The Briefing Room

In our season finale: When children are the victims of abuse, they need someone in their corner to make sure that seeking justice is a caring process. Sarah Stewart is the executive director of Kids First, a child advocacy center that helps kids who are victims get access to services like therapy and medical care, while making sure their stories are heard so a case can be built against their abusers. That’s where Nichole’s work comes in: She is the forensic interviewer and helps children feel safe enough to share what happened to them. She also works to build trust between kids and the juries who hear their stories. Today, Detective Dave - who has worked closely with Kids First as a sex crimes detective - sits down with Nichole and Sarah to talk about how trust is built, how kids navigate trauma, and why it’s better to be a conduit than a vessel.

In 2014, social media strategist Yael Bar tur took on one of the most significant projects in her career, when she was hired to revamp the public image of the New York Police Department. A year before, a federal judge had ruled the department’s controversial stop-and-frisk program was unconstitutional. For six years, Yael worked with the NYPD, weathering PR crises, building trust between civilians and law enforcement, and helping each city precinct develop its unique voice. Today, she sits down with Dan and Dave to talk about why every police department in the country should have a social media strategy and know how to respond when violence goes viral. How did she convince curmudgeonly cops to log into Twitter?

Over the course of his long career in law enforcement, Matt Pitcher has put his personal life on hold to go deep undercover to catch the bad guys. Matt did short stints pretending to be someone else when he worked street crimes trying to take down drug dealers. Then came two separate deep cover investigations that required Matt to live for months apart from his wife and newborn son. Matt sits down with our twin detectives to talk about the real world impact of assuming someone else’s identity, the dangerous close calls when he was almost discovered, and why he thinks deep-cover assignments are becoming a thing of the past.

What happens when a child goes missing? Every second counts and law enforcement needs to know exactly what to do to improve the chances the victim will be found alive. Enter Lindsey Wade, a veteran detective from Tacoma, Washington. Lindsey travels the country training officers on child abduction response and what to do in those crucial seconds, minutes, and hours after a child goes missing. Today, she joins Detectives Dan and Dave to talk about what she teaches, the critical information parents need to know, and her work as a cold case detective.

Detectives Dan and Dave have long said that victims and their families are at the mercy of the quality of detective assigned to their case. It turns out that detectives and other law enforcement officials will sometimes find themselves beholden to someone else’s work: that of the medical examiner. What a medical examiner finds at a crime scene can make or break a case. So what does it take to do that job well? And what could MEs learn from a veteran in the field? Today, our twin detectives talk with Dr. Mark Super, who has spent decades as a medical examiner in California, about a typical day on the job, his most memorable cases, and what lessons he wants to impart from his storied career.

Today we explores the investigative mind of the legendary CSI Paul Holes. In a one-on-one with Detective Dave, we journey back over a career that started in a forensic toxicology lab and led to his groundbreaking cold-case work hunting serial murders like the Golden State Killer. Along the way, Paul reveals how he deals with death, what he means when he says "real crime" instead of true crime, and the impact years of working grisly crime scenes has had on his mental health.

"Undercover Underage" host Roo Powell sits down with Detective Dave and Detective Dan to talk about her work to keep children safe from online sexual predators. Powell is the founder of Safe from Online Sex Abuse, or SOSA, which conducts online stings to lure would-be abusers out into the open and into the hands of law enforcement. In today’s episode, you’ll hear how she got into this unusual line of work, how she and her team set up their stings, and what parents can do to try to keep their own kids safe online.

Detectives Dave and Dan sit down with forensic investigator Paul Holes to share personal stories of the traumatic events they experienced on the job that left them struggling with post-traumatic stress. Joined by guest host Yeardley Smith, they discuss why there needs to be a renewed focus on mental health treatment for all first responders, and the urgent need to redefine when and how police officers are able to seek help when they inevitably experience tragic events that leave a lasting impact.