Keith Anderson “Andy” Ray has 36 years of full-time experience in law enforcement, beginning his career in 1987 as a deputy sheriff with the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. Prior to that, he graduated with an Associate in Arts degree from Polk Community College and then a Bachelor of Science in Criminology from the Florida State University. During the time he was in college, he was an auxiliary state trooper with the Florida Highway Patrol.
Andy spent 25 years at PCSO working in the Patrol Division, Community Services Division, Criminal Investigations Division, and the Special Operations Division. At the time he retired, he was assigned as the captain overseeing the Bureau of Support Operations. During his career at PCSO, he earned a Master of Public Administration degree from Troy University and is a graduate of the Southern Police Institute’s 103rd Administrative Officer’s Course at the University of Louisville. As well, he is a graduate of the Police Executive Research Forum’s Senior Management Institute for Police in Boston, Massachusetts.
He then began a second career as the deputy chief of police at the Auburndale Police Department in 2012, where he continued until being promoted to chief of police when his predecessor, Chris Nelson, moved to the Tenth Circuit State Attorney’s Office as its executive director.
In 2022, Andy retired from Auburndale. Andy now serves as the police chief of the Bartow Police Department, having been hired on August 7, 2023.
Bartow Police Department
Phone: (863) 534-5034
COUNTIES: Hillsborough, Polk