[311] MTSU's Fire Hosts Symposium On Gangs, Organized Crime

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Feb. 16, 2010
EDITORIAL CONTACT: Lisa L. Rollins, 615-898-2919, or lrollins@mtsu.edu

MTSU’s FIRE HOSTS SYMPOSIUM ON GANGS, ORGANIZED CRIME
National & Local Crime Experts Set to Help Lead March 11-13 Event on Campus

(MURFREESBORO)—MTSU’s Forensic Institute for Research and Education, known as FIRE, will sponsor a training-filled 2010 Youth Gang Organized Crime Symposium on Thursday-Saturday, March 11-13, in the Business and Aerospace Building.
During the course of the three-day event, symposium speakers will focus on the examination of contemporary gang issues that involve and distinguish youth and adult gang members.
The symposium’s subject matter will be of interest to law enforcement, business and education professionals and community leaders, report FIRE representatives, and the training is provided free to attendees, with scholarship support from the Department of Justice.
Carter F. Smith, assistant professor of criminal justice administration at MTSU, said, “Our target audience is a blend of criminal justice, business and education professionals, and community leaders in middle Tennessee.
“The symposium is intended to provide a foundation of understanding for members of the community regarding gangs. These groups exist throughout the area,” he added, “and no community is immune to the destructive effects their members bring.”
According to organizers’ reports, eventgoers may register for all or part of the sessions scheduled on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
“The cost of registration is limited to a box lunch—one each for the number of days attended so we can have a working lunch—at $11 each,” Carter noted.
Funded by a grant from the DOJ, with additional support from MTSU, the Tennessee Gang Investigators Association and FIRE, the conference will feature a number of experts from across the country and surrounding area.
“We are bringing in a unique variety of local and national specialists who have studied gang members for many years so members of our communities know what their options are when dealing with these groups,” Smith said.
Topics and scheduled speakers will include the following:

• Lessons from A Gang Cop, with Tony “Pac-man” Moreno, a former Los Angeles Gang Officer who was featured in the hit movie titled “Colors” and author of “Lessons from a Gang Cop.”

• Hispanic Gang Identification and Officer Safety Issues, with Gabe Morales, founder and former vice president of the International Latino Gang Investigators Association and author of “Barrio Warfare: Violence in the Latino Community.”

• Not Just Sex, Drugs and Firepower: The Anatomy of A Gang, with Hunter Glass, retired police detective from Fayetteville, N.C., who monitors gang activity at Fort Bragg and across the military.

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• Bridging Intelligence Gaps When Responding to Gang Activity in the Community, featuring Shawn Williams, the immediate-past president of the National Alliance of Gang Investigators Association and the Tennessee Gang Investigators Association.

• Ethnic Youth Gangs in the Community: How are They Different?, with Marco Silva, president of the Georgia Gang Investigators Association.

• The Impact of Youth Gangs on Our Communities, with Mike Carlie, a member of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Criminal Justice Planning Agency, consultant to the Departments of Correction in Missouri and Indiana. Carlie, who also is a professor of criminology at Missouri State University, has authored “Into the Abyss: A Personal Journey into the World of Street Gangs.”


REGISTRATION: Thursday, March 4, is the deadline to register for the symposium. To sign up, please visit http://cte.mtsu.edu/gangs/new.htm. Or, to view the conference schedule or join the pre-symposium discussion online, please access http://mtsufire.ning.com.
Again, please note that box lunches must be purchased from the conference for participation in daily working lunches. Additionally, participants are responsible for their own lodging, transportation and meals.


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• ATTENTION, MEDIA: To request an interview with Professor Smith or Dr. Hugh Berryman, director of FIRE, regarding the symposium, please contact Lisa L. Rollins in the Office of News and Public Affairs at MTSU by calling 615-898-2919 or via e-mail at lrollins@mtsu.edu.
**Please note that some sessions may be open to media, if desired. Please contact Rollins for prior approval to attend as a media representative; however, no video will be permitted during guest speakers’ presentations.



With three Nobel Prize winners among its alumni and former faculty, Middle Tennessee State University confers master’s degrees in 10 areas, the Specialist in Education degree, the Doctor of Arts degree and the Doctor of Philosophy degree. MTSU is ranked among the top 100 public universities in the nation in the Forbes “America’s Best Colleges” 2009 survey.