In this episode Steve and Ken chat with a 13 year Pennsylvania police veteran named Jay. Jay polices a small town in western PA and is also a member of a state/federal drug task force.
Support-Donate / Shop Merch / Subscribe / be a guest / Contact www.thingspolicesee.com
Join the FB community! https://www.facebook.com/thingspolicesee/
Background consultation – Ken@policebackground.net
this is things police see first-handaccounts with your host Steve goldhey guys welcome to the podcast andinterviews active and retired policeoffice but the most intense Bazaar insometimes humorous moments on the jobI’m Steve Gould and with me as alwaysKen Roybal kids I hear excellent you’realive you’re living you’re in lockdownI live you know I have to say my brotherused to be in you know radio news radioin Los Angeles in the 80s and he alwaysused to tell me that he said I have agreat face for radio so I as well I havea great face for for podcasts I’m in thesame boat and you never told me yourbrother was in radio that’s fascinatingto me yes he was used to be KFWB newsradio in Los Angeles he went on to be aschoolteacher so but he was doing thatfor a long time is kind of coollistening to your brother on the on thenews radio that’s very cool is he stillteaching is your tiredno he’s retired okay well if I knowwhere to go if you’re ever if you everbail on me yeah what’s his yeahhis name is memo memo like which is letme see memo is a nickname for GuillermoWilliam Oh William that’s too much namefor me he could never alright brotherwell we have today we have a 13-yearveteran from a small town in westernPennsylvania his name is Jay he’s activeon the job so we’re not gonna give awaytoo many details but I know it’s a verysmall agencies like 10 officers but heis involved in a state and federal taskforce I think for narcotics and he’salso a field training officervery cool cool yeah let’s dial him upmost importantly is a fan of the show solet’s see that’s the most importantthing of all nothing gets you on theshow faster than saying I like you guysautomatically like you as well yeahthat’s good dial them up super fastyeah yeah there is standby to standby OhJay hey how are you hey brother thanksfor coming on the show man you’re onwith Stephen ken hey guys how are youhey good man good I’m a little nervousso hopefully this goes well no don’t benervouseverybody says that cannoneer miserationthree guys at a bar talking about policestuff over some over some beers that’sall hey that’s my that’s exactly mystyle so that’s perfectKen’s retired so he starts drinking atabout 10 a.m. so all right brother willyou I want to tell you first off thankyou for bumping up your your schedule wehad a guy fall out had a familyemergency and there wasn’t gonna be aninterview in this time block but youwere able to squeeze in so thank youappreciate that and you listened to theshow you contacted me how long have youbeen listening you know I just recentlystarted listening I have about an hourdrive to work so it’s perfect I up thepodcast and then by the time I’mfinished I’m usually at work so I’vebeen listening about two months now sobut I love the content it’s great stuffawesome well we appreciate that brotherand you’ve been on the job 13 years in aWest Pennsylvania Department correctyeah that’s correct yep yep Northnorthwestern Pennsylvania and one thingI thought was pretty fascinating was inyour brief bio you sent you are involvedwith a state and federal task force fornarcotics it is correct yeah we work astate and federal task force like I saidwe we have a severe methamphetamineproblem in my jurisdiction in the regionbasically you know it’s it’s really badso we we work with our state and federalbrothers and on the task forces and youknow we work on trying to eradicate thatproblem which is easier said than doneyou know that methcame out long after I left Patrol butyou know just seen the news stories andsome nasty nasty stuff it is it reallyis and it’s uh you know the the problemis like if you have heroin or opiates oranything when those people Dover dose onthat you know they not out when whenguys and girls overdose ofmethamphetamine they’re up for a weekyou know ten days and the psychosis setsin so you know it’s you can be into somedangerous situations dealing with thesepeople yeah it’s it’s uh it is nastyit’s nasty stuff I remember I was justgonna say I remember back in the 80swhen you know there’s crack cocainethere’s heroin all this kind of stuffbut you could you could tell you couldtell junkie when you saw one they werejust kind of they look like they werethey were like homeless but they werelike advanced homeless or something youknow they they had that look to themwhere you knew there was something upbut with these meth guys it seems likeit just ravages their bodies and theirfaces you could just quickly tell a mytha meth head oh yeah certainly you knowand that’s that’s the thing with thesepeople I mean man the the wear and tearthat that stuff takes on just crazy Imean I’ve seen people with you know theylose their teeth they have open soresall over their bodyI remember having some in the bookingroom that was a meth head and they wereit reminded me of like Gollum from Lordof the Rings picking their face thesethese websites we can go to and seebefore after pictures of meth heads andsome of these people are just they’rethey’re really beautiful looking peoplein the beginning their first bookingphoto but by the end you go oh my goshdoesn’t that is the same person that’sterrible yeah it really is it’s you knowwhere I work the jurisdiction I worksconsidered a small town about 8,000people and you know we see a lot ofpeople that when I started working hereweren’t into the game and now they’reinto and it’s like my word what happenedyeah yeah I’ve been told in the past byfriends of color that that’s a that’s awhite personproblem is that true is it is why do yougot the biggest problem with math andwhy is it why he would say so you knowin our jurisdiction that’s that’scertainly the case yeah I would say atleast where I work that’s what I seeyeah it seems like the most unattractivedrug you know I understand like heroinand going on the nod and that soundskind of nice something that would justsee how to take your your mind away tolike lala land but methamphetamine islike you want to get you know you wannastart tweaking out and ripping your ownyou know it’s stevis like you want tocall the police six times because youthink somebody’s breaking into yourhouse is the drug for you what’s theattraction of the drug in the firstplace and is it a is there a gatewaydrug to that leads to this I mean what’sit what’s the attraction of it I’ll tellyou what with the mental side of meespecially in my area in the early 2000swe got hit with it really bad and it wasthe the methamphetamine that was made inlabs you know and these people weremaking meth in their garages and theirhouses things of that nature so I thinkthe roots of it are are they’re in myjurisdiction and then it kind of wentaway got replaced by heroin ourdepartment and back in the day worksreal hard it’s fighting the against themeth labs and things of that natureso they put a lot of people away for along time on state and federal chargesfor numerous you know meth labs andthings like that so it went away for along time when I started in myjurisdiction it was a heroin and youknow k2 and the the synthetic drugs andnow it’s come back full force with thecrystal meth which through myunderstanding can only be made in youknow super labs in south-of-the-borderas what I’ve been told so we’re gettinghits full force with itI think the allure of it is just youknow people’s parents used it people’sgrandparents used it and it’s just kindof it’s got deep deep roots in this partof the of the state unfortunately manthat is if that is one scary drug I wasI livedhigh desert in California now like thebase the mountains it’s a nicer part ofthe high desert but I was told when Imoved out here like oh man that’sTweaker ville if you go too far awayfrom the mountains it’s you know intothe low altitudes it’s you know there’stons of tweakers up there and I went fora walk a long walk with a big GermanShepherd I take in two and a handgun sogo for a walk and I get to this newconstruction this big house and it reeksof pot and then the neighbor you knowanother couple acres down I chatted withher and she’s like oh yeah I think it’sa grow house just grow pot she’s likeyeah but good who cares go ahead growpot I don’t care crystal meth that’swhat I’m worried about right right yeahdown the desert notorious for that typeof thing where the sheriff’s dude drugraids and stuff because it’s so ruralnobody really patrols it and they do allthese meth labs it’s a big thing oh it’sweird man like if you go to if you go toa bad part of the high desert I’ve neverseen so many crazy white people in mylife I always have to keep them off youwith your foot and that’s rural ruralPennsylvania is kind of the same way youknow we are closest back up if we have astate trooper in the area their barracksis about 40 minutes away there’s anothercity department that’s about 35 minutesaway so we’re we always telling you guyswhat I’m training them don’t getyourself into something you can’t getyourself out of you know what I meanwe’re pretty rural out there we’re onthe line you know I remember watching aTaser video of a guy in the rural Southand you just kept tasing the guy leftthem hooked up you know about 20 minutesbefore the State Patrol gets here andthe guy just kept shocking them I waslike whew keep it going brotherwell Jeff can you tell us about thefirst hot call that you responded to orI should rephrase this question to bewell it could be this to call that washot to you at the time in your careercuz it’s gonna be your first call thatyou were like whoa you know what I meanyeah sure I tell ya there’sI thought long and hard about this youknow there’s there’s been a bunch youknow of decent hot calls but my firstreal hot call that I can remember wasactually a traffic stop I was not in myjurisdiction I’m working at now is thatanother one which is a regionaliseddepartment where we covered I think youknow seven different boroughs and townsyou know so I pull a traffic stop I’mthe only one on this this side of myjurisdiction which is about my closestbackup is probably at the time 20 25minutes away Thanks yeah so I stoppedthis this car and it’s got a womandriving it there’s an african-americanmale in the passenger seat and the bothdriver and passenger are not looking atme they’re giving me the thousand-yardstare and I’m thinking oh boysomething’s up here you know so I calledfor my my partner who’s like I said 2025 minutes away said hey you know get ahoof over here I’m gonna need some helpso I’m just talking to the driversfemale driver she’s she’s a local thegentleman that’s with her of course isnot a local he’s from you know ametropolitan area about two hours frommy jurisdiction so the whole situationseems off talking to the driver I pullher out pass her back to my partner hePat’s her down I watch him Pat her downyou know he does the whole thing the theback of the hand between the breasts thepockets the waistband the whole nineyards smell marijuana coming from insidethe vehicle so we decide to search Ipull I guess I should have said thatbeforehand but Iafter we smelled the marijuana we pullher out I pass her back to my partner Ipulled the passenger out I put him in aseparate car after I pat him downsearching through the car all of asudden I see a couple bullets for a 32acaliber handgun on the floorboard of thepassenger seat I said oh boy mm-hmm so Itold my partner I said hey you know didyou check her and he goes yeah it’s adouble checkerand as soon as I said that he walks backto the back of the car opens the doorand I hear me all gone so the oh shitfactor comes out now surehopefully I’m allowed to swear on thisyeah okay good deal so I run back to theyou know the car he’s yelling gun I openthe other door of the backseat of thecar and I see him and he’s wrestlingwith this woman who’s got like a littleautomatic pistol in her hand and he’swrestling with her trying to point thegun away from him all the while they’rewrestling in the back seat of the car inmy infinitetwenty-one-year-old wisdom I jump in theback seat of the car with the with thewoman and I pull out my service weaponand and put it against her headbasically I was starting to take up theslack in my trigger and at the very lastsecond My partner was able to smack herhand off the off the vehicle and shedropped the gun but I mean I wasprobably a millisecond away from youknow being involved in a shooting overthis and uh yeah that was that was thefirst time in my career where I was likethis is real you know this is this isdangerous business you know and as a 21year old kid basically I got hired whenI was 20 so as a 21 year old kid youknow that was the first time in mycareer I said oh shit you know this issome real deal stuff that’s your brotherfor sure that’s um those those I whenyou’re when you were saying that it wasreminding me of those videos you theyshow you for training on the side of thehighway it’s always like a Pennsylvaniatrooper or down south or somewherestarts wrestling and they always hadthese little guns you know the bad guysand then they end up getting shot by a32 through in the armpit and it goesinto their a Horta I mean that must havebeen going through your mind I tell youthe only thing is that was going throughmy mind at the time that I can vividlyremember is we search this woman youknow I’m like what the hell we had herhandcuffed you know somehow yeah yeah weits third sure we’d handcuffed herput her into the into the car my partnerthey come to find out she was that shewas a bigger woman you come for him toget real what’s that you cooked her infront you know we had her cuffed behindbut she was a real big woman and she hadreal skinny wrists so she was able toslip the handcuffs and then she had thepistol actually wrapped up in a towel inbetween her breasts and I said to mypartner after it was all said and done Iwas like you know did you did you do younot feel it and he’s like because Iwatched him you know I watched him usethe back of his hand to to Pat her downand he I’m assuming with that gunwrapped up in that towel you know hejust glanced over it with the back ofhis hand and didn’t feel it but it was ait was a bad situation man it and yeahall kinds of things were going throughmy mind during that that was it that wasa an eye-opener you know yeah and for meit would have been tragic it would havebeen tragic if you had shot her but forme I would have been thinkingimmediately during the entire fightersaid oh man this is the new uniform justgonna have a cleaners like that yeahyeah it was it was uh it was definitelyone of those moments in my career thatyou’re like holy hell that could havebeen real bad you know I’m patting downfemales is a nightmare anyways like theydon’t want I don’t even want you to doit anyways and they make used to backyour hands so it’s like you’re justyou’re just apt to kind of graze overthose areas certainly and you know andthat’s an eye opener as a young officeryou’re thinking like did I do somethingwrong that could have cost us you knowbig time you know but after after wasall said and done we had a selfassessment with me and my partner and weboth were like listen I watched you Patthis woman down because he was upsetabout it too you knowand you know we it was it was it was Bobthe woman the woman had a you know anounce of cocaine shoved inside her bodyreally which orifice did she choose forthat she pocketed it in the frontyeah yeah so that was yeah so nobodynobody died we got it a little bit ofcocaine and all all good and we weren’tallowed to search females we would haveto call a female officer but in yoursituation where your backup is 25minutes away it’s it it’s an officersafety thing and you know searches ofsuspects because you got to get in thoselittle nooks and crannies where the hiand so it’s not a matter of it’s amatter of safety and so if you’re byyourself and you have a female there youknow you’ve got to search him forofficer safety and this is exactly whypeople sometimes take exception to itbut screw that you know that’s that’sjust the nature of the job right rightabsolutely I think I think at the timeor even in the county we may have onlyhad one or two female you know deputiesand they only worked Monday throughFriday you know so the thing is yeahit’s they take exception to it but youhave to do you have to do it you couldcost you you know yeah I always thoughtI was good at searching until Itransported my first prisoner to thecounty lockup and I watched a deputysheriff do it and I said that was asearch he was like bean bag andeverything I’m like well this guy isthorough there’s one or two there’s oneor two videos on YouTube where they Ithink one was in Vegas where they showthe the officer and the suspect arefacing the camera so the officer isbehind the suspect searching you knowsearching the guy and he’s patting themdown by the waist and and then alsoanother video you hear the guy theofficer go what’s this that’s my penis[Laughter]do you go by J or Jeff I don’t want togo flip-flop on you okay I go by Jgenerally so that’s all right okay yeahKen just texted me that like you mightbe getting this guy’s name wrong okay noit’s all goodall right all right brother can you canyou describe the strangest or mostbizarre thing you’ve dealt with oh myword it you know I thought about thisand this is another one you know I’vedealt with some strange strange callswe’ve where we live is a or where I workat is a you know it’s a pretty old cityit’s been around for a long time and youknow you get the average ghost callswhere people think there’s ghosts inyour housethings of that nature you know whichyou’re odd but they’re more so funnyright you know we had an incident in ourdepartment where a guy had been usingmethamphetaminehe had overdosed on methamphetamine andwhen officers got there he had taken aknife and he had started to basicallycut his own hand off you know from whatI was told no mind you I wasn’t at thiscall but this is one that stuck out inmy mind for that sums up ourjurisdiction to a tee on this guy hadused so much methamphetamine that hesaid that Jesus had told him to cut hisown hand off my chief was there my chiefI got there at the shift-change and hegoes listen and he’s gonna call for along time because that’s the craziestshit I’ve ever seen you know the guy hadcut his basically three-quarters of theway through cut his hand off couldn’tfinish it huh yeah Jesus told him to goahead and cut it off and the Bible doesactually it says what if your right handsins remove it something like that wehad an interview a couple months agowhere that the guy cut his penis offyeah radish wits I’ll never forget thatinterview yeah dude that’s that’ssomething else right there man that thatyou walk into something like that thatjust makes you shake your head yeahthat’s what yeah they youI guess it wasn’t a very sharp knifefrom what I was told oh I’m sure therewas that that’s just like I said Iwasn’t at that call but you know that’sone that sticks out of my head isbizarre you know of course we have thepeople that are up for you know 710 daysyou know seeing black shadows runningthrough their house and you know it’spolice work in general just a strangelot of stories it’s hard to keep themall track you knowoh yeah cuz you’re up at all you’re upat all the witching hours andeverybody’s I work I work three threeMidnight’s out of my five day week sothe creatures of the night are my peoplegenerally so yeah you oughta you want tofind that kind tome that Jesus Christspoken a lot of parables alright Jay canyou tell us about your most intense andor terrifying call yeah I mean I hadanother situation when I was a youngofficer where I get a call samejurisdiction as the the first story Itold you I get a call from a kid about19 years old he was living with his momand he said hey you know I’m moving outof my house my mom’s upset about itI call in a constable in Pennsylvaniaconstable is like they can be hired bypeople to come and you know stand by forcivil process and things like that sothis this kid says hey you know I calledthis constable he’s gonna come help mestand by and so I can get all my stuffout because things aren’t going well mymom the kid says hey do you mind justcoming up here for safety because mymom’s acting all kinds of all kinds ofweird okay you know not a problemso I go up to the kids house and I’mtalking to the kid in the yard and I seethe mom standing in a glass door she’sbehind the door and you know she’s juststanding there she’s bawling and cryingand she’s all kinds all upset you knowand he goes see I told you you knowshe’s up she’s upsetso I said you know I’ll go talk to herfind out what’s going on so as I walk upto the door like I said she was cryingmascaras run and she’s all she’s reallyupset and she’s shaking her head Noahand I’m like oh this you know this isn’tgonna go well so I tried to grab thedoor handle she sees me trying to grabthe door handle to open the door shelocks it right it’s right as I’m tryingto grab it and I’m like oh shit shelocks doors she’s just standing thereand I’m telling her to open the door andshe continues to shake her head no at meso at this point you know I’m scanningthe room where she’s standing in and inthe corner of the room like a longhallway at the bottom of the stepsthere’s a shotgun sitting there and I’mlike oh shit you know and as my mind’sgoing through this I say that she turnslike she’s gonna start walking towardsthe shotgun and at this point I grabbedmy expandable ass baton off my belt andI’m I’m like open the door she looksback and she starts beeline in for thatshotgun I take my baton out and I smackthat glass door and break it with onehit luckily I don’t know how you knowthose are normally pretty tough to breakbut I wants to hit it in the right spotbusted through and she’s moving now at asteady clip towards that shotgun shegets it into her hand she grabs it withone hand and right as I’m able to grabahold of her so the fights kind of onyou know we’re rolling around she’s gotthe shotgun and we’re all around and inthe glass and I’m able to after a coupleswift blows she dropped the shotgun andI was able to get her subdued but I youknow after I get her secured I rackedhis shotgun cleared the shotgun andthere was one shot or one one cartridgein the gun so I don’t know if she wasgonna try to shoot herself I don’t knowif she’s gonna try to shoot me the wholesituation but it was uh you know it wasa frightening situation their firstsplit second you know you see a womanhe’s obviously distraught charging offfor a shotgun it’s like it was shit it’sgo time you know mmm yeah what was shewhat was going on there well I think sheI think she was having a mental healthbreak down because of the Sun trying toleave I think she was gonna try to shootherself in front of me in the Sunultimately luckily we I was able to gether stopped and get her some mentalhealth help there but I definitely in myopinion of course I don’t know this forsure but I’m fairly certain she wasgonna try to shoot herself in front ofus kind of as a statement you know Ithink that she had some mental healthissues in the past and in the Sun tryingto leave and get out of there reallyexasperated that you know what I meanyeahin them Pennsylvania’s but I imaginethere’s a lot of guns in that stateseems very royal hunting and like oh wehave a lot of yeah that’s the thing alot of houses we go into a lot of carsthat we stop I mean just basicallyeverybody’s carrying a gun you know andI’m a I’m a gun owner I’m a I’m a gunguy but yeah there’s definitely somepeople out there that are carrying gunsthat deathly should not be doing so youknow that’s an intense one man I wouldknow go ahead yeah it was it wasdefinitely again you know you had thesemoments in your career and that wasanother one where you’re like holy shityou know that a fraction of a secondcould have changed the whole deal youknow what I mean and I’m sure you guyswent through that when you were you knowon the job it makes you wonder withpeople like you’re in a no-win situationif you try and take on a cop and that’sit you know because cops are theremindset is to look for the danger zoneand you you know they’re combat readyand for people to just do things thatare just gonna get they’re gonna endtheir life mmm you gotta wonder what thehell is wrong with you man becauseyou’re not gonna win this gun battle butthey still go for it anyways no I knowit yeah that’s the thing well that’s acertainty just shows the degree of howexpertise some some of these people areyou know yeah it’s it’s Wow J I’mcurious how do you get how does one joina federal or state Task Force how didthat come about well with the state taskforce’s Pennsylvania’s a little a littledifferent you know at biggerjurisdictions we’ll have like their ownVice unit or their own you know internalDrug Task Forces in Pennsylvania a lotof like the smaller counties either havea County Drug Task Force or you join aDrug Task Force which is ran by theAttorney General’s Office they basicallyfund the Drug Task Force and then itsmembers from like every department sendsyou know five six guys and it kind ofyou make up these big regional taskforces like that so basically you knowif you’re out of if you’re a go-getteron Patrol your chief will generally getyou signed up so you can work the drugcases and once you’re signed up in yourgood to go throughout the state so itkind of covers your jurisdictionalissues as well that’s pretty coolespecially that’s really gonna helpsmaller towns out smaller areas out whena lot of timesofficers maybe wouldn’t want to go to asmaller community but with the idea thatyou could kind of expand your territoryand get into some drug interdictionstuff is appealing right might be likethe perfect combination you get a smalltown but then also you have this taskforce you belong to yeah and it’s youknow it gives you great experience itgives you and it helps the departmentwith funding things of that nature inand you also get to work with guys fromall over your County too you know soit’s you know it’s helpful on a bunch ofdifferent levels and I’m I I focusgenerally on guns and drugs as my youknow my nuance of the job is my favoritethings to get so that’s what I’m alwaysyou know working on so it definitelyhelps it helps for smaller departmentsis it plainclothes stuff a lot yeah ohgod yeah yeah it’s generally alwaysplaying clothes every once in a whileyou’ll do something on in in uniformwhere you know you’re doing a stop awhisper stop or something you know whenwe hear something’s coming down the pikebut generally yeah it’s alwaysplainclothes surveillance we call itevade informants and then silentinformants up and just like your Viceunits would do and you know the biggerdepartments it’s very cool is there a isthere a jurisdictional pecking orderwe’re like we’re in charge andautomatically how does that work youknow with the State Police they’regenerally everywhere outside of yourjurisdiction generally State Policehandles anywhere that there’s not apolice department but when you’re signedup with the Attorney General’s Office istheir state agency as well so you’regood to goyou know there’s you’re generally do Iforget what it’s called but you know yousend stuff out when you’re working in anarea so that you’re not conflicting withother agencies investigations as well sokind of we don’t really see a whole lotof that generally we’re all on the sameteam and it doesn’t get to money usuallymmm well that’s rakers we had BethSanborn on she was from a PennsylvaniaDepartment and we kind of had it backand forth about Pennsylvania and massboth being Commonwealth’s and both beingkind of jurisdictionally challenged likethere’s no other states which make a lotof sense have just peace officer statuslike all right you were sworn to be acop we all go to police get right youhave authority so it sounds like whenyou get sworn in with the districtattorney that kind of takes those wolvesaway yeah yeah absolutely that’s whathelps you be able to go you knowcountywide or statewide for yourinvestigation so you know very coolPennsylvania’s Pennsylvania is a littleancient in some of their ways yeah yeahit’s kind of cooled the Old Vic the oldthat blue laws a common mass you knowthey’re it’s it’s neat in a way but it’snot neat when it starts to screw withhow you how you operate I think inmanagers don’t have to kill seven sevenbluebirds in one crow or something toget married right you know the thepolicies out on the East Coast are somuch different and you’re talking aboutconstables and those are not policeofficers or they are no they’re notthey’re not police constables are notpolice officersthey are there voted like a votedposition they have their own specialtraining you know they they kind of billserve warrants for judges offices theycan stand by for civil disputes thingslike that we lucky you know yougenerally you get some decent constableswhich still serve their server warrantsfor us and stuff Leon helps to stop I’msorry are they are like are yourconstables armed yeah they all they theydo they carry they carry weapons they gothrough their own training I’m notwell-versed with how they operate butyeah they you are armed and they gothrough their own certification trainingstuff like that I’m not sure how long itis but you know going back toPennsylvania Pennsylvania is also theCommonwealth where you know ourSheriff’s Office’s they can’t they can’tcome out and they’re not actuallyconsidered law enforcement officers insome parts they have to serve warrantsthey’re like an arm of the court youknow they serve warrants they servecivil process courthouse security so wekind of we’re kind of limited there withour Sheriff’s Office’s as well we’rejust all around different yeah it’s justlike Massachusetts exactly the sheriff’srun the jail’sthey don’t even run the courts they justrun the jails they do some civil processI think they can arrest for breach ofthe peace it’s the only thing they canarrest for yep I think they have motorthis is so screwy but a mass they havechapter 90 powers technically by law butChiefs of enforcement are the only onesthat can assign motor vehicle books andthey all refused to give them to thesheriff so because they don’t want thebull cars over they don’t they havedifferent trainings they have like Cotraining you know right yeahPennsylvania’s weird all of our guys areact what you know I work for Sheriff’sOffice for brief time I loved it it wasit was a fun job but yeah all of ourguys when I worked for Sheriff’s Officewere act 120 certified so we’re statecertified police officers but you knowwe were all sworn in as Countydetectives as well so that kind ofeliminated the the muddy waters ofthey stop cars can they not stop cars sothere’s a lot of Hoops to jump throughPennsylvania goes deep with theweirdness man County detectives yeahabsolutely yeah we were sworn in asCounty detective detective Constableit’s cool I understand your ways I thinkI’ve been lost yeah listen you know I’velost two kin so there’s nothingcomparable to that in California rightSteve I mean they got Highway Patrolwhich is state state highways sheriff’sand police so right yeah the it seemslike that peace officer things a lotmakes a lot more sense than like I knowin Massachusetts another Commonwealthlike Pennsylvania they’ve tried to getpeace officer status and and I guess oneof the biggest opponents of it is spamthis matusa State Police they’re theydon’t want every agency to havestatewide jurisdiction yeah that’s Ithink that’s what we’re encountering tooyou know especially with the Sheriff’sOffice’s they did the State Police isdefinitely against against that I saymore than Mary you know we coulddepartments especially could use thehelp you know and the sheriff’s guys arealways good dudes they’re always goodguys and girls you know they’re they’regood workers so I say Oh more themerrier you know yeah it gets it getsreally into like dick-measuring you knowlike a lot of I’ve heard Chiefs inMassachusetts be like well I don’t wantpeople surveilling a town you know ahouse in my city with me not knowing itand they start thinking like oh they’regonna come into our town our citythey’re gonna surround stuff and that’snot gonna happencome on no but they little fight themthey have their power and they reallyare not interested in sharing yeahabsolutely you know and it’s it’ssomething else I we could get a lot ofstuff done we stopped the dick-measuringyou know absolutely hey Steve do youremember remember by the the personnelbuilding in in Los Angeles James were wewe would work as backgroundinvestigators you know and the thepersonnel building smack in the middleof downtown Los Angeles I mean it’sclearly Los Angeles and Steve I don’tknow if you’ve ever seen this but rightby the medical building there’s a littleintersection with a stop sign I havewalked I walked past their track goingback to my car to go home and and tuckedin the corner of this city of LosAngeles intersection was a sheriff’smotorcycle looking to tag people forrunning the stop sign so thejurisdictions that like the the city ofLausanne although the state all policeofficers are peace officers you have youhave peace officer powers throughout thestate but then city of Los Angeles wouldhave technically we have jurisdiction inthe city of Los Angeles the countysheriffs would have jurisdictionthroughout the County of Los Angelesright and the State Highway Patrol wouldhave jurisdiction throughout the stateso they could go on any city street orany in any jurisdiction right yeah andyeah it was just weird seeing a share ofLos Angeles County Sheriff motor unitjust sitting there waiting to give outtickets in the city of Los Angeles it’sjust weirdhey it doesn’t you know jurisdictionallines you got to get those tickets youdon’t immediately so Jay um can you tellus about a positive situation thatyou’ve encountered somethingheartwarming dare I say yeah yeah youknow luckily working in a small town youknow it’s you get to see the upsides toa lot of your work you know and I justremember when I started at my currentjurisdiction there was a kid that we youknow we knew he was up to no good weknew he was probably still a little bitof weed here and there we were trappedhe was actually sad a suspended licenseand this kid was cocky as all hell youknow we’d see him driving then he’dsneak away so we couldn’t you know we wejust basically were chasing this kidaround for for minor offenses kid wascocky we you know we didn’t necessarilyget along with this kid too much but weended up getting them one time I got himon a traffic stop got him for drivingwhile you suspended and a little bit ofwheehis car so we go to court and the kidsays hey you know listen I want to go tothe military I wanna I want to get outof here you know so I’m like okay I knowwe hear this all the time from fromspecially kids you know in the highschool age so I said I’ll tell you whatif you go to the military and you jointhe you know you want to join the army Isaid okay if you go to the military willsuspend the sentence and I’ll drop thecharges once I see the paper that you’reofficially in so the kid you know hegoes he’s trying to get in trying to getin and he’s having some issues medicallywith his teeth you know mmm so he comesback to me and the kid actually I getstart to get to talk to this kid he’snot a bad kid you know needed his teethfixed a little bit need you knowlow-income family didn’t have a lot ofmoney do some Mountain Dew world what’sthat there’s a mountain dew issue yes dono dental insurance for a long long timesituation so long story short I don’tnormally do this but you know I help thekid out with some money I went to thedentist office and paid the dentist totake care of this kid that’s fantasticlong story short we got we got this kidfinally taken care about his sentence Iwas at the mall not even probably amonth ago with my kids and I see thiskid and I won’t say his name but I waslike hey and he looks at me he’s like inthis kid now is squared away you knowhigh and tight dressed nice he was intown visiting and I guess the kids justdoing great I mean he lives in Missourinow he’s got a wife and kid now and it’sjust like it was good to finally see youknow a kid that I thought was gonna be apain in my ass for the rest of my careerturned out to be really yeah it was itwas a good feeling it was you know itwas heartwarming too and you know thekid was appreciative and you knowbasically he was like listen I I reallyappreciate what you did for me youhelped me get the hell out of here so itwas a good heartwarming story and youknow in law enforcement you don’t reallyalways get that so it was nice to seethat the fruits of the labor you knowhell yeahI’m a firm believer that police officersare called are called to to that job andI think that that God puts us in placeswhere you know to do certain certainthings for certain people and you if youtouch one person’s life and you make adifference then you’ve done your job youdid what you’re called to do yeah Itotally agree and that’s the thing youknow I try to when I train new guys asan FTO I try to really hammer that intheir heads it’s like it’s not aboutright it’s not about always writingticketsis it fun to write tickets and put badguys in jail yes it is but also we’reyou know we’re the front line to helppeople you know and now now more thanever with this the world the events thatare happening I think it’s it’s lawenforcement time to shine and reallystep up and help people the best that wecan you know because there’s a lot ofpeople out there right now that need ityou know absolutely question questionfor you about being a trained officer doyou you know with these you’ve got thesethese fresh-faced kids coming out of theAcademy and they don’t know squat aboutabout police work how do you view yourrole as a training officer and not onlya you’re teaching them lifelong lessonsto stay alive which is kind of a uniqueposition to be in how do you view yourrole is it as a training officeras far as influencing these young boysyoung officers I was I was lucky when Istarted police work 13 years ago I I hadsome great training officers and theseguys these are guys that were had everyreason to be like sit down shut up don’tdon’t ask any questionsyou know these were salty guys had beenon the job for 30 30 35 years you knowand I’m a 20 year old snot-nosed kid butthese guys really took it a toke itpersonally to make sure I knew how tostay safe was number one how to be Imean they basically taught me everythingthere was to teach me about being a copbut they did it in a way where theystill treated me like a like a man likea grown man and you know really reallywere mentors throughout my career theystill are some of them still are so thatis my role as an FTO is I try to I tryto approach it as like yeah these guysare new they’re out of the Academybut I really work with them to to treatthem as an equal to begin with and I tryto be more so a mentor than a than a youknow sit down shut up type guy cuz I’veseen we’ve all seen those FTE O’s but Itry to take that as you know my role isto be there in the long run for theseguys and we have less than 15 guys inour department so I’m gonna be there forthese guys for for a big bulk of ourcareers you know so my number one goalis to basically just be a mentor thebest that I can and keep these guys safebecause we’re a small department and weall rely on each other you know sothere’s not much room for coddling butwe we try to take care of these guys andluckily everybody I work with greatgroup of guys and we’re all go Gatorsand yeah we don’t have any issues so butyeah that’s I love doing the FTO thing Ireally do yeah being a training officerit’s a tough gig because you you’retaking someone out who there’s nothere’s no easing into police work thefirst day out of the out of the Academyyou can go to a shooting yeah you canget into shooting so there’s no there’sa warming up to the police working sothey can be it can be an issue for youbecause you’ve got to watch your yourrear and you’ve got to keep this otherperson alive because that you know it’snot it’s trial by fire and somethinghappens shots fired or something likethat and this kid doesn’t know we’venever been in that situation she’s gotto watch yourself and them and he’sright that’s not easy no I give the samespill I give the same spill the firsttime you sit in the car together youknow hey listen it’s my job to keep youalive and it’s your job to keep me aliveyou know surgery yeah nope no pressurebut you know I’mpretty easygoing guy and it seems tohelp when you you know cuz these guysget in the car and they’re they’re tightyou know it’s like listen hey I’m heretoo I’m here to help you you’re here tohelp me let’s let’s do this and let’s besafe you know and I think a lot ofpeople hear that okay I can breathe alittle bit you know it helps I think ithelps keep the guys loose and they’remore apt to learn but you’re totallyright can I mean there’s no easing intothis job you know and don’t touch theradios or the lights yeah my big thingis my radio station I don’t listen tocountry music so yeah don’t touch myradio station but other than that I’mgood I think we’re like Jay is my is myt oh yeah I try to bethere’s I’ve noted a couple of thembefore in the past but I try not to whatsounds like you got to get the rightpersonality for cuz I also worked at asmaller agency and the sit down shut upFTO isn’t like the right approach for aplace that small oh yeah it sounds likeyou got the you got the right thinggoing on there yeah absolutely you knowlike I said especially after you knowafter you’re done and they’re off of FTOnow they’re your your shift partner soyou don’t want to be a total asshole tothem right off to get gate or all it’sgonna be a weird situation you knowabsolutely I remember when I was onprobation it was within my first let mesee what had been within my first couplemonths and they didn’t let us drive forabout six months but there was onespecific situation where my partneralways drove and we had arrested a guyand so he was the guy was froggy and somy my partner had it he wanted to ridein the back with the with the suspectwhich is normally not the drivingofficerso he said okay I’m gonna I’m gonna ridein the back with a suspect you go aheadand you you jump in the driver’s seat soI is the first time I had been behind apolice car so I go to take the car outof the you know the parking brake offand the hood pops upclassic stupidity but I think like thefirst three years as a cop you donothing with stupid stupid shit you knowwe’ve all been there I got a I got a Imay or may not have a door a door skinfrom my first eight months on the jobwhere I may or may not have wrecked thecar up and the guys cut off the doorskin for me but cops will you can neverlift lib down a crash or something elsethey’ll always ask if you’re alrightfirst and then after that it’s over myfirst department called me crash foreight months so Jake can you um can yougive some advice to new police officerscoming on the job or maybe young kidsout there who are looking to get into itI would give is you know it’s make surethat this is the job that you want to doand you know it’s so cliche it’s likeit’s nights it’s weekends it’s holidaysbut it’s so true the schedules rough itdoesn’t leave you much time for you knowespecially as a young man I struggledwith that for a while you know I wasn’teven 21 when I started police work andyou know when he turned 21 you want togo out and have a beer on a Saturdaynight with your buddies and you’rescheduled to work every Saturday fromnow until eternity is over you know thatthat’s hard you got to make sure thatthis is the job that you want to do andcan I think earlier you said that thisjob is our calling no I totally agreewith that you know and it do it for theyou to be a member of the community andand really you know just do it for theright reasons that’s the best advicethat I could give anybody that’s wantingto get into the job hmm excellent that’sa yeah then echoes some advice we’veheard in the past that’s that’s goodstuff Ken you have any parting questionsfor Jay no this is a really interestingand Jay is Fhe’s got over 10 years on so he’s offprobation for me so you know he’s an oldsalt he’s an old salt I love thesestories and I think he’s probably one ofthe he’s got a great personality to be atraining officer it’s really good tomeet you actually I really appreciate Ilove getting guys from smaller agencieson with good stories you know yeahabsolutely I have some more but you knowsome of them I wasn’t sure if I couldyou know bring up open cases and whatnotso but I’d love to down the line I’dlove to do it again with you guys it’sbeen great oh yeah shut those cases Janecome back yeah that’s great awesomebrother well thank you so much again forcoming on hey thank you guys you guysstay safe all right brother I’m gonna dothe outro here and then we you hang onthe line yes sure thing hey guys I hopeyou enjoyed the episode if you’d like tosupport the show go over to thingspolice c-calm when you get on thewebsite there’s a few different ways youcan show some support you can donatedirectly you can do a one-time donationor a monthly donation even a buck helpsus keep the lights on over here pays ourexpenses for the month is greatlyappreciated you can also just use ourAmazon affiliate link if you just wantto buy something on Amazon like younormally do just do it through our linkand we’ll get a little kickback for thatso you can go to the website and do thator in the show notes I’ll put a link youcan just click right through that linkand the third way is you can buy somegood buy some merch so we have coffeemugs we have t-shirts men’s and women’sand we also have hoodies sweatshirts nowso go over two things please see calmand check it out you can also justlisten to the podcast there or you canapply to be a guest to scroll down toand click on be a guest and what youwant to do is just give us a briefsynopsis of your of your service howmany years you were on the job and justa very brief idea of the stories you’dlike to share and I will get right backto you so thank you for listening andwe’ll catch you next timeyou[Music]English (auto-generated)Up next
