John A'Vant- Massachusetts, Rhode Island
John P. A'Vant retired from the Rhode Island State Police as a Detective Lieutenant after 25 years of honorable service, with over 17 years in the detective bureau. During this time he served as a Special Federal Officer (SFO) with the Rhode Island Food & Drug Administration (FDA) Task Force, where he worked on the Google fraud investigation that resulted in the Rhode Island State Police receiving $45 million in federal asset forfeiture funds, and was also appointed to the Rhode Island Commission on Prejudice and Bias (RCPB), where he assisted with teaching Rhode Island Civil Rights law and Hate crime laws to recruits at the municipal academy.
After retiring as a member of the State Police in 2003, he was a federally deputized supervisor with the Rhode Island State Police/FBI HIDTA task force, where he oversaw the investigations of large-scale drug trafficking organizations, and from 2019-2020, worked as a special federal background investigator after obtaining a top security clearance and receiving extensive federal background investigations training to conduct federal background investigations for the Office of Professional Management and the National Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency (DCSA).
John was a founding member and inaugural President of the Rhode Island Guardians Association (RIGA), a 501(c) (3) volunteer non-profit minority police organization dedicated to strengthening community-police relations, and mentoring college and high school students of color for a career in the field of criminal justice and developed a strong working relationship with the Rhode Island law enforcement community, coordinating police and community-based training seminars, and advocated for constructive police reform.
