1. We need mutual aid agreements to respond to stalking that crosses County or State lines
2. Law enforcement needs clear policies within their department for responding to stalking and managing stalking cases
3. Law enforcement needs to be trained to read the signs of stalking & what they mean before the stalking case becomes lethal – look for the high indicators
4. Investigating stalking: Listen to the victim (carefully and patiently to find out details, even the small ones that the victim doesn’t necessarily think are important at the time)
5. Look at all the incidents
6. Stalking is a course of conduct that requires continual investigation
7. Put the case of the stalker in context (context is everything in stalking cases) – the stalkers actions may seem benign, but the meaning behind those actions may be his/her way of knowingly causing fear to the victim, and that is why the stalker has chosen those actions
8. The job of law enforcement is to piece all these pieces of information together (like a puzzle), so you can see a clear picture of the offender in front of you
9. Once you have identified a subject that you have in mind:
- Look for who has a motive to do the acts
- Look for corroborating evidence (are there photos, videos of the behavior, answering machine tapes, voice mails, text messages or emails, these things are helpful, but you don’t have to have them
- Interview the suspect, multiple times if necessary
- Use other investigative techniques that have been used successfully in other types of cases in law enforcement, wire taps, and other techniques that have been used in narcotics and other types of cases
Now once, this should be easy, you know you have an offender that is after a particular victim, how easy can it get? All you have to do is focus your investigation on the victim and the offender, and you will catch him in the act of stalking! There are certainly more offenders than there are police officers. but our law enforcement should be a lot smarter than the offenders. No excuse to not have communication between counties, cities, and states, have mutual aid agreements, offenders travel, victims run to different states or counties and their stalkers follow.
- Develop mutual aid agreements
- Have policies/protocol in place to show how you will manage a stalking case that could go on for weeks, months or years
- Include the victim in safety planning
- Connect victims with advocates
- Enforce all orders of protection
You can not minimize these cases – it is the most dangerous thing that you can do in law enforcement – it is tombstone mentality. You can never say, “well maybe it will get better,” because that is exactly what the offender wants. If we give over with minimization the offender takes over with maximization. The offenders are counting on everybody to treat their actions as less than a crime. The longer you stay on a case the more you will see what the victim has been trying to tell you all along – if you walk in the shoes of that victim then you won’t minimize, then you will get the whole picture.
This important information I have learned from Mike Proctor – Mike has become one the this nation’s leading experts on stalking.
F.Y.I. Yesterday, Tuesday, September 11th Steve went to roll our trashcan down the long driveway of the house we are now renting, so the trash collectors could pick up our trash down at the end of our driveway, by the street, as always – but what a surprise he got when he opened the can up to put one last trash bag in it…it was completely empty! Someone had come up our driveway to empty our trashcan. The trashcan that was tucked on the side of our garage. What a shock – someone took our trash! And mind you – the new neighborhood we are in is kind of out-of-the-way and the house we are renting is many turns into the neighborhood and at the end of a street – so this was intentional. What would the reason be for this? Hope they enjoyed looking through everything as we have nothing to hide – maybe they should have been this diligent with the criminals.
Keep the candle burning for all victims of stalking
There’s nothing more powerful than education. Make it a requirement to go through a program not just a training of how to physically take down a person to be hired into law enforcement! Maybe if it’s harder to become law, then the badge they earned will be worn with more honor and integrity. As they should be proud of earning it, they should be more proud to go through continuing education as a requirement to keep that badge! They have to go through training and periodically testing of their know how with their guns, why not do the same with their brains?
I think most law enforcement wants to have the tools to catch the bad guy and that is why the education and correct protocol is so important! It comes from the top of each agency to decide on what will be done.
I believe Law Makers need to change the laws on Stalking. It should fall under the same as Domestic Terrorism because that is exactly what the stalker is doing, Terrorizing the Victim and a big risk to the community.
I agree and for the rest of our lives Steve and I will do whatever needs to be done to bring about that change. Thanks for sharing.
I am a long time resident of the roaring fork valley. First and and most importantly am so sorry for your loss and the pain you continue to endure. What folks don’t realize is that we are a small town where most people don’t lock their doors(like myself!) our biggest worry has been whether a bear has gotten into your garbage or is up in one of your trees. That is until now.
While I am sure that law enforcement is reading your blog- my hunch is that the stalker is too. And what the stalker should know is we are watching- as people become more aware we are taking precautions, noticing the checker in city market, looking at the cars and people that don’t belong in our neighborhood. This is no different than when neighborhoods are warned of rapists or burglaries in their area. I believe in the community of our valley and we can work together to put an end to this. And I hope that this stalker can feel our presence.
Thank you Toni for motivating a community to make a difference!
Thank you for expressing my feelings so well…hugs!
A couple ideas I had to spread the word: Create a twitter account for Morgan’s blog and tweet the link to each entry every day. (She’s actually been tweeted about a few times on twitter already). Have one of her creative friends make a short video about her for youtube in hopes that it will go viral. The man who did this short film did an incredible job: http://cainesarcade.com/ . Maybe he’d help you if we could raise money to get him to Colorado! What you are doing is so valuable. Thank you and God bless you for sharing your daughter, your pain, and your lessons with us!
It’s a great idea – thank you so much for sharing. I do have a twitter account for Morgan’s Stalking (that is the name) but I really don’t know that much about twitter…we do have 22 followers though. There is a great person working on a video like you describe for youtube but he is patiently waiting for my OK and we are so busy and can only do one thing at a time…it doesn’t seem like our brains work as fast as they used to before Morgan died – we are working on getting up to speed. Thanks again we REALLY do appreciate your suggestions they are great!
Thank you for trying to make a difference and making sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else. I just heard on the news about a military man who was stalked by his ex girlfriend but the cops never did anything about it and now he was found shot to death in his home. Victims need help before it gets to late. Laws need to be changed.
I’ve been reading your story for a couple days now and my heart breaks the more I read your blog. My heart goes out to your family and pray you get the justice Morgan deserves.
It seems that the whole state of Colorado has had a very serious problem with not being able or willing to investigate or solve serious crimes like murder for a very long time. Just look at what happened when Jon-Benet Ramsey was murdered in her own home at 6 years old. Her cacase has never been solved and was obviously bungled from the very beginning! Colorado needs a total revamping of their police departments and justice system it seems to me. They need to give justice to Morgan and other victims like her. I don’t know how they can sleep at night knowing that they are not doing the right thing in so many cases.