Commissioner: Dr. Frank Perry

Dr. Perry obtained extensive law enforcement experience while serving 23 years with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as a Special Agent and senior manager. He retired from the FBI as head of the Raleigh Agency, to which he was transferred from Washington to fight public corruption and international terrorism, much of the latter having North Carolina ties. Dr. Perry conceived, researched, and implemented the FBI’s first comprehensive Internal Affairs Integrity program and office. As head of that office and while teaching at the FBI Academy, which is accredited by the University of Virginia, Dr. Perry implemented government integrity programs and policy, and lectured and held leadership and ethics seminars, in countries on six continents. He served as an undercover agent for three years with the FBI’s National Security Division, before which he worked cases from organized crime to counterterrorism. Dr. Perry is the most recent past Secretary of the Department of Public Safety (DPS), having overseen a department of more than 26,000 sworn law enforcement and civilian employees, along with 11,000 North Carolina National Guard soldiers. Dr. Perry was the state’s Homeland Security advisor for four years, and in this capacity assigned DPS personnel to nine federal task forces that still combat a multitude of public safety threats from violent crime to terrorism. Dr. Perry is an Extension Assistant Professor in the School of Public and International Affairs at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, where he teaches Leadership in the Public Sector, Political Science, and is a facility member of the Public Safety Leadership Initiative. He has published and spoken nationwide on the nature of human rights and the remedies for corruption in public service. A North Carolina native, he was educated at Wake Forest University and the University of Miami, holding a doctorate in ethics and political philosophy. He is married and has five children and four granddaughters. Dr. Perry is honored and humbled to answer the high calling to serve on and address the extremely important tasks and deliberations of North Carolina’s Innocence Inquiry Commission.