Assessing Readiness for Incorporating Victim Services into Law Enforcement Agencies

Presenters

Amy Durall, Office for Victims of Crime Fellow 

Amy is an accomplished professional with a master’s degree in psychology and over 35 years of social service experience. This includes field practice as a victim services director for law enforcement agencies, a key member of assessment teams that review law enforcement response to violent crimes, and as a training and technical assistance provider for national projects that include policy and practice review, training development and delivery, and direct assistance with strategic approaches to enhance victim response efforts.

Amy has documented experience collaborating with local, state, university, and Tribal law enforcement agencies, allied partners of various disciplines, and multiple federal funding agencies.

Caroline Huffaker, Senior Program Manager at the National Policing Institute (NPI)

Caroline is responsible for managing a number of NPI’s initiatives and grant projects within their portfolio for Safety & Justice Programs. Additionally, she provides technical assistance, policy analysis, and strategic planning on a number of complex law enforcement operations and public safety-related topics. Caroline specializes in the establishment of multidisciplinary programming within the law enforcement setting as well as building coalitions across disciplines to ensure that public safety services being provided to the field are research-informed and practitioner-led.

Prior to joining the team at NPI, Caroline worked for the Chattanooga Police Department as their Victim Services and Chaplains Director. There she established the agency’s first professional Victim Services Unit as well as contributed towards the development and implementation of several other projects at CPD. This included supporting the development of CPD’s first peer support program, integrating a Poverty Simulation into the Cadet Academy curriculum, bi-weekly policy review, revisions to the agency’s promotional process, and successfully implementing a multi-year research project with partners from two local Universities.

In addition to agency work, Caroline has extensive experience in community-based advocacy, specifically in programming that served victims and survivors of gender-based violence. She considers it a privilege to have served in the field of public safety for over 12 years.