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Blue Grit Podcast: The Voice of Texas Law Enforcement
2024: Ranked #1 Law Podcast
Host: Tyler Owen and Clint McNear discussing topics, issues, and stories within the law enforcement community. TMPA is the voice of Texas Law Enforcement, focused on protecting those who serve. Since 1950, we have been defending the rights and interests of Texas Peace Officers by providing the best legal assistance in the country, effective lobbying at state and local levels, affordable training, and exemplary member support. As the largest law enforcement association in Texas, TMPA is proud to represent 33,000 local, county and state law enforcement officers.
Blue Grit Podcast: The Voice of Texas Law Enforcement
#063 - “Tactically Tenured” with Jerry Childree & Victor Diaz
Dive into the intense world of law enforcement with Tyler and Clint as they share stories from the streets and the focus of a sniper's eye. Meet Jerry Childree and Victor Diaz of Richardson PD, who discuss mentorship, Patrol, and SWAT operations.
Experience the weight of a badge through tales of fallen officers and the unbreakable bond of the thin blue line. Explore SWAT team operations, gear evolution, and innovative strategies. Discover the future of policing amidst technological advancements and progressive leadership. Honor the resilience of officers and the support systems that sustain them. Gain insights into the role of drones and tactical planning. Join us in celebrating the dedication of those who serve and protect. Don't miss this powerful episode!
Listen for of-the-moment insider insights, framed by the rapidly changing social and...
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email us at- bluegrit@tmpa.org
I was actually working a part-time job and the crazy part is I had my radio on the whole time and I just turned my radio off and my phone rang and it was Sergeant Fitzsimmons screaming something to the extent God help me, please help me. Dave's been shot and being high speed, low drag. I said I'm coming to you.
Speaker 2:Welcome back. Viewers, watchers, listeners. I'm your host, Tyler Owen.
Speaker 3:Clint McNair.
Speaker 2:How was your drive down this morning?
Speaker 3:It was awesome Left Forney at 530.
Speaker 2:I started to call you because I figured you were up.
Speaker 3:Rolled out at 530, got here at 830. It was smooth.
Speaker 2:We you and I, and John Siriga, chris Zabowski and Ken Gardner and our beautiful spouses just got back from the National Law Enforcement Officer Hall of Fame event there in Fort Worth. You and I got to hang out together on a Friday night. It was a great time. Got to see some good friends.
Speaker 3:Yep, it was cool. Tony Godwin out of Garland Kyle Ray, is at law enforcement today.
Speaker 2:lloyd cook over at footworth poa yep, aaron slater, uh, was there with relentless aaron slater.
Speaker 2:I've heard of that guy yeah, he's kind of a big deal, I mean, but hey, I I gotta tell this funny story. So, uh, I'm not really the greatest at doing laundry. So I want you guys to kind of picture this. Uh, we get home sunday, we went to visit some family there in the Metroplex and I'm driving through Austin traffic and we've all been through, like you know, swat operations or patrol, where your underwear kind of get salty and nasty and they kind of start bunching up right between, like your legs, where you're sitting down. I'm not going to say the area, but it starts with a T. Cops know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2:So I'm driving down the interstate or the highway today and I start feeling like this weird feeling like something's caught up in it and I was like what the hell's wrong? My daughter did my laundry yesterday. She's 11. Vivian shout out to Vivian Owen and I start driving down. So picture this I'm on the phone, people are around me, I'm sticking my hands all the way down trying to grab and untangle whatever is. Whatever is going down in there I'm not talking about attached to me, I can tell it's clothing, you sick-minded people and I pull out a sock that is some way somehow entangle itself inside my underwear. But I'm sure the people next to me was probably thinking what in the hell is wrong with this guy in this Ford F-250? I just want to give you that mental picture.
Speaker 3:So you said you don't change your underwear that often, so you put a sock down there for skid marks.
Speaker 2:No, no, no, I pulled it out. No, no, no, that is not preventative maintenance, I don't do that, but it was just kind of a weird situation, typical Tyler Owen morning.
Speaker 3:Michael Tyler own morning. I hear you, yeah, I hear you. Hope you got all day. We got two guys from my hood, two Richardson PD guys, proud to have on. I'm excited to talk about a couple of topics with them. I am too. Introduce yourselves, fellas.
Speaker 4:Victor Diaz. Been with Richardson PD. 17 years Been on the SWAT team since 2011.
Speaker 2:And just excited to be here. Yeah, and you brought on a guest that you reached out and said hey, I got a buddy of mine. You didn't say he was a friend of yours, you said he was your mentor, yeah. And so we in law enforcement don't do that quite often and say, hey, I want to highlight this guy and kudos to you for doing that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, jerry was one of my field training officers back in 2006, 2007. And 30 years on, swat just got off in January, longest serving SWAT dude in our city's history. Pretty huge accomplishment and very, very well-respected guy amongst the team and amongst many others.
Speaker 2:So yeah, Jerry, welcome to the Blue Greets Craze hey.
Speaker 1:I appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yes, sir Jerry welcome to the Blue Grays. Crazy hey, I appreciate it. Yeah, yes, sir, how long have you been with Richardson? June will start 33 years, wow, 33. Well, we typically kind of like to kick off the podcast with talking about where you're from, who the hell is Jerry, who the hell is Victor, and then we'll just kind of start from there. Victor, why don't you go first?
Speaker 4:So I was born in California. My dad moved us out of Texas when I was 16.
Speaker 3:Oh God, when at in Cali.
Speaker 4:A real small town called Watsonville, just about 90 miles south of San Francisco, on the coast in between Monterey and Santa Cruz.
Speaker 3:Oh cool, Okay, Beautiful area, man Very very nice area.
Speaker 4:He saw the writing on the wall before all of us did and best decision he ever made.
Speaker 3:South of Big Sur, north North of Big Sur About 20 minutes. God, that's a beautiful area, man.
Speaker 4:It is that was probably about from our house. I don't know, maybe 30, 25 minutes to Pebble Beach.
Speaker 3:Wow, wow, that's awesome. My son was at Monterey for 18 months for language school and God, it's gorgeous out there. Yeah, very nice, aside from the politics, politics.
Speaker 4:Yeah, but yeah, I love Texas. I've been here ever since and right after 9-11, joined the Army Reserve, kind of did that thing for a while 2008,. Went to Iraq, came back. 2012,. Went to Afghanistan, came back. Both times I was employed by Richardson PD and they were phenomenal in that process, I think.
Speaker 3:think in 2008, I think there was three of us deployed at one time what was?
Speaker 4:your most army military police, so um never got to do that job overseas though, so but it was. It was good. Um joined the pd in 06. Um did eight years on patrol. Uh went up to be a detective, did that thing for a while and for the last almost three years been assigned to the Dallas FBI's Violent Crime Task Force. That's awesome.
Speaker 3:Any law enforcement in your family? What made you go the law enforcement route?
Speaker 4:Zero, Zero military, zero law enforcement. The closest thing we had was my older brother. He was a probation officer counselor in Santa Clara County. We had was my older brother. He was a probation officer counselor in Santa Clara County and he worked more starting out his career in the counseling aspect of it and then it shifted years later but just always had a draw to it. Just something about it, something about going into these unknown calls and being somebody that people can rely on to help get through a situation, Just kind of resonated with me and I think after I joined the Army it definitely pointed me in the right direction.
Speaker 3:Go to COG for Police Academy.
Speaker 4:Did Went to Council of Governments there in Arlington, Class 185.
Speaker 2:They run a pretty tight ship over there, cog does.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's good.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, so it was good times.
Speaker 3:I mean it's no.
Speaker 4:Garland. Well, we were excommunicated.
Speaker 3:We were part of Tri-City with Plano, richardson and Garland, and we were evicted out of there, I think.
Speaker 2:I thought Garland, never. They haven't always ran their own academy.
Speaker 3:We ran our own in-house with Plano and Richardson and then we were evicted about 94, 95, and so we moved and moved somewhere else.
Speaker 2:I got you. So what year did you start on patrol with Richardson again?
Speaker 4:2007.
Speaker 2:Okay and we were just talking about this how much it's grown and how much it's changed since then. You've probably seen it yourself going through those transitions.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I didn't think that the city could grow much when I got hired on. I thought we were pretty. Landlocked, yeah built out, but we have found the ability to find any patch of dirt and put something on it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, grow up and grow out.
Speaker 4:Apartments. You know five-story apartments and just you know the whole city line area with State Farm and all of that's just been just phenomenal growth for the city.
Speaker 3:Well, and all of that's just been phenomenal growth for the city. Well, and being an older city, it's going through a change now of kind of redevelopment rather than just like Frisco that they're in their first build out Richardson's kind of in their second evolution of trying to figure it all out.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you know, with the building of our new police station a couple years ago, that was phenomenal. I mean, we were using closets in the old building as offices because we were just so maxed out, but this new building. Every time I bring somebody over there that's never been there, they just kind of look with eyes wide open, saying this place looks awesome.
Speaker 2:Is it solely a police department or is it shared with fire?
Speaker 4:It's just us Fire's right next to us with their own building.
Speaker 3:I thought you'd be in the old police building wearing the baby blue uniforms forever.
Speaker 1:That was Jerry. When he started, that was French blue, french blue, I'm sorry.
Speaker 3:Get it right.
Speaker 2:Get it right Talcum powder baby blue yes sir. So you came on Richardson, and then you met Jerry.
Speaker 4:Yeah, he was my second phase field training officer Obviously a SWAT guy at that time, very highly respected by everybody, and they just said be prepared, he's going to push you. And I think Jerry tends to forget that when he's training a rookie. We don't know what he knows and we're way slower than he is.
Speaker 4:A lot of times he'd stack us three, four calls deep in our report calls and then we get off at 10, it's 8 o'clock and he's wanting to go back and knock out four or five reports and I'm like I don't know what I'm doing and I can't type that fast.
Speaker 3:It's funny, my first phase I had a guy that was really laid-back training. My second phase was a SWAT guy. Reminds me a lot of Jerry, and so I went from kind of laid-back'm like oh shit, what guy? And he's like the guy we just passed five minutes ago that you didn't pay attention to. What color shirt do you have on. I'm like I don't even know what intersection are we at. I'm like I don't even know. I'm still trying to figure out where that guy was.
Speaker 2:That's awesome.
Speaker 1:So tell us about you, jerry, where you grew up born. I was born in Lone Star, texas, a little town in East Texas, and within the year my parents moved to Dallas for job opportunities, where my dad took a job with TI, and so I pretty much spent my whole entire life in Garland, the city of Garland.
Speaker 3:That's nothing more Texan than growing up in Lone Star.
Speaker 1:Lone Star.
Speaker 2:Texas, absolutely it doesn't take a while to guess. Some of your family probably worked at Lone Star Steel. Absolutely, it'll take a while.
Speaker 1:I guess some of your family probably worked at Lone Star Steel Absolutely Grandparents did, absolutely Grandparents and cousins.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so for those listening, that is on the edge, my old neck of the woods right there, north by Lone Star Lake, north on Lake of the Pines. Right there Y'all are in, I believe not Cass County, but it is Delta County or anyway. It's a beautiful country, absolutely, absolutely Beautiful country.
Speaker 3:That's where the liquor store is. You'd get to before you go to the lake, isn't it?
Speaker 2:It is yeah.
Speaker 3:Allegedly.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:So move to Dallas. What started your career in law enforcement? Did you have family in it, or what led that path, no family in it.
Speaker 1:I got a job at Kroger's right there in downtown Garland and spent most of my time just fighting with shoplifters. So you're like the loss prevention guy yes, I was a manager, but I was loss prevention too as well did everything and just continuously fighting with shoplifters. So at that point I decided might as well go ahead and join the force somewhere.
Speaker 3:Garland and Walnut.
Speaker 1:Walnut.
Speaker 3:Yes, sir right down the street from your jail, I imagine. Imagine that was busy.
Speaker 1:It absolutely was. That's crazy.
Speaker 3:So how long did you do? How long were you at Kroger?
Speaker 1:Worked there 10 years, wow, no kidding 10 years 16 to right at 26.
Speaker 3:Wow, so went into police work at 26? Yes, sir, and back then y'all were still COG. Yes, absolutely, I was.
Speaker 1:B-caps 117 or 113.
Speaker 3:Wow, it's been a minute. Yeah, and that was what year 92. Okay, and what hit patrol? I guess deep knots patrol or evening shift patrol probably.
Speaker 1:I spent probably the first 12 years on deep knots. Then I went to a power shift 5P to 3A and when that collapsed I went back to an evening shift. So I've spent most of my career doing evenings work and I've spent all 32 years working the streets. I never left the streets up until February when I went to our community relations due to a shoulder injury.
Speaker 3:Wow, and how long had you been on when you hit SWAT?
Speaker 1:I'd been on two years oh wow, that's quick yeah well, one of the things we didn't do in SWAT we never recruited. They wanted people to be motivated to put in for it, and right at two years of service I was recruited and come to find out there had been a little fallout in the department. Half the guys had quit. You know, I thought I was special, but they didn't have anybody, so they asked me to put in Bottom of the barrel.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they asked me to put in, and I put in and made it and been on there ever since.
Speaker 3:And Richardson's probably similar to Garland and Plano. You are not full-time SWAT. That's an extra duty requires extra time, extra training, Is that right?
Speaker 1:Absolutely. We're a part-time team, but we're on call 24-7, 365.
Speaker 2:Probably back then when you guys were training. I'm just going out there on a whim, but Richardson's always been competitive, but when you started off with SWAT did you even get compensated for the SWAT training? I mean just like it is now, or was it kind of like volunteer?
Speaker 1:time we did a lot of stuff volunteer. You know we got our paid training days, but we did a lot of stuff off the clock a lot of research, a lot of our own things off the clock Pre-training and stuff like that for the days, absolutely. Absolutely Continuously doing something.
Speaker 3:What all spots on SWAT team have you had?
Speaker 1:I volunteered and I got to become the gas chemical guy. So chemical munitions, distraction devices, less lethal firearms instructor and then throughout the year, just other things and teaching.
Speaker 2:So for the non-law enforcement listener out there listening, that is a huge responsibility because ATF and who keeps track of all the bomb, all the? Is it ATF logs that you've got to keep ATF? Yes, so these guys, you're at that position. You have to keep very detailed notes and track and inventory of what goes in, what comes out, who has what and when, because you're on the SWAT team, you most likely have stuff issued to you that has that tracking and you have to keep track of all that. So talk about the details on that.
Speaker 1:Just the main thing is, you know, like the distraction device that's classified as a Class C explosive and you'd have to fill out an ATF letterhead to get it, they would ship it and then we would save all the serial numbers. So at any given time, if they came and asked for a particular distraction device, this is a serial number. Where is it? We'd have to say, is it deployed in a training exercise or you know an actual event, a call out, if you can't find it.
Speaker 2:There's a deer chief letter. Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 1:There could be a deer chief letter. Oh, absolutely, there could be a deer chief letter in a heartbeat, yeah, but just maintaining and keeping up. And you were assigned that. How long after you made SWAT? That's about my third year into the team.
Speaker 2:That's a big responsibility. So five-year cop. Now you're in charge of all that. Yes, sir.
Speaker 1:Yes, sir.
Speaker 3:Is y'all's system kind of set up like some, where when you're a rookie you're like rear guard and kind of the grunt and then you can progress up to getting in the stack and progress up to point or sniper. Is that kind of how you guys? When I hired on.
Speaker 1:When I first got on the team there we should have had a 16-man team. Like I said, there's a little bit of falling out. Not really sure what happened, but our team dropped down to about eight guys, wow. So when I got on, got on the team, it was hey, man, follow the most senior guy in the stack because you're making entry. So my first call I was making entry. Wow, damn.
Speaker 3:And how big is Joel's team now?
Speaker 4:We're 24 now, with six snipers. So, 18 on entry six snipers, two TLs commander and then we got six SWAT medics from the fire department that are attack meds. That were all with us.
Speaker 2:And you both. Which one of you, sir, does the sniper on the team?
Speaker 4:I'm currently a sniper.
Speaker 2:I just had a conversation with a media outlet and it was here in the Austin area and the word sniper you know a local citizen, or the word sniper, you know the local citizen, or law and law enforcement thinks you know the worst of the worst as far as that name. But talk about really what a sniper does is the overwatch for the team and talk about really why you're there.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you know, a lot of times it's all in the game of words, right, you can say sniper, you can say observer, you know whatever you want to say. But in reality we've got special tools and weapons that are going to allow us to dial in and zoom and see what the team can see. When I'm at you know 20 power on my scope, I might be able to see through a window and might be able to say something that's going to launch that team, based on that person inside hurting somebody else, or maybe we don't need to escalate, maybe we need to tone it down, just based on what we see. So you know, 99.9999% of the time, we're observing and we're reporting back what we see and we're given updates on movements. That's pretty much it.
Speaker 4:So like getting intel yeah exactly the cool guy stuff that you see on TV is. It's just, it couldn't be.
Speaker 2:Any farther from the truth.
Speaker 4:We're prepared for it, but it's really not what our everyday call outs are.
Speaker 3:And really you are kind of the opposite of what people think of a sniper. You are preservation alive the person's life, potential, other victims to be harmed. Inside the objectives to save their life, officers outside. I mean preservation of life. Everybody thinks, oh sniper, they're up there to hurry up and shoot and kill somebody and really it's preservation of life to not have to do that. Based on your observations.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you know, when you go through our tryouts and stuff like that, there's an oral board process and they do talk a lot about. You know, when you go through our tryouts and stuff like that, there's an oral board process and they do talk a lot about. You know, is it important to be really good at intelligence gathering? Or, you know, do you think you should come on the team being a trained shooter and you can teach a lot of people to shoot, but you can't teach a lot of people to be patient and observe and, you know, have restraint. And I think, speaking for our team, you know, know, you look at our guys.
Speaker 3:We're pretty good suited in that area. Well, and you gotta be um. You get up on a rooftop sitting.
Speaker 4:What's the longest you've sat on a rifle up there um, probably the longest I've sat would probably be our line of duty death with dave sherrard. Myself and Ed Blanco were set up on sniper and I think we were out there about four hours.
Speaker 3:It's a long time to be proned out sitting on. Fatigue sets in and cramps and stress and yeah.
Speaker 4:Yeah, we had another guy join us a little bit later, James Schumann. He was actually in the apartment when it happened, but he ended up grabbing his gear and and coming over and partnering up with me. And it's nice when you're in teams. That's obviously ideal to be too, but sometimes it is what it is and you're solo.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and I know you both have been through it. But when you have a high stress, high when you've had that dump of adrenaline, and then you have to go sit on a perimeter or go sit up in a, when we had the May event, the terrorist event there in Garland, they thought that was just a distraction attack and there was going to be some secondary attacks, and so a lot of the guys involved in that shooting had to sit on a perimeter for three or four hours concerned about was there a secondary attack? They were calling me on the phone hey, you need to get us a lawyer rolling out here. I'm like, why are you whispering in my ear? They were all sitting on a perimeter after being involved in this high-stress shooting. We'll dive into David here in a minute.
Speaker 3:But people don't understand some of the discipline that it takes to go through, get that emotion and that adrenaline to rein back in and then, okay, now I've got to sit on this rifle and be calm for four hours and process what I just know is going on or not, take my frustration out and want to shoot the bad guy because I'm frustrated. A lot of discipline in SWAT, which is very counter to what people think of SWAT. They're just a bunch of workout fiends that just want to go thump somebody. There's a whole lot of training and technique and discipline goes into it, which I'm extremely proud to see that people get to see, especially in some of these SWAT competitions.
Speaker 2:Well, you were the, I guess the old and I don't I mean this very respectfully the oldest team member of Richardson, tenured, tenured, tenured, tenured member. Talk about the changes. You know. We had Lieutenant Dan with Garland on and ttpoa president.
Speaker 2:How long ago, a couple months ago a couple months ago, dino you know, and he had talked about the just the evolution and the changes within garland and the tactical world. But talk about the changes and what makes you, more you know, most proud to see where you were uh with your agency and how far y'all have come uh with equipment, training and so forth.
Speaker 1:The biggest changes I've seen is when I hired on in 92 was the equipment to where we are to date. Back then a lot of our vests were military surplus and I don't even know if they had an expiration. I don't even know if there was an expiration date but we had like five entry-level vests that the guys making entry the first five in they wore and then the rest of us just put any other type of vest that one size fits all. And you know it was basically one size fits none. And then back then with the equipment we had a wide range of equipment. We had five MP5s, several H&K 93s, benelli shotguns At the time we had SIGs which we converted over to Glocks, but we just had a wide range of just weaponry and we didn't have night sights, we didn't have red dots, aim points, didn't have flashlights.
Speaker 1:So when we made the stack it would be the pistol guy up front, followed by a raffle guy, because the pistol guy had to carry a flashlight to light up the rooms. And, like I said, our old helmets the webbing was so dry-rotted the helmet just basically sat on top of your head. And back in the day we were responding in the 90s, we were responding to a lot of suicidal subjects. I've been on standoffs with suicidal subjects 12, 13, 14 hours. One in particular cranked off around at us through a window. This started around 7 o'clock, 7 pm and ended noon the next day when she finally surrendered. And you're talking about fatigue and sleep deprivation. And then this particular night was extremely cold outside, drizzling rain, and we had no cold weather gear. So I sat in the backyard with a trash can lid over my head, you know, just trying to stay out of the elements, just freezing all night long.
Speaker 3:And you have fatigue, boredom, all of that set in and then, in a moment's notice, you're going to be demanded, not expected demanded to act. Precision, with accuracy, making the right call in one split second. So maybe sitting for 14 hours and then if they shoot a hostage or they do something that provokes y'all, in one split second you have to go from I've been sitting for 14 hours under a trash can lid to exact, precision, execution of something, absolutely absolutely.
Speaker 1:And you go through the adrenaline dumps they're coming out, they're coming out. You get all through the adrenaline dumps they're coming out, they're coming out. You get all amped up, then they don't come out. Then you've got to go through that lull where fatigue sets in again and then you get that adrenaline dump and you're just waiting for it to hurry up and end. After that we started looking at our fatigue factor, putting guys on parameter that long, and then we started coming up with a more adaptive gas plan that hey, after three hours kind of draw the line in the sand, just getting a little response out of them Because, like I said, fatigue was setting in. And the other thing is the calls don't stop. There's still a city to run, we're still answering calls, it doesn't slow down for that one scenario.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for part-time teams. It's crucial, Garland. They're part-time, so process this. We are in a huge recruitment and retention crisis right now. How short are you all on patrol?
Speaker 1:We're actually getting better. We're probably, I would think, about eight overall, but there for a while it was pretty bad. It was real bad.
Speaker 2:Now you've got patrol guys that now have to shift your manpower around. You've got how many people on the SWAT team 24. 24,. So two teams, I would assume two part-time teams. Is that what it essentially is? Primitive state team. B team yes, sir, okay, I'm assuming Jerry was on the A team.
Speaker 2:Yes sir, absolutely so. You've got all these factors that people just think that you roll up. You look sexy in these nice tactical shit, your high-speed, low-drag stuff. But you've got other stuff. Were you in a command position with the SWAT team? I was an assistant team leader on entry, yeah, but you're processing all this as this thing is going on. You've got manpower. Then you've got your patrol captains and lieutenants that are bitching going. How soon is this going to end? Right, absolutely. And then you've got that pressure. But people don't realize, even cops, they don't realize and recognize when tactical situations are going on for a very lengthy period of time. There's calls for service building up. You've got grandma that says you know, there's a suspicious vehicle in my neighborhood and I want an answer right now. And you've got all these things that you have to answer to with your command staff. The city is calling to the chief and now you have to answer to the chief. So the stress level being in a leadership role on a tactical team is very stressful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. Another thing too is you know, we've got a guy outside a house with a firearm, you know, threatening to shoot or shooting off rounds. You know, now we're evacuating the neighborhoods, now we're shutting down the streets, now we've got people calling City Hall complaining that they can't get down their street. You know, there's just a wide variety of complaints that go along with it. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3:So you're early enough back in the day where you had to do a lot of crap yourself.
Speaker 1:Who was your ultimate guy ever on the team? A guy named Paul Ecker. He's the one that come up and fixed it. We had two actually Sergeant Ellis and Paul Ecker. They were always trying to fix stuff. Our raid van at the time was a bread truck and you know, there had been times we'd have a wrecker. You know the guys getting back in the bread truck, would you know, attach to their bread truck and pull it down the street because it wouldn't start. So it was kind of comical no AC, no heating, and back then we'd go sit outside the target location and wait for the warrant to be signed.
Speaker 3:Well, you may sit out there for four hours and it's 100 degrees outside and you're in all this tactical gear bread truck with no ac no ac, yeah, so so ours was dino at garland and it was back before like there was no SWAT equipment, it was extra military gear like you guys were talking about. And uh, somebody came up and said, yeah, we need an armored car before you know bearcats and all that. And dino shows up with a armored uh bank car like just old square ugly, square bodied, and she's like where'd that come from? Dino's like, nope, nope, you don't want to know, don't ask. And uh, dino and a couple other guys were like the macgy and they took that armored bank car and put running boards and handles so you could do officer down rescues and deploy off of it. They were always tinkering but back then, before some of the funding and the technology came around, every team had the MacGyver that could figure out how to fix something, weld something. You make do with what you had to do to get the mission done.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. We had a guy with an AK-47 having some issues cranked off a few rounds in an armored car. Our armored car that particular day was a trash truck that brought a dumpster out into the street and dumped it. So we hid behind it for a little while realizing that AK-47 is going to burn right through it. So then at that point we backed off and started hiding behind car blocks, car engines and bigger trees. Our armor dumpster didn't work.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it didn't work.
Speaker 1:But since then, obviously we've come a long, long ways. A lot better equipment. Matter of fact, you say we just got a brand-new Bearcat Nice.
Speaker 2:So we're doing very well. Now you know the mind. The mind does weird things and it has like a you know like kind of like a photo reel. So when you think back of all the years, you know on that SWAT team and just stepping off, I'm sure it was emotional, uh point, the day that you kind of walked away from it, but can you remember just the flash points? That's just kind of. You think back of your tenured career. Uh, notice, I said that tenured career with the.
Speaker 2:SWAT team. Talk about maybe some flashpoints. It could be bad, it could be sad, it could be great, but moments that you remember back on that team.
Speaker 1:First off and I'll get back to you when I wrote my letter of resignation, it took like three days and it was three days of tears. It was probably the most difficult thing that I ever did, because I felt like I was walking away from a brotherhood that you know. Back on February the 7th 2018, when we lost Gerard and there was just a lot of gunfire and everybody's running, we had 18 SWAT guys running to it and to me that was just very impressive, you know, and I know we made Dave proud, but you know a lot of just the rage we went on Back then. Everything was just, you know, speed, shock, violence and action, very, very dynamic. You got up to the front door, you slammed the door and you were getting inside and bangs were going off and it was just the moment. You know it was the thrill, the adrenaline, but we were just a very aggressive team and nowadays we're slowing things down.
Speaker 1:My first 10 years I've never heard of a knock and announce warrant, had no idea what that was. Why anybody would do that is beyond me, but just the dynamics of the tactics going in after people.
Speaker 3:And it's really, really changed from the dynamic, the dynamic fast, fast, fast speed and violence, to, like the surrounding call outs and some of the older guys, tenured guys, absolutely Slowing down calling out. I get it but it's hard to understand for a while because it seems like, well, it's the softer approach.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:You know we don't call in and ask the criminal to politely come out, and I completely get it. And police works changed and it continues and it will always change. But it's really hard at times to wrap your mind around it or accept it.
Speaker 1:When I went to the alert school, we would slam the door to make entry, and they were doing this. Let the door, let the room breathe.
Speaker 4:While they were letting the room breathe, I was already clearing the room. I was inside.
Speaker 1:It was hard to get that mindset and now, when I hired on, it was always a new guy that got to come over and slam the door. Now we're doing explosive breaches. We're sending the drones, sending the robots. All that was things that we just simply didn't have. We sent in people.
Speaker 3:About what year did you guys start doing explosive breaches? We sent in people.
Speaker 1:About what year did you guys start doing?
Speaker 4:explosive breaches, probably the last six years.
Speaker 1:I think maybe like 2012-ish somewhere around there. It's been a while, but yeah.
Speaker 4:I know a lot of our guys got with Tease and Tony over in Garland and they got on it probably a little more progressive than a lot of other places.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and God bless CT Payne. We lost CT Payne about a month ago who was really on the forefront of explosive breaching. Um, they consulted with him the night of the Dallas five, uh, about putting that charge on the robot and sending it down range. He was one of the people that consulted on how to to kill that guy. Losing CT Payne was Payne was giant, but we were on a SWAT call.
Speaker 3:I was a patrolman on the perimeter and it was really in the first, just early minutes of us playing with explosive breaching. And I'm a dumb patrolman way out on the perimeter and I could tell from the lingo that they were tired of sending ferret rounds into the house and they said they were going to set a charge on the rear metal aluminum garage door and there was an explosion went off like a 500 pound bunker buster landed next to me and, um, when we got up there to the house, there's this mangle. There's not a piece of garage door much bigger than this, there's metal everywhere. And I remember ct and some of those guys were like may have gotten into a little hot, may have had that charge, just a little. But early on, you know, it was kind of a try it and figure it out as you go.
Speaker 3:But uh, I think a lot of these techniques are a lot are going to save some cops lives and I think it's some jets and stuff. My buddy buddy calls like two or three years ago and said I went on a warrant in grand Prairie and we stood outside and they sent a drone in and we're watching it and the drone flies up to the guy and, um, we had her, um Herbert Uber on from the Pearland and they're the tip of the spear and drone activity. And he said they're sending drones in and people are surrendering to the drone because they just don't know or they don't know if it's armed. And I thought you know what, if it keeps David Sherrard from happening and some moron wants to surrender to a drone? It's not as sexy as going in and getting to drag some gang banger out of their house, but if it saves a buddy's life, man, and they want to surrender to a drone, then hell, yeah, let's get on with it.
Speaker 1:Yep, absolutely. When I first started on too, you know we did our intel on the scouting report. You know we designated rooms. You know if the suspect was in the house and 90 of the time he was in the back bedroom, the master bedroom. You know our first two guys went straight to the master bedroom and I was on one of the entries where the guy laying in the kitchen with the living room floor. We jumped over him to get to the back bedroom. That's just how fast we're moving, and now we've just slowed it down tremendously.
Speaker 2:And I think that the more that you know, there's so much more planning. I think that goes into operations than it did before and I think the communication.
Speaker 2:You, being on the FBI's violent task force and you being a tactical operator, you have the mindset, when you're building this investigation, that you know that if a search warrant is going to be executed, you know in the back of your mind what questions you're going to ask a CI, you know what questions that you're going to ask people involved, as far as the suspects, on how to prepare your case. Because, let's face it, it's now come down to you presenting your case to the team leadership of the SWAT team and saying, okay, guys, abcd, you guys have a checklist of if you're going to do a breach, absolutely so, there's a checklist. Now, majority of the teams, where it's basically says where they they, they weigh the risk and the reward of the safety of the team, the suspects and then everyone involved. There's going to be children, there's going to be firearms.
Speaker 2:All these things kind of come into play and I think that the tactical teams across America have done a really good job of communicating with. I love our dope guys, but for a long time they really didn't communicate that well with the tactical teams and I think that we're all on the sheet of music now to where I think the dope guys know what the tag team expects, they respect what the tag team expects, they know what the so it's a big communication and communication more of it can never hurt anything. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I think that's what we did too. We were jeopardizing officer safety over a dope arrest.
Speaker 2:Yeah, over gathering that evidence.
Speaker 1:Why.
Speaker 4:For what you built your case? I remember why he built our case, yeah no-transcript skepticism.
Speaker 2:I'm sure there was people skeptical about the drone aspect and I'm sure that probably changed, because the same thing happened with herbert absolutely said the guys on the team were not receptive, uh, to the change and the evolution of how the tactics are, and there was a very similar situation that happened down there in Pearland or the regional SWAT team that they've got. But until that happened, until they saw the safety aspect of oh shit, we're losing a $500 drone versus a man's life or a woman's life, that's what got everybody on board to be like, okay, yeah, we need to start slowing down utilizing equipment and doing technology.
Speaker 1:Right, and once this individual shot the drone, he then shot the Bearcat. I mean, he wasn't going to stop. So we immediately started implementing gas and brought him out to our playground, which was a lot safer because we're, you know, taking cover and concealment behind a Bearcat, yeah, so Technology is the other great asset that we have on our side.
Speaker 3:Technology is the other great asset that we have on our side. I can remember doing a search warrant. You drive by, get the description and then you need to go back and they go all right, what do you think the layout out of the house is? Well, I'm assuming that window is a bedroom and I'm assuming that one is a dining room window. Well, there's so much technology out there. Now, get on Zillow or whatever. You're going to find a floor plan of the house, interior, house interior pictures you're going to find. And man, so much of it back then was, well, I kind of think the living room would be on the back left, I think, and I mean there was a lot of it back then.
Speaker 2:That was kind of a wild ass, guess a lot of cities have implemented, uh, whether they were grandfathered or not, but you've got to provide your building plans now. So now, thank god, uh, that even the ones that are houses that are built back in the 20s, 30, 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s some of those house plans are being developed, redesigns or remodels. You have to resubmit those to the city now to have those. So those are also things that go into play with tactical operations and trying to get those. So probably one of your darkest days you just mentioned a while ago was the loss of Sherrod. If you guys kind of want to start off with how that day started, talk about the planning and everything that took place that day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was actually working a part-time job and the crazy part is I had my radio on the whole time and I just turned my radio off and my phone rang and it was Sergeant Fitzsimmons screaming something to the extent God help me, please help me. Dave's been shot. And being high speed, low drag. I said I'm coming to you. I didn't even get an address, I was just running to my car so quick to get to him and I went to the station at that point to pick up some chemicals and that's why I was able to pick up the address.
Speaker 1:And, uh, I guess the fire department guys already knew about it because they heard about the transport that he had been shot and it was pretty serious in nature. And, uh, they were yelling for me to go get him. And I'm going. I guess news travels fast because they already knew about it. So the funny thing is not really funny. But when I got on scene, uh, one of the sergeants come up and I said who got shot? And he said it's Dave. And I said how is he? And he goes oh, he's just fine. He got shot in the leg and I said, oh, my God, he's going to have a funny story to tell what this sergeant didn't want to tell me, that he knew Dave was already deceased. So he was wanting for me to stay focused and I'm thinking, you know, he had just a kind of funny story to tell us.
Speaker 1:After it was all said and done, and when I made the comment about I bet he's got a funny story to tell, the sergeant just went pale white and I knew at that point something was wrong. So I called a good friend of mine and I said hey, can you get up to the hospital, conrad, and check on Dave? And it seemed like within 15 minutes he's up there and he said Dave didn't make it. And I said didn't make what it was? You know, I figured he had a little flesh wound, something.
Speaker 1:They put a Band-Aid on and they just went back to the station and he said well, dave's gone, matitude was in, gone where, still not sinking in, and at that point he said he's dead. And that's when it really sank in and I think that changed a lot of my views back then. That particular moment changed a lot of things about you know, it lets you know the job's real now, you know, after 25 plus years of serving on the team and then losing one of your buddies. But still, I was one of the first guys on the scene and still just seeing all the guys running to get to Dave, running to get to the apartment, doing whatever it takes to bring this thing down.
Speaker 3:Tell our listeners. What was that? Was that a call? Was that a SWAT service? What was that call?
Speaker 1:It was a call, a disturbance, shots fired. They said they'd heard shots fired from the complex. A little bit of breakdown of communication. They told them it was in this building over here. They're over searching the building and then a guy comes up and says hey, you're at the wrong building, it's over here. And when he pointed to the building and they started making the ascent up to the third floor, that's. And they started making the ascent up to the third floor, that's when they encountered the first suspect. The guy had actually shot and he was on the landing and he was already deceased. And at that point they had intel that there was another victim inside an apartment and they pointed to the apartment and they were actually going in to do a welfare check, looking for this secondary victim, not knowing it was the actual suspect. That was barricaded, you know, not barricaded, but it was an ambush-style attack, you know, just laying in the hallway waiting for the first officer to come through the door and Dave was on patrol at this point. And Dave was on patrol, yes, sir.
Speaker 3:He go over there and kill like a family member.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the individual had moved in with a good friend of his. He was pretty much down on his luck, homeless. He had moved in with a friend and his mom. It's my understanding they were kicking him out over, possibly stealing stuff from the apartment.
Speaker 3:So he shot his buddy. That's who was on the landing. Yes, sir he ended up shooting his buddy and his buddy made it out to the landing and that's where he collapsed. And patrol shows up, thinks secondary victim's inside, so they're going to push through check on them, and that's when they get ambushed.
Speaker 1:Yes, sir.
Speaker 3:And Dave was first through.
Speaker 1:Dave was first through. Yes, sir.
Speaker 3:And my understanding is he went down and had to be extracted or they pulled him back out.
Speaker 1:He was able to exit the department on his own, but once he got outside he collapsed pretty quick and at that point they went into officer down officer rescue and picked him up and carried him down to the first landing where paramedics immediately started working him.
Speaker 3:I'm trying to think Either that was y'all's first in a long time, or is that one of y'all's only line of duties.
Speaker 1:That's our only line of duty. Death, no kidding.
Speaker 3:Richardson's been around forever. Yeah, 55. 55 years Since 1955.
Speaker 4:Oh, since 55.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was going to guess 50 or 55, because I think Garland's about 50 or 55.
Speaker 4:55 years Since 1955.
Speaker 3:Oh since 55. Yeah, I was going to guess 50 or 55, because I think Garland's about 50 or 55. Yeah, One in that time, Wow. Well, and one thing too everybody thinks Richardson's this massive city because y'all butt up to Dallas. Y'all are what? 182 in our band.
Speaker 4:We're 173, 175. So y'all are tight. 182 in our man. We're 173, 175. So y'all are tight. I think we're 28 square miles-ish.
Speaker 3:So y'all are 170 man, unlike Dallas or Houston. You know everybody, I mean you know every officer that works there. Absolutely, were you on that night.
Speaker 4:I just got home Actually, I just saw Dave. We have a wildflower festival outdoor music festival.
Speaker 4:We went to go do a sniper scout and we chatted it up and he continued his patrol shift. I went home, wasn't home very long and got a cell phone call from a CID partner who said hey, there's been a shooting. Are you guys coming? And right about that time our phones are going off for the swap page. So I haul ass into the station, link up with the rest of the team to get on the truck to head out, grab my sniper gear and, like Jerry said, the FD already knew and we got the message that he had died. So when we were in the truck, headed out there, we already knew that he had been killed and as soon as I got on scene, linked up with the LT, and said I'm going to go set up. And he said I got on scene, linked up with the LT, and said I'm going to go set up. And he said just shoot me a thumbs up or, on the radio, give me a push when you're set. Ed Blanco went and set up as well and then both of us were out there.
Speaker 4:Crazy thing is is James Schumann? He was in the apartment, he made entry with Dave and he was on that initial team set up on the landing and they started relieving people and they said hey, where's all your gear? Go get your sniper gear. So he goes back, grabs all his gear, eventually links up with me, has no clue what's happened. Uh, other than that Dave got sent off in an ambulance and, um, he kept pushing and uh, I had to be the one to tell him, like, right then and there, that you know what had happened. And, um, I I very, very thankful for chief swivey probably never told him this, but like he had so much confidence and faith in the professionalism of our team that I know plano and other teams offered to take over and he said, well, we'll do a transition when enough time is elapsed and it's that proper time. But but right now my guys can do the job. Everybody carried themselves professionally and did what we trained to do and were professional about it. It sucked, but do what you got to do.
Speaker 3:As soon as it happened, calls came in for legal. I went to Plano Hospital. They where they took dave, and tony reich went out to the scene to start making sure you guys had water, whatever he could do to support, make sure y'all had an attorney in or out out there. And it was kind of surreal being at the hospital because I was in little elm when j got killed. Very, very similar deal, extremely similar, because I get to Little Elm while it's still hot and I'm like what's going on? What happened? Well, a SWAT officer, one of the guys, super respected guy, just like Dave, super respected got shot and I'm like, well, where's everybody at? Well, they're still all out there, having to be on the scene, set up a perimeter, you know, trying to figure out.
Speaker 3:And Tony Reich went to the scene on that when I went to the PD to be with the shooters and it's really hard.
Speaker 3:It's really hard and I want our listeners to understand that aren't in law enforcement. You know, if you saw someone shoot your sibling and then you're sitting on a perimeter and have the ability to do something really violent, that would feel really good and make you feel better to have the discipline to not do what you really, really would like to do. That's a challenge, and to go sit on a perimeter for three, four hours, um, and not exert some personal revenge and some satisfaction, takes a lot of discipline, and sometimes cops get a bad rap or they think we're all you know, meathead, machismo or whatever. But when you, when you've just been told that one of your brothers is dead and then you're going to sit on a perimeter for four hours, man, my heart goes out to you guys and little elm guys that went through it, because you'd really rather be doing a whole lot of other things mourning, or being with your police, family or something rather than sitting there on a rooftop or sitting in a stack waiting for somebody to tell you you can go in.
Speaker 1:I think, for a few minutes. It was just so surreal that I just kind of went numb. And I remember telling the guys with Dave Chapman, just give me a minute. And at that point, you know, I just took a few minutes to just, you know, just think about the job we had to do now. And, you know, maintain the professionalism. And I told Dave it's probably not going to be the right time to tell you, but Sherrod didn't make it and now we have a job to do and we have a job to do and me and him were both on gas. So when they gave us the green light for the gas, you know, we started implementing gas in that apartment. And the good thing is, at the end of it we did our job the right way. We gassed this guy out. Our gas plan worked. This guy surrendered peacefully, you know. He got his day in court, you know, and he got a fair trial and he got the death penalty.
Speaker 3:Good, so, but I can say what you know we our standards, you know we maintained our high standards, and those are the story that doesn't get told. That's the story that doesn't get told, because there could have been some circumstance where y'all could have needed to have killed him to have made it.
Speaker 3:You could have figured out some circumstances of go in there, push the issue, do something so that you can get a little payback on him. Y'all gassed him out, surrendered, he went through the justice system. Yeah, um, a beautiful story of that sadness. The number two da in collin, county, bill werski, showed up at the hospital that night, almost beat me out there and I've known him since he was a prosecutor in d. He's like hey man, what's up? I said nothing, what are you doing here? He's like just here to be with them. I don't want to be in their way, I just want to be here.
Speaker 3:So I started asking around. There was a bunch of spouses out there and everybody's phone's dying and it's late in the middle of the night there. It's late in the middle of the night, there's nothing. And I said what can I do? And they're like I don't know, Do you have any phone chargers? So I told maybe Jimmy Holly or somebody. I said I'll be back. So I walk into my truck and Bill Worski who, for our listeners, don't know is the first assistant district attorney for Collin.
Speaker 3:County. He's the number two man in charge. He follows me out and he's like, hey, where are you going? So I'm going to find somewhere open to get phone chargers, water, some snacks. He's like, well, hell, I'm going. And I said, no, you're important, dude, you're, I'm, I'm a grunt doing this, you're important. He's like, nope, I'm doing, I'm doing this. So we rolled around and bought up all the phone chargers at cvs and walgreens and he's out there hauling cases of water and, um, he's like, dude, I don't know what to do here. I just felt like we needed to be here and I said, no, I'm proud of you and just being here is important.
Speaker 3:Um, so when we got back, some of the everybody's mourning and dealing with all the emotions of it, and some didn't know who he was and I said, hey, I just want to you guys to know that you're number two in command at the district attorney's office is here to support you. And Bill may not appreciate me sharing this, but Bill said I'm just here for you guys to support you. And if this guy lives through this event, I can promise you with all my heart that my only goal will be to ensure that he gets a needle stuck in his arm and he dies. And I was like dude, I'm in love with you right now at the moment. And the crowd went wild in the hospital and it gave them at least some hope of some support and a show of love from somebody from the outside. And Bill's like man I hope that wasn't inappropriate.
Speaker 3:I was like dude, you just gave them a little bright spot for just a brief moment of love and cool moment in a horrible, tragic time.
Speaker 1:I'll say this too the suspect got a fair trial. Dave Schroer didn't. But the only hope in saving Grace was seeing how personal and how serious Bill took this in court. I never met the guy up to that day, but he took it personal and he did outstanding and for a guy like Bill you just can't say enough positive things about it because he did his homework, he knew the timelines, he studied, he knew everything about that case Good and he was very, very impressive, him and his whole crew.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean you could tell they did their homework and you just can't say enough about the crew at collin county. That's awesome, very good da's office and bills, bills, as solid of a man as they come. How did for you guys? How do you navigate through that, you guys? You guys debrief that, do you? How do you? We, we, did.
Speaker 4:We actually had several debriefs and the city was so accommodating we did them off-site, just the SWAT team, we did some with patrol, integrated, just multiple different avenues to do a debrief, offered, you know, counseling services and things like that for anybody that needed it. I'm extremely, extremely proud of our agency and the way that for anybody that needed it. Um, I'm extremely, extremely proud of our agency and the way that they handled everything after that. Uh, never, having never been through something like that, I just blown away that like the support was there. I think I took off work for, I mean, I might've been off for like three, four or five days Um, just nobody, nobody batted an eye. It was like we, we understand, um, do what you need to do and then, when you're ready, come back. Um, and it probably didn't sink in until until that next day. Like that, that whole time was just a blur, and then that next day is when it really sinks in and uh, just knowing that that the agency's there and uh, supporting, I think is huge.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, to me too. Chief Spivey did an outstanding job bringing us together, but more than anything, the SWAT guys. It did not destroy us, it just made us closer. It made us stronger. Dave was just one of those guys that you know. I got off, I guess, around 1, 2 in the morning. I went back to work at 8 o'clock because I figured that's what Dave wanted and it probably wasn't the best thing I could have done for myself, but I was trying at that point, live for dave, because dave would just tell me get back to work. Yeah, and that's just the kind of guy dave was yeah, and we all heal differently, absolutely, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Those are odd times when you, when you lose a partner and lose somebody in law enforcement, you don't know how to react. Right, I think us majority. A lot of people push ourselves to go back to work to fill that gap, absolutely.
Speaker 3:Well, for a time back 70s, 80s, when Richardson was the sensitive department and people would come and go, y'all would flex up with manpower and then a bunch of people would kind of leave out. There's no perfect chief. But watching Spivey and how the department and spouses interacted with Spivey that night at the hospital he was the right man at that time because there was a genuine, sincere family feeling, the way he was treated by everyone spouses, family members and how he cared I mean it was a really cool thing to watch. Because, let's face it, there's some chiefs that you know they wouldn't have come out there. Or is this going to be a hickey on the department, or is this look bad politically? Or he was neck deep in the vault in the middle of it, just like he like a patrolman out there and was the right guy at the time.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think as much as it changed us. It time yeah, I think as much as it changed us. It changed him because he even made the comment you know I can't go through losing another, and you know, we all took it pretty personally.
Speaker 3:That's once again, we're a smaller pd, so, yeah, everybody knows everybody. So, speaking of spivey, well, I want to ask you, for you personally been around a long time, never lost a brother like that. Was there a? Was there a period of time where you had to navigate through that? Was there a specific moment that helped you kind of open your eyes and work through it? Or what was that like moving on after losing?
Speaker 1:Man, it was rather difficult. I mean I did okay. I guess To me my reactions, I think, were normal for an abnormal event. It was just some of the things you know I think were normal for an abnormal event. It was just going to some, but some of the things you know you fight through and you think about it. But more than anything I tried to make it not about me but I tried to make it about Dave, and I know Dave would tell me hey, man, heads up, get back to work. You have a job today and that's powerful. And uh, like I said, our command staff, even today, our command staff, is very, very supportive our city counselor, city manager, you know, investing in a bearcat, after they saw that our bear, our bearcat, just you know, got shot when our drone got shot. And they've just been very, very supportive of the guys at the department, guys and gals at the department.
Speaker 3:And you guys have been fortunate because Spivey was great Been around, a long time old school cat, good guy, and you guys have a really respected chief in Tittle.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 3:He still strikes me too. As the cop's cop, he remembers what it's like to be, a cop.
Speaker 1:He understands police work.
Speaker 3:Yes, sir.
Speaker 1:And it's confrontational regardless. I mean, you can only de-escalate so much. Yeah, de-escalation works when the bad guy lets it.
Speaker 3:Yes, it's a two-way street not a one-way street.
Speaker 2:That's hard to find these days in administrations within law enforcement.
Speaker 4:Right. I think we definitely got the Support, the better hand on that one. You know, chief Tittle came from Dallas PD after, I think, 30 plus years and then came to us and I mean, if you're at a big agency like Dallas with thousands of police officers, then you come over to us with 173. I mean, it's probably pretty easy for him. He probably comes in less stress, but we have no complaints and he's just been phenomenal.
Speaker 4:The support of the team and the patrol aspect, our drone unit. I think we've got 15 drone pilots and I don't know how many drones. We've got expensive drones, less expensive, so much technology they're bringing in. And if it's advancing policing and it's great he's going to listen, he's not going to turn you away and then let's make a decision on whether we want to move forward with this or not. So it's been great to have the chief support. And then we had a new city manager a couple years ago and he's been phenomenal. He was the one who kind of approved the purchase of the Bearcat with the support of the city council, and those were things that you know. Years ago we didn't really have a lot of support from the city, but like in today's, like today. Today, I mean, it's it's very apparent we are supported by our, by our citizens, by our council, everybody, and it's a good feeling, it's a really good feeling.
Speaker 3:I was in an FOP meeting recently with some Dallas PD guys. It's funny we're having this conversation because something came up about they were talking about they have a good chief with Eddie Garcia, but they were talking about they really lost out, a good, good person losing Tittle to you guys. And that was like in the last 10 days Talking about, yeah, man, tittle to you guys. And it's funny. And that was like in the last 10 days talking about, yeah, man, richardson stole one of our, one of our really good potentials someday. And, uh, it's funny, 10 days later we sit here talking about, talking about this. Richardson's really evolved, and I mean in a really positive manner when a lot of agencies can't say that in this current environment. You guys really been, despite the dark day. You guys have really advanced as a really professional, respected agency, despite jimmy holly working there yeah, jimmy holly, despite jimmy holly, you guys really have advanced and I love that guy he's a good guy.
Speaker 2:He's a good guy well, uh, we like to kind of end the episodes with, uh, three rapid fire questions. If you guys have studied up on them I don't know if you obviously. I know vict Victor has watched the podcast, but, jerry, we'll start with you first. Okay, what's your favorite cop movie or line from a cop movie? What's your favorite police vehicle and what is your favorite drink of choice?
Speaker 1:I grew up on Beverly Hills Cop and when you see Beverly Hills Cop as a young guy, prior to being in the police work, you think it's all about all the fun surveillance stuff and the pranks. And if you've ever worked surveillance, it's nothing like that.
Speaker 3:That's a common answer, though Beverly Hills Cop's a pretty common answer out here.
Speaker 1:You know the old phrase go ahead and make my day. That's kind of the, I think that's. Anyway, what's my favorite drink?
Speaker 2:Favorite cop car and then favorite drink of choice.
Speaker 1:Favorite cop car is probably going to be now the Chevy Tahoe. Like I said, we got new cars now, but the Crown Vic was outstanding. We could beat those Crown Vics in the ground, run them high-speed chases, whatever Workhorse, and they were just good old workhorse engines. So it would probably be a tie between the Chevy Tahoe and the Crown Vic Good picks.
Speaker 2:Yes, sir.
Speaker 3:Drink of choice.
Speaker 1:Drink of choice. That'd be a some type of bourbon, just any type.
Speaker 3:Neat on a rock with.
Speaker 1:Coke, either straight or old fashioned.
Speaker 3:Oh, there you go yeah.
Speaker 1:I can handle the old fashioned Heck yeah.
Speaker 4:And if the bourbon Kind of old fashioned.
Speaker 2:I'm a little more on the newer school. I like Indawatch we just talked about that.
Speaker 3:It's probably the best depicted law enforcement overall To see the culture and the sense of humor and how we manage with the job, with the sick humor. That's a great movie.
Speaker 4:I like that one.
Speaker 2:Car. I think when they came out with the Dodge Charger, with the Hemi um, you could take the traction control off that that was pretty, pretty fun.
Speaker 4:Pretty fun wasn't to our course, but it was a lot of fun. Yeah, uh, drink a choice. Uh, whiskey, um, whiskey coke not a bad choice.
Speaker 2:A bad choice and, and just for everybody to understand, you guys reached out via email. I think is how we communicated, so it's a great example of having a good podcast idea. So I want to thank you for reaching out and highlighting his mentor for so many years.
Speaker 2:And thank you, jerry, for not only dedicating your career to those in Richardson, but being a good mentor for so many years. And thank you, jerry, for not only dedicating your career to you know those in Richardson, but being a good mentor for young officers across across that area and across that region, because I guarantee you've had an impact and so it's. It's great to highlight stories like yours and thank you for your so many years of service with the you know the SWAT teams and look forward to many, many more with Richardson PD and a lot of respect to you, man, for we all like to highlight ourselves and cops and SWAT.
Speaker 3:We all like to think we're the machismo and we're the shit. And kudos to you for reaching out and wanting to highlight, show some respect to others. We could probably all use with a lot of other folks not appreciating what we do and valuing it. We could use a lot more folks that would like to highlight and show some love and respect to some of those that have paid their dues. Some cool of you to do, man.
Speaker 4:Very, very cool, appreciate it. And Jerry's got some gifts coming too from the team. We've got Platt coming. He's getting a Sons of Liberty 300 win mag oh.
Speaker 3:Unless that gets intercepted going through Garland.
Speaker 1:And I will say this too Probably the greatest award as a police officer being a field training officer, swat officer is when you see guys like Victor, guys you trained, develop and you know he's exceeded every expectation and carried it. You know, being a sniper, just everything he's done, he's carried it to the next level. So the hardest thing about leaving the team is leaving the team of brotherhood, but knowing it's a lot better than it was when I found it. That's right and I mean these guys are in good shape and these new guys that are taking up you know, it's almost to the point who wants to be a police officer anymore? Who wants to be yourselves in our way? But these guys do it and they accept it and they take on the responsibility and these guys are self-educating, they're going out doing their own homework and very, very impressive. So for me to step down, the team's in a good spot.
Speaker 2:it's good to hear, it's good to hear you got anything else, big dog not at all.
Speaker 3:We've got some upcoming dates. We've got uh fop state board meeting, uh, spring board meeting coming up. We have Texas Peace Officer Memorial Coming up. We've got Police Week coming up in May. Team PA FOP Joint Conference July 26th Through 28th in Dallas. Love for you guys to come. It's at Dallas Hyatt Regency Reunion.
Speaker 2:Tower.
Speaker 3:You got my number, hook me up A lot of dates going on, lots of stuff going on.
Speaker 2:Busy, busy, busy. We just had the Solana FOP poker tournament this past weekend. Shout out to National FOP President Patrick O's for flying down and not only hanging out with Solana FOP but spending the night with our illustrious Executive Director, kevin Lawrence. Anyway, it means a lot for you guys to, or for you to come down and, you know, show support. So with that I guess we're done.
Speaker 3:That's all I got Everybody. Please take care out there, stay safe, check on your buddy, call and check Text. Don't text. Call and check on a buddy that you think may be going through something, because at some point we all are Be safe out there. Call us if you need us.
Speaker 2:Hit that subscribe button. Where are you putting it? I'm going to put it right here Right there, right here in front of my cup.
Speaker 3:Hit the subscribe button. Put it down there where you put your socks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, comment like. And man, we guys appreciate you.
Speaker 1:So God bless you and, as always, may God bless Texas. We're out, thank you, thank you, thank you.
