since 1989, following a career in the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office. He is just the third director in the training center’s 50-year history. Officials estimate that 10,000 new officers graduated from the center’s basic training during Pavey’s tenure.

“For these past 28-plus years at KLETC, it has been my distinct honor and pleasure to be associated with a very committed and highly dedicated staff of men and women serving the Kansas law enforcement community,” Pavey said in his retirement announcement. “I will forever remember and cherish the many professional and personal friendships gained over all these past years.”

A retirement reception for Pavey will be held at 1:30 p.m. June 7 at the Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center near Yoder.

Pavey oversaw the expansion of the campus from its original two buildings – inherited from a World War II-era naval air base that previously occupied the site near Yoder – to a modern, 15-building facility, including 63-room and 54-room residence halls with 231 beds, state-of-the-art electronic training simulators and a 1.78-mile driving course, all situated on a 173-acre site. KLETC’s annual budget is funded through a $1.25 annual surcharge on all new motor vehicle registrations as well as docket fees on all criminal- and traffic-related cases charged in state and municipal courts.

“The training is up-to-date, professionally done and thorough,” said Gary Steed, executive director of the Kansas Commission on Peace Officers’ Standards and Training. “I'm always impressed with the quality of officers we get in the amount of time we have to train them."

More than 400 agencies across the state send new full-time officers to KLETC for intensive training lasting three months. A staff of 51 offers instruction on the law, communications, firearms and tactical training as well as lessons in tactical driving on the center’s 1.78-mile emergency vehicle driving course.

Before arriving at KLETC, Pavey served 21 years with the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office, retiring at the rank of division commander. He has a bachelor’s degree from Wichita State University and is a graduate of the FBI National Academy and the FBI Law Enforcement Executive Development Program.

His awards include the 1994 International Association of Chiefs of Police and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s J. Stannard Baker Award, the Wichita Crime Commission’s 1998 Criminal Justice Professional of the Year and the 2002 FBI National Academy Associates Clarence M. Kelley Award. His other career highlights include a 1993 trip to St. Petersburg, Russia, to observe and consult with police there as well as a 2009 trip to Armenia to meet and consult with Armenia’s national police.

“Ed has been an exceptional leader for KLETC and the Kansas law enforcement community,” said Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt. “He has led the transformation of KLETC from a scattering of buildings into a modern campus and has overseen the modernization of law enforcement training in Kansas. We all wish Ed well in whatever endeavors life has in store for him next.”

Pavey and his wife reside in Valley Center. They have three grown daughters, three sons-in-law and nine grandchildren. 

Leading Kansas officials praise Pavey’s tenure leading the training center:

“It takes a special kind of person to strap on a sidearm, leave their family every day, and step out into the world to protect all of us. Ed Pavey has been preparing young men and women to go out and do just that for almost 30 years. His legacy lives on in each officer he has trained, and Kansas is a better place as a result of his leadership.”
— Kansas Gov. Jeff Colyer

“Ed Pavey’s leadership has produced a generation of top-notch police officers across the state and helped make all Kansans safer. He leaves behind a legacy of excellence for his successors to carry forward.”
— Sharon Graham, assistant vice chancellor of the Professional & Continuing Education, which oversees KLETC    

"He always seems to have his thumb on what's going on around the state. It doesn't matter if you're a sheriff in western Kansas or the chief of a bigger force: He knows you, knows your situation."
— Brad Schoen, director of the Riley County Police Department

“He has raised the standard there (at KLETC), not only in hands-on training but in operating that facility as a branch of the University of Kansas. He's taken that from being a vocational school, in many ways, to being something that's college-level instruction."
— Gary Steed, executive director of the Kansas Commission on Peace Officers’ Standards and Training

"He seemed to really cultivate quality individuals for his staff. That's a combination of his leadership and the individuals on staff. They were really successful at what they set out to do."
— Kirk Thompson, director of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation

“He's such a decent man. He’s so ethical, so committed, a very fair man, very intelligent.”

— Jackie Williams, a former U.S. attorney for Kansas now serving as the state’s deputy attorney general for the Medicaid Fraud and Abuse Division.

Wed, 05/16/2018

author

Joel Mathis

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