Longtime Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center Director to Retire

YODER, Kansas (May 15, 2018) – 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 Department. 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.”

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 a 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 in 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 Department, retiring at the Rank of division commander. He holds 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.”
     - Governor 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 University of Kansas 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

Retirement Reception
A retirement reception for Pavey will be held at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, June 7, at the Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center near Yoder (GPS Address: 11009 S. Hornet Rd., Hutchinson, Kansas).

About the University of Kansas Professional & Continuing Education
KU Professional & Continuing Education supports the teaching, research and public service missions of the University, contributing to postgraduate professional education, workforce development, distance learning and quality of life for Kansans and worldwide communities. Other programming within Professional & Continuing Education includes Professional Programs, Aerospace Short Courses, Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center and Kansas Fire & Rescue Training Institute. Combined, these programs teach more than 30,000 individuals a year in every county in Kansas, across the United States and internationally. It is headquartered at the KU Edwards Campus in Overland Park, Kansas.

About the Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center
Established by the Kansas Legislature in 1968 as the central law enforcement training facility for our state, the Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center (KLETC) serves as the headquarters for all law enforcement training in Kansas.  Located at the former naval air station south of Hutchinson and west of Yoder in Reno County, Kansas, the Center’s mission, as expressed in the Law Enforcement Training Act, K.S.A. 74-5601 et. seq. is “the promotion and development of improved law enforcement personnel and procedures throughout the state, and the training center shall offer to qualified applicants such programs and courses of instruction designed to fulfill this end.”  KLETC directly trains the overwhelming majority of municipal, county and state law enforcement officers in Kansas, and oversees, supervises and monitors the training of the remaining officers at eight authorized and certified academy programs operated by local law enforcement agencies and the Kansas Highway Patrol.

Individuals with disabilities are encouraged to attend University of Kansas sponsored events. If you require a reasonable accommodation in order to participate in this event, please contact Lisa Webster two weeks prior to the event at lwebster@kletc.org or 620-694-1505.