Major Frank Carpenter first moved to Virginia 30 years ago, a fresh-faced college graduate ready to join the ranks of the Petersburg Bureau of Police outside Chesterfield.
The Maryland native graduated from Bowie State University after earning a football scholarship, studying sociology and criminal justice, and he applied for the Petersburg job in part because his mother was living in Chesterfield at the time.
Now, three decades into a law enforcement career that has taken him to Chesterfield County, he’ll graduate again, this time from the University of Virginia’s Master of Public Safety program. Carpenter is among the new program’s first 29 graduates, and he’ll walk the Lawn this month at Final Exercises with his classmates. It will be a true “full circle” moment as Carpenter was born at the UVA Hospital more than 50 years ago.
“I’ve got to be honest, it had been years since I’d done my undergraduate work, and I had reservations about entering such deep waters,” Carpenter said recently of his decision to go back to school. “The program has been extremely challenging, but also thought-provoking. It’s called for us to think outside of the box and think about policing from a different perspective.”
The Master of Public Safety program launched in 2021 in UVA’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies, and is a part-time program designed for non-traditional college students who are often working adults.
Carpenter, like many of his classmates, is in a leadership position after many years of police work. He’s served as a patrol officer, a sergeant, in a variety of investigative roles – including on a narcotics taskforce drawn from several departments during his time in Petersburg. He came to Chesterfield County’s department looking for new opportunities.
“I bought my first house, had my first child, and worked as a reservist in the U.S. Army as a commissioned military police officer,” Carpenter recalled.
