Sheriff's Office Receives Grant to Attend National Conference on Crimes Against Women

The Sequoyah County Sheriff's Office has been selected as a 2018 scholarship recipient to attend the thirteenth annual Conference on Crimes Against Women. Scholarship proceeds cover registration, travel, and hotel costs. Teams are able to attend the conference and then return to their departments with newfound knowledge of how to combat the many and varied forms of crimes against women. 

Sarah Ridinger, victims advocate for the Sequoyah County Sheriff's Office, said the opportunity to attend a prestigious victims conference and training such as this and network with other victims advocates is priceless.

"To attend this training on the newest perspectives and techniques used in victims' services, we'll be able to serve our Sequoyah County victims of crime better," said Ridinger, who will attend conference with Cindy Smith, investigator with the Sheriff's Office. "It's my belief that the more training you have, the better you can do your job. We're real excited about it."

Smith said she, too, is thrilled to be able to attend this "buffet training," where attendees can choose the focused seminars they want to attend according to their area of service, such as advocates, law enforcement and prosecutors.

"This is such a renowned training conference," Smith said, adding that the cost of the scholarship for the pair to attend is approximately $2,000. "There are presenters from all over the world."

The conference will feature keynote speaker, FBI Special Agent John Douglas. As an innovator at the FBI in the late 1970s, John Douglas developed new investigative techniques for hunting serial killers, sex offenders and other violent offenders. Douglas became widely recognized as the top authority on criminal profiling, a mix of psychology, pattern recognition, and inductive/deductive reasoning. While leading the FBI’s Investigate Support Unit, Douglas used profiling in numerous prominent cases. He entered popular culture as the model for Jack Crawford in the film The Silence of the Lambs, and his book, Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit, was recently made into a Netflix series based on Douglas’ life story, starring Jonathan Groff.

The conference promotes strategies that improve public safety and support victims of crime across the nation. Classes are taught at CCAW with the intention of not only educating attendees, but also equipping them with the necessary tools to convey information to their departments and colleagues, thereby systematically improving agencies and increasing collective skill and competency levels. Ultimately, this training facilitates improvement of policies, practices, strategies, and collaborative responses to all crimes against women. 

This scholarship provides access to critical training for communities who would otherwise be unable to attend due to increasing budget constraints that public service agencies face. Presented by Genesis Women’s Shelter & Support and the Dallas Police Department, CCAW is a national clearinghouse for training and best practices regarding the identification, investigation, and prosecution of all types of violent crimes against women, including domestic and dating violence, sexual assault, stalking, and human trafficking. This year the conference will welcome over 2,500 professionals from all 50 states. Hosted in Dallas, Texas, the 2018 conference will be held April 16th through 19th. 

Pam Cloud, Managing News Director

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