Manayunk Native Earns CBP Commissioner’s Award for Integrity

PHILADELPHIA – A Philadelphia Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officer recently received the Commissioner’s Integrity Award, the agency’s third highest recognition bestowed by its Commissioner, at a ceremony in Washington, D.C.

Manayunk native Robert Renner, a supervisory CBP officer at Philadelphia International Airport, earned the prestigious recognition when he displayed “great integrity and ethics” during a Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General investigation of a federal law enforcement agent who is alleged to have stolen bulk currency from drug trafficking organization couriers.

The agent also faces money laundering, bank fraud, and tax evasion charges.  Renner was not part of the multi-agency investigation team, but played a vital role by providing critical evidence against the agent.

Through his duties at CBP’s National Targeting Center in Reston, Va., Renner worked closely with the Southern California agent to disrupt bulk currency smuggling attempts.  It was during those cases that the agent is alleged to have robbed drug money couriers.  Renner provided crucial details to investigators that corroborated allegations against that agent.

“Every year, the Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection has the honor of saluting the ‘best of the best’ at the annual Commissioner’s Awards Ceremony.  At this year’s ceremony, I was pleased to recognize the tremendous contributions of those employees whose special accomplishments eclipse the everyday heroism that has come to characterize CBP’s workforce,” said Acting CBP Commissioner Kevin McAleenan.  “The Awards honored individuals and a team whose extraordinary contributions inspire us all.”

The Integrity Award recognizes an employee who clearly demonstrated work habits and a devotion to integrity that are above reproach, and that exemplify CBP’s core values and ethical standards. CBP officers can earn the Integrity Award while participating in an undercover operation which led to the arrest of an individual, or that addressed a potential incident of terrorism or corruption.

“Being that integrity is one of our agencies core values, this award is definitely a great honor and achievement for me,” Renner said.  Renner’s advice to others for best practice in exercising integrity? “Simple, just do the right thing,” he said.

Renner, who has been with CBP since 2006, previously served on the agency’s Anti-Terrorism and Contraband Enforcement Team (ATCET) at the Port of San Ysidro, Calif., as an Intelligence Officer at CBP’s San Diego Field Office, and then at the National Targeting Center (NTC), first on the Passenger Advanced Targeting Team and then in the Counter Network Division there, a unit which he helped to start.

The Integrity Award is not the first time Renner earned agency recognition.

Renner was part of an NTC team that earned a Unit Citation in 2014, and a Dean-Melendez Anti-Terrorism Award in 2016.  He twice earned the agency’s top recognition for individual heroism or achievement, the prestigious Blue Eagle award, while in San Ysidro, first in 2008 for busting up a human smuggling ring in 2008 that used “coffin compartments” in vehicles to conceal aliens, and for a heroin seizure in 2009.

“In earning the Commissioner’s Integrity Award, Supervisor Renner has displayed a remarkable commitment to exercising Customs and Border Protection’s core values, and an exceptional dedication to earning the trust of the public we are sworn to serve and to protect,” said Casey Owen Durst, CBP Director of Field Operations, Baltimore Field Office.

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