“We had some pretty good presentations,” said Hill. “We were lucky enough to have some police generals from Peru and one from Chile. One of the Peruvian guys was actually head of their counterterrorism and he was a hostage when the Japanese embassy was taken by The Shining Path a couple years ago. So he had some interesting stories, and the other Peruvian was head of their training academythey have a national police system and he was the head of the National Police Academy, talked a lot about how they train.”
During the course of the conference, the delegates were presented with 10 different panels, usually one or two going on each day. Panel topics included, Multi-Ethnic and Multi-Cultural Issues, Criminological Aspects of Immigration, International Law Enforcement, Urbanization and Crime, Community Policing, Global Crime and Law Enforcement of the Next Century.
After each panel was concluded, delegates would break into groups by language (English, Spanish, French and Italian) and have a workshop to further discuss and come up with possible solutions to worldwide criminal activity. Over the weekend, delegates were treated to a tour of George Bush Presidential Library and Museum in College Station and the NASA Museum in Houston.
“We also had a spousal program set up where six or seven of the wives had stuff they were doing everyday, and somebody from the CJ center would take them out shopping or sightseeing,” added Hill.
Delegates paid $950 for the All-inclusive package (registration fee, 10 nights in hotel, local transportation, conference publications, weekend activities, and most meals).
Hill said that SHSU broke even on the deal and “I thought it was great for the university. It exposed all these guys, who are top police mangers of other countries; They’re looking to do exchange programs, send people over here for management training and law enforcement briefings, and it exposes the university to having international relations.”
Hill added that Dean of Criminal Justice Richard Ward and C.J. Professor Mitchell Roth were responsible for bringing the conference to SHSU. Working together, Ward and Roth, having been to last year’s conference in Sicily, “offered to bring it here and let them (the delegates) get to know Sam Houston State and what our Criminal Justice program is all about.”
Conclusions and possible solutions to the problems discussed by the delegates are in the process of being published and should be ready in a few weeks.