The Stalking Resource Center is a program of the National Center for Victims of Crime. Launched in July 2000, with initial funding from the Violence Against Women Office of the U.S. Department of Justice, our dual mission is to raise national awareness of stalking and to encourage the development and implementation of multi disciplinary responses to stalking in local communities across the country.

The National Center for Victims of Crime is the nation’s leading resource and advocacy organization for crime victims. Since 1985, we have worked with more than 10,000 grassroots organizations and criminal justice agencies serving millions of crime victims. For Victim Assistance, please call 1-800-FYI-CALL, M-F 8:30 AM -8:30 PM EST, or e-mail the victim services staff.
www.ncvc.org

CAVNET – Communities Against Violence Network

GREAT DOMESTIC VIOLENCE, SEXUAL ASSAULT SITE – Addressing domestic violence, sexual assault, stalking, violence against women, violence against people with disabilities, violence against children, violence against gays and lesbians. The purpose of the CAVNET homepage is to serve as a searchable, authoritative source of information about all of the above topics.

Mark Wynn’s bio – Twenty-one year member of the Nashville Metropolitan Police Department – Served as Lieutenant to the Domestic Violence Division – member of the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) Team for fifteen years

He is the recipient of 121 commendations and 51 awards and certificates including the 1995  National Improvement of Justice Award and the 1998 Nashvillian of the Year Award.

He recently received the 2012 Family Justice Center Alliance Lifetime Achievement Award

In 2011 he was awarded the “Visionary Award” by  End Violence Against Women International and the Distinguished Faculty Award by the National District Attorney’s Association

Selected in 1995 as one of the top ten police officers in the United States by the International Association of Chief’s of Police and Parade Magazine

Member of International Association of Chiefs of Police National Strategic Partnership on Violence Against Women – Faculty member to the National Leadership Institute

Consultant to the National Stalking Resource Center of the National Center for Victims of Crime.

Consultant to the Department of Justice Office of Victims of Crime – Training and Technical Assistance Center

Adjunct Instructor/Faculty to the  National College of  District Attorney’s conferences on Family Violence for twenty years.

Trainer/Consultant to the American Bar Association International Rule of Law Initiative

1994 Graduate of the Federal Bureau of Investigation National Academy – Session 178

Qualified as “expert” on the issue of family violence in state and federal court

In October of 1995 Lt. Wynn was invited to the White House by President Clinton to deliver a speech on strategies to prevent domestic violence in the United States.

In April 1993 Lt. Wynn was called to testify before Congress for the Energy and Commerce Committee – Subcommittee on Health and Environment. He spoke on the public health issue of violence in the family.

In June of 1994 he testified a second time before Congress going before the House of Representatives’ Committee on the Judiciary on the positive effects on mandatory arrest in incidents of family violence.

Consultant to the National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence – Austin, Texas

Past board member to the American Bar Association’s Commission on Domestic Violence.

In October of 1998 he was selected to represent U.S. Law Enforcement before the first United States/Russian conference on Violence Against Women in
Moscow.

Adjunct instructor to the University of Nevada’s National Council of Juvenile and family Court Judges on the issue of family violence.

Co-wrote the Police Officer Standards and Training certified curriculum on Law Enforcement Intervention and Investigation to Domestic and Sexual Violence

Adjunct instructor to the Tennessee Law Enforcement Academy in Nashville

Member of the Nashville Coalition Against Domestic Violence

Member of the National Center for Victims of Crime

Past member of the Domestic Violence State Coordinating Council for development of policy and training curriculum for law enforcement and the courts for the State of Tennessee

Past instructor to the Nashville Metropolitan Police Academy – Recruit and In-Service Courses of Intervention and Investigation of Domestic and Sexual Violence

Advisor-Trainer to the Tennessee Coalition Against Domestic and Sexual Violence

Past advisory board member to the Commissioner of Human Services to the State of Tennessee on Family Violence and Child Abuse

Former member of the National Advisory Board to the Department of Justice -Office of Victim’s of Crime on Law Enforcement Response to Family Violence

Featured in the U.S. Justice Department training film “Albuquerque Journal“. This training film, on family violence for field officers, is used in police department’s family violence shelters across the country.

Featured in the California Police Officer Standards and Training Commission (POST) training film on Interviewing Techniques and Domestic Violence Victims

Subject of Dateline NBC’s segment titled “Cries for Help“. This news segment covered the subject of children victims of family violence.

Lt. Wynn has appeared on numerous other national television programs such as;

Lifetime Television series – Real Fear Real Crime – Bill Moyers – PBS, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Nickelodeon, Yorkshire (England) Television’s 3-D, NBC World News Tonight and ABC Evening

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

Morgan sends a text message to her teacher, “I don’t think that I’m going to make it to class today.  I’m taking a mental health day from my life.  Hope all is well!”   Her teacher texts back, “Understood 🙂 xo”

Morgan found this to be a perfect place for reflection

Steve and I are weighing our options in the morning.  We are becoming a lot more educated about stalkers and we are not liking anything we read.  A particularly troubling issue for Steve is that our stalker is different.  Every stalking instance, example and scenario they seem to know the stalker at some point.  It was this fact, and also the fact the he was so seamlessly coexisting within our neighborhood that had Steve entertaining the thought of moving.

Today I started looking at other houses for lease ant at first it seemed crazy and desperate.  But as I looked, and thought about it, and started to see homes that I could see had good defensive qualities to them, they didn’t appear very stalker friendly, and it all began to make sense.  Up and moving would be such a huge task.  But then staying put was really not any easier.  Our free time was consumed preparing to catch the stalker.  Our evenings were juggled around being certain we would be close by for Morgan.  And our nights were always some new anti-stalker protocol that failed just like the last one.

We are so stressed out, and afraid for Morgan.  Then came the deal breaker, reading over and over that if the stalker follows her when we move, shows up just as we have settled in and breathed that first sigh of relief, then it will only be worse…

We abandon ideas of moving for the moment and order two new motion detector sets.  They can be clustered together, and each have its own unique sound.  Steve thinks he can set up a light grid that will give us not only noise, but some invisible way of tracking him as he approaches.

I felt like I was in one of those old westerns, where the fort is about to come under attack from the Indians, and preparations for the onslaught are being carried out in the quiet before the storm.  It has actually been days now where we are not sure if the stalker has even really been here. There have been noises and taps and barks, but nothing that really indicates him.  It could all be just the normal noises that to a hyper-vigilant family are still something to worry about.

(Police reports later show the “suspect” was not working this evening)

Click here to read about the 44th day of Morgan’s stalking https://morgansstalking.com/?p=1160