well I I I I feel like my intro should have been like some little Spanish guitar music playing and it been like he's a 35 year Deputy eats at a handful of restaurants and always gets the same entree he's the he's the world's most uninteresting man well now we can do that we just stick that at the beginning DP the music in see this is what I'm talking about people this is what happens when we're finding safety tips you're listening to 56 a penel County Sheriff's Office podcast I'm Ricky Butler with Laura Sullivan and Ashley if you follow us on social media and even just pay a little bit of attention Our Guest needs no introduction it's Deputy Chuck Skipper with the crime prevention and Community awareness unit thanks for coming on Chuck sure we're we are we are looking forward to talking about all things Chuck and then of course crime prevention but first Ashley has the Icebreaker question this is the scariest part of the whole thing so we're going to get it over with on the front end yes it is it's fun this is fun on all right karaoke Knight you do not have a choice you have to perform a solo what song are you picking um because I'm not very original I probably Kenny Chesney or or a Toby Keith song which one um what's the one where uh it's the uh it's the Patriotic one Courtesy of the Red White and Blue yes yes yeah thank you I think Jack could rip through that after a few drinks probably I I sing much better yeah don't we all I don't know I'm stuck you know I'm just going to say the theme from HR puff and stuff or something um no maybe like a something Pink Floyd maybe wow Pink Pony Club that'll so everybody up real quick that one Pink Pony Club I'm gonna do comic Operetta how about that Ricky uh yeah okay Gilbert and Sullivan penans all right whatever whatever that is it's not going to be Chuck Barry my dingling or oh well I'm going to do I'm going to do um what was that the Discovery Channel song remember that you and me baby do it like they do it on the Discovery Channel okay I'll do that one okay that's my final answer there you go that might get cut yeah I'm going to go country too probably and do like a Neon Moon Brooks and done that's an easy one that is an easy one yeah that's very nostalgic yeah I would do doing Time by Sublime Lana Del re does a cover of it that's right in my register yeah bam oh that's you have a register well I suppose we all do what well yeah exactly like I'm not a singer or anything I just know it needs to be lower for me yeah so okay I do I'll get that one wasn't too that's more fun was too bad you know some of it gets real deep sometimes yeah not this time all right Chuck grew up in North Florida ish north of here north of here tell us about that R rural Florida rural rural uh yeah country uh I grew up on a farm in suer County uh which growing up there was nothing there but it's now famous for The Villages so like as soon as you left the villages came pretty much much they to fill that void yeah yeah lots of farmland and uh it was great for development and so there the villagers are there the villagers the Village People um so what uh what kind of farm what you guys grow or raise or well when you when you farm you have to be very diverse to survive so we we we raised beef cattle and uh we did my dad did farming we grew primarily cantaloupes and he worked uh doing mechanicing and went to auctions and Bo bought stuff and fixed it up resold it my mom had a government job working for the county so Sumpter County Sumpter County so you worked I mean all the way growing up you're working on a farm like that's it mhm pretty much yeah 4 FFA uh little known fact uh 1986 uh livestock judging uh we were the champion state champions best cow or what uh well you we go down to Tampa State Fair and we would judge cattle and there's different you know steers and heers and all that and you would place them one through four and and so it's a whole it's a whole when you when you grow up in a rural community this just like that's the normal thing this is this is what you do instead of sports so even though but we won the state championship in ' 86 and then we went we went to Louisville and did horribly Louisville you said that right yeah yeah um all right so despite the fact that we're you know within an hour hour and a half of Sumter County uh cow shows and animal shows always kind of blow my mind so what is a good cow can you do anything to make a cow better or does it come down to just the bloodline of cows it you're just judging you're no I know but you're not coaching them right but but but the people that are that are is there good growing these cow like how do you how do you affect the muscular structure of a cow like you can't it it is what it is it is what it is okay so all right no cows on treadmills or right none of that the rocky them playing yeah we're not coaching them we're not doing anything not juicing what they do is they they they put them in you know like 1 two 3 four and it's it's pigs it could be heers it could be steers it could be whatever and you you place them in order from best to to worse there's usually a a a master judge that is University of Florida would usually go in you're trying to you know they're the professionals okay so 1986 Florida cow Champion Chuck Skipper yeah well I was on the team on the team so on the team okay so so when you were like raising your own animals like in 4 from from little babies up to the I I should hogs in the county fair do you get attached to them is it hard to because they're raised yeah you try you know it's probably why like I have arguments with Jessica now because you I I I still I have a separation between people and animals and uh because you know you you would raise this animal you would care for it you would groom it you would work with it and then you would take it to the show and you know use your Showmanship skills and and things like that and and then you would sell it and it's going to get sold and and butchered and yeah yeah and you'll get the money for it and that's how I bought my first truck but it's you know like as far as you know give it a name and uh you know like you care for it but you know that's it's not going to be a pet forever right we had a pig named pork chop no did it become a pork chop yeah and we didn't tell my mom till after she ate him yeah that's like out of Greek mythology that's yeah it was a wow it was a traumatic thing for her wow so it was just a pet pig that you named yeah kind of kind of stumbled upon this pig and then it we had in the backyard which we wen't supposed to and then it but it started to like it was raised with dogs so it started to act like a dog and of they got too big so we had to send him to the the farm up North and then he came came back and white packages anyway um wait that's not what happens when you say that you sent a dog to the farm right I nice Farm in the country I mean some cultures eat dogs yeah but no um anyway so you grew up on a farm did daylight savings do anything for you oh yeah this is contral because that's what the that's what they say is that that's why it was helpful for people that lived on farms and the kids that worked on them yeah I guess I guess it actually it may have uh cuz in the summertime is when we were growing cantaloupes and so we would pick the crops later in the day when it was cooler and uh you know because of day like savings time you know we might not finish up till 8:00 or so I guess I guess it gave us a little more time I don't know it was I don't like that answer Chuck I want them to end it you know I'm tot fine with I'm I mean we have flashlights yeah yeah no we we farmers can adapt I'm sure they're they're well that's what you guys do yeah exactly so so so we talked about how to judge a good cow how do you judge a good melon like a cantaloupe yeah my personal thing is you want like a real heavy netting on a cantaloupe so like the the cantaloupe has like the pattern on it so when you say heavy netting does that mean like like like yeah more pronounced uh because typically as the cantaloupe Vine gets older and the cantaloupes you know like third fourth fifth sixth generation that vine is producing the nting gets a little bit thinner so so the first copes are the sweetest yeah yeah the vines the strongest they're the first cantaloupes they tend to have that heavier netting and then as they go on they get a little bit lighter so at what point uh do you leave the farm and what's next so you're because you end up at uh you end up as a deputy in the jail of Maran County correct so what how'd you get there what well I uh so I did not want to be a farmer it's a lot of work long hours doesn't pay that well and uh so I I uh I like cars and so I started as I want to be a car salesman I thought that would be fun and uh so I worked my way into sales and it was long hours there was probably a retired I think it was a retired Baltimore cop that I was a Salesman with and he was telling me you you don't make this a career you know you need to find something with some benefits something with some retirement you know anybody can sell cars you can you know you can retire and come back and sell cars and uh so you know I was working weekends and you know long hours and and all that and I was like yeah I you know like I was making pretty good money but I have any time to spend it then I just started asking around looking around and there was actually a federal prison about to be built in Suter County and I thought well maybe it would help if I got certified in Corrections uh there was a state prison nearby so I didn't know a lot about it but I went to the votch school got certified in Corrections and one of the instructors was a major from Marian County major Paul's and uh great teacher you know had great classroom presence and everything and uh was a great salesperson for for the Maran County Sheriff's Office and so I looked into it and the pay was much better than Sumter County and uh I had a cousin that lived up there so I talked to him about hey he was like a year younger than me I'm like we should become roommates and uh you know if I get a job up there and I did and uh so we were roommates and started at the Maran County Sheriff's Office in 1990 how was uh how was that that uh it was good it was good you know it was eye opening uh a lot of great people fairly new uh jail it been probably built in the last five or six years and uh met a lot of interesting uh people doing that uh in the jail yeah I worked with I worked in an apod which was kind of like a like a there's a high security component down there there's juveniles and people in medical and kind of like people that just kind of Misfits that t they uh people in solitary confinement that kind of stuff but there was one area we had a high-risk people and uh ultimately we had a the serial killer from Gainesville Danny Rawlings Oh wow was in there and uh so in that particular uh cell there was like I think eight cells up and eight cells down and they would rotate they come out like 30 minutes A Time M and they could shower go sit close to the TV do whatever uh and then they'd go back in and so uh you know for for months and months he was in there and i' talked to him a little bit you don't get overly chatty with these people but uh yeah it was uh you know at first we were kind of like this guy was the they think they think this guy was a serial killer right cuz talk about some of the crimes he did he he would he would break into people's houses while they were sleeping right and yeah it was it was terrifying it was terrifying I had a uh a good friend that was going to the University of Florida as a student and everyone was freaking out up there and there was a lot of theories that you know this person was maybe Premed because someone had been like just cut completely down and and like there was a decapitation and the way it was done and and they thought maybe this is like some kind of Premed student you know Gone Gone Rogue or something or maybe there's a couple people doing this because uh I think two of the cases there were roommates it was two females and there was another time it was a male and a female and so it was like how can one person you know over overpower two people mhm um so yeah it was uh there was all these theories and everything and then uh Danny Rollings had committed a burglary or not a robbery I think of a grocery store of all things in Maran County was in custody and their tips LED them to believe he was the person and uh actually uh he had a a bad tooth and so I went down and uh you know watched over him as the dentist like pulled his tooth and I remember supervision being like bag that tooth I want you to do a report you know documenting that tooth and everything cuz they saved it as evidence and I guess later they use that for DNA and some other stuff uh to to verify that he was which he ultimately confessed to everything he told him how he did it uh and you know I think he died no6 from the electric chair but but yeah it was uh personality wise yeah he was he was an odd guy he was real tall like 63 kind of lanky but kind of quiet just kind of odd but you know like just seeing him you wouldn't think he was like violent wasn't covered in tattoos and he wasn't real tough acting or you know you know like violent acting he was just kind of kind of quiet and kind of odd but uh kind of quirky but yeah was he was he well behaved did he cause trouble yeah you know he he we we never had to fight him or do anything he was he was fine and obviously you guys had him until the conviction and then he went to yeah Stark or somewhere yeah and I mean he was you know years later after I left uh you know he was he was a he was put to death but um yeah any other notable things the jail there I had uh Eileen waros she came in uh she you got all the serial killers so lucky one of them was uh in Maring County and she came in there for some kind of pre-trial she wasn't there very long but you know she came in and signed some property and you know her her reputation kind of preceded her but uh yeah so she was there briefly I got to be with her face to face what was she like get to talk which one which one was she she um she killed I think she was working as a sex worker okay and she killed um her clients like six or seven of her male clients allegedly now some some people said that you know people just picked her up as a hitchhiker and then she killed him but that's okay I remember that one but yeah she's she's one of the rare like female serial killer right no the quality you know yeah yeah so uh you go to the road in Marian County eventually yeah I uh a bunch of us we uh we got dual certified we shared rides we went over to the vote take over in inness and I I rode with deputies when I was in the jail so it was you know that was that was fun and decided that you know this is this is something I'd like to pursue now was that riding with deputies was that just something you were able to do or that was something you were doing intentionally to kind of get kind of exposure yeah um both both because I was I was I'd kind of done the jail thing for a few years and it was like it was fun but it was like okay this is pretty much what the job entails uh there's not a lot of different Dynamics to it she didn't start detention for like age reasons no no you're usually you could be younger and start as a detention Deputy as opposed to being on the road yeah I just I heard it was easier to get a job working detention and and I wasn't even sure if I wanted to be a road Deputy you know getting into law enforcement and everything uh so I was you know content just going to school again like I said there was some other options a prison being built some other things I didn't know I was even going to work for the sheriff's office but uh working with the jail then yeah I had the opportunity to meet deputies and was like hey I'd like to ride and they worked yeah absolutely so you know I'm taging along you know for 6 eight sometimes 12 hours they must have like that cuz that was another rural rural County so like if they're out there there's not a lot of backup or backup's 15 20 minutes away so they probably like having somebody who it's much different than wasn't a road Deputy but still a body right and knew how to handle situations so just going back to the detention thing really quick so when we had uh when Sergeant kilan was in here um you know back when he started in Citrus the idea kind of was and it wasn't like a set in stone thing but you know back then were you finding like for patrol deputies were a lot of them starting in the jail and then was there any formality to that or people just started at the jail and then decided they wanted to move on or or what was the sense back then about that yeah there were there were I feel like there was a lot of us uh like all you know there was like a group of us we car pulled and we all got dual certified and we all eventually went to the road eventually yeah U but that but it wasn't like a required stepping it wasn't required but there was a lot of people who did that and and honestly I think it was great you know I was like 22 uh you know I'd work with the public but when you work in the jail you're working with completely different demographics you're working with uh people of all different social economic backgrounds cultures people that maybe English is not their first language learn how to talk to people you name it yeah absolutely and you know for the most part you know if if you treat people with respect they'll treat you with respect M and you know uh learning some of those skill sets learning how to interact and and and and because you when you work in a jail it's not just getting along with them you need to have people do things uh you know we don't have an outside crew that comes in and cleans the showers like right you guys do you know you need to pick up after yourselves you need to you know and so uh you have to you know motivate people encourage them to you know and we had like standing head counts so you had to get up get dressed have your name tag on stand at your bunk you know and you know if you didn't you know you got locked in your door you know for the day you know you're you're working with people and it's it's a it's a give and take they don't want to be there we can both make the best of a bad situation yeah so taking that skill set and then going to the road and you know you're working with now with people who are maybe intoxicated or they're going through an emotional you know crisis and things like that you know we have a ton of stuff on our belts now that you don't have in the jail but the biggest thing you got going for you is what's between your ears and just knowing how to communicate and talk to people uh it's a great skill set and if you do that correctly most of the time you'll never need to touch anything on your belt I like it all right so the road what was that like so the road up there it's it's big County Maring county is almost as big as P County I think it's the fifth largest county in the state and so you got the oal national forest all the way over to uh Rainbow River up to almost Gainesville and so it's it's a big County it's a real spread out and so you're working very large areas and you know for the most part I mean it's you know typical calls but uh if you need a backup your backup could be 101 15 minutes away and 10 15 minutes doesn't sound that bad but when you need backup sure and you're you're dealing with an angry intoxicated person or you're about to get into a fight or if you were in a fight it's pretty much going to be over you know 10 minutes yeah so so and what year is this about probably when you start so this is like 90 uh probably end of 93 okay yeah so how many like how many deputies are on at any given time on the road up there I mean I can't I can't remember I mean there was a city of Okala and then everything else was County sure and uh so you know there was more deputies closer just on the outskirts of the of town but then the further out you got you had sectors that were much much bigger but I mean there wasn't a ton of us I mean I think people even now are surprised when I when I talk to the public how few deputies there are they you know I start talking about you know North penel I'm like you know we've only got like six deputies that are taking calls up here right and they're like what I'm like yeah like you know I mean we got a supervisor we got a Corporal but you know like we've got two three deputies along US1 19 and I mean that's about it right and you know and they have to do a19 too you know like you so uh people just don't realize the I think I think there's more of us than there are right so uh you know Green Chuck firsttime Road Deputy up there any great stories fights anything good like that so my my first I don't remember like my first traffic stop I don't remember maybe Milestone things but the the first thing and I've never forgotten it was I got called to a uh a domestic but the domestic was over so it was like a female called there's been a domestic it it was kind of vague just a domestic argument and the uh the other half has Le has left and the girlfriend just wants some information so I'm like oh so they don't send any backup they just send me it's Day times like I 2: in the afternoon yeah nothing happens back during the day yeah right right you know and you know she's just wanting some information she's you know the other half is gone so I uh drive down again it's it's a rural area and you pull off the main road and there's like a dirt Lime Rock Road and you drive a little ways and there's like a row of trees that is growing up in a fence line and there's a flashing light which is unusual see out in the middle of a cow pasture a flashing light but it says 5 miles hour I'm like that's kind of weird so you drive through this this line of trees and on the other side is more pasture but it's all changling fences and there's I think they're ostriches emu maybe both I don't know but there's these massive Birds freak me out and so and watching like dinosaurs drive by yeah yeah it's like Jurassic Park a little bit uh it's like you know where they raise them or something so there's like these you know 10ft High Chingling fences and you're driving real slow and they're you know like cocking their heads and necks and looking at you and everything and you're driving real slow and just kind of taking it in and you you go through pen after pen after pen of these things and finally up on the top of the hill there's like a barn there's like a single wide trailer and so I pull up there and get out go over to the trailer and that's where the female is and she explains that her her boyfriend um you know they had an argu argument and you know she's got some marks on her and like it got a little little violent I mean nothing you know but you know there was some stuff moved around the house and he was intoxicated and so she this has happened before and she just want some information like what can I do and you know that type of thing so doing that and then all of a sudden I hear this diesel truck pull up and the drunk boyfriend's back and so and you're surrounded by big chickens yeah yeah yeah so so you know he gets out and you know I mean he's certainly not intimidated by law enforcement cuz I've got a mark police car there and he could have just easily turned around and like now's not a good time to come home no he's like he comes in and he's he's he's a tall guy uh he's probably like in his I don't know mid 40s here I am you know so I'm like you know green little youngster yeah I'm like I'm like 24 years old and this guy you know he's like prob 20 years older than me excuse me sir and he's yeah do this exactly and he's he's he's probably got even like two inches on me he's like he's he's a big guy and he's been drinking and he's like what are you doing here I'm like well well your your girlfriend called me well you can leave and I'm like well no and so you know I'm trying to like you know rationalize with him like why I can't leave I uh go ahead and you know call for backup like okay now now we got a situation and knowing what all happen like this guy's going to jail yeah so uh but he's trying to like tell me you can leave now get out you know he's you know getting all bossy and authoritative and everything and it just it just just kind of starts escalating there in the living room I probably you know now would have been a little more patient and just kind of I don't know change the topic kind of talk to him but you know I was more business you know being a new guy and so I was like you know who I am and I'm like well you know like I'm not leaving you see this star boy well you know it wasn't that it was it was more like you know the reason I'm not leaving is you're going to jail I'm not going to jail you know you're you know and so uh yes you are no you're not yes you are no you're not so anyhow uh you know I grabbed his arm I got one handcuffed on and we're like you know you know it's it's not really like a fight so much just more like a little wrestling match you know around things are getting moved around in the house and the girlfriend's like screaming like oh you know like I don't want to go to jail and you know like in my mind like this is where she comes out with a knife and stabs me or something you know cuz you know now I'm taking the the drunk boyfriend to jail so I'm I'm back on the radio like you know like I need you know I need back up you know quick you know so I can you know tell them my voice and everything so any we end up going out the front door uh there's a like a wooden porch out there and I I uh we go out there and he's like face down he's got like his hands tucked underneath them and and I'm I'm a little winded and I'm kind of like watching over my shoulder watching her making sure you know she's doesn't do anything screwy so I hear a siren coming and so H okay my backup's coming well I you know again this road says 5 miles per hour yeah they're not doing five miles an hour no no and these these these ostriches I've never seen anything move this fast before in their life so he's probably doing at least 60 and it's a li on this Lime Rock Road yeah it looks like a rocket you can see like the front half of the car and then after it is just white plumes of smoke that go up about 50 fet in the air and he lights in Siren so it's loud it's fast and these ostriches freak out I mean they're like running into each other they're bouncing off the pins they are freaking out they've never heard anything so loud so fast I mean this is I mean they do not know what's going on and so he comes up there and hits the brakes and like slides like 30 feet and jumps out this guy was like a former tank commander in the uh Iraq war and U and so he comes running ACR and I'm sitting there with my mouth open like like what is happening did I cause this like like you know like I mean it's you know I mean I I all of a sudden I'm like I don't have a problem now like like you know I got it I'll I'll figure it out but like what is going on here and so he like comes in like jumps on this guy and like puts his arms Underneath Him and we pull his arms back and handcuff him and and uh he goes to jail but yeah it was uh it was definitely a memorable experience uh seeing all those ostriches and and everything just go berserk what they what that's just all that happened they just kept running into each other they couldn't did they escape or anything no no none of them Escape they were they were in these pins and everything but but they were a few of them probably had hard attacks after that yeah I don't know how much did it occur to you when you were driving through that was 5 milph because of them yes yes it was it was totally because of that well you you grew up on a farm well I would I wouldn't I mean no one screw that no one has you know blinking mile per hour signs you know in their driveway that's a CL but yeah and then when you go through you realize these birds are very sensitive to movement and everything but then went a siren and a police car at 60 M hour with a plume of smoke comes in it just blew their mind it kind of blew mine too I think I think I think Killian told a similar story get being in a fight then you know driving across the it's just the way of life out there you can just see it too like absolutely it's it was a great picture you painted in fact I think that's probably the intro where we talk about the plume smoke and all these ostriches because there's no context and it's hilarious um wow that's that's a good one but common out there I guess you know backup so I mean there's not that many ostrich Farms but I mean there just well there's just yeah a lot of horse farms but do people eat ostrich like why why do you have an ostrich Barb uh except for those drive-through excursions the drumsticks are huge yeah it's like the Flint stuns and I think like the ostrich leather and stuff like that they they would make boots and things like that okay so people do eat ostrich those things scare the hell out of me I'm legitimately terrified of I have been on um one of those Safari and there it was ostrich emu I don't know but I was like you no you get no food get away I don't like you they freak me out but I'm scared of like P you like birds in generald fre it's a giant bird it's is a giant bird yeah so so with backup that far away was was there ever a time when you would pull up to an act of seeing somebody fighting and just knock it out because it was just too dangerous for you to be alone well you you have to more you know purposeful on what you're doing so you know another big area we had was the oal national forest and you know most of that's federal land but there's like little pockets of houses and you know that are in there and there's like a little Crossroads out there in the middle of the woods you know that's got like a little I don't know Piggly Wiggly a food line or something and you know like two bars uh because there's nothing much else out else out there to do and so occasionally you know these uh these guys would you know be drinking and an argument would start and you know they're might be you know someone would call 911 and uh you know the first step to get there it's just not safe you know you got like you got like six or eight guys maybe on motorcycles that are passing through from Daytona and they just happen to stop there and now there's some good old boys and you know they're having an argument over I don't know football or something I don't know and uh and things get things get dicey and you know no one steps down and you know this is this is my neck of the woods and I don't care if you're a Harley-Davidson guy or not or or whatever so you know there'd be like some Big Brawl or something going on it's like the it's the whole parking lot it's like looks like they're involved in it yeah and what does one Deputy do against that exactly you know it's just you know like 30 people with with call bottles yeah you call it in you see if you can you know uh but you you just watch and start taking FS on you you you wait you wait you wait for a few minutes you know sit there and you know and then when when the calvary comes in you know I mean you're you're you're going down you know state 40 and everything you know 100 plus miles hour cuz it's usually like 2: in the morning or something you know um but you know when everybody gets there you know I mean there's like you know six or eight people arrive within a few minutes and you know and you come in like Circle in on the parking lot or whatever but you know once once the sirens start you know they they kind of start breaking up on their own and everything but you know we go in but they don't break up when one car car comes because they know yeah it's going to be a while before they have to stop yeah I mean if it's if it's maybe just verbal you know a deputy can but just get on the PA stop it stop stop fighting right yeah stop please please something you mentioned Chuck earlier uh when you talking about the domestic you know you said you basically said something well you know with more thought or I would have now like with with what with what season Chuck knows um talk about that a little bit because you know you kind of it tends to happen you start your career it's like hey I'm you know I've got the bad John I'm going to go take care of business but it's like yeah you know you need to be a little more more thoughtful about it you know I mean it's it's a Stan uh when we do talk about Citizens Academy and talk about use Force we say hey he kind of gives us example it's like hey you know if I go and I got a warrant for somebody and and I look at the totality of circumstances and he says I'm not come with you I say okay and then I leave and then calls for some backup but you know other other folks you know depending on where you are I mean if you don't know anybody you're just going to jump in there and try to fight with them like talk about how that evolves over time yeah well you you know you get a sense of better judging the situation as to you know how important it is I mean there there's there's times when you can't wait you you have to go in you know uh you know you know guns drawn that type of thing you know you don't have you don't have that ability but other things where like I said you know like making that arrest uh that that is something that you know I I wasn't going to leave but you know it it could have been handled a little different maybe defer the conversation ask about the birds you know that type of thing and you know just stall him a few minutes uh and then when another deputy gets there you know there's like hey this is what's going to happen you know that type of thing you know uh but I mean he was intoxicated he was already kind of argumentative and everything and so you know it was but yeah you you try to gauge the situation you know you you sometimes have a traffic stop and you realize the person has a warrant there's no need to tell them they have a warrant at that time you know call for backup you know just just apologize for the computers running slow or or whatever um you know that type of thing and and uh just you know just wait be more calculated be smarter work smarter not harder right right yeah and because I would imagine in some cases it's more than just keeping yourself safe like you could be keeping people around safe in case they decide to run or get really like insane yeah yeah I mean absolutely because um you know the the things that we do and and trying to apprehend people it it to your point it doesn't just affect us you know uh and so whether it's you know and just like you know our Pursuit policy and everything you know we we don't pursue everything that we legally could pursue just because you have to weigh what are the safety and the dangers to the public and uh you know someone who you're trying to stop for an expired tag but they don't want to stop it's like well obviously there's there's a reason it's probably not the expired tag but you don't know what it is right right so instead of being like well let's find out let's chase this guy and uh and then you know he ends up t-boning you know some mom of you know with two kids in the car right to find out oh well I thought I had a warrant but you don't you know and that's why he ran or you know my license is suspended and it's like you know like was it worth you know a 2-year-old getting hurt and a mother or something right so yeah thinking of that with here I believe anyways that a lot of that has to do with how densely populated penel is that we don't pursue a lot um so that way we're not endangering the loads of people that are anywhere at any given time here but when you were in Maran did did it look different since it was more of a rural area did you guys have more Pursuits and yeah it it was it was a different day and time and listen State of Florida was a was a different state you know back in the 90s but yeah we we had Pursuits that that ran into other counties and and uh we would you know pursue people to Lake County and tires fall off mhm it was a little more I guess the traditional you know cops and robbers you know chases and things like that but uh again you know this was 30 years ago right yeah so what uh brings you to pelis so uh while I worked at the sheriff's office um I met my girlfriend we got engaged and then ultimately married and uh we were married for about a year when uh she got an opportunity with her job to come to the Tampa Bay area so uh I had about four and a half years on with Maran County Sheriff's Office and I was like well you know as a couple we decided like this was the best move for us wasn't necessarily the best move for me but you know at that time but I was like you know I'm I'm still young in my career U but you know I I came to the pel county sheriff's office and I was highly recommended to come here there was a there was another deputy I worked with whose brother worked in forensics okay and so I came down and he gave me a whole tour of the of the Sheriff's Office and I have to say it was somewhat underwhelming because we had we had the old Sab oh and again I came from the the sheriff's office in Maran County and the everything was new there everything yeah was like like maybe certainly less than 10 years old and I came here to the old County Hospital that had been turned into the sheriff's administration building that was built in the 40s and haunted and uh you know and uh we were out at forensic and even back then those buildings you know were unimpressive uh there was a brand new courthouse being built um but he was telling me how great the agency was the the training and and just everything and you know we had the white shirts back then and he's like I work here and you know there's no other agency you really want to work for you want you want to come apply for the Sheriff's Office and you didn't consider any other agencies really just so I didn't I really didn't I uh I I I applied and and came down and and uh was like I I need to get job quick my wife's living out of a hotel MH and uh so they're like well um it's kind of hard to get on the road but I see your dual certified so but we could start you right away in the jail and so I was like okay you know like I need a job and you know done that before and and I really didn't know the county I didn't know anything down here I've been to clearw beach I think one time um so I was like you know maybe this is maybe this is for the best so I started back in the jail still still a pretty stark contrast Marian County yeah um it was uh it was it was quite different like I said uh you know it was it's an older jail there's different designs you know it's it's funny how there's every decade there's a different right design and P and pel kind of had them all they had you know we had a fivestory building we had g- wings which were twostory we had you know like they were all a little different it's called eclectic yeah yeah was very that was much better yeah yes good job pring on that one as so um yeah and I I left before the the new construction out there and you know now things are much more way more modern and more uniform so how long were you in the jail so I was in the jail uh did three and a half years and uh a long time yeah it is well uh I was happy to get out of there that quick uh because I could have swore that I was told that after a year I could apply for the road um but then when I was going through the oral board they're like uh so how do you feel about coming back to working in the jail after being a road deputy and so I explained the situation and moving down here and and everything and you know I was fine with it and I said you know after a year I it's probably the wrong answer I gave I was like after a year I am going to you know most likely apply for the road and everyone at the oral board's like looking around like you know it's a two-year commitment and I'm like oh well my mistake clearly I don't apparently not I was misinformed or I misunderstood something but so after two years I will likely so which you know uh I mean honest to a fault you know I was like I didn't really want to make a career in the jail but you know find the work there and and and do that but yeah so I got out after a little after three and a half and and and came to the road and then you know what'd you get into what was your what was your thing um you know just I mean it was a lot to you know even though I'd done this before it was it's it's a lot different different environment and yeah much different much more congested but your back up like you know right there yeah there's deputies you know showing up you know you don't even have to ask for them show up where were you assigned at first kind of bounced all over but I I remember I I did like uh I think I day shift luckily I got day shift for like eight months or something and then shift change uh but I was like a a year in midnights on uh in Safety Harbor okay we had three shifts that we had Day evening yeah yeah we we worked eights so we worked day shift evenings and then midnights and uh was midnights uh in Safety Harbor for a year and and uh I think I got back on dayshift and had an interest in doing traffic actually got on to the mate team which our major accident investigation team yeah essentially traffic homicide and uh so I got on there and there was all the guys that were in traffic at the time all three of them uh they were uh they were in they were in mate and so it was a good way to kind of network with them and you know like hey you know I'd like to do your job one day you know it look it looks fun and and different what what's a we talk about what mate is first but I'm also interested in what the training is involved because that's kind of intense but what what is mate for what what counts as a major accident so um a little bit unique in this County so typically traffic homicides you know traffic crashes that result in a death they're worked by the Florida Highway Patrol in unincorporated County uh but Maran County or penel county is unique in that we have 13 contract cities so we are essentially a city police for those cities like simol uh dun Eden Safety Harbor SAR and so if a traffic fatality happens those cities FHP does not investigate okay and so we do and uh we do a very thorough investigation and it's a it's a team approach this is this is something you do above and beyond your your dat your day it's like like a call out yeah so you're you're a day shift Deputy or midnight Deputy or whatever but then you're also in addition on the on the mate team it's like SWAT but nerdier yeah yeah not not near as glamorous uh and use more often probably so uh oh damn so you uh you get you get called out and uh and so it could be a traffic fatality or a crash that's serious enough that uh death is likely to occur so you know someone who's maybe Bay flighted and it's like yeah they they may or may not make it that type of thing so they would call out the mate team what um what was your interest in being on the mate team well it was just something different um you know it was I I don't know why it just I had an interest in in learning that the more I found out about it was like yeah that that'd be kind of cool uh again I have an interest in cars and mechanics and like you do vehicle inspections and things like that and I was like oh well you know I think i' you know growing up on a farm I'm kind of Handy with uh you know tools and mechanics and stuff like that so I was like you know I think I could contribute something and uh so got on the mate team and yes there's a there's a lot of schooling and math and yes unfortunately math out yep yeah so I answered my own question in high school when I you know argu with my algebra teacher like why are you teaching this stuff no one will ever use this I don't know a single person that uses algebra but uh T yes now I yeah that's like you'll never have a calculator in your pocket you need to know this well what happened yeah exactly yeah so there's lots of schools you go to uh I think there's three or at least there used to be three schools that get certified and there's specialty schools for commercial vehicles and pedestrians and and different things like that where you you learn a lot of specialized you know formulas and things like that like a if a body gets hit and you know gets thrown 20 feet you know things like that can you can you walk us through like a typical mate call like what are the things that you're analyzing and yeah so in in a mate call uh and like I said I'm I'm speaking from years ago but but I think the questions are still the same you're trying to find and recreate the you get there of course you you see a car all tore up you know and and there's a maybe a crushed bicycle and there's a pedestrian who you know has is deceased on the road and you're trying to figure out what happened here yeah and so uh you know we do scaled mapping uh so it's important to know the correlation of where the car came to final rest where the bicycle was where The Pedestrian was uh you're looking like skid marks where did the skid marks you know start at things like that and you're ultimately trying to take that that crime scene and back it up you know really just just a few seconds but you know it's more than just a few seconds there's like microc seconds in there and you're trying to go back and determine you know how fast was that car traveling you know where was The Pedestrian which direction was he coming from you know that type of thing because and you're trying to determine you know who's at fault you know so you you've got 75 ft of skidar Mark uh some of it's past the uh pedestrian crosswalk and you've got a pedestrian that's been hit so who's at fault well okay well you know typically your first thought is well the car has to yield to the person in the crosswalk but we want to back it up and find out like okay based on what Lane the car was in The Pedestrian got hit three and a half you know three feet from the curb so he had just entered the pedestrian crosswalk based on where the car was traveling based on the skid marks we know it was in this Lane based on you know it took out this headlight so he hit this part of the car and you know and then we want to show like the speed of the car would it would make a difference if The Pedestrian was slightly intoxicated or maybe the driver was and you know what was the speed of the car you know was it the speed limit or was he doing like you know 70 M an hour uh you know did he have a headlight out you know on top of that and so did The Pedestrian see him you know uh or not see him uh because he was traveling so fast or was The Pedestrian careless and should have seen him because he was traveling at the speed limit his headlights were working they were on and and The Pedestrian just stepped out in front of a moving car and so you're trying to you know it can make a big difference as to was the driver at fault or was The Pedestrian at fault and so those are the questions and the math and the and the evidence and all that will kind of tell you like all those all answer those questions look at the skid marks and calculate from from that a way to tell what the speed speed the vehicle was going yeah you get the friction of the roadway and and you know you get you know the the car you know sliding and you know which now they don't really slide there's like ABS but you can still see a you know like like essentially a skid mark they're they're lighter because the wheel is locking up intermittently uh but if you get there and you look at it you can kind of see where where that friction started and it will leave a temporary uh mark on the road and so you're looking for that kind of stuff so this is all all the training so there's a lot of science that goes into it and um you know of course now cars have like black boxes and everything now when I was you know in in mate that was kind of new and you know but that all came out as a result of airbags and yeah um so were there any uh notable crashes or investigations over the years that stick with you I bet you've seen some horrible horrible crashes yeah yeah I've done you know death notifications um because when you come out on the team you you don't always have the same role uh you know like I live in Timar and so you know if we had a crash in deden I might get there pretty quick if we had one down on you know Indian Rocks Beach I might be one of the later ones to get there or they may say you know what go go straight to the hospital like someone was transported to Tampa General you know because a crash happened in dun Eden or something and you know they were you know bay flighted or something like that so sometimes you're going to the hospital sometimes you're going to the scene sometimes you're you're doing this different stuff and then sometimes you're you're doing the death notification but yeah um it's you know it's it's sad because the the thing about you know I know civilians call it traffic accidents as if you know crashes happened and you really can't can't prevent it but if you you know when when we do an investigation it's a crash report it's not an accident report it's a crash report yeah uh and the thing is is traffic laws are such that they're really idealist you know idealistically there should not be any crashes if everyone follows the law and you know starts breaking at yellow lights and Bas of speed limits and and everything drive drunk and doesn't drive impaired and you know you know you know we watch out for pedestrian cross Crossings and things like that everyone should be there shouldn't be any traffic fatalities uh but that you know in reality you know people are crossing they're not looking both ways they're you know they're traveling too fast they're you know maybe not wearing their seat belt whatever the case may be and so and legally there's a difference between something that is a legitimate accident you know you hit a spot of well you wouldn't have ice here but hit or something and went off the road by accident driving at a normal speed safe speed versus you doing something wrong and somebody dying right correct I mean there there's some things you know like maybe you didn't know how deep the water was and it jerked the wheel of the car um but you know there's a lot of things you know where you're supposed to driv in a you know you're just because the speed limits you know 55 and it's pouring rain doesn't mean you still have to drive 55 you maybe should drive you know 40 or 45 so there AR a lot that are legitimate accidents yeah you know you unpreventable yeah I mean like I said there there there are I suppose some circumstances that are unforeseeable and and unavoidable um but they're not as nowhere near as common yeah but they're they're typically they're they're almost all of them are preventable MH you know had someone or or you know a couple of things you know uh happen the way they should have yeah so you're telling me about um one on a motorcycle or two motorcycles yeah yeah yeah yeah so this was uh uh it was when I was working Safety Harbor on midnights I had just come on and and U one of the deputies had like two motorcycles just like RI past him super fast and uh you know he called it out on the radio and uh so he gets turned around by the time he gets turned around they're they're gone he can't see the tail lights so I'm uh I'm down the road from him and I don't see them either um but I'm or maybe they pass me I can't remember remember but anyhow they you know they were they were too fast to pursue or anything so I'm driving down a Philippi Parkway and I'm looking down side streets trying to see if I can see some tail lights because it's like at midnight there's really no traveling and uh so I come up to this sharp curve and there's just dust and it's like oh and so then I see like there's this bike on its side up against the guard rail and uh so I call it out get out go running around and you know the biker has been thrown on over the guard rail and and he's on the sidewalk over there so uh you know we're trying to stabilize him and find out you know what what it is and and uh then this guy comes up and he's like yelling and screaming you know and you know do something for him do something for him it's like you know like you're we're trying not to like move his head you know you know if he's if he's breathing that's good we we want you know so we got his visor up so this guy starts yelling like well he had a girlfriend I think there was another Rider on the bike oh and we're like I'm looking around and I'm like I don't see anything you know so you know he's like screaming or whatever so uh we start looking around and sure enough there is a a petite female who was also thrown from the bike but unfortunately she hit like one of the signs that was there with the arrow and so she's between the sign and the back of the guard rail and uh so I get to her and and you know like we're I'm like I still remember like one of the few times I think I like got on was like frantically calling for like FD to get there faster you like somehow they could um but yeah in in examining you know she had like blood coming out of her nose and her ears and I mean she you know she was deceased right there so uh and it was it was this guy uh it was his high school girlfriend I think they were engaged and um so The Story Goes that he had been stopped uh like a month or so earlier for doing like 70 or 80 M an hour down a residential Street doing a wheelie or doing something stupid had been written a criminal citation went to court and he had been to court that like afternoon like on a Friday afternoon and he had family hired an attorney and he like yeah you know he was very dumb you know but he just got it and you know he's he realizes you know he shouldn't do that and he's really learned from his mistakes and blah blah blah blah so the the judge you know uh gave him a second chance and you know re stated his license or whatever and you know and he promised to do better well when he left he's like you know hey you know so he calls his buddy who doesn't have a license but you know he's he's a he's like a habitual motorcycle offender and that's who he's somehow learned some of these bad habits from and he's like we should go out you know like I you know we should take my bike out I haven't read it in like a month you know since I got this dumb ticket and uh so they end up going over to ebore or somewhere over there and they're coming back uh you know like at midnight and uh they cut down through Safety Harbor and they're driving way too fast and that's how this whole thing started and uh and she she's riding on the back of his bike and so the Buddy like you know the Rog kind of veers to the right well he he goes left in an effort to like the cops won't find us if we go this way and he's following which your reaction time is slower and he's got two people on his bike so he can't make the turn and he loses it crashes uh he survives but he kills his girlfriend SL fiance who was like she just this was like in June or July she just graduated like in May oh so uh yeah super super tragic super tragic yeah is that kind of the majority of the experiences with mate unfortunately it kind of sounds like it yeah like I said they're they their deaths or you know uh real bad yeah yeah there's you know um did the kid go to jail this time yes yes he he he did and I I don't know I he may have done some some uh some prison time and I know part of his probation of his release was he had to do like hundreds of hours of community service and he had to do it with a poster photograph of her within like 10 feet of where he stood and and the poster had to be like 3T by 4 feet and so all hist all his community service had to be done with her watching a photo of her you know which I'm sure you know I mean you know I mean it affected him obviously personally but you know that's hopefully yeah it caused him to not do anything like that again yeah so at some point you make traffic obviously cuz I know that was your bread and butter for a b yeah yeah and but having this experience with mate has to make you a even better traffic guy when you're having those educational discussions yeah yes yes yes so you know the thing is is you know I I was trying to get the traffic anyhow and I I got the Traffic Unit and at the time we had unmarked cars and and uh you know it was it was you know it was great I ended up doing mate or traffic for like eight or nine years total um and just to be clear for for folks listening so obviously all of our deputies out there on the road to mar car they can conduct traffic stops and do traffic regularly but we do have a dedicated Traffic Unit uh that uh is out there exclusively dealing with traffic correct correct yeah so uh and the thing is is you know we had you know not every Deputy has radar and Laser and and all that I mean our deputies are not primarily state troopers um um so with a Traffic Unit we had unmark cars we had we had some of the first video equipment they were VCRs I've heard of those right about that was our that was our high high-tech equipment we had just gotten laptops um and we had uh you know so anyhow it was it was you know for for you know for I guess it was early 2000s stay of the art um but it was it was a lot of fun and but yes to the to the point of uh mate I I was writing tickets in the daytime to try to avoid going to make calls at night in essence because I saw you know what people who are Reckless people who are careless people who weren't wearing seat belts uh you know people who were just doing dumb things uh unfortunately I had firsthand seen the results of that sure so uh so anyway yeah I I guess I was doing a traffic homicide prevention right before I was doing crime prevention yeah and I feel like um I feel like traffic people whether they're in traffic you know just deputies but they always kind of have like a philosophy when it comes to traffic enforcement you know like the way you know what's what's your threshold of those things what is that for you when you when you pull somebody over you know by the time you're pulling somebody over with the things you've seen and you know are you pulling somebody over for a certain speed over are you you know what's what's your thought our process yeah I I think every Deputy kind of has to develop their kind of like their threshold like you know where you know how fast over does someone get stopped you know right um so you know I mean it it would vary you know if it was a school zone it was one threshold if it was you know uh regular posted speeds it was different um I always tell my son five over is safe he's he's a new driver yeah so is that is that a good advice for him than the school zone or Kenneth City well yeah well his dad's a a sergeant there he's pretty good in Kenne City yeah so I mean yeah it is because you know for for being cited for unlawful speed it the fine start at 6 over okay so you you technically can't get a speeding ticket for one or two miles an hour over okay so it it the fine start at six over um is is the earliest so uh yes I mean you know I guess we're we're not you know we're not even striving for Perfection you know we you know that's um but with Omar cars and everything we we saw a lot uh I got brought to the unit with an aggressive driving Grant so I was aggressive driving deputy and then we we had another grant for aggressive driving vehicle and we had an unmarked uh Dodge pickup oh nice and and that was the first the blue one that I've heard of legendary yeah I remember seeing that thing on TV when I was a kid and I thought it was the coolest thing ever cuz it had like the the Tano cover that popped up and it was lights that was so I thought thought that was the coolest it was like I said for for early 2000s it was it was like Night Rider you know it was uh we had we had front Camas we had rear cameras uh we had you know our new laptops which we knew at the time we had ticket printers then we got uh we adopted Tom lto created the first uh adom uh uh programm yes correct yes yeah and so it would talk to you and it would autop populate the citations and so you know this was you know like I this is like Cutting Edge at oh my gosh yeah this is like SpaceX you and still still a VCR though still a VCR yes yes it was a vcr and so you know we were we were you know doing that we were using the helicopter to to catch Speeders on the Bayside uh so I would occasionally go up in the helicopter and run the watches up there and your yeah cuz that's cool yeah yeah from from you know you'd be driving down the road and uh say oh speed enforce you know what the hell how does that work but you guys are actually there are timing lines on the Bayside bridge and you're timing their speed between that's how you're catching them yeah yeah I didn't know like a traffic Deputy would ride in the eagle for that I thought it just like the tfd yeah cuz we we would go to court to testify if they fought the ticket so we had to have so we would have two clipboards we had two metal clipboards and we had a certified uh stopwatch on each of them and we had three boxes basically out there on the Bas St side Bridge so a mile I think is like 5,280 ft M so five tomatoes so 5280 so we would we would we would have a box that was 500 280 ft uh you know 528 ft and uh so that was one/ tenth of a mile and so you would as the as the front bumper would touch the line you'd start the stopwatch and as the bumper touched the second line you'd stop it and so that was a tenth of a mile that was easy to calculate uh and so you could very quickly determine what their speed was during that that tenth of a mile and then we would follow them and you could you could do up to two uh on a on a pass and we would follow them over the Bayside and then as they exited we had deputies waiting and we'd be like okay it's the third car in the median Lane it's the red one and then we'd make sure they pulled it into like the church one m and like that that is your driver and then we' give them all the information you know it was box two it was this many seconds the was in the center lane you know that typee of thing and then we would turn around and then do it all over again and so we would we were Patrol did we do that anymore we haven't done it in a while yeah what what was the high score on the Bayside that you saw oh we we we had some triple digits out there yeah oh dang yeah which on the Bayside it's like this so I can only imagine when you're going northbound I do I do speed records on Gandy not on not on the Bay Side the purposing is just too much um yeah I mean it's crazy and and and obviously um the number one complaint we always have I mean when the sheriff speaks to the public yeah number one complaint people have is is traffic while it's mainly the biggest cause for work for us is people leaving their damn doors unlock we'll talk about that later but um so what did that enforcement look like for aggressive driving um the as the aggressive driving Deputy I assume you didn't just drive aggressively what what is aggressive driving too how do you define that exct yeah yeah I I try to remember what the state statute is I mean you're like I mean you're out there I think it's two or more violations that happen in close proximity so that could be a combination of speeding and proper lane change whatever fallowing too closely you're just you're just going in with their flow of traffic looking for things yeah H the Transformer button and it's like yeah so we had we had unmarked Crown Victoria and they had like the black grill and the black between the tail lights you know they're pretty easy to spot if you knew if you're a kid we're looking for them but this this pickup truck no one had a pickup truck I mean now they they do Largo and penel park a bunch of people have used trucks and still do but this was the first and you know people were Unown they were not prepared for uh they were not prepared for a pickup truck uh to stop and so I had I had front camera rear camera and so just driving around uh constantly recording or you would turn it on no you couldn't constantly record because you like said you're you're limited these VHS tapes and you know I mean tape runs out so um you know we would you know but you could hit record if you saw someone you know uh who looked like they had the potential or or they were driving aggressively you know doing a lot of Lane changes tailgating that type of thing and so we would try to capture that on video and then you know perform a traffic stop what is tailgating well it's it's just you you have to articulate that they're following too close for the flow of traffic I mean there's not a there's not you know there's I think there's a rule of thumb you should be what one car length for every 10 miles an hour but no one does that but yeah that's that's that's probably I got a steer I can't count you're right but you know but articulating that you know the flow of traffic you know I observe the vehicle you know at 60 MPH on US1 19 and he was approximately you know 8 ft from the bumper and and you know and then you know made an aggressive Lane change without using his blinker and and was doing it again and you know then he made another change and cut off someone and barely missed the bumper by you know approximately four feet as he made another Lane change like that's how you would uh like justify a citation yeah you would do a of driving yes yes uh so you know is that's can you get a ticket just for tailgating is that a you can there there's there there's there's careless and then if it's you know much more dangerous there's reckless driving and then on citations it was like an aggressive driving box that you would check that you know this this offense occurred while they were also doing aggressive driving and I think if it didn't I don't think it changed the penalty but if it did go to court the judge had the right then to you know up the fine because it was you know it wasn't just that they were careless or just that they were they cut someone off but you know it was they had a pattern of doing yeah all this during driving I mean and the kind of this going to sound stupid I don't know how to say like the more advanced level that you have as a traffic Deputy I mean you're you know you're doing a lot did you find yourself like overall like are most people taking you to court or or is that a minority or uh most people did not um but I um I mean I I usually had video um you know uh to kind of back up what I was doing if I was you know sitting on a stop sign or or a red light or something like that you know I I you know now our videos now are much much better because they're back up 30 seconds and with the VCR you hit record and there's about a two second delay before it finally starts moving the Magnetic Tape uh so many times I did not have the actual violation but uh we we tried to but uh but yeah we we were pretty creative back in the days we would get like the county sign truck and park it you know on the side of the road and and we'd sit up there and do laser enforcement from the platform or or observe a red light viol ations um and sometimes record it because they have like a little platform they work on and so we would use uh County equipment and dress up as construction workers and and things like that to uh undercover traffic yeah yeah you know and there was a big big push uh certainly back then with seat belts now now everything dings and you know Anno you and everything else with seat belts but but back then in early 2000s you know there was a lot of vehicles that you know you could bypass it or whatever and and a lot of people just didn't wear seat belts so we were trying to get seat belt usage up and again back to my mate investigations of traffic homicide you could you know it was you know a stark difference with someone who wore a seat belt and versus someone who did not wear a seat belt best excuse you ever heard for speeding besides I have to poop um anything stand out there was a guy his uh wife was in labor and uh so she was for real though yeah was she in the car she was not okay uh but but he was head that was a good question yeah so and this one actually got verified uh so he uh this guy was in a like an an F250 and I stopped him and he's like yeah you know I just got a phone call you know my wife's you know like she's pregnant she's at the hospital da da da and uh so he seemed very sincere and you know this wasn't like something that he you know had been you know scheming to uh to so I'm like okay just you know get there safely like you know nothing worse than missing the the birth of your child because you got into a crash so just you know please slow down so then like three months later uh I find out that he's actually a a friend of of of a neighbor and he's like oh yeah you you you stopped my friend you know Bill and uh he he want to say thank you like you know his his wife gave birth and he got and I'm like oh okay good look at that she named this kid after you yeah be a little little Chuck out there little [Laughter] skip wow so you no longer we no longer do the aerial enforcement there's another thing that we don't do very I think at all now and that's the checkpoint but checkpoints used to be big when we working traffics every time that we post about DUI wolf packs we get comments about PE people believing that it's a checkpoint we haven't done them for a while not yeah we don't we don't really do them anymore I think it grant money or something like that that we would do those and to be in the running you had to do like I don't know 24 uh a year and so we would do like one a month but we'd do one before midnight and then one after midnight ah two on a technicality so it was you know there were two different days you know one was a Saturday one was a Sunday or something like that or Friday and Saturday and uh but we would I mean it was it was a it was like an army I mean we had the command bus we had DUI units we had traffic units we had cpos we had uh Cadets out there we had cone trailers we had you know sign trailers that had to be moved we we you know gathered all the stuff together we set it up uh we had different Lanes so when people came in there was like four or five different lanes because you know we you know you stop people randomly right it wasn't every it it was predetermined like we had a we had a we had a plan ahead of time we would run through the State's Attorney's Office you know based on this roadway we're going to stop every 10th car seventh car and so that it's fair and so was just completely random we weren't you know so you know every seventh car got got pulled in got detoured got brought through we'd asked for their license traffic deputies were sitting there in our vehicles we you know the DUI unit typically made contact with them to see if they could detect any signs of impairment I'm running the license very quickly just to make sure they don't have a warrant they're valid and you know uh and like 30 seconds boom thank you have a great night stay safe and they're gone uh but we would get people who had warrants we get people who were driving on suspended license we get people who were intoxicated uh you know that that came through there and so you know uh but it was a lot of work and then we did that for like I don't know two three hours and we packed it all up and we went somewhere else and did it all over again W what were some of the roadways you would do it on uh we we did like 19 uh we did it on the beaches um uh gosh what an undertaking all the traffic State Road 580 and and Eden um you know East Lake Keystone road we did a couple times uh couple of streets uh you Main Street like four lane roads and you advertised them before right yeah so it was a requirement you advertised them we had a sign that said DUI checkpoint ahead you know um and you didn't stop the vehicles that's what I want to know yeah yeah so uh we did have uh deputies who if a vehicle did and you had to have a a place for them to turn around it wasn't like oh they had to dive all through the median like where the sign was there had to be like a a clear opport an opportunity for them to you know take a U-turn and so you would you wouldn't get stopped for doing that but we had people who would then follow that person to make sure they're not drunk and if they appeared in par to be like okay I'm not stopping you because you made a u-turn I'm stopping because you're you can't maintain your lane they can still read though apparently yes that yes yes so and intoxication you know they're like like 09 right so I guess it a lot of people there A lot of work a lot of a lot of equipment a lot of assets that were being moved uh but yeah and we did that for a couple years you know was a big undertaking any big uh misconceptions you think the public has about traffic enforcement well no nobody nobody likes getting a ticket and uh you know and that's probably you know from a PR standpoint it's probably you know the the thing that everyone fears and dislikes the most about the police you know and you know if I got in this job and wanted to be liked I would have been a fireman right uh everyone loves firemen they don't write tickets uh and they they show up when you you know in in times of Crisis but with the police we show up in times of Crisis typically um but you know with a ticket you know uh you know you're just you're doing something and you know you think it's not that bad your your interpretation interruped yeah this is a stupid speed limit or you know uh you know I've I've waited long enough for this red light or you know it was it was orange when I went through it or what whatever you uh and so you know we give those citations but again it's it's it's kind of like um the prevention side of it in that you know there there is a consequence to getting a little too fast and loose literally with uh with the with the traffic laws and you know you maybe feel like you're an excellent driver and and that type of thing but you know your speed and your actions and you know being somewhat careless and flagrant with the obeying the the rules of of the road road not only endanger yourself but others MH yeah on um gosh on social any of our safety tips related to Traffic just get blown up with comments and there's so many people that say thank you so much keep doing this and they're excited and just as many people are saying things like I'm going to speed down this road faster you know um it's so interesting how you should be stopping all the murderers and rapists instead or do something more important right yeah I also love um you know uh just the people that say and we clap back on them um sometimes but it's like yeah you guys never do XYZ or you're never there or whatever and it's like are you like sitting there the entire day or are you just surprised there isn't a deputy there the 25 seconds it takes you to drive through that intersection like you know what are you talking about uh you know we're out there all the time J on now there are things that are a little more pressing that deputies get called to obviously that's why we have dedicated units for some of that but but it's it is always interesting to see the and the other thing is you know we're driving around a billboard uh you know these these things have you know massive reflective letters that you know it doesn't matter if it's Sheriff's Office police you know whatever their their Billboards and you know and for the for the you know for that moment when people see that you know maybe they you know they don't run a red light yeah I mean you know I mean people still do but I I certainly see a lot more traffic violations when I'm not working and I'm off duty in my personal vehicle than I do in my Mark Patrol vehicle and that kind of makes me think about any time that I have posted about it could be anything but if the vehicle is unmarked whether it's a Sergeant's Tahoe or anything some people get into that debate of whether or not all of our vehicles should be super marked why are you hiding and then there's other people when I post a totally Marx Tahoe doing enforcement at a school zone they're like oh no you need to you need to be hiding and get those people like it's so interesting how torn people can be about something like this that's really we're doing it to save your life right yeah like critical thinking is at an all-time low uh that's all right job security right yeah um so you do traffic for how long and then your first stent in crime prevention has got to be coming up there at some point yeah so uh uh the was i' stayed in probably traffic way too long you know like you should move around the agency but I was I enjoyed it I I felt you know empowered by it like I was making a difference uh you know like and so I I really enjoyed doing that and uh but what got what interrupted it was the the Great Recession and so we had you know major budgetary constraints you know for the first time ever in law enforcement uh you know we actually laid deputies off uh and so the the Traffic Unit the UI unit things like that uh got scaled back to the point that they were temporarily dissolved and and things like that so uh I went back to patrol and then um had the opportunity to come to crime prevention so my wife uh the hour she works using retail uh sales and stuff like that so she works nights and weekends and everything and and we had a daughter who was I don't know she was probably about eight or 10 or something at the time and so I was trying to get to do something that I would be home nights and weekends to cook help with homework take her to the ballet on Saturday Mr Mom yep yep so yeah so it was like you know one of us is kind of decide you know like you know one of us has got to you know kind have more of a normal job and so uh I was like so I was able to so so crime prevention provided that schedule well yeah so I I really I probably initially I was like oh well that'd be good you know like I didn't really understood what all it was MH uh but I mean I I've definitely drank the Kool-Aid and uh you know I'm I'm I'm all into crime prevention and I I wholeheartedly believe that that there is a a definitive role in educating people to better protect themselves yeah I mean and obviously you guys are are great partners for us on on messaging and things but I mean even you know when I started uh you were there um back in 2013 and I mean it's just it's just tremendous um what you guys do be and unfortun unfortunately uh and this is not on you guys but just un fortunately the the public interest you know is always shifting and changing um you know and and I know you talk about it but uh you know neighborhood watches you know those things we've just my time the last 11 years I've seen how you know the interest shift you certainly have a certain demographic of residents that are participating in in neighborhood watchs there's a generation where you used to get to know your neighbors and fraternization and a lot of those things that kind of dwindle and and shift so your job in addition to which at his core is just purely trying to put us out of business really is what it is cuz you you know and the sheriff says it all the time we want to you know we we of course want to effectively investigate crime and and find justice but what we'd really like to do is prevent it from happening in the first place so you guys have the keys to the kingdom really uh the solution but it's trying to get it's hard to get the public you know on board with it and you guys are just you guys are like monks you're just dedicated and you're going forward no matter what now I just got to see we got to photoshop you and Dan and Jessica and cloaks or something but but I mean that's you guys are just so dedicated to what you do and I it's just it always is very impressive to me because it's like listen this this we're going to beat on this drum uh forever because it's so so much of it is so preventable yeah yes uh and I I think the public is many times they're unaware of just the things that they're doing that you know puts them at danger of being a victim to of a crime that with a few simple things they could avoid right simple uh avoid their yeah it's nothing necessarily complex the the thing I've you know in in my years of working in law enforcement most criminals are not that sophisticated uh they're just looking for easy opportunities uh like I I tell people when I do my neighborhood watch uh burglary does not pay well enough that it's a full-time job uh typically this is like some criminals like side hustle you know he may have a job where he drives around he you know does some kind of job uh you know that he makes you know uh you know minimum salary but he supplements his income and maybe he started when he was 14 I I don't know you know what the psychological route for someone who wants to steal other people's property is but uh there are people who do it and it's not just kids it's not just you know teenagers it's people who in their 20s and 30s uh that I don't know if they just they enjoy enjoy it or they there's enough financial gain in it that you know they they they continue to do that mhm and so you know like just some simple things like leaving your garage door open uh you know a lot of people are like well I live in a nice Community uh well yes you do live in a nice community and guess what burglars would love to steal from homes in a nice Community because they have nice stuff right McAllister's lived in a nice neighborhood and uh and and the thing about you know garage door open you know people people understand like oh yeah well you know I wouldn't leave it open all night you know duh but it's like well you can leaving it open during the day you can get a burglar who just walks up the driveway and steals something out of the car that's maybe unlocked in the garage or steals some tools or SE what's in there for later anything yeah yeah and and and you know we have garage burglaries that happen you know at 2: in the afternoon um so you got to keep your garage doors closes you know and and same way with locking your car doors I mean it's just it's not a nighttime thing it's right you know it's yeah that one really I think blows all of our minds uh mostly because we see it uh literally every day when we're looking at the nightly and things that are happening but not only that people uh leave their cars unlocked but then the things they leave in their cars of course most notably Firearms uh which you like there's a lot of responsibility that comes with fire ownership so I feel like that's like a clue uh there that you probably shouldn't have a gun if you're not responsible enough to secure hear it but you know what when you're out there talking to the public whether it be a random presentation here or there neighborhood watch like are do you find that people are do they like defend leaving their car doors unlocked or are they just Cavalier about it or or what do they have to say when you're out there uh I think they're just unaware of the danger that it is that you know they assume you know it's it's not that big a deal not going to happen to me yeah it's you know it's daytime it's uh it's a nice neighborhood this is a nice shopping center you know I mean you know if I thought about it I'd lock it but you know I didn't you know no big deal uh that type of thing you know what are the odds you know like I've I've accidentally left my car unlocked sure a 100 times and nothing's happened right you know but then 101 it's when you know something inside gets stolen you know like your gun right and then you know there's also something I see a lot in hear a lot is oh well I don't want to you know I shouldn't have to live in fear type thing or like that's your problem yeah yeah some people are are like you know I I can live as careless and and uh and it's my problem personal responsibility right right yeah I I I shouldn't have any personal responsibility that's why I pay you taxes to uh protect me and I shouldn't you know I shouldn't have any responsibility for keeping myself safe from my property you know I we're not asking for people to you know the expectation is not that you go out and spend you know large sums of money and you know for surveillance systems and all that I mean some people do but you know what we're trying to do is just a lot of simple thing and you know we've been kind of harping on property crimes but you know the same thing goes for scams uh there's been this massive rise in scams like the last 10 or 15 years that unlike it has never existed before and with everyone having cell phones and smartphones and access to the internet and text messages and now these things can be generated and you know thousands of text messages and emails and all this kind of stuff can be sent out uh this is kind of like the new the new territory it's it's a highrisk or lowrisk high reward type crime and the thing is is like a property crime if someone breaks into your garage or your car they have to be physically here in pel's County right and so there's a good chance that they live here or they live in a surrounding area right but when someone commits a crime on your phone and they trick you into sending $2,500 they could be anywhere in the world right and and they often are and they often are so you know and and and the scam thing is something that is evolving uh and that people you know that's that's a big push of stuff that we're doing they're constantly becoming more and more creative and so that is our that is our latest challenge just to get people more familiar with things you know you know and not to respond and and and get emotionally involved immediately you know when you get a text message that says something's been canceled or you owe money right and that type of thing to be you know skeptical of that and I guess it's just I'm very naive on this but it is I mean it absolutely from from where I sit and seeing how much not only we message but how much messaging is out there from local Partners Community Partners state law enforcement federal law enforcement about these sorts of things and people still fall for it yes I mean I am I am 34 years old and I I've I've never been close to getting got on some of that stuff but some of the stuff you look at and you go well that's that's pretty good but you know what if I don't know first of all if I don't know the number that's calling me and this is one that R blows my mind especially with the older population like if you don't know who is calling you don't answer it you don't it's astonishing that people answer the you don't have to answer like I I I mean even I even for friends I'm involved in a lot of things I have I'm busy with this job I have some other other things I'm not answering the phone if I know the number they can leave a message or send me a text M and you know sometimes if I'm expected to call I might answer but then if it starts I I just hang up I think sometimes people think it's rude they don't answer I don't know if it's a particular generation or but it is just I cannot it's one of those things like I cannot even begin to WRA my head around and I don't know I don't know I mean I don't know how you combat it you guys are out there marching we're we're posting stuff out there and it's like oh this nice young man called and he wants a block of gold so I sent it to him like what yeah who does that yeah so there's like I said a lot of this is you know bad behaviors uh you know well they're not bad behaviors but you know it's it's maybe like Ashley said it's a generational thing where if someone calls I answer you know and I don't know decades ago you know when someone did call they actually did want to talk to you uh you know and very rare rarely did you actually get a sales call but I mean those have become you know I get more of those than anything but there's just some of these these habits that people are in MH that you know when we're out talking to them we have to caution them as to why you know they need to reconsider what they've always done MH you know uh you know and maybe there was a reason that they did it at one time but now it's it's more of a liability it increases your risk you know answering the phone uh you know using a debit card versus a credit card you know it's like well what do you mean I I don't understand you know it's a piece of plastic you know it's it's so much easier for me to use it's like yes I get it you you're not wrong it does work and it's convenient I'm not arguing that but you know for the example of like a debit card is that is your money and if that card gets compromised which there's a lots there's lots of ways that can happen and if that gets compromised then it's your money that's stolen not Visa Mastercard Discover uh it's your money and it's much more difficult to fight that get it back that type of thing and so you know using a credit card M you know protects you you can also increase your credit uh rating and score cuz using a debit card you don't do anything with your credit score either so there's there's there's several benefits but people have never no one's ever talked to them and they've never really thought like oh I I just did what was you know it came out of my checking account and that was most convenient yes most convenient but you're putting yourself at at risk really for no reason right and so it's really about explaining that and that's I mean that's why we really like to get out and talk to people and we we do like the little reels and we we try to kind of cram you know like a little a little uh tidbit a little tidbit yeah a little a little informational you little little stack of knowledge there and kind of cram it into 30 seconds but you know I I really enjoy getting out and talking to people and explaining you know how some of these scams are being perpetrated you know and in some of the the FL uh similar ways that they're being done like scams can be different but there's really three or four different ways that they all kind of have a a same theme um and if you're you know being asked for money but they don't want a credit card they want gift cards they want cryptocurrency they want you know you to you know put cash in a box and they'll send somebody or something that's just not normal like any any business they you know whatever they'll take a credit card uh but scammers won't because they know that you can cancel that and they won't get their money so they're asking for money in other ways mhm so I mean there's there's a huge red flag doesn't matter what the scenario is there's a family member that's been hospitalized or in jail or you owe money and you're going to have Services turned off but you need to pay via gift card stop right gift cards are for gifts they're not to be used for payment and and also I mean to to our friends may be listening that work in retail at the Public's CVS's Walgreens of the world if you got a little old lady on the phone taking instruction for somebody buying Apple gift cards like hello yes like I still can't do you think this is something that you know I mean obviously we also got the rise of of AI and and voice spoofs and things like that which is which is next level but uh that probably spoof all of us since we're on podcast big time they can spoof us um but uh do you think that as Generations move along that it kind of starts to taper off because we you know you have a generation that grows up dealing with scams or do you think that they'll always just keep finding some way to blow our minds cuz I I I mean I I'm not saying I'm impossible to fool but like I said I don't respond to text I don't click on links I don't answer my phone like what's next yeah maybe because like again I've been doing this a long time and I I know like you know 10 years ago or longer uh there was a lot of interest and concern about Internet safety and you know kids were starting to play video games and there was all these different uh apps and chat rooms and things like that and it was relatively new parents were completely unfamiliar with it and they were concerned you know for good reason and so we did a lot of presentations and and uh education on what parents could do to minimize and and better monitor what their kids were doing online and like like I said from from 10 or 15 years ago we're getting less and less requests because I think parents are better informed uh this stuff is not so foreign and you know they've they've set up some rules uh you know some house rules that hopefully they're they're doing a much better job they're not as fearful it's not as unknown that type of thing so to your point you know perhaps in another 10 or 20 years uh you know kids who are just now getting phones and things like that and and they know all these text messages and and things are just you know scams yeah because I think technology catches up too right I mean the real I mean the best example really is is Vehicle Safety because now you've got the thing in your car that is dinging and won't shut up until you put your seat belt on you know your your music might be uh turned down until you put seat belt on you're you know when you put your car in rever I mean there's a lot of things that have come in over the years to improve vehicle safety and and behavior right that happens with electronic devices you know the you know a lot of the social media uh platforms and you know gaming consoles whatever they have parental controls and all those things that have that have come in so maybe just kind and you know our iPhones or Androids tell us it's a scam likely call um so you know you hope that technology kind kind of tries to keep up is there anything that I mean I know there's a lot of things but anything in particular that that you think where you know the private sector producers of things makers of things whatever options and opportunities out there for them that would that make your job easier speaking about how you know the technology is is getting better on you know detecting and and helping uh citizens and everything you know what what concerns me is you know this next level uh artificial intelligence and things like that uh I I think there's going to be a whole another couple of generations that will have to relearn uh you know when they get a phone call and it sounds exactly like a loved one uh and has a conversation with them explaining why they need money and you know it needs to be paid in gift cards they're going to miss that part and be like you know my my sister needs my help and mhm you know the scenario that she laid out she needs gift cards you know and that's going to somehow seem believable uh so that you know that that concerns me um uh that it's just kind of like Warfare you know they you know we we we come out with you know something and then we come out with something that you know uh a shield or a something that they can withstand that and then the right you know then they come out with something that's faster and stronger or whatever and it really is kind of a war with with criminals and the thing is is you know know this stuff will will get better but then criminals unfortunately will also get better yeah it's an arms race it's an arms race and they're they're using the technology to you know one up uh you know and so this is why certainly with crime prevention we constantly evolving because we're seeing what the latest games are what some of the latest techniques are because you know frankly what we if we're if we're teaching the same thing we were 10 years ago we'd be out you know out outdated and this is where you know I I it is frustrating you're talking about you know the demographics and things like that is that people feel like oh you know I I know what's going on you know I know how to protect myself and it's like well you're doing a pretty good job but you're you're 10 or 15 years behind behind right and you're you're not aware of what criminals are now doing or what they're capable of uh because you know it's not your job to keep up with the stuff I get it um but you know so in in crime prevention that's what we're hoping to better educate people as to you know this is the the weapons so to speak and it could be and a lot of this is technology uh that's tricking people or you know getting them to you know uh fall victim to these crimes so locking your vehicle obviously securing your property scam awareness things like that what else is out there that the public um should try to to focus on and concern themselves with anything beyond those items uh you know still um we do personal safety and the Bigg thing that there's uh situational awareness and uh again I feel like people uh when I do this I I one of the questions about Midway through the uh presentation is at at what distance should you be aware of you know of of someone who is you know approaching you or or or that you would you know as as I trying to remember how the uh slide goes uh at what distance should you have a a heightened sense of awareness of a stranger MH you know and I I go around the room and invariably I get answers from you know 5 feet maybe 10 you know and uh and so you know I I move the slide and you know it says 30 to 50 feet and I'm like you need time to you you need to like basically retune your radar and instead of looking 8 10t around you you need to be looking 30 40 50 ft out mhm because that's when you need to be like wait a second that guy looks odd he's staring at me or he doesn't need to be or why is he wearing a coat or you know why is he you know why is he out here walking you know at 4 in the morning he doesn't have a dog I have a dog but why is he out here and he's dressed all in black or or or whatever and so at that distance then you can see him you've got now you know maybe he's at the same time he's walking towards you uh you've got a moment or two to formulate like why this is odd and then now you've got to respond like you know what I'm just going to go across the street Street to the other sidewalk switch sides cuz I don't need to pass this guy right you know then if he switches sides then yeah then you know like okay time to run or something but but at 10 feet you know when you're just you know scrolling on your phone or you know talking to your dog and and now you meet this guy you know out here at 5:00 in the morning at 10 ft away from you it's too late I mean your options are super limited you know because he's literally almost within an arms length of you so so that's just one of the things with uh situational awareness that you know we talk about how you know criminals are I use the analogy like like lines on the serengetti M you know I mean they're fast they're powerful they got big teeth they got big claws you know but they're out here looking at a you know flock of antalope or water buffalo or whatever find the weakest and I'm like what are they looking for you know and the weakest is the distracted yeah are they looking for the strongest one with the most meat on it you know like I mean that would make sense that's the one to kill but no they don't and why because all the meat tastes the same mhm so they're looking for the straggler they're looking for the weakest they're looking for the one that you know that you know it's the easiest to pray and criminals are no different and so you know the thing is is you know they're looking for someone who is distracted they're looking for someone who doesn't show up on their radar until they're 10t away instead of 50 ft away they're looking for you know the person that they can get in close to because you know what everyone's got a wallet everyone's got you know uh a car key you know made in a parking lot like I don't care what kind of car I steal I don't care what kind of you know what's in your your purse your purse is the same as your purse you know I it's not a you know like I'm going to hold out and wait for you know like it's just kind of like the water buffalo type thing like everyone's the meets the same the purses are the same if I can get it use a credit card you know steal your purse that type of thing I'm looking for the easiest opportunity so I think that's another thing that people have just kind of gotten lacks on yeah so for sure extend your radar out there look further ahead walk with purpose don't be distracted yeah right and I think just making eye contact with somebody that's 30 50 ft away that's looking at you could be enough for them to be like not you let them know that you see them yeah I know as a as a young woman if I'm alone anywhere I'm super Vigilant um but it's more than just young women like they'll Target they'll Target anybody yeah yeah cuz whether it's your purse or my wallet it it you know it's still money it's still money or a credit card or what phone or you know jewelry whatever uh you know it's again it's it's who is the easiest Target right you know is there and I see it all the time there'll be just some sharable on social media some something going around that's like some tip or this happened and always do this or always do that is there anything that you see out there that that people bring up to you guys that is just completely useless information completely false or or even even some of those things you see out there like you know like you see like you see one where it's like like oh you know somebody puts a note on your windshield you or they put a zip tie on your door handle like something like these these things and then you know it's it's spread out there like this is a this is a massive thing that happens I send those videos to them I'm like is this happening here should we cover it so so are there you know are there any of those things that's like this is just completely fabricated and the tactics that are being suggested here are yeah and I I don't know if they're fabricated there there may have been an example there may have been you you know maybe there was a guy in a state at one time that was leaving zip ties or notes on windshields or or something like that you know and but you know what we try to put out are things that are happening here because we don't want to overwhelm people with what could happen and and you know those those videos and things they are plausible and and I you know I don't know if I don't I don't run I don't dismiss him as scams I just think like okay it was a one-off mhm you know there was that one time uh you know that that some criminal did something and it happened to work because they put a note on a windshield wiper and the person got out and they jumped in their car and stole it or something you know like like okay like you know I you know that could work it could have happened um not really seeing a lot of that here not seeing any of it here not say that it couldn't happen um so I you know I I don't know I give them the benefit that you know that they're well intended on this but you know at the the same time all these various things that are being you know reported and things you should always do you know it's it's a little bit with a grain of salt that you know I in my intent it's not to scare people I you know I I don't want people fearful and and thinking everywhere they're going there's a boogeyman or something like that but confidence but you know it's a confidence thing you know like you know walk with your keys in your hand you know if you're on the phone like hey I'm getting ready to walk out into the parking lot it's dark I'll call you once I'm in my car you know it's it's like a type thing you know it's like well I've been walking you know across the parking lot talking you know for years and nothing's happened you know what nothing May ever happen right but because you're on your phone and you're talking and everything like you didn't see the person run up behind you and and shove you push you down or something um and so you know it's kind of those things where I didn't think I was doing anything wrong but you could do it a little better you know it's you know you're you're not completely unsafe you know walking and talking on cell phone but there are certain situations that it's better just to be like let me call you back in a few minutes when I'm in the car you know M and uh you know and I make it I can have my head on a swivel I can be looking around I can see if there's somebody else out here in this dark parking lot right I can you know get in my car I've got a free hand cuz it's not wrapped around a phone and I can get in the car lock the doors crank up start moving and then I can talk to you hands free you know um yeah and that kind of covers some of the zip tie on the car like don't you're not going to look around your car and do this full inspection before you go in get in your car and go about your business so it kind of you know we're still covering right that to some extent so we we touched on it a bit but uh and in the intro but uh you do find yourself on Instagram reals for us talking about uh sometimes doing really informative stuff uh actually I think truck Chuck is behind some of our most popular videos ever surprisingly I'm not I don't know not surprising yeah not surprisingly but um but what uh were you always like you know obviously you're passionate about crime prevention we have to go where the people are and at social media but uh how does it feel to kind of have a little bit of uh celebrity uh do people recognize you on the streets no um that has happened has it I think like once or twice at least when you're in uniform uniform yeah in uniform I'll be somewhere and they're like wait I you know and they they follow us or something um so that that has happened but I I'm I'm totally um blown away that you know some of these things have gotten you know millions of views um I mean it's just I I didn't think it was anything anything special yeah you know and then then there's other ones that we put so much work into and you know we think are so clever and we're so you know we're so proud of and yeah you know like we get like 8,000 people and and and you know you're you're being humbl about it but you know some of this stuff is is your Mastermind uh you know we come up with I I think particularly of the beach uh Theft video I mean you know do you have do you have a favorite that you've done as far as what you enjoyed doing and you thought made the biggest impact um I mean the the beach one was fun and and it did it did really well get buried in the sand in full uniform yeah yeah I I you know I I I I hatched that but you know you don't know till you climbing that hole like is this really going to work to work yeah and hopefully we're not on a turtl nest yeah right right um but uh and there were some ad Li lines there too which was great that's that's the thing like you know Chuck Chuck has a gift okay truly does oh like that one oh and and call your mom like that was that was fantastic and yeah that was on the Fly that was there it was it was awesome like you do have a gift you know how to talk to a camera and not sound like a robot um and very rare gift right oh yeah it is it is rare it's hard to find people that can can talk naturally to a camera it feels like as if they're talking to a person um but you know of course we're always trying to be as versatile as possible but definitely you you have a gift for doing it and building the scripts and we um we plan all of these safety tips together and many of the crazy zany ones are born from Chuck's mind um that we just roll with and figure out how to make it happen scary place it's oh my God but a very safe place I love brainstorming I love brainstorming with crime prevention on this stuff cuz you just never know where the conversation's going to go and it's also just I know you're you all are in the same place but it's just something that I feel like is some of the most important work that we can do is putting messaging out there and what's kind of cool is that with Instagram at minimum our reach goes far beyond penel so we could be helping way more people than we originally intended right so that's huge and there's stuff on The Cutting Room floor that's never going to see the light of day but there's some damn good stuff in there got the holiday Chuck on a truck screaming at people with a megaphone in the parking lot of Countryside Mall reminding people to lock their doors I mean there's a lot of stuff there but uh but we just we do appreciate your partnership and and willingness to uh to play along did any anybody else have something we wanted to hit them with I do I have a um so you were talking about mate and how you guys basically reconstruct the the um crime scene the I was going to say accident crash or or the crime scene um and we've talked before about covering when an accident or a crash does happen telling people to get off the road like making that the number one thing that get off the road because that's safer for you and I think people don't want to do that that's not their normal reaction because they want deputies to know to be able to see what happened to know I didn't do it it's not my fault what do you have anything like to add to that like yeah no actually we can figure that out yeah correct uh so State Statute says that if the vehicles are operative that you you know should get off the road uh so uh even even in State Statute it says please do that uh and and the thing is you know we can kind of figure out if if the back end of your car smashed and the front end of your car smashed I can kind of put that back together uh you know that's that that even a non- mate dep exactly exactly so I mean when you know when mate comes out we're doing traffic homicide and these are very complex scenes and and there's Serious injury and you know possibly death or there has been a death but for the typical accident yes uh the worst place to be is in the roadway uh it's dangerous because people aren't expecting cars to be stopped in the middle of the road you know typically cars are moving and so when there's been a crash it you know there's likely to be a secondary crash uh you could be struck again and then too often I see people out and I I get it they're curious they want to see they want to see the damage they want to see how bad it is they you know maybe they want to be photographing it and that kind of stuff but standing out you know in the road with your car in the road standing between the cars uh taking pictures you know looking underneath you know seeing if there's fluid leaking or whatever um it's so dangerous so dangerous um so you know if you know just a little PSA if you're involved in a minor crash you know please you know try to get off the road if you can into a parking lot somewhere it's safe uh police will be on the way um if if you can't or you know it's a busy road and that type of thing just stay in your vehicle uh you're much safer in your vehicle uh if someone was to Skid in there and and not see you until the last minute uh you're going to be much safer there than standing outside yeah yeah I was just thinking about that when we were talking M I was like cuz that's that's video where well people yeah people time yeah you drive and you see with his backup and it's for a minor fender band or it's like that just push that stuff I mean you drive off the road with that you're good to go yes so that's that's good stuff yeah yeah for sure so um besides do you have something else uh I don't think so unless you had anything that you wanted to share about what we like on social or anything like that like with the crime tips anything further you're hoping to cover or I don't know no I I uh I just when I think the well is dry like a little bit seeps in and you know and uh you know we have we have great meetings creative meetings and uh I I do my best my best creative thinking out loud so you know I'm we're talking and listening and then I'll get an ideal and like oh that's great I you know I just I just thought of something and we kind of add on to it or change it uh and that's kind of how these these scripts go like Ashley will write something that you know makes me sound like you know I might even be college educated and uh unfortunately I can't follow it and so three4 the way through I just start ad living and so it it it changes I mean it works but you know that's why you're good on a camera because that's how you talk that's I think that's why a lot of your videos are so popular is because you're very relatable not only are you speaking to the camera like it's a person just the vernacular that you're using is very relatable um so and some great uh great blue too that are not safe for correct for the Instagram not safe for work um yeah and then you also you since you are a traffic guy you you do quite a few Traffic Safety related reels and that pisses people off and that is engagement negative engagement is still engagement yeah yes it is yes but and and that is my viewpoint on it with a lot of these tips video These safety tip videos that we do we're always thinking okay are people going to be upset about this yes but is it still worth it um because even if people are giving us a bunch of negative comments it's boosting the video and having more people see it and getting to the important part of of the message which at the end of the day that's that's our goal we want people to see it I mean that's the message of trolls is even you taking the time to engage with it and say that we suck appreciate the and let me just say that the sheriff's office we create none of these laws right okay law enforcement all right I I am tasked with enforcing the laws I don't make the speed limit uh I don't set you know now there is some science that goes behind the timing of red lights and things like that but the sheriff's office again we don't do that I don't set the you know where there's no parking signs or you know I don't I don't have anything to do with that uh but again there is a master plan that if everyone you know will you know the T the red lights are timed so that people who drive 55 will have adequate time to stop if you're driving 80 and the light turns yellow okay yeah they weren't really you know you you know you may end up you know you may be upset that you know well I couldn't stop in time well you were doing 80 in all fairness you know like you were already breaking the law you know with a speed limit and then you know ran the red light uh and so um but again we're we're law enforcement right so you know you may be upset about some of the things we post that are required by law uh your state you contact your state representative absolutely because they're the ones who pass this now generally there's there's a reason that they they have that law but you know we don't we don't create any of these laws uh I don't put any signage up I don't just make stuff up but I do have to enforce a law and people don't like that and they they somehow like take it out on us and it's like I'm just I'm just the guy enforces it that's the that's why you should have been a firefighter yes I should have been I'm trying to think if there's any other like major trolling comments that we've been getting on safety tips that's a whole other podcast just that alone oh probably I was just trying to think if there was anything else in that vein yeah but people just well there there's of course the the other video that was really popular was talking about uh putting your entire life story and everybody's names on the back of your the back of your car most viewed video most video which is you know when when little Timmy plays know baseball and you got you know little baseball and it says Timmy and his number you know trying to make sure you're not putting that information out there but yeah we had people that like oh thanks for the tip by how to do whatever and it's like oh yeah bro's giving out the recipe what's your mom what is your mom making for dinner tonight is what I really want to ask them like get a life you know it's the whole point and then people thinking we're actually outing an actual person it's just it's amazing we make it to work every day I mean that's a given as civilians but we just I don't know we're just barely scraping along we kind of think about but there's some there's some planning oh yeah yeah and and the point of these these reels is just to get people thinking you know um especially with that one because some people were like no one's going to put all of that together and it's like okay but what if they just took one of those things and they know your kid goes to Northwest you don't even need all of it but it was we put a bunch of stickers on the back I mean it look like a NASCAR car with all the stickers back there but that's the that was the intent that's that's but we've all seen cars like that 100% my gosh yeah I mean people need to stop having kids at some point if they they're going to run out of back window space in the sports but um but well Chuck you've been a like non-stop PSA I think we've had so many crime tips that we've gotten out of this we usually say hey is there anything you want the public to know but that's been the last you know uh hour or so we've been feeding them sublim the whole the% that another thing that I I thought of when we were talking about lock your car doors the other um gosh what people say back to it is well they'll just break my windows anyways and I love that one because I have seen so much footage ring footage or whatever security footage of a kid trying a handle it doesn't work move and they move on it's a crime of opportunity may not be a kid but either way they move like 20 different places they they will break a window and and so my message is lock your doors and take anything of perceived value outside because a lot of people are like oh well that's just a backpack there's nothing yeah or it's just my laptop bag there's no laptop in it exactly so you know the perception is is that there could be something of value in that shopping bag in that whatever contain they might break it if it's worth it and and they it and they could break it in the hopes that you know that Louis Vuitton bag doesn't have just trash and receipts in it but you know like you were dumb enough to leave your purse in it right um and so you know lock your doors and take anything visible that is a perceived value what about gun stickers on the back of cars like this car proted by glock or something does that just let them know there's probably a gun in the glove box I know that's what there was a lot of discourse about that with all the stickers um the video on with the stickers on the back of the car there was a bunch of people saying like oh well I'm going to you know say I I can't I can't speak I don't know anything about guns but there's a sticker of that I own a gun in here don't dial 911 dial 357 mhm oh okay stuff like that or instead of the stick figure family they have the the the rifle and the pistol okay yeah I mean it's yeah that just looks like an appealing Target for someone who like oh you might have left it in there um but uh but uh you know thanks Chuck uh for coming on you knew you'd never be able to say no because we you literally work with us so we would just Badger you continuously I mean he was requested in the comments he was requested yeah highly requested guest I I I feel like my intro should have been like some little Spanish guitar music playing and it been like he's a 3 5 year Deputy he eats at a handful of restaurants and always gets the same entree he's the he's the world's most uninteresting man well now we could do that we just stick that at the beginning D the music in see this is what I'm talking about people this is what happens when we're planing safety tips 100% okay now we're going to start the podcast all right so back to Maran County we were going to start with ostriches but I mean but uh but thanks lot shuck we appreciate you coming on um we uh we of course have a limited edition uh one of a cup for you for participating uh so we'll get that to you but I appreciate you coming on look forward to continuing to work on some great crime tip messaging now uh this is Laura's part uh if you have uh well questions comments any thoughts about uh upcoming episodes people you want to hear from or you just want to tell us we suck like the people on social media do sometimes or if you want to give us ideas for safety tips oh we' love to hear what you guys think you need need to share you guys are listeners give asle ideas for the next re our listeners are in control and you can exercise that control and influence over us if you simply email us at lets 56pcs onet.com that's l56 PCS onet.com we are also on the Instagram 56 podcast spelled out and you can connect with us there as well until next time thanks for listening everybody [Music]