Speaker
Candy Priano presents Maryville, Illinois,
Police Chief Rich Schardan with an award for his compassion toward families of innocent victims of vehicular pursuits.
Speaker
A Storyteller with a Purpose.
Candy Priano’s story is one that lingers long after the telling, a powerful narrative that brings to life the stark realities of vehicular police pursuits. Through her compelling presentations, she takes your group on a journey to understand the profound impact these pursuits have on innocent bystanders.
Her words vividly portray the inherent risks, sudden tragedies, and the enduring pain that crashes involving police in pursuit of nonviolent offenders or responding to calls can inflict. She humanizes the statistics, revealing the faces and lives behind the numbers.
Invite Candy to speak in person or via Zoom, and let her story resonate within your group, fostering empathy, awareness, and a collective drive for change. Witness the power of storytelling to transform perspectives and inspire action.
Over the course of a decade, she has analyzed thousands of pursuit stories and identified how some pursuits could have had safer outcomes not involving the death of an officer or innocent bystander. Her extensive knowledge has benefitted from officers who share their experience and expertise with her. She has gathered the stories of many victims of police-related car crashes and shares these stories, and her own, with officers and the public. Candy has developed three presentations, each tailored to a different audience:
The Other Side of the Windshield
provides law enforcement trainers, street officers, recruits, and government safety officers with a new perspective on the need to extend more protection to innocent bystanders.
Pull Over: Have no regrets,
an appeal to teens, should be included in every high school driver education class. Every day, teenagers flee from the police, risking their own lives as well as those of their friends and innocent bystanders. If one teenager decides to pull over instead of fleeing from the police, then Pull Over: Have no regrets is a success!
Faith: Before and During Tragedy
is for citizens and church groups. Illustrating the fact that tragedy can strike anyone, Candy tells the story of how she continues to live with her daughter’s death. Just 15 years old when taken, Kristie Priano reached out to others in need, served many volunteer roles, and spread her joy throughout her home and community. Candy reads entries from Kristie’s journals and remembrance notes from others. She talks about her own and Kristie’s walk with the Lord.
Candy also works as a panelist, discussing this critical public safety issue with officers, legislators, and concerned citizens. She promotes safer methods of catching fleeing drivers. PursuitSAFETY’s annual Safer Way Award sets a standard of professionalism for police officers, recognizing trained officers who use alternative resources and technologies to bring about the capture of known flight risks.
As the founder and victim services director of PursuitSAFETY, Candy says her most important role is one of sharing, so no one has to be alone in their grief. She travels the country to meet with families and welcomes their phone calls and e-mails.
What People Say
Presentations include the following:
- Hobart and William Smith Colleges, Geneva, New York
- Florida Public Safety Institute Conference, Closing Ceremony Speaker, Tallahassee, Florida
- Highway Safety Committee, International Association of Chiefs of Police, Chicago
- Southern Illinois Criminal Justice Summit, Mt. Vernon, Illinois
- County Safety Officers Organization of California, Anderson, California
- ALERT International Training Conference, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma