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The Quarterly Messenger
After a long hiatus, the IHIA proudly announces the return of our newsletter “The Quarterly Messenger”. We hope that our membership will find it as a useful resource and filled with practical information.
The content will also include case studies from our law enforcement partners nationally and internationally as well as information on forensic tools and techniques currently utilized to improve solvability rates of homicide investigations and conviction rates.
You’ll also see dates and locations of our upcoming training courses that are currently being scheduled for the rest of 2021 and into 2022.
The IHIA looks forward to hearing from our members to consider submitting articles of interest, features on our IHIA members, and also on how to improve this platform for information sharing.
Please feel free to forward articles of interest, including case studies, new advancements in forensic technologies, noteworthy accomplishments of members, or suggestions to gesteban@ihia.org.
WHAT’S INSIDE
• The 2021 IHIA Symposium • Meet Your IHIA Board of Directors
• Scholarship Recipients • Crime in the United Kingdom • IHIA Training Courses 2021-2022 • The IHIA “On The Move” and more…
• Save The Date for IHIA 2022…
President’s Message
Greetings and hoping this message find you and your families doing well. Indeed, we’ve all been through very difficult and challenging times with COVID-19. Our sincerest sympathies go out to those who tragically lost loved ones, co-workers, and friends.
All of us have and continue to endure both physical and mental health concerns associated with the pandemic. Although we are seeing decreasing infections and increased vaccinations, we ask you continue to remain vigilant and be able to attend our training courses and meet old friends while also making new ones.
Your IHIA Team along with our friends from Cypress Planning Group are moving ahead with finalizing plans for our annual event in Washington D.C. The 27th Annual IHIA Training Symposium is being held at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill from August 8-13, 2021.
We look forward to providing our members and attendees valuable training, interesting case studies, an abundance of investigative and forensic resources, and ample opportunities to network.
The IHIA continues to experience growth in both its membership and fulfilling its training mission to our members.
In addition to the Advanced Homicide Investigation and Cold Case/No Body Homicide Investigation/Prosecution Courses, the working group made up of members from the IHIA, the FBI, seasoned investigators, prosecutors, and subject matter experts are meeting soon to develop additional course offerings for our members. The IHIA is very excited about these new courses.
Your IHIA Board of Directors are pleased to announce that long time member and Advisory Board Member, David Gaylor has been appointed to the Board of Directors as its International Director. Dave is a well-respected and seasoned investigator who recently retired from the Sussex Police Department in the United Kingdom. You’ll hear more on David in an upcoming issue of the newsletter.
Immediate Past President Paul Belli of the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office has filled the vacant position of Vice President for the duration of a term ending in August. After the end of the 2021 Symposium, Paul will return to a familiar position as the IHIA President for a two-year term.
Our inaugural IHIA Cold Case / No Body Investigation / Prosecution Course made its debut in May at the site of the upcoming symposium and was well attended. Although the initial course was planned for 2020 and at the historical FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill was nonetheless a comfortable replacement and provided excellent accommodations.
While much of the restaurants remained closed, the IHIA held a networking event at Samuel Beckett’s Irish Pub in Arlington where those in attendance enjoyed a bountiful amount of food and beverages.
Great job to the IHIA Training Coordinator Mike Corrado and his team for an outstanding job with this course.
In closing, the IHIA continues to identify other promotional opportunities for the association, including partnerships with other law enforcement associations. You’ll hear more about these great organizations and how these partnerships will benefit the IHIA and its membership. We all look forward to seeing each of you in D.C. in August at the 2021 Symposium!!!
IHIA Scholarship Recipients
The International Homicide Investigators Association is pleased to announce three (3) recipients who were recently each awarded $1,250.00 scholarships to pursue their college education. Each of their nominations were extremely well written and meaningful. The following are brief summaries of their submissions.
Julia Juanita Urbina, a Florida resident and recent graduate of Oasis High School maintained a 3.6 GPA and will attend the Florida Gulf Coast University pursuing a degree in nursing.
Julia was a member of the National Honor Society where she served as the Vice President, an JROTC cadet, where she commanded the female Raider team, and also volunteered for the Cape Coral Animal Shelter. She also played on the Lady Shark Basketball team and was awarded the “6th Man Award” and was Most Improved in her Freshman year.
Julia credits her aunt and uncle for having a huge influence on her life, providing her with positive reinforcement, encouragement, and guidance through her young life.
Congratulations Julia and best wishes from the IHIA in your future education and endeavors.
Matthew Ryan Suggs is a resident of North Carolina and a recent graduate of South Central High School where he maintained a 3.8 GPA. While at South Central, Matthew played on the varsity soccer team, was a member of the National Honor Society, Math and Science Honors Society, the JROTC, and a member of the marching band and theater group.
Matthew will attend the Johnson University and his field of study is preaching and church leadership. His volunteer work includes a county recreation league soccer coach, volunteering at the Joy Soup kitchen, the Hope Lodge, the JROTC’s annual Christmas carolers at nursing homes, and teaching middle school and elementary students the art of flag folding.
Matthew’s biggest influence in his life has been his dad, who has prepared him to accept the good with the bad that life offers, to continue to strive for the best, and to persevere and never to give up on his goals.
Congratulations Matthew and the IHIA wish you the very best in achieving success in education and in your future.
Matthew Edward Urban is a resident of Pennsylvania and graduated from Wyoming Seminary where he maintained a 3.38 GPA. In high school, Matthew was the founder of the Young Conservatives Club and a member of the rowing crew, cross country, and basketball teams. He was a member of the Yearbook committee and the Model United Nations.
He will attend Penn State University and his field of study is mechanical engineering. Matthew has volunteered in performing lawn services for his neighbors, summer league basketball training, food drives, at his local church, and he earned a black belt in Tang Soo Do. He was also a member of Sea Cadets JROTC.
Matthew credits his grandfather as having a huge influence on him, teaching him a strong work ethic, selflessness, and demonstrating a willingness to help others.
This IHIA congratulates Matthew and wish him the very best in accomplishing his goals in education and life.
The IHIA Scholarships provide financial assistance to the immediate family of active IHIA members who are seeking post-secondary education. The IHIA seeks to support its members with this opportunity due to the considerable expenses related to post-secondary education. The IHIA seeks qualified applicants who will best represent the professionalism and commitment to service in accordance with protocols established by the IHIA.
A total of four (4) annual $1,000.00 scholarships are awarded annually to deserving students
Deadline for the 2022 applications are July 15, 2022 and recipients will be notified shortly after. The IHIA pays scholarship funds directly to the recipient. Scholarships are awarded annually.
The IHIA Scholarships are awarded without discrimination to age, race, color, religion, disability, veteran status, ethnicity, gender, or sexual orientation. If you have any questions about the application, please e-mail the IHIA Scholarship Committee at scholarship@ihia.org
2021 IHIA Symposium
The 2021 IHIA Symposium is set for August 8th through 13th, 2021 in Washington, D.C. The Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill will once again serve as the host hotel and training venue. While it has been an ongoing challenge, we’re confident that provisions and health requirements that will be in place will ensure that our honored guests, members, speakers, exhibitors, and sponsors who attend can do so with minimal concerns.
For more information, please visit us at IHIA.ORG.
MEET YOUR IHIA BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Each quarter, we’ll feature a member of the IHIA Board of Directors and give you some insight on their professional and private lives as well as some of their hobbies. For this quarter, we’re featuring our IHIA Association Manager Steve Lewis.
Lieutenant Steve Lewis started his law enforcement career in 1990, at 19 years old, when he joined the Reserve Deputy program with the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office in Tampa, Florida. Three (3) years later, he was hired as a fulltime deputy, working in numerous capacities to include Patrol, Field Training, High Liability Instructor, Motor Unit, Bicycle Unit, Street Crimes, School Resource, General Detective and Homicide Detective.
In 2006, he was promoted to Corporal, where he served on patrol and as an Administrative Assignment to two-time Past IHIA President Gary Terry, where he helped coordinate many symposiums, alongside his mentor.
In 2010, he was promoted to Sergeant & assigned on patrol, various detective supervisory positions, & also served as co-coordinator for the 200-man bicycle team for the 2012 Republican National Convention. Steve continued to help his other mentor, Past President J.R. Burton with additional symposiums & basic homicide courses. In 2013, he was appointed by the IHIA Board of Directors as the Treasurer for the IHIA, upon the retirement of John King.
In 2016, he was promoted to Lieutenant, where he served on patrol and as the Investigative Lieutenant for District I.
While employed, Lieutenant Lewis obtained a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree, both from Saint Leo University. In 2018, he attended University of Louisville, 140th Administrative Officers Course at the Southern Police Institute. In all of his educational accomplishments, he graduated with honors.
In February 2021, Lieutenant Lewis retired after serving 30 years with the HCSO and a month later was appointed as the Association Manager for the IHIA.
For the past 20 plus years, Lieutenant Lewis has officiated Baseball and Softball with Little League, High School and College. He recently began officiating High School Football and Volleyball. He currently serves as the Umpire in Chief for District 6 Little League and as President of the Hillsborough County Umpires Association. He has participated in two World Series for Little League (2011 and 2016) and multiple state finals in High School.
He has been married to his wife Doreen since 1997 and they have three children (Jasmine, Jovana and Steven Jr). He spends his other free time with his two grandchildren, Kaden and Carter.
He has been a member of the IHIA since 2004
IHIA VISITS PHOENIX FOR THE NSA CONFERENCE & THE FBINAA CONFERENCE IN ORLANDO
The National Sheriffs Association held their annual conference in Phoenix, Arizona during June 22-24, 2021 at the Phoenix Convention Center. Additionally, the FBINAA held their annual conference during July 7-10, 2021 at the Rosen Shingle Creek Hotel in Orlando.
Association Manager Steve Lewis and IHIA President Greg Esteban met with many attendees and other vendors at the IHIA Booth to promote the association to other law enforcement agencies.
“While we’re accustomed to holding our own symposiums, these are our first opportunities & experiences as exhibitors. It’s all about connecting with people in the same profession. It’s definitely something the IHIA will continue to pursue” said Esteban.
2021 IHIA Training Course Calendar
November 1-4 - Cold Case/No Body Homicide Investigation-Prosecution Course-Hosted by Hillsborough Sheriff’s Office https://www.ihia.org/event-4218586 2022 IHIA Training Course Calendar
January-Southern Regional Basic Homicide Investigation Course-Hosted by the Cobb County Police Department, Georgia (Dates TBA)
December-Advanced Homicide Investigation Course-Tulsa, Oklahoma (Dates & venue TBA)
KNIFE CRIME IN THE UNITED KINGDOM
An update from IHIA International Director David Gaylor, Detective Chief Superintendent, Sussex Police, UK (Ret.)
One of the biggest challenges facing law enforcement in the United Kingdom at the moment is the continued rise in the number of knife crimes which has been rising steadily since 2014 and rose to record levels in 2017-18 with the number of fatal stabbings the highest since Home Office records began in 1946. In the 12 months to June 2019 there were 235 knife murders and 412 attempted murders.
In London alone, since 1 January 2019 there have been over a hundred and thirty reported homicides and this number is increasing.
Why do people carry knives? For protection, self-defense, as part of gang culture? Perhaps it’s because they are cheap and easy to get hold of. They may be living in a household where carrying a knife is acceptable. Carrying a knife can mean four years in prison, even if you don't use it. You can get a criminal record just for carrying a knife. Carrying an offensive weapon, like a knife, is a serious offense and carrying it for self-protection is not a defense.
So what action is being taken to address this knife crime epidemic?
On 9 April 2018, the UK Government published the Serious Violence Strategy setting out the Government’s response to increases in knife crime, gun crime and homicides. The Strategy represented a step change in the way we think and respond to serious violence. It stresses the importance of early intervention to tackle the root causes of serious violence and provide young people with the skills and resilience to lead productive lives free from violence.
It is important that those who commit violent crimes receive appropriate, proportionate and robust sentences, but the approach is not focused solely on law enforcement but requires a multi-agency approach across a number of sectors such as education, health, social services, housing, youth services, victim services and others.
On 15 July 2019, the Home Secretary announced a new legal duty on public bodies to prevent and tackle serious violence. The new ‘public health duty’ will cover the police, local councils, local health bodies, education representatives and youth offending services. It will ensure that relevant services work together to share data, intelligence and knowledge to understand and address the root causes of serious violence including knife crime. It will also allow them to target their interventions to prevent and stop violence altogether.
In addition, the government will amend legislation to ensure that serious violence is an explicit priority for Community Safety Partnerships, which include local police, fire and probation services, by making sure they have a strategy in place to tackle violent crime. Early Intervention Youth Fund monies will be distributed to 10 areas to support projects for young people to prevent them getting drawn into crime and to help them make more positive life choices. The fund has already supported 115 projects over the 2 years it has been running.
The cash for violence reduction units is in addition to the recent £63.4 million surge funding given to forces across England and Wales that are worst affected by serious violence and knife crime, and comes from the £100 million serious
violence fund announced by the government in March 2019 as part of its continued action to crack down on violent crime.
At the start of June 2019, 20,000 Personal, Social, Health and Economic (PSHE) teachers were sent new lesson plans to further equip them to challenge myths and communicate to their pupils the dangers of carrying a knife. The lessons were created in partnership with the PSHE Association and teachers to create new and improved school curriculum materials on knife crime ahead of the summer holidays, and feature real-life case studies.
In May 2019 the Offensive Weapons Act received Royal Assent, bringing in tough new measures that strengthen law enforcement’s response to violent crime.
Meanwhile, an independent review of drug misuse, led by Professor Dame Carol Black, will seek to ensure that law enforcement agencies and policy are targeting and preventing the drug-related causes of violent crime effectively.
The Offensive Weapons Act 2019 is an important part of the action the Government is taking to address the increase in serious violence. The Act also introduces Knife Crime Prevention Order (KCPOs). These new preventative civil Orders will be an additional tool that the police will be able to use to work with young people and others to encourage them to help steer them away from knife crime and serious violence.
They will also help to prevent others who have been involved in knife crime from further offending when used following a conviction.
The intention is that KCPOs will be preventative rather than punitive – to help prevent knife crime, by using positive requirements to help steer the individual away from serious violence, by addressing factors in their lives that may increase the chances of offending, alongside measures to prohibit certain activities, or introduce geographical restrictions and curfews to help prevent future offenses.
Hundreds of people are losing their life because of a knife attack. What do we know about the victims? We do know that almost half of the victims were under 30 and were overwhelmingly male.
There has been one fatal stabbing every 1.45 days so far this year. Most of the offenses are committed on the street and in public places and in London in 2018 it was the capitals’ bloodiest casualty toll in a decade - when the number of homicides reached 132 and saw London’s murder rate overtake that of New York, and the violence continues to plague the capital.
As of December 2019, there have been 140violent deaths in the capital. Twenty-five teenagers have been killed in the capital this year alone.
Richard Taylor, 70, father of Damilola Taylor, who was 10 when he was stabbed to death in 2000, said: "This is nothing but a national crisis. Some teenagers see either being murdered or killing another person as a rite of passage when that used to be getting a job or going to university."
Metropolitan Police Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick has previously said that detectives were operating in a ‘very challenging’ environment and had been met with a ‘wall of silence’ in some cases. Campaigners have said ‘It’s totally unacceptable that the knife crime crisis continues to claim so many young lives, with offences at a record high.
‘Knife crime is a symptom of a much wider, complex problem. Too many young people are suffering a “poverty of hope” and facing a future with no qualifications, no job prospects and no role models, making them vulnerable to criminal gangs who force them to deliver drugs and carry knives.’
The number of teenagers stabbed to death in the capital is now at its highest level for more than a decade and grieving relatives have called the statistics ‘seriously alarming.’ This year’s youngest victim was just 14 years old.
It will take time for the many projects to start having an effect and as a consequence many more victims of knife crime will lose their life. The challenge is immense but it is one that law enforcement agencies cannot fail.
In the meantime hundreds of bars and pubs are to be given specialist medical equipment to treat knife victims after a campaign by the mother of a man stabbed to death. 320 bleed control kits are being supplied to late-night venues across London's financial district over the coming months. A pilot scheme was rolled out in Birmingham earlier this year, and the London project will be the largest of its kind.
The police have said they will cover the cost with money raised from a late- night levy on licensed premises organized by local councils. This is a really, really simple piece of kit which can make a big difference. Particularly with the most catastrophic bleeds, if you don't get help in the first few minutes the person will almost certainly die.
These kits will help achieve the aim of making the City as safe as possible for the people who live, work and visit the SquareMile. The bleeding control kits contain trauma bandages, tourniquets and adhesive chest seals to treat knife wounds or gunshots. It is hoped that the kits will help bar staff and members of the public treat anyone suffering from major bleeds.
On average, it takes an ambulance seven minutes to get to patients suffering from stab wounds. However, bleeding from serious injuries such as those suffered in a stabbing, shooting, car or industrial accident can prove fatal in three to five minutes. The Bleed Control Kits can help save precious time until paramedics arrive.
The clear message for everyone is that carrying a knife is not acceptable behavior and education must be the driver to reduce knife crime supported by robust enforcement if we are to save lives and in particular reduce the number of very young victims killed on our streets.
Introducing your IHIA Regional and International Directors and areas in their respective regions. Please contact one in your region in requesting to host a Basic Homicide Investigation Course.
Detective First Lieutenant Eddy is the director for the Northern Region which includes Eastern Canada, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana,and Michigan.
Please email Detective First Lieutenant Eddy at deddy@ihia.org for your training needs.
Major Frank Losat is the director for the Southern Region which includes Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and the Caribbean
Trooper Dick Perreault is the director for the Eastern Region which includes Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia, Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.
Detective Rob Peters is the director for the Western Region which includes Alaska, Western Canada, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, and Mexico
David Gaylor is the International Director which currently includes the United Kingdom, which is made up of England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
Please email David at dgaylor@ihia.org for your international training needs.
https://dnalabsinternational.com/
https://www.511tactical.com
https://www.axon.com/
28th Annual IHIA Symposium New Orleans, LA
SAVE THE DATE FOR 2022
The International Homicide Investigators Association (IHIA) & The Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office are pleased to announce the 28th Annual International Symposium which will be held in New Orleans, Louisiana from August 7th through 13th, 2022. SEE Y’ALL IN NEW ORLEANS!!! VISIT IHIA.ORG FOR MORE INFO
