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Officer Monahan is a sex offender compliance officer and discusses her role in ensuring that convicted sex offenders comply with the law. She emphasizes the importance of trust between law enforcement and victims of sexual assault, as well as the need for strong relationships with local resources like Stepping Stones. She acknowledges that not all cases result in justice and highlights the significance of understanding that a not guilty verdict does not negate the occurrence of the assault. Officer Monahan explains how she handles sexual assault cases, asking uncomfortable questions to gather information and providing resources for victims. She encourages reporting even if it is late, as it helps establish patterns and documentation. She mentions working closely with organizations like Stepping Stones to provide support to victims. Officer Monahan also addresses the fluctuation in the number of reported cases and advises victims to have a support system and consider reporting, even if We are here with Officer Monahan and she's going to answer some questions about our sexual assault podcast and so, but if you want to explain what you do at the police department that would be great. Yeah, so I am the sex offender compliance officer with our agency. After an individual has been convicted of a sex crime they could end up on the sex offender registry whether they're an adult offender or a child offender and they are required by the state of Illinois to update certain information within three days of changing that information and so I investigate making sure that they're doing what they're supposed to be doing. That's pretty cool. Okay, so the first question I have is what are some improvements you would like to see made to better help those who have been sexually assaulted? I think more trust within law enforcement when there's more trust within whether it's your local agency or whatever agency that someone is comfortable reporting in. More reports can be made just having that trust and also the relationships with like our local resource is Stepping Stones so if Stepping Stones and the local police department have a good relationship and they can trust the investigators to complete a good thorough investigation then those advocates would be willing to maybe if someone's on the fence about reporting for a criminal report with the police department maybe that can give them a little bit more of a gentle guidance of making their decision to report. Cool. So a lot of these cases don't always make it to court or those that do don't always get the justice they deserve so we're just wondering what are your thoughts about the boys and girls cases who go to court but none of the justice gets served? That's a really good question. Truthfully, juries, you never are going to know what a jury is going to decide. All it takes is one person to throw off a verdict so just because a jury is to come back and say the defendant is not guilty does not mean that the incident did not occur. I have the utmost respect for someone who goes through the court process testifying against the suspect, the arrestee, the defendant, whichever one you want to call them or her and even having that not guilty verdict come back just knowing that it did happen. That verdict does not dictate whether or not that incident occurred. I know that's easier said than done but I wish more people in general but especially the victims had that understanding of just knowing that that does not mean it didn't happen. Do you feel like some people accuse them of it not happening more than often? I don't know statistics on that. I can't answer that. I don't think that is a large statistic. I really don't. But without having those numbers in front of me then I would not be able to answer that. So I was just wondering how would you handle a sexual assault case like you personally and then how would you respond to the victim? So on patrol if it was a victim coming into the police department or having a call for service and an officer being dispatched to wherever that person is at speaking with the victim we have to ask very uncomfortable questions. Whether they are about that person's body, whether they are about what they did that night. That's not any kind of accusatory or judgmental thing. We have to get in front of the eight ball because if it does go to court the defense attorney is also going to ask those very uncomfortable questions in a not so nice way. So asking those uncomfortable questions but also having the resources there like if they want to have a friend there, okay, if that's your safe person and you feel more comfortable talking to me that's fine. Having the resources with stepping stones or whatever kind of counseling services that if they are already involved in counseling or whatever the case may be it would vary on when the incident occurred, did it happen recently, did it happen within seven days to go and have a kit done. So there are different ways of reporting just because some people might not disclose for a while and that's okay too because you have to figure out, you know, you have to be good with what you're doing and make sure that, you know, this is what you want to do. So what if you report too late? So it would depend on how old someone was at the time of the crime, right? So that plays a big part in it. If it say you were an adult when it happened and it's after the time frame then it could be put in for documentation purposes. I would highly recommend anyone who, even if it can't, charges can't be brought on someone because if it's, if they've done it to you they've probably done it to other people and just establishing a pattern in the documentation because then that can get brought into later on, on, you know, patterns and motives and stuff like that. So you talked, you mentioned like stepping stones and like that like correlates with like organizations like with the YWCA. Do you ever like work directly with them? Like do you ever send victims to them and be like here are some other resources to help? So any kind of sex assault or domestic violence incident we hand out, it's a domestic violence notification guide, resource guide, domestic violence resource guide. And it has all the resources in McLean County. So even if the crime or it's reported in Bloomington you have all the resources within McLean County so their phone number is always going to be on there. The domestic violence hotline number is always going to be on there. There are times where domestic violence and sexual assault can go, you know, it plays in the same circle. So I mean as far as us referring all the information like we have to, it's our department policy we hand out sex assault sheets, like informational sheets, and their information is on there as well. So we definitely, however, this is going to make the process easier for someone in having, so like once we speak to the victim we focus on the offender. You know like we want to, we'll see, we want to investigate this as much as we possibly can. But our focus does get taken off of the victim. With that said, if they have the advocates from Stepping Stones, they have their counseling services, whoever they want to use, friends, family, whomever, then making sure that, you know, the victim is still being taken care of but then our role switches to we're focused on getting the offender, right? So that's also something that's kind of, it's a hard, it's hard to talk to somebody about it because in the time that you're going through all this stuff, like they're probably not going to remember what you said to them because they have a lot of stuff going on. But just knowing that we are still there for the victim but we are now focused on getting that offender. Okay. So like with everyone that is reporting, if you want to, okay, she's getting the questions pulled back up, but so do you, would you say you get like a lot of reports for sexual assault? I think it stays pretty, pretty consistent. I think there's like on average like 100 per year and that can vary. So one year it might be 75 and the next year it might be 125, right? As far as if there is a rise or a decrease in numbers, I think that it would, it could also play into effect of what's going on in the world, right? If you have a lot of celebrities or influencers or something that's making headline news, it doesn't even have to be someone who's famous or trying to be famous, then that could make someone more comfortable to report. And I think that if there hasn't been a lot of reporting that's making national news, then maybe it kind of lays off of the reporting, but that is just a personal opinion on reporting. Sexual assaults are the most under-reported reports, so it's very fair to say that there's more than what's being reported. Yeah, right. Is there anything that you'd like to tell people that have been like, like not saying like our podcast is going strictly to victims or anything, but like anything that you would do to like kind of help people that are going through similar stuff? Like any advice or anything? Advice, have your safe people. I, whether it's, you know, friends, family members, if one goes to a counselor or a therapist, for something completely different, and that is your safe person, having those safe people, so if the victim has not reported, is on the fence about reporting, or has reported, then they have those people to talk to. And as far as just any kind of advice, if you're on the fence about reporting, I would highly consider making the report, you know, it doesn't matter if it happened however many years ago, right, say even if the suspect is, can't have, like the statute of limitations is up, it's still an absolute worthy report for us to take. It just, it establishes a pattern, it's documentation in the event that it's happened, if it's established as a pattern, if it has happened in the past, or if there's more reports in the future, and just kind of going from, you know, from all of that. But if someone's on the fence, I would definitely encourage them talking to, even if they didn't want to talk to law enforcement at that time, at least reaching out to whatever resources, whether it's Stepping Sons, I use Stepping Sons because they're our local agency, and having them to talk to, even if they unfortunately decide not to make their report, because then they could be getting the counseling services if they're not already in it, they could have that, there's that 24-hour hotline with Stepping Sons as well. So just having someone who, maybe it's easier talking to a stranger, maybe it's easier talking to someone over the phone, and if you're having, going through, you know, a bad day with the horrible thing that happened to you, and having someone to talk to about it, who might have a little bit more of an understanding from someone that maybe has never had to happen to them, or is not familiar with anything that has, you know, that you're going through, that that person could be going through. So that would be my advice. Okay. All right, well, thank you for doing our interview. Yeah, absolutely. We are here with Officer Monahan, and she's going to answer some questions about our sexual assault podcast, and so, but if you want to explain what you do at the police department, that would be great. Yeah, so I am the sex offender compliance officer with our agency. After an individual has been convicted of a sex crime, they could end up on the sex offender registry, whether they're an adult offender or a child offender, and they are required by the state of Illinois to update certain information within three days of changing that information, and so I investigate making sure that they're doing what they're supposed to be doing. That's pretty cool. Okay, so the first question I have is, what are some improvements you would like to see made to better help those who have been sexually assaulted? I think more trust within law enforcement. When there's more trust within, whether it's your local agency or whatever agency that someone is comfortable reporting in, more reports can be made. Just having that trust and also the relationships with our local resources, Stepping Stones. So if Stepping Stones and the local police department have a good relationship and they can trust the investigators to complete a good, thorough investigation, then those advocates would be willing to maybe, if someone's on the fence about reporting for a criminal report with the police department, maybe that can give them a little bit more of a gentle guidance of making their decision to report. Cool. So, a lot of these cases don't always make it to court, or those that do, don't always get the justice they deserve. So we're just wondering, what are your thoughts about the boys and girls cases who go to court, but none of the justice gets served? That's a really good question. Truthfully, juries, you never are going to know what a jury is going to decide. All it takes is one person to throw off a verdict. So just because a jury is to come back and say the defendant is not guilty does not mean that the incident did not occur. I have the utmost respect for someone who goes through the court process testifying against the suspect, the arrestee, the defendant, whichever one you want to call them, or her. And even having that not guilty verdict come back, just knowing that it did happen. That verdict does not dictate whether or not that incident occurred. And I know that's easier said than done. But I just, I wish more people in general, but especially the victims, had that understanding of just knowing that that does not mean it didn't happen. Do you feel like some people accused them of it not happening more than often? I don't know statistics on that. I can't answer that. I don't think that that is a large amount of, I don't think that is a large statistic. I really don't. But without having those numbers in front of me, then I would not be able to answer that. So I was just wondering, like, how would you handle a sexual assault case like you personally? And then like, how would you respond to the victim? So on patrol, if it was a victim coming into the police department or having a call for service, and an officer being dispatched to wherever that person is at, speaking with the victim, we have to ask very uncomfortable questions. Whether they are about that person's body, whether they are about what they did that night, that that's not any kind of accusatory or judgmental thing, we have to get in front of the eight ball, because if it does go to court, the defense attorney is also going to ask those very uncomfortable questions, and in not the nice way. So asking those uncomfortable questions, but also having the resources there, like if they want to have a friend there, okay, if that's your safe person, and you feel more comfortable talking to me, that's fine. Having, you know, the resources with stepping stones or whatever kind of counseling services that if they're already involved in counseling, or whatever it is that they're involved in, already involved in counseling, or whatever the case may be, it would vary on when the incident occurred, did it happen recently, did it happen within seven days, to go and have a kit done. So there are different ways of reporting, just because some people might not disclose for a while, and that's okay, too. Sometimes you have to figure out, you know, you have to be good with what you're doing, and make sure that, you know, this is what you want to do. So what if you report, like, too late, then what happens? So it would depend on how old someone was at the time of the crime, right? So that plays a big part in it. If it, say, you were an adult when it happened, and it's after the time frame, then it could be put in for documentation purposes. I would highly recommend anyone who, even if it can't, charges can't be brought on someone, because if it's, if they've done it to you, they've probably done it to other people. And just establishing a pattern in the documentation, because then that can get brought into later on, on, you know, patterns and motives and stuff like that. So you talked, you mentioned, like, stepping stones, and, like, that, like, correlates with, like, organizations, like, with the YWCA. Do you ever, like, work directly with them? Like, do you ever send victims to them, be like, here are some other resources to help? So any kind of sex assault or domestic violence incident, we hand out the domestic violence it's a domestic violence notification guide, resource guide, domestic violence resource guide, and it has all the resources in McLean County. So even if the crime, or it's reported in Bloomington, you have all the resources within McLean County. So their phone number is always going to be on there. The domestic violence hotline number is always going to be on there. There are times where domestic violence and sexual assault can go, you know, it plays in the same circle. So, I mean, as far as us referring all the information, like, we have to, it's our department policy we hand out sex assault sheets, like, informational sheets. And their information is on there as well. So we definitely, however, this is going to make the process easier for someone. And having, so, like, once we speak to the victim, we focus on the offender. Yes. You know, like, we want to, we want to investigate this as much as we possibly can. So our focus does get taken off of the victim. With that said, if they have the advocates from Stepping Stones, they have their counseling services, whoever they want to use, friends, family, whomever, then making sure that, you know, the victim is still being taken care of. But then our role switches to we're focused on getting the offender, right? So that's also something that's kind of, it's a hard, it's hard to talk to somebody about it. Because in the time that you're going through all this stuff, like, they're probably not going to remember what you said to them because they have a lot of stuff going on. Yeah. But just knowing that we are still there for the victim, but we are an outpost on getting that offender. So, like, with everyone that is reporting, if you want to... Okay. She's getting the questions pulled back up. But, so, do you, would you say you get, like, a lot of reports for sexual assault? I think it is pretty, pretty consistent. I think there's, like, on average, like, 100 per year, and that can vary. So one year, it might be 75, and the next year might be 125, right? As far as if there is a rise or a decrease in numbers, I think that it would, it could also play into effect of what's going on in the world, right? If you have a lot of celebrities or influencers or something that's making headline news, and it doesn't even have to be someone who's famous or trying to be famous, then that could make someone more comfortable to report, and I think that if there hasn't been a lot of reporting that's making national news, then maybe it kind of lays off of the reporting, but that is just a personal opinion on reporting. Sexual assaults are the most under-reported reports. So it's very fair to say that there's more than what's being reported. Yeah, right. Is there anything that you'd like to tell people that have been, like, like, not saying, like, our podcast is going strictly to victims or anything, but, like, anything that you would do to, like, kind of help people that are going through similar stuff? Like, any advice or anything? Advice? Have your safe people. I, whether it's, you know, friends, family members, if you, if one goes to a counselor or a therapist for something completely different, and that is your safe person, having those safe people, so if the victim has not reported, is on the fence about reporting, or has reported, then they have those people to talk to. And as far as just any kind of advice, if you're on the fence about reporting, I would highly consider making the report. You know, it doesn't matter if it happened however many years ago, right? Say, even if the, the, the suspect is, um, can't have, like, the statute of limitations is up, it's still an absolute worthy report for us to take. It just, it establishes a pattern. It's documentation in the event that it's happened. If it establishes a pattern, if it has happened in the past, or if there's more reports in the future, um, and just kind of going from, you know, from all, all that, um, but if someone's on the fence, I would definitely encourage them talking to, even if they didn't want to talk to law enforcement at that time, at least reaching out to whatever resources, whether it's Stepping Steps, I use Stepping Steps because they're our local agency, um, and having them to talk to, even if they unfortunately decide not to make their report, um, because then they could be getting the counseling services. If they're not already in it, they could have that, there's that 24-hour hotline with Stepping Steps as well, um, so just having someone who, maybe it's easier talking to a stranger, maybe it's easier talking to someone over the phone, and if you're having, going through, you know, a bad day with, with the horrible thing that happened to you, and having someone to talk to about it, um, who might have a little bit more of an understanding, um, from someone that maybe has never had that happen to them, or is not familiar with anything that has, you know, that you're going through, that person could be going through, so that would be my advice. All right, well, thank you for doing our interview. Absolutely. Yep, awesome. So, we're just kind of here talking to you today about, um, a big issue in Wilmington, Illinois, where, um, with sexual assault, and we just want to ask you a couple questions and kind of get some more insight about, like, what the YWCA and, like, what Stepping Stones can do to help. Yeah. Yeah. So, YWCA Stepping Stones is the local sexual assault resource center. We support, um, survivors of sexual violence throughout all of McLean County. We also support loved ones or those that may be indirectly affected by sexual violence. So, it could be a significant other. It can be somebody that's, um, out in the community working with a survivor. Um, anyone that has been either directly or indirectly affected by sexual violence, we support them. And so, the ways that we support is through counseling services. We have, um, individual and group counseling. We have advocacy services. Our advocacy services are lethal, um, and so that's supporting, whether it's through the criminal justice avenue or through civil justice, where, like, they just want to protect the border or they want to go through, um, their higher education and do a Title IX. And then our medical advocacy services, we support survivors when they go to the hospital and disclose that they have been a victim of sexual violence. So, we support them while they undergo a forensic exam. So, that is the counseling and advocacy portion of it. We also support through prevention education. And so, our prevention education, we have teams that go out into K through 12 schools, um, to do prevention education, teaching, um, bystander intervention as well as Aaron's Law. And all of our materials are actually geared towards age-appropriate, um, presentations. And then we also do, like, sexual harassment in the community, bringing in the bystander, um, where it's, like, wherever we are requested, we will support survivors and we do that prevention education that's necessary. Wow, that was, that's awesome. Thank you. So, um, what would you say is, like, some of, like, I'm trying to figure out how I want to, like, what do you think personally is the hardest part for victims when they, like, come seeking for help? So, I feel like every survivor's journey is going to be different. There is no, um, like, no journey that is the same. I think that first, the hardest part is actually accepting the fact that they were harmed. Um, but that's just my opinion. Others can say that it could be going through the forensic exam. Others could say that it's going through the criminal justice system. It just depends on each survivor and their journey. Um, and it also depends on their support system. If they have a support system or if they feel like they're, um, not in the space where they could fill their support system and they choose to go through the journey alone. So, um, one of our other questions was, like, what are some ways, we, we want to ask everyone this because we think everyone has different opinions and, like, ways of going about it and we like hearing those different ideas. Do you think, or, like, what do you think can be done to stop sexual assault before it happens or ways to decrease it? So, I think the majority or the best answer that I can give you with that is to continue to educate society and the community on what sexual violence is. Um, I never want to put that burden on someone that has been harmed, if that makes sense. Yeah. So, with that being said, I think that if we begin to educate and make the education more normal, it would be easier for us to, if not reduce it, it would be easier for us to hold people accountable. And so, the more people that are held accountable, the more, um, I believe we can start to curb rape culture and violence as a whole. Yeah. So, as a community, as a society, our part is to educate as well as making sure that we're intervening. And so, one of the big things that we do is, of course, bystander intervention. A lot of times, everybody is automatically assuming that somebody is going to step in, but sometimes we have to be that person that steps in and stops as much as possible. If we see that a friend is hanging out with someone in there, um, that date is going in the wrong direction, step in and to be able to stop it from happening. And that's taking that responsibility off of the survivor and putting it back onto society. So, you talked about holding people accountable and things like that. So, when people, um, report, do you try, sorry, we have people coming through. Do you try to encourage them to report to the police if they haven't already? Or do you just, is it kind of like, I respect your decision, but like, if you do report, this is what can be done? Yes. So, we never encourage anyone to do anything outside of what they want to do. Whatever they, whatever route they want to go in, we're going to support that route. Um, and then, I'm sorry, can you ask that question, the second part of that question again? So, like, what, if you, do you encourage victims or people who have been assaulted, do you encourage them to report to the police? Or do you kind of just like stand back and like respect their decision and work with them no matter what way they choose to go? Yes. So, we allow them to make that decision and we were, we will support whatever route they want to go in. One of the things that we do as advocates is we will allow the survivor to know what avenues, what journeys are specified or available to them. And then they choose whatever journey they want to go on. So, say for instance, someone was a victim of sexual violence and they had the option of doing order of protection, they had the option of going through the criminal justice system, they had an option of doing the forensic exam because it was within the time frame. We give them all of those options out. We lay those options out on the table and when we lay them out on the table, we allow the survivor to choose which options they want to do. If they want to do one, we respect the fact that they want to do one. If all of them are available to them and they want to do all, we would respect the fact that they want them to, they want to do all of those. And then we will go with them on that journey. So, it's not something where we're just giving them another business card and saying, hey, reach out to this person. Whatever you want to go down, we're going to support them through all of those. So, you kind of like answered all my questions and all your explanations. They were super good and super helpful. So, I guess like my final thing to you is that, is there anything you want to say, not to like just victims directly, but like any advice you have? I think the biggest thing is for society, we have to be that safe space. A lot of times, we deal with victim blaming. We deal with making the wrong statement after someone has felt comfortable enough to disclose to us. And so, I think it's very important that we as an individual, as well as as a society, we become a safe space for survivors. In doing so, we will have more people feel comfortable with disclosing. We will be able to better respond to someone that may have disclosed on social media and maybe turn them in the direction where they feel like they have support and they can actually heal from it versus they don't have support and they continue to suffer silence. That's awesome. We think this is such a big issue and we really appreciate you giving us the time to talk about it and to inform others about it. Thank you for having me. I really appreciate the work that you're doing and even helping to raise awareness. I understand that it is a very prevalent issue. And so, the more conversations that we can have, the more that we're willing to have. Yeah. Khadija, do you have any questions? No, just thank you for meeting with us so that we can talk about the issue. No problem. You answered all my questions. I had questions and I was like, oh, well, she's just answering them so I don't even have to ask them. Sorry, I get long-winded when we talk about this subject because it's definitely something that I know is an issue. Yeah, I completely understand. Yeah, we're all really passionate about it. So, I mean, it's great that we got the information we did. I'm glad. Also, if I could just let you guys know that, I don't know if you guys are familiar with it, but April is Special Child Awareness Month. And so, we have a lot of these that are happening in the community this month. Yeah. We will be on Heartland Campus the week of the 15th with our shirts as well as the final steps will be on Saturday the 27th where we are asking for members from the community to meet us at Millard Park and just walk in support of survivors. It's a walk at your own pace. Different activities that will be available throughout that event on the 27th and that's from 10 to 12. Yeah, that sounds great. Thank you. Yeah. You guys have anything else for me? Are you? No, I think that's it. Thank you again. Thank you so much. No problem. I hope you guys have a good day. Thank you. Thank you.