Child abuse expert conducts training seminar for local advocates

A joint group from Talladega and St. Clair counties spent Friday learning about child abuse investigations from a nationally known expert detective in Lincoln Friday. Detective Mike Johnson of the Plano, Texas, Police Department has worked with child advocacy groups and sex offender studies since 1986. In his presentation to about 75 law enforcement officers, prosecutors, educators and child advocates at a training facility provided by Honda, Johnson focused on investigative strategies and the multidisciplinary approach to child abuse investigations. We hunt bad guys, Johnson said. Johnsons talk, energetic and often humorous but graphically serious about the reality of child molestation, examined the process of an abuse investigation from the perspective of the child, with an eye towards minimizing trauma while maximizing the chance of a successful prosecution.

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