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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
#085- "Island Policing" with Anthony Rogers
Can you imagine the challenges of policing a tourist-heavy island community? In this episode, we’re joined by Anthony Rogers, the President of the Galveston Municipal Police Association, who dives deep into his unique experiences growing up in Galveston and navigating its law enforcement landscape. From his family’s longstanding commitment to the force to the intricacies of managing public safety in a bustling tourist hub, Anthony’s insights are both enlightening and compelling.
You'll get a behind-the-scenes look at some pressing issues in law enforcement, from the pervasive nature of surveillance to the contentious debates around privacy and judicial inconsistencies. We discuss the frustrations surrounding bond reductions, even in cases of significant drug busts, and the legalities of police using public roadways for surveillance. Hear our reflections on the critical role of building political capital and maintaining an active, engaged membership base in police associations. This episode offers a balanced mix of personal anecdotes, expert insights, and thought-provoking discussions on law enforcement challenges.
email us at- bluegrit@tmpa.org
Made a big drug bust. Guy lived actually about 200 feet from the school. Our guys did a ton of work, made a huge drug bust on a guy that's a multiple, multiple-time offender. I don't remember the exact numbers now. I think the bond was like $250,000 that the DA set, or recommended, if you will. Guy got to the magistrate court and his bond got reduced to like $75,000.
Speaker 2:Hey, blue Grit Podcast, we are back this week. It's your co-host, clint McNair, and Tyler Owen. Tyler Owen, what's? Going on man Just working baby, Working on my JLB.
Speaker 3:I hear you. How about you Been busy, been busy as you have been with everything going on across the state with TNPA and Texas FOP, but no, I'm doing great. I had to take off work. I guess it took two vacation days last Thursday and Friday. I admit that I had some honeydews to take care of, did you?
Speaker 2:get your fireplace built.
Speaker 3:I successfully built an electric fireplace in my house.
Speaker 2:And my wife was quite shocked and pleased at the same token.
Speaker 3:You know there's benefits and downsides to that, I know now, uh, she kind of offended me, I'm quite. You know, we had some friends over saturday night. So they were all walking through the house and they were like, oh my god, who did y'all get to build this? And of course janet was proud at that point to say my husband right. So now I'm assuming that there's going to be some more honeydew projects in the near future, so I may have some waste more vacation days to work at home.
Speaker 3:You've now set an expectation I have now set the standard of what I can do and what I'm capable of.
Speaker 2:I don't accomplish much. That way, there's not much expected.
Speaker 3:No, it is what it is. Who do we got on, man? You know, through my career at TMPA we get to meet certain people that you just kind of click with, and that's not to say that all of our association leaderships we're not family and we're not available to them, but for whatever reason, I was introduced to Anthony Rogers a couple years ago at a Mardi Gras and, man, we just hit it off. We have a lot of the same characteristics with being loud and proud, and so we became good friends. He's right there in Lake Ganary's area we have Anthony Rogers, the Galveston Municipal Police Association's president. Welcome to the Blue Grit. I appreciate y'all having me.
Speaker 1:It's been a long time We've been trying to get on here for a while it has been the Anthony Rogers.
Speaker 3:He is loud and proud. You've accomplished a lot since you've become president of the local, and so we want to come out here and talk about some of the successes you've seen and some of the things that you might have changed over that time period. But yeah, welcome aboard. I appreciate it, man.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, we'd like to start with from the beginning. Who in the hell is Anthony Rogers? Where were you born?
Speaker 1:Where'd you grow up? So I was born in Galveston, I went to school in Galveston, you were OG, grew up in Galveston, b-o-i-o-g man Absolutely man. Both of my uncles were police officers. When I'm in Galveston, retired as a sergeant. My grandfather retired as chief of police in galveston back in 95 96. Wow, that's cool, um, some third generation, third generation um, and as proud as I am to be third generation, I hope it stops with me because I don't want my kids in this business anymore, man, it's not.
Speaker 2:It's not what it used to be. Yeah, you hear that a lot now yeah I.
Speaker 1:I wish I didn't. I wish I didn't say that it's true. I got two kids. They live up the road in Lake City. Now that's me man.
Speaker 3:What is it like growing up? I've been to Galveston multiple times, both on business trips and personal trips. It seems like an odd place. You're on an island. What is it like growing up there on the island and going to school as a kid? It's like a giant small town.
Speaker 1:It is. It's a town that on a Tuesday it can be 60,000 people and that same Saturday, five days later, it's 300,000 people. As a kid, you enjoy the summers and people all over the place, and now, like you, enjoy the winters, when it's quieter.
Speaker 1:there's not many people around. So, uh, it's good though, man, I enjoy galveston, um, minus the hurricanes, of course. Other than that, it's it's. It's a great place to live. Um, it's a great touristy area, I guess, especially in Texas. It's not going to be overpricing. You can take your family and friends and go have a good time. I know you've come down there quite a few times.
Speaker 3:Yeah, what level of hurricane? Because I know I texted you a couple weeks ago. There was a hurricane that hit the Houston area and Galveston had some flooding, but it didn't even hit galveston. It was the uh, just the amount of rain that you guys got the dirty side. You'll get the dirty side on that, I guess I don't remember which one it was, the hurricane before this, this last one the uh burl burl, yeah, um spelling yeah burl was a wednesday in galveston.
Speaker 1:Man, that was right. Yeah, we do that with hands tied.
Speaker 3:So that's what I'm saying is like, what level are you like? Oh shit, okay, we probably need to put some man. I'll tell you what.
Speaker 1:I think we've had so many hurricanes that they're all just second nature. We know what we're doing, we know where we're going. What's funny, one of our old sergeants sent an email out back in the day of what you need to remember extra socks, extra underwear, baby wipes, stuff like that. Right, and that email still. He's retired, now been retired, and that email still goes out every year. So it's, it's, it's second nature, man, it really is, it's. It's. The scariest part for me is having to send your family down the road. And you know, you, you're, you're hoping that they're okay. You know, and a lot of times, especially back during Ike and Rita and all that, you're getting caught in all this traffic and you're trying to get them out of there where you're just like, okay, I'm sitting in this hotel room just twiddling my thumbs waiting for this hurricane to come through.
Speaker 2:I haven't. I didn't grow up on the coast around hurricanes and I know as first responders, you don't leave. What level of tropical storm or hurricane is it where locals who are kind of used to that where they're like, oh it's just another storm, or yeah, this one is when we need to punch out? Is there a number in there that when you send your family or when most families flee, I'd say, once you get to about a three. So one y'all will ride out of one or most citizens will ride out of one.
Speaker 3:Most citizens will. Yeah, Wow, that's crazy. During hurricanes you said a hotel. Does the department pay for y'all to be all at one hotel?
Speaker 1:Yeah, so they have a contract with the St Louis and the Hilton.
Speaker 3:That's a hell of a hotel to be in it is.
Speaker 1:It's a nice place, yeah, but they have a contract with them and they house us city workers, fire department, pd, the whole city. They have a contract during a hurricane that they pay for. I don't know how the city does it. Right, right, right.
Speaker 2:PD. I guess when y'all are all at the St Louis PD is staged and kitted up and I guess fire guys are doing like pedicure.
Speaker 3:They're normal Getting massages yeah, they're normal, normal. And they're working out and cooking eggs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they're used to sleeping four or five to a room. Through a storm Through a storm.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's interesting, but I mean like that we love you guys, we love you that mentality like I've never. I mean, I wouldn't know what the hell to do.
Speaker 1:I'd be know honestly, if you say anybody who says they're not a little nervous, that's full of shit, because you never know what's going to happen.
Speaker 3:I've always wanted to ride out a three or higher like in a house by myself. Somebody drop me off with some beer or water. That's a terrible idea.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, I know.
Speaker 3:I know I was going to do it with my dad would have been more of a worse idea because he was not anything athletic at all Not saying that I am, but it would have been. I think I want to do it at least once, because if you're athletic you'll survive a storm. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, you got to be able to swim?
Speaker 2:What level of?
Speaker 1:athlete, do you have to be to survive a storm? I don't know.
Speaker 2:What's funny is, growing up in North Texas, I only grew up around tornadoes and probably 15 years ago, when storm chasers first were coming out and you could pay like two grand to go to Kansas and ride with I can't think of, there was like three groups up there that were doing these storm chasing. I was saving up money to go oh wow, to go ride with them and like intercept a tornado, and I can't remember. I think it was 2013. I went through a tornado and I'm't remember.
Speaker 2:I think, it was 2013. I went through a tornado and I'm like I'm good, I want zero part of that ever. I'd almost paid money to go do it. After actually going through it, I'm pretty much scared.
Speaker 1:I think tornadoes are scarier than hurricanes, in my opinion. At least you know the hurricane's coming Tornado just pops up. What does scare me?
Speaker 3:The hurricanes at night because you can't see where the water's at. Yeah, that's what's kind of terrifying to me, but anyway. But yeah, so you've been how long you work for galveston? And uh, I mean, obviously you've had some indications, or at least want to work there with your history, past history, uh, with all your family working there. But what year did you start? How long you've been been there, what have you done for them?
Speaker 1:I started at the Sheriff's Department. I was in the jail for two or three years, I really enjoyed my time in there.
Speaker 2:Intake or in a pod.
Speaker 1:I started off in a pod and I worked intake. I enjoyed my time in there.
Speaker 2:There's a lot to learn as a young person. There's a lot to learn as a very as a young person. There's a lot to learn working in the gym.
Speaker 1:It really teaches you how to talk to people. You know what I mean. You don't have a taser and pepper spray, and I think now they have tasers but back then, I mean, you had a pair of handcuffs stuck in the small of your back and your fist and I was about it.
Speaker 2:There was my son's football game Friday night night. There's a sro came up, got to talking to me and he's been an sro for a couple of years but he worked in dallas county jail for I think he said 12 or 14 years oh yeah and he's still a pretty young dude and, uh, I said we have a podcast, we talk about the education on.
Speaker 2:he's like, sir, you can't imagine with the education. And I said, well, the cool part is, as a young person you learn dec, deconfliction, de-escalation. You learn it pretty quick because, to your point and I said, but you learn how to read people. You know you're a 19, 20-year-old kid and you've got all these 40-year-old con artists always trying to run a game on you and he's like man, I learned so much because I was a young, dumb kid. I had a pod with 45 dudes in there that had all been to the penitentiary their whole life. And, man, you ought to get an associate's degree for working in the jail because of the education you get.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 100%. You know they have nothing but time and having all that time is more valuable than having a phone and being able to Google and YouTube stuff.
Speaker 3:I mean those guys are some master con artists. I asked this the other day with Jay McClellan. He was working down at Fort Bend County. Jill, did you guys have the guys that set their jumpsuits underneath the mattress and had their shit like starched, like better than? Oh yeah, oh yeah, that amazed me, but that kind of traits like it happens all over the place. I mean obviously they go from jail to jail to jail but making hooch and stuff in a trash bag.
Speaker 1:It was interesting. Those dudes are amazing, man, and you talk about the SROs. I worked a school program for the county because they contract for the Clear Creek School, so I worked that for a while after that and it's almost getting education with convicts and then going to work with teenagers. It's like Holy crap.
Speaker 3:It's night and day.
Speaker 1:I can't imagine you as an SRO. I enjoyed it. I enjoy. I enjoyed the kids, I enjoyed the staff. The parents could be. What level of school were you at? I was only I only did high school. I never did the junior highs, which you know, the high school's fun. Yeah, kids are fun.
Speaker 2:That SRO was telling me a story Friday night. He had an uncle coming to pick a kid up at his school the day before. So last Thursday this uncle from South Dallas showed up to pick his kid up, to pick his niece or nephew up, gets out of the car holding the line up, gets out and starts like starts gangbanging in the drive and running his mouth and thugging. He said if I hadn't worked in the jail for so long, he said, I immediately started reading his tats and started telling him hey, this ain't Bon Ton man, you're not pulling up in here with your Bon Ton. And he said immediately the guy's like, oh crap, he goes cause I. I pretty much read his life to him quickly and he goes.
Speaker 2:If I hadn't worked in the jail, yeah, I will, I would have had no idea what to. He goes cause the dude clearly been in prison his whole life, gangster looking dude, he it. He was like, oh, I don't want no problem, sir, he goes. He went back, got in his car, boss, and he goes because of my time in the jail. I shut down an incident thursday in my school.
Speaker 3:I'm like, well, that's a clear uh example, how, how beneficial you being a cid. I said right now you're in cid. Uh, how beneficial has it been for you interviewing suspects that have had that lifestyle?
Speaker 1:you know what's more. What's most beneficial as far as being the CID is is I work in CID and I'm from Galveston and regardless of where you're from Galveston, it's a different. It's different talking to people from Galveston and having some built-in relationships around Galveston. That's what's really really helped me the most in CID gives you career, yeah um, that's. That's what's really helped me the most in the CID world is being from Galveston.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That makes sense. Og. What's weird about Galveston? When I was down there just wearing their board, I was talking to him and just some of the OG guys and I'd never thought about it, but they were like, yeah, if you kill an officer here or if there's a bank robbery, we close the island. I'm like what do you mean? You close the island. They're like, well, there's only two ways on and we close both of them. So you do something salty here. You're not leaving. I'm like, holy crap, that's pretty cool, that's freaking cool.
Speaker 1:We got one. Yeah, we had one that tried another way of leaving a couple weeks ago.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's right. That's right. He got a nice kiss from one of our dogs.
Speaker 1:He tried to leave a different way, and it didn't work either.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and we're going to talk about that because it's extremely important of why your city leadership needs to invest in something like that. So you worked for the SO for 12 years. About what year did you go to work for Galveston?
Speaker 1:I went to Galveston in 2016. Worked night watch patrol for four years, and then I've been up in CID for four years.
Speaker 2:Did you go through academy again or did you lateral? No?
Speaker 1:lateral. I had to do the in-house academy. Back then it was a little tougher than it is now. It's like a boot camp almost, so you had to go back to the academy.
Speaker 2:Just the in-house.
Speaker 1:Just the GPD academy. It's like a six-week in-house academy we have. That was cool. That was fun. I'm full of shit. That was not fun at all. It was terrible. We got our ass kicked for six weeks, but it was an experience, man.
Speaker 2:It was an experience or was it a SWAT class that I saw getting in the surf. That's recruits Surf dunking. That's recruits. I like it.
Speaker 1:That's what that is. It's the in-house academy, yeah.
Speaker 3:How much of y'all's in-house academy do y'all cover, like water safety and that kind of aspect of it? Is there a Marine patrol with Galveston?
Speaker 1:Yes, there is. We have a Marine division. When I went through it they didn't do so much water safety. Now they have a day that's just swimming water. I mean one day a week that they go out and kick their ass in the water and I mean we got in the water. Don't get me wrong. You said you saw it, we got in the water, we got our ass kicked in the water. But now I think it's a little bit more educational in the water.
Speaker 3:Educational, not punitive. It educational asking your asking. That's cool. That's fascinating to me, though, because I didn't. I didn't have that, you know, going to my academy, so it's fun.
Speaker 1:Man, I never would have thought about that either, but I guess, surrounded by water you better have a concept of you know if you got a scrap in the water and looking back on it, it's, it's, uh, it really makes you feel like you have a sense of, like you earn. You know you don't just walk in the hinge of bad, you gotta earn it. So because I we have people every, I don't remember the last class we've had that somebody hadn't quit because of the announced academy.
Speaker 3:Y'all are kind of a. It's a different breed too. It's almost like a huge puzzle Cause not everybody that really goes to Galveston is from there, Like it's got a mixture of people from outside that really want to come to Galveston and work there. Man.
Speaker 1:You know, I believe this is a couple years back. I know we had the highest crime rate in the county. But we have all these people that come in for these interviews and stuff and like, what do you know about Galveston? I mean, I know the beach and I know the Strand downtown and all that and I'm like cool, that's cute. You're never going to see that beach, like if you think you're just going to ride up and down the beach on patrol every day.
Speaker 1:Literally we try to avoid it Unless there's a call up there. I mean, we definitely patrol it, but we have a unit that's assigned to the Seawall District every day. But if trying to get across town to call, you try to avoid it because traffic's so backed up and it's so slow up there.
Speaker 3:For those who don't know, Galveston's a rough city. It's a rough city not because of the lack of police presence or the lack of police efforts. It's just one of those things that it's just. They eat their own kind of. It's rough, man it always has been Good place to do police work. So, at what point? Getting involved in the association? What sparked your interest? What kind of led you to say, man, I kind of want to do this, I want to get involved?
Speaker 1:I mean you know, I really don't know when, the person that was president before me was going to run again and I decided I wanted to do something different and give it a shot and I did and, um, I think he was honestly happy that I did, because he, he was like cool man, you got it, I'm stepping out like there's no, there's no election, like you got it. Um, and, and he, the guy that was that had before me, he, I think he started off like the secretary secretary president stepped down, so the VP stepped up, kind of like Rachel in Texas city, yeah, right, and then he ended up at the top and that wasn't really his plan, right, and he did a good job of of, you know, keeping things afloat, but I think he was. He was burned out on it too, yeah.
Speaker 2:It takes. It takes a certain person want to be in law enforcement and then to add to the headache of a tough career and to want to be in the association. It takes unique people. It's not something where you're just going to go through the motion. If you go through the motion you're not going to have success. And so for somebody that's already in a challenging career that wants to jump on association board and then work their way up through leadership, it takes. It takes certain people. I mean it's like trying to find somebody that's good at interrogations or somebody at swat or canine handler.
Speaker 1:It's not just somebody that's going to go through the motions yeah, I mean, and I've made zero dollars off of being president by the way yeah, um, but, and it's, it's a non-stop gig, man.
Speaker 1:Um, we it's, it's every day. And we had an ois last night and um, I was driving up here and I probably got 40, 50 phone calls. Um, layton probably got tired of me calling him back a hundred times. But you know, it's all right, he needs that, he does, he does, it keeps it keeps most to your point about not making a dollar.
Speaker 2:If, if I could wish members across texas understood just members of their locals. That what I wish they could understood. And and it's not a pity party or needing a pray, praise local leadership doesn't get paid a penny. How many times do you think a week or a day? How many times do you think your phone rings Not related to the police department, poa business? Hey, I need to bounce something off of you. Hey, I just got a bad eval. How many times do you think a day or a week your phone rings?
Speaker 1:I can tell you it's what 1030 right now. I think I'm about seven or eight before we walked in the room today, so seven calls in yeah and not a penny earned not a penny earned yeah.
Speaker 2:So it takes a passion and I don't say that because he needs pity or any of your boards, but just something to think about sometime when you're pissed like my board didn't do anything or my board hadn't had a meeting in two months. Their phone's ringing every day, all day, over various issues, some important, some not important. But it takes time away from family or trying to eat dinner, and a lot of our business goes down at night. So it's trying to grab a bite to eat and the phone's ringing, or trying to see the kids for a few minutes and the phone's ringing.
Speaker 3:And the important thing about that is that you have let's just be honest, okay, you have two different kinds of local associations. You have the ones that are active and you have the ones that stay active and have that social media presence and they're ready to fight when it's needed Galveston's, plano's and then you have the ones that are simply a retirement fund for the you know, the retirement party fund or the Christmas fund.
Speaker 1:Return to lonely yeah.
Speaker 3:It depends on what association that your association wants to be right, Because all of them want to be in the fight when it's needed, but to maintain that it takes a lot of work.
Speaker 1:It takes a lot of work and I think any association can be on both sides yes, simultaneously.
Speaker 2:Yes, work.
Speaker 1:it takes a lot of work and I think, I think any association can be on both sides. Yes, um, simultaneously. Yes, I mean, and I've seen, I've seen our association you know, back before I got here it was before I got to gpd period um, I've seen it be strong, I've seen it be weak, I've seen it be strong, I mean it, it's all based on the leadership man. It really is. And, um, it's all based on the leadership man.
Speaker 3:It really is.
Speaker 1:And it's all based on people willing to do things that you're not really getting paid for.
Speaker 2:The analogy I use, and I don't mean war when I say war. But you, as the president at Galveston, you keep it high, functioning, engaged, relevant, and you build political capital. And you keep collecting political capital. Those that allow it during the off-peak or when things aren't going on and they allow things to kind of fall behind or to let it kind of go defunct, those are two. They're the ones that will call and be like hey, everything just went sideways, we need to do a management survey, we need to get our chief out of here, we need this or we need that. And I'm like all right. Well, how big is your army? Well, we don't have one. Well, you can't go to war when you don't have an army. Well then, we'll build our own real quick. I'm like, well, you don't build an army after you've gone to war.
Speaker 2:You build your army during peace and then you pray. You don't ever go to war, and if you do your army's ready.
Speaker 2:And that's the benefit of operating like you've operated Galveston and numerous others across the state is when you always have a pocket full of political capital and you always have engagement and you're using social media and you have a team and you have your army, as I call it, put together. Then, if it goes sideways, you're using social media and you have all, you have a team and you have your army, as I call it, put together. Then, if it goes sideways, you're ready. Yeah, you, you've already got equipment staged, people ready, you're ready to go. But, man, when people call and they're like well, I don't even have a local association, but I, I need to get my chief gone tomorrow. Yeah, let's.
Speaker 2:And it's.
Speaker 1:I mean so when I first and I don't we'll get on this eventually, but I guess but when I first took over, one of the bigger things that I really, really wanted to do was enhance the social media just the social media presence.
Speaker 1:Right, and then start using social media for our in our favor, cause it's a powerful tool. I mean you know, you know as well as anybody, it's a very, very, very powerful tool. Um, but we got that going and I think I don't think you build that army quick. That's not. It's not easy to build that army. You have to, you have to build some trust. People have to know that you're going to fight for them and they slowly get on board. So we've done that, and I say we because we have a good team. We have a really, really good team. We have a good team of people that are on the board. We have a good team of people who are not on the board, they're just members.
Speaker 1:I mean I got a retired paleon guy to sergeant for us, jeff Murdock. I mean I lean on him for everything. I lean on him for advice, for you know to tell me hey, whoa, hold on. You know I'll type something out that I'm about to send on social media and I'll send it to him and he'll be like all right, give me a few minutes and he'll edit it and make it sound a little nicer and send it back to me nicer and send it back to me and and people that don't even work there anymore. I lean on Jimmy you know De La Santos like crazy for advice just which way, which direction to go, and things like that.
Speaker 2:And that's your first point to that. It takes time. You don't build cred or influence in in two days. Yeah, it takes time and repeated effort to build that cred, that political capital, the trust of your members, the trust of the community, trust to your department. That comes over time.
Speaker 3:Can you recall one of your first battles? Not your first war, but your first kind of little throat punch whenever you took over?
Speaker 1:Man, I think it's funny. You ask that I think our first battle we're still fighting and that's the flock thing.
Speaker 2:Yes, I mean.
Speaker 1:I think we started that over a year ago and it was. We went to bargaining, we had our collective bargaining. I want to say July, august of last year. And then we started the flock fight right after that and that was big. That was a big fight that we're still fighting for some.
Speaker 2:Which is insane to me.
Speaker 3:It is, explain the flocks. People may not the non-law enforcement may not even understand what flock is. So flock, I mean flock's just it's.
Speaker 2:LPRs.
Speaker 1:It's license plate readers that are stuck on poles in different cities and they put them up and it records every license plate that runs past that camera all day, every day, and it's shared with different groups nationwide and if I'm looking for a certain license plate I can log it in there and if it pops up on one of those flock cameras it alerts me the the guy who killed the Harris County deputy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, just the other day there was a situation in Harris County. For those that don't know that may not be in the area Harris County deputy was excuse me, harris County deputy constable was essentially shot and killed. That's still under investigation for the reason why, but there was a license plate given out and it was in Houston and it seems like it's a regional place. Got houston, you have dallas, you have austin, san antone, I'm sure it's like that out in west texas, but for whatever reason, when they put that license plate in there it hit regionally and you guys notified of it. I mean, how important would you know? And I can't understand why anybody in the top of any city government, yeah would not be on board for something that makes your citizens safer yeah so.
Speaker 1:So it's funny, man, because I got a picture of a bunch of cops in Lake City that was near my house and somebody sent it to me like hey, what's going on? I said I don't have any idea. I called Skinny, I'm like hey, what's going on? And they said that guy hit on Flock in Lake City. I was like, oh shit. Then a couple hours later, our dogs, you know, giving them a nice kiss in the water and pulling them out of the water in Galveston. But that was pure luck and good old-fashioned police work and there was no flock cameras, there was no help, there was no assistance given from technology. And the fact that we're still having to fight to have the assistance of technology in a situation like that is just it's crazy to me.
Speaker 2:I think if the majority of the citizens in Galveston understood the benefit of the flock system that council member that is causing the issues would be gone the next election.
Speaker 3:It's actually the city attorney.
Speaker 1:Oh, that's right. Yeah so it's the city attorney who's causing all the issues.
Speaker 2:He would be gone because I live in Forney and I was telling Curtis, one of our field reps, about that issue. Who's causing all the issues? He would be gone because I live in Forney and I was telling Curtis, one of our field reps, about that issue and he said the last three shootings they worked were caught because of Flock Three shooting suspects in a row caught because of Flock.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and is it because of his political views? He doesn't believe that it's like an invasion of privacy.
Speaker 1:What is his reasoning behind it? He's playing. I honestly don't know. I don't want to say it's because of his political views, because I don't know, but he's playing every card that he can to keep these cameras out of Galveston.
Speaker 1:Wow, first he played, they're owned by a Chinese-based company and of course, that was all. That was when the TikTok was all about China, things going on and they're spying on you and all this stuff was going on, and now he's playing the. It's not a sole source. It has to be bid out and HPLU has actually helped us with it and they send us all their sole source stuff and it can be sole source.
Speaker 2:What in-car cameras do you all use?
Speaker 1:We use Polaris.
Speaker 2:Okay, because Axon's new camera coming out that I'm sure everybody's going to go to and it will be the only option. Their in-car camera reads the lane you're in in both adjacent lanes real-time, non-stop. It reads every lane flock full-time. So, as you're driving, every car you pass that is wanted stolen car, whatever it is, it's reading it real-time all three lanes.
Speaker 1:Do they have some type of agreement with flock?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's pretty cool and so for every agency in the country that goes to that, they'll be reading Flock real time, three lanes as you drive down the road you're getting. You know, hopefully there's not many hits, but you know, stolen car, wanted person, whatever it is, and at some point, if technology moves towards that, or if y'all go to Axon, flock's coming.
Speaker 3:That's cool. I do want to hit on something real quick, because you guys gobbison's a pretty large city, houston's dams, you're really big for the rule law enforcement out there. I want you to hear me out when I say this do not fall short and get lazy and not put the full information into a warrant when you have your dispatch enter it. This was it happened often in east texas where I worked at, because license plates are becoming more prevalent across the state and the nation and when you take the time to find out the suspect or the target's information as far as your license plate, what the hell they're driving? Put that shit in like. Take the take the five minutes to do your research and do your homework and put that information in, because it it it potentially could pay off, especially when it comes to aggravated crimes and stuff like that. I just wanted to throw that out there.
Speaker 2:And to back up for our non-police listeners. The big scare around Flock.
Speaker 2:It's not you didn't pay your bills on time or you don't have insurance. That's not what Flock's system is. It's telling us that car's stolen. It's telling us that the license plate on that car is stolen. It's telling us the person in that car you know is wanted for some some bad crime. It's not well, that person hadn't paid their insurance lately, or that person. That's not what the flock system does. So any pushback that you hear about it, it's either a lack of education on it, of ignorance, or they don't want your community to be safe. That's the only two things, because anything else is complete ignorance. Why someone wouldn't want their community to have the ability to be safer? You better be looking at uh, looking at the money or looking at their politics, because otherwise they're failing you as a leader.
Speaker 3:I probably need to hook mckenzie kelly. Uh, austin had the same situation happened, but uh, probably about this time last year where she raised hell with the city. Uh, she's. She's a council person, the only pro law enforcement she's a fireball. She's awesome, awesome and, uh well, she raised hell about it because they are all pushing back against flock and it was because of political, it was simply saying that they thought it was a nation of privacy and so forth, which is ignorance.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly. And so one or two things happened. One, there was some type of violence happening against law enforcement and Flock. It was before the expiration of the contract and it helped locate the suspect. And two, there was a shitload of burglaries going on that led to a homicide and if it wasn't for the Flock system, yet again they were on Flock to solve the case.
Speaker 1:And they kind of backed off a little bit. I think they have it now and it got renewed, but it was vacant there for a while and the minute that everybody knew, because it was a huge storyline.
Speaker 3:The minute that it went public that Flock was not in existence, the crime rate spiked up.
Speaker 1:Wow, public, that flock was not in existence. The crime rate spiked up. Wow, it's just interesting. So you know, the invasion of privacy thing is funny to me because you know we could all three go, walk around, walk around the block here and we'd probably be on 10-15 people's cameras and let their houses and businesses and restaurants and everything else, and just walking outside, um, and you know, if you're that worried about your invasion of privacy, my argument was whenever we were helping y'all fight this, a reporter called and I said this.
Speaker 3:And I said so, let me get this straight. It's okay for law enforcement, completely legal for us to run a license plate to check registration going down the highway. I said can you tell me why that is? And they were like, just because y'all have the ability? I said no, it's not because it's because it's a what? It's a public road, it's a public roadway and there was no response.
Speaker 2:So hopefully we'll get that straightened out or the city attorney can pack his shit and go on down somewhere else and it's a complete lack of ignorance, because that'd be like saying, well, I don't want there to be cameras in the bank, unless you're intended to rob a bank. Why do you care? Why do you care, unless you're intended to rob a bank? Exactly, man.
Speaker 1:And that's my biggest question as far as a city attorney what are you hiding? What do you have to hide? Because the chief, every member of council now, is on board with it. The city manager is on board with it. I don't understand.
Speaker 2:Ignorance or follow the money.
Speaker 3:Yeah one of the two 100%. Well, it wasn't that long after all that another little battle kind of took place and it had everything to do with PR bonds and inmates being released from Javis County Jail. Start at the beginning and kind of navigate through that challenging time, because that was interesting how that all played out. On the next episode of Blue Grid Podcast.
Speaker 1:We made a big drug bust. Guy lived actually 200 feet from the school and our guys did a ton of work, made a huge drug bust on a guy that's a multiple, multiple time offender Known for something dope, and I don't remember the exact numbers now. I think the bond was like $250,000 that the DA set, recommended, if you will, and the guy got to the magistrate court and his bond got reduced to like $75,000. That the DA set, or recommended, if you will, and the guy got to the magistrate court and his bond got reduced to like $75,000. Thank you.
