Blue Grit Podcast: The Voice of Texas Law Enforcement
#067- "Badge to Ballots" with State Representative Frederick Frazier
Join State Representative Fred Frazier on an incredible journey from the front lines of law enforcement to the halls of the state Capitol in this must-listen episode of our podcast. With years of experience as a retired Dallas police officer, Fred offers a unique perspective on the complexities of government and the critical importance of law enforcement advocacy.
In this candid conversation, Fred shares valuable insights into navigating the political landscape and offers fascinating stories about his transition into politics. You'll also hear about his recent legal win in his highly publicized "Sign-Gate" legal battle and discover the root of what launched the investigation.
So, sit back, relax, and pour yourself a glass because you won't want to miss this captivating and thought-provoking conversation with State Representative Fred Frazier. Get ready to be informed, inspired, and entertained as you listen to this episode with valuable lessons and surprises.
email us at- bluegrit@tmpa.org
Join State Representative Fred Frazier on an incredible journey from the front lines of law enforcement to the halls of the state Capitol in this must-listen episode of our podcast. With years of experience as a retired Dallas police officer, Fred offers a unique perspective on the complexities of government and the critical importance of law enforcement advocacy.
In this candid conversation, Fred shares valuable insights into navigating the political landscape and offers fascinating stories about his transition into politics. You'll also hear about his recent legal win in his highly publicized "Sign-Gate" legal battle and discover the root of what launched the investigation.
So, sit back, relax, and pour yourself a glass because you won't want to miss this captivating and thought-provoking conversation with State Representative Fred Frazier. Get ready to be informed, inspired, and entertained as you listen to this episode with valuable lessons and surprises.
email us at- bluegrit@tmpa.org
So, finally, all that's done, and then you enter a plea yes, a no contest plea. And back to the thing about people lawyering up. Yeah, somebody enters a plea of no contest, yep Cops think he's guilty. Yeah, so why? Why did you enter the?
Speaker 2:plea, welcome back. Viewers, watchers, listeners. I'm your host, tyler Owen. We've got the big boss in the TMPA. Executive Director, kevin Lawrence.
Speaker 1:Welcome back. Thank you, sir. Always love being here with you. Yeah, especially when we've got a guest like you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's right. Our guest today former cop, current state rep, fred Frazier. Yes, sir, welcome to Blue Grit Well thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:It's. You know, these weekends this currently, right now, when we are recording this podcast it is Texas Peace Off Memorial Weekend, and you know, I look forward to these weekends. But it's an interesting time too, because you reflect back, you see the families of the fallen, but it's, it's. It's a very, very, very different. It's almost like a family reunion. You know, you see the cops, the cops families are concerned with police survivors and those men and women who are involved with that organization, and then all the men and women with TMPA Dallas police association that are involved with this huge ceremony downtown. It's just a really interesting event. I love being a part of it, but hats off to those who put it on. Thank you so much and we will never forget. So it is going on this weekend. Representative Frazier decided to come down and partake in that, as you being a former police officer with Dallas. Yes, sir, and so that's why we're here. We're also going to discuss some other things going on, yeah and so anyway, kevin, what's going on in the world with you?
Speaker 1:Oh, man like. I said getting ready to go to the memorial for this evening for the ceremony. But yeah, we really wanted to get Fred in here because he's got a runoff, yes, pretty quick, yes, but he's also got some recent events that have happened Absolutely and in all honesty, and I'm sorry to just jump right into this, but you know, first of all, maybe we should let you tell a little bit more about yourself to our viewers. Yeah, where are you from? What's your background?
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's where I like to start and again, thank y'all for having me. You know, this weekend, you know, I can't remember a time where I haven't missed a federal memorial or state one either. You know, sometimes both.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 3:And we chose to come in. Yesterday we were looking at the event schedule and I saw the cops' dinner and Kevin and I were going back and forth on the phone because I was like how are they going to fit all these people in the governor's ballroom? And I were going back and forth on the phone because I was like how are they going to fit all these people in the governor's ballroom? Thinking it was the governor's ballroom at the Capitol, which is not much bigger than this room, and so I kept thinking how in the heck are they going to? Well, it was the governor's ballroom at the Hilton.
Speaker 1:He's calling me like I know like I've got an invitation to this thing. I've never been invited to one of these things.
Speaker 3:I'm like I don't know, but I know some people who will, yeah, yeah. So I called Danny and Stinson and and she, she said, well, please, come at, please come over. All we wanted to do, tracy and I wanted to do, was just walk around the room and just say, you know, hello and thank you and and we're with you, nothing more than that. Well, you know, we got there and they were like, hey, how much time do you need to speak? And I'm like, oh no, we weren't speaking. But you know, it was nice because I had to get to you, get to share some history on that. When you're on the, on a podium, yeah, and a lot of folks just don't know about. You know, one of the first bills I worked on was the increasing the benefits for the survivors, and I worked on it with TMPA and I told the story to the families. We worked with Brian Hughes, who at that time was a state representative out of Mineola.
Speaker 2:East Texas, throwing it out there. Yeah, throwing it out there East.
Speaker 3:Texas. Now he's a state senator and Brian was extremely helpful to get that across the finish line. You know, you know helpful to get that across the finish line. And we, you know there's always there's always struggles when a bill's being, you know, built. You know money to some is where you're going to get the pushback on the most, but that's. That was a no brainer bill. I think it was from 300 and something thousand to 500,000 was where we, where we ended up and it was a. It was a great feeling to see that what you're going to give back.
Speaker 3:And then the next few bills that we worked on was letting these spouses remarry Some of them have just been married a very short time and all those bills. And I talked about the vest bill where I carried around after 7-7, I carried around a vest at the state capitol for an entire session and showing lawmakers of what, what this vest does versus what we need and and and to, and to get that plate put in there or, you know, be able to do to stop a seven, six, two or a three, oh, eight. You know all these things that relate back to. You know why we're here for this weekend and what it, what it means. Um it. It's a. It's a phenomenal, um phenomenal event, but it's a sad event because we know the names are going to be on that wall and we know a lot of them are Dallas officers.
Speaker 2:Well, and to kind of carry you to pick up on that, I think me being a cop prior to coming to work for TMPA, kevin being in law enforcement. I think that's why it's so crucial to have somebody who has worn a badge, sat in a car, been dispatched to calls, dealt with the evil, faced evil, done the job that we've all done and tried to feed a family on a cop's salary.
Speaker 1:The stresses of being a cop aren't limited just to the dangers of the job. It's all the things that you and your family have to go through because you have chosen that as a profession. So, having somebody who's been there 100%.
Speaker 2:That's what I've always liked about having guys like you and I probably should have started out.
Speaker 3:I started out with Dallas in 95, straight out of college.
Speaker 2:Let's first start off saying where'd you grow up, Where'd you go to high school?
Speaker 3:I grew up in San Antonio, texas. I'm a Southsider. We always go Southside, you know, that's the whole Southside. Well, that explains a lot. That's it. We've got our little gang sign and everything.
Speaker 3:I was adopted in a military family, baby boomers, so you can imagine I was probably one of the worst-dressed kids at school, because one they were older and my mom made of my clothes and so, yes, she was a seamstress and she worked right out of the house and so went to high school in McCollum with Cowboys. Everybody over there it's a you're. If you're on the South side, you're the Cowboy or you're Indian, because that's the two schools that and they have the frontier bowl. That still goes on, and you can hear the drums from my mom's house, uh, uh, you know at night when they're when they're playing and it's an just an awesome. It was an awesome area. Uh.
Speaker 3:Went to utsa university of texas, san antonio. Uh, that's where I met my wife, tracy. Uh, we've been married 27 years and and, uh, we, you know, immediately dallas picked me up. Uh, they tried to hire me earlier and I told them no, uh, because I still had a semester left. And then I'll never forget the recruiter just giving me the business. You'll never get a job here. You'll never. And then six months later, hey, we've got a spot for you in December, and so I jumped on it and went to work there, and it really was the greatest show on earth.
Speaker 2:Speak of your recruiting class, because you came up. You graduated with some pretty.
Speaker 3:Mike Mata, Ruben Ramirez you can go on and on through that class. We had a lot of leadership come out of that class. Mike and I were great friends in the academy and we knew each other through mutual friends, so it made it kind of an easier fit for the two of us and we ended up running the Dallas Police Association together for a long time and I think that we took it to another level on a lot of places that these organizations can grow, because we believed in it. We believed in it and we believed in the people that we were serving. And if you have leadership like that, you're going to do great things. And we had to change the boards and we had to build a PAC and things that were just there but they needed some help.
Speaker 3:Assist the Officer Foundation has been since 99, and you've got Tom Popkin and Bill Carolla. You know Bill's not with us anymore. He was killed by a drunk driver after speaking at an ATO event many years ago. And you've got David Rodriguez. You've got all these Eddie and all these guys that are just foundation builders and there's so much good, just like the TMPA, with. What you guys do is building as you, as you're growing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, and so did 28 years with with dallas, um and just for any of our viewers who don't know, ato is assist the office dallas's uh charitable foundation. Uh, and fred, you ran that for how many years?
Speaker 3:17 and, um, we were trying to figure out how much money. When I took it over, we didn't have any money and my whole, my whole thing was to get us a to to build a million dollars in that, in that system, so we could have a reoccurrence of where we're investing and making sure that there was money throughout the throughout the time, about $150,000 a year was paying for counseling and things for officers when they got injured, got hurt, needed something. A lightning struck a house, a tornado went through all those things. With ATO benefits, it gives benefits to the police officer and their families. We started the counseling program, which was just a game changer. We had we still didn't have much money and we hired counseling counselors that were coming you know that, like Dottie Claggett, her husband was Mr SWAT forever Folks that knew who we were and who we and how we felt, how, what.
Speaker 3:You know you said it earlier what it's like to be in a squad corps, what's what it's like to work shift work. You know a lot of folks don't understand shift work. If you don't work shifts, you don't understand it and all we do is work shifts or on call. So that's a lot of stress on a family. That's a lot of stress on. You know who's going to pick up the kid, who's going to pick up the kids, who's going to get this, who's going to pick up the kid, who's going to pick up the kids, who's going to get this, who's going to move this. And so doing that counseling. We had no idea what we were doing, to be honest with you. We just knew we needed it and I know right now of as of last month, we have spent $240,000 on counseling since the first of the year. So think about that. That's how much the mental health aspect is in this job, and we don't only just help Dallas officers anymore. This has opened up all to North Texas and we also do it. Firemen too, firemen.
Speaker 1:The fireman bill and the police bill are almost even when I was just looking at it. And not only that, but it's being used as a prototype all across the country. Everybody else is trying to catch up with what Dallas ATO is doing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and the assistee officer has been a godsend for families. It truly has. When we went in that banquet room yesterday or the cops, I can tell you there was probably six, seven families there that I knew and that have used it or maybe still using it, I have no idea and they said they couldn't have done it without it. And that makes me feel good, because when we built it, we built it just for the officer and then we had folks come back and say, hey, my wife and I need to both go to this, my daughter needs to go to this, we need to go to this as a family. So we're like, like, well, let's find more money. And we kept finding more money.
Speaker 3:Fundraising is, you know, is where we get our money. Sometimes we'll get a grant uh, but usually the grants come and go, uh, but the fundraising for the golf tournament, the bags and badges, the, the clay shoot, every single thing and it's a process. I mean, you're chasing money all the time and you've got a whole group of folks, the bigger donors, that you just call on a whim and say, hey, I need you to sponsor this golf tournament, and they'll say, hey, we'll do $25,000, and you just fill it with other. Let some officers play.
Speaker 1:So during a lot of this time, your assignment was you were assigned to the US Marshal's Task Force, right, yes, pretty.
Speaker 3:Since 2004 to 2020, 2023, december 2023, I was assigned to the US, so almost the entire time that you were doing all this work with the ATO.
Speaker 1:You're also part of the US Marshal's Task Force.
Speaker 3:Yes, sir.
Speaker 1:Which is pretty time consuming. It takes a lot of effort. Yes, but you're also raising a family Pretty time consuming. It takes a lot of effort. Yes, but you're also raising a family. Yes, but you had so much spare time you decided to start coming down to.
Speaker 3:Austin and lobbying. Well, I wouldn't say lobbying, I always like to say a government affairs.
Speaker 1:Okay, you came down here and with the Houston TMPA, we were all working together. Whatever you want to call it, we do at the Capitol. You were advocating for police officers.
Speaker 3:A hundred percent and that was a passion. And another passion. You know, to get the help that we need on the street it has to come from our state laws To get the resources, the equipment, and you know there's so many things that have to start at the Capitol, that end up in our patrol cars. And then I mean you think about everything an officer is going to touch, started at that Capitol, everything From his body camera to his gun.
Speaker 2:Has there been an off-camera and just you can don't identify the rep. But has there been an off-camera conversation about maybe an idea of a bill and you're like, okay, this is why this is not going to work and this is why, yeah, you can, you can recall.
Speaker 3:Oh, I do it all the time and especially now on the floor.
Speaker 3:Yeah, listening to the nonsense I'm going to call it nonsense because it they have no clue. I mean, they literally have no clue, and I'm and I'm really so it's a surprising to me most of the time, because I'm like wow, they really don't know who we are. They don't know who we are, they have no clue. And so when you're explaining that, why that won't work or why we need something, they're like oh, you know, it's like something triggered. And it's funny when it comes from me versus when it comes from you know, when I was on the other side and they'd be like whatever. And I'm just like no, you can't do that. And now when I say it, you can't do that, oh, okay, we won't do that.
Speaker 1:And let's not forget, it's not just the equipment, it's not just the material, everything that the officer touches, it is your pay Ultimately. It is your pay Ultimately. It's all feeding from the Texas legislature. Somehow, some way Minimum pay is set in Texas statute. But it's also your authority, your duties, your responsibility, your training, your licensing. Everything that affects a police officer's career and livelihood comes out of the Capitol building.
Speaker 2:Somehow, some way 100% yeah. That's why it's so important to have somebody that has a law enforcement background.
Speaker 3:And we didn't know when we ran for this spot. We didn't know when we ran for it that we'd be the first police officer, active duty police officer, in Texas history. We didn't know that we got notified from. Dan Patrick called and told me and I was like the Lieutenant governor and I was like true, We've had former cops.
Speaker 1:We've had former police active duty cop legislature and that was.
Speaker 3:You know that, to me that was very, something, very special. But that also caused another problem because we couldn't take the paycheck from my police work. So from December or from January, sorry, of 2020.
Speaker 1:I'm sorry, the paycheck you get for being a state rep didn't replace that.
Speaker 3:No, the $7,600 did not replace that $7,600 a year A year.
Speaker 1:That's what we pay our state rep.
Speaker 3:Yes, and you get a stipend during session which helps out a little bit. So we had to shelve an entire salary from January to December. Now think about that. I'm sacrificing everything I can possibly sacrifice. And then I'm told in January hey, by the way, you can't take that check. And so I had to tell Tracy and I'm going to tell you nothing's worse than telling hey, you know, this is a really great gig. You know we're locking this, we ain't going to get paid. And she's always said he's really good at finding jobs that don't pay nothing.
Speaker 3:And I have, whether it was working for Dallas Police Association and it's work. And Kevin knows he was running a major organization here, biggest one in the state of Texas. And you've got all these minds and mouths and everybody wants something from you and they want it right now. And so you're doing that job. And then you're doing your police job, and then you're doing your government affairs job, just because you know that's where it has to start and where you need to craft it. And then you're running a foundation that doesn't pay anything at all. And that was the one thing when we made that foundation that nobody would get a pay, no stipends, nothing. And they had to be police officers or reservists which we have or retired, and so that's a very special place for you to have people in there, much like what TMPA does here, with almost every single person that's been hired here has been, you know, retired police officer. So it's it's a it's been an incredible journey to get to this spot and and to finally get on that floor, and it wasn't something I was, it was like yo, I bet he's been trying to do that his whole life.
Speaker 3:Nope, trying to do that his whole life? Nope, I didn't didn't have any aspirations at all. To be honest with you, I just didn't like who was going to get the job and and the person that there was. When Scott Sanford decided not to run, there was a gentleman that was going to be in this spot and I said no way that we can't. That's not going to work, that's not that. Why, why would, why can't we just open this up and have somebody here that can get a lot of stuff done? Well, that person was me. There wasn't another person. Yeah, be careful what you ask for.
Speaker 3:Exactly Because at the time you were the city councilman. I was city councilman in McKinney and the biggest reason I ran for that was because I didn't want the other people to get it either. I wanted and also we had a huge challenge there with our police and fire being bottom 25 in the Metroplex in pay and benefits, and I was like we've got one of the safest cities in America and we're using the revolving door police association here where people are coming and going because they won't get the right pay and they won't have the what they need to have, for that city needed a better contract, they needed more. They needed a lot more.
Speaker 1:How long were you on the city council? Three years A little over three years. And in those three years, McKinney went from being the bottom 25 to what?
Speaker 3:Top three McKinney's no longer a bottom feeder. Right.
Speaker 1:And I would love to tell you that me and ron delord deserve all the credit for that, because we're the ones that negotiate that contract.
Speaker 3:Fred deserves a lot more than we do well, I all I did was make sure I I knew where they were going with this contract and I always I called it. When ron and I would talk, I would call it the david robinson contract. And if you don't know who david robinson is, he was played for the Spurs for a very long time. As a San Antonio guy, I'm a huge Spurs fan and he was a huge David Robinson fan. And so the Admiral had one of the best contracts in the league and no one ever knew that. The reason why is because he never negotiated a contract. His contract changed when somebody else got a raise. When another center got a raise, he got a raise and he always stayed top three. When another center got a raise, he got a raise and he always stayed top three. And so we never you never saw him complain. You never saw him. You know I want to be number one. Nope, as long as he was top three, he was totally fine, because every time somebody got a raise, he got one too, and he'd just smile all day long. There you go, and so the McKinney contract is a little like that. It has a lot of triggers in there that moves them all the time, and they, they're the guys that are there now say that they've never seen anything like it and and I'm very proud that that we voted that in and to make sure we got them their money Because, again, one of the guys I was just running against three times while he was on city council, three times he voted against their contract.
Speaker 3:And so you see these fake Republicans, and they just, and they are fake Republicans, especially Republicans and they just, and they are fake Republicans, especially when they call themselves Christian conservatives. Oh, I'm a Christian conservative. Beware, because I'm going to tell you they're never going to vote for that contract and that you know why? Because it's expensive and we're too expensive for them. And that's the. That's the biggest BS I've ever heard. If you want, if you wanted the police officers, you were going to call 911, I promise you. And you wouldn't want the best one to come there, that's right. You don't want the one? Well, maybe he's okay and he's good enough. We want the best, and to get the best, you've got to pay money for it. Yeah, and that's what we're doing now. And the fire got the seven-year deal and the police took the five-year deal.
Speaker 1:By the way, the ATO to the legislature. It's a podcast. It kind of went right over the city council thing, but that's another unpaid job, right, tracy $50 a meeting. I'm going to tell you oh so you got paid for that one too.
Speaker 3:$50 a meeting, yeah, and I thought it was going to be like every meeting, like everything we did, because I'm going to tell you what municipal jobs or municipal election or whatever you want to. You know, being an elected official in a city, they just man, they are busy. You've got from parks and rec to historian committees that are, and you're over. You know. You're over what you're over, and I was over MCDC, which is our corporation inside of the city, which feeds everything, and then I was over Parks and Rec.
Speaker 2:These are like committees.
Speaker 3:These are committees, that are the committees and boards for the city. And everyone will ask Parks and Rec, parks and Rec. But I'm going to tell you, when you're growing a city, parks and Rec is a huge deal. And we've now got more land than we've ever had and I made sure that when I left we had bought another 400 acres to secure us in the north and 200 in the northwest and 200 in the northeast. So because that city is going to be completely dominated by corporation, you know from developers and now we have 77 miles of trails, which is going to be more than any other city in North Texas, and we've got some of the nicest parks in North Texas, the All Abilities and our Apex. We have our own recreation center. That's kind of like a lifetime, but it's for the city and you get city prices with it.
Speaker 3:So we did some great things there At MCDC. We brought some great corporations in. We filled up a corridor, a technology corridor. What is that People are like? Well, who cares? Well, you should care, because this is what feeds those cops, this is what feeds the city and this is what feeds your public safety. If you don't bring them in, you're not going to be able to pay these folks because those bigger corporations bring a lot of money and they also do big tax incentive for the citizens there on the property tax to bring it down lower. So we've done some great things on city council and I still do a lot with my city right now to this day.
Speaker 2:And for those that don't know that, we have a lot of listeners that are out of state. Mckinney is probably, like I said, the largest suburb of Dallas, but it's probably one of the fastest growing north of Dallas there in Collin County. What is McKinney right with Texas as far as the biggest cities in Texas?
Speaker 3:So it's 225,000 people right now, but it is the number one place in America that people are moving to. My district 61, is the number one district and the number one place in America where people are moving to. It just beat out Katy is a very strong place outside of Houston that people are moving to. We just beat them out, and I shouldn't say beat them out. It's because of the services, it's because of the schools and the affordability and the roads. Our transportation roads are very good and so if you don't know much about the District 61, which is the best district in Texas, I think every representative says that so I've got McKinney, frisco, little Peace of Prosper, salina, weston, a town that most folks have never heard of, but it was the first town in Collin County, melissa, melissa and Anna, and so I don't have any fast-gr growing cities there. I mean, I'm telling these guys are on fire, yeah all of them are.
Speaker 3:All of them are on fire.
Speaker 2:Then Melissa just built a. What was the price tag on that football stadium?
Speaker 3:It was close to $100.
Speaker 1:They're not football stadiums anymore. Those are educational support centers, okay.
Speaker 2:We're in Texas.
Speaker 3:And what's crazy is I've got parents in McKinney wanting to take their children out of McKinney schools instead of Melissa schools because of what they're building out there, and Anna's about to do the same thing. Their vote's up on Tuesday and they'll know if they're getting a new stadium. They're just coming off a 4A state championship.
Speaker 1:And then you've got Salina out there, which is going to wind up being bigger than all of them.
Speaker 3:Salina. Just for folks to know, I dove hunt in Salina and people are like what I'm like? Yes, we dove hunt in Salina, but we won't be dove hunting pretty soon.
Speaker 2:Ten years.
Speaker 3:No, probably ten years. It is growing. You've got some great farmland out there that has turned into some big projects for residential. It has more land mass than anyone else in Collin County, so it will outgrow all of us.
Speaker 1:So you were instrumental in, let's say, updating the Dallas Police Association, yes, building the war chest of the Assist the Officer Foundation, in addition to creating the counseling program, instrumental in revamping the city of McKinney shall we say.
Speaker 3:Well, I had a great mayor, george Fuller, and our city manager, paul.
Speaker 1:Grimes, unbelievable people. I understand it's a team, but you were instrumental, you were a big part and from the police officer's point of view, you were critical. Oh, that's 100%.
Speaker 3:And the guys that don't know that they're there and they probably don't know the other histories but they had two organizations when I moved there, when Tracy and I moved there in 2008,. They had their FOP and then they had their TMMP. Basically, they're, you know, the McKinney Police Association, and they did not like each other and it was not much different than how it was in Dallas when we had 588 and we had the Dallas Police Association. Well, I immediately got up there and we started getting to work. We were like, look, guys, if you want to build something good and you want to build something that's going to last, we need to be all on the same team and so, getting them to understand that they don't need to be mad at each other and constantly breaking, you know it's like go ask mom, you know it's, it's it, it. It became such a problem. Uh, and you know, I guarantee you, those guys that are there now that that have come on after have no idea, right, they have no recollection, but those two groups combined.
Speaker 1:But it's part of why TMPA has been working so hard to to get this FOP coalition put together is because we've got to quit fighting amongst ourselves and working toward our common goals, which Fred also has done at the legislature as a an advocate, we'll call it, not a lobbyist. So then you get elected down there and become a very strong voice for law enforcement. But one particular vote, oh my, changed everything for you, didn't it?
Speaker 3:yeah, you and you go, you go back to that ken paxton vote and, and how you look at it, you can look at exactly what I was talking about I've not heard of was Was there a vote?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's amazing what misinformation is out there on what happened there On that vote was to move that obviously to impeach our attorney general. But what we were looking at was one-sided and folks don't really know or understand that you had 22 counts, right, you had 22 articles there for impeachment and you had nothing from the Attorney General's office.
Speaker 2:You had no, Because that's the way the system works or that's because it was intentional.
Speaker 3:No, it was because he chose not to His office, chose not to participate in any of the committee hearings. And so when you have something like that and you're looking at something like that, there's not much more. You don't have much of a choice but to send it and to send it to the Senate and see what they're going to do with it. And obviously they did exactly what the House did. They sent it to a trial. They agreed because there was nothing there to defend himself. There was zero defense. So he went to the Senate, went to a trial and then you know that's history. Now, when I tell that story to folks at a door or at an event, they're like oh, I didn't know that. I'm like, exactly, you didn't know that because they didn't want to tell that part of the story. They didn't want to tell you they missed these meetings. They didn't want to tell you, they didn't show up at these committee hearings.
Speaker 3:I relate it a lot to us in the police world. When we arrest somebody and I know it's a hard analogy, but we know the system is when we arrest somebody, we put somebody in a box and I lower her up, what are we going to do? We're going to send it. We're going to send it and we're going to arrest that person, more likely, and the grand jury is going to figure it out for us. If a grand jury doesn't have anything from them on their defense, well, it's going to go to a trial.
Speaker 3:That's kind of how this whole system worked as well, and so when folks said there was no due process, I was like, well, there was. It was very quick, though, like it, I'm going to tell you right now, I wish we weren't put in that position. It was a horrible position to be in, but when you have something like that and you look at it and you've got to make a decision, just like we have to do in most of these things 7,000 plus bills went across our desk and you've got to make a decision. Sometimes they're not the best and sometimes you have to change that decision. I don't know if folks know, but you can go back and look man, that was a bad vote, I need to check, but you can do it right there. And so it's amazing how much stress is on everything.
Speaker 2:I do want to ask this, those that know the Paxton family, you know his wife is, you know, somewhat always been respected in the Senate. I'll say it and I think probably everybody can probably agree to that prior to all these, this political, yes, situation, um, you know, there are times in the law enforcement officer's career where you're kind of put in a fork in the road, where there's difficult and challenging situations meaning that, uh, politics may be at play, whether you stop a city council person on a traffic stop to write a citation, make the arrest, but you know, you know you've made that oath and you've, and you've committed yourself. Do you remember driving home that day and, even though that there wasn't any evidence on the attorney general, did you feel something was off? Or that man? There's going to be some repercussions because they're coming from let's just call it Paxton country. Oh yeah.
Speaker 3:They live in my district. Let's just call it Paxton country. Oh yeah, they live in my district. Both of them live in my district. They live in Kings Lake area and so, no, I, we, we knew Tracy and I both know and, if folks know, I referenced my wife a lot because she runs our campaign and and Tracy didn't come from a political arena, she's been a business woman her whole life and but I needed a business woman.
Speaker 2:I needed somebody to organize me and somebody that knew what we look like. Well, what better person to run your campaign, that somebody that knows you exactly and my best friend?
Speaker 3:yeah, that's right and so I've been. I've been sleeping with her. I don't know if anybody knows that, so yeah sleeping with my kids. We've heard rumors.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, there's evidence of that, I think. Okay, how many kids we got?
Speaker 3:three yeah, yeah, at least three times. But we both were like this is going to put us in a pickle. But you know, at the end of the day, you have to stand up for what you believe in and what you have in front of you. And as much as you don't want to do something, you know that maybe this is the right path you're supposed to do, this is your constitutional duty, much like what you're talking about when a traffic stop and you've got something in front of you and you're like well, this is what I swore on my oath on to do so. When you're put in a position like that, you got to take that high road and you got to do the right thing, and so that's what we did, and we're paying for it right now.
Speaker 3:We ended up with two opponents uh, now we're in a runoff and it's and the person I'm in a runoff with uh ran ken maxson's legal defense fund. Uh, imagine that. And so it, it is what it is. And uh, we're gonna, we're going to be there in the end. Uh, it's just it's. It's been a it. They've taken us and I said this from the day one when we started to get to this race, because it took us on the first go around to get here $1.4 million, 289 days not like I was counting every day to get elected and 60,000 doors knocked on.
Speaker 3:Now think about that. You've got a full-time job, you've got a full-time family, and now you're going for something else that that's never been done before, and and you and you've got to do it a different way. And we won that primary by 27 points, by the way, that was. And another thing that was pretty magnificent about making that run and making that win is that we had our district brought more new voters from the state of Texas. When I say that did not vote in a primary.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that did not vote in a primary ever and we won that award and I was very proud of that. That. We brought new people to come vote for me and now we're up against another challenge and we're in another runoff again During your to seek an endorsement with TMPA.
Speaker 2:One has to come to the board and seek that endorsement. We typically don't get involved with local elections and that's meaning like city council or district attorneys and so forth. And so you came to the board. Yes, you spoke to the board and that resulted in TMPA giving you our endorsement. Yes, I run the social media. Several people do, and I'll be I'll be honest with you. We, we got some some negative feed, not oh yeah, and it wasn't a whole lot let's, let's make sure we're clear here.
Speaker 1:We're not, we're not talking about his first election. We're talking about this, this current, this reelection.
Speaker 2:Yeah, during, yeah, okay and so what would you tell anybody that has any doubts about who f Frazier is right now on the podcast?
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, my body of work is my body of work. Yeah, and if you think that I'm going to, you know and I'll go back, I'll get back. But if you think I'm going to deviate off that body of work, I'm not. No one's going to ever outwork me and I'm not. And just like I told the widows and, you know, the cops, the survivors, last night at their deal, I'm one of you and you don't have another one. You, you, you're the people that want this position are not going to be there for you. That's a fact. They're not going to vote for you, they're not going to, they're not going to help you, they're just going to smile and take pictures with you and then they're going to say they're too expensive and you're labor to them.
Speaker 3:And I know that because I hear those conversations. I've always been in those rooms where we're just labor and whether we're negotiating a contract and the cities are crapping all over us or we're getting, you know, coming out of a shooting and they're like, oh my God, what did they have to shoot him for? You know why couldn't they just, you know, talk him out of it? They don't understand. And so I do. I do know that I've been in all those shootings, I've done those contracts. You know I've got 18 officers that my time frame had died during my time and some of them are very good friends, board members. It's a tough place to be, but I'm one of you and that's the one thing you need to understand, or folks need to understand. I am one of you and I'm going to do everything possible to take care of us.
Speaker 1:So, I think what I was trying to get to was after you won your first election, but before you took office you ran into some oh yeah, oh yeah, and that really didn't boil over, I guess, until last December. Yes, after you finished the 23 legislative session, but when you came back to TMPA for the re-endorsement, let's say Right, but when you came?
Speaker 1:back to TMPA for the re-endorsement. Let's say you made a comment a few minutes ago about when somebody lawyers up, when somebody we're investigating lawyers up cops, our reaction is okay, we send this to the DA's office and what are we thinking? We're thinking he's guilty. Somebody lawyers up. That's our instinctive position.
Speaker 3:It's not always true.
Speaker 1:You had this criminal case which, when you came to our board for this endorsement this cycle, we got some cops sitting in the room who were going hang on a second. Why should we endorse him this time?
Speaker 3:And I'll dive into that. This is the thing that I want folks to hear it from me, because when I tell it to folks they're like oh my, it all starts with a stupid sign and the sign thing just got completely blown out of portion. I had an opponent that was putting signs up in illegal spots and when I say illegal, out of code, and when you're on city council, you're going to get those calls and you're going to get. Whether it's your opponent or not, they were like it. Whether it's a pothole or a trees down, you're going to get the craziest call.
Speaker 2:Cause. The reality is is those people that are calling are people who voted for you on the city council?
Speaker 3:people who voted for you on the city council? Yeah, they're, and some of them don't even know that I'm running for the office and so I don't think you're still on city council. Some of them still think I'm on city council, some of them think I'm a senator.
Speaker 3:So there's a whole bunch of and don't know the difference, they don't know the difference. So anyway, we. This was at a walmart and so I pull, I get that, I get a call, another call, pull in there. I'm coming there. I'm coming from city council. I'm not on city council, but I'm coming from one of the committees. So I'm wearing my city council vest and it just all has an emblem on it. It doesn't say anything, but just has an emblem of our city.
Speaker 3:That everyone knows the logo of the city of McKinney. Anyway, I go in there and talk to the lady. I said how does this guy get to put this sign almost in the street on your Walmart property? And she's like I don't know what you're talking about. So we walk out there together and I show her and she goes when did that go there? And I said it's been there like three weeks. She's like well, whose is it? And I said it's that guy with the name on it. I'm pretty sure it's his.
Speaker 1:In my business we call that a clue.
Speaker 3:And so I don't think anything of it and leave. Well, she calls him, gets a hold of him, and then he comes up there. She goes who's telling you to come up? Who's telling you to move my sign? He's like well, code enforcement just came by here and that's how it all started and that I was being a code enforcement officer. Okay when was this this was come boat this was going into the point. This was going into the primary. We were going to the primary. Well, so the spring of 22. Yes, sir.
Speaker 1:A spring at 22.
Speaker 3:You weren't a state rep yet it was not a state rep, I was a city councilman.
Speaker 1:You were still a city council member at the time.
Speaker 3:Still a city councilman.
Speaker 1:You had not taken a vote on the Ken Paxton thing yet. No, I had not. You weren't in his crosshairs yet.
Speaker 3:No, okay, yeah. So this was way before. And so it got to a point to where mayors were calling me from different cities and like, what is this guy doing? They were sending me pictures of his signs, some of them on the highway. I can't make it up, I cannot make this up the highway. I'm not, I can't make it, I cannot make this up. Text dot.
Speaker 3:I don't know how many signs they probably took down of this guy's and I don't know if he had thousands of these things stashed away when he moved here from california. But you can wake up in the morning and you'd be like, oh my god, and he'd have a sign in the middle of the road I'm not making that up. And so I had so many folks complaining and I I said look he's, he's the one that's got the signs. And I had property owners always come. I'm like, hey, you can take that sign down and do it every one that's on your property. Well, they were, they were taking them down.
Speaker 3:And the other thing that happened with the Walmart sign. That gets very confusing. That sign disappeared that night. We had nothing to do with it, we just figured that Walmart either took it down or he took it down. What does he do? He calls McKinney police officers. Someone stole my sign. Oh, I think it was my opponent. And then he did a picture with all his signs with Nazi symbols, swastikas on them and torn in half. We had nothing to do with his signs, and long story short this goes on and on and he's making these police reports torn in half.
Speaker 3:We had nothing to do with his signs. Long story short, this goes on and on and he's making these police reports. Well, the one thing and folks are going to say well, I saw that video of you taking a sign down. You absolutely did. And the only reason I took it down because it was at a 7-Eleven going across the sidewalk, and the day before that the kids were. There's a Sonic and there's a 7-Eleven and the kids, when they get out of school, go between both of them. There's Slurpees and drinks. They go back and forth.
Speaker 3:Kids were coming this way on a bicycle on El Dorado Parkway which has 30,000 cars a day on it. Other kids are coming the other way on Hardin, and this signs across where they can't see each other. It's an impairment. Kids on the bicycle come this way. Kids, they meet at the exact same time. I'm sitting across the street going home from work. I've just been running warrants all day. Kids running to each other. Kid on a bicycle goes right out middle hardened, hardened by, I'm sorry, el dorado parkway. Car in a hell, auto hits median, goes over.
Speaker 3:I pull in there, talk to a store owner. I said they're that those kids almost got killed out there because that stupid sign is over the sidewalk and she goes. I've been trying to tell him to take the sign down. He won't come take it down. I said, well, if it's here tomorrow on my way I'll take it down. And I did, and I took it down and I moved it about six feet. And who videoed it? It's on video surveillance there at the store. Yeah, it's just on the surveillance. So I get called about it. And it gets even crazier. I get called about it from the, from the texas rangers, the. I mean this guy went all out. I mean it was, it was a witch hunt and this is all still in the spring it's still in the spring.
Speaker 3:Well, I don't think it's a texas ranger when I get the phone call, because I'm thinking this has got this is crazy, this is the stupidest thing I've ever heard of. He goes no, so I call the. I call the attorneys.
Speaker 1:You know what Texas Rangers don't like. They don't like it when you don't believe them.
Speaker 3:Well, I know he didn't like that, but I really thought it was somebody messing with me. But then we get the inner conversation.
Speaker 3:I said oh man, this is a real deal. I call the attorney. I'm like, oh man, yeah, he's like the Friday of Texas Rangers. He don't have much of a personality when it comes to stuff. So we go have a conversation with him. I'm telling him all this stuff and he's just like I hate that. I got this. But this guy, they're pushing this deal and I'm like it's a stupid deal. Then I get the call. That amazes me over everything. I'm sitting with the attorneys. We're talking about how ridiculous. This is a felony, by the way, this isn't a. This isn't a some misdemeanor. This is a felony. What charge was it? It was impersonating a code enforcement officer.
Speaker 3:I'm sorry how is that a felony it is a felony, it's a state, true, it's a freaking felony. Three and so not only one, but two I get. And then I get a phone call from this prosecutor hey, what, what would he do if he just stepped down, if he just stopped running right now and I'm not through my primary yet if he steps down, we can make the case go away. I knew right then it's political. I said this is a political move. They're they are trying to squeeze, play me, and they're they did. And they took me to the grand jury. And I went in front of the grand jury and I talked to the grand jury. I thought we did a great job in their pressing, where this is so silly. But as we all know, in a grand jury it's going to be who's presenting it, and it was presented enough to get it passed, and so we got indicted.
Speaker 1:So not only was calling county da's office for no, this is a special prosecutor brought in.
Speaker 3:So somebody had to call in a special prosecutor yep, special prosecutor, and the two judges that was going to go to recuse themselves, because they're friends and they were like no way you had to have good special judge brought in so everybody's out out of not in our county, they're brought in from our county to work this case and so we're getting we're going through the whole session indicted and I'm just like I cannot believe.
Speaker 3:And we went, we still ended up winning the race by 27 points with all this nonsense going on, and then went into the general Remember, I still have a Democratic opponent and we win that pretty easily but man, they were putting our family through hell, just constant hell.
Speaker 1:So when did the grand jury hearing take place?
Speaker 3:After the primary was over Okay, yeah.
Speaker 1:And then they issued their decision when that day, okay yeah.
Speaker 3:And the decision was that to send it to trial. It was indictment.
Speaker 1:But you weren't indicted. Were you indicted on the felony? I was indicted on two felonies, not one. Two of them, so one for impersonating a code, both of them were for impersonating Two counts of it.
Speaker 3:I know it sounds crazy, but it happened, it happened and it was as crazy as it, yeah, okay. Yeah, I know it sounds crazy, but it happened, yeah, it happened and it was as crazy as it can get. And then we're going through the session and then I get a phone call. We're in our fourth session. We're coming up through the last one, special. Hey, I hate to tell you this is my attorney, who's a TMPA attorney as well, but I'm paying for all this, just so folks understand that. That's clear. For a guy who keeps taking non-paying jobs, you're making up a lot of legal bills. Man, well, thank God, I've got some attorneys that have worked for us for a very good price. And so he's like hey, they want to run you through the grand jury again and I said what I said, for what he goes. Well, they think they can.
Speaker 3:This special DA and what was happening was he was, I guess, upset that we were in a legislative session. Well, no, we were in legislative leave. It's called something else 'll think about in a second. But you get when you're in, when you're a legislator and you're on your, you know, you're on your sessions, you're you're, you're in, you're in your legislative duties. You're doing your legislative duties, you, you get to use this and, and all this stuff basically goes into a timeout zone, but just, you can't do anything with a court case, and so that's a state law.
Speaker 1:And so we were using it. There is some stuff on the books that actually says you're exempt from arrest during the legislative session and for a period of time before and after the legislative session. That's equal to one day for every 20 miles that you live away from the state capitol. Because that's what it used to take to travel by horse.
Speaker 3:Oh, that's right, there's some laws there's still some horse laws in there. Well, it's called legislative continuum, and and so every time we went into a session the attorneys would just send the deal through to the judge, say, hey he's, he's back on legislative. Well, this guy said, no, I don't, I'm gonna, I want him in court, court, I'm going to send him to the grand jury and indict him again for a third felony. And I said you've got to be kidding me. What felony was that?
Speaker 2:That'd be another impersonating.
Speaker 3:He said, by me telling them that if that sign's not down, I'm going to take it. That'd be another one and I'm like now this is just games. Now this is games. Not only is it games from my former opponent, who is attacking us on a daily basis using anonymous emails, but him calling the da's office every single minute of the day, him calling the judge's office every single minute a day. You better do something. You better do something.
Speaker 1:Better do something than getting all these people to do the same thing, putting pressure on them to put pressure on us I don't want this to sound like I'm defending you because I'm here to put you on the hot seat and get answers for our members. And you remember, while all this was going on, I called you, yes, and I did the Dr Phil thing with you and I was like, what were you thinking?
Speaker 3:Oh man. Well, trust me, there is that. You know I own, it right I?
Speaker 1:walked in that and I get it. I just, yeah, I've been in this business.
Speaker 3:Now let's see, I started in 1978.
Speaker 1:What year is this easy? I've been in this a long, long time. I have never I've heard of people being arrested for impersonating peace officers. Yeah. For impersonating judges. Yeah, for impersonating prosecutors. Yeah, for impersonating probation officers. I have never, ever heard. We didn't either of anybody being yeah while I'm a police officer criminally yeah while, much less while, you are a public servant. Yes, being accused of impersonating a public servant, much less a code enforcement officer yeah.
Speaker 3:So that's how silly this whole thing is and how political it became. And you go back to that first. One of the first things I said is, when I got that phone call, said if you step down, it'll go away, I'm like, go to hell, I'm not doing that I'm. I know exactly what y'all trying to do, because I knew through the circle for people telling me I said, hey, if he, if he steps down, then we can get that other guy back, that he just beat, that we can get him in there. He can, because the number, the number two guy, can be put in there. And I'm like, no, you can't.
Speaker 1:That's not how it works, okay but ultimately, after all, the special sessions were over, which, by the way, if our viewers don't know, the regular session was January to May, end of May, and then the governor called three or four special sessions. Each one of those is another 30 days 30 days, so it was like the legislative session that wouldn't end.
Speaker 3:Well, it was the longest legislative session in Texas history it was 261 days.
Speaker 1:So finally, all that's done, and then you enter a plea yes, a no contest plea. And back to the thing about people lawyering up. Yeah, somebody enters a plea, a no contest. Yep Cops think he's guilty. Yeah, so why? Why did you enter the plea?
Speaker 3:Well, we knew that we were not going to get in a spot that was going to help us at all. Nobody was. It was the way this was going and the political winds that we could see that was happening from our side. They were going to bury us. They wanted that felony.
Speaker 2:And wasn't a judge. Was the judge prolonging some of this too as well? I mean, during the times that you were, you know.
Speaker 3:I'm not going to say anything, because it was really coming from that DA's office, it was really coming from that special prosecutor and it was really coming from our former opponent who was just pressing it like heck.
Speaker 1:Under the speedy trial act, couldn't you force a trial? Couldn't you force it?
Speaker 3:We wanted to get that all knocked out of the way. And the couldn't you force it, we. We wanted, uh, to get that all knocked out of the way, and the timing of what they wanted to do was right in the primary. Uh, another political move. And we're like you're gonna kill us, you're gonna take all this away from us, you're gonna put us right in the middle of crosshairs again, right here in a primary. So we're like, if we get this done and we get the deferred, we'll, we'll just take, we'll pay the fine and get the hell out of here.
Speaker 3:Well, that's what we did, and so the case has been done, the fine has been paid, the judge just granted the last week to be, in fact, dismissed. Everything, so everything that we pled to is gone. So there's not one thing in my record. And my police officer, my TCO license, is still intact. A lot of folks, so he must've had to give that up. And I said, no, I didn't have to give that up. Now we have a classification that's on our appeal, and so we'll, we'll handle that when it gets to that that time, because we did, you know, when we left the department and we left with a case you retired while you were under a criminal indictment, so the F5 had to reflect that Exactly and you've appealed that, but you haven't had an appeal hearing.
Speaker 3:Yes, we haven't had the appeal hearing yet and we will, and we're confident to where that's going to end up. You know every, every supervisor that I worked for, and some of them for the entire time I was there there at the police department and the U S marshal service every single one of those chiefs and supervisors wrote letters for me. I didn't ask him, they did it and they wrote them and they these are incredible letters of on my behalf, of what kind of a person I am, what kind of an officer I was in 28 years. I didn't have one day off, no suspensions, no, no incidents. I'd been in umpteen shootings and and so many critical incidents, uh, all proven all proven.
Speaker 3:You know all within policy I want to clarify that yeah, we are in politics yeah, we are on politics and and let me and I was a street cop and that's the thing, when you're a street cop, you're going to get it. Yeah, you're gonna, you're gonna get it. And I was always sent into every position I had. From six months on the department I went into some type of high you know where we were going after people and I was in a deployment group. Six after the academy I did six months of field training and all that stuff and I went straight to the deployment unit and I stayed there for seven years and then I I moved over to the U S marshals again, chasing people all over this green earth and uh, it, it, it comes with a, it comes with scars, it comes with it comes with getting complained on. But you know, all of those are unfounded.
Speaker 1:If you had lost the primary in 22 or if you had lost the general in 22, yeah. Would you have taken the plea? No you'd still be a cop. Yeah, you would not have retired. Yeah, yeah you wouldn't have taken the plea, you would have gone all the way to trial.
Speaker 3:I don't think so. I think I don't and, to be honest with you, I don't think they'd ever cared. I don't think anyone would have cared, and once the once I wasn't in office anymore I don't think they would have cared one bit so if you had lost the election?
Speaker 1:you think the criminal case?
Speaker 3:I think that the pressure would have been completely gone for them making that push. I don't think the the whole thing was all was geared towards this position. All was geared, you know, uh, police officer, politician, whatever you want to call it. Yeah, it was all.
Speaker 1:It was all focused in that direction okay, so I still gotta ask this part. You took a plea which included a one-year deferred right you paid a fine. You had some other conditions of that. Deferred last week was a hearing that occurred less than six months into that one year. Four months, four months into that one year, four months, four months into that one year. Okay so, and now the judge has dismissed everything. Yes, sir, what does that mean? Well, exactly, how does that?
Speaker 3:Why did we do it early? Why did we? Because I didn't have any stipulations. I had no stipulations when they said the one year. They didn't put anything on it, they didn't add. You know, he's got to report here, he's got to do this, he's got to do that you didn't have to go to a.
Speaker 1:I will not impersonate a. No, I didn't have to go to a. I will not impersonate a coach. No, I didn't.
Speaker 3:I looked for the training. I didn't have it. I'm kidding, no, they didn't have anything. And I said we paid the fine, give us the hearing. And what was crazy about this is the special DA wouldn't give us the hearing. He would not agree to it.
Speaker 1:And so I had to go, because he wanted you to serve the entire year, or because I think it would have made one day.
Speaker 3:One day after this election was over, it'd be okay. Well, let's get him here. Now it all becomes down to the political nonsense you think may 29th you'd have gotten your here 100, I guarantee it, and I don't think there's a person that's in my circle that doesn't that believes exactly what I believe that that would happen can paxton support the collin county da? No, well, remember, this is the collin county. Da collin county da recused himself.
Speaker 3:Yes, greg willis is one of the best da's in this country this is another one, this is a different one and and that it just it became a whole political mess and a snowball effect of of this, of this, of this. You know what it is and what it wasn't.
Speaker 1:Tangle web.
Speaker 3:And so the big thing is we are happy that this has finally passed, yeah, and we have a chance now to get back to those doors and get back to those folks that had questions about us and say we told you this is where it would be and eventually we got there and fortunately it took longer than we thought. But here we are and you know, we've got some scars and we've got some reputation stuff we've got to build. But I'll stand firm on my reputation and what I've done and what I've accomplished, and I know my wife is right there behind me doing exactly the same thing saying you really think that's who he is? I mean, have you had a conversation with a man you know and we say that all the time to folks have you had a conversation with me? Ask me where we did. And when it comes to my opponent now, who will not debate me, knows nothing about our policy, she's ran on a smear campaign using my former opponent as the weapon, because he is one of those guys We've had. This guy is such a stalker and if anybody wants to go to look at his Twitter, you're more than welcome to see what a stalker looks like. It's a nasty, nasty business this politics is, but we got in it right.
Speaker 3:We asked for this, and so when folks said, well, you asked for it, we did. We got in this to make a difference and we're making a difference. Thirteen bills were passed last session my name on it. Eight of those went to law enforcement and police and fire. One of the biggest bills that come out of that is my wellness bill, and basically it was building ATO for every police department in the state of Texas. Now we've got to get the funding, and so when we come back to the table next session, we'll make sure that LEO funding gets dipped into it, because that was the missing component. When you build something, it's not always right the first time, and so the bill is there, and that was the hard part. I tell my wife that all the time.
Speaker 1:They're almost never complete the first time. It's always first step, first step and good luck back. Ordering the commas and zeros you're going to need for that fiscal note. Order in the commas and zeros you're going to need for that fiscal note. So when you came to our board and you know, we had board members that were really grilling you over all this before they decided to endorse you again. We have members that are going to be watching this. We've got Dallas police officers that are going to be watching this that are asking the same question.
Speaker 1:Fred why should we put you back in there? What is it that you hope to accomplish? And, by the way, me personally. I want to know why would you want to keep doing this after going through all this?
Speaker 3:Do you know it's? It's um, it's easy to quit, right, that's the, and I've told my kids that, over and over, the easiest part is something is quitting it's. The hard part is when something's in front of you and they try to block, they try to stop you.
Speaker 1:My whole life I get it, but there's a point where you get tired of putting your family through it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but you know we've got a lot we've got. We've got a lot to give in in in this position. Again, I want to do it. Why? Because I I know behind me that wants it can't do this job, cannot physically do this job, cannot mentally do this job and cannot build it as good as we want to build this, and that's what drives me every single day.
Speaker 3:I could care less that the front of my name says a representative or anything. I just want this position to make sure that we get better stuff for our people. When we can provide things that others can't, when we can show them there's a better way to our people, when we can provide things that others can't, when we can show them there's a better way to build this. Every single thing. And I know Kevin's been with me my entire political career, or even most of my police career, when we built TELEC. You know we built something special and if you don't know what TELEC is, it's a Texas Law Enforcement Council and we operated out of the Capitol. I was our chairman on that for several years and the reason it was so important to me was getting everybody together on one page, right.
Speaker 1:And then, instead of everyone running around For anybody who doesn't know, tlec was the Houston Police Officers Union, dallas Police Association, harris County Deputies Organization DPSOA was involved for a while and TMPA, all working together on our legislative agenda on trying to make sure we're down there looking out for the interest of all law enforcement officers across the state of Texas the same thing we're trying to do under the FOP umbrella today. But TELEC was kind of a stopgap, but it's continued to this moment. We still have those same groups. We also meet with the District and County Attorneys Association.
Speaker 2:Sheriff's Association.
Speaker 1:Sheriff's Association, chief's Association, texas Municipal League, the firefighters. You know whoever we have to work with to pursue the interest of our members, we can work with, and that's what he's talking about.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and that's been a tremendous building block on what we've accomplished at that Capitol, Working together, working showing it, and that's something I learned from that. I learned a lot from that. I learned a lot at working at that capital how to build the office that I'm in right now E1412, that was the first office I started working in when I started doing this, and so when I took that ping pong ball and just so you know it's really, you know they have really, uh, how you pick your desk, it's a real high tech.
Speaker 3:It's a, you pick your desk, you pick your, your office and parking spot off that ping pong ball and uh, and there was. You know, there's uh 24, 26 of us and I pulled 24. And so I knew, right then I wasn't going to get anything great. But then I'm looking and I'm like, well, that's the office I started at and that's the office I'm going to pick, it's going to be there. Why did you start at that office? Who was in there? Well, Sheets was in there, and Amy DeWeese and all of them who are dear friends to me to this day. And I'm going to tell the story of why we got sent into that office. Glenn White was our former president, a very long-time president, one of the longest-serving presidents in police association history. They're having a complete meltdown over a bill that uh kenneth sheets had had had drawn up and had filed, and it was if we got a misdemeanor, uh dwi, whatever, we would lose our pension. I don't remember that bill. Oh yeah, it's been filed a few times.
Speaker 1:I remember glenn white too, oh yeah. And if you don't know what was a special kind of game, you give him 90. Remember that, bill? Oh yeah, it's been filed a few times. I remember Glenn White too, oh yeah. And if you don't know Glenn White Glenn White was a special kind of guy you give him 90 seconds. He could piss off the Pope, yes.
Speaker 3:And he could do it in a split second. Glenn was a high energy guy from New Yorker, coming from a family of cops, and he had every bit of cop in him Smoked like a chimney, drank like a fish, uh, and just like a sailor, cuss like a sailor. Well, they get thrown out of the office and and I'm, and I'm standing over there by the rotunda and they come in there, they're mf and her and mf in the office and going crazy, and I'm like what happened? They're like they threw us out of that office and I'm like shocker. And and they're like bulleted. And they're like they threw us out of that office. And I'm like shocker. And they're like, well, send Frederick in there. And I'm like I don't even know what am I going to do. And they're like everyone likes you, you can talk to anybody. And I'm like, well, give me some of these talking points.
Speaker 3:So I get some of these talking points. Why open that door? I'll talking points. Why open that door? I'll never forget it. I'm like, hey, I'm just here to talk to somebody about this bill that the uh representative has filed over for the law enforcement, and then I hear this just scream come out of this room and that's those goddamn cops. And I'm like, oh boy, yeah, you tell them, get the fuck out of here. And I'm like, oh man, and I'm gonna. I don't know if they gets beeped out or what, but I just had to set the scene.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, you're good. Is this when you became a coded force?
Speaker 3:And I said, hey, I'm one of the good guys, I just want to have a conversation. So she pokes her head out and she's like, starts coming towards me and this is Amy, she's the chief of staff and she's just giving me the business. I'm like whoa, whoa, whoa. I, I just got sent in here, I just need to have a conversation. And so we sit down and we start having this conversation. Well, the representative is on the floor. So the chief and I, you know, completely become friends.
Speaker 3:And, uh, I get a call from the, from the representative. We're, we're lit, we've left the capitol. He calls my cell phone. We're having a conversation. I'm like he's like are you in the building? Can you come by right now? And I said, sure, we'll turn around. Well, glenn, no, but he's like you tell him. No, we ain't going back to that. You know he's just going off.
Speaker 3:And I'm like why leave? I go back up there and I go sit in his office and we work it out. I'm telling why, bill, what you could do to people with this bill? You know where this could go on any given moment. And I said I think you worked your whole life on this job and something happens and you get this charge and you're going to lose your entire pension over that. I said is that fair? Do you think that's fair? He's like, yeah, because I guess I didn't look at it that way. I said I know you don't want bad people, I get that, but somebody has a bad day and you're going to take away their entire livelihood for their family. I said first of all, you're never going to get this bill passed. We ain't going to let it pass, but you're going to have cops hating you for the rest of your career here at the association. He became one of the best folks for law enforcement after that day, after just one conversation, and I have that ability I still have that ability to understand and smooth talk with folks that want to have common sense, reasoning and understand where we needed to go.
Speaker 3:We've had several bills come out through the legislative where I've sat in there and I would say I'm a resource officer for these deals and I testify Mainly, before I testified, I always went and met with them to show them where I was going to go with it, to let them understand. Look, I'm going to say these things and I just don't want to put you in a spot against the officers and most of the time they'll understand this is probably not a great idea and some of them try to just bulldoze you, and so it's. It's a process. But it's much like this job now where it is a process and you've got to be good at what you're trying to do and making sure you get bills.
Speaker 3:And a lot of the bills that I passed this session didn't end up where where they were, where they started. They got attached to other bills. You know, it's like my math and science bill that I did for teachers. That bill was never going to make it because it was sitting too far back in the lineup and when the bell rings and your bill's not there, it's dead. Well, that bell's about to get closer to ringing.
Speaker 3:So I had to find a bill to attach it to, and so was our street racing bill. The street racing bill that I had written had all the teeth in it. But there was another street racing bill that was out there that didn't have the teeth in it and it was out of a Harris County representative. So I went to her and I said your bill's good, but this bill's got all the teeth and this is what law enforcement's asking Can we attach this to this bill? And she was like I don't like the impoundment of the vehicles and I'm like, well, the cops love it, yeah, because that stops them If they impound a car. And every officer in the world knows when you impound a car, you have totally taken away a weapon.
Speaker 1:It is the best deterrent to take the car away from them.
Speaker 3:Yes, and so we got that bill attached to that bill and I did several bills like that this session and that was tricks of the trade, understanding what goes on in this building, finding another vehicle for a bill to get attached to.
Speaker 1:Well, Fred, I know we've now been doing this for going on 70 minutes and we all have to get to the memorial ceremony.
Speaker 1:I want to say something, and Tyler's going to finish up with three really tough questions for you, but I want to say this the reason the TMPA board decided to endorse you again and it just comes right down to this our members are better off with you in the legislature than they are with you. Not, that's a true statement. That's why you got the endorsement. Yes, Our members are better off with you in the legislature than they are with you not.
Speaker 3:That's a true statement.
Speaker 1:That's why you got the endorsement.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 1:We appreciate you.
Speaker 3:Thank you.
Speaker 2:Well, you've been studying through rapid fire questions. Okay, all right. What is your favorite line from a cop movie or your favorite cop movie? What is your favorite drink of choice and your favorite cop car?
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh, Favorite cop car, I'm going to start there. When we started and this is a Dallas deal, okay when we started we had the Chevy Caprices, the Chamoos right, big old body, yep, not sexy, but big. Well, chevrolet, the GM plant is over in Arlington. They gave us 500 LT1 engines in them, and so all those cop cars had the Corvette engine, lt1 engine in it. And I'm going to. You want to talk?
Speaker 1:about and the brakes that kept catching on fire.
Speaker 3:So that car could not turn, it only went straight. But there wasn't a damn thing out there that they couldn't catch, and every time you had to stop you had to put the hood up. So if everyone was, it was always the great. Are you okay? Do we need to jump? No, we're just letting the car cool off and he's right, he goes. The brakes weren't worth a damn, they would just catch on fire. I mean, those cars were awesome cars. That was my favorite car Drink of choice. You know this is going to sound, so you know you'll be like really, I love Crown, vanilla and Coke, yeah nothing wrong with that With an umbrella.
Speaker 2:No, no umbrella, I mean just lots of ice.
Speaker 3:Best line from or cop movie oh, smoking the bandit. Yeah, so you know, daddy, my hat fell off. Uh, I think that, and tracy hears me say that one all the time was, you know, you?
Speaker 1:I hope your head was in it, you know it?
Speaker 3:uh, it's, that's. That's my all-time favorite cop movie, next to super troopers.
Speaker 2:That's a good one, yeah that's a good-time favorite cop movie Next to Super Troopers. That's a good one. Yeah, that's a good one. The peacock phrase is probably the number one comment from. Oh shit, I can't think of the name of the movie. It's got Mark Wahlberg and the other guys.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh, the other guys. We watched it the other night. When he gets the wooden gun, yep, yep, he's like dude, that's pop. Dude, that's pop, that's right, that is the number one.
Speaker 2:That is the number one answer. Well, we appreciate you coming on, appreciate you clarifying some things. Good luck to you. You've always been a friend to me. You know me being a fellow TFO on the martial service. Yep, you know it's good stuff. So, no, sir. Well, we're looking forward to a very somber evening and looking forward to a peace officer memorial. So again, thank you for coming. No, really appreciate it. No, thank you all you guys stay safe. We're looking forward to National Police Week coming up. That's going to be May 14th.
Speaker 1:Well, it starts with a candlelight vigil on the 13th, but we have our reception at the National Conference on May the 12th, that's right, so the 13th, but we have our reception at the National Conference on May the 12th. That's right, so be in DC from the 12th to the 16th.
Speaker 2:We're going to post that out on our social media platforms and you should receive an email. Yeah.
Speaker 3:The one thing I will say about the memorial. If there's folks out there who have never been to a police memorial, the DC Candlelight Visual is something that you'll never forget.
Speaker 1:One here in Texas. It's, it's, it's yeah, it's nothing to sneeze at. It's not those things.
Speaker 3:But our we took our children up there. I I'd gotten a national award and we were up there at the white house and we were. It was all during that same week and I they still talk about it to this day. I mean, it's, it's heart wrenching, especially when you walk the mall and you're at that memorial and you see all those names on the wall.
Speaker 1:The National Memorial, when I first started going was still at the wall at the memorial itself and it just got too big. You couldn't get 20,000 cops into that one block, so they moved it to the National Mall and it's just awesome to see the tens of thousands of people out there holding those candles up all at the same time.
Speaker 2:This will be my first year to go and I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 1:Oh, you'll never forget it, yeah, so.
Speaker 2:I'm very much looking forward to it. How can people support you? I forgot to ask that. Yes.
Speaker 3:I was glad to say you can go to Frazier4Texascom. When you type that in, it's going to pop up and it's not going to say supporting code enforcement officers either.
Speaker 1:I don't know what your geofencing is doing, but every time I open Facebook, I get one of your ads.
Speaker 3:Good, that's what it's supposed to be. And then we do a lot on our Facebook, our Facebook and Twitter. Our Facebook is by far the most active at Fraser for Texas. So if you go there, you'll see the Facebook and you'll see we are very active on unloading that and keeping it loaded with what we do. Most folks go. How did they? They were just here. Now they're there. Yesterday we were block walking, interviewing and doing other things, and then we jumped on a plane and got here and went straight. I mean, it's become part of our life now and we understand that. But we know that we've got to be everywhere to try to make sure that we're doing the things that we say.
Speaker 2:Yep, yep, I understand it Well, you guys heard it here. You guys take care, stay safe, reach out to us if you need us. Bluegrit at tmpaorg.
Speaker 1:God bless you and, as always, may God bless Texas. We're out, thank you.