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2025 Conference Speakers
Monday February 24th, 2025:
Conference Key Note Speaker:
Mastering Proactive Policing for Patrol
Presented by: Sgt. Craig Meyer
This class is a deep dive into street level proactive policing tactics. Considered by many as the all-encompassing guide for patrol officers looking to reach their potential, every single block of instruction covered is essential to being a multi-dimensional proactive officer on patrol. This course provides the tools and the game plan to the attendee, so that they will leave at the end of the day and be an effective police officer against the criminal element, every single shift.
Throughout the entire class, the attendee can expect to be a part of an intense, rapid-fire exposure to successful street level interdiction tactics, having a front seat ride for it as they will analyze and break-down numerous police body worn camera videos with the instructor and gain repeated mental repetitions, making these mental experiences their own.
This class provides a different experience for the attendee from any other class out there, being considered a virtual proactive field-training type experience. Instructor Craig Meyer methodically breaks down the different blocks of instruction so that each one builds on the next in what he refers to as, building the layers of the proactive pyramid from the bottom up. Specifically, the attendee will become versed in the role of the limbic system with respect to freeze, flight, and fight, verbal and nonverbal distancing behaviors, stress indicators and pacifying behaviors and pre-flight and pre-assault indicators. These layers will be explained by showing countless examples of pedestrian, bicycle and vehicle stops, breaking them down so the attendee understands how to work through them successfully from start to finish. The attendee will be shown how to legally as well as successfully navigate through developing reasonable articulable suspicion, how to conduct roadside interviews, how to build rapport, gain admissions of probable cause and gain consent, as well as how to work through the times when consent is denied and R.A.S. in present.
Craig Meyer has been a certified Peace Officer since 2013. He began his career in Somerset County, New Jersey where he graduated the police academy and then worked for two different municipal police departments from 2013-2017. At the end of 2017, Meyer transferred to the State of Texas to work with a municipal police department.
Since transferring to Texas, Meyer has promoted to the role of Sergeant. During his time in Texas he has held the positions of Patrol Sergeant, Field Training Program Coordinator and SWAT Team Leader. Meyer stands behind his “lead from the front” mentality as a supervisor, prioritizes developing his people and believes in fulfilling his greater purpose of helping officers all over the country achieve success in employing proactive policing tactics.
As an instructor, Meyer has been credited by thousands of police officers across North America and Canada for having created a lecture based presentation that has successfully broken down and explained the human limbic system as it applies to behaviors commonly displayed by criminals, in a way that can be easily comprehended and then immediately applied at the street level by police officers for success. Meyer is still a proactive Sergeant and continues to employ the same tactics and training taught in class, in the field with his own team of officers.
Tuesday, February 25th, 2025:
Morning Presentation:
Wisconsin Department of Justice: OWI/Legal Update
Presented by: Tara Jenswold & Emily Thompson
TARA JENSWOLD has served as Wisconsin's Traffic Safety Resource Prosecutor since 2003. In 2009, she joined the Wisconsin Department of Justice as an Assistant Attorney General in the Criminal Litigation Unit. Prior to becoming an Assistant Attorney General, Ms. Jenswold served as the Assistant Director/Traffic Safety Resource Prosecutor at the University of Wisconsin Law School’s Resource Center on Impaired Driving from 2001-2009. Prior to joining the Resource Center, Ms. Jenswold worked as an Assistant District Attorney in Walworth County; where she specialized in the prosecution of traffic offenses.
As Wisconsin’s Traffic Safety Resource Prosecutor, Ms. Jenswold provides training and technical assistance to prosecutors and law enforcement officers. She gives numerous presentations on the impaired driving laws and vehicular crimes on the state and national level. Ms. Jenswold also serves as coordinator of various seminars and trainings in Wisconsin. In addition to her training responsibilities, Ms. Jenswold acts as a special prosecutor, specializing in complex vehicular homicide cases. She has served as a contributing author of the Wisconsin Prosecutor’s Manual for OWI Cases and the Wisconsin State Patrol’s OWI Enforcement Manual and serves on various traffic safety related committees and task forces.
EMILY THOMPSON is an Assistant Attorney General and Traffic Safety Resource Prosecutor (TSRP) in the Criminal Litigation Unit at the Wisconsin Department of Justice. She joined the DOJ in April of 2016. Before that, she worked as a prosecutor in the Dane County District Attorney’s Office for nine years. As TSRP, Emily assists prosecutors and police with traffic-law-related issues and questions. She also prosecutes serious vehicular crimes throughout the State of Wisconsin. The two TSRPs travel the state providing trainings for police and prosecutors. They also host several stand-alone trainings each year for police and prosecutors, including an annual Prosecutors’ Seminar on OWI and a biannual Vehicular Homicide Training, among others. Emily is a graduate of Northwestern University, Boston University, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School.
Luncheon Presentation:
Presented by: John McHugh
John McHugh is Vice President of External Affairs for Kwik Trip, Inc., based in La Crosse, Wisconsin. In his role at Kwik Trip he has helped the company achieve recognition as a Top Workplace as listed by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Minneapolis Star Tribune and the Des Moines Register.
Prior to joining Kwik Trip in 2004, John was an instructor and principal at Aquinas High School in La Crosse. He holds degrees from the University of Saint Thomas in Saint Paul, Minnesota and the Gregorian University in Rome, Italy. John sits on the Boards of Trust Point and Viterbo University.
He and his wife Maggie enjoy living at their log home near Sparta, Wisconsin.
Afternoon Presentation:
Presented by: Inspector Thomas Dirlam (Ret.)
Below 100 began with a conversation around a dinner table. Several friends were enjoying dinner together at the 2010 International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association (ILEETA) Conference as a challenge began to circulate: What can be done to reduce law enforcement deaths? The conversation evolved into Below 100, a nationwide initiative to reduce the line-of-duty deaths to “below 100”, a number not seen since 1905. However, Below 100 is not just about statistics. It’s about each and every officer, trainer and supervisor taking individual and collective responsibility for the decisions and actions which contribute to safety. For leaders (most of you), this means promoting a culture of safety throughout your department. Make doing the right thing so ingrained in your personnel it becomes the norm. Just as importantly, hold accountable those who stray outside what should be common sense through courageous conversations and set the example for your agency. Finally, Below 100 is a challenge that recognizes each death as a tragedy, while acknowledging the nature of our work. It’s our duty to face down danger and protect the innocent when called to do so. Unfortunately the sad fact is; Not all line-of-duty deaths are preventable. Good cops will die each year. But working together and only by working together-we can keep our citizens and staff safer and prevent a significant number of lie of-duty deaths. Below 100 revolves around “Five Core Tenets” all of which are under the officers control; 1) Wear your Belt 2) Wear your Vest 3) Watch your Speed 4) W.I.N. – What’s Important Now 5) Remember; Complacency Kills! In the majority of line-of-duty deaths at least one of these tenets is violated. The following drives home the importance of each facet of the program.
Tom Dirlam retired after 31 years with the Michigan State Police as the Assistant Deputy Director of the Administrative Services Bureau. He was first assigned to the Owosso Post and then spent the next 22 years in the Forensic Science Division, including two years as a liaison to the Detroit Police Department and the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office. After two years at Headquarters in the Support Services Bureau as the Assistant Deputy Director, he was reassigned to First District Headquarters (Lansing) as the Assistant District Commander. In August of 2015 he transferred back to Headquarters to the Field Services Bureau and in February of 2016 to the Administrative Services Bureau. He is a graduate of the 225th Session of the FBI National Academy and the 117th Class of the Northwestern University Traffic Institute School of Police Staff and Command. He was an adjunct professor at Schoolcraft College and Henry Ford Community College for several years. He has been a Below 100 instructor since 2011 and a National Core Instructor since 2012. In August 2016 he was appointed to the Below 100 Board of Directors to serve as Treasurer.
Wednesday, February 26th, 2025:
Closing Presentation
The History of the DRE Program, Effective Courtroom Testimony & Post-Incident Review
Presented by: Thomas E. Page
Thomas Page will present on the History of the DRE Program, focusing on how understanding the past can explain the present. He will also present on Effective Courtroom Testimony in DRE Cases; as well as an overview of what the IACP is now calling Post-Incident Review (previously referred to as DRE reconstruction).
Thomas E. Page, the former Officer-in-Charge of the Los Angeles Police Department's (LAPD) Drug Recognition Expert (DRE) Unit, began his law enforcement career with the Detroit Police Department. Before undertaking a law enforcement career, Mr. Page served the Wayne County, Michigan Health Department for five years as a public health worker. His public health worker duties included assessing tuberculosis patients for alcohol and drug abuse.
Mr. Page has taught drug influence recognition and criminal justice topics to a wide range of audiences. They include: the National Judicial College, the American Bar Association, the Swedish National Police Federation in Stockholm, the Russian Procuracy Training Academy in Moscow, the Victoria Police in Melbourne, Australia, the European Academy of Forensic Sciences in Turkey, the International Traffic Medicine Association, nurses, physicians, toxicologists, and private industry.
Mr. Page provides expert testimony in court on the effects of alcohol and drugs, driving under the influence enforcement, the development of the DRE program and procedure, drugs in the workplace, the standardized field sobriety test, and DRE Reconstruction. He has been accepted as an expert in courts in twenty-one states.
Mr. Page has authored numerous articles on drug user detection techniques. His credits include the Victoria, Australia, Parliamentary Road Safety Committee Report, the International Congress on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence in Norway, the 2000 (Stockholm, Sweden) and 2002 (Montreal, Canada) International Conferences on Alcohol, Drugs, and Traffic Safety. He co-authored the Drug Information Handbook for Criminal Justice Professionals. He is also the co-author/editor of The Medical-Legal Aspects of Abused Substances, published by Lawyers and Judges Publishing Company. He is the co-author of The Usefulness of SFSTs in Detecting Drugs Other than Alcohol.
The International Association of Chiefs of Police has awarded Mr. Page the title “Drug Recognition Expert Emeritus.” He also provides training to Law Enforcement Officers on bicycle-related laws and traffic enforcement on behalf of the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning.
He received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology, and his Master of Arts degree in Urban Studies from the University of Detroit. He He is a former member of the University of Detroit Mercy’s Alumni Relations Board, and was the College of Liberal Arts and Education’s Alumni Spirit Award recipient for 2018. In 2018, Mr. Page also was presented the Spirit of the Baroudeur Award by Wayne State University President Dr. Roy Wilson. Mr. Page is the recipient of the 2021 Robert F. Borkenstein award by the National Safety Council’s Alcohol, Drugs, and Impairment Division. Mr. Page holds a State of California Lifetime Community College Instructor credential.
