Welcome to the inaugural issue of The Compass, your guide to navigating the future Message from the Dean | There is no doubt. North Mecklenburg County is growing. Huntersville, Cornelius and Davidson are thriving. By 2020, I-485 will be finished, our corner of the county will boast its third public high school and our population will more than double to nearly 150,000 inhabitants. The purpose of this e-newsletter is to let you know that Central Piedmont Community College – North Campus stands ready and eager to help all the members of our diverse and dynamic community navigate their way to a future filled with learning and opportunity. | | Beverly Dickson, Dean CPCC North Campus | Since its founding in 1990 on a campus off Verhoeff Drive in Huntersville, the CPCC NorthCampus has grown to three buildings totaling 157,000 square feet. | Together they house our anchor programs in Public Safety and Transport Systems Technology. Our state-of-the-art Transport Systems Technology Center, which opened in the Fall of 2006, offers programs in auto body repair, general automotive systems, heavy equipment/diesel systems and motorsports. The campus, which employs approximately 100 faculty and staff, also offers college transfer and continuing education classes. | We provide a full spectrum of student services, including admissions, registration, counseling, financial aid, testing, career counseling, cashiering, recruitment and security. We have two student lounges, a library, a bookstore and a 220-seat auditorium. In 2006, the staff and programs of the CPCC North Campus served 30,000 students, including more than 20,000 police officers, firefighters and medics. Almost 3,500 students came to the CPCC NorthCampus to take college transfer classes. | 
A state-of-the-art Transport Systems Technology Center opened at the CPCC North Campus in the fall of 2006 | | Some of our fastest growing, or highest demand, classes are | | At the CPCC North Campus, we are dedicated to helping students face the challenges and take on the opportunities presented by an always changing and sometimes turbulent economy. Over the last 17 years, we feel we have gotten to know this community and we see tremendous opportunities. But the question is, do you know us? To make sure you do, please read this inaugural issue of The Compass. It is designed to help you navigate the extensive resources available at the CPCC North Campus. We hope The Compass will provoke greater awareness of what we offer--and ultimately--a partnership that can only strengthen our community. Together, we can chart a path for the future. Return to top
Program spotlight: Basic Law Enforcement Training (BLET)  The BLET program at the CPCC North Campus is designed to give students essential skills required for entry-level employment as law enforcement officers with state, county or municipal governments or with private enterprise. The 16-week course is comprised of 33 separate blocks of instruction mandated by state commissions. During 602 hours on instruction, students will cover such topics as criminal, juvenile, civil, traffic, and alcoholic beverage laws; investigative, patrol, custody, and court procedures; emergency responses; and ethics and community relations. The course is taught at the Claudia Watkins Belk Center for Justice, which features a shooting range, forensics labs and other special instructional areas. Successful graduates receive a curriculum certificate and are qualified to take certification examinations mandated by the North Carolina Criminal Justice Education and Training Standards Commission and/or North Carolina Sheriffs Education and Training Standards Commission. For further information, please visit BLET online, or contact BLET School Director Sgt. Stanley Moore at (704) 330-4169 or by email at stanley.moore@cpcc.edu. Return to top
Dale Callan, AAAF | From his early days as a Cold War warrior to pioneering the fight against identity theft, Dale Callan has been drawn to the biggest battles in law enforcement and national security. He spent the early 1970s running counterespionage and counterintelligence operations in Korea for the U.S. Army. In the 1980s and ‘90s, he became expert at investigating mail fraud, electronic crimes, credit card fraud and major crimes as an investigator for the US Postal Inspection Service. By the time the Internet burst onto the scene in the 1990’s, Callan was already an expert on identity theft. In New Hampshire, he worked with the U.S. Attorney to establish the N.H. Identity Theft Intelligence Group. (For a bizarre tale, ask him about the disbarred Massachusetts lawyer he investigated on suspicion of identity theft.) | He also served as a member of New Hampshire’s Federal Anti-terrorist Task Force. | Along the way, Callan has helped collect, analyze and testify about evidence needed to prosecute dozens of crimes. However, it was his love of teaching as much as his law enforcement background that drew him to the job as the AAAF’s first program developer. Last year, the academy taught 538 students everything from how to recover data from hard drives and cameras – digital forensics – to dusting for fingerprints, analyzing bloodstain patterns and determining the trajectory of bullets – general forensics. “When I applied for this job, I said I am not a forensics expert or a computer geek,” said Callan, the son of a schoolteacher, a certified firearms instructor and occasional police lecturer. “They hired me for having a teaching background.” | 
U.S. Senator Richard Burr visits the American Academy of Applied Forensics in 2006
| These days, however, Callan can no more suppress his fascination with modern forensics than he can his love of teaching. “You know what a Faraday bag is?” he asks, relishing another opportunity to teach while giving a recent tour of the AAAF. “We use them to protect cell phones seized from bad guys from being erased. You can now subscribe to a service where the service provider will erase all your information if the phone is lost or stolen. But when you bust a drug dealer or other bad guy you need to preserve that information.” The AAAF may be having its biggest impact at smaller local agencies that cannot afford to send officers to out-of-town seminars.  | “Now they are trained to understand what to look for when they arrive at a crime scene--hard drives, cell phones, flash memory devices,” he said. “Flash drives used to all look the same. Now they have Lego style figures, Star War figures, ones shaped like cars. Law enforcement has to be able to recognize that it is flash memory. We are teaching them how to do that.” | | The American Academy of Applied Forensics provides training in the fast-growing field of digital forensics | Rather than send computers and cell phones to understaffed state labs, where they might sit for weeks before being analyzed, these agencies are increasingly able to collect and analyze digital evidence on their own thanks to the AAAF. | Callan, who lives in Huntersville with his wife Sharon, thinks the next step is to help financial institutions and other corporations acquire digital forensics capabilities. He is also reaching out to the public. Last summer, the AAAF launched Forensic Summer Kamps, where children processed and documented mock crime scenes using real-world techniques and equipment. Local hoteliers have also sent employees to a similar program for team-building exercises. “We have barely touched the surface of what’s possible,” said Callan. Identity Theft Prevention Tips from Dale Callan: - Did you know that one million credit cards are mailed every day in the United States? That is a whole lot of opportunities for thieves to hijack someone’s credit. With that in mind, the AAAF offers these tips for protecting your identity.
- At least once a year, go to www.annualcreditreport.com to obtain your free credit report from either Experian, Transunion or Equifax. If you spot inquiries that you did not initiate, contact the credit bureau immediately.
- Invest in a shredder. Avoid discarding mail with any identifying information.
- Guard your Social Security number. Retailers cannot require you to place it on a personal check.
- Do not use debit cards for online transactions.
- When moving, complete as many change of address cards as possible to insure no valuable information is mailed to your old address. If you suspect your old address or mail has been stolen or compromised, contact your local US Postal Inspector.
- Consider the use of a PO Box, a locking mailbox and not having your last name on your residential mailbox.
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How to contact the CPCC North Campus To contact CPCC’s North Campus, you may call Dean Beverly Dickson at (704) 330-4118 or Dr. Lili Johnson, Associate Dean of Public Safety, at (704) 330-4168. The campus’s address is: 11930 Verhoeff Dr., Huntersville, NC 28078 (near exit 23 off I-77). Visit our web site for a map and directions. Return to top |
