Dear Members and Guests:

I look forward to serving this organization as president while we continue to improve the expertise of our membership through training and education. I believe we need to strongly support our Arson Awareness Committee as they work on their “Community Awareness” campaign. This work has the opportunity to put Minnesota on the map in the effort to understand the crime of arson. Another priority will be to publicize the effectiveness of county investigation teams throughout the state.

Our recent annual seminar in St. Cloud (March 28-30, 2007) was a resounding success, thanks to Don Howell and the rest of the Training and Education Committee. Approximately 250 people attended this three day event and were treated to quality education on a variety of subjects. We look forward to having the conference in St Cloud for the next four years, as a new contract has recently been signed with the Holiday Inn.

The Arson Awareness Committee is working to increase “Community Awareness” on arson.  The committee has been working with several consultants in order to conduct a survey as to what the people believe about arson.  Is it considered a crime?  If so, what level of crime is it?  Is there still a presumption that arson is just a property crime?  And if that is the belief, is that why our conviction rate is so low?  These are some of the questions that the committee is working to answer.  This information was brought to the board members and we decided that this would be viable research.  The board unanimously voted to set aside $10,000.00 of it’s budget for the Arson Awareness Committee to continue it’s research.  Stay tuned for more information.

County fire investigation teams are starting to show much promise in the metro area. At our conference, Michele Davis, Prosecutor for the Anoka County Attorney’s Office, received the ‘Prosecutor of the Year’ award for her efforts with the Anoka County Fire Investigation Team. In the first 18 months she has charged all 17 cases presented to her; at this time, 11 have resulted in convictions and six are pending. I recently visited with Kristine Chapin, Office of Communications, Minnesota Department of Public Safety, regarding this concept. She will be sharing this idea with Commissioner Michael Campion and is optimistic that he will assist us in getting this message out statewide.    

If you have any questions feel free to contact me at:   Piper@coonrapidsmn.gov or 763/767-6478

Sincerely

 

John Piper
President Minnesota Chapter I.A.A.I.

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Last modified: February 10, 2008