Taking Fire From Vietnam Era Sniper, Blowing Cover With Biker Gang

this is things police see firstand accounts with your host Steve gold welcome to the podcast that interviews active and retired police officers about their most intense bizarre and sometimes humorous moments on the job I am of course old Ginger face coming at you again guys thank you for thank you for listening thank you for finding the podcast thank you for all the everybody who’s listening to the back catalog and sending me message I truly appreciate it um yeah it’s been uh it’s been a heck of a two weeks here in Massachusetts there’s there’s something going around uh every every family we know is very sick and um I was sick last week then I got better for two days and now I’m uh getting a little sick again so I don’t I don’t know what it is actually a thing like it’s all over social media like what is this in Massachusetts that’s that’s happening to us but um besides that I got to do something very cool uh in relation to my in relation to my job today and you coppers out there will know what I mean and probably people just with other jobs will know too like there’s a lot of training you’re required to do um uh inservice updates legal um law Firearms defensive tactics like it’s a it’s a yearly thing you have to get the hours and usually like it’s not like it’s good information it’s good to do it but you’re just like not into it you don’t care but for me the class I took today I loved it was all about guns in Red Dot Optics I love guns I’ve always loved guns I just do I don’t care if it’s wrong I love him I was a kid when my dad would come home on duty he’d be sitting at the table he’d come home every night on duty when he worked evenings and I would ask him to see his gun every single time and almost every time he said no but maybe one out of 5050 he’d be like all right after supper we’ll go in the other room I’ll unload it and you can hold the gun so I’ve always loved guns so this was a class at a bigger um nearby City one of the larger cities in the area so all indoor ranges climate controlled all the bells and whistles and just training us on um being instructors for red dots so I’m a Firearms instructor and this is so that I instruct officers and qualify them with their uh new Red Dot Optics and man it is unbelievable Red Dot Optics are uh like a cheat code to shooting they’re they’re there’s it’s a bumpy road at first when you use them but once you get it down it it is amazing it turns your whatever distance is the longest they make you shoot in your state for qualification it turns it into a joke so I had a great time and I got another uh eight hours of it tomorrow I’m looking forward to that forgive me for my voice like I said I feel like I’m spiraling downward once again but the show must go on the guest today uh we scheduled out to do this phenomenal guest got to push through and get it done got to get these shows out to you guys I might take a little break over the holidays and the reason for that uh I might maybe like Christmas and New Year’s those two weeks is because just listenership crashes if you have a podcast you know what I’m talking about just people aren’t listening because they’re doing they’re with their families they’re not working they’re not maybe not going to the gym a lot of podcasts are listen to doing that stuff and it just it’s just I feel like it’s you know these these men and women that come on here tell these great stories and I I want every time an episode to that debuts to be a big pop a big download uh I want everybody to hear it and I know people do eventually but uh I don’t know it’s just it’s just everybody’s busy so I might I don’t know I might do a couple lives or maybe one live and just kind of take a little break plus I haven’t taken a break for like over a year so it’d be good to reset do some more scheduling get some more people that being said said guys this a long intro I apologize but we need guest if you want to be a guest if you like the show a lot of people write to me how much they love the show a lot of coppers on the job if you love the show that’s great and thank you but we need more guests we need I know you guys are out there thinking about it if you got stories if you’re active we don’t we can use a pseudonym we we don’t have to say your department and we can even blur your face if you want um excuse me but we do need you to come on and let the uh let America know in the world uh widely uh about the job you do and how uh totally insane bizarre and humorous at times it is so go to things.com scroll down to do that or you can just write to me directly Steve at things police.com without further Ado ladies and gentlemen let me introduce our guests 36 years in law enforcement total spending over Texas and Missouri held the ranks of Patrol detective major then elected Sheriff he’s author of Five Books two crime novels two education books drug education books and one cop humor book I’m talking about none other than the great Ronald long sir some might argue the great part Stephen but go ahead it’s an honor to be on today well I won’t I would never argue that and is do you like Ronald or Ron no I go by Ron ronon yeah Ronald feels form formal I feel the same way about Steve when I always know the person doesn’t know me when they’re like oh hey Steven I’m like hello I should have like a you know some kind of medieval night or something just Steve is good um so brother that’s a long time to be a cop 36 years just a long time to be involved in law enforcement 36 years yes it was but Stephen it or Steve uh it went by fast it’s uh you know it’s an exciting career and once you get into it and get a your feet on the ground and get a good taste for it um it’s hard to go off to anything else I tried that and I after a few years I came back to it and of course of retired in law enforcement yeah I mean there’s a reason we get like doctors and lawyers and stuff kind of like becoming reservists and things like that because it’s like yeah they got a they got the career that makes the money but they always wanted to be a cop so they they end up coming on like a SWAT team or something being a medic or something like that just cuz they I think almost every little boy anyways thinks about being a cop at some point yes same with me so yeah you follow me on to my uh age of gray hair so yeah well you made like you said before the interview you made it you’re still here and uh a success in my eyes you’ve done it you’re retired and you’re drinking margaritas you said no uh the doctor said I could not drink those anymore but I can still drink wine so a glass or two of wine every now and then is good for the heart Body and Soul there you go I agree 100% um so you were you went through this law enforcement career and at one point you did fraud investigation and then um at some point in the career you were elected Sheriff which is which is interesting was that that that was towards the end right towards the end of your career yeah that was that was toward the end and actually that’s when I retired uh when I was a sheriff and and the time had come to hang up the badge and gun I was uh Sheriff elect and that’s when retired how long were you sheriff for uh four years is it weird running a political I always thought I in my mind it’s always weird to me when um politics gets into law enforcement like CU When a sheriff you’re running for office but you’re also the arm of the law you know it must be kind of strange yeah it is and I think if you speak to any Sheriff uh they will tell you that one of the toughest parts of the job isn’t the political aspect of it it’s having a County Jail uh you know being a cop being a process server uh being a warrant officer all that kind of comes in together in in law enforcement duties but but having to by State statue having to uh own run and maintain a jail that was one thing that probably 99% of the sheriffs you speak to will say I’ll give that away tag you’re it it’s yours now yeah but I learned a lot from it yeah absolutely I’m always I’m always kind of let’s say flabbergasted for a better word um when I see like in the Northeast it will happen where the sheriff’s U largely do the jails and detentions and transports and stuff they not they’re not really patrolling um but you’ll see somebody they’ve kind of made room for someone to run for Sheriff that is just like an attorney or you know has some other they never been a cop and it’s like if you don’t know if to me it it’s hard enough for a cop to become a sheriff because of the jails cuz you know nothing about the jail never mind some person that’s just an attorney or a politician becomes Sheriff you got to have some really strong admin staff and support staff out there on the Florida to run the place you do uh you know I I remember uh when I decided to run for Sheriff my dad used to be the uh the mayor of our our local Town up there the county seat and uh you know he told me he said you know Ron a lot of people can be elected and they don’t have to be the most talented but if you surround yourself with the right people a strong administrative staff it’s going to make you look good too going to make our County look good and he was right and I was very fortunate when I came in I had a very very strong uh Deputy Chief and uh that took a lot of interviewing a lot of talking a lot of uh searching around the county but I found the perfect guy and having the you know as OJ’s attorney said if the glove fits well the glove fits with me and his name was John Groves a retired colonel out of the military a super guy and extremely Healy healthy helpful so I had the right guy at the right time and I was fortunate yeah that’s great yeah I know the um I kind of see when sheriffs come in when a sheriff is unseated the big thing is they clear out like it seems like a sheriff will come in bring it bring people he likes into admin and then clear it out and bring in the new sheriff will clear it out and bring in the people that he wants in those positions cuz a lot of times I mean what if you’re your right hand and number three guy weren’t for you they were against you now they work for you so they just they just get rid of them and get in their people yeah you kind of have to well you know when I came in I did a little bit of house cleaning uh of course I wanted my upper Administration handpicked by myself but there were still a lot of really good people that worked for that agency and uh the sheriff that was going out uh was a good friend of mine I’d known him since I was you know 15 16 years old a retired state trooper who come in and was elected sheriff and then then he retired and uh so I had a lot of help and a lot of insight uh also I did a lot of I wore out several pair of shoes walking around the county speaking with people going to anywhere from a small senior citizen groups to to large uh organizations to speak to and I I got a lot of input so you know one thing I hate seeing is When a sheriff does come in and say okay I’m cleaning the entire house because Stephen when you do that and you know too you you’re a sergeant I guess uh been around for a while seen a lot of good cops some of them don’t need to be wearing a batch but a lot of them do and some that are kind of in that gray area they can be changed and uh you know when I came in I also brought my theories a different kind of law enforcement than what kind of had been seen up there for worthwh and uh you know I go from big cities in Texas up to a county counting it had a uh a military base in it and Counting the Personnel on base we only had 100,000 in that entire County counting the people on base and and I count them because we also had to to you know uh respond to calls and and they affected us too but uh uh but anyway um it uh it was quite eye openening uh I had of course worked for some sheriff’s office in the past knew they were kind of political but I’m not really a super political guy and I know some people might sit back and laugh when they hear that uh but when I come in it’s like okay this is what the the ticket I’m running on but you know once I’m elected I’m here for everybody whether you’re independent Democrat Republican I don’t play politics I’m here for everybody and I made sure that my upper uh administrative staff knew that too or County prosecutor knew that or County judges knew that so was a really really good blend and uh we went up um you know I really did not plan on running for Sheriff when I went up there I kind of figured my law enforcement career had ended I was done kind of retired yeah and once I got up there my my parents were up there had some people uh twist my arm and taught me into running and I said I’ll do one one term I loved it I absolutely loved doing it uh we worked hard got a lot done boy what an education that was for me too yeah I I bet when when people when people on the top get um when you pick your new staff do do the people that are in the admin do they have a can they be reabsorbed by like the the deputies Union or are they just kind of looking for another job we actually did not have a union uh in my uh Chief Deputy my executive uh administrator he basically had retired uh he was in law enforcement before but also he was a retired colonel out of the US military military police police a lot of experience and uh you know we we spoke and there were three candidates that I had in mind for being the chief executive chief deputy and then whenever it come down to okay we the election was over I met with his name’s John and we sat down and and this is the kind of guy that he is um you know he said Ron I’ll take the job you know I offered it to him and he said I’ll take it said John I haven’t even we haven’t even discussed benefits or paying I don’t care I’ll do it for a dollar I’m just here to help and that’s a kind of mentality H super super guy and I was you not I was very fortunate not often do you run into an individual that will give you that kind of response when you say okay you’re number two on the totem pole you’re going to be working a lot uh and tag you’re it you know and pay didn’t matter to him he was there yeah oh you got lucky on you wasn’t so much luck you had the right connections um that’s great can you take us way back to a young patrolman or Deputy Ron uh to the first hot call you went to the first call that really got your blood pumping well uh you know I started off in South Central Missouri by an Army base Fort lard wood and you know even though like a state of we were a smaller County we had a lot going on we were right at the center of uh a drug trafficking route and of course we had human trafficking going on there even back when I first began in 1978 I just aged myself there didn’t I um but uh I was young uh fresh out of college and just stepped right into it matter of fact uh my college internship my senior year I I was hired on to work full-time so I got paid while I was getting my last three hours of college um but you know I I look back and there are and Stephen you can too you look back at your career and say there are a lot of devastating things that have happened a lot of sad things that we witnessed too but there are also things we look back at and and we laugh and a lot of times at our s or it was a funny situation so me going back to my first hot call uh it was a traffic accident and that night uh I’m working for a small Department called the St Robert Police Department the only law enforcement agent on duty in that entire County that night W and that happened about three or four nights a week of course you know the rookie PS a short and you know you’re you’re working the midnight shifts and you don’t get weekends off so so anyway you know bad accident blah blah blah and uh so I go out there and it’s down the old uh windy County Road and and you know I look down and there this tree is down off in the bankman he’s wrapped around the corner uh a tree it’s just ued around that tree that car was and you know Stephen practically I’m kind of going down like this do I really at this about to see yeah and it was one of those instances like we see all the time on TV we got down there and even though I was expecting something horrific you know my heart was pounding I didn’t want to look at it of course over time you get to where you’re hate to use the word callous but that’s what happens you know yep you get used to anything and everything but uh I go down there and and uh the guy’s laying in the back seat he has one scratch on his arm and uh I thought okay he was pasture in the back and I started talking to him and I said where’s the driver of the car and uh he said oh he’s there in the front seat you know I said well there’s nobody in the front seat he said oh yeah he’s just invisible and you can’t see him so he’s denying the fact that he was driving because he’s so intoxicated uh but you know that was my first really hot call I was out there by myself and I didn’t want to look at it but it ended up being kind of comedic too yeah absolutely I I have similar feelings to the first like bad crashes I went to where you it’s the unknown you just don’t know I remember I was very young and I was um going down the highway in the town I was in and there was like a a bar that had dancing and music and stuff and people were leaving and I drove by a four-lane uh Road and I just hear pop like that loud like now I know exactly what it is but then I was like I had like I not witnessed a head on accident before I behind me I just see two cars in the middle of the on both on the double double line just just smoosh together and just Steam and smoke coming out of them I had the same feelings I as I spun my cruiser around and I did that whole um like like before I got on the radio I was like don’t sound like a little girl and I called it in you know because your heart is pounding you know so you’re oh yeah trying to control your voice so you’re not like and um I I I felt good about it though cuz we people no serious injuries uh air B deployment all that people were hurt but not seriously and um the sergeant on that night when he when it was all cleared he said hey uh I didn’t I didn’t suspect this to be uh as bad as it was because you sounded so cool on the radio and I’m like really because on the inside I was like barely holding it together yeah what they can’t see um can be advantageous to you but you know Stephen after that things just kind of uh fell in place uh I saw Dave Jones interview and whenever you spoke to him he told you a little bit about plasy County where he worked Y and that place was Second To None uh whenever as far as excitement anything what a great place to be a rookie and to break in uh after I left uh plasy County I went down to uh Arlington Texas where the Cowboys are at and Texas Rangers right in the heart of the Dallas forward Metroplex 89,000 people a million people everywhere and I was was bored I you know I’m riding with my ft my training officer and and you know his name’s Mark and Mark said well what you think so for we’re in week three and I said Mark I’m bored I’m not used to not having shootings and stabbings and and wild and crazy things and drug busts going on that because that’s the way it was where I I was and I started and it was it was the Wild West in that county and it things haven’t really change much really such a small place it had yeah for such a small place it has uh quite a reputation it has two uh one is just having great people there uh we’re very loving Community I say we I’m no longer living there but but the folks in plasa County are are very loving close-knit Community do anything to help you but also because of the military base there we’ve had a lot of organized crime human trafficking a drug running U matter of fact when I was uh in high school uh at the time uh the largest uh law enforcement raid ever in the state of Missouri occurred there uh we had gangsters that were coming down from Memphis Chicago St Louis Kansas City and and they were having shootouts they were blowing up places they were murdering people they were kidnapping individuals um and so the you know our elected officials from plasy went to the governor’s office and said we’ve got to have help and so U he sent down and it rained po police on plaska County and it was it uh changed things a little bit but it’s still kind of the same thing uh you know when I was Sheriff there uh going back a little bit I was an undercover narcotics officer in Texas for a long time and uh so that was one of the platforms that I ran on when I become Sheriff uh you know I’m going to hit drugs hard and uh we did everything in our power to do that but even in 40 45 years later from when I was a kid and teenager uh things had not changed we were working U you know we were making drug arrest uh it was I Interstate 44 went through there between St Louis and Oklahoma and Texas and and you know it was a major pipeline for running drugs uh Stephen we had a lot of human trafficking there uh you know we dealt with a lot of victims matter of fact going retro when I first started off we had victims of human trafficking then you know around an army base uh military base you have a lot of prostitution right but is that why an army base is kind of attracting these problems because of prostitution and people being from all over the country being in one spot yes it’s a it’s a magnet for things like that uh that army base used to be a basic training base and now it has gotten uh to where it’s more technical more specialized uh where they’re training uh Engineers they’re training military police intelligence um a lot of other things but back then it was a basic training base and and you can take your your pencil and draw a circle around any BAS basic training base in the nation and you know the problems are pretty much generic to all of them you know you have the drugs you have the prostitution and they’re both strong and have a strong hold in each Community a lot of young men with uh looking to sew their oats yes sir that’s right you keep an 18y old pinned up for 12 15 weeks and things are ready to happen when they get out so they’re all marrying strippers and prostitutes yeah it can it can be a kind of a lifechanging event for some of them too because they get involved and do things they shouldn’t and end up in my county jail too so that’s got to be rough to have like young soldiers locked up it’s like they’re it’s like they’re trying to do the right thing and it’s almost like the military should just kept them locked down a little bit longer you know what I mean like he they they can’t have their freedom just yet right well I think their mindset Stephen is like okay here’s the keys to the tank here’s your AR-15 so if you can have both of those let’s go out and have a good time you know once you get out of basic and uh of course you know some of them are a lot of them are squared away when they come out of basic but a few aren’t and uh a few you know you take an 18y old I remember when how I was at 18 uh I thought I had a lot of common sense at that age but then I look back now and say yeah you kind of stupid I’m never gonna die yeah bulletproof you know jump over tall building stop speeding trains on yeah so we all make our mistakes and uh but you know we had a couple avenues that we could work with when it come down to the military we love our military um and one of them worse than going to jail Stephen was whenever we would have to arrest you know a young Soldier and it’s like you know uh we’re probably not going to uh take you through our court system on this I’m just going to call your uh sergeant and drill sergeant he’s going to come down and and get you out and uh and they do and and you know we had things work out with the military to where their punishment was served U you know on a military base and then you know kind of going on a broaders spectrum is that some of the military people go overseas they’re in a big sand pit or or wherever and they’re they’re seeing combat and they come back Stephen and we see it in law enforcement too PTSD so all over the place yeah and they come back and they’re involved in situations that uh a lot lot of domestic situations um a lot of calls from their spouses and uh they just get out and some of them have prescription problems some of them have alcohol problems to try to quiet the voices in their heads because you know PTSD is real and we see that among our own profession too so anyway uh when they would get in trouble we had uh a thing called veterans court or military Court to where these individuals we would work with the military uh with them and if they were arrested they would go through this court system that uh it was a long it wasn’t like they check in once a month and after three months they’re gone it was a long drawn out process to where they had to go through Rehabilitation talk to counselors go see the judge they had you know kind of like a a probation officer they would check in with uh so they were they were very it was a very rigid program but it kept you know the the domestic assaults or or the drug offenses off of the record and it and they come out a different person and it was very very effective oh that’s great yeah um I did when I was doing backgrounds I did a lot of soldiers and um the guys that are over in combat would you know you can’t blame them they just have a totally different mindset when they they’re not even sure they’re going to come home you know and they’re the problem is now they have social media and they’re getting on they’re like they can access it in the Middle East it’s like you know so they’re they’re they they’ll post things that are like would horrify people here um just the language they’re using you know just but they’re they’re just young guys put into a tough spot they’re you know they’re think they could die and they’re just kind of you know YOLO you only live once they’re putting it out there but unfortunately it disqualifies them you know you see it and you’re like you put this out to your friends and family H boy right and it’s great that they have programs now to deal with that and we’re seeing that to you and I are uh you’ve been in the business for a while to where probably back when you started and certainly when I began in law enforcement if you know I was involved in a shooting situation or fatality accident where three or four people died you know had saw some horrible things when I was younger that I had to adjust to and if I went to my chief or my Lieutenant said hey man I’m having some problems the answer is suck it up butter cup or go to a different profession right you know it’s there there were no avenues for us to get some help but now there are and uh yeah which which are great and we need it our profession does just as much as the military does oh absolutely both there yeah totally I remember there I mean back when my probably when my dad started it was like you like you said suck it up buttercup and then for a long time there was just like an 800 number on the poster oh you having you’re having some feelings is call these people and it was like no more information than that so everybody guys just felt like I’m going to call there they’re going to think I’m crazy and they’re going to take my badge away like that was like the whole thing so just holding in but yeah now it’s now there’s a lot more um attention to an eyes on it like I I said this in a recent episode but uh a buddy of mine Dave kerio he was a a detective in um Englewood California and it was incredibly violent city and he was a marine also but he said the thing about being a cop was he would sit down at supper with his family and then just thinking about like you never get a break from war you know he was like it’s like you’re home and you’re having supper but then tomorrow you’re going back into the battle like it never there’s never just your home decompressed get the help you need it’s like no this is this little nightmare of Anglewood is going to keep going until you actually retire um so Ron can you tell us a strange or bizarre thing you dealt with with in your career well Stephen I guess uh we could probably go about the next 24 hours with that question um there have been a lot of things that I I’ve dealt with um you know from the time I began and probably the most lifechanging part of my career I back up a little bit I told you a little bit about my father a while ago small community at you know the village raising every kid yep uh you know when I was younger I grew up and I didn’t do Direct drugs you know I was involved in athletics and if we were caught drinking alcoholic beverages and we were kicked off the team then you know your dad would wear you out and and it was just that type I wasn’t a Boy Scout but I I grew up under that type of concept and then you know I I work drugs a little bit it’s kind of funny on weekends I was working narcotics because I look like a a military Soldier because I was young had short hair uh so and these you know drug pushers and prostitutes were coming in from St Louis and Kansas City so they didn’t know I was cops so on weekends I would be out there working some of that stuff but uh once I moved down to Texas I was there a couple years and I got called into the uh Chief deputy’s office and um it’s like oh God what I do now you know as you know when the upper staff calls you in it’s like oh right you know what I do but uh got in there and my chief Deputy I mean uh assistant chief U you know said Well Ron um how would you like to work narcotics and at that time our narcotics unit had been chosen as uh the top narcotics unit in the nation and I thought boy what a privilege and um the timing uh I appli for law school and was getting ready to be accepted to go to law school too so I said well let’s see do I want to be a lawyer or go undercover uh I can be a lawyer anytime so and that never happen so anyway uh started working narcotics and it was a great teacher for me a lot of funny things in my little humor book I’ve I’m not trying to plug it but I’ve got some some funny stories in there uh that myself and people my we’re gonna plug it don’t worry okay uh but you know the probably one of the best educations in my life and and I’ve been fortunate to to go through grad school and stuff too and as you have a lot of CE hours but nothing taught me about my profession and about the world like working under undercover did stepen and you know before then everything was and you know this too you go through the academy it’s right or wrong black and white there’s no in between you know sure now we’re we kind of focus more on the true intent of the law or the color of the law but back you know when I started you didn’t everything’s right or wrong so I got out in the world and I discovered there was a really a big gray area out there to where not everybody’s either good guy not everybody’s labeled as a bad guy uh there was actually an in between and and a lot of younger people a lot of children uh that are victims out there a lot of teenagers uh runaways involved in the drug world you know I I saw many times we would uh I would go in on a a drug buy or dealing with these drug people or criminals and and they would have a young 15 16 year old female in there that you know they were offering uh free services if you bought so much drugs or whatever but I discovered that there’s so many children out there and young teenagers that have never had a chance uh you know you see it all the time you know mom’s in a prostitute Greer dad might be in prison U and there’s no parenting there’s no structure no scality in their world and so they they don’t know what’s wrong what they’re doing they’re just continuing with the style of life that they have been brought up with and so I really saw that there was a big large gray area it made me very compassionate not a pushover I mean if you’re you’re out there doing a bad dirty deal then you’re going to jail and I’m want to arrest you but but it also uh I began a journey of drug educating a teenagers school age kids uh had a chance to reach out and touch thousands of them uh appearing before them and that’s one of my my big missions and that’s why I have the drug education book too it wasn’t to uh you know try to get get on the New York Best Times bestseller list cuz that will never happen but it was just to to help educate the people um you know for what’s out there and and to try to save a family member a friend or whatever um so anyway learned that the the big gray area exists in life and it made me a lot more compassionate and made me a lot smarter about the world you know best education I’ve ever had yeah absolutely was there anything weird or strange that happened when doing that yeah there’s a there’s a lot of weird and strange things that that have happened uh you know a lot of funny things you know Steve there’s a lot of bad things that have happened to you but I my mind’s Front Runners all these kind of comical things that have happened but uh I tell you one quick story I’m working with a guy and he he won’t mind if I name drop him his name is Tommy Lenor uh Tommy’s been on television he’s had he’s been on these crime shows he’s had his own crime show excuse me and but he was my field training officer and man he looked like an outlaw biker gang member and everybody on the streets knew Tommy as being a a biker Outlaw Biker guy and he had Street B time Street respect so you know we’re working all over North Texas and so he’s got a reputation all over the state but anyway long story short he gets me young guy just come off Patrol short hair I look like I’m 16 years old basically and and our pretense was hey you know uh Ron which my my street name was Robert he got kicked out of the military got caught smoking dope and so he’s gone so you know Tommy’s taking me under his wings so anyway we go from the Dallas Fort Worth area one day and we’re in training and and we go down to Waco and it’s about 85 90 miles south of the Dallas Fort Worth Metroplex and we go out to a little you know Tommy told me we’re going to a a motorcycle shop so we go out in the country pretty close to where the David crash deal went down uh and we go out there and here’s this Outlaw Biker store shop you could buy you know your Leathers there and accessories for your bike and stuff like that yeah and so out out back they’re you know smoking dope they’re you know uh I’m sure shooting up meth and they got their guns and they’re firing them and stuff like that too and it it was uh yeah it was it was pretty interesting especially for somebody that uh had not been around that kind of lifestyle before but but Tom just said well be cool man you know you’re we’re part of their world now so so long story short uh before we left we were invited to that night up in the the Fort Worth area uh one of the main biker people uh was having a birthday party at a bar up there and so uh we were invited so Tom said let’s go to a birthday party with the biker gang up at the bars so so we did and uh of course you know I’ve always been kind of you know I partake of alcoholic beverages every once in a while but kind of the more gentle ones and so anyway we go into this bar long story short we go up and everybody’s looking at us there’s about 150 people in there bikers and the women and and we go up to the bar and they know Tom but they look at me it’s like who the hell’s this guy and so all eyes are kind of upon me so the bartender Waits on Tommy you know gives him a drink he ordered a whiskey but he just looks at me and walks away and so it took several minutes for him to finally come over you know my Tom said hey serve him and drink so you know the guy comes over to me and said this is a big mistake and said uh what do you want I said give me a Bartles and James wine cooler oh no and he went quiet and uh he he said what I said I want a Bartles and James wine cooler which that was what I drank and so then this bartender says hey everybody this blanky blank wants their Bartles and James wine cooler and man you know Tom his his hand starts going down under his shirt for his pistol and you know he he we’re GNA get shot right there so I kind of have to do a little bit of quick thinking and uh so he says why do you want a Bartles and James wine cooler you blankety blank you could hear a pin drop everybody’s hmed in on me I’ve got a butt net shirt and I’m partially American Indian you know andh so I ripped my shirt open and all the buttons go flying I said well because it puts hair on my chest and I don’t have one hair hardly on my body except on top of my head and so uh you know he just looks at me and says come on man can’t you take a joke give me a whiskey and so he’s oh this guy’s cool and people start buying the drinks boy course he had sered me of whiskey I took one sep and went to the bathroom poured the rest of it out put water in my in my class but after it was over you know Tom my training officer driv me outside he says buddy if you ever do that again you won’t have to worry about you because I’m gonna kill you myself yeah wow B and James I haven’t heard that name in a long time yeah so that was my uh first near-death experience whenever I was began working narcotics but it wasn’t from the bikers it was from my own build training offices hey but you you know you were thinking on your feet you turned it around that he must have been happy about that at least you know I was but uh after we let of course you know I had one shot of that whiskey and it just lit me up and and uh I’m sure he gave me the strongest whiskey or moonshine at the head in there and after we walked out and in my training office offic said if you know blah blah if you do that again blah blah blah he said where you want to go I said where we going next he said we’re going to 7-Eleven and we’re getting you a Bartles and James L so that’s where we went he said it looks like you need the fire put out buddy and and I did need the that’s awesome how how long on the end the undercover work were you at this point I uh at that point I just began uh other than what I did some back in I mean this was a real deal all I did was go out and buy dope and find meth labs uh you know we weren’t running search warrants we had an over unit uh where they went out and we would pass the information along to them and they would hit the houses and stuff but we were just the we were out there just buying dope and and seeking out the meth labs and we had a a lot back then California and Texas led the nation and the Mount of methamphetamine labs and that’s what we did uh so I did that for about five years wow wow were you um did you have a wife or girlfriend at the time or you just single the whole time well uh that what I was doing is a single man sport uh I was single for most of it then toward the end I got married and uh it was like this is not and and had a child and I said this is not a job for a father yeah because you know sometimes I would uh I would take out and you know I thought I was going to work and be home six hours later but no I’ve come home three days later and uh you know we traveling to witto Falls or wakeo or or wherever the path L me in Texas and and that’s that’s not what a child needs and that’s not what a married man needs to be yeah that’s why I got out of it amen to that absolutely well you had your fun you got out of your system you know no one no one can no one can sustain that I mean some guys do but no one can sustain that lifestyle for for too long it’s just too nuts no I I agree I agree Ron can you tell us about your most intense or terrifying call that you went to uh of course there I’ll kind of revert back uh to not long after I had uh started working at Arlington I was working a midnight shift and uh I remember the exact address and street that this happened on and got a call it’s about 1:30 in the morning uh there was a Prowler in the neighborhood and we had two streets that that run parallel and in the middle of them was kind of like a little green belt and so the prowler was supposed to be in that green belt so I went parked my car and when I did I got out and started walking the direction to where the the prowler was supposed to be and and all a sudden I hear and then in the background Po and of course it didn’t take long to figure out I was being shot at uh 300 and some uh bullets later the situation ended but uh at the time I had no idea of where the shots were coming from I had on me a 357 Magnum pistol no shotgun no AR-15 nothing like that and it’s night time and and uh so actually thankfully I had some trees to hide behind and a lady that called in a Prowler call saw me actually hit the deck uh you know when you had bullets hit all around you you find something solid to kind of protect you and so she called into the police department and said hey youve got a cop up here and uh he was just shot and so I had a walkie-talkie on me it fell old walkie-talkie didn’t work so my uh backup came up in Wheels his name was Ron also like mine and he come running up there and boom boom you know just bullets all around him too um and he hit the deck and then he tried getting on his radio His Radio didn’t work so the lady that called it in said hey you have two cops shot and then it went down to where we had had the third one the same thing happened to them so needless to say after that happened uh we uh City bought us all new walkie talkies but this was back in the Dark Ages all course right 1980s so uh technology has changed quite a bit since that uh so anyway I’ll try to make the story short he he shot at us quite a bit like said a total of over 300 rounds and then uh what kind of gum was he shooting at you with he had an AR-15 at 223 oh wow and steveen ended up that uh he was a sniper in Vietnam severe PTSD he was drinking he went off uh he was drinking and had meds both and and those don’t mix well and so he wanted to have a little bit of fun so he had fun shooting at us and afterwards he personally told me he said you know if I wanted to shoot you you would be dead right now and he’s right you know at the distance that he was shooting at uh for a sniper that I would have been an easy turn I was going to say he wasn’t much of a sniper if he didn’t get you guys but he was just toying with you he didn’t he didn’t want to he wanted locked up he wanted some extra help uh but anyway we got the SWAT team out there and uh our negotiat negotiators and start talking to him and so I was actually called out to the front of the house I’m behind in the green belt but uh my lieutenant called me up to the front and they had you know the the armored vehicles up there and we could hide behind and stuff like that and he he said well we’re going to try to talk him out so we’re talking him out and he does start coming out the front door so my lieutenant looked at me and said hey let’s go get him so he and I start running toward the front door to get this guy and all of a sudden it’s like we hit a brick wall and we just both stopped in our tracks and uh so he uh uh picked up a cigarette and was trying to light it but why we stopped Steve is that he had filled the house full of gas and he had come out so he could breathe and he was trying to blow it up and so he couldn’t get the the lighter because it was so dense he couldn’t get it to light so he had a beer bottle in his hand one of those old long neck ones and started bringing it up and it looked just like a pistol Barrel to me so I almost shot him over a beer but fortunately um you know we were able to after that to take him into custody uh got him the help that he needed but about a week later just two blocks away is a 7-Eleven store and I’m in there one night and I look up and you know I’m in there having my you know Diet Coke and my chocolate chip cookies and donuts and stuff like do cops do and on the other side of the counter there’s this guy I could feel he’s staring at me and uh I look over there and it’s the same guy it’s only a week later and he was out and he had a sixpack a beer he said hey officer long can I buy you a beer you know where I live come on over you know said no buddy I think I’ll pass on that but it all is well that ends well and he got his help nobody got got hurt he got out of jail that quickly for psych was being mentally incompetent yes sir but isn’t there a different kind of lockup you could go to you shot at a bunch of cop cars oh he was uh actually he was in a program a mandatory program uh you know one that both the district attorney had and also the military had one for him too but yeah that’s all he had to do is show up to his counselor and talk about his problem and and uh you know he just gave me a big smile and wiped at me when he walked out the door so that is terrifying Ron I can’t believe that I especially that that that is counter to everything I thought I knew about Texas I thought they would take that guy lock away the key and you know throw him in jail well they do a lot of them a lot of times but uh since he was a Vietnam vet that had severe PTSD and and you know Steve there’s no doubt in my mind that if he wanted to take me and the other Ron and the third officer out when we showed up it would have been easy for him to do it heck I could do it and he’s a lot more skilled shooter than what I am so uh he’s play have a good time so yeah hey oh my sounds like Massachusetts those those sentencing what year was that that was in 1983 wow yeah things were a lot different in uh the 80s and 70s for sure but wow that I mean you would think did he did he have the gun legally he must have oh he did he uh had the gun legally he had that wasn’t the only one he had in there either and he had a crap load of of ammunition in there too so I’m sure that was all taken away from them anyways and yeah yeah we we did take a yeah that was one of the things that the judge said he can’t have any uh type of a weapons period at his house so uh we did take them all we secured them but uh and you know apparently the treatment was effective we never heard any more from him and I never got invited back to his house for a beer though but I never saw the guy again after that yeah forgive me but I I won’t be coming back to the cocktails at your house sorry right yeah exactly Ron can you tell us about a a positive or heartwarming situation you dealt with you know a lot of those Steve I can probably think of more than those than I can running into burning buildings type situations but uh we had a situation to where we had a Jailer female Jailer in plasy county that actually uh fell in love with one of the inmates and ab bited eded his escape from our jail and in the process he took three other people with him I’m sorry two other people with him so wow um yeah so the man Hunts on and you know one of them two of them we caught uh pretty close in the same county and and was a 24-hour deal um but we we caught two of them then the third guy we caught in southern Oklahoma we found out uh his phone number we tracked his phone number and uh caught him at a McDonald’s eating a Big Mac so he had a Big Mac attack but the attack was by you know about five dozen police officers but got him in custody too but afterwards we got him all and it was a big deal of course it’s in the media and U sure you know we it’s a little shameful but you know we put it out there to the media to help you know hey we you know got loose our fault but we need you to help us and uh so it was pretty much highlighted in the media but after it was all over I had a young lady come in my office and uh she was about eight or nine years old and she was with her mother and and just walked in and said Sheriff can we have just a minute with you and I said well sure and uh so she come in and she said here I want you to to read this letter and uh I still have the letter and it was like Sheriff long I’m sorry for what my dad did it was wrong and he was bad but thank you so much for not hurting my father in the process of trying to apprehend him again and thank you for bringing him back peacefully and not hurting or shooting my father and let me tell you that was a almost a tearjerker you know yeah have something like that but yeah great moment great moment but that’s not what we’re here for we’re here to serve and protect people right unfortunately every once in a while we have to hurt somebody but that is the other people that have a call set to have right yeah it’s nice it’s nice to get a little one of those things that keeps on going keeps you going it’s like fishing you know you can fish for hours and hours you’re ready to go home you get one little bite you stay for two more hours CU you got that bite that’s what police work’s like just so much garbage and then you get that little pad on the back and you’re like all right this feels good yeah that’s great man exactly and she was cognizant of the whole situation she understood like you could have heard him like it and it would have been his fault but you didn’t and you know she still has her dad that’s great Ron I love that um so a real popular question we have on the show people listen are looking to get into law enforcement or or on the fence but then they hear um you guys tell your stories and they decide to jump in and Be Cops which is what we need right we need we need good people to be coppers so could you give us some advice to new police officers ERS or or new candidates to the field sure you know there this is a profession that you know I stated earlier that I had thought about becoming a lawyer and and almost did that twice but but because of the uh personal satisfaction and and actually I know sounds kind of cliche but you know it’s nice to be out there and know you’re you’re helping people uh right you know one thing that we have seen over the last three or four years a lot um this uh defund the police we need police reform and you know kind of a sour egg on La the law enforcement profession y but you know I I tell people not to let that influence in because uh there are always going to be naysayers out there and you know one thing that the type of uh situations that we’ve had over the last several years and Steve we should you know you’re a supervisor we need to always be Perpetual when it comes to educ ation and you know making our profession a better place uh and and we have that the wheels continually spend for reform and education and us being even more professional uh you know we’ve had some hurdles hurdles to jump one of them has been pay but um you know we live in a pretty uh Texas is for the most part a place where your daughter dollar goes uh further than what it does in some places you know like Miami or New York City uh so the pay some of these departments have down here the pay is getting up to part where we can compete now with corporate America whatever so hey the pay is out there uh it’s also a profession that you can do in it almost whatever you want uh you know you can go in as a patrolman then you can become a detective CSI Administration you can be a traffic cop you can fly in a helicopter uh you know just a broad aspect of different things that you can do it’s very fulfilling it’s very exciting uh I don’t think there’s I mean the military is kind of comparable but the military uh we love our military but most of them are not in an everyday war zone like the people wearing the badge um and firemen out there too I’ll Pat them on the back some of these big cities they have a heck of am of time but uh uh we every day are out there seeing things in doing things and being involved in some good things some funny things uh I write got a book about funny things I love it love it but uh uh it’s it’s really fulfilling and I don’t think there’s any other profession in the entire world uh that’s like it especially if you like helping people uh it takes some getting used to you know uh don’t jump in waters and think you’re going to be you know the best cop ever the first day because it’s a big long learning process yeah they say it’s like five years to even feel comfortable the learning curve that’s probably a pretty fair assumption I mean looking back at my career uh you know you know I was that way too and uh and and plus you know once you do this Steve if you do decide to do something else and get out of it uh there are a lot of places that man you Wen in law enforcement you know how to deal with people you can control yourself your experience in life we want you working for us we want you working for small business our big Corporation our real estate company whatever our teaching at a college or university you know you have a lot of options out there too absolutely and uh and like uh you know we may start off in the police department too and that’s also a you know I experienced that a lot being Sheriff you know I didn’t pay comparable to some of these other departments and uh so uh it was a stepping stone and you could go off to a larger department or if you want to be in FBI or an ATF or dea it’s a good stepping stone yeah absolutely so it’s just a a countless array of different aspects of the job and profession that you can go into and uh makes you a better person makes you a stronger person and a smarter person absolutely yeah it’s like it’s I tell people all the time when they’re talking about they want to get into it I’m like just get whether you can get a department to send you to academy or you have to selfs sponsor or whatever it is just get the certification because like you were just saying it opens the doors you know you you get the get your police certification get some experience if you like if you’re in the town you grew up in and you love it and that’s where you want to do your career well they’re lucky to have you if not you can parlay that into all kinds of different stuff and cops often and I’m I’m in this group we often feel like oh this is all I can do I’m not like a I don’t know any trades like I just know how to be a cop but there’s so many skills that we develop from like serious problem solving ability management skills stuff like that you develop being a cop that’s incredibly valuable to the private sector cuz believe it or not I worked I took a I had a sent in the private sector um you can be an Allstar and it it ain’t that hard if you have the the drive the work the work ethic of a of a street cop in the private sector you’re going to do well because it’s just going to be bred into you you know what I mean well and and and one thing too that’s very important for survival uh you know we have our five senses and the law enforcement people you will hear well you have a six sense well that that comes in two different directions in my opinion one of them is you know Steve old gut feeling you know your gut feeling can save you it it helps you uh make a case it helps you you know keep from being shot at sometimes it just helps you out but also one extremely important one that I drive home with the rookies and people that are in training or thinking about being a cop is you got to have have a sense of humor that is one of the most important senses out of all of them because sense of humor is going to make you allow you to survive this job absolutely extremely important words of wisdom Ron thank you for that tell us about let me through the magic of Technology let me see if I can go to uh your web page are you seeing it are we there uh I can see it yes there we are author Ronald long LLC you have five books so um where’s the best people best place for people to get your your books is it on your website or Amazon what do you what’s the best well probably uh the the best and fastest will be Amazon uh of course if you want one that’s personalized to where I sign it or whatever uh you can contact me it tells you how to do that on there but uh most of the time people just order off Amazon it’s quick it’s easy and if you’re an Amazon Prime member it’s free shipping so all five of them are are on well I take it back uh four of them are on my drug book uh I’ve got a second edition out it’s called drugs without the sugar America’s addiction what that is it’s just about America’s drug problem and it’s not sugarcoated but I deactivated the first book uh once I come out with my second edition so uh they are all on Amazon and easy to come about got it good stuff man Ron thank you so much for coming on the podcast brother was honored to have you on well Steve is privileg I appreciated uh you know the invitation and it’s one of those things when you’re talking to a cop uh well doing a podcast it’s kind of hard to get started but when you’re talking to a fellow cop man it’s hard to stop yeah absolutely we could talk for hours probably but thank you it’s been a privilege yeah absolutely my pleasure let me um you have just like three or four minutes to hang out when I do the outro oh certainly all right I’ll be right back with you guys a great Ron long everybody great stories from Missouri and Texas both that uh that uh plansky County he’s paying de dividends on this podcast they are really producing some criminals but um thank you for joining us thank you for being here uh always always a pleasure to be able to interview the men and women of law enforcement and get their stories out to you so you can hear what they actually do if you if you want to be a member if you’re I’m sorry want be a member if you want to be a guest on the show I’d love to have you uh things.com scroll down click be a guest or to Steve at things.com click there and uh just give me a little bit a little a little backdrop a little information about you and we’ll we’ll talk and we’ll get you on um also the patreon is the place to go to support the show if you really love the show you’ve like listened to a bunch of episodes and you’re like I really love it um love all this free content that’s out there I really appreciate it if you become a patreon member and support that way there’s two different tiers there’s a patrolman there’s a sergeant tier you a couple different things with either you get access to the patreon page which is kind of like a Facebook page and you’ll get early access to um the podcast through the uh YouTube channel and all that good stuff if you can’t afford it no worries it’s going to remain free the point is to get this stuff up to as many people as possible but I do really appreciate it if you can help the boat afloat speaking of patreon this is the time of the show when we thank the patreon sponsors I’m going to do my best here guys but my voice is kind of failing me who I’m talking 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