FLETA Office of Accreditation Executive Director and FLETA Board Secretary
Executive Director – Federal Law EnforcementTraining Accreditation
Mr. Mitchell began his law enforcement career with the St.Petersburg Police Department in 1975. He worked in all areas ofthe Department which included: uniformed patrol, the detectivedivision, the administration bureau and retired as the Assistant PoliceChief after more than twenty-four years of service. As AssistantPolice Chief, Mr. Mitchell was responsible for all administrativeoperations of the St. Petersburg Police Department which includedtraining, communications, records, computer resources, fiscal services,personnel, crime analysis and research.
Since 1993, Mr. Mitchell has been a national and state assessor/teamleader for on-site inspections of police agencies seeking lawenforcement accreditation through the Commission on Accreditation forLaw Enforcement Agencies, Inc. (CALEA) and the Commission for FloridaLaw Enforcement Accreditation (CFA). He was also a member ofCALEA’s task force which developed the Third Edition of CALEAaccreditation standards. While with the St. Petersburg PoliceDepartment, Mr. Mitchell led the agency through a successfulre-accreditation with the Commission on Accreditation for LawEnforcement Agencies, Inc. in 1995. During 2003, he led thePinellas County Sheriff’s Office through successful combined on-siteassessment with the Commission on Accreditation for Law EnforcementAgencies, Inc. and with the Commission for Florida Law EnforcementAccreditation.
While with the St. Petersburg Police Department, he was also thecommander of the department’s Training Division which provided acomplete cadre of training programs from cultural/human diversity tothe use of force. Mr. Mitchell was awarded the St. PetersburgPolice Department’s “Ned March” award for police innovation in the useof computers in the Department’s detective division.
After leaving the St. Petersburg Police Department, Mr. Mitchell becamea full-time volunteer for a large church in St. Petersburg,Florida. Later, he became the services manager withresponsibility for the facility, risk management, policy developmentand property security.
Prior to coming to FLETA, Mr. Mitchell was the manager of the PinellasCounty Sheriff’s Office’s, Law Enforcement Policy Development andAccreditation Division (LEPDA). As the Sheriff’s Office preparedfor its 2006 on-site assessment, Mr. Mitchell developed a completely“paperless” process which allows the assessment teams to viewaccreditation materials on-line from any location.
Mr. Mitchell has a Masters degree in Business Administration andcompleted the Police Executive Research Forum’s Senior ManagementInstitute for Police (SMIP) leadership program, along with theCambridge Program in Risk Management for Churches and Schools.