The Federal Law Enforcement Training Accreditation (FLETA) Board welcomed Robert Ray to the Board. Mr. Ray began his term June 1, 2015 and is replacing Ms. Angela Hrdlicka who retired on May 31, 2015. Mr. Ray represents the entire Inspectors General community as the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency member on the FLETA Board.
Mr. Ray is is Special Agent with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Inspector General. He currently serves as the Director of the Inspector General Criminal Investigator Academy (IGCIA) at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) in Glynco, Georgia. The IGCIA provides training to approximately 4,500 criminal investigators in 72 federal Offices of Inspectors General. Mr. Ray has served as Program Manager for IGCIA advanced and specialized training programs since July 2009. Before his assignment at the IGCIA, Mr. Ray was the FLETC’s Deputy Assistant Director for Glynco Training Operations (2008-2009) and Deputy Assistant Director for Training Management (2005-2008). He was also Chief of the FLETC’s Training Management Division (2003-2005), serving as the Program Manager for all Glynco-based interagency basic training programs, including the FLETC’s flagship Criminal Investigator Training Program.
In addition, Mr. Ray was a Special Agent with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Office of Inspector General from 1991 to 2002, where he served in the Southeast and Midwest Regions. He also served as a firearms instructor, defensive tactics instructor, and confidential informant coordinator. From 1995 to 2002, Mr. Ray was a member of the Indianapolis Safe Streets Gang Task Force, where served as Marion County Special Deputy Sheriff and led multiple criminal investigations and two large-scale fugitive sweep operations.
Mr. Ray holds a Bachelor of Science in Police Administration from Eastern Kentucky University, where he also completed graduate courses and served as a graduate assistant in the College of Law Enforcement. Additionally, Mr. Ray has completed the DHS Senior Executive Service Candidate Development Program and earned a Certificate of Executive Qualifications from the U.S. Office of Personnel Management. He is a graduate of the Federal Executive Institute’s Leadership for a Democratic Society program, and the Senior Executive Fellows Program at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.
The FLETA Board is the accrediting body for all federal law enforcement training and support programs. To achieve accreditation, agencies submit to an independent review of their academy and/or program to ensure compliance with the FLETA Standards and Procedures in the areas of: Program Administration, Training Staff, Training Development, and Training Delivery, with an additional 20 standards for Academies. Accreditation is a cyclical process occurring every three years. Each year, agencies must submit annual reports in preparation for reaccreditation, which is a new and independent review of the academy/program.