Meet our expert trainers.
The ACTION Academy Team
THREAT, ABUSE, STALKING, INVESTIGATIONS, LEADERSHIP, INTERNAL AFFAIRS, PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT
Master Investigator (ret.) Rachael Frost
A nationwide trainer, program developer, and expert witness, Rachael is adamant that training be relevant, interesting, immediately useful, and never boring. After twenty years in law enforcement, specializing in threat and abuse investigations and programs, Rachael opened her own firm to concentrate on working with survivors of trauma and abuse, and the first responders who serve them. Rachael works sexual assault cases for private industry and national athletic associations, as well as intimate partner abuse, strangulation, sexual assault, child abuse, and staged suicide investigations. Stalking and threat cases related to intimate partner abuse and targeted violence / mass homicide subjects has been her focus for more than a decade. Rachael believes in comprehensive, effective training to help patrol, detectives/investigators, and all members of multi-disciplinary teams confidently handle complex cases.
UNLAWFUL DEATH, CHILD ABUSE, SEXUAL ASSAULT INVESTIGATIONS, LEADERSHIP
Lieutenant (ret.) Dean Spivacke
After more than a 30-year career in law enforcement, Dean has a wide variety of patrol and special teams’ history such as K9, SWAT, and narcotics. But his true expertise was developed after promoting to investigator where he excelled in child abuse investigations and then at the Riverside Sheriff’s Department’s Central Homicide Unit where he was involved in the investigation of more than 500 murders, 100+ of which were child homicides, as well as approximately 100 officer-involved shooting investigations. Dean was the investigator everyone turned to when it was time to roundtable an incident, a problem, a subject, the evidence. His perspective and experience were invaluable to learn how to approach investigations from all angles and with all available tactics and ideas from digital search warrants, interviews, and out-of-the-box case examples.
Dean promoted to sergeant within the Homicide unit, and later as a sergeant and then lieutenant he was responsible for supervising patrol functions and law enforcement services, and served as an Assistant Police Chief for two complex contract cities. He holds a bachelor’s degree in sociology, a master’s degree in organizational leadership, and is an adjunct professor at both Riverside City and Mt. San Jacinto Colleges. In addition to sharing his leadership and experience through the ACTION Academy, Dean also serves as Frost ICED’s Director of Investigations, specializing in case evaluation and investigation into violence and abuse litigation.
Reach out to Dean at dean@actionacademytraining.com.
FENTANYL, THREAT, VIOLENCE, STALKING & ABUSE INVESTIGATIONS
Mike Cornett
Mike has 28 years of law enforcement experience in both large city and county agencies. He specializes in Domestic Violence and Threat Management having worked hand-in-hand with his current department’s multidisciplinary threat management team. He has trained hundreds of law enforcement officers in crime scene processing, report writing, and domestic violence investigations.
As an investigator, Mike has always been “a dog with a bone,” absolutely passionate about putting together the puzzle to reveal the truth. He brings these decades of experience to his instruction, showing training attendees how to take each investigation as far as one can each time. Mike currently works primarily in Fentanyl investigations and has been part of a unit that has seized enough Fentanyl dangerous enough in potency and quantity to kill the entire country. Mike brings what he has learned during these investigations to teams across the country with the ACTION Academy Team.
Reach out to Mike through our team at info@actionacademy.com
CRIME SCENE, UNLAWFUL DEATH, COURSE DEVELOPMENT, VIOLENCE, ABUSE & STALKING INVESTIGATIONS
James Merrill
As a sworn law enforcement officer for more than 22 years, James has primarily worked persons crimes, including the homicide unit. He has a passion for law enforcement and multidisciplinary team education and has developed courses on crime scene, murder, and overall complex investigations. James has a strong focus on first responder wellness and resiliency, showcasing his commitment to trauma normalization in all his instruction.
Having trained law enforcement academy classes in all of the above areas, as well as in child and sexual abuse investigation, James brings a trusted teaching style to the ACTION Academy Team. Based on the delivery of Peace Officer Standards and Training learning objectives, James is dedicated to a comprehensive training program for every course at the ACTION Academy. Which means, ensuring all classes address issues from a “Full Circle” perspective.
James is the instructor who will help attendees “get it right” from the very beginning and with every step along the way.
Reach out to James at info@actionacademy.com.
HOMICIDE, SEXUAL ABUSE, CRIME SCENE, INVESTIGATIONS, FENTANYL, OPEN-SOURCE INTELLIGENCE NETWORK SEARCHES, FORENSIC MEDICINE, EXPERT WITNESSES, OFFICER SAFETY
Course Instructors
We contract with a myriad of expert instructors from across the United States to ensure we bring attendees current, relevant, interesting, and effective information they can immediately use in their job assignments. We are committed to excellent training that is never boring and that means constantly evolving and working with growing experts in the field.
Reach out to staff at info@actionacademytraining.
Have experts, will travel.
Our ACTION Academy Team members are vigilant to any requests and needs from attendees and the justice community related to conducting thorough investigations and multi-disciplinary team response. Our Team has a wide variety of direct skills, but we will also contract additional experts for specified topics if they are some of the best and most knowledgeable in their field. It is our commitment at ACTION that we bring investigative excellence and actionable training to those who help others. We encourage outreach regarding topics and resources. Please contact us at info@frosticed.com with any requests, information, or questions.