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News Release

Missing & Exploited Children Executive Training

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Department: Sheriff
Release Date: Apr 25, 2012

Contact Information:

Larimer County Sheriff's Office
John Schulz, Public Information Officer

Larimer County Sheriff Justin Smith and Fort Collins Police Captain Cory Christensen, recently returned from the prestigious Chief Executive Officer Training Seminar, held just outside of the nation’s capital, at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) located in Alexandria, Virginia. 

After receiving invitations to attend the specifically designed training seminar for Law Enforcement Executives and 911 Emergency Center managers, Sheriff Smith and Captain Christensen jointly attended the program on Sunday & Monday, April 22-23, as a guest of the NCMEC.
 
Sheriff Smith and Captain Christensen joined 48 other Chiefs, Sheriffs, police executives and 911 Emergency Managers who were also selected and invited, to attend the 134th session of the CEO course.
 
The Missing & Exploited Children Seminar for Chief Executives was designed to provide attendees with a better understanding of the issue of missing and sexually exploited children – and how to specifically deal with the situation of a child who’s been reported missing - when time is critical. The seminar also updated attendees on additional specialized resources that can be provided at the request of local law enforcement agencies through the NCMEC.
 
Sheriff Smith and Captain Christensen used the opportunity to begin formalizing plans to further improve collaboration between their agencies to prevent, prepare for and respond to crimes like child abductions and human trafficking. While the two agencies have always worked to assist each other in these types of crimes, this course brought to light ways that planning and coordination can be further improved. Sheriff Smith stated, “Individually, our agencies have very talented and dedicated officers and detectives prepared to handle these types of incidents, but the discussions held between Cory and me at this seminar made it apparent that together, we could do an even better job of protecting the children in our community.”
 
The course not only dealt with handling child abduction and missing children investigations, but also discussed strategies to identify children who have been victims of human trafficking. Further, the mother of a child abducted 15 years ago spoke to the attendees about the impact of the crime on her and her family and she shared with them the continued pain that she goes through not knowing what happened to her still missing daughter.
 
Created in 1997 and funded by the United States Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice Delinquency (OJJDP), the CEO training discusses the needed steps in implementing best practices for call takers, responding officers, investigators, and Command Staff.