Policing Montana – SoCal EMT to Montana Copper

this is things police see firstand accounts with your host Steve gold welcome to the podcast interviews active and retired police officers about their most intense bizarre and sometimes humorous moments on the job I am old Ginger face here for you here to spread this the gospel of the police the story that you need to hear unedited uh un uh uh no holds Bard I don’t even know what the word Bard means but that’s what you’re getting um just as the cops lived them the men and women law enforcements you can get a better appreciation for what they do for a living so I am so happy you’re here thank you for all the returning listeners we do need guests guys they come uh the guests EB and flow in uh in my podcast World anyway so um I need people to come on and tell their stories I don’t I often I think part of it’s my my fault I don’t actually talk about it a lot I have been trying to recently so I’m talking about it now if you’re interested and you want to be guest things.com uh scroll down to be a guest or just email me directly Steve things.com and um come on tell me your story share uh and if you if you really really love the show and you want to support you want to support it uh monetarily you can do that at um things.com or directly click the link in the show notes for the patreon on um the page there uh truly truly appreciate that it actually has it’s gotten to the point where it actually does pay all the bills and a little extra for the the time scheduling and recording the interviews and the and the editing and all that stuff so um it’s it’s really awesome and I really do appreciate it every month when I get that payout and it can go into paying bills and uh all stuff like that so this year I actually even I even made enough money in the podcast where I had to like tell my accountant about it so U that’s good and bad I guess um so but rest assured if you love the show keep listening it’s always going to be free you don’t have to um you don’t have to join or um or donate it’s not going to go away that way so um don’t worry about that I noticed over here if you’re watching on YouTube this area my green screen’s not working I don’t I don’t know why oh probably one of my kids all right well just ignore that um guys I do want to do a shout out for a company because as you know I’m I’m definitely not opposed to sponsors if you want to have try out of sponsorship on the show I would love that I need that let’s do it but it usually it’s got to be a product that um like I’ve tried that I like or that I think is really cool and can get behind so I did reach out to a company recently uh core Essentials they make a belt like a ratcheting belt and because I’ve had this belt for over a year and I use it every day I carry off duty quite frequently especially if I go with my family I always have a piece on me uh just because I believe in it and I like guns honestly I just like I like having a gun I’ve always Lov gun so um when you’re trying to when you’re trying to carry comfortably everybody goes through this evolution of like the perfect holster or the right belt or and then I have like a basket of holsters and I have a bunch of belts and it’s super annoying and you waste a ton of money doing it so I did solve pretty much the holster part I have a little appendix holster I like but I definitely unequivocally Sol the Belt part um with core Essentials and they’re not sponsoring the show I reached out to them cuz I really wanted them to cuz I love their product so much but they the actually the um owner of the company wrote back and said we don’t do podcast advertising but I will send you a free belt and buckle of your choice so he did that but here’s like I needed one for court like a dressier one they’re super rigid on the sides they’re reinforced and the coolest thing about it and the struggle we all have is um The Adjustment so this adjustment is ratcheting I if you can hear that it like goes by quarter inch so like if you’re appendix carrying and you go to sit in your car you wna just push a button and loosen it up a little bit you can do that it’s really easy to do when it’s on you and then when you get out you want to sync it up you just click it in it’s it’s phenomenal and they have all kind of different combinations of um belt buckles and types of belts they have you know camo versions I’ll show you the one I have on right now that I use all the time see this loose set boom it’s perfect especially if you gain and lose weight frequently like I do because you’re you’re a piggy and you can’t stop eating um they’re they’re just the best belt I’m not going to go on too much longer about it but go to core Essentials check them out and um maybe we can change their mind maybe if you guys buy a belt they’re only 60 bucks which believe me in the world of like concealed carry and Firearm nerds it’s not a lot of money for like a super quality product that’s going to last forever the buckles are like super heavy they’re great so if you go there and you buy one core Essentials um tell them things please C sent you and maybe they will sponsor the show so uh that’s all I have to say about that today’s guest excited to have him comes from uh comes from a few different places but he’s currently he’s currently in Montana he’s uh a copper out there but he has kind of an interesting story and side note he thinks he might have met me in the wild as an lepd um background investigator at one point which I don’t doubt but he was in EMT in Los Angeles County for eight and a half years set medic for TV and film and drove fire and EMS vehicles on TV shows and movies as well he’s now a police officer in Montana um without further without further Ado let me bring on Mr Mike May Mike Steve how’s it going sir going on man do you go by Mikey May because that comes off the tongue nicely I actually do yeah I uh I’ve been Mikey my entire life my dad’s also Mike and uh just one of those things where hey you’re Mikey okay I’m Mikey and I had a teacher in sixth grade and she was like you know you’re never you’re not going to be Mikey when you grow up you’re going to be Mike and I saw her probably I don’t know five or six years ago now and uh she’s like do you still go by Mikey and I was like I do and she laughed and I was like I told you i’ still be Mikey but you’re like in your face [ _ ] you’re like in your face [ _ ] no she was I gave her a hard time too I was a I was a pain when I was a student you know I I only wanted to do cool things like be a cop or a firefighter or something so that’s all I focused on yeah a lot of public safety personnel I I it’s a Common Thread that I see where pain in the ass in school yes I that is an understatement I think uh my mom still might have a tupperware bin full of homework I never did yeah you know what i’ I saw um I’ve seen like studies on that actually to like back that up and it’s like the the education system over time has become so much more feminized that young men that are like doers and active uh don’t really thrive in like a real academic from a young age and once they get up the rails and then a lot of them actually end up recovering and becoming like very productive members of society but it’s just um you know let’s be honest like grade school middle school it’s all it’s for Nancy boys sit there quietly you know you know math was very hard for me it’s still to this day I look at math and uh I would say it’s like dyslexic Chinese where my brain just cannot process it at all and uh I just I would spend my entire time doodling drawing pictures on uh on some of my homework notes and finally one of my teachers was like look dude you suck at algebra and I was like I know I’m terrible at it and he was just like if you draw the scene of the Two fighter jets inverted in Top Gun and make it perfect I will give you a c on this assignment and I was like dude done like I if I don’t have to do a homework assignment so I drew it he framed it it’s still on his wall apparently so yeah yeah thank goodness for that dude I had a college professor do that with um because I I ended up graduating the computer degree which I could I barely attained it it was such a dumb idea I had so much extra help but anyways um she had a thing where for the final she was like there’s an extra page on the back of the test um if you draw it was some Christmas themed picture like like we were in fifth grade she goes if you draw a creative picture about X Y and Z and relate it some to math if you need the points that will award you 10 points so of course like I spent all the time in the picture and I I I believe she gave me like 40 points for the picture I love it you gota gota do right dude it was brutal but yeah yeah man um so how do you think you so you think maybe that because I did call a lot of EMTs and fire Personnel um that’s just a common theme when you’re doing backgrounds you talk to people who work on ambulances and and where were you St was it Palmdale so I did uh I mainly was in Santa Clarita but uh I was up in Canyon Country for the most part um so my partner and I were constantly going up to Lancaster Palmdale um when I initially started we still the the company that I’d worked for at the time um they still had a good number of the contracts and I think they’ve kind of taken them back over since I’ve been up here but to AMR yeah yeah it was we would go into uh the San Gabriel Valley a lot too and um just you know I mean I don’t have to tell you how diverse Los Angeles county is you know you go from the desert where you know if you’re in West Lancaster Quartz Hill kind of Gorman area you’re like oh man I’m up in the mountains and then you know you’re in St Gabriel down towards like Pomona or Whittier something like that and it’s a whole another world it’s uh LA county is uh it’s a very very strange diverse place and uh it was it was a fun place to work though and fantastic experience for sure yeah dude it is it is crazy how diverse it is like I lived in the high desert and I lived in La proper so and and in between there and I remember my neighbor at the High Desert was best dude and um he was actually a narco detective for the sheriffs and like their whole philosophy on law enforcement was like completely different than actually that actually was Sam Bernardino County but it was very it’s very close right in the border of LA but out there in s berino he said we judge our Sheriff by if he’s a cowboy or not like we want a cowboy and it’s like what he’s like yeah if the cow if the sheriff Rides a Horse he can rope and ride the troops respect I’m like damn that’s cool and uh bdue and Riverside County are still uh they’re still pretty Western and I always I always appreciate that aspect of of those departments because uh I know I think uh Sheriff biano you know he uh I like I like him as a sheriff you know it’s not the the poltical political kind of look at me type deal he seems very concerned with his troops very concerned with you know the public that he that he represents and uh I I got a lot of respect for that yeah absolutely yeah it’s really weird man I went to a town for background not I don’t think there is a town towns in LA county it’s a city and it was like just so you know you can drive outside LA and there was this town I think was called ninko or Nelco and Norco Norco and they had they literally had cart PA yeah they had maintained cart paths so you could ride your horse into town there was horses everywhere I’m like this is freaking like and filled with Crazy Horse ladies like they all gravitated to live there driving big Ram 25 3500s you know 80 miles hour on a residential street yeah to I mean totally bizarre the place is really cool I mean the people the problem is the the humanity the people there are just full full [ _ ] you can’t you can’t you can’t exist there for too long yeah it’s it’s funny too I mean the horse people there uh I actually spent a little bit of time there uh went to the Norco Rodeo a few times and uh it was actually a really fun time but you kind of get that uh the shadier element that Creeps in from some of the surrounding cities and you know that’s uh I can’t remember if Norco Riverside County or san berino county but uh I can’t either they’ve yeah they’ve got some and I mean it’s it’s just Southern California in general I mean I’ve been up here for about two and a well yeah two years now and every time I go back to California it’s just unrecognizable and uh you know it pains me to to say it and see it because I enjoyed growing up there but um I don’t really like going back to be totally honest yeah I don’t blame you man it’s um thank goodness when I was there I had leosa so I could carry concealed even though I wasn’t on the job but dude everywhere I went I had my hand like in my pocket I was like I’m gonna to shoot this guy d i be like fueling up there’s like a street rat like circling your car you’re like dude I will shoot you I need to get this tank of gas and get out of here I was uh it’s funny my first time back um I was actually still in the academy and uh I went back for Memorial Day weekend and went down to visit one of uh one of my Buddy’s in Culver City he was on duty down there and do some other stuff and this homeless guy I’m at like sepula and uh I can’t remember what the Crosser was but I’m driving my sister’s Prius it was this like baby blue Prius and it was the smallest one oh you’re a mark yeah I got the windows down because it’s it’s nice I’m like oh man it was like 40 back up here in Montana and I’m like oh man it’s 75 this is nice this homeless guy you know somebody that’s a an urban what was it Urban Outdoorsman I like that term he uh walks up starts screaming at me he’s like and I’m like dude like go away please just go away and he actually reaches into the car and tries to grab me and I was like get out of the car right now like go away please and uh I actually used a little bit more colorful language than that but I called my buddy and I was like hey bro I just had this guy like try and jump in my car and he was like yeah dude you should have uh you know should have hit him with the car and I was like well yeah that would tough to explain I just I’m going to get back up to to Santa Clarita here yeah dude my buddy of mine was fueling up in um cell Central he had to stop for gas and he really you know he’s I should I know I shouldn’t but it was like 300 in the morning so he’s like no one’s around so he does it and he and sure enough he hears a little scurrying and he looks and there’s you know he’s like essentially in a lit area surrounded by darkness and these two guys to start walking towards him he just lifts his shirt up he’s carrying in his waistband they just both turned around and walked back into the darkness like so obviously they weren’t like they didn’t have a they weren’t going to do a good thing or ask for help or something they were gonna Jack you we’re just coming to get Slurpees man right don’t kill us man we just want to kill you well and that’s you know that’s the sad thing about everything that’s happened in LA county and I I commend I commend the coppers that are out there you know still doing the Lord’s work because I mean we don’t have to get into the politics of it all because I’m sure you’re very familiar with it but you know they they keep tying those guys hands and they’re they’re forced them to do a job with those hands behind their back and I think that people are starting to wake up to that and just like look man I understand if you don’t like law enforcement that you had a bad experience with law enforcement I get that but we still have a job to do and whether or not you need us in that moment we’re still there and we are still going to take care of the things we’re still going to deal with the criminals that you may deal with down the line if we don’t deal with them that day and I think people are starting to realize that yeah you know like I might not like law enforcement but we do need them because I don’t like getting my catalytic converters cut off or my makeup store robbed for the third time this week or or what have you so you know I keep that the pendulum starts swinging the other way and people come to their senses down there yeah we just need a leader to come in just cut them loose all right boys go do do your work y yep it’s go time Bring It Back crash or what yeah I mean I heard that a little bit when I was at LAPD backgrounds they um they’d get like a new class and they’d get some real go-getters and they these guys are making a lot of rest doing a lot of stops tossing a lot of cars and um the captain would basically come down and go no no no no no no you need to take it easy and these guys are like what we just went through this kickass Academy where you basically to turned us into like you know um you know Street Warriors here and they’re like oh you guys got to take it easy and it’s like dude you can’t do that yeah it’s uh it’s like trying to tame like a you know a German Shepherd some sort of working dog like no dude that dog wants to play that dog wants to go out and work you gotta let it do it right absolutely all right Mikey um let’s see here can you tell us about your first um hot call you responded to so I uh I actually remember this one vividly I was thinking about it though but uh I think I think this one’s a good one just because it’s not um not anything violent in that aspect but uh I was riding with my field training officer and it was before I had gone to the academy and uh so the way they do things up here is you have after you’ve been hired you have I think it’s a year to go get post certified um but up to then you can work on the street which is kind of wild to me our department doesn’t they won’t let you do anything that could possibly and um possibly get you into you know court cases anything like that just very basic observation stuff but um I’m riding with my fto who uh also happens to be one of my best friends that’s how I ended up up here and uh we both worked on the ambulance together back in the day and we get a call this was uh early March we get a call for a child through the ice and um I’ve heard a lot of 911 calls you know know over my years working on the ambulance and uh that was one that I never dealt with in California yeah that must have been strange being a Cali guy you know yeah and we were uh we were kind of across town with it and um you know we light up and we start going and uh you know calls with kids I don’t have to tell you Steve they’re never they’re never fun it’s it’s something that yeah you’re you’re never happy to hear that and uh we go flying over there we get there and luckily there was a good Samaritan that was walking with his wife and his his little girl going by ended up going into the water and pulling the kid out and um you know he ended up being okay and uh it just one of those things that um it had been a while since IID worked you know on the ambulance or just in a 911 capacity and uh it just I had to take a second behind the car and so did so did my buddy just kind of catch our breath because we were silent the whole drive over there you know and I’m like thinking about okay man I started UND doing Keepers like I’m going for a swim you know like let’s try and get this kid out and luckily it uh you know we have we have these frog ponds in town that’s what they call them and they’re not super deep but there’s there’s mud on the bottom and it’s you know obviously when kids go into the water too that that instant reflex of the cold water they take that deep breath and inhale that and we’re just very lucky that that didn’t happen and everything ended up being okay and um I I want to say that my chief put in a letter to the Attorney General’s office for that gentleman that jumped in the water to get him uh some sort of I I want to say it was a medal of valor citizens medal of valor something like that I have to do some research and I’ll I’ll get you the answer for it but um he end up dude that that is scary and how was it for you coming from mer Services taking a break and then having that like going through that adrenaline dump again where you’re like oh yeah this this is what it’s like I you’re you know your major muscle groups are jumping you’re like woo I definitely yeah I definitely missed it you know we uh just just going lights and Sirens I don’t have to tell you you know there’s something special about that it’s it’s the whole reason we get into this job right so we can throw the lever to setting three and get the red and Blues going or blues for you guys and um it was uh it was cool to have that but at the same time you know you’re you’re concerned because you’re like here we have a child that’s that’s in the water we don’t know stat not getting I get goosebumps when I think about that just because uh you know you don’t you don’t want kids to get hurt that’s you don’t want anybody to get hurt but it’s with children it’s always something that that strikes a little bit close to home you know yeah and your mind always goes to the worst place you’re imagining that blue kid you know what I mean you’re like immediately the kid’s dad it’s going to be horrible it’s going to be trauma for me it’s going to you know it’s going to be I’m going to have to talk to the parents and then you get there and like usually maybe it’s a defense mechanism of your brain because then like usually I’d say 90% of the time in police work it’s not as bad as your mind made it ex yeah yeah you know what I mean so for you guys um I’m in the Northeast obviously and there’s all kinds of things they can um gear they can give you so the old agency I was at um for ice stuff they um I’ll preface this by saying we didn’t get any training on this but we did have um like ice discs you know with rope okay it was like a big orange disc and it was had um had a like a a a small orange rope that I think you were yeah you’re supposed to tie a rope to that and then you could throw it and skip it across the ice and it would get to the person hopefully they could grab it but I remember looking at it CU we would have those close calls in the winter and being like I don’t know how to use this it’s not going to work I’m going to hit the guy in the forehead and he’s going to you know whatever because they were heavy you know you guys have stuff like that for cold weather rescues um we actually don’t um I’m sure the fire department might um I luckily like I said he was already out of the water by the time we had all responded and arrived on scene I should say so uh didn’t get to see any of the rescue equipment I was also like I said still kind of coming down from that adrenaline dump because it had been a while and I was just like man that was uh that was something else and just you know reminds you why you why you get into this business I mean not not that that’s the sole purpose that we get into it but um you know we all enjoy that adrenaline man that’s that’s that drug keeps us going yeah part part of the reason it kills us young you know it’s like they’re you’re running that nitrous and then you get somewhere and you’re like woo nowhere for this to go you almost let me do a couple laps around my car you know what I mean it’s like you’re you’re supposed to just drop back down to like you know normal level but it they say it takes hours to truly come back down yeah and then God forbid you have that crash at the end where you’re just like I need to go take a nap oh I got four more hours left on my shift I can’t do that right now yep absolutely yeah it’s interesting too and I noticed when if you do have a shift with a few of those um you do kind of get you like it they they get smaller or even don’t happen like you have one and then you go to like another horrible thing and you’re like it’s almost like you’re there already and it just kind of like so I can see how City guys like when they just have to like over and over they’re jumping to those they probably aren’t realizing that they’re just running on it and that’s that’s why the burnout rate so high and that’s why the you know why states have the heart bill in case you know you have a heart issue you can go out and get paid yeah because I mean I I just remember you know for one at least back when I was on the ambulance in California you know we we would average probably I don’t know between 18 and 20 calls at least out of my station 18 and 20 calls in a 24-hour period and you know very few of those calls got your adrenaline pumping to be totally honest I mean it was mainly like the old lady oh I fell and you know bought my whatever but then you get like the trauma or the cardiac arrest and couple times where you have a few of those calls in a row and you’re just like you know you got a Red Bull or two on board you’re humming at this point so bad yeah you’re just you know you’re like oh dude I’m sitting there like 220 right now this is awesome you look at your partner and he’s just yeah you know finally that that day off you’re like oh man cool it’s the first day of my four days off and you go and crash and I’ve I’ve had that up here where I get home from you know a week of four days or 5 days six days whatever and uh i’ I’ve always had difficulty sleeping but there are times where I get home and I’m like you know take the vest off take the boots off and I’m like I am going to bed and I rack out and luckily my dog comes and jumps up in bed and he he gets it and he’s like oh yeah we can sleep and then he’ll poop on the carpet downstairs but you know yeah sweet a little extra for you um yeah actually I was just at um church yesterday and we have a at our church we all the men there take rotations doing door Warden which means you just kind of stand outside the church near the door cuz downstairs is where the kids are so we kind of just have someone unfortunately nowadays you have to do that so it was my turn y so I’m standing there and one of our uh she’s like 19 she just became in the Mt she’s on a wagon she comes in late and she’s drinking an energy drink and she’s still got her her stuff on I’m like how you doing she’s like uh I’ve been awake for 24 hours straight I’m like there you go y y yep many of those days I actually got pulled over by a chippy once uh California Highway Patrol I’d worked in 96 and uh it was up in Little Rock if you remember where Little Rock’s at up uh like east of Palmdale halfway between Palmdale and Victorville and we had just gotten off a car crash together and I was finally going home and I jump on the 14 freeway to go south and apparently um I didn’t remember this cuz I had fallen asleep but I darted across all the lanes of traffic and almost bounced off this Center median oh and so I’m in my truck and all of a sudden I hear chp’s you know distinct siren that they have and I look back see the red and blues and I’m like what the hell and I pull over I’m like hey you know was I speeding sir and he’s like dude you just went across all the lanes you almost crashed and then he’s like wait I just ran that call with you I’m like yeah he’s like are you okay and I’m like honestly I just got off a four- day shift like I don’t know where I’m at and you know he’s like you’re almost to AC and I’m like all right cool my mom lives here I’ll go you know stay with her for a little bit and luckily it didn’t crash but uh just yeah those days of being smoked man and and I spent a lot of my 20s doing that just working those days over and over and I tell kids now that are getting into it I’m like hey man I know you want to make money I know you want to be there for the department or the company or whatever but your health is not worth it you know yeah you’ve got to take care of yourself when you’re young because it translates as you get older believe it or not they’re like oh yeah what do you know dude and I’m like been there you know what’s uh is it all state we’ve know a thing or two because we seen a thing or two yeah yeah dude that and it it it keeps you from doing things to take care of yourself too when you work that much like it you just don’t want to work out you don’t want to eat right you don’t you know because you’re like I need some now I need a reward my reward is definitely not like a you know 45 minute intensive workout it’s you know beer or whatever yeah like I got myself you know garlic I love garlic bread so I’d like get myself a loaf of garlic bread and just pick out watching you know TV show or something yeah it’s good good feel old ticker um Mikey can you describe a strange or bizarre thing you dealt with oh man strange or bizarre well anything that has to do with meth I don’t know uh I don’t know how often you guys deal with meth up in your neck of the woods but there’s a direct correlation between sex toys and methamphetamine use uh usually the more sex toys you find the more you know I don’t want to say there’s going to be more meth but uh you know the higher probability that there there will be some sort of uh methampetamine it correlates yeah um oh my gosh I uh I might need to think about this one for a little bit but uh we’ve got we’ve got a lot of strange with uh with that going on here but um might actually have to Circle back to this one do you yeah absolutely so in where you live the area you live in Montana um is there a lot of that like uh kind of White Street rat methhead like one making one pots and stuff like that yeah well so we get we get some of that and then um you know we get a lot of Fentanyl and meth from all the larger cities that we have around us just because uh we’re kind of I mean we are essentially located to like Great Falls Billings um Boseman you know they’re all within a two and a half threeh hour drive of where I’m at so you get those guys bringing up meth fenel is huge I mean we get uh and I don’t know if you guys have dealt with it but the little pressed blue you know m30 s those are a fan favorite right now so that’s something that we’re dealing with and just you know because we have Indian reservations up here too um the cartels will operate on those and you know they’ll they’ll push drugs out from there and so we have to deal with that and it’s uh you know it sucks because I’m in a town of 6,000 people they call it a city and I’m like I had more people in my neighborhood growing up in California but uh yeah it I don’t want to see this place become where I can from you know where they’re trying to build a homeless shelter here in town and you know it’s I don’t want to see that happen because when they did that in my hometown that’s when we started seeing crime rise you know not just property crimes but violent crimes you know vehicle bgs that sort of thing and we still have people here that don’t lock their doors because they’re so used to that way of life where I’ve never locked my doors I’ve never locked my car I’ve never done this never done that just like hey it’s not the same world and I hate to have to tell people that but it’s not the same world a town a town of or a city of 6,000 people is going to build a homeless shelter yeah they’re they’re addressing a problem or a solution to a problem that we really don’t have we have like two transients here in town and one of them um he’s probably my favorite transient ever just the funniest guy you know um apparently he’s independently wealthy he just enjoys living that way and uh he he likes his cheap you know plastic bottle Brandy and he’ll roll around and you know he’ll mess with you from time to time but you know usually just like disorderly never maybe a little criminal mischief but he’s never a violent person you know he’s just the silly town drunk but they did a study and some people stated that you know they were unhoused is the correct terminology I guess nowadays and um they’re people that trying to do good and I I respect where they’re coming from but they are effectively they’re going to create a problem with this because I’m sure you guys if you’ve dealt with transients their ability to get across the country and to travel is uncanny how some of these you know like hey man where are you from I’m from uh cimi Florida how did you get to Central Montana or how did you get to you know wherever and there is a a correlation of violence that comes with homeless shelters and those guys have to want to abide by the rules of that Homeless Shelter you know how many times have they done this before in LA they build a homeless shelter and they’re like oh it’s going to be great they’ve got bathrooms and showers but they’ve got to be clean why are they living on the streets you know maybe it’s a mental health issue maybe it’s a substance abuse issue but if they don’t want to abide by those rules and I mean I’m sure you’ve dealt with this too where other agencies will bust you know problem children to your neck of the woods or or something like that and I don’t want surrounding cities or towns to be like oh well hey they’ve got a homeless shelter let’s start sending homeless people that way because then you bring that mental health aspect into it and the drug use and the violence and we have a very high elderly population too and I don’t want to see them get victimized I don’t want to see children get victimized it’s yeah and it comes from a place of good I don’t want to speak badly on the people that are trying to put it together but um you know they’re they’re looking at it through the rose-colored glasses and not not the actual the reading glasses or seeing glasses if you will because there’s nothing good that comes from it unfortunately yeah you’re just going to they’ll just attract people from outside of town to come there if there’s like a 30 bed um facility that that sucks that like when I was on G Cape Cod we had this a railroad us to go all the way down Cape Cod to the tip all the way up to Boston and they they made most of it into like a bike path where you can ride you know with your family and stuff which is cool but then they they kind of rehab the commuter train from hus to Boston and The Story Goes this is I think they started doing it 10 or 15 years ago but like you know all of a sudden the train would come into hyas and the doors would open and somehow homeless people would come out and now they’re now they’re living on Cape Cod it’s like yeah because the cops in Boston are like why don’t you take a train ride put them on the train and they’re like yeah it’s so nice over there everybody will they’ll they’ll give you money they’ll give you food why don’t you go that way here’s here’s a couple bucks y yeah the way they talk they’re going to invite you right into their home and be part of the family you mention I hear that correctly hyenas yeah yeah so my dad actually I I can probably talk to you in the Green Room about it afterwards but uh my dad did a movie there a couple years ago and uh he spent I can’t remember I want to say he spent like three months on Cape Cod and uh he actually thoroughly enjoyed it oh really that’s what movie was it you remember uh I think it was a Hallmark movie and uh I’m not a big Hallmark guy so I couldn’t tell you off the top of my head yeah no I don’t think there is any big Hallmark guys yeah yeah that’s that’s very very valid that’s awesome so you said you drove um did you you drove um ambulances in like uh movies and stuff was that like a hookup through your dad or something no actually it was uh so the gentleman that owned all these all these apparatus apparati if that’s the plural form um he lived out in my neck of the woods and a couple of my buddies that I worked with on the ambulance had gotten hooked up with him and um one of the days they reached out and they were like man you want to come drive and I was like yeah absolutely and so ended up uh ended up working on quite a few shows and movies my favorite one that I worked on was probably uh Bosch if uh if you ever watched Bosch on Amazon I thoroughly enjoy that show I think they did a really good job of representing the LAPD and and sticking to that realism I I’m a kind of a Stigler for for realism in law enforcement TV shows just because uh I don’t have to tell you how often we deal with people where they’re like why don’t you just go kick in their door and steal and it’s like no like we need to get a search War it doesn’t work that way and you know the the that television and film gives the general public about you know law enforcement EMS fire like I just that’s something that uh I thought that Bosch did a very good job of portraying it you know accurately so yeah I used to I used to walk work with a couple people that worked with that guy and the people they were portraying in the show and they they were fans of it because of the exact same reason they said it was yeah it was watchable for them yeah so that was cool and then uh then we did um Lethal Weapon which the Remake the TV show and I’m a Big Sean Williams Scott fan I’m a hockey guy so goon is one of my favorite movies and uh the whole day I just wanted to meet him like I really don’t care about meeting actors or anything like that but I was like ah dude I just I just want to give him the opportunity you know just tell him how much I love it he ended up being like one of the nicest people I’ve ever met we stood and talked for 15 minutes and just salt of the earth the exact opposite of how you picture him is Stiffler he was just yeah he was just the nicest guy and uh so that that was pretty cool but um yeah did that for a while in uh in conjunction with the ambulance gig and uh it was it was fun but you know it’s the movie studios and it’s uh it’s a different world working there to be totally yeah yeah it’s really weird I I touched in some Hollywood stuff when I was out there and it it is um it is bizarre and there’s a lot of uh uh like I don’t know weird desperation you know in in the Hollywood world of people who are On The Fringe of like getting in there or having being part of it permanently and it’s really uh it’s really kind of kind of weird kind of gross in some some areas I I used said I worked for Harry Winston and delivered um valuable diamonds to like you know SEL M hyek and Ashley Jud and um uh Davis Olivia Davis or she black actress won an Academy Award and just Biz just they just live in a a different by Davis um they just like operate in a different I to me like I’m courtesy and plight to everybody like that’s how I’m operate and to like work I worked for this high-end Boutique where nobody there everybody there was like super materialistic and some of them were nice but like mostly just kind of dicks and then like the celebrity themselves were like you know you’re giving them $15 million with the diamonds they’ll walk out the door and not sign for them thank you and then like I remember the the boutique manager chasing one of these um movie stars and she wouldn’t sign and he’s like okay guys I’m gonna have to take these diamonds I’m like you know she’s getting into the limo I’m not going to grab her like that’s not in my I’m not in my job description so her assistant ended up signing for him and it was like it was just like you just can’t stop for a second and sign the paper like we gave you these things you know what I mean yeah the uh I I def defitely don’t miss the vapidness I don’t know if that’s the the correct way to use that term but just I don’t know man I I I know people tend to make fun of the Midwest and some of the smaller areas but it’s it’s just such a much better quality of life out here you know it’s simple people are real they’ll they’re honest you know there’s there’s none of the facade of oh I want to look like this like people people are that’s one of the nice things about being a cop up here too is is I get tired of waving at people and I I say that the best way possible I mean everybody waves to the police up here for the most part with all their fingers which is cool because I don’t think too many people can say that you know some of the other places where uh carps AR aren’t regarded as highly but uh yeah yeah same where I work dude I mean I I work in two uh it’s a little Department that covers two towns in western Mass and it’s liberal area but same thing I’ve been totally shocked the three years I’ve worked there at it’s all like I’ll do like a road roadwork detail or direct traffic in every single car is like hey hey and then like they’re just going to the post office and coming back they wave on the way back it’s like oh my gosh it’s like it’s nice but it’s kind of bizarre I feel bad if I’m looking for something and like I don’t wave at somebody you know I’m like wow man where’s that play I’m trying to find it somebody’s like hey I’m like yeah I know hi like sorry yeah small towns is like like driving a boat you know when you’re on the water everybody waves it’s the same thing yeah exactly exactly all right Mike um can you tell us about your most intense or terrifying call you’ve dealt with oh man so uh this one will be at least I’ve got a couple but this one probably Takes the Cake so this was uh I think my second week of fto um I’m with the same field training officer that I was telling you about earlier for the uh the child through the ice and uh like I said it’s my best friend you know we had a very professional relationship on duty you know there was that that whole like hey when we’re working it’s We’re Not Buddy Buddy like I’m the fto you’re the boot this is how [ _ ] goes I’m like like yes sir absolutely so um we were looking to uh roll up somebody on a warrant I can’t remember exactly what the warrant was for but um she was a female very very very large female um history of psychosis severe meth abuse um just so she had actually charged my buddy with a knife once and he talked her down didn’t have to tase her or shoot her which was super cool so um we had ourselves like a little pre shift brief like hey if we see her this is how we’ll we’ll go about it you know that sort of thing and um he you guys went looking for this warrant it sounds like one I would just put in the back drawer yeah no it was a slow night and uh it was it was probably uh I think it was August and it was nice out I’m like oh man we were actually going through a spell where it was like 105 during the day and so we kind of I know people were like oh my gosh in Montana I’m like yeah dude it gets gets hot up here and at 4,400 feet like that’s that’s brutal but anyways we’re we’re driving around and um so it’s it’s my fto and I and then our other partner in another car and he’s like hey I got her here and so we come up and we hit our lights we go to jump out and we’re like hey stop you got a warrant and she immediately turns around and she looks like a a caged animal and she’s just like yeah you know screaming and she’s like I’ll [ _ ] kill you backpack and I’m like holy [ _ ] and I go for my gun and uh I like kind of go to punch out and pulls out this 16-inch lag pole that’s got two hex nuts on the end of it so it’s it’s probably about yay long and she’s swinging this thing and she takes off running through this property and we’re like foot pursuit I’m like holy [ _ ] dude this is awesome like this is so freaking Co you know I’m with my best friend doing this and um our other partner comes screeching in he jumps out pulls his taser he’s giving her commands she ends up running to the back corner of this property and um we come around the corner and I remember just like coming around the corner with my gun and being like this is this is nuts dude like this is obviously what I signed up for but I I just was like so stoked and I remember that adrenaline rush and you know we end up so my buddy’s gonna go Hands-On if we have the opportunity to do that um obviously we’re not approaching her because she is armed with a weapon um but he’s positioning himself she ends up taking cover behind this snowplow truck that’s uh at the back of this property she had kind of run to this back fence and she realizes she’s at the end we’re keeping distance we’re trying to give her commands like hey you know calm down like just put your hands behind your back let’s let’s talk about this and she is like oh you’re the [ _ ] devil I’ll [ _ ] kill you you know screaming the same typical crazy stuff and so my buddy gets into position in front of the vehicle and he’s going to try and Tackle her as she starts coming back and so as she starts coming he trips and goes down and I watch her Spin and turn and she goes to swing on his head and I remember like this played out this is what’s what’s so crazy about you know the way the human body works and those high stress scenarios I’m taking up slack on my trigger and I don’t have to tell you because you’re a Glock guy every Glock trigger is kind of the same you know the stock block has like that same you know take up and break and I’m taking up slack because I’m watching her swing on my buddy and about three quarters of the swing through she changes her mind and she goes towards our other partner who ends up tasing her and she go but uh I thought I was going to see my best friend get smoked um and I thought I was going to have to kill some buddy I’m thankful that that did not go down that way I didn’t want to have to explain to his wife you know why why I got her husband killed or anything like that um and and she ended up getting tazed went down and it was so funny because she made this noise where it was just and she goes down and up uh peeing and pooping her pants and uh jeez yeah but it it was uh it was pretty wild just you know the taking up slack and the trigger and then I I watched it back on my body cam later as we were doing our reports um and it’s it’s wild to me how fast everything played out you know like in my head it felt like this whole instance was like a minute and a half long but my body cam it’s like that you know it’s maybe freaking a second and a half two seconds and I was just like holy crap but you can still remember all of those intense just you know little pieces of it things that you know you saw and it’s yeah that one was uh that one was pretty wild now we can laugh about it just because it was funny how she went down but um it definitely could have gone could gone sideways and we were very lucky that it didn’t you know yeah absolutely man um question for you how do you guys deal with the someone who’s got poo poo and pee pee in their pants what did you do with that um well we called medical for her because yeah I hate doing that being a former stretcher fetcher i’ like I’ve apologized to all of our EMTs I’m like hey dude sometimes like this is what we got to do like I hate to do that to you but I know just know that I’m I’m there in spirit with you and and uh our our ambulance Crews up here they’re they’re pretty awesome same thing with our fire department they’re you know we share a building with the fire department those guys are you know they come over to our side we go over to theirs and we hang out they’re they’re all Stellar Stellar dudes and uh and ladies the one of the lieutenants is a female and she’s she’s a gangster man like they’re all just awesome cat nice so um so they transport her and then do you guys have to station someone with her or do you get the can you get like a bail commissioner or the to go there and and so they actually came and evaluated her uh they didn’t transport her and we ended up transporting her up to jail and uh they they have an isolation room and that sort of thing where they uh where they put her so they took did they so the jail took care of the poooo pee pee well we uh I can’t remember exactly what we did just because I’m obsess with knowing it Mike no my favorite thing to do honestly was like we would call the amulance Cruis I’d be like hey can I steal some blankets and just kind of burrito somebody up that way they can sit on it and you know you keep it enclosed because wash should poop out of the back of your car is never never fun there was a there was a stop that I had made and the the gentleman ended up having a small dog and my my buddy the Montana highway patrol Trooper up here he was like oh yeah dude I’ll take the dog because we were taking the guy to jail and the dog had diarrhea all over the back of his charger like oh dude and he was doing me a courtesy help you know backing me on this stopped cuz my partner had to bounce to go handle something else and uh I was just like dude I’m I’m so sorry about that I feel terrible and you know he was like it is what it is you know yeah get the hose out well hopefully he didn’t um hopefully he didn’t have like fabric seats or anything you have like the I’ve never seen the back of uh of his charger and uh he just got a new Patrol vehicle he’s in an Explorer now so hopefully all there you go I’ll do a new one damn that’s funny um yeah Mikey can you talk about a um positive encounter you’ve had heartwarming absolutely so um when I first got up here there was a male juvenile that we’ve dealt with he’s a 16 17 year old and you know it’s one of those kids where he was like oh he’s he’s a knucklehead he’s gonna grow up to be a knucklehead that sort of thing and um so I ended up dealing with him on I wasn’t dealing with him I was there for one of his family members and he was you know standing on his front porch and he’s like man you guys like you’re always giving me [ _ ] and I’m like my first time dealing with you dude like I don’t know you you know do you know me and he’s like no and I’m like check it out I don’t think you’re a bad kid dude I think you’re a teenager who’s a knucklehead and I was a teenager who’s a knucklehead I get that all right you know like just keep your nose clean and you won’t have any contact with us dude and um sure enough for about a year we didn’t have any dealings with him and um I I kind of started coming into contact with him he worked at uh one of the sandwich shops up here and you know I talk with him and um his mom actually wrote me a Christmas card and brought it down to the PD and it said um you know just basically thanking me for for keeping her son out of trouble and affecting a positive change in his life and um you know I told him the other day I was like tell your mom that that that card’s going to be on my refrigerator for the rest of my life like that’s that’s one of my proudest moments for sure you know where he just he he was constantly getting in trouble and and we really don’t I mean he’s still kind of a knucklehead you know I can always tell when he drives by because he’ll rev his truck up and whatnot but he’s uh yeah he’s turned pretty good kid and you know it just it made me happy and and very proud that his mom felt the urge to to reach out like that because that’s that’s not something that we get very often yeah that’s great man so he’s got no dad or dad doesn’t love at home yeah I don’t I think uh I think his dad might be might be incarcerated I’m not entirely sure but um just he’s you know he’s a good kid he just has never and not that I’m his his male role model or anything like that but just showing him like Hey bro not all cops are jerks like just keep your nose clean you can be a knucklehead just be a knucklehead in the right places right like right yeah man how how sad is that it like just some random dude you come into his life and give him some you know a little bit of hard advice and like that’s that’s all it took you know it’s like it’s it just that’s what he needed he needed a male role model like even just for a second you know what I mean they say like women have such a hard time raising males alone because they don’t they’re not men you know it’s the young men need that in their life so the fact that you could do that and because how many times have since then have you tried to have that conversation with somebody then you keep seeing them and you’re like well this kid’s not listening well know luckily I mean I I I’ve been on nights for like the last four months so I’m not not seeing people yeah you know but um I mean the kids here for the most part are are are pretty good we don’t really have too many too many of those knuckleheads I mean there’s there’s a few where you know you you can try all you want but they’re kind of set in their ways um but but the other big thing is that I try to I try to remember myself is like and I’m sure you dealt with it too when you were a kid is you know those cops even when you were polite and respectful and and friendly and compliant those guys that were just dicks to be dicks and I hated that like that was something that that always drove me nuts if I was like the first time I ever got pulled over the the deputy was one of the rudest people I’ve ever dealt with in my life I was driving my dad my dad had a Prius so you can kind of see how my family leans just you know sidebar but it didn’t have automatic headlights and my truck that I was driving at the time did I was coming back from uh I worked at a sandwich shop going home pulls me over and he walks up and he just starts Bering me does and I have no idea what I’ve even been stopped for and I was like sir I’m I’m so sorry and I’m still in the uniform from the sandwich place and you know just so rude and then ended up riding me a ticket and you know I was I think I was 18 maybe 19 years old and uh I just I never understood and you know I I I’m familiar with law enforcement so I knew that hey man maybe he’s having a tough day maybe he just came from something horrible but your average citizen isn’t going to think that way and even if we do have a shitty day we still have to remember that this we work for these people right right they’re ones that that effectively you know they they sign our paycheck um so treat them with respect treat them with dignity even if they’re being [ _ ] man kill them with kindness I am a firm believer and kill him with kindness and then you know if it comes time to flip that switch and to go into [ _ ] mode then do that but for the most part you know just be nice to everybody and I know that sounds stupid small town copy but you know I’ve seen some great cops in in LA county do that man where they you know talk dudes out of gnarly situations because they took that time to you know hey talk to me bro what’s going on here like that just telling somebody talk to me that can be something that’s so huge in you know hey what’s going on in their life that sort of thing absolutely yeah I mean there there’s definitely a line like you definitely have to be able to be kind and give people the benefit the doubt but they also need to know that you’re you know you’re not you’re not weak you’re not a pushover like if it goes the wrong way we’re going to take care of business but it helps you you know like um you know I I one of best stories I ever heard about me which I appreciated was um you know some I wrote somebody a speeding ticket and I’ve been on the job for years and he went to um contested the magistrates hearing and um he told this story about me that was totally out of character and it didn’t happen but they knew me at the court from working for years and they were like um yeah uh officer ghoul doesn’t doesn’t write a lot of tick money tickets at all and we’ve never we know him personally basically and don’t really think he told you to go f yourself or any of that stuff so you’re responsible it was great and it got back to me from some somebody who was in the court and heard it go down and they’re like yeah dude evidently you have a good name with the the judge because they weren’t buying this guy’s story because of your past the way you’ve operated in the past and things they’ve heard about you how you deal with people so it can gives you credibility you know absolutely absolutely and just you know the other thing that I tell people is you know think about what you were like before you were law enforcement and you were dealing with law enforcement and somebody was a jerk to you right you know remember everybody’s a people every everybody’s a people everybody’s true yeah broken out over here I’m like trying to stay up because I’m like oh man I got to go back to nights this week I was just on days I’m like my schedule’s so ass backwards that I’m I’m kind of spinning circles forgive the beard too we’ I’ve never grown a beard in my life and that’s part of our groomy standards as I can grow one so I’m like oh dude I’m gonna I’m gonna grow a beard out gotta try it dude yeah it’s coming in man it’s not bad yeah yeah the mustache so this is the only hair on my body that comes in blonde I have no idea why but my mustache comes in blonde so I’m like trying to buy like I’m old enough now and there’s enough gray hair up here where I can buy like Just For Men Touch a gray and people aren’t going to be like oh he’s gonna go die his beard yeah you’re gonna have like the Neapolitan you’re gonna have some gray some blonde some brown those are good I like the we have a um neighboring chief that grows his beard out um in the winter and he has like huge he’s a Greek guy huge thick black beard with the with the white stripe down like the side he looks he just looks like a sea captain like he should have like a corn cob pipe you know great beard though some ancient warrior something like that yeah yeah it’s great um so Mikey um popular question advice to new officers people getting into it you have an you have an interesting perspective having um kind of work both sides you did emergency medicine and now you kind of trans transition to police but what would you tell people looking to get into it or people that are on the fence about doing the job um well the biggest thing is do it I mean you know especially right now uh I wouldn’t lie and say I mean law enforcement’s probably the most hated job in the United States right now um and and it’s for totally unfair reasons you know everybody always says oh you shouldn’t judge the ACT you know you shouldn’t judge many on the actions of one or or something along those lines and um you know it it should that same courtesy should be extended to law enforcement but um if you do decide to pursue this career the biggest thing like I was just saying man just remember we’re all humans you know we’re all people like guys are going to be [ _ ] that’s inevitable they’re going to be people that want to fight you that’s inevitable I’ve had a victim trying to fight my partner and I and we were like dude what what why you know but that’s how it is um the biggest thing is is remember how to talk to people you know if if there’s no reason to be an [ _ ] to them don’t be you know don’t don’t I’m I’m a firm believer and not being a dick just to be a dick you know and if if you are that kind of person this job isn’t For You especially in this day and age man because it will get out you know there will be a video of you I mean you’re you’re always on camera conduct yourself to the best possible way that you can right be a good representation of your department be a good representation of of this profession you know people call us they expect us to be there come help them out save the day whatever it is you know make sure you look sharp at so one of my favorite TV shows was Southland I don’t know if you ever saw that but uh I haven’t seen it now so it’s actually another great LAPD cop show that uh that ran from like 2009 to I think like 2013 but the very first episode the training Officer says look sharp act sharp B sharp and I know that sounds super corny but that’s something that I’ve like kind of stuck with my entire both AMR and you know law enforcement career because it’s true you know like you think about somebody that rolls up and they you’re you know look like a slob you’re like ah dude what the heck this guy but you you look sharp and I understand we can’t always look sharp it’s you know we’re in that weird season where it’s snowing and then it rains and then it’s warm so it’s constantly muddy my uniform is getting splattered on it all the time but you know I still conduct myself professionally I still speak to people professionally you know um I would say get comfortable get comfortable talking with with everybody you know um working on the ambulance was a great way to get comfort talking to to folks from all different you know backgrounds of life you know one call you could be talking to the very sweet old lady in the nursing home who’s like oh well I keep tripping over this here rug and you know like hey Ethel maybe we should move that rug so you don’t trip over you know and then the next one you’re talking to some OG [ _ ] who’s you know East Side Lancaster and he’s like man you’re like yeah dude hey it’s all good and so you need to be able to I don’t want to say that they’re different personas but you know you almost have to tailor your conversation to speak to each of those people right you’re not going to talk to the gangster the same way that you’re going to talk to the old lady right and like you can try it see how that goes I don’t think it’s going to go very well I mean I I’ve had the hardest punch I’ve taken was from a 99y old woman but that’s uh you know um but just uh never never lose sight of why you got into this job too right you know we all say that we want to help people and um some people may be lying about that I I truly do want to help people you know I to keep this community safe I want to keep you know these streets free of drugs I don’t want these kids to fall into the same stuff that I saw some of my friends fall into where I was responding to overdoses on kids that I knew you know that’s um just just remember who you work for and remember who you’re representing and just always do your best to be an accurate just to be a good representation of that department and people are going to recognize you on your days off too especially if you work in a small area I mean there have been times where I’ve had people come up to me on my days off and they’re like hey officer man you know I I look we’re humans too you know we deserve hey we want to go drink a couple beers get a ride home though because people are gonna be like that dude’s driving home and he’s drunk or that dude’s driving drinking three beers just you know do your best I’m not saying you got to be a moral pillar but you know do your best to be a good representation of your department you know um the other the other thing that I would say is if you want to work somewhere else if you’re thinking about moving somewhere else go check out some of the PDS there do as many ride alongs as you can that’s something that um I I wish I would have done some more ride alongs I mean I did a lot but I wish I would have done more just because they they’re fun and we don’t have crown Vick up here so luckily when I rote out with my buddies at LD they all had Crown Vick and I got to experience a little bit of police work in those things yeah they’re going away I know it breaks my and up here they were never that that prevalent they were big imp Paula guys up here oh yeah re whe drive and the snow is not not the best I know but the apologist doesn’t have the Crown Vic was the the quintessential you know at least I know coppers that was uh you know do you guys run the uh do you run the Explorers at all yeah we do I I actually uh I love my Explorer so we have I think those are great we have two explorers and we have two F-150s and we had a couple Tauruses and I drove the tourus once supension clapped out and I hit a dip and I thought that uh I crushed my itic nerve again and I was like I’m never driving this car dude it’s tiny when you get in that car they supposed to design it for cops but you feel and then if you really look around dude this was what wigged me out when you really look around at the windows they’re very like I’m like dude if I got in a wreck I’d never get out of this car the window I can’t even fit out the window it’s horrible visibility that was one thing that way I I sat down in it and I was looking around and I’m like just the the way the a pillars and the B pillars are set up it it’s not a very uh I I I didn’t like the fact that I couldn’t see what was going on behind me um no they did it was a bad job bad job Ford you did a bad job the Explorer is a it’s a phenomenal car and I I never thought that I would actually feel that way just because I have been such a Vic fan my entire life but it’s all drive you know it’s quick when you need it to be I have driven through some gnarly snow in that car and uh I I love it I mean I actually uh it’s my favorite car but he’s like oh man why don’t you you drive a truck like why don’t you drive one of the patrol trucks I’m like because I don’t want to drive a patrol truck like I like how the Explorer handles you know I mean that thing it’ll turn on a dime it’s a it’s a great car but um back to the question in hand here you know if if you are thinking about leaving the state or the city that you’re currently residing in go do ride alongs with the department or agency whatever you got wherever you’re going to go and see if a that’s a place that you want to work and B that’s a place that you want to live do exploration um you know do some traveling if if let’s say oh dude I love Nashville Tennessee I love Nashville I think my girlfriend and I want to move to Nashville then go to Nashville do a a ride along with Nashville Metro I think it is or whatever age you know just get get that experience and um do some research into your agencies you know see what their policies are talk to officers and and tell them hey man what’s a no [ _ ] assessment of this place how do you like working here you know because for my department um I I know it’s a small Department we’re not super busy we’re not La we’re not Chicago or New York um but I had a I had a friend of mine get murdered last year Deputy Ryan clink and broomer and um I was actually working the night that it went down and I had a couple buddies reach out to me um when we found out that it was clink and uh I obviously broke down like it it was it was very tough yeah and I was working with my assistant chief and I walked into his office office you know I kind of had some tears in my eyes and I told him what was up and um that man extended some of the the greatest compassion I’ve ever seen we were super short staffed at the time too we were down to I want to say eight or nine officers and um I asked if I could go back to California for his funeral and my chief assistant chief Captain the entire department without even nobody bitched or moaned everybody picked up a shift so I could go back for a week be there for that um and my chief also approved the use of our Memorial bands through the end of September from the date that he had gotten murdered and um that to me is something that will always always stay with me and I will always be thankful for for my department and um and I I learned how rare that kind of is unfortunately throughout law enforcement you know like there’s there there have been more guys than not that have been like my department would never do anything like that and I I hate like that but um talk to your talk to the guys about the places that you’re looking at and just see see how they like it you know because um not saying you get stuck at agencies but I’ve never been a big person for jumping around going from place to place like I usually like to get somewhere and be like all this is nice like cool let’s you know we’ll stay here we’ll stay here and I know that my town is inevitably going to grow um you know I I hope it’s not anytime soon but it will grow and and our call volume will expand you know the types of calls that we deal with will expand um it’s uh just just do your research you know do your research and be nice you know when you get into fights with people as soon as the handcuffs are on that fight’s over there’s no reason to keep kicking him or hitting or anything like that um that was that was told to me by one of my mentors who’s a LAPD guy and uh fantastic dude but um just just always be professional you know always be the best version of yourself that you can be you know cuz the Public’s always looking at us whether it’s oh last little bit here too whenever kids wave at you dude turn the lights on for them wave to them I I love doing that yeah man that was my favorite thing you know whether it’s firet truck ambulance cop car you know wave at them and they’re just oh you make their day and you never know that could be that little piece where it was like I remember this police officer turned his lights on and ever since that I wanted to be a cop and uh you know that that carries so absolutely always take the time to say hi to kids always take the time to be polite and friendly with kids you know if you got time and check out your patrol car hell yeah dude you know come take take a peek here this is it just um be be a good representation to your community of your agency you know and and just be a good person you know we’ve unfortunately the actions of a few crappy coppers have gotten the entire profession in hot water and you know we should all every single one of us be striving every day to write that opinion in uh to write the public opinion of law enforcement if that makes sense yeah I really like um it’s such a good point you made about the um everybody’s me watching you because I don’t think people especially if you if you work at a smaller place like I do and you do um and you live in the community or you go into the community when you’re not working I don’t think I’m overstating it maybe it’s a little bit it’s not quite an accurate statement but you are like a local celebrity and I because people really pay attention like oh that’s that guy’s cop my you know and then they just watch you because it’s I mean it’s not I don’t think they’re like it’s not um malicious but to them um I say this all the time the even your little PD in your little town is like a clandestine organization to people they really don’t know most people don’t know what what you’re doing what goes on in there what happens during an ARR you know what I mean they they hear rumors they don’t know they see your lights on places at at the bad house on that street and they’re like Wonder know what’s going on they never really find out but yeah when they see you they are really paying attention and you don’t realize that when you’re a young cop but you you figure you figure it out and um you know that’s why that you wear the ball cap low or you uh you know kind of because we’ve all I’ve had multiple times when I’ve ran into and to your point my dad told me the same thing when I got hired cuz he was a for 32 years he said you know what be a gentlem with everybody treat everybody with respect in the booking room and he said until it’s time not to and you’ll know when that time is cuz you you have common sense and you have a good head on your shoulders um because you’re going to see this person again you’re going to see them at Stop and Shop when you’re grocery shopping with your family you know so and that did happen to me and the the the biggest asset we have with that with seeing someone you arrested in public is somehow like 90% of the time if you’re not wearing the uniform They Don’t Know Who You Are they look right at you well and also they’re usually impaired somehow so but you I I I’ve walked right by people like oh hey excuse me yeah you know and they’re like oh geez we that guy really was nasty and he had no idea who he was but there’s been other times when people do give you the hairy eyeball and they are mad at you and you know what it’s going to happen even if you are a gentleman but at least if you are a gentleman you know you didn’t cause that you were still you TR you acted right and they’re at fault so you know that you’re good your conscience isn’t tortured by that you know what I mean yeah yeah and I mean I’ve got to there’s an instance in which we had a guy that you know had violated his conditions he wasn’t supposed to be drinking and he was you know [ _ ] housed and uh we were so my partner and I were so nice to him I mean we rolled up and you know I’m hey man here what’s your name what’s going on all right so this is the report that we got and we just want to make sure you’re okay and he was just a dick you know like kind of kind of doing The Sovereign thing where constitutionally you free men traveling yeah and so I’m just like all right man simmer down and he decides that he doesn’t he he wants to be an ass so we take him down gently but you know he goes down on his face we call Medical out and I’m like Hey listen up these guys are here to evaluate you they have nothing to do with me you will be nice to them okay because they are here to make sure that you are safe that you are not hurt do not be mean to them and so you know they come do their assessment he’s kind of lipping off but it gets to a point where we can kind of start cracking jokes you know and so we started cracking jokes and and I try to do that you know to release some of the tension sure um but uh he ended up being we took him to the hospital once they had cleared him he was still being combative and you know we ended up tossing him into the back of the truck and it’s just like all right dude like we gave you every opportunity and um I think it was one of our County attorneys was watching the body cam of it she was like both you guys had outstanding restraint I mean like the fact that how he was talking to you getting in your face I will say there was one point um I was growing out the mustache before I had grown the beard and he turns around and looks at me and he goes you kind of look like officer dangle like that’s great and I was like thanks man you know I took that as a compliment but um but back to the bizarre question I told you come back and uh so I got it for you so one night um I was on patrol in the west end of town and it was actually New Year’s New Year of last year and I was uh just cruising around and I’m looking at traffic and this car comes ripping in super fast and uh speed limit through town is 25 every town in Montana for the most part 25 miles an hour and I’m looking at this car and I’m like I can tell it’s going way faster so I’m trying to get positions so I can get my rear-facing radar to catch it of course right when you need it it’s not so I’m like all right I’m going to shoot down the side road and I’m going to Pace him so I’m going down this Side Road and I’m trying to pce him and I can’t see the car anymore and I’m like what the hell so I come back to our main intersection and I look look uh eastbound or Westbound from where the car came and then I look Eastbound and the car is already like three streets up and I’m like holy [ _ ] all right so I go taking off after the car at this point they’ve slowed down they’re doing 25 but I’m behind them I can run the plate I run the plate to my dispatcher and she comes back and she you know she asks are you alone she gives our code for uh you know are you alone because this person has a felony and I’m like send it she goes uh yeah that the vehicle’s reported stolen out of Billings it’s attached to a carjacking and I’m like I’m going to be traffic with that vehicle so this is this is my first high-risk stop that I’m doing by myself yeah so my gosh this is awesome so end up stopping the vehicle jump out start making commands and I can hear um you know I’m putting my traffic out over the radio you know hey I’ve got two at gunpoint and I can hear my partners and um we have a very close working relationship with the sheriff’s office too I was actually living with one of the dep at the time still one of my best friends will forever be one of my best friends I could hear him say you know I’m in route I’ll be there in 30 seconds and I I could hear him I he was probably about a half mile away and I could hear his truck just screaming same thing my partner shows up and uh so I’m like giving this woman commands I’m like you know step out of the vehicle and her passenger is like doing this with his hands out the window and I’m like tell your friend to keep his freaking hands out the window where I can you know I’m like passenger put your [ _ ] hands out the window and she’s like he had a stroke and I’m like wait like he actively is stroking what really like what just happened and she’s like oh he’s having a stroke and she ended up being like intoxicated so basically this vehicle she purchased this Cadillac 2013 Cadillac for $68 makes sense yeah so we we uh read her her Miranda and you know we start asking her questions and so she’s like I purchased this car and she shows us this bill of sale and the grand grand total price price of the car was three grand but she had taken possession of it with a down payment of $68 and I’m like that’s not a little strange to you and she’s like no no no and we end up finding you know there’s meth in the car there’s a bunch of other stuff the old man um after we had taken her into custody we had a couple of the deputies and my partner ended up carrying that old man out of the vehicle and we requested medical to come evaluate him because the stroke I couldn’t verify if he had a previous stroke or if he was actively having a stroke at that time right U but uh I I wish I had a picture of it so one of the baggies of meth that we found had this hologram um Samuel Jackson from Pulp Fiction you know that scene where does he look like a [ _ ] and he has that face yeah but have this hologram face of him on this this baggie of meth and I I just thought that was one of the funniest things ever and then um you know you got your sex toys because there’s meth involved and a bag of dildos so I got another side note for bizar so this wasn’t my call but this was one of my uh one of my co-workers um they were searching a vehicle that you know drug use and stuff and like we said sex toys and meth they find this uh this latex torso and it’s got like boobs and you know all the the correct female anatomy but it’s been bunge corded and um it was mounted to Plywood And so this guy would would have it in the back of his vehicle so he could just go to town on it oh and jeez my told me that when they when they went to do the search and he ended up sliding that thing out that it had left a a snail Trail which it’s pretty gross so yeah but oh man yeah sad State of Affairs yeah but that’s that’s just the the perks of this job you know you’ll get to do seriously you you can do so many so many crazy things just workwise I mean you know the nice thing about working for a small agency I will say and this back to advice for young coppers um you know working for a small agency out of the gate we don’t have detectives so when we catch a case we see it through all the way through and that doesn’t matter if it’s a petty theft from Albertson’s or a homicide you know yes we might request assistance from DCI because they have resources that’s uh the divisional um criminal investigation here in Montana um but you learn to be a good investigator you learn to interrogate people you know you learn how to do interviews um my department is very big on trainings they love for us to go to trainings make sure that the department you’d apply or make sure the department that you apply for um feels the same way because we’re we’re always supposed to expand our knowledge base right we’re always supposed to be bettering ourselves um working for an agency that’s not going to pay for you to go to training not not that that necessarily a bad place but um it is definitely very nice to have an agency that’s like oh dude you want to go here here s we’ll sign it off for you go have fun and I’ve gotten to go to some fantastic fantastic trainings I mean I uh my first week on the job up here it was the first week after uh after I had started they were like hey you like to talk to people here’s what we’re going to do we’re going to put you in a hostage and crisis negotiations course and I’m like all right cool and uh the instructor that came up was this guy from Texas super cool um super funny and you know he’s asking everybody hey guys go ahead and say where you’re from how long been a cop and I’m like what up guys I’m Mike I’ve been a cop for seven days he’s like what the [ __ ] seven days I’m like yeah and we ended up talking and you know I gave him some of my background and uh you know you just you get exposed to all these crazy things at small agencies that you know at least my perception based on what I knew about like LAPD and LASD was like you work Patrol and then you promotes a senior and then you know you you might get handpicked to go do a special assignment something like that like here if I like doing drug stuff I can keep going to classes for drug stuff you know I want to be a well copper for my agency but I certainly enoy enjoy the uh the narcotics investigations and whatnot so I might tailor my stuff towards that we have guys that that and God bless them they love sex crimes that is their jam they are all about that and um you know they they particularly go after that sort of thing we got guys that love doing DUI hunting you know so um don’t don’t get dissuaded by by small agencies just based on call volume like yeah you might not have the sexy stuff that large agencies do but at the same time you know look at the surrounding area of the department that you’re going to and realize like well hey the cost of living is very good here it’s a beautiful area and they’re going to have an influx of people in the next 10 years so I can get in here buy a house cheap get used to the community and then you know in a couple years when I’m a season cop I’ll have some cool stuff to go play around in if if that makes sense yeah absolutely yeah you just just with an agency that size you just end up producing um more well-rounded officers I mean they’re going to like that’s that’s that was part of the interest in me at when I applied to the city of Los Angeles was um they get a lot of cops a lot of city cops um that are retired or or or want to work in that unit and um didn’t really have investigative histories like if if they were put call shaggers you know what I mean um not always the case say and then the flip side they get like really overqualified people but they were like you know put the light in your eyes type of like you know yeah aren’t you a little yeah hardcore investigators yeah but I know I was like a well-rounded cop that came from an agency that I could follow do my own cases or detectives would help or you know whatever and they they like that so it it definitely gives you a little piece of everything and like you said like the training thing like yeah maybe your department can’t send you to be a Dr can’t send you for three weeks to go to a maximum security intake prison to observe all these drug things but if they’re if they have a positive attitude towards training so maybe they don’t have the money but they will be like we’ll let you go on shift if you can find one provided by the state or you know we can help you with expenses like I I see what you’re saying like it they don’t necessarily have to like fit the bill but if they’re positive towards training and they’ll make it work for you that’s the kind of place you want to be at you don’t want to be the kind of place that like I worked at a place once where we had a chief for a little bit that was like this is why we don’t send guys away to training cuz they go to training and they come back and then they want to use their training and they want to change how we do things and it’s like well that’s that’s Progressive law enforcement you’re supposed to like learn new tricks and and use them but he was old school he’s like I don’t want that it gives me a headache and he was the chief so guess what you weren’t going to training I hope he said that with like the thickest of mass accents I got to one of the firefighters up here is actually he worked for Boston Ems for a bit and he’s from New Hampshire originally but um he’s he’s he and I constantly will do the mass accent so the first time we met we were actually the the guy that I was talking about that was kind of The Sovereign where he was being a jerk I’m like hey man these guys you know and he’s like hey you know because he the ambulance crew up here knew of my my previous history working on the ambulance so he’s like he’s like hey are you Mikey you know from from uh from LA and I’m like are you Pete from Boston and he’s like hey I’m like where do we go to dunkeys let’s go come on what are you doing and uh that’s great so we constantly give each other a hard time and you know snap into this Mass like I I don’t even know where in Mass it would be but that typical masshole accent yeah and not everybody talks like that from Massachusetts I actually didn’t know that that was a real accent until I saw the town because I knew several people from Massachusetts that I don’t want to say talk normally but didn’t have that Fick accent and then I saw the town and they’re like we’re going and knock over an Amed C I’m like that’s a cool accent dude I like it yeah yeah no it’s a great I mean so in Massachusetts obviously I don’t have it at all but my mom grew up in Lexington which is is outside of Boston sh she has a little bit of drop in the Caba like a little bit of drop in the the eyes like a Kennedy but um then on Cape Cobra I grew up the Outer Cape mostly no accent but then up towards barnable and closer to the bridge I ran across like kids growing up that had the accent so it’s kind of like spread and then wer and Boston and all the all those urban areas are fullon drop you know Pak hyad that whole thing they are full-blown but it’s it’s really it is hit or miss but um yeah I like it it’s Feels Like Home to me because I’m I grew up surrounded by it you know no and I’m not I’m not knocking it I think it’s great I mean I you know in California we we didn’t really have we didn’t have accents I mean the only way you can tell somebody’s from California if they’re just like me where they’re like oh for sure dude you know yeah the dude the laidback accent because I’ve had people up here where I’ve you know stopped them on traffic stops or whatever or gone over to their house for a call they’re like you’re not from here are you and I’m like is it that obvious and they’re like well just the way that you talk and I’m like no I’m not I’m I’m from California but please don’t hate me I’m not trying to CH change anything NE up here I was trying to escape that chaos down there I’m a refugee please don’t hate right exactly yeah Mikey pleasure to have you man thank you for coming on I know it took us some doing but uh you know I get it with the schedule yep and I I appreciate you being so accommodating Steve and uh I love this podcast man like I said you know I’ve been a listener for a very long time and uh you’re you’re doing some good here and you’ve got some great people on that you know obviously much more knowledgeable and much more wise than I am but um for those for those young guys man like don’t don’t listen to the general public don’t listen to the hatred I mean I’ve lost friends I I’ve lost people stopped being my friend because I became a even though they had known me for 25 years they sto being friend because of my chosen profession you could have things like that but this this is one of the last Noble professions to do you know as long as you just keep your nose to the grindstone be a good guy be honest inte like remember Integrity like that’s that’s one that’s huge for me you know um just be the best you don’t have to be this this hard charger you know door kicking cop but just be a good cop be a good representation of your department help people out do the job make sure that you serve your citizens the best way that you can and uh never forget that man and you’ll you’ll Thrive absolutely man words of wisdom brother um hey I’m gonna do the outro can you hang on for uh just like I don’t know two minutes absolutely absolutely I’m gonna run to the restroom if that’s all right yeah go for it brother all right perfect I’ll see you a bit ladies and gentlemen the great Mikey May uh super fun conversation great to finally get him on guys if you want to be a guest on the show like I said before than policy.com is the place to uh up uh send me a message or Steve things.com email me directly this is the time 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