Chief James G. Downes III
23 Pleasant Street
PO Box 154
Dunstable, MA 01827
For Immediate Release
Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2014
Contact: John Guilfoil
Phone: 617-993-0003
Email: john@jgpr.net
Dunstable Police Chief and Lieutenant Attend Amber Alert Child Abduction Investigation Class
DUNSTABLE – Police Chief James Downes III and Lieutenant James Dow are pleased to announce they have attended a four-day “Investigative Strategies for Child Abduction Cases” training program.
“Working in a tight-knit community provides our officers with an excellent opportunity to engage our community members in professional relationships over an extended period of time,” Chief Downes said. “We watch our town’s children grow up, and we care about them. Therefore, it is common sense for us to maximize our training opportunities to better prepare us to respond if the unthinkable happens.”
The class took place in October in Canton, Mass. Topics learned included general legality, current news, family abductions and dynamics, understanding the abduction offender, case management, child abductions and high risk victim investigations, interviewing tips for high risk victims and others. The seminar concluded with a session on “Long-Term Missing and Unresolved Abduction Homicides.”
The overall program consisted of varied presentations all with the central focus of missing and abandoned children. Participants were encouraged to speak openly about the issue and any experiences they had, to provide insight to the rest of the group.
The goal of the training program is to make improvements in finding abducted and missing children. Sharing information from lessons they have learned will hopefully increase this issue.
The program was offered through the AMBER Alert National Training and Technical Assistance Program. Attendees of the program were suggested to actively participate in the seminar. This included providing feedback and criticisms to the presentations to enhance and improve the program.
The U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs provided financial support for this seminar.
Fox Valley Technical College (FVTC) located in Appleton, Wisconsin is the coordinator for the “Investigative Strategies for Child Abduction Cases” training program. Over the last 20 years, FVTC has trained more than 300,000 law enforcement, school, and criminal justice professionals. The FVTC is also experienced in local, state, and federal training programs aimed at criminal justice, housing, education, and social services fields. FVTC uses practitioner trainers with extensive training and research for their programs.
For more information, visit http://www.dunstable-ma.gov/Pages/DunstableMA_Police/index.
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