End of a Successful World Association of Detectives Conference
October 28, 2014 | Events
The World Association of Detectives ("WAD") held their 89th annual conference in Auckland during the week of 22-26 October 2014 at the Sky City Conference centre Auckland New Zealand. It was a fantastic conference attended by some of the most elite private investigators in the world including Keith Schafferius. There was a traditional maori welcome (powhiri) followed by board meetings and general business meetings canvassing topics such as the venue for the next conference in Toronto Canada 2015 and mid term meeting in Atlanta Georgia United States of America. Chuck McLaughlin was sworn in as President and Christine Vinson as Chairman of the board. Daniel Toresen was sworn in as an executive officer of the WAD as Sergeant at Arms. There was a variety of interesting speakers including:
Dr Jarrod Gilbert who presented The History of Gangs in New Zealand. Rape, murder, violence and drugs: gangs are synonymous with them all. Despite having a significant presence in New Zealand since the 1950s, our gangs have been under-researched and remain poorly understood. One reason for this is the difficulty of doing fieldwork. This presentation looked at New Zealand gangs in an international context, the problems of researching gangs, and also the issue encountered when research findings clash with popular and official understandings. Between 2002 and 2010 Jarrod undertook the most comprehensive study ever done on gangs in New Zealand. This research included ethnographic and quantitative techniques as well as extensive document analysis. In 2013 he published Patched: The History of Gangs in New Zealand. Patched won the Peoples Choice category at the 2013 New Zealand Post Book Awards and was a finalist for best non-fiction book. Jarrod lectures at the University of Canterbury and is the lead researcher at Independent Research Solutions. He is currently working on a book titled Murder: A New Zealand History.
Dr Allan Watt who spoke about "Big Data" in Investigations: What is this thing called Big Data?
· How big is big and will it get bigger?
· How do we process this data in Fraud Cases, e.Discovery v Digital Forensics?
· What about data analytics?
· What is the cost of processing large datasets?
· What are the solutions to tackling the problem, in-house/outsource/Other?
The WAD Truth in Action Award was presented to Tim McKinnel of Zavest for his work on miscarriage of justice cases. A miscarriage of justice primarily is the conviction and punishment of a person for a crime he or she did not commit. The term can also apply to errors in the other direction—"errors of impunity", and to civil cases. Most criminal justice systems have some means to overturn, or "quash", a wrongful conviction, but this is often difficult to achieve. In some instances a wrongful conviction is not overturned for several years, or until after the innocent person has been executed, released from custody, or has died.
"Miscarriage of justice" is sometimes synonymous with wrongful conviction, referring to a conviction reached in an unfair or disputed trial. Wrongful convictions are frequently cited by death penalty opponents as cause to eliminate death penalties to avoid executing innocent persons. In recent years, DNA evidence has been used to clear many people falsely convicted. Tim has a great deal of experience which he shared with WAD members.
Other speakers included Brigadier General (Pakistan Army) r. Rashid Malik and APN NZ Herald Journalist David Fisher.
About the World Association of Detectives
A Global Alliance of Investigators & Security Professionals
With origins dating back to 1921, W.A.D. is the longest established and largest association of its kind in the world.
The World Association of Detectives was formed as a joint venture by the combined membership of the World Association of Detectives and the International Secret Service Association for the following purposes:
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To promote and maintain the highest ethical practices in the profession of private investigator or security service;
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To select for membership only those individuals whose personal and professional backgrounds and business affiliations have strictly observed the precepts of truth, accuracy and prudence;
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To eliminate unreliable, incompetent and irresponsible members of the profession;
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To foster and perpetuate a spirit of cooperation among its members and with all those engaged in law enforcement; and
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To further and establish a mutual feeling of trust, goodwill and friendship among agencies throughout the world.
