The 2012 Organized Crime Symposium will be held May 8-10 at MTSU in the State Farm Room of the Business and Aerospace Building.

The free event, which is open to the public, will be of particular interest to law-enforcement and community organizations that share the common goal of addressing and helping to resolve gang activity.

The theme of the symposium, sponsored by MTSU’s Forensic Institute for Research and Education, is “Technology, Trafficking and Terrorism,” and it will address the national and international pressing issues of:

• the current use of technology by law enforcement as well as organized gangs and cartels;
• human trafficking of children and women, primarily for sex, in the most rural Tennessee counties to high-volume national movement on Tennessee’s interstate system; and
• the terrorism connection from cyberterrorism to increased cartel terrorism and their effect and presence in Tennessee.

Speakers include Commissioner Bill Gibbons of the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security; members of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the FBI; Michael Walker of the California Central Coast Gang Investigators Association; Sherry Holley of the Tennessee District Attorneys General Conference; Dr. Gregg Etter of the University of Central Missouri; and Amy Walters of Street GRACE, an Atlanta organization for sex-trafficking awareness and victims’ assistance.

This year’s symposium will highlight the increase and interrelationships of crimes in these areas. Attendees will be able take the information and apply it to their local department investigations, programming initiatives and services.

Organizers say the symposium will be of interest to criminal-justice, business, education and community leaders. The U.S. Department of Justice is providing scholarship support, and attendees can register to attend the entire event or one or two days.

Organizers say they’ll also host a breakout session exclusively for law-enforcement personnel on May 9, where the TBI will explain the investigation process and procedures for prosecuting human-trafficking cases. Other symposium attendees can attend a concurrent session on victims’ assistance.

To register for the conference, book a hotel room or get more information, please visit www.csimtsu.com or contact FIRE at 615-898-2221 or fire@mtsu.edu.