FVTC's National Criminal Justice Training Center secures funds for renowned crime-fighting training
APPLETON - Fox Valley Technical College's National Criminal Justice Training Center recently received over $15 million in Department of Justice grants to fund its nationally recognized crime-fighting training.
The training center — which got its start 30 years ago — serves as a hub for criminal justice training for local law enforcement, prosecutors and advocacy groups, training around 95,000 people a year across every U.S. state and territory.
"If you ask any police department in the country if they've heard of Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton, the vast majority would say 'yes' because they've been to our training," the center's Executive Director Brad Russ said.
While the center is housed in Appleton, it also has an office in the University of New Hampshire and workers traveling across the country to conduct the center's over 100 courses.
The center is primarily funded by federal grant money and no local property tax dollars support its operations.
Recent DOJ grant money will go toward maintaining the center and funding programs for internet crimes against children, tribal justice, children abuse and AMBER Alert training.
Russ said the center's training sets national standards on how to deal with crimes against children and support the needs of Native American tribes. Here's more about those programs.
Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force
The DOJ's Office of Justice Programs and the Office on Violence Against Women granted the center $4,712,000 to fund its Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.
According to Russ, the task force provides a wide array of training around anything having to deal with crimes committed against children online.
This includes teaching investigators how to identify offenders across online platforms and understand the tactics they use against children to spot them.
Additionally, the task force works with prosecutors on how to build a case against offenders and secure search warrants.
Most importantly, Russ said, the task force works to identify victims and provide them with counseling and resources to prevent further crimes.
Missing and Exploited Children Training and Technical Assistance Program
The Missing and Exploited Children Training and Technical Assistance Program provides education on investigating, prosecuting and preventing child abuse.
This training program teaches those working in criminal justice how to target people who commit acts of physical abuse, sexual abuse and sex trafficking.
Russ said the training is a much-needed resource for law enforcement, as every department will have to deal with a child abuse case at some point due to how common cases are.
This program received $1,900,000 in DOJ grants.
Tribal Justice Training and Technical Assistance Program
The center's Tribal Justice Training and Technical Assistance program received $3,596,671 in grant money.
This program works alongside Native American tribal governments to assess the need to promote public safety and justice, according to the program's description.
"We provide a wide variety of training for tribes across the nation in community action planning, substance abuse and domestic abuse," Russ said.
AMBER Alert Training and Technical Assistance Program
Another significant program the center provides is on AMBER Alerts, which trains local law enforcement on how to set up a rapid response to a child abduction.
More: Who gets an Amber Alert in Wisconsin? Here’s what the data showed
The center works with every state to set up an AMBER Alert program that can quickly send out alerts and investigate abduction cases to recover missing children, Russ said.
This program received $4,400,000 in DOJ grants.
Sophia Voight is a local government and politics reporter with The Post-Crescent. She can be reached with feedback and tips at svoight@postcrescent.com.
This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Fox Valley Technical College lands funds for crime-fighting training
