March 17, 2025 • 21 mins
Join us as we shine a light on two of the remarkable women making a difference in our community—Christine Seymour, a Victim Assistance Coordinator, and Brandi Tucker, a Victim Advocate. Their work within the Cape Coral Police Department is nothing short of essential, offering a lifeline to victims of domestic violence, traffic homicides, house fires and beyond. On this episode of the Cape CopCast, they share their heartfelt stories and reveal the emotional resilience required to support our community's most vulnerable, particularly children. Through collaboration with our police officers, they ensure that victims receive continuous care, spotlighting the importance of teamwork and personal boundaries in handling the emotional demands of their roles.
They also talk to hosts Lisa Greenberg and Officer Mercedes Simonds about the complexities of aiding victims who may not be ready to accept help. Christine and Brandi emphasize meeting individuals with patience and understanding, providing support that extends into courtrooms and beyond, helping them move from 'victim' to 'survivor.'
Our Victim Advocates aim to break the misconception of isolation by connecting victims with others who have faced similar challenges, underscoring the unity and strength within our community. We also hear about the candlelight vigil on April 6th, 2025 that will honor all victims.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
Welcome back to another episode of the Cape Cop
cast.
I'm one of your hosts, LisaGreenberg.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
And I'm Officer Mercedes Simons.
Together we make up the PublicAffairs Office.
Today we have two reallyspecial guests.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Christine Seymour, I'm a victim assistance
coordinator Awesome, brandiTucker, I'm a victim advocate.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Awesome.
You guys, as we kind of talk alot about, are like the heart of
the department.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
The empathetic people in the department.
Essentially, you're not sworn,but you're who everybody looks
to.
When officers have to be on thescene and then leave and go
deal with other calls, you'rethe one that comes to the scene,
that takes the time and talksto people victims whether it's
victims of like a death in thefamily or domestic violence.
But you guys are so heavilyinvolved in what we do that we
(00:47):
thought it was really importantto bring you guys on For sure.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
I know, before I started working here, I had no
idea that a victim advocate evenexisted.
I had no idea that this waslike a dedicated position within
the police department.
So if you could tell us alittle bit about what a victim
advocate is for someone who hasnever heard of it before.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
So our role is to provide service to victims in
the community.
It doesn't mean that they haveto be a victim of a crime.
They can be victim ofcircumstances.
For instance, providing food tosomebody that maybe has
financial needs.
It can just be a victim of yourcircumstances has financial
needs.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
It can just be a victim of your circumstances.
I remember you telling me abouta particular situation where a
person was at Walgreens and waslost and couldn't, didn't want
to drive home because it wasdark and couldn't figure out how
to get home, and that's anothertype of situation where you
guys would step in and assist inthat way that people probably
wouldn't think about.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Yes, so in that particular incident I was trying
to find some sort of familymember.
Were they really lost or didthey just need transportation?
So I knew what further servicesthat ended up just needing
transportation back home becauseit was dark, she was afraid of
driving at night and she hadbeen turned around.
(02:00):
Somebody was in the area, soall worked out.
But if it didn't, we would thenyou know, utilize some of the
resources in the community and Iknow too.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
you know there's a wide range, as Mercedes
mentioned, of things that youguys respond to.
I've seen you work on multiplecases, showing up to a scene,
consoling family members ordealing with witnesses you know
who may have saw somethingtraumatic.
What types of situations do youtypically respond to?
Speaker 3 (02:28):
So we respond to natural deaths, obviously
unnatural deaths, homicides.
We also handle traffic homicide, Sexual battery, child or adult
fire cases.
We assist with that.
Domestic violence, the big one,that's the biggest percentage
of cases that we handle,in-house and out.
Child abuse cases.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Adult abuse cases yeah, elder abuse child abuse,
any kind of battery case, reallyany case you can think of that
has a victim that'scrime-related, and then the
natural ones as well.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Yes, whether it be in-office resources or or on
scene.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yeah, and you guys are just like a plethora of
resources too.
You know everybody in thecommunity, you probably know
their hours, and you can getthem directly hooked up with a
lot of different resources thatare so helpful to everybody.
What are your kind of like mostrewarding calls that you go to
when you help people?
Speaker 4 (03:23):
Kids, definitely kids .
Yeah, kids are a passion.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
They are the innocent of our community, just making
sure that they are provided withthe utmost support for them and
their family.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
How are those boundaries there for you that
you can still truly care and beempathetic, but also making sure
that you're okay at home?
Speaker 3 (03:44):
So we do a lot of debriefing.
We all share our cases, notonly for the purpose of, you
know, not shouldering all ofthat, but the second part, which
is very important.
If I'm not available and it wasmy case one of the other
advocates can pick up where I'veleft off and continue the
(04:09):
support to a victim.
We have our own camaraderiethat helps that.
We have to make that resourceto ourself, to not shoulder all
of that, because we see a lot,we hear a lot.
We're not considered a firstresponder, but we are right
behind the first responder onscene.
(04:31):
We're not working in the officefor those traumatic cases.
We're right there hand in handwith the officer doing what we
need to do for the community.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
You get like trauma dumped on you constantly.
So, I can only imagine how muchthat probably weighs, coming
from the officer perspective.
Like we're there, of course wecare, we're empathetic, but
sometimes it's more aboutespecially if there's a crime
involved, gathering the factsand then we lean so heavily on
you to come in and kind of cleanup emotionally Sometimes, both
(05:06):
on our side.
You're sometimes a resource tous and then also a resource to
the victim.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
We jokingly refer to ourselves as the tree huggers,
because we are the emotionalside of the department.
We want to be the emotionalside of the department.
We chose to be in thisprofession because of that,
because we do have empathy, wedo have sympathy for those who
we serve.
So when we're on scene, ourpurpose is to.
(05:32):
You know, we're notinvestigators, we're.
You know, as you stated, we'renot sworn officers, but we're
very important because we areworking hand in hand with that
officer and we're allowing thatofficer to do what the officer
needs to do and not worry aboutokay, is this victim going to
give me what information I needto solve the incident that I'm
(05:54):
working?
And you can imagine, everybodystarts walking towards the scene
and we have to protect you knowthe scene, and so now we've
taken away from what they needto be doing.
So we kind of we do some ofthat crowd control, if you want
(06:16):
to refer to it as that.
We bridge the information fromthe officer detective to the
family so that they know what'sgoing on, so that they're not
sitting over there going what'sgoing on?
I want to know what you know,and and then everything kind of
escalates from that point.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
so that's that's what our role is is to be an extra
hand to the officer anddetective that makes total sense
and you know you kind ofbrought up that this is what you
want to do is be that emotionalperson, be that empathetic
person for the people who are onscene, so that the officers can
do their job of investigating.
I'm curious how each of youkind of got into this line of
(06:52):
work.
And, brandy, I'll start withyou how did you end up here at
the police department?
How did you end up as a victimadvocate?
I'm really not sure.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
No, I came on as a dispatcher and I was in dispatch
for about five and a half years.
But my goal from the verybeginning because someone in
this department who knows mewell had mentioned that I'd be a
great advocate I was like, well, how do I do that?
Like, oh, in joking, she's likeyou're going to wait for Pat
Lucas to retire.
Okay, well, how do I do that?
(07:22):
She's like just get your footin the door.
So I came on as a dispatcherand I really thought that I'd
stay in dispatch forever.
And lo and behold, I'm seeingthe emails as they come in one
day and I was like, ah, theadvocate position's open.
I really think I want to dothat.
So I went online and I read awhole lot about it.
I'm very emotional, I'm veryempathetic, but it I'm very
(07:42):
emotional, I'm very empathetic,but I thought that I had
something to give back.
So I went ahead and applied andwhile I've been here a little
over six years now in thisposition, it's what my passion
is being able to care for otherpeople and help them get through
the hardest time in their lives, to show somebody that, yes,
(08:02):
this happened, but we're goingto be able to get through it and
I'm going to be here.
We're going to move past thisand you're going to be different
, but you're going to be okay.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Yeah, my favorite thing about you is that, like,
you're not just empathetic, youdon't just care about who you're
dealing with, but you also havethe personality that you can
step up and stand up forsomebody who needs it.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
You're not afraid.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Yeah, you know you're not quiet, you're.
You're always very vocal aboutwhat needs to be done and you're
not afraid to step up, takecharge, while maintaining
empathy, which I think is soimportant for a lot of victims,
especially domestic violencethat are kind of afraid to come
forward and talk about what'sgoing on and you seem perfect
for the job.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
And, christine, I'll direct the same question to you
what led you into this line ofwork?
Speaker 3 (08:51):
It's kind of evolved.
I started my career as ajuvenile probation officer and
then came to the department as ajuvenile liaison and then
victim advocacy.
My passion has always been tohelp.
That is my nature.
Sometimes it's a, it's ablessing and a curse.
(09:13):
Yes, exactly A blessing and acurse, because I do.
I feel like I go above andbeyond to provide resources and
service to anybody, whether itbe work, home.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
I can imagine it's easy for it to like bleed into
other aspects of your life,right?
You hear of someone you knowstruggling, so you're like I'll
step up and do this, and Iimagine, though, it could be
easy to get spread pretty thin.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
I can.
How is it, though, when youoffer resources and then people
just don't want the help?
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Sometimes it's more about where they're at in their
journey, traumatized by theevent, traumatized maybe by all
the different people.
We respect the uniform andsometimes that is overwhelming
to a victim, so they kind ofshut down.
(10:07):
That might be one or just theother.
They're not ready, they're justnot ready.
Sometimes people have to have alittle bit more before they're
ready to say, okay, enough isenough, and it's okay, we're
going to pick them up whereverthey're at.
We're never going to.
I mean, we have victims thatare reoccurring and we're never
(10:29):
going to.
I mean we have victims that arereoccurring and we're never
going to make them feel bad.
Sometimes victims will say tous I know you talked to me about
this and I didn't do it and I'mlike it's okay, it's really
okay.
Are you ready today?
I'll help you with today.
That's what we're going to workon today.
We're not going to worry aboutwhat happened in the past.
(10:50):
We're going to worry abouttoday and if you're not, I'm
still here.
When you're ready, yeahabsolutely.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
I love that.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
Everybody has a different point in their process
when they decide that they'reready.
Today's the time might happenone time for one person, or
might be five.
You never know what somebody'ssituation is and I don't judge
anyone for their situation.
We're going to help you todaywhere you're at right now, and
hopefully I'll get to help youagain down the road if you need
(11:19):
help.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
And I think that's important to stress too is you
guys, of course, show up to acrime scene when the initial
crime happens.
You're there for the victim,you talk to them, you explain
any resources that are availableand how you can help.
But that help doesn't just endthere.
It's not like you guys allleave the crime scene, they lose
your number and y'all neverspeak again.
You walk through everythingwith them and I thought it might
(11:40):
be interesting to use since youdid say a big percentage of
your cases are domestic violenceusing that as an example of
kind of how you walk a victimthrough the process.
What does that?
Speaker 3 (11:51):
look like, depending on if an arrest is made or not
made, the resources that wouldbe available.
We would explain the justicesystem, not only the what the
process is.
Contact information, firstappearance.
What is first appearance?
Contact information, firstappearance.
(12:12):
What is first appearance?
What can I do?
At first appearance?
We safety plans.
Safety planning is the utmostimportance for domestic violence
victims.
This is they're the mostvulnerable in a time like this,
(12:33):
so we need to make sure thatthey're safe.
Initially.
They're safe if the suspect hasbeen arrested, but that's not a
guarantee they're staying away.
So what do we do?
We talk about getting aninjunction for protection.
We talk about shelter, safeshelter, whether that be shelter
in place with resources comingin with them, whether it be at
somebody else's home, friend,family or going to one of the
(12:55):
local shelters.
Then we talk about rebuilding.
We're not going to stay in thismoment, we're going to rebuild.
So with that, there'scounseling services that are
available to all that areinvolved, because we've got to
remember, when we have domesticviolence, it doesn't just affect
(13:16):
the two parties that are havingthe actual incident, it
pertains to anybody else that'sliving in the home.
So we want to make sure thatthey are innocent bystanders to
this, that they are providedresources as well.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Absolutely.
It's a lot, and then you knowthat case goes to court.
You guys come to those with thevictim, don't you?
Absolutely?
Speaker 3 (13:41):
When we initiate with a victim, we tell the victim
we're there for as long as theywant us there.
Obviously we want them to becomfortable, so if they want us
to go to any court proceedings,we will go with them.
There are advocates that workwith the state attorney's office
when it's going through thecourt proceeding, but once it's
(14:04):
done, they're done.
So at that point, if we're notworking with a victim through
that court proceeding, that'sfine.
Or we can Afterwards if theysay okay, now, what do I do Now?
You know, I really focused allmy time on getting this
conviction.
Now, what do I do with my time?
(14:27):
Because that's a big one?
Yeah, I'm sure.
And then that's when we say tothem okay, now, this is
important for you to focus onyou.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
I know that there are a lot of people that think that
they're going through it alone.
They don't call, they thinkit's normal.
What would you say to thosepeople to help them?
Speaker 3 (14:42):
You're not alone, number one.
You're never alone becausewe're here to help you.
So there's your first support.
There are hundreds and hundredsof people that are in your same
shoes or have been in yourshoes, and those are the people
that we want to connect you withso that you can understand that
(15:04):
you can survive this, you willsurvive this.
You will survive this, and Ihave a saying that I have always
said, even from my days ofbeing a probation officer you
can be a survivor or you can bea victim, because you're a
victim, but if you stay invictim mode, you're never going
(15:25):
to be the survivor.
And I need you to be thesurvivor and that's the journey
you have to take.
So you have to do the resourcesto get you to that point.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
That makes sense, that's a good piece of advice,
and that's a good way to frameit, because you ultimately want
this person to overcome whatthey're going through.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
Absolutely, I don't want you to stay.
In that moment when we workwith a death case, I say to
families don't think about todayas everything, think about all
the years you had.
(16:02):
Yes, today hurts, but don'tstay in today, don't.
You're going to be a survivor.
We're going to help you throughthat.
And those are the things thatwe do.
We will walk hand in hand witha victim, whether just you know
being on the phone and listeningto them, yeah, or just there's
a lot of times victims will callback and I say to them, when I
provide them with informationright now, it's very
(16:25):
overwhelming.
I might sound like Charlie Brown.
It's okay to call me back, Idon't care if I just left.
Hey, christine, I don't knowwhat you said.
I don't even know the firstmove.
What do I do?
And I said I will go through itwith you.
Just call me.
I can't, I'm not going to callyou because I don't know.
If you want me to, you know, bea part of that.
(16:47):
Right now I am, but if you wantme, I will be there.
Whatever the duration, we arethere.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
I'm sure that you guys have built relationships
with people, too, that are likeyears and years and years and
years to where you're still intouch and communicating years
and years and years later.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
Prime example.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Oh, what's that?
Speaker 3 (17:08):
14 years later, this is the victim.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
That I worked with.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Wow, yes, that's incredible.
And you guys are still in touch.
Yes, that's amazing.
That's like proof that, one,you're perfect for this job and
two, you're you're so needed.
You know what you guys do is soimportant.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
14 years is a long time yeah, it's a lot deeper
than that, yeah so this braceletum, signifies a young lady her
name is Peyton who passed awayand I had the and I say
(17:48):
privilege to do the notificationto the family, and it's a
privilege only because they havebecome family.
They truly are part of myfamily through the working
relations with them.
So yes, 14 years later, it hasnot come off my arm and this is
(18:12):
an honor of her.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
The fact that you still, 14 years later, get this
emotional about a case provesthat you guys are perfect for
what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
But that's one of those things like why your
guys's job is so special isbecause it shows that it's like
you're not just a personfloating on in the world.
Whatever you do has a lastingimpact on the people around you,
and you're here to still tell astory 14 years later, plus, and
lives are still still matter toyou and oh, everybody's life
(18:43):
matters to me, yeah, and youguys have have a candlelight
vigil too, every year right, yes, we do, and the purpose of the
candlelight vigil is to honorthose that we've worked with
through the years.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
We want to not stop our support.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Right.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Initially we give a little sprinkle, but then we
want to continue and we havefamilies that come out year
after year after year.
And that's what it was designedfor to come out and display
your loved one's picture and,you know, have camaraderie with
others that have had a loss,because it's hard.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
And to acknowledge you know that you haven't
forgotten about what they'vegone through.
It could be years later, but westill remember, we still want
to be here for you to providethat outlet, absolutely.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
But that's what I love about Candlelight is
because even if you haven'tspoken to that person as often
as you'd like to throughout theyear, or maybe you haven't been
able to speak at all because youdon't always want to follow up
with somebody, you haven't beenable to speak at all because you
don't always want to follow upwith somebody.
You don't want to make thattrigger or whatever happened raw
in their life again.
But when you see that person, acandlelight, or when you get to
organically see them somewhereand you just get to catch up on
(19:57):
the story and what's happenedand how they're doing,
everything just feels better.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
That's like the true proof of like why the
candlelight is so important.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
Right, when's the next one?
It's going to be in April.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Well, you guys are incredible.
Seriously, is there anythingelse you can think of that we
haven't touched on that you'dwant to mention?
Speaker 3 (20:15):
We're available for any type of questions.
It might not have to berelating to being a victim.
I get a lot of strange phonecalls, but I will connect them.
Speaker 4 (20:29):
We will find the resource yes.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
So what's the best way for people to be able to get
in contact with you guys andask their questions?
Speaker 3 (20:36):
They can certainly reach out to myself.
My number is 239-574-0656.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Perfect.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
Also, if they're a victim of crime, they're given
the blue form which has all ofour numbers on the blue form, so
they can reach out to thevictim advocate unit.
They just don't know which onethey're calling.
Just call us.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
There's five of you working together helping the
people of Cape Coral.
We appreciate all of your hardwork and we appreciate you
coming on the podcast.
I know this is a bit outside ofyour comfort zone, but you
would never know the peoplewatching or listening would
never know because you guys didso great.
Seriously, thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Thank you for having us, and I hope that the
information that we've providedtoday reaches those who need it.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Absolutely, and we will see you next time here on
the Cape Codcast.
Thank you so much, yep, takecare.
Welcome back to another episode of the Cape Cop
cast.
I'm one of your hosts, LisaGreenberg.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
And I'm Officer Mercedes Simons.
Together we make up the PublicAffairs Office.
Today we have two reallyspecial guests.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
Christine Seymour, I'm a victim assistance
coordinator Awesome, brandiTucker, I'm a victim advocate.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Awesome.
You guys, as we kind of talk alot about, are like the heart of
the department.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
The empathetic people in the department.
Essentially, you're not sworn,but you're who everybody looks
to.
When officers have to be on thescene and then leave and go
deal with other calls, you'rethe one that comes to the scene,
that takes the time and talksto people victims whether it's
victims of like a death in thefamily or domestic violence.
But you guys are so heavilyinvolved in what we do that we
(00:47):
thought it was really importantto bring you guys on For sure.
Speaker 1 (00:49):
I know, before I started working here, I had no
idea that a victim advocate evenexisted.
I had no idea that this waslike a dedicated position within
the police department.
So if you could tell us alittle bit about what a victim
advocate is for someone who hasnever heard of it before.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
So our role is to provide service to victims in
the community.
It doesn't mean that they haveto be a victim of a crime.
They can be victim ofcircumstances.
For instance, providing food tosomebody that maybe has
financial needs.
It can just be a victim of yourcircumstances has financial
needs.
Speaker 1 (01:24):
It can just be a victim of your circumstances.
I remember you telling me abouta particular situation where a
person was at Walgreens and waslost and couldn't, didn't want
to drive home because it wasdark and couldn't figure out how
to get home, and that's anothertype of situation where you
guys would step in and assist inthat way that people probably
wouldn't think about.
Speaker 3 (01:40):
Yes, so in that particular incident I was trying
to find some sort of familymember.
Were they really lost or didthey just need transportation?
So I knew what further servicesthat ended up just needing
transportation back home becauseit was dark, she was afraid of
driving at night and she hadbeen turned around.
(02:00):
Somebody was in the area, soall worked out.
But if it didn't, we would thenyou know, utilize some of the
resources in the community and Iknow too.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
you know there's a wide range, as Mercedes
mentioned, of things that youguys respond to.
I've seen you work on multiplecases, showing up to a scene,
consoling family members ordealing with witnesses you know
who may have saw somethingtraumatic.
What types of situations do youtypically respond to?
Speaker 3 (02:28):
So we respond to natural deaths, obviously
unnatural deaths, homicides.
We also handle traffic homicide, Sexual battery, child or adult
fire cases.
We assist with that.
Domestic violence, the big one,that's the biggest percentage
of cases that we handle,in-house and out.
Child abuse cases.
Speaker 1 (02:49):
Adult abuse cases yeah, elder abuse child abuse,
any kind of battery case, reallyany case you can think of that
has a victim that'scrime-related, and then the
natural ones as well.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Yes, whether it be in-office resources or or on
scene.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Yeah, and you guys are just like a plethora of
resources too.
You know everybody in thecommunity, you probably know
their hours, and you can getthem directly hooked up with a
lot of different resources thatare so helpful to everybody.
What are your kind of like mostrewarding calls that you go to
when you help people?
Speaker 4 (03:23):
Kids, definitely kids .
Yeah, kids are a passion.
Speaker 3 (03:26):
They are the innocent of our community, just making
sure that they are provided withthe utmost support for them and
their family.
Speaker 2 (03:37):
How are those boundaries there for you that
you can still truly care and beempathetic, but also making sure
that you're okay at home?
Speaker 3 (03:44):
So we do a lot of debriefing.
We all share our cases, notonly for the purpose of, you
know, not shouldering all ofthat, but the second part, which
is very important.
If I'm not available and it wasmy case one of the other
advocates can pick up where I'veleft off and continue the
(04:09):
support to a victim.
We have our own camaraderiethat helps that.
We have to make that resourceto ourself, to not shoulder all
of that, because we see a lot,we hear a lot.
We're not considered a firstresponder, but we are right
behind the first responder onscene.
(04:31):
We're not working in the officefor those traumatic cases.
We're right there hand in handwith the officer doing what we
need to do for the community.
Speaker 2 (04:43):
You get like trauma dumped on you constantly.
So, I can only imagine how muchthat probably weighs, coming
from the officer perspective.
Like we're there, of course wecare, we're empathetic, but
sometimes it's more aboutespecially if there's a crime
involved, gathering the factsand then we lean so heavily on
you to come in and kind of cleanup emotionally Sometimes, both
(05:06):
on our side.
You're sometimes a resource tous and then also a resource to
the victim.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
We jokingly refer to ourselves as the tree huggers,
because we are the emotionalside of the department.
We want to be the emotionalside of the department.
We chose to be in thisprofession because of that,
because we do have empathy, wedo have sympathy for those who
we serve.
So when we're on scene, ourpurpose is to.
(05:32):
You know, we're notinvestigators, we're.
You know, as you stated, we'renot sworn officers, but we're
very important because we areworking hand in hand with that
officer and we're allowing thatofficer to do what the officer
needs to do and not worry aboutokay, is this victim going to
give me what information I needto solve the incident that I'm
(05:54):
working?
And you can imagine, everybodystarts walking towards the scene
and we have to protect you knowthe scene, and so now we've
taken away from what they needto be doing.
So we kind of we do some ofthat crowd control, if you want
(06:16):
to refer to it as that.
We bridge the information fromthe officer detective to the
family so that they know what'sgoing on, so that they're not
sitting over there going what'sgoing on?
I want to know what you know,and and then everything kind of
escalates from that point.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
so that's that's what our role is is to be an extra
hand to the officer anddetective that makes total sense
and you know you kind ofbrought up that this is what you
want to do is be that emotionalperson, be that empathetic
person for the people who are onscene, so that the officers can
do their job of investigating.
I'm curious how each of youkind of got into this line of
(06:52):
work.
And, brandy, I'll start withyou how did you end up here at
the police department?
How did you end up as a victimadvocate?
I'm really not sure.
Speaker 4 (07:01):
No, I came on as a dispatcher and I was in dispatch
for about five and a half years.
But my goal from the verybeginning because someone in
this department who knows mewell had mentioned that I'd be a
great advocate I was like, well, how do I do that?
Like, oh, in joking, she's likeyou're going to wait for Pat
Lucas to retire.
Okay, well, how do I do that?
(07:22):
She's like just get your footin the door.
So I came on as a dispatcherand I really thought that I'd
stay in dispatch forever.
And lo and behold, I'm seeingthe emails as they come in one
day and I was like, ah, theadvocate position's open.
I really think I want to dothat.
So I went online and I read awhole lot about it.
I'm very emotional, I'm veryempathetic, but it I'm very
(07:42):
emotional, I'm very empathetic,but I thought that I had
something to give back.
So I went ahead and applied andwhile I've been here a little
over six years now in thisposition, it's what my passion
is being able to care for otherpeople and help them get through
the hardest time in their lives, to show somebody that, yes,
(08:02):
this happened, but we're goingto be able to get through it and
I'm going to be here.
We're going to move past thisand you're going to be different
, but you're going to be okay.
Speaker 2 (08:14):
Yeah, my favorite thing about you is that, like,
you're not just empathetic, youdon't just care about who you're
dealing with, but you also havethe personality that you can
step up and stand up forsomebody who needs it.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
You're not afraid.
Speaker 2 (08:27):
Yeah, you know you're not quiet, you're.
You're always very vocal aboutwhat needs to be done and you're
not afraid to step up, takecharge, while maintaining
empathy, which I think is soimportant for a lot of victims,
especially domestic violencethat are kind of afraid to come
forward and talk about what'sgoing on and you seem perfect
for the job.
Speaker 1 (08:47):
And, christine, I'll direct the same question to you
what led you into this line ofwork?
Speaker 3 (08:51):
It's kind of evolved.
I started my career as ajuvenile probation officer and
then came to the department as ajuvenile liaison and then
victim advocacy.
My passion has always been tohelp.
That is my nature.
Sometimes it's a, it's ablessing and a curse.
(09:13):
Yes, exactly A blessing and acurse, because I do.
I feel like I go above andbeyond to provide resources and
service to anybody, whether itbe work, home.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
I can imagine it's easy for it to like bleed into
other aspects of your life,right?
You hear of someone you knowstruggling, so you're like I'll
step up and do this, and Iimagine, though, it could be
easy to get spread pretty thin.
Speaker 2 (09:39):
I can.
How is it, though, when youoffer resources and then people
just don't want the help?
Speaker 3 (09:45):
Sometimes it's more about where they're at in their
journey, traumatized by theevent, traumatized maybe by all
the different people.
We respect the uniform andsometimes that is overwhelming
to a victim, so they kind ofshut down.
(10:07):
That might be one or just theother.
They're not ready, they're justnot ready.
Sometimes people have to have alittle bit more before they're
ready to say, okay, enough isenough, and it's okay, we're
going to pick them up whereverthey're at.
We're never going to.
I mean, we have victims thatare reoccurring and we're never
(10:29):
going to.
I mean we have victims that arereoccurring and we're never
going to make them feel bad.
Sometimes victims will say tous I know you talked to me about
this and I didn't do it and I'mlike it's okay, it's really
okay.
Are you ready today?
I'll help you with today.
That's what we're going to workon today.
We're not going to worry aboutwhat happened in the past.
(10:50):
We're going to worry abouttoday and if you're not, I'm
still here.
When you're ready, yeahabsolutely.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
I love that.
Speaker 4 (10:56):
Everybody has a different point in their process
when they decide that they'reready.
Today's the time might happenone time for one person, or
might be five.
You never know what somebody'ssituation is and I don't judge
anyone for their situation.
We're going to help you todaywhere you're at right now, and
hopefully I'll get to help youagain down the road if you need
(11:19):
help.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
And I think that's important to stress too is you
guys, of course, show up to acrime scene when the initial
crime happens.
You're there for the victim,you talk to them, you explain
any resources that are availableand how you can help.
But that help doesn't just endthere.
It's not like you guys allleave the crime scene, they lose
your number and y'all neverspeak again.
You walk through everythingwith them and I thought it might
(11:40):
be interesting to use since youdid say a big percentage of
your cases are domestic violenceusing that as an example of
kind of how you walk a victimthrough the process.
What does that?
Speaker 3 (11:51):
look like, depending on if an arrest is made or not
made, the resources that wouldbe available.
We would explain the justicesystem, not only the what the
process is.
Contact information, firstappearance.
What is first appearance?
Contact information, firstappearance.
(12:12):
What is first appearance?
What can I do?
At first appearance?
We safety plans.
Safety planning is the utmostimportance for domestic violence
victims.
This is they're the mostvulnerable in a time like this,
(12:33):
so we need to make sure thatthey're safe.
Initially.
They're safe if the suspect hasbeen arrested, but that's not a
guarantee they're staying away.
So what do we do?
We talk about getting aninjunction for protection.
We talk about shelter, safeshelter, whether that be shelter
in place with resources comingin with them, whether it be at
somebody else's home, friend,family or going to one of the
(12:55):
local shelters.
Then we talk about rebuilding.
We're not going to stay in thismoment, we're going to rebuild.
So with that, there'scounseling services that are
available to all that areinvolved, because we've got to
remember, when we have domesticviolence, it doesn't just affect
(13:16):
the two parties that are havingthe actual incident, it
pertains to anybody else that'sliving in the home.
So we want to make sure thatthey are innocent bystanders to
this, that they are providedresources as well.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Absolutely.
It's a lot, and then you knowthat case goes to court.
You guys come to those with thevictim, don't you?
Absolutely?
Speaker 3 (13:41):
When we initiate with a victim, we tell the victim
we're there for as long as theywant us there.
Obviously we want them to becomfortable, so if they want us
to go to any court proceedings,we will go with them.
There are advocates that workwith the state attorney's office
when it's going through thecourt proceeding, but once it's
(14:04):
done, they're done.
So at that point, if we're notworking with a victim through
that court proceeding, that'sfine.
Or we can Afterwards if theysay okay, now, what do I do Now?
You know, I really focused allmy time on getting this
conviction.
Now, what do I do with my time?
(14:27):
Because that's a big one?
Yeah, I'm sure.
And then that's when we say tothem okay, now, this is
important for you to focus onyou.
Speaker 2 (14:34):
I know that there are a lot of people that think that
they're going through it alone.
They don't call, they thinkit's normal.
What would you say to thosepeople to help them?
Speaker 3 (14:42):
You're not alone, number one.
You're never alone becausewe're here to help you.
So there's your first support.
There are hundreds and hundredsof people that are in your same
shoes or have been in yourshoes, and those are the people
that we want to connect you withso that you can understand that
(15:04):
you can survive this, you willsurvive this.
You will survive this, and Ihave a saying that I have always
said, even from my days ofbeing a probation officer you
can be a survivor or you can bea victim, because you're a
victim, but if you stay invictim mode, you're never going
(15:25):
to be the survivor.
And I need you to be thesurvivor and that's the journey
you have to take.
So you have to do the resourcesto get you to that point.
Speaker 1 (15:34):
That makes sense, that's a good piece of advice,
and that's a good way to frameit, because you ultimately want
this person to overcome whatthey're going through.
Speaker 3 (15:42):
Absolutely, I don't want you to stay.
In that moment when we workwith a death case, I say to
families don't think about todayas everything, think about all
the years you had.
(16:02):
Yes, today hurts, but don'tstay in today, don't.
You're going to be a survivor.
We're going to help you throughthat.
And those are the things thatwe do.
We will walk hand in hand witha victim, whether just you know
being on the phone and listeningto them, yeah, or just there's
a lot of times victims will callback and I say to them, when I
provide them with informationright now, it's very
(16:25):
overwhelming.
I might sound like Charlie Brown.
It's okay to call me back, Idon't care if I just left.
Hey, christine, I don't knowwhat you said.
I don't even know the firstmove.
What do I do?
And I said I will go through itwith you.
Just call me.
I can't, I'm not going to callyou because I don't know.
If you want me to, you know, bea part of that.
(16:47):
Right now I am, but if you wantme, I will be there.
Whatever the duration, we arethere.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
I'm sure that you guys have built relationships
with people, too, that are likeyears and years and years and
years to where you're still intouch and communicating years
and years and years later.
Speaker 3 (17:05):
Prime example.
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Oh, what's that?
Speaker 3 (17:08):
14 years later, this is the victim.
Speaker 1 (17:10):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
That I worked with.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
Wow, yes, that's incredible.
And you guys are still in touch.
Yes, that's amazing.
That's like proof that, one,you're perfect for this job and
two, you're you're so needed.
You know what you guys do is soimportant.
Speaker 3 (17:28):
14 years is a long time yeah, it's a lot deeper
than that, yeah so this braceletum, signifies a young lady her
name is Peyton who passed awayand I had the and I say
(17:48):
privilege to do the notificationto the family, and it's a
privilege only because they havebecome family.
They truly are part of myfamily through the working
relations with them.
So yes, 14 years later, it hasnot come off my arm and this is
(18:12):
an honor of her.
Speaker 1 (18:14):
The fact that you still, 14 years later, get this
emotional about a case provesthat you guys are perfect for
what you're doing.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
But that's one of those things like why your
guys's job is so special isbecause it shows that it's like
you're not just a personfloating on in the world.
Whatever you do has a lastingimpact on the people around you,
and you're here to still tell astory 14 years later, plus, and
lives are still still matter toyou and oh, everybody's life
(18:43):
matters to me, yeah, and youguys have have a candlelight
vigil too, every year right, yes, we do, and the purpose of the
candlelight vigil is to honorthose that we've worked with
through the years.
Speaker 3 (18:55):
We want to not stop our support.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Right.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
Initially we give a little sprinkle, but then we
want to continue and we havefamilies that come out year
after year after year.
And that's what it was designedfor to come out and display
your loved one's picture and,you know, have camaraderie with
others that have had a loss,because it's hard.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
And to acknowledge you know that you haven't
forgotten about what they'vegone through.
It could be years later, but westill remember, we still want
to be here for you to providethat outlet, absolutely.
Speaker 4 (19:33):
But that's what I love about Candlelight is
because even if you haven'tspoken to that person as often
as you'd like to throughout theyear, or maybe you haven't been
able to speak at all because youdon't always want to follow up
with somebody, you haven't beenable to speak at all because you
don't always want to follow upwith somebody.
You don't want to make thattrigger or whatever happened raw
in their life again.
But when you see that person, acandlelight, or when you get to
organically see them somewhereand you just get to catch up on
(19:57):
the story and what's happenedand how they're doing,
everything just feels better.
Speaker 1 (20:03):
That's like the true proof of like why the
candlelight is so important.
Speaker 3 (20:07):
Right, when's the next one?
It's going to be in April.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
Well, you guys are incredible.
Seriously, is there anythingelse you can think of that we
haven't touched on that you'dwant to mention?
Speaker 3 (20:15):
We're available for any type of questions.
It might not have to berelating to being a victim.
I get a lot of strange phonecalls, but I will connect them.
Speaker 4 (20:29):
We will find the resource yes.
Speaker 2 (20:31):
So what's the best way for people to be able to get
in contact with you guys andask their questions?
Speaker 3 (20:36):
They can certainly reach out to myself.
My number is 239-574-0656.
Speaker 1 (20:43):
Perfect.
Speaker 4 (20:44):
Also, if they're a victim of crime, they're given
the blue form which has all ofour numbers on the blue form, so
they can reach out to thevictim advocate unit.
They just don't know which onethey're calling.
Just call us.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
There's five of you working together helping the
people of Cape Coral.
We appreciate all of your hardwork and we appreciate you
coming on the podcast.
I know this is a bit outside ofyour comfort zone, but you
would never know the peoplewatching or listening would
never know because you guys didso great.
Seriously, thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (21:08):
Thank you for having us, and I hope that the
information that we've providedtoday reaches those who need it.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
Absolutely, and we will see you next time here on
the Cape Codcast.
Thank you so much, yep, takecare.
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