THOMAS Tremblay, a retired police chief and owner of Thomas Tremblay Consulting & Training, conducted a trauma-informed sexual assault investigation training for first responders and service providers who respond to child and adult sexual cases on March 16, 17, 20 and 21 at the Hibiscus Hall of Saipan World Resort.
In an interview Monday, Tremblay said the training’s goal was to make sure “that we reduce trauma to victims and survivors who report sexual assault while empowering survivors throughout the process.”
Tremblay, who has 30 years of policing experience and is the former commissioner of the Vermont Department of Public Safety, now consults nationally on issues related to domestic violence, child sexual abuse, and adult sexual cases.
“I’ve conducted training all across the United States and a few different countries, and this is my fourth trip to the CNMI — the first time was in 2012,” he added.
“What we are trying to do is that anybody that works with victims of sexual abuse or sexual assault — we want them to understand victim trauma, what the victim experienced in the moment and what they are experiencing in the aftermath,” he said.
“If we understand that, then we’d be less likely to misinterpret [them] and we’re going to be more helpful. We can help people heal if we respond appropriately to the victims of these crimes — so that is what this training is about.”
Tremblay said every victim responds to trauma in different ways.
“Sometimes the victims can’t fight, run, scream or yell. Sometimes victims don’t report right away. Sometimes the victims remember additional detail over time, and unfortunately we’ve misinterpreted that. We need to understand that these can be the impacts of trauma. It causes each victim to experience trauma slightly differently. We want all stakeholders here to understand that and offer them support and help [victims] in their healing journey,” Tremblay added.
The four-day training was arranged by the Northern Marianas Coalition Against Domestic & Sexual Violence.
Tremblay said he was impressed by the coalition’s leadership.
They’ve brought “all the stakeholders together, and we are sitting in one room having courageous conversations about reforms and the need for change in the CNMI. The CNMI is doing some great things, but there is also room for improvement and that’s what this training is all about. We need to understand victim trauma in a way that is more helpful for victims and we need to hold offenders to a higher level of accountability and to help support victims through a complicated process, and to help stakeholders support victims throughout the process when evidence supports it. [We want] to make sure we’re charging and holding offenders accountable because sometimes these offenders…are committing interconnected crimes, and some of these offenders are serial offenders who go on to commit crimes for a long time.”
Maisie Tenorio, the executive director of the Northern Marianas Coalition Against Domestic & Sexual Violence, said the training participants learned how to be more “trauma-informed” and more focused on victims.
She said the 200 training participants are from the Department of Public Safety, the Division of Youth Services, the NMI Drug Court, the Community Guidance Center, the Public School System, the Attorney General’s Office, the Northern Marianas Protection Advocacy Systems, the Center for Living Independently, and government offices from Tinian and Rota.
“We really had a good cross-section of stakeholders that are serving and responding to cases of sexual assault or sexual abuse,” she added.
As for Tremblay, she said, “We have brought him back four times to train our service providers and first responders regarding sexual assault — specifically how to deal with sexual abuse and assault cases in a trauma-informed, victim-centered way.”
She said Tremblay addressed “so many areas regarding sexual assault, including myths and misconceptions.”
“He talks about rape culture,” she added. “He talks about the data relating to sexual assault and abuse. He really breaks down different case studies to help us understand what victims are facing. He talks about trauma and how that impacts victims and survivors and how that also impacts investigation. He really gives people the tools that they need to look at cases so that they can be investigated in a very trauma-informed way so that we are not revictimizing, that we are doing everything that we can to reduce trauma not only for victims and survivors but their families…. He also challenges us to look at the way we are currently responding to cases, what biases are existing in our community, what is our current approach and response and how we can work to improve that and know if we are really serving our community, and ultimately helping hold the offenders accountable and reducing and ending sexual assault in the CNMI.”
Asked about sexual assault cases in the CNMI, Tenorio said, “The majority of our sexual assault cases involve minors…and in many of those cases, the offender is somebody known to the victim… and the victim knows and trusts and loves the offender.”
She added, “Ending sexual violence requires a community response so we’re inviting our community to our April Sexual Assault Awareness Month activities to see how they can also help us and end sexual assault in the CNMI.”
Thomas Tremblay conducted a trauma-informed sexual assault investigation training for first responders at the Hibiscus Hall of Saipan World Resort on March 16, 17, 20 and 21.
