Frank E. Pawlowski is a former police officer who served as commissioner for the

Pennsylvania State Police The Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) is the state police agency of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania, responsible for statewide law enforcement. The Pennsylvania State Police is a full service law enforcement agency which handles both traffic and cr ...

Early life

Frank E. Pawlowski was the son of a

trooper. In 1976, he graduated from

West Chester State College West Chester University (also known as West Chester, WCU, or WCUPA, and officially as West Chester University of Pennsylvania) is a public research university in and around West Chester, Pennsylvania. The university is accredited by the Middle ...

with a

bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Middle Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate academic degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six ...

in criminal justice.

Police career

In 1978, Pawlowski enlisted in the state police and was assigned to Troop J in

Embreeville, Pennsylvania Embreeville is an historical unincorporated community, little more than a rural stretch of road with a few businesses and homes, in Newlin Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, inside a bend of Brandywine Creek. It is about west of Philadelph ...

. Among other roles, he worked as a hostage negotiator, an investigator of the Camp Hill Prison riots, and a special counsel for state attorney general's probe into Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice

Rolf Larsen Rolf Larsen (August 26, 1934 – August 11, 2014), a Democrat originally from Allegheny County, was first elected to the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in 1978. Background Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Larsen went to Pennsylvania State Univ ...

. In 1999, he graduated from the

FBI National Academy The FBI National Academy is a program of the FBI Academy for active U.S. law enforcement personnel and also for international law enforcement personnel who seek to enhance their credentials in their field and to raise law enforcement standards, kno ...

. He became commander of Troop J in 2000 and was promoted to the rank of major in 2003. In August 2008, after state police chief Jeffrey B. Miller stepped down from his position to take a role with the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

, Governor Ed Rendell named Pawlowski as acting commissioner of the state police. Pawlowski was subsequently confirmed by the

Pennsylvania State Senate The Pennsylvania State Senate is the upper house of the Pennsylvania General Assembly, the Pennsylvania state legislature. The State Senate meets in the State Capitol building in Harrisburg. Senators are elected for four year terms, staggered ev ...

in October 2008. He continued to serve as the head of the state police, commanding approximately 6,000 civilian and enlisted employees, until he retired on January 7, 2011. He was succeeded by Frank Noonan, an appointee of newly elected governor Tom Corbett. Pawlowski's older son, Francis J. Pawlowski, joined the Pennsylvania State Police in 2011.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pawlowski, Frank Living people American state police officers State cabinet secretaries of Pennsylvania Pennsylvania State Police Year of birth missing (living people)