When Training Meets Purpose: A Story of Real Impact

I attended the Advanced Course on Strangulation Prevention in 2020, when I was still relatively new to the role of Domestic Violence Detective. That training completely reshaped my mindset about domestic violence and strangulation cases—particularly the extreme danger they pose not only to survivors but also to the law enforcement officers responding to these calls.

The tools I gained—recognizing signs and symptoms of strangulation, implementing investigative best practices, understanding trauma in survivors, and collaborating within a multi-disciplinary team—transformed the way I approach DV investigations.

As a direct result of this training, we developed a countywide strangulation protocol. Because of that protocol and the coordinated response it enabled, one survivor’s life was saved after suffering a vertebral artery dissection caused by strangulation.