Yale and FBI launch Future Law Enforcement Youth Academy

Yale University Police Department and the New Haven Field Office of the FBI have announced the Future Law Enforcement Youth Academy (FLEYA), a groundbreaking joint effort to educate, enrich, and promote future law enforcement career paths for young people throughout Connecticut.

Yale Police Chief Ronnell Higgins, who helped create the academy, said, “This partnership exemplifies the university’s focus on fostering accessible educational programs that benefit community members.”

Higgins and the FBI team worked closely with Yale Conference Services to make the program possible. FBI Community Outreach Specialist Charles Grady said, “Two of the Nation’s most notable and iconic institutions have partnered to create a week-long law enforcement and legal training academy for young people throughout Connecticut. We want this training to promote tolerance, unity and the importance of partnerships for success in the working world.”

Twenty-six Connecticut high school students in urban and suburban areas will be selected to participate in the training academy to ensure a diverse learning environment in terms of gender, race, and culture.

Students participating in the academy will get an inside look at today’s FBI while also getting exposure to various local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies.

The students will receive classroom training and participate in practical exercises in investigative forensics. They will have the opportunity to use cyber technology used in combating violent crime, counter intelligence, gang awareness, civil rights (hate crimes), and many more violations of state and federal law.

FLEYA training academy students will live in Yale residential colleges for the week they are on campus. They will be chaperoned by sworn law enforcement and FBI employees. Chaperones will oversee daily and evening events, led by Yale police officers, FBI employees and FBI National Academy Alumni. Each alumni officer will come from the county that the students represent. Grady said this will help promote ongoing communication and networking between law enforcement and participating students after the program ends.

Applications for the summer FLEYA program are online. The deadline is May 27, 2016.