AUGUST 2021 Blues Vol 37 No. 8

The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE 1

AUGUST 2021 

FEATURES 

30 TIM MILLER, WINNER LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD 

36 TEXAS EQUUSEARCH, THE BEST OF THE BEST 

40 STORIES OF THE FBI 

50 WHO WANTS TO BE A COP 

76 TEXAS SHERIFFS CONVENTION 

OUR TEAM 

OUR CONTRIBUTORS 

On the Cover 

Tim Miller, President and 

Founder of Texas EquuSearch, 

has been chosen to receive 

a LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT 

AWARD from The BLUES. Read 

all about this incredible man 

and his quest to locate as many 

missing persons as humanly 

possible. 

68 

72 

84 

DEPARTMENTS 

4 Publisher’s Thoughts 

6 Editor’s Thoughts 

10 Guest Editorial - Passion for the Job 

12 Your Thoughts 

14 News Around the State 

20 News Around the Country 

80 Island Time - Galveston 

86 Healing our Heroes - John Salerno, Sam Horwitz 

90 Light Bulb Award 

92 Blue Mental Health with Dr. Tina Jaeckle 

94 Running 4 Heroes 

96 Remembering My Hero - Officer Hank Nava, Jr. 

100 Honoring our Fallen Heroes 

106 Outdoors with Rusty Barron/On Vacation with Rex 

108 Marketplace - Discounts for LEOs 

114 Parting Shots 

116 Now Hiring - L.E.O. Positions Open in Texas 

88 

DARYL’S DELIBERATIONS 

by DARYL LOTT 

92 

BLUE MENTAL HEALTH by TINA JAECKLE 

MICHAEL BARRON 

founder & publisher 


editor-n-chief 

REX EVANS 

contributing editor 

DIANE TRYKOWSKI 

creative editor 

RUSTY BARRON 

outdoor editor 

TINA JAECKLE 


DARYL LOTT 


SAM HORWITZ & JOHN SALERNO 

contributing editors 

DOUGLAS GRIFFITH 

HPOU contributing editor 

JANICE VANZURA 

sales mgr / austin 

CHRISTINA FRASER 

sales mgr / national 

T. EDISON 

contributing writer / light bulb 

CHIEF JOEL F. SHULTS 

guest editorial 

RANDY WALLACE 

contributing writer 

JAMES BARRAGAN 


ADAM FERRISE 


SARAH D. WIRE 


SANDY MALONE 


JIM DUDLEY 

podcast host / police 1 

LANE DEGREGORY 


LAYLEIGH NAVA 

contributing writer / COPS 

COVER PHOTOGRAPHY 

JOHNNY HANSON 

houston chronicle 

The BLUES Police Magazine is published monthly by Kress-Barr, LLC, P.O. Box 2733, League City Texas 77574. The opinions 

expressed in articles, op-eds and editorials are those of each individual author and do not reflect the opinion of 

The BLUES or its parent company. Rebuttals or submission of news articles and editorials may be submitted to: 

The BLUES Police Magazine - bluespdmag@gmail.com. The entire contents of The BLUES is copyrighted© and may not be 

reproduced or reprinted without the express permission of the publisher. The BLUES logo is a Trademark of Kress-Barr, LLC. 

2 The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE 3

The BLUES presents 

Tim Miller, with LIFETIME 

ACHIEVEMENT AWARD. 

I can’t imagine what it feels 

like to lose a son or daughter. 

Even worse, having that son or 

daughter go missing and not 

know where they are or what 

happened to them. I can tell 

you that for 10 minutes of my 

life, I have felt that heart stopping 

anxiety of a missing child. 

When my daughter was 2 years 

old, she suddenly disappeared 

while we were shopping at 

Baybrook Mall. That was absolutely 

the most terrifying 

ten minutes of my life. There 

is simply no way to describe 

the heart pounding anxiety 

when you realize your beautiful 

daughter is gone. Just vanished 

- nowhere to be found. You find 

yourself screaming at anyone 

and everyone to find her. And 

then suddenly, out of the corner 

of your eye, you see her talking 

to a police officer in the middle 

of the mall. That sense of relief 

is also indescribable. 

Imagine living your entire 

life like those ten minutes. Not 

knowing where your child is. 

Are they alive or dead? Who 

has them and will I ever see 

them again? Or you find your 

baby girl’s body only to spend 

the next 30 years trying to find 

her killer. 

You either lose your mind and 

become totally lost in grief and 

sorrow, or you become the goto 

guy for thousands of mothers 

and fathers around the world 

searching for a missing loved 

one. Someone who can answer 

their prayers to bring their 

babies home safely or at least 

know what happened to them. 

They need a miracle and Tim 

Miller is that miracle. He IS the 

answer to their prayers. 

Tim Miller has channeled his 

grief and anger into bringing 

home as many sons and daughters 

as possible. In 2000 he 

founded EquuSearch and over 

the course of 21 years, Equu- 

Search has located hundreds 

of missing persons and recovered 

the bodies of dozens more. 

Countless families have Tim 

Miller and EquuSearch to thank 

for bringing them closure. Tim 

Miller is their hero. 

They say everything happens 

for a reason. That Tim’s loss 

of his daughter Laura brought 

about EquuSearch and had he 

not lost his daughter, Equu- 

Search most likely wouldn’t have 


been created. Nothing I can say 

or write in these pages will ever 

make up for his loss. I can’t take 

away the pain, the sorrow, or the 

grief. But what I can do, is thank 

God that Tim Miller does what he 

does. His mission is to find every 

lost soul that comes across his 

desk at EquuSearch. 

He puts that mission ahead of 

his own health and wellbeing. Just 

a few weeks ago, Tim was hospitalized. 

I won’t go into the details, 

but suffice to say, had he not gone 

in when he did, Tim Miller might 

not be here to read this. And when 

he was lying in a hospital bed, he 

wasn’t thinking about his own life 

or whether he’d live another day. 

No, his only concern was what 

would happen to EquuSearch. 

Without him, who would carry 

on his mission and hold the hands 

of families who’s loved ones 

were missing. Who would lead 

the charge to bring those babies 

back home safe and sound? Who 

would drive the boat, organize 

the search teams and coordinate 

with law enforcement? So 

many thoughts racing through 

his mind, none of which were 

about himself. All about the 

wellbeing of others. That’s 

what makes Tim Miller, Tim 

Miller. He is truly an incredible 

man on an incredible mission. 

He is the light at the end of a 

dark tunnel. The rainbow at 

the end of horrible storm, and 

Texas EquuSearch is a non-profit organization 

and is operated 100% from donations. Each 

search & rescue operation cost thousands of 

dollars in fuel, transportation and other expenses. 

Please support this incredible organization 

with your donation today. 

Someday it may be your loved one who is 

missing and each of us needs to know that Tim 

Miller and his 1000+ volunteers have the funds 

necessary to go out and find them. 

CLICK ON THE PAY PAL FORM >>> 

a loving hug when all seems 

lost. I can’t imagine a world 

without him, and by the grace 

of God, Tim Miller is back home 

and back at work. Within days 

of getting home from the hospital, 

he was leading his team 

in search of yet another missing 

person in Houston. 

To honor this hero of many, 

we present Tim Miller with The 

BLUES’s LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT 

AWARD. No one is more deserving 

of this award than Tim and 

we are pleased to feature him 

on this month’s cover. You can 

read more about Tim’s struggles 

and determination to find 

justice for his daughter Laura in 

this month’s feature story. 

Congratulations and God Bless 

you Tim Miller and God Speed 

to EquuSearch. 


Tim Miller, a True Texas Living 

Legend 

A living legend, or perhaps 

more importantly, a good man 

and a good friend. Tim and I first 

met many years ago when I was 

a young captain at the Liberty 

County Sheriff’s Office. We had 

been called to a missing child 

case near Tarkington Prairie. 

It was a very intense and chaotic 

scene. None of 

us, not even Tim, 

knew what was to 

follow over the next 

five very long, arduous 

and painful 

days. Liberty County 

back then was even 

more rural than it is 

today. Resources for 

an extended search 

of rough terrain was 

in very short supply. 

It was hot, humid, 

heavily wooded with 

multiple bodies of 

water and streams, 

all of which had 

to be search and 

cleared. 

I reached out to 

surrounding counties 

for assistance, as 

well as the Texas Department 

of Public 

Safety and the Texas 

Rangers. I called 

upon everyone I could. A missing 

four-year-old little boy needed 

to be found. There was no limit 

to what I would have done to ensure 

that was going to happen. 

Enter Tim Miller. I reached out 

to him and without a moment’s 

hesitation he was on his way. 

Little did I know, he had resources, 

equipment, and personnel to 

bring that none of us in Liberty 

County had seen before. And he 

was a humble gentleman who 

sincerely, only wanted to help. 

The following days, thousands, 

REX EVANS 

I mean literally thousands of volunteers 

would come 

from across the 

state and the nation. 

Local businesses and 

restaurants brought 

food, water and 

snacks. Numerous 

law enforcement, 

fire and EMS agencies 

sent personnel, 

equipment, and supplies. 

And Tim, Tim 

quietly rolled in with 

his teams of personnel, 

equipment 

and supplies. His 

now world-famous 

Texas EquuSearch 

established a command 

post just feet 

away from the main 

command post. In 

tandem, we worked 

together in a very 

strict, coordinated 

effort. 

I can tell you, 

Tim was especially helpful in 

working with everyone on this 

scene. Most particularly, with 


the parents of the missing child. 

He stood with me, time and 

time again as we spoke with the 

parents, witnesses and others, 

all the while he rarely spoke but 

rather, listened. Afterwards, we 

would regroup, and he would 

very quietly raise his tired eyes 

towards me and softly speak his 

mind as to what he recommended 

was to follow. 

As the days wore on, we were 

all exhausted. The first two or 

three days, I stayed there at the 

command post. I was fortunate 

enough to even obtain a nighttime 

fly over by Houston PD 

helicopters with spotlights and 

infrared technology. Even still to 

no avail, we continued our arduous 

search. 

It was the last day of the 

search. I had come to the grim 

determination that I was going 

to have to call the immediate 

active search and switch our 

resources to purely investigative 

processes. Tim asked me to allow 

one more new technology he 

had access to…...a drone. I admit, 

I was skeptical but, my heart 

hurt so at the thought of leaving 

without that little boy, I agreed. 

A very short time later, over a 

nearby body of water, the images 

from a drone revealed what 

fate and time had known all 

along, there was the body of a 

little four-year-old missing boy, 

Devon Davis; the very little boy, 

we had all been looking for. 

Working with men and women 

who I had known for years from 

various agencies, we entered 

and recovered the tiny, frail remains 

of Devon. As these dedicated 

professionals and amazing 

human beings completed that 

task, it was time for an official 

notification to the parents to 

occur. 

As I walked up the road towards 

the command post, Tim 

Miller walked right beside me. 

Devon’s mother saw us, and like 

all mothers, she knew. She hit 

the ground on her knees and 

began to loudly grieve like all 

mothers would do. I quietly knelt 

in front of her, Tim just off to my 

side and I told her that her son 

was gone but we have recovered 

his remains. Now, I don’t know 

how I held back the tears when 

I did that, but it wasn’t over yet. 

We walked over and I did the 

same with the boy’s father. 

Afterwards, there was such an 

awkward lull….and as Tim and 

I were just feet apart, we never 

said a word. Tears just streamed 

down our faces, and we hugged 

one another. It wasn’t the outcome 

anyone wanted, but we 

were at the very least, able to 

bring some semblance of “closure” 

to the family of little Devon 

Davis. 

Tim and his organization never 

got a dime for all that effort, 

hard work and equipment. They 

did all of it from the heart. Very 

few men walk this Earth with 

such compassion for others. Very 

few. This was the only missing 

persons case Tim and I would 

work together. As a captain at 

the Sheriff’s Office, we were to 

have multiple missing persons 

occur in a very short amount of 

time. And, in each case I called 

Tim and he never faltered or 

failed to answer. He and Texas 

EquuSearch always make the 

long trek to Liberty County, and 

they gave everything they had. 

I for one, am truly humbled 

to know and call Tim Miller my 

friend. He is most deserving of 

this Lifetime Achievement Award 

from the Blues Police Magazine. 

He has given so much, to so 

many, with so little for himself. 

He truly represents the kind of 

human being we should all be 

striving to be. 

Congratulations Tim, and thank 

you! You’ve lost and given so 

much of yourself. I sincerely 

hope and pray this token of our 

(my) appreciation somehow resonates 

with you as to just how 

important a role you have played 

in making this world a better 

place for us all. 

SUPPORT 

EQUUSEARCH 

WITH YOUR 

DONATION 

TODAY 

Ready To Serve You 

For information contact: 

Jim Rodriguez • Law Enforcement Sales Professional • 915-422-6446 

FT. WORTH 

6201 NE Loop 820 

HOUSTON 

10310 Wortham Center Dr. 

Shoot Point Blank Law Enforcement is a division of Shoot Point 

Blank and is committed to providing exclusive law enforcement 

products & services to our agency partners & individual officers. 

• Special indoor range pricing for agency training & qualifications 

• Group range memberships for agencies 

• Expansive offerings of firearms, ammunition, duty gear, 

& accessoreies from top manufacturers 

• Offer individual officer purchase programs from several 

manufacturers 

ARLINGTON 

5661 S. Cooper St. 

HOUSTON 

9245 FM 1960 Bypass Rd. 

DALLAS 

1915 S. Stemmons Fwy 

HOUSTON 

350 E Nasa Pkwy 

AUSTIN 

1775 Warner Ranch Dr. 

SAN ANTONIO 

722 SW Loop 410 

8 The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE 9 

Sun - Thurs: 10am – 7pm • Fri & Sat: 10am - 8pm | ShootPointBlank.com

Passion for the Job - ‘I didn’t kill him – and nobody cared.’ 

Here’s how the prevalence of deadly force opportunity in 

ordinary police experience can inform training. 

Even with the proliferation of videos 

of police officers in action, there is a 

tremendous amount of drama in policing 

that never sees the light of day. 

I recall my closest encounter with 

deadly force involved a domestic call, 

a drunk with a large knife and my 

trigger squeeze being prevented by the 

appearance of a toddler in the line of 

fire. I remember finally getting behind 

the wheel of my patrol car and gaining 

control of my breathing. The report 

was filed at the station, and then I 

was on to the next call. Based on my 

research, similar scenarios happen 

routinely for law enforcement. 

My own survey of over 200 police 

officers that I reported at the 2009 

International Association of Chiefs 

of Police conference in Denver was 

confirmed by a report in the FBI Law 

Enforcement Bulletin (LEB) in 2010. As 

the LEB article reports “approximately 

70 percent of the sample of police 

officers had been in a situation where 

they legally could have fired their 

weapon during a critical incident but 

chose not to.” 

NO RESEARCH ON SUCCESS 

As I have lamented often, while the 

research on officers killed in the line of 

duty and on suspects killed by police 

is substantial, there is little data on 

near misses and shots not fired. 

Deaths in police shootings are, 

despite popular belief, rare events. As 

such they may not provide as much 

helpful information as studies of the 

much more frequent occurrence of 

officer survival and suspects’ live apprehension. 

The recent Chicago policy requiring 

officers to report by radio when they 

point a gun at someone has potential 

for helpful research. Although the 

policy is seen as potentially punitive, 

the opportunity to examine those in- 

cidents could provide valuable information 

to researchers for officer safety 

and training. 

TRAINING IMPLICATIONS OF DEADLY 

FORCE DECISIONS 

As part of firearms and deadly force 

training, most officers and cadets will 

hear that taking a life is a rare event 

that is unlikely to happen but that they 

must prepare for it. A more realistic 

narrative would be that an officer will 

make deadly force decisions multiple 

times in a career or even on a single 

shift. 

In recent decades, police firearms 

training has moved from mere target 

marksmanship to practice in 

decision-making to scenario-based 

integration of accuracy and decision-making. 

The good news about 

the frequency of shoot-don’t-shoot 

situations in real life is that almost any 

police department has enough incidents 

to develop the data for their own 

study. Answering the question of what 

factors tip the scales toward pulling 

the trigger is achievable for individual 

agencies. 

USING LOCAL RESEARCH TO GUIDE 

USE OF FORCE POLICY 

There is a growing emphasis on law 

enforcement agencies doing their own 

research. The days of small departments 

relying on studies from large 

agencies with the resources to pay 

for research or attract grants may be 

waning. Many officers and administrators 

have advanced degrees that 

required using research methods. 

Collaboration with area colleges or a 

sharp intern can yield helpful guidance 

on creating a viable study. 

Developing a comprehensive and 

ethically sound research program isn’t 

rocket science, but it is science. Getting 

a valid and supportable outcome 

and analysis of data may result in new 

policies or new training processes. 

The outcome might also cast doubt on 

current policy and training. Therefore, 

the documentation of methodology 

and analysis could end up being an issue 

in the legal defense of an officer’s 

actions. Subject matter expert review 

of the research will help validate the 

findings and guide policy makers. 

AFTER ACTION 

Shift briefings are routine in departments 

across the country but debriefs 

get much less attention. Debriefs 

mainly happen after an event when 

those involved just want to get their 

paperwork done and go home. There 

may be fears of discussing a case that 

may be controversial. Debriefs can 

degrade into an attaboy session or an 

embarrassing finger-pointing session. 

They are also too often saved for “big” 

events so the potential lessons to be 

learned for “ordinary” events go unexamined. 

As we now realize, deciding 

to point a firearm or pull a trigger is 

quite ordinary and should be examined. 

Even if there is no intentional research 

on how your officers navigated 

a deadly force situation with no shots 

fired, creating a culture of peer learning 

can bring individual experiences 

into the learning experiences of the 

entire department. 

Supervisors, leaders and trainers can 

benefit from the ordinary drama that 

no one else knows or cares about. 

About the author: Joel Shults operates 

Street Smart Training and is 

the founder of the National Center for 

Police Advocacy. He retired as Chief of 

Police in Colorado. 

This editorial will be rather difficult 

to write. I’m quite sure you’ll 

find it rather difficult to digest. But 

this needs to be talked about. It 

needs to be brought out into the 

light, from the darkness of hidden 

truth. 

When a law enforcement officer 

dies in the line of duty, he or 

she is provided a state funeral. 

21-gun salute, TAPS, bag pipes, 

everything. And that’s rightfully 

so. What I call your attention to 

is those officers who are seriously 

injured and survive their grievous 

injuries. Whether by gunfire, 

a blade, a violent and relentless 

assault or motor vehicle car crash. 

Those officers and their families 

are taxed with the steady influx of 

their “regular” bills, compounded 

by the arrival of all the medical 

bills. Then to add insult to injury, 

workers comp denies tests and 

medications time and time again, 

citing, not within their responsibility. 

Department heads defer to their 

city or county officials for “guidance” 

in such circumstances and 

are subsequently, released from 

all blame. Or are they? As a department, 

how can any of you just 

stand by and watch a member of 

your team, your family lay there, 

severely injured, doing exactly 

KeyWarden is the Texas distributor of Morse Watchmans industry-leading key and asset management systems. We are actively involved 

in the Texas Law Enforcement community as a founding member of the East Texas 100 club, and corporate members of the North Texas 

Police Chiefs Association, the East Texas Police Chiefs Association, the High Plains Police Chiefs Association, and the Central Texas Police 

Chiefs Association. We are proud to participate in the TEXAS SCHOOL DISTRICT POLICE CHIEFS ASSOCIATION CONFERENCE. 

THE KEYWATCHER TOUCH SYSTEM is deployed in the law enforcement environment to: 

• Securely dispense track and audit the use of keys to: vehicles, facilities, lockers and 

other high-value assets. 

• Prevent unauthorized staff from driving specialist vehicles, or racking up miles on the 

newer fleet while older units sit idle. 

• Allow management to compel the use of vehicle pools rather than staff controlling the 

keys to particular units. 

• Quicker and more efficient shift changes. 

• Control the keys to facilities and mandate accountability. 

19015 Gentle Knoll 

• Managing and controlling access to assets stored in lockers. 

San Antonio, Texas 78258 

10 The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE As a Texas-based company, we provide on site evaluation, implementation, training and support of the 

Office: The BLUES 830-214-0867 POLICE MAGAZINE Fax: 775-898-1807 11 

KeyWatcher System. We are also a member of BuyBoard and offer discounted pricing and ease of purchase. www.keywarden.com - click here to email us

A TRUE AMERICAN HERO 

While under fire in the middle of 

a mass casualty event, specialist 

Collin Jackson treated the wounded 

and performed CPR, then 

destroyed an ISIS position with a 

60mm mortar. 

On August 16th, 2017, SPC Jackson 

supported an Army Special 

Forces team patrolling with 

Afghan Commandos. The patrol 

came under attack and after 8 

hours of fighting, sought cover 

in a compound to wait out the 

night. An explosion rocked the 

compound as the team entered, 

wounding 30 and killing four. SPC 

Jackson dismounted his vehicle 

and ran toward the explosion. ISIS 

fighters resumed their attack with 

small arms and RPGs. Jackson 

ignored the heavy fire, consolidating 

the wounded in a casualty 

collection point and treating their 

wounds. 

At one point, he performed CPR 

on an American casualty in critical 

condition. When the wounded 

were staged for evacuation, Jackson 

ran back to his vehicle and 

pulled out his 60mm mortar. For 

over an hour, sitting in the open in 

front of the vehicle, Jackson fired 

mortars at ISIS positions surrounding 

the team. He dropped 6 

rounds on top of a key ISIS position 

pinning the team down, destroying 

the enemy and helping to 

end the ambush. Jackson’s actions 

enabled the successful evacuation 

of 13 critically wounded casualties. 

For his heroic initiative, SPC 

Jackson was awarded the Bronze 

Star with “V.” 

A PROUD AMERICAN 

HOUSTON POLICE OFFICERS’ 

UNION ON THE JAN. 6 RIOTS 

There seems to be some confusion 

in the media and among paid 

law enforcement “experts” as to 

where the Fraternal Order of Police 

stands on the January 6, 2021, 

riots. While no one has asked us 

directly, we offer the following for 

their information: 

Full text of Press Release 

Fraternal Order of Police 

Clears Up Confusion as to FOP’s 

Position on January 6 Riots 

WASHINGTON, DC – There seems 

to be some confusion in the media 

and among paid law enforcement 

“experts” as to where the FOP 

stands on the January 6, 2021, 

riots. While no one has asked us 

directly, we offer the following for 

their information: 

The National FOP’s position on 

the January 6, 2021, riot at the 

U.S. Capitol is contained in a 

statement released even as the 

lawlessness continued. Those 

who participated in the assaults, 

looting, and trespassing must be 

arrested and held to account. 

We continue to offer our support, 

gratitude, and love to our 

brothers and sisters in law enforcement 

who successfully 

fought off the rioters, and we will 

be with them as they grieve and 

recover, however long that may 

take. 

HPOU & FOP 

DEFUND THEN REFUND 

Watching the news nowadays 

has for me become an exercise 

in exasperated critical thinking. I 

often say to myself: “What the hell 

do they think is going to happen?” 

The propaganda expounded 

by the talking heads, pundits, 

pseudo-experts, and academics 

leaves one wondering what “big 

lie” will be next, and then they 

outdo themselves again. Since the 

Michael Brown shooting in 2014 

the drumbeat against American 

law enforcement has been growing, 

without facts to support the 

position and “the powers that be” 

have continued to demagogue 

and legislate their way toward 

a backward tribal society. Back 

when sociology was still a functional 

science, and not a progressive 

advocacy club, a sociologist 

named Mariano Grondona developed 

a typology for backward or 

progressive societies that should 

serve as a warning to the elites 

clamoring for “reimagining” law 

enforcement. 

In Grondona’s view, backward 

societies—those resistant to actual 

freedom and growth—made the 

law subservient to authority, an 

authority often achieved by force. 

In modern, free societies respect 

for the law is essential, and authority 

is subservient to the law. 

Pluralism, tolerance of opposing 

views, looking forward instead of 

backward, are traits of modern, 

freedom-oriented societies. 

I find myself growing more 

cynical about the motives of the 

ruling class who use their esoteric 

language and vague generalities 

to sway the masses to approve 

actions that seem to drag our 

country closer to what Edward 

Banfield described in his groundbreaking 

book, “The Moral Basis of 

a Backward Society,” as “the extreme 

poverty and backwardness 

… which is to be explained largely 

(but not entirely) by the inability 

of the villagers to act together for 

their common good.” 

Look, I’m not saying America is 

becoming a 1950’s town in southern 

Italy, but the point of Banfield’s 

research was to understand free, 

prosperous, diverse societies, and 

the traits of those that failed to 

achieve those goals. Undermining 

people’s trust in government, 

social institutions, the police, and 

each other seems like a toxic mix 

that creates the backward society 

Banfield found in his research. 

America has always been a 

society based on trust; trust first 

of each other, and then of our 

political leaders to adhere to the 

founding principles. In “Who Prospers: 

How Cultural Values Shape 

Economic and Political Success,” 

Lawrence E. Harrison explained 

that the United States flowered 

following World War II by displaying 

the four cultural factors 

he found essential for prosperity, 

diversity, and freedom: 1. radius of 

trust, identification, and sense of 

community 2. rigor of the ethical 

system 3. the exercising of authority 

4. attitudes about work, innovation, 

saving, and profit. 

All these attitudes were fully 

maximized following our remarkable 

ability to outproduce 

and outfight the Axis Powers, 

and America prospered like never 

before. Unfortunately, by the 

1990s, Harrison found much of this 

essential engine of success had 

been eroded by the civil strife and 

changing social attitudes about 

prosperity, success, and community, 

and he called for a cultural 

renaissance. Harrison was not 

some conservative, but a liberal 

who still demanded we reaffirm 

our basic principles to be “committed 

to the future, to education, 

to achievement and excellence, to 

a better life for all, to community, 

as well as to freedom and justice.” 

All the above is my way of 

saying, “What the heck are you 

thinking?” as I watch politicians 

and leaders make patently absurd 

policy decisions or fail to stand 

against those decisions. For example, 

defunding the police. 

Defunding the police has become 

a mantra chanted without 

an adult in the room. 

Civil society, free societies, 

flourishing societies, all have a 

functional constabulary, subservient 

to the law and not above it, 

and our cultural history of local 

control, not centralized control of 

that authority, has served to make 

us the most free and prosperous 

society in history. 

If we find trust in each other and 

our institutions are being eroded, 

we need to seek data-based, 

fact-based reasons for any policy 

or belief that encourages that 

erosion. Saying something “is so” 

is not reason enough to destroy 

long-standing traditions or institutions, 

and the major cities that 

have followed the “defund” path 

are quickly discovering that their 

streets are becoming unlivable 

and their ability to avoid accountability 

is becoming harder and 

harder. Refund the police is now 

becoming “a thing.” 

The American law enforcement 

community has been a key element 

in our nation’s success, and 

it is time for our leaders and our 

communities to demand better 

of the political class. Become an 

activist, get involved in your local 

political activities, demand excellence 

and, please, keep faith with 

each other. Freedom needs you. 

DAVE SMITH 

KENTUCKY GOING BLUE 

Yesterday, SGT McCoy met a 

man by the name of Dan Williams, 

age 57, sitting in front of Wendy’s 

in Horn Lake. He was down on his 

luck and was hungry. SGT McCoy 

walked him inside and offered to 

buy the man lunch. The Wendy’s 

Management would not let the 

deputy pay, because they covered 

Mr. Williams’ meal instead! 

SGT McCoy sat down and ate 

lunch with Mr. Williams. He found 

out that Mr. Williams had no money 

or phone and has been catching 

rides from Ohio to get down 

to Monroe, Louisiana to be with 

family. 

SGT McCoy could tell that Mr. 

Williams had a good heart and 

wanted to help him, so he got 

with Deputies Brea, Garrett, and 

Andrews. They all pulled money 

out of their own pockets and 

pitched in to buy Mr. Williams an 

$89.00 Greyhound bus ticket to 

get home, along with an additional 

$60.00 for some food and 

necessities. SGT McCoy later said 

that Mr. Williams broke down and 

cried as he was dropping him off 

at the bus station in Memphis, TN. 

Mr. Williams looked over to SGT 

McCoy and told him, “Out of all 

of the people that reached out to 

help me in my time of need, it was 

the cops. Thank you!!” 

This is not a onetime incident…. 

these random acts of kindness 

happen every day across this 

county and our nation with law 

enforcement officers reaching out 

to help those in need, but most of 

these good deeds go unnoticed 

because that’s our job and that’s 

what we do. We are proud to protect 

and serve you! 

DESOTO COUNTY SHERIFF’S DEPT. 

Have something on your mind? 

Send your thoughts to: 

bluespdmag@gmail.com 


Harris Co. Criminal Dist. Court Judge Morton repeatedly grants bond, 

frees convicted felon now with 14 bonds 

Serial burglar granted a total of 14 bonds 

By Randy Wallace, 

FOX 26 NEWS 

HARRIS COUNTY, Texas - “He’s 

a one-man crime spree,” said 

Andy Kahan with Crime Stoppers. 

38-year-old convicted felon 

Jeffery Robertson just keeps 

showing up over and over again 

in the 230th Criminal District 

Court. 

Every time Robertson gets a 

new charge, like burglary, Judge 

Chris Morton frees him from jail 

by granting him another bond. 

So far Robertson has racked up 

14 bonds. 

“Seven bonds were posted this 

month,” Kahan said. 

“I was a business manager and 

I came across break-ins at the 

business I managed,” said Garland 

Smith. 

As you can imagine, Smith 

questions why Judge Morton 

keeps granting bonds for Robertson. 

“It was crazy to us,” he said. 

“He would get arrested and it 

wouldn’t be long before he was 

back in our facilities doing the 

same thing again.” 

“Based on his track record, 

it’s a matter of days before he 

breaks into some other building 

or business and gets charged 

again,” Kahan said. “It simply 

defies logic.” 

Pictured above is the Thug and the Judge. Or is it the Judge 

and the Thug? Well either way, both are losers ! 

In a Breaking Bond report last 

March, we told you how Judge 

Chris Morton granted bond for 

19-year-old Jose Perez 11 times 

Police call the teen a serial 

armed robber. 

“We now have members of the 

Judiciary that are absolutely not 

caring about victims,” then Police 

Chief Art Acevedo told us. “I 

don’t know what they are caring 

about because they are getting 

people killed.” 

As for Jeffery, the District Attorney’s 

Office filed a motion to 

revoke Robertson’s bond. 

It states, “Robertson is a true 

habitual offender. At this time, 

he has 10 pending charges. He’s got 

prior felony convictions. Based on 

the risk to community safety, I find 

clear and convincing evidence that 

no bond or conditions can safely 

assure the community he will not 

re-offend again.” 

When FOX 26 attempted to ask 

Judge Chris Morton about the repeat 

bonds, he said our facts were 

wrong. When we attempted to give 

him a chance to explain the situation, 

he hung up the phone on us. 

The BLUES attempted to reach 

Judge Morton and person who 

answered the phone, said they’ve 

never heard of The BLUES. Not Surprised. 


Gov. Greg Abbott orders Texas National Guard 

to help with migrant arrests at the border 

In a letter to the major general of the Texas National Guard, Abbott 

said “more manpower is needed” at the border. 

BY JAMES BARRAGÁN 

Gov. Greg Abbott has ordered 

the National Guard to assist in 

arrest of migrants at the border. 

Credit: Miguel Gutierrez Jr./The 

Texas Tribune 

Sign up for The Brief, our daily 

newsletter that keeps readers up 

to speed on the most essential 

Texas news. 

Gov. Greg Abbott on Tuesday 

ramped up his latest efforts to 

stem the increase of migrants 

coming into Texas, ordering the 

National Guard to assist law enforcement 

in arresting migrants at 

the border who break state laws. 

“To respond to this disaster 

and secure the rule of law at our 

southern border, more manpower 

is needed—in addition to the 

troopers from the Texas Department 

of Public Safety (DPS) and 

soldiers from the Texas National 

Guard I have already deployed 

there — and DPS needs help in 

arresting those who are violating 

state law,” Abbott said in a letter 

to Major Gen. Tracy R. Norris of the 

Texas Military Department. “I hereby 

order that the Texas National 

Guard assist DPS in enforcing Texas 

law by arresting lawbreakers at 

the border.” 

The move is the latest in Abbott’s 

efforts to control what he has de- 

clared a disaster in several border 

counties that he says has been 

brought on by the Biden administration’s 

lax immigration enforcement. 

Border authorities have 

stopped hundreds of thousands of 

migrants trying to cross into the 

United States through its southwestern 

border, including 188,829 

attempted crossings in June. That 

number was the highest of the 

year which beat the previous high 

of 180,641 set in May. 

The Texas Tribune thanks its 

sponsors. Become one. 

Local officials in some Texas 

counties say the increase in migrants 

trying to enter the country 

has stretched their scarce 

resources and a presence of 

drug and human smugglers has 

overwhelmed their small law 

enforcement agencies. Abbott has 

sent DPS troopers to border towns 

experiencing an increase in migrant 

crossings and has pledged 

to deliver more help to local law 

enforcement agencies. 

In June, Abbott declared an 

increase in illegal immigration 

through Texas a state disaster 

and ordered DPS to start arresting 

migrants on state offenses and 

holding them in state jails. Arrests 

started last week and as of Monday, 

30 immigrant arrestees were 

held at the Briscoe Unit in Dilley, a 

state prison that is being converted 

into a jail to hold arrested immigrants. 

Abbott has also pledged to build 

a state-funded border wall to slow 

migration through Texas’ southern 

border. 

HOMES FOR HEROES 

PLATINUM KEY REALTY'S GIVING BACK PROGRAM 

The fine men and women who serve and teach in our community 

will receive 15% of earned commissions back at closing. 

APPOINTMENT SEARCH OR SELL CLOSE! 

Make an appointment 

to discuss all your 

buying or selling 

needs. 

Have our experts 

assist you with a 

seamless transaction 

of buying or selling.. 

The final step in 

executing your 

transaction. Receive 

15% commissions back! 

Clients choose us! 

We are number one in this business and we have been chosen by a lot of 

heroes needing our help to buy and/or sell. Give us a chance to help you too! 

platinumkeyrg.com Diane: 832-392-0757 


Austin Announces Finalists for Chief 

AUSTIN – Austin City Manager 

Spencer Cronk has announced the 

top seven candidates for the Chief 

of Police position out of a field of 

46 applicants, the city announced in 

a statement. 

Finalists for the position are: 

Joseph Chacon 

Anne Kirkpatrick 

Avery L. Moore 

Celeste Murphy 

Mirtha V. Ramos 

Gordon Ramsay 

Emada E. Tingirides 

The City Manager hopes to announce 

a new Chief of Police before 

the end of August. 

“I am excited about the diverse 

slate of individuals we have identified 

for this position,” said Cronk. 

“I look forward to discussing with 

them how we can accomplish the 

goals of the community and the City 

Council.” 

The Chief of Police will oversee 

1,809 sworn officers and 734 nonsworn 

professional staff and has a 

FY 20-21 budget of $240.8 million. 

Like many major cities in America, 

Austin is reimagining how it provides 

public safety services. Austin 

is approaching this process in a 

methodical and strategic approach, 

and the next Chief of Police will 

begin their duties during a period of 

intense change for the Austin Police 

Department (APD). The challenges 

and opportunities related to this 

initiative alone are many. The Chief 

of Police will help APD and the city 

adapt and emerge from reimagining 

law enforcement in a manner that 

improves public safety for all who 

visit, live, and work in Austin. 

In March, a survey was released 

to the public asking them to identify 

the skills and characteristics, 

background and experience, and 

top priorities they believed were 

most important for the next Chief of 

Police. The responses to the survey 

helped establish the selection criteria 

for the position. 

Cronk solicited additional feedback 

in April from community 

groups, including five online community 

input meetings and constituent 

calls from the City’s 311 service. 

“Thank you to everyone who participated 

and shared their thoughts 

throughout this process through 

online feedback, virtual meetings, 

or via 311,” said Cronk. “We received 

input that our community members 

want to see the next Chief 

have exceptional communication 

skills and create dialogue with the 

community. They want to see the 

Chief be reform minded and transparent 

and have a track record of 

fostering community involvement 

and accountability. The candidates 

selected show these characteristics 

in various ways.” 

Applications for the position 

opened April 26, 2021. 

Interviews with the Chief of 

Police candidates will occur in the 

coming weeks, with several community 

input opportunities on the 

top finalists. 

Candidate Bios 

JOSEPH CHACON is the Interim 

Chief of Police with the Austin 

Police Department, a role he has 

served in for four months. Prior 

to his appointment, Chief Chacon 

served as an assistant chief for 

almost five years, overseeing patrol, 

special operations, specialized 

patrol, investigations, intelligence, 

professional standards, and training/recruiting. 

Chacon has a master’s degree in 

Public Administration and a bachelor’s 

degree in Applied Arts and 

Sciences. He is a graduate of PERF’s 

Senior Management Institute for 

Police, Texas State University’s Certified 

Public Manager Program, and 

MCCA’s Police Executive Leadership 

Institute. 

ANNE KIRKPATRICK started her 

policing career in 1982 in the Memphis 

Police Department. During her 

38 years in policing, she has been 

with 8 agencies, 4 as a Chief of 

Police. She has a BA in Business Administration, 

a master’s in Counseling, 

a law degree and she has been 

a licensed attorney for 30 years. 

Kirkpatrick is also a graduate of the 

FBI National Academy, the FBI’s Law 

Enforcement Executive Development 

School and the FBI’s National 

Executive Institute. 

uty Chief of the newly reorganized 

East Patrol Bureau. In 2019, Deputy 

Chief Moore earned his second star, 

becoming Assistant Chief of Police 

and assuming command of investigations 

and tactical. Currently, 

Assistant Chief Moore commands 

the investigations bureau. 

Moore holds a master’s degree in 

Management from the University of 

Phoenix – Dallas, a bachelor’s degree 

in Criminal Justice from Cameron 

University, and an associate 

degree in Psychology from Cameron 

University. 

CELESTE MURPHY is Deputy Chief 

of the Atlanta Police Department. 

She joined the Atlanta PD in 1997, 

and has served in every rank from 

patrol officer, detective, sergeant, 

lieutenant, captain, and major. Appointed 

to Deputy Chief in January 

2020, she manages the Community 

Services Division. 

She holds a Bachelor of Arts degree 

in Mathematics and a master’s 

in Criminal Justice. Chief Murphy is 

a graduate of the Police Executive 

Research Forum’s Senior Management 

Institute for Police and North- 

AVERY L. MOORE is a 30-year 

veteran of the Dallas Police Department 

and now an assistant chief. 

He began his career as a patrol 

officer in 1990, serving in various 

assignments, including an instructor 

at the Dallas Police Academy. As 

a Lieutenant, Assistant Chief Moore 

served in the Crime Scene Response 

Unit, Traffic, and SWAT. Later he 

was promoted to the rank of major, 

overseeing a patrol division 

where he implemented programs 

that reduced the crime rate for 

twelve consecutive months. In 2017, 

Assistant Chief Moore received his 

first star and was named the Depwestern 

University School of Police 

Staff and Command. 

MIRTHA V. RAMOS is Chief of the 

DeKalb County (GA) Police Department. 

Chief Ramos began her law 

enforcement career in 1997 with 

the Miami-Dade Police Department. 

She served in various assignments, 

including uniform patrol, investigations, 

emergency management, 

community policing, and police 

administration. She rose through 

all the civil service ranks until her 

appointment to police major and 

subsequently to division chief, managing 

the high liability functions of 

the department. On November 4, 

2019, Chief Ramos was appointed 

to Chief of the DeKalb County Police 

Department. 

She holds a master’s degree in 

Psychology of Leadership and is a 

graduate of the FBI National Academy 

in Quantico, Virginia. 

GORDON RAMSAY has been a 

police chief for 15 years and is nationally 

recognized for his work in 

community policing, mental health, 

victim services, race relations, and 

reconciliation. He currently serves as 

chief of the Wichita Police Department. 

He holds a B.A. in Criminology and 

Sociology, an M.A. in Management, is 

a graduate of the FBI National Academy, 

and serves on the Major City 

Chiefs Association Executive Board. 

EMADA E. TINGIRIDES is a Los 

Angeles Police Department (LAPD) 

Deputy Chief. In 1995, she joined the 

LAPD to serve the city her family 

called home for generations. Mayor 

Eric Garcetti and Chief of Police 

Michael Moore promoted Emada to 

deputy chief and she was named the 

commanding officer of the newly 

formed Community Safety Partnership 

Bureau (CSPB). The relationship-based 

public health approach 

policing model that defines CSPB 

was born to find new and innovative 

ways to build trust, relationships, 

and address quality of life issues in 

some of Los Angeles’ most underserved 

and challenging communities. 

Tingirides holds a B.S. in Criminal 

Justice and an M.A. in Criminology, 

Law, and Society. 


Feds: Member of Misogynist Group Plotted 

Mass Shooting at Ohio University 

Police found unlawful weapons at the man’s home and a manifesto stating he 

would “slaughter” thousands of women “out of hatred, jealousy and revenge.” 

By Adam Ferrise 

cleveland.com 

CLEVELAND, Ohio — An Ohio 

man and self-described “incel” 

plotted a mass shooting at Ohio 

State University, specifically targeting 

women living at sorority 

houses on campus, according to 

a federal indictment unsealed on 

Wednesday. 

Tres Genco, 21, of Hillsboro, is 

charged with attempting to commit 

a hate crime and unlawful 

possession of a machine gun. He 

pleaded not guilty to the charges 

Wednesday in U.S. District Court in 

Columbus. He is due back in court 

July 23. 

An incel, short for an involuntarily 

celibate person, is a member 

of an online community of men 

who harbor anger towards women 

because they believe women deny 

them romantic or sexual attention. 

The movement in recent years 

has grown online, radicalizing 

members of the group. Some 

incels have then gone on to commit 

violence against women and 

others. 

Genco began identifying as an 

incel in January 2019, bought an 

AR-15 rifle, scouted locations at 

Ohio State University and wrote 

two manifestos about wanting to 

kill women, according to court 

records. 

He enlisted in the U.S. Army, 

where he went through four 

months of basic training until the 

Army discharged him for poor 

performance and bad conduct, 

according to court records. 

In manifestos recovered by 

authorities after his May 12, 2020, 

arrest, he wrote about conducting 

a mass shooting on OSU’s campus 

on May 23 of that year, court 

records say. When asked if authorities 

notified Ohio State officials of 

the planned shooting, a university 

spokesman, Benjamin Johnson, 

declined to comment and referred 

questions to federal prosecutors. 

In his writings and online postings, 

Genco referred to women 

as “foids,” short for femoids, a 

dehumanizing term incels use to 

“maintain a delusion of superiority” 

over women, according to 

Samantha Kutner, an expert on 

violent extremism and gender 

dynamics of radicalization at the 

International Centre for Counterterrorism. 

“Incels believe men are subjugated 

by women and engage in 

over-aggressive performance of 

masculinity,” Kutner said. “Once 

you’ve adopted this idea, some 

self-destruct, and others project 

their problems onto others and 

blame them. It’s really a toxic 

combination of delusions of grandeur 

and the belief that they are 

victimized by these women. They 

believe they have no agency in the 

process.” 

Genco became a prominent 

poster on online incel forums and, 

in his postings, invoked the name 

of Elliott Rodger, an incel who 

killed six people and wounded 14 

others in a 2014 shooting at a University 

of California-Santa Barbra 

sorority. 

He wrote that he once shot a 

group of people with a water gun 

filled with orange juice, which 

Rodger did before the mass shooting. 

“Felt like I spiritually connected 

to the saint on that day,” Genco 

wrote in an online post, adding, “I 

suggest it to all incels, extremely 

empowering action.” 

The court records show Genco 

appeared to be planning a mass 

shooting for some time. 

In January 2019, he bought a 

bulletproof vest, a hoodie emblazoned 

with the word “revenge,” a 

skull mask and a bowie knife. He 

bought two guns in the next two 

months — a rifle and a handgun, 

according to court records. 

He wrote his first manifesto in 

August 2019, titled “A Hideous 

Symphony, a manifesto written 

by Tres Genco, the socially exiled 

Incel.” He wrote about how he 

planned to get military training to 

carry out a mass shooting. 

“(T)his training will be for the 

attainment of one reality, the 

death of what I have been deprived 

most, but also cherish and 

fantasize at the opportunity of 

having but has been neglected of 

women,” he wrote, according to 

court records. “I will slaughter out 

of hatred, jealousy and revenge.” 

About the same time, he wrote a 

note that said: “OSU, May 23, 2020, 

290 Days! M-16 optimal, covert or 

mil-spec…KC [short for kill count] 

needs to be huge! 3,000? Aim big 

then.” 

Genco researched gun modifications. 

He searched online for Ohio 

State University sorority houses 

and other topics, including the use 

of guns and explosives. Later that 

month, he attended Army basic 

training at Ft. Benning, Georgia, 

until his discharge in December. 

After he returned to Ohio, he 

wrote a second manifesto in January 

2020 titled: “isolated.” 

“If you’re reading this, I’ve done 

something horrible. Somehow, 

you’ve come across the writings of 

the deluded and homicidal, not an 

easy task, and for that I congratulate 

you for your curiosity and 

willingness to delve into such a 

dark topic,” he wrote, according to 

court records. He signed the document, 

“Your hopeful friend and 

murderer.” 

Four days later, he conducted 

surveillance at Ohio State University 

and searched online topics 

including: “planning a shooting 

crime” and “When does preparing 

for a crime become and attempt?” 

On March 11, 2020, he searched 

for police scanner codes for Columbus 

and campus police. 

The next day, someone who lived 

with him called Highland County 

Sheriff’s deputies and reported 

that Genco locked himself in a 

bedroom with a gun and that he 

threatened the caller. The caller 

told deputies Genco in recent 

months had become increasingly 

“erratic and violent.” 

Sheriff’s deputies surrounded 

the home and coaxed Genco to 

come outside. They found in his 

car an AR-15 with a bump stock, 

an attachment that allows the rifle 

to fire more rounds faster, and 

a handgun hidden in the heating 

vent in his bedroom, court 

records say. Neither had serial 

numbers. 

The caller said they uncovered 

Genco’s writings and that they 

believed he planned on hurting 

someone. Deputies searched the 

home and found the manifestos 

and other handwritten documents, 

court records say. 

Genco eventually pleaded guilty 

in Highland County Common 

Pleas Court to a fourth-degree 

felony charge of making a terroristic 

threat and was sentenced to 

17 months in prison. He is currently 

in the North Central Correctional 

Institution in Marion, state 

prison records say. 

Kutner said when incels turn to 

violence, it’s often up to friends 

or family members to report them 

to authorities, like family members 

and friends who identified 

those who to took part in the 

January 6th insurrection at the 

U.S. Capitol building. 

“Some people have in their extended 

networks people they don’t 

know how to address, that are 

growing increasingly more radical,” 

Kutner said. “Like the court 

records in this case say, someone 

noticed warning signs, and 

they can intervene faster than the 

average law enforcement officer. 

There’s a level of care and accountability 

that have to be part of 

this response.” 

Law enforcement action, however, 

should be the last step in 

the process, Kutner said. Ideally, 

friends and family members would 

have access to more resources — 

including teachers, counselors, 

psychologists, friends and family 

— earlier on to stop the extremism 

from turning into violence. 

“You want to create an environment 

where we’re not just 

continually responding to threats,” 

Kutner said. “There are a variety 

of things that people can do, but 

it’s hard to do that when you’re in 

the threat-detection and response 

mode. It’s very easy for people to 

get sucked into this worldview 

that’s toxic and self-destructive 

and a danger to others if left unchecked.” 


5 Things to Know About Incels 

Incels have been linked to multiple acts of mass violence over the past 

few years. Here’s what you need to know. 

With the report last month that 

an Ohio man had been foiled in his 

attempt to carry out a mass shooting 

at a local university, a dark 

corner of the internet was once 

again brought into the spotlight: the 

“incel” community. 

Here are five things to know about 

incels, who’ve been linked to multiple 

acts of mass violence over the 

past few years. 

1. WHAT IS AN INCEL? 

Incel is short for “involuntary 

celibate.” It isn’t an organized 

group, but an online congregation 

of mostly 20-something males who 

vent to each other about their lack 

of sexual relationships with women, 

sometimes describing violent fantasies 

or calling for violence outright 

against women. A subsection of the 

“red pill” men’s rights movement, 

the incel ideology mostly boils 

down to the belief that women 

(called “Stacys” in incel slang) have 

denied them (“beta males”) sexual 

experiences or romantic relationships 

in favor of more attractive 

“alpha males” (which incels have 

coined “Chads”). 

Some incels have called for rape, 

acid attacks and other violence 

against Stacys and Chads. As with 

most violent language on the internet, 

determining a serious threat 

can be challenging, but incels have 

carried out real-life violence on 

multiple occasions. 

2. WHERE ARE THESE COMMU- 

NITIES? 

Incels most commonly congregate 

on social media platforms and 

message boards like 4chan. Misogyny 

and racism often run rampant 

within these communities, which 

shouldn’t come as a surprise to 

anyone familiar with 4chan. The 

website’s archive-less “/b/” message 

board is notorious for being the goto 

place for the absolute worst of 

the internet. Anonymous users post 

everything from child pornography 

to murder confessions. In 2014, one 

member strangled his girlfriend and 

shared photos of her naked corpse. 

3. INCELS ARE RADICALIZED 

ONLINE 

The rise of the incel community is 

another example of the increasing 

frequency of online radicalization in 

the digital age. 

Tracking incel activity comes with 

all the same challenges as monitoring 

and investigating any radical 

ideology or criminal element on the 

web – the vastness of the internet 

and the impermanence of content 

posted on sites like 4chan makes it 

hard to thwart attacks or differentiate 

real violence from fantasy. 

Tech companies’ efforts to curtail 

this type of online behavior vary 

depending on the platform, as does 

their level of cooperation with law 

enforcement. But some attempts at 

progress have been made. In June 

2017, for example, major tech companies 

like Google and Facebook 

formed the Global Internet Forum 

to Counter Terrorism (GIFCT) – an 

initiative to combat violent content 

on their platforms. Even with 

the aid of artificial intelligence and 

increased manpower focused on 

the issue, the puzzle of how to best 

go about tamping down on extremist 

content on the internet remains 

mostly unsolved. 

4. INCELS HAVE BEEN LINKED 

TO MULTIPLE INCIDENTS OF MASS 

VIOLENCE 

Incel chatter on the internet has 

been a precursor to some very real 

acts of mass violence, including a 

2018 mass shooting at a Tallahassee 

yoga studio and a van attack in 

Toronto the same year that left 10 

people dead and 16 more injured. 

5. THE ‘BETA UPRISING’ AND THE 

CHURCH OF ELLIOT RODGER 

Shortly before the Toronto attack, 

the suspect, Alek Minassian, posted 

the following message on his Facebook 

account: 

The Incel Rebellion has already 

begun! We will overthrow all the 

Chads and Stacys! All hail the Supreme 

Gentleman Elliot Rodger!” 

The reference to Elliot Rodger, 

who carried out the 2014 Isla Vista 

mass shooting, isn’t unique to 

the Toronto attack. In fact, Rodger 

has become somewhat of a patron 

saint in the incel community. His 

misogynistic manifesto, “My Twisted 

World,” along with his equally 

disturbing video blogs, all cited his 

hatred of women (stemming from 

his inability to lose his virginity) as 

the reason behind his deadly “Day 

of Retribution.” This material has 

become oft cited in the incel community, 

with terms like “supreme 

gentleman” and talk of betas vs. 

alphas ripped directly from Rodger’s 

writings. Many posts praising him 

take on a religious tone, and the anniversary 

of his attack is celebrated 

by some as “Saint Elliot Day.” 


“January 6th isn’t over for me.” 

Four officers gave emotional testimony Tuesday during the first 

hearing of a new House committee investigating the attack. 

By Sarah D. Wire 

Los Angeles Times 

WASHINGTON — Four Capitol and 

Metropolitan Police Department 

officers on Tuesday recounted their 

experience fighting off the January 6th 

insurrection at the U.S. Capitol during 

the first hearing of a new House committee 

investigating the attack. 

“I recall thinking to myself, this is 

how I’m going to die, defending this 

entrance,” Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino 

Gonell said. “I could have lost my life 

that day, not once, but many times.” 

Dressed in uniforms, the officers 

struggled at times to deliver the emotional 

testimony and graphic descriptions. 

At one point during a video presentation, 

Metropolitan Police Officer 

Daniel Fanone placed his hand on 

Gonell’s shoulder and whispered in his 

ear. Others dabbed their eyes with tissues, 

cleared their throats repeatedly 

and paused to drink water throughout 

their testimony. 

Gonell said he was more scared 

on January 6th than he was during 

his Army tour of duty in Iraq. He said 

when he arrived home at 4 a.m. on 

January 7th, he could not even hug 

his wife because his uniform was so 

soaked in chemical irritants he had 

been sprayed with. He faces multiple 

surgeries from his injuries and at least 

a year of rehabilitation. 

Tuesday’s hearing, which was meant 

to set the tone for what is expected 

to be a months-long investigation, 

focused primarily on the officers and 

what they experienced fighting off the 

melee for several hours. Some Republicans, 

including former President 

Trump, have sought to downplay the 

event as a largely peaceful protest 

that got out of control. 

“Even though there is overwhelming 

evidence to the contrary, including 

hours and hours of video and photographic 

coverage, there is a continuous 

and shocking attempt to ignore or 

try to destroy the truth of what truly 

happened that day and to whitewash 

the facts,” Gonell said. 

Speaking for more than three hours, 

officers discussed seeing protesters 

carrying knives and metal batons, and 

breaking apart barricades to use the 

pieces as weapons. They recounted 

people in the crowd trying to gouge 

out their eyes and threatening to kill 

them with their own gun. They recalled 

fighting the rioters despite 

concussions and broken bones, being 

shocked with cattle prods and sprayed 

with wasp and bear spray. 

Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn 

said he received no warning of a 

threat from the chain of command 

when he took his post January 6th. 

“We expected any demonstrators to 

be peaceful expressions of 1st Amendment 

freedoms, just like the scores of 

demonstrations we had observed for 

many years,” Dunn said. 

Hours later, after hearing repeated 

racial slurs from the mob, Dunn, who 

is black, recalled performing CPR on 

one of the attackers, fighting to save 

her life in Majority Leader Steny Hoyer’s 

office. 

“More than six months later, January 

6th isn’t over for me,” he said. 

At least 140 officers were injured — 

some permanently — and five people 

died either in the melee or in the hours 

after, including a police officer. Two 

officers died by suicide in the days 

after the attack. Damage estimates 

exceed $1 million. 

J. Thomas Manger, Former Maryland Chief, 

Named Next Capitol Police Chief. 

WASHINGTON – J. Thomas Manger, 

who spent 21 years as a police chief 

in the wealthy Washington suburbs of 

Montgomery and Fairfax counties, was 

named Thursday to take over the U.S. 

Capitol Police as it tries to regain its 

footing in the aftermath of the January 

6th riot at the Capitol. More than 80 

Capitol officers were assaulted, two 

later died, and its commanders were 

found to have ignored warnings of a 

violent attack. 

Manger was selected by three members 

of the Capitol Police Board — the 

sergeant-at-arms of the House and the 

Senate, and the architect of the Capitol 

— as well as top congressional leaders, 

who oversee the police department. He 

succeeds Chief Steven A. Sund, who resigned 

days after the insurrection amid 

heavy criticism of the department’s 

lack of preparation, and interim chief 

Yogananda D. Pittman, who was head 

of Capitol Police intelligence before 

January 6th. 

“The Congress is fortunate to have a 

seasoned decision-maker,” the board 

said in a statement, “who will lead with 

integrity, draw on his regional experience 

in strengthening partnerships with 

law enforcement partners, and make 

intelligence-based security decisions.” 

Manger will start his new job Friday, 

the board said, overseeing a force of 

1,800 sworn officers. 

“When I was watching the events on 

January 6,” Manger said in an interview, 

“it was the first time since I had retired 

that I wished I wasn’t retired.” He said 

he had worked on preparing for numerous 

protests in Washington with other 

police chiefs, and “I felt like with the 

experience I had over the past 20 years, 

I could help.” 

Manger said he had read every official 

report written about the Capitol 

Police and January 6th, and “every one 

of them has recommendations, probably 

close to 100. I looked at every one 

of them, a lot of them having to do 

with intelligence, staffing, or training 

and equipment. My goal is to prioritize 

these things and work on as many as 

we can at a time.” 

The new chief said he wanted to 

assure the public that January 6th 

was “not typical of the work they do. 

They have protected that Capitol, the 

membership, and it all went smoothly. 

People might come to the wrong 

conclusion that the department is 

dysfunctional. It’s not. It’s a department 

of great men and women, and I’m confident 

going forward we’re going to be 

able to accomplish the things we need 

to accomplish.” 


Boy battling cancer becomes honorary 

deputy for a day in Polk County Florida. 

Merrick Lloyd lived out his dream last week – with a uniform to match. 

A Florida preschooler who 

has cancer got to be “deputy 

for a day” after his teachers and 

the Polk County Sheriff’s Office 

decided to help make his dream 

become a reality. 

Carlton Palmore Elementary 

School teachers and administrators, 

as well as the sheriff’s 

office, worked to make Merrick 

Lloyd an “honorary deputy” 

on Tuesday at the request 

of his family, as WTSP, a local 

Tampa-based CBS station, first 

reported. 

“The world needs hope and 

goodness right now,” Carlton 

Palmore Elementary School Principal 

Badonna Dardis told Fox 

News in an email. “… We are so 

thankful that Merrick was able 

to get his wish and become a 

deputy for a day. Merrick is one 

brave preschooler!” 

Merrick has been undergoing 

radiation and chemotherapy 

treatment for about six months, 

Dardis wrote in a Thursday 

Facebook post. 

“When the school and community 

come together, beautiful 

things happen,” the principal 

said in her thank-you message 

to everyone who helped organize 

the event for Merrick. 

Merrick met with various 

members of the sheriff’s office, 

receiving his gifts, visiting the 

sheriff’s office, sitting in the 

cockpits of a helicopter and 

plane, listening in on dispatches 

and more. 

Dardis said the sheriff’s office 

“honored” Merrick with a uniform, 

a plaque and a “backpack 

full of gifts.” 

“He was excited to meet 

Sheriff Grady Judd, the 911 Dispatchers, 

and the Polk County 

SWAT Team! Thank you for your 

generosity and making one of 

our student’s dreams come 

true! You are the BEST,” she 

wrote. 

Judd shared his own message 

to Facebook on Thursday, writing: 

“ Dream big, Merrick! ” 

“It was wonderful getting to 

know you, your teachers, and 

your family this week.” 


New Laws in WA Prevent Cops from 

Pursuing Most Suspects, Handling 

Mental Calls 

By Sandy Malone 

Olympia, WA – Law enforcement 

leaders have repeatedly warned 

citizens that things will not be 

business-as-usual for officers in the 

state after a slew of police reforms 

laws went into effect on Sunday 

that prevent police from chasing 

violent crime suspects and assisting 

with mental health calls. 

Sheriffs and police chiefs from 

numerous agencies and jurisdictions 

across the state released 

statements in days leading up to 

July 25 when Washington House 

Bills 1054 and 1310, and Senate Bill 

5476, went into effect, King reported. 

Officials wanted their community 

members to understand why 

officers wouldn’t be doing some 

basic things that they’ve been seen 

doing in the past, such as chasing 

bad guys or arresting people who 

are opening using illegal drugs in 

public. 

The Pierce County Sheriff’s Department 

explained some of the 

changes in a Facebook post on July 

23 and said, “The largest impact for 

our residents will be the changes to 

our ability to pursue after a suspect 

who is fleeing in a vehicle.” 

Snohomish County Sheriff Adam 

Fortney explained that prior to the 

implementation of the new laws, 

pursuit policies were determined by 

individual jurisdictions. 

Under HB 1054, all jurisdictions 

are subject to the same state legislature-determined 

pursuit policy 

which severely limits when a law 

enforcement officer can engage in 

a vehicle pursuit, Sheriff Fortney 

wrote. 

The new law only allows a vehicle 

pursuit if there is “probable cause to 

believe that a person in the vehicle 

has committed or is committing a 

violent offense or a sex offense,” 

according to the sheriff. 

“The key part of this legislation is 

the state has moved the legal bar 

to pursue for a violent offense to 

‘probable cause’ rather than ‘reasonable 

suspicion,’” Sheriff Fortney 

explained. “For example, if a deputy 

sheriff was to respond to an armed 

robbery and the suspect vehicle 

was described as a blue F150 and 

a deputy saw a blue F150 driving 

at a high rate of speed in the same 

area as the robbery occurred, a law 

enforcement officer could still try 

to make a traffic stop this vehicle, 

however if the suspect vehicle 

decides to flee we can no longer 

pursue it under House Bill 1054.” 

He said that under the new law, 

officers can’t pursue suspected 

violent offenders who have just 

committed an armed robbery until 

they take the time to first establish 

probable cause. For example, they 

may need to first contact the victim 

or a witness and confirm exactly 

what crime has been committed 

and what specific person is responsible 

in order to establish probable 

cause prior to engaging in the vehicle 

pursuit. 

“While this may seem like a small 

detail, it will have substantial impacts 

on the ability for law enforcement 

officers to pursue vehicles 

fleeing from the scene of a crime,” 

the sheriff wrote. “Often times, it is 

simply impossible to have all of this 

figured out while responding to a 

call and coming across a suspect 

vehicle fleeing.” 

And under HB 1310, the new useof-force 

law, law enforcement 

officers cannot detain possible 

suspects the see fleeing the area of 

a crime unless they have confirmed 

that the crime occurred, and they 

know that the person fleeing is the 

actual suspected offender. 

“For example, under the current 

law, if a man was to break into your 

house while you were inside, you 

confront him and he runs away, and 

you call 911 to provide a description 

of the suspect as ‘a white male, 

in his 30s, wearing a red shirt and 

black shorts, leaving on foot,’” said 

Sheriff Fortney. 

“It has always been considered 

reasonable that if a law enforcement 

officer arrived at the area 

and saw a suspect matching this 

description, that we had the legal 

authority to stop him and if he ran, 

we were allowed to use reasonable 

force to chase him and detain 

him. This would be allowed under 

the current ‘reasonable suspicion’ 

threshold,” he wrote. “Under HB 

1310, this is no longer allowed.” 

“A deputy sheriff no longer has 

the authority to use force to apprehend 

the suspect in the above scenario,” 

the sheriff explained. “With 

the new threshold being ‘probable 

cause,’ a deputy sheriff will have to 

have articulable facts, that are confirmed 

by a victim or witness, that 

a specific crime has occurred and 

the person we are seeking is the one 

responsible.” 

“That means we can no longer 

stop and detain a fleeing suspect 

matching a description who is running 

from the area of a crime that 

just occurred,” he added. 

“We must first make contact with 

the reporting party or a witness, 

confirm the facts of the crime, develop 

probable cause and then we 

can go back and look for that individual,” 

Sheriff Fortney continued. 

“As you can imagine in the dynamic 

world of policing in 2021, most of 

the time it is nearly impossible to 

have all of those facts sorted out 

while responding to the initial 911 

call, and this ultimately allows a 

suspect the ability to flee the area 

without being stopped.” 

“I want the community to know 

that this type of scenario is not a 

rarity in police work and the new 

legal standard of ‘probable cause’ to 

use force in an investigative detention 

will have substantial impacts. 

This type of similar scenario occurs 

regularly in Snohomish County, and 

this new standard is the same for all 

types of crimes, including violent 

crimes,” he added. 

Sheriff Fortney explained that the 

result would be countless hours 

of detective work to track down 

offenders and make arrests of suspects 

who fled the scenes of their 

crimes. 

Also under HB 1310, law enforcement 

officers won’t be able to help 

EMS detain a person having a mental 

health crisis. 

Sheriff Fortney said officers will 

not be able to use force to detain a 

person in crisis for transport to the 

hospital unless there is an imminent 

threat of bodily injury to a person. 

“As a result, sheriff deputies will 

have to walk away from many crisis 

incidents far more often than in 

the past,” he wrote. “This will also 

largely impact our ability to assist 

Fire/Aid and Designated Crisis Responders.” 

The sheriff also warned community 

members in another Facebook 

post on July 23 that deputies who 

responded to calls about people 

openly using drugs would no longer 

be making arrests until after two 

prior incidents where the suspect 

was offered documented referrals 

for recovery services. 

Those referrals could be as simple 

as a pamphlet or as complex as actually 

helping a person enter a detox 

program, Sheriff Fortney explained. 

Only on the third offense would 

deputies make an arrest and then the 

person would be offered services 

again inside the Snohomish County 

Jail. 

It was clear that law enforcement 

agencies wanted the community to 

understand that they didn’t choose 

these changes. 

“It is important that we share these 

significant changes with you,” the 

Pierce County Sheriff’s Department 

wrote. “This is not about what we 

WILL no longer do – this is about 

what we CAN no longer do under 

the new laws. Please know that if a 

crime has occurred, we will still respond 

to your call for help. The way 

we handle the call may be different 

than before, but the values and mission 

of our department will remain 

the same.” 


TIM MILLER 

President & Founder of Texas EquuSearch 


TIM MILLER 

2019 FBI Director’s 

COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP AWARD RECIPIENT 

Last February, before the world was locked down with COVID, Special Agent in 

Charge (SAC) Perrye K. Turner of the Houston Office of the FBI, announced that Tim 

Miller, founder of Texas EquuSearch (TES) would be receiving the 2019 FBI Director’s 

Community Leadership Award. Tim’s only daughter was abducted and murdered 

in 1984 in Galveston County, and subsequently founded TES in August 2000. Since 

forming the volunteer-based, nonprofit organization, Tim Miller has spent countless 

hours conducting horse-mounted searches and recovering lost and missing persons. 

In its press release of February 2020, the FBI stated: “As part of our mission to protect 

the communities where we serve, the FBI remains dedicated to recovering all 

endangered children. Tim Miller and the volunteers he leads through EquuSearch are 

invaluable allies in the FBI’s fight to assist law enforcement in reuniting missing persons 

with their families,” said SAC Turner. “Tim Miller is the epitome of an engaged 

citizen and community partner that deserves this type of recognition.” 

The release also said, “Through TES, Mr. Miller assists those who suffer the pain 

and agony he experienced 35 years ago when his daughter, Laura, never returned 

home. Laura is one of four young women murdered in the area by a serial killer in 

what’s known as the “Calder Road Murders.” In September 2019, the FBI website, 

www.fbi.gov, featured the four unsolved murder cases with the hope that public tips 

will lead to the identification of the killer. Through his life’s work, Miller brings hundreds 

of families the closure he is still waiting to receive with his daughter Laura” 

“Since its inception, Texas EquuSearch has worked closely with the FBI and assisted 

searching for missing and abducted persons when requested by law enforcement. 

The work of Texas EquuSearch and Tim Miller, however, spans far beyond the 

Houston Field Office area of responsibility. Texas EquuSearch has conducted more 

than 1,800 searches in 42 states in the U.S. and abroad. To date, they have located 

over 400 missing persons and brought them home. They have also recovered the 

remains of nearly 300 missing individuals.” 

The FBI Texas City Resident Agency also invited Tim Miller to be part of its inaugural 

FBI Citizens Academy in 2019. Completing the program did not deter Mr. Miller 

from maintaining his demanding schedule that often included participating in missing 

person searches before and after class. “Tim Miller’s dedication to his organization’s 

mission, and justice as a whole, is unparalleled,” said Texas City Resident 

Agency Supervisor, Richard Rennison. “He provides continuous aid to law enforcement, 

all in the interest of helping victims and their families.” 

The FBI created the Director’s Community Leadership Award (DCLA) in 1990 to 

honor individuals and organizations for their efforts in combating crime, terrorism, 

drugs, and violence in the United States. 


TIM MILLER 

2021 BLUES Police Magazine 

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD 

The BLUES couldn’t have said it better than the FBI. Tim Miller is the epitome of 

an engaged citizen and community partner that deserves this type of recognition.” 

Tim Miller is what every citizen in this country should strive to be - a compassionate 

man driven to find every lost or missing person that comes across the desk at 

TES. No matter the circumstances, the risks, the costs, or the number of resources it 

takes, Tim Miller & TES will give 110% to finding your loved one. The outcomes may 

not always be positive, but as Tim knows first-hand, finding closure starts with the 

ability to bury your loved one and say goodbye. Seeking justice is the second hardest 

part when it comes to murder victims. 

But despite all the horrible, trying times Tim Miller has endured over the past 30+ 

years, he still goes out every day and leads search, after search after search. Even 

when death was almost staring him in the face with his own health problems, Tim’s 

only thoughts were, “I have to get better to get back to EquuSearch. We have to 

continue to find missing loved ones and give families the closure they need and deserve.” 

TES posted to their Facebook after Tim was released from the hospital - Tim 

would like to thank everyone for their prayers, overwhelming support, and messages 

of hope. He believes, without a doubt, that he is doing well because of your 

continued prayers. 

“I am blessed beyond measure and cannot stress how enormously grateful I am to 

everyone,” Miller said in a statement. “Thank you!” 

As I stated in my editorial at the beginning of this issue: 

“Tim Miller is truly an incredible man on an incredible mission. He is the light at 

the end of a dark tunnel. The rainbow at the end of horrible storm. A loving hug 

when all seems lost. I can’t imagine a world without him. By the grace of God, Tim 

Miller is back home and back at work.” 

To honor this hero of many, on behalf of the entire staff here at The BLUES, we are 

proud to present Tim Miller with The BLUES’s LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD. We 

congratulate you as does every family you have helped, as well as every law enforcement 

agency in the US and around the world you have assisted. We are truly 

blessed to have Tim Miller here with us know. May God Bless You and Keep You Safe. 


TEXAS EQUUSEARCH 

The Best of the Best 

Tim Miller, the founder of Texas EquuSearch, has devoted his life to helping 

families all over the world. His drive and determination is what made Texas 

EquuSearch the best of the best when it comes to finding missing persons. 

A local reporter said, “It doesn’t matter if its 100 degrees outside, pouring 

rain, hurricanes, winter storms or a million mosquitos – Tim and his Equu- 

Search volunteers will go where the clues take them to search for a missing 

person.” In fact, Texas EquuSearch has become one of the largest search 

and rescue organizations in the U.S. 

36 The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE 37

TEXAS EQUUSEARCH 

“That determination, that ‘we won’t stop until we bring closure for the 

family’ is what drives each and every volunteer at EquuSearch.” 

Since its inception in 2000, 

Texas EquuSearch has been 

involved in 1,860+ searches 

in approximately 42 states 

in the United States, Aruba, 

Sri Lanka, Mexico, Jamaica, 

Dominican Republic and 

Nicaragua. EquuSearch has 

over 2000+ volunteers located 

across Texas and other 

states. They have successfully 

reunited over 400 missing 

people to their families safe 

and sound. Law enforcement 

agencies far and wide will 

flat out tell you that many of 

those 400+ missing people 

would have been deceased 

if not for Tim Miller and his 

volunteers. Texas Equu- 

Search is also responsible 

for recovering the remains 

of 238 missing loved ones, 

bringing closure to so many 

families. Many of the 238 

cases have resulted in criminal 

cases. At no time during 

any of the searches was evidence 

compromised by Texas 

EquuSearch. Therefore, the 

suspect(s) were brought to 

justice resulting in convictions. 

“Texas EquuSearch Mounted 

Search and Recovery 

Team was founded in August 

of 2000 with the purpose 

to provide volunteer horse 

mounted search and recovery 

for lost and missing persons. 

The team was originated in 

the North Galveston County 

area because of the high incidence 

of missing persons in 

the largely undeveloped area 

of south Harris and north 

Galveston Counties.” That’s 

on the organization’s website. 

The truth is, Tim Miller 

founded Texas EquuSearch 

when he saw the face of 

mother who was pleading 

with the public to please 

help her find her missing 

child. Tim didn’t want another 

mother or father to have 

to go through what he had 

experienced over the past 

16 years with his daughter 

Laura. Texas EquuSearch’s 

very existence and purpose 

is dedicated to the memory 

of Laura Miller. Laura was 

abducted and murdered in 

north Galveston County in 

1984. 

Tim will tell you that their 

organization is compassionate, 

dedicated and professional. 

“We believe that 

we can better ourselves by 

working together to help the 

community and people in 

need,” states their website. 

Many of the members are 

trained in various rescue and 

lifesaving skills such as CPR, 

advanced lifesaving skills 

and field craft. The members 

come from all walks of 

life, consisting of business 

owners, medics, firefighters, 

housewives, electricians, 

students, former FBI and law 

enforcement, current law 

enforcement, former and 

current U.S. Marshalls, Coast 

Guard and as well as all 

walks of military, both current 

and former. 

EquuSearch’s resources 

range from horse and rider 

teams to foot searchers and 

ATVs. They conduct water 

searches using boats, divers 

and sonar equipment. Additionally, 

the teams perform 

air searches using planes, 

helicopters and small drone 

airplanes with highly sophisticated 

cameras. They’ve also 

utilized infrared and night 

vision cameras, along with 

ground penetration units in 

some of the searches. Texas 

EquuSearch has more resources 

than most law enforcement 

agencies, which allows 

law enforcement to conduct 

their investigation, while 

Texas EquuSearch conducts 

organized searches. This 

has created a great working 

relationship between 

law enforcement and Texas 

EquuSearch. In fact, most 

law enforcement agencies 

across the nation now contact 

Texas EquuSearch to assist them 

in locating missing person cases in 

their area. 

EquuSearch is currently available 

to conduct searches nation and 

worldwide. EquuSearch is a nonprofit 

organization, which is funded 

solely by donations. 


FBI 

STORIES OF THE 

Each month, the BLUES will feature articles, interviews and 

actual case files of the FBI. This month we join Jim Dudley, 

Host of Police Matters as he speaks with former FBI Special 

Agent Katherine Schweit as she talks about her time at the 

bureau and her upcoming book: “Stop the Killing: How to End 

Mass Shooting Crisis.” 

Listen on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, Amazon Music, Stitcher, Spotify, and RSS feed. 


“The first person I would ask if I wanted to know how to stop the killing from mass shootings 

would be Katherine Schweit.” — Richard C. Hunt, MD, FACEP, Senior Medical Advisor U.S. Department 

of Health & Human Services and Former Director for Medical Preparedness Policy, National Security 

Council Staff 

If you review the FBI report on active shooter incidents from 2000-2019, you will find that in 277 

incidents, there were 2,430 casualties, including 1,546 wounded and 877 deaths. We have seen recent 

spikes in mass shootings in 2021 already. What is the answer? How can we limit or stop the increasing 

number of mass shooters? 

In this episode of Policing Matters, host Jim Dudley speaks with attorney Katherine Schweit, who 

spent 20 years with the FBI as a Special Agent executive. After the Sandy Hook massacre, she was 

assigned to head the FBI’s active shooter program where she authored the FBI’s seminal research, A 

Study of 160 Active Shooter Incidents in the United States, 2000-2013. Through her extensive experience, 

Schweit has become an expert in active shooters, mass shootings, and security policies and 

procedures. She is the author of the book, “Stop the Killing: How to End the Mass Shooting Crisis” set 

to be released by Rowman and Littlefield on August 15, and runs Schweit Consulting LLC, providing 

leadership counseling, security advice and safety training to hospitals, businesses, religious organizations, 

educators and government clients. Click here to read an excerpt from the book. 

Jim Dudley (00:05): If you 

take a look at the FBI report on 

mass shootings from the years 

2000 to 2018, you will find that 

in 277 incidents, there were 

2,423 casualties, including 1,546 

wounded and 877 deaths. We’ve 

seen spikes in mass shootings 

recently already in 2021. What’s 

the answer? How can we limit 

or stop the increasing number 

of mass shooters? Do we create 

more gun laws? Well, Illinois 

has strict gun laws and yet the 

number of homicide rates are 

among the highest every year, 

especially in the Chicago area. 

Do we limit access to the mentally 

ill? How do we define mental 

illness? What about those 

who have not been diagnosed? 

Well, Katherine Schweit is a 

lawyer and former FBI executive 

who currently teaches law 

classes at DePaul and Webster 

universities. 

She spent 20 years with the FBI 

and prior to that post she was a 

prosecutor in Chicago. After the 

Sandy Hook massacre, she was 

assigned to the head of the FBI’s 

active shooter program, where 

she stayed for five years. She 

authored FBI seminal research, 

a study of 160 active shooter incidents 

in the United States from 

2000 to 2013. And through her 

extensive experience, Katherine 

has become an expert in active 

shooters, mass shootings, and 

security policies and procedures. 

She currently owns Schweit 

Consulting, LLC, providing leadership, 

counseling, security advice, 

and safety training to hospitals, 

businesses, religious organizations, 

educators, and government 

clients. She is the author of the 

book, “Stop the Killing: How to 

End the Mass Shooting Crisis.” 

Well, that is a tall task, and we 

can’t wait to hear what you’re 

going to say. Welcome to Policing 

Matters, Katherine Schweit. 

Katherine Schweit (01:09): 

Thank you so much. It’s an honor 

to be here. I appreciate you 

taking the time to listen to my 

points of view and hopefully I 

can provide your listeners with a 

little bit of insight. I know you’ve 

got a really sophisticated group 

of listeners, so I’m excited about 

this. 

Jim Dudley (02:28): Before we 

get started, can you give me and 

the audience an idea, get us on 

the same page if you will, with 

the definitions: active shooter 

versus mass shooter. 


Great question. Because that is 

the question right now and when 

it comes to research. An active 

shooter, as your audience likely 

may know, is defined by the 

federal government – DHS, FBI, 

all the three-letter groups – as 

an individual, actively engaged 

in killing or attempting to kill 

people in a populated area. So, 

you know, the essential elements 

to that are that it’s in a populated 

area, meaning potentially 

civilians could be injured who 

are unengaged and that it’s an 

attempted kill or killing. So, 

it’s the threat itself. And so, it’s 

different than a mass shooting. 

Mass shooting, first of all, has 

no federal definition. Mass killing 

does, under federal law, is 

three or more killed, but mass 

shooting has no definition. So, 

researchers and a lot of us have 

been working with academics 

and practitioners to get an exact 

kind of definition for a mass 

shooting, that really will include 

things that are, as you know, domestic 

situations and gangs and 

other kinds of violence where it’s 

just an individual discharging a 

firearm with premeditation to kill 

several people, and what that 

number is. We know it’s more 

than two, but we haven’t quite 

come up with that exact number. 

Although researchers generally 

use three or four to have a cutoff 

on when they’re doing the research. 

Jim Dudley (04:06): So as 

an active FBI agent, what was 

your involvement in tracking the 

active shooters? I would venture 

to say that with a multitude 

of databases that track mass 

shootings, both government, 

non-governmental and for-profit, 

nonprofit, I like to use the FBI 

UCR database, but why do we 

have so many different numbers 

coming from all these other 

places? Is there one reliable collection 

source? 

Katherine Schweit (04:37): 

Well, actually that’s exactly the 

problem that we faced after the 

Sandy Hook massacre. I had been 

put in charge of and given a lot 

of tax dollars to find answers 

to that question. So of course, I 

reached out to our people who 

keep the stats on uniform crimes 

in our criminal division. And we 

were looking for different ways 

to find that data within our own 

data. The Bureau is working on 

that. They’ve come up with new 

ways to track their data and put 

their data together so that it’s 

more incident-related, but they 

were really tracking data. Initially, 

for a long time, the FBI would 

track its data and say, if you had 

an incident that occurred at a 

bank, you’d have a bank robbery. 

And that would be one tick 

mark in the uniform crime stats 

about bank robberies. But if 

there was a shooting at the bank 

robbery, someplace else there’d 

be another tick mark about a 

person killed, and it wouldn’t 

necessarily cross over. And then 

if there was a car crash and 

people were arrested and it was 

involved in drugs, then it’s all 

these tick marks and all these 

different databases, and none 

of them crossing over. After 

Sandy Hook, that’s exactly what 

we faced. No uniform system 

used by researchers; no uniform 

systems used by the government 

agencies. And I’ll just add 

on top of that, that we weren’t 

looking for all shootings and all 

killings and all deaths and all 

threats. We were looking for this 

weird vexing, subset of types of 

incidents that really were these 

public shootings. Think about 

Aurora and Columbine and Texas 

Towers, these very vexing, public 

shootings and saying who is 

doing this and why. And that’s really 

why we came up with such 

different numbers, such unique 

numbers. Now I think researchers 

are recognizing we really did 

get to that baseline data that 

researchers are using now. And 

they rely on it all the time. 

Jim Dudley (06:45): So, the 

data is more reliable now is as 

good as we can get. 

Katherine Schweit (06:49): The 

information that the FBI used 

for their research was based on 

police reports and nobody else 

is able to pull police reports, but 

what we did, and what I said to 

my team is, look, if we can go 

out and ask our agents to go out 

personally to the officers and 

the departments that worked 


on these cases and get these 

kind of 10 or 12 data points, we 

don’t need their whole reports 

and all the details, but we need 

these data points on every single 

shooting. And we went out one 

by one on 250 or so. And then 

we brought that data back in 

and sat together. And we knew 

we had accurate data, not some 

supposition, cause some neighbors 

said, and we heard, and 

then also somebody gets shot 

at a scene and they die later. 

Those numbers count. So, we 

wanted to get the most accurate 

information we could. So, I think 

we’re pretty good. And I think the 

Bureau has stuck with that. And 

so now they have a good solid 

20 years of data on activity. 

Jim Dudley (07:52): Nice. Yeah, 

the data’s important, right? 

We’re going to do some epidemiology 

and go back to the root 

cause of the shooting, the motivation, 

the access to firearms and 

mental illness and all that other 

stuff. I want to ask you about 

your book. I’m going to wait until 

after the break, because right 

now, so far, the national debate 

seems to land on two central 

issues. One is gun laws and the 

other being the mentally ill, and 

there’s a dichotomy of two sets 

of people on opposite sides, on 

both sides, on both issues. And 

so, we talk about people saying, 

“we want strict gun laws,” 

but we’ve seen them not be so 

efficient. And then we’ve seen 

people want to limit access to 

the mentally ill, but both NAMI, 

the National Alliance on Mental 

Illness, and the NRA are against 

creating a new list or a new 

category of people for fear they 

may not seek treatment because 

of such a list. So, what have you 

seen in your background of the 

biology of mass shootings or 

active shooters? Are you seeing 

trends in mental illness or are 

you seeing firearms as being the 

issue? 

Katherine Schweit (09:13): I 

mean, I love that you asked that 

question. Is it this or is it that? 

And of course, the answer is 

it’s all of those things, right? I 

mean, that’s the frightening part 

that we know. And the vaccine 

difficulty is that people really, 

we all innately want to kind of 

buttonhole and pick out one idea 

or one reason, so we can fix that 

reason. Right. That’s why we 

want one reason, but you raise 

what we know are some of the 

most preeminent concerns. You 

mentioned mental health and I 

can just address briefly some of 

the things that you spoke about. 

You’re spot on. So let me say this 

about mental health. After the 

FBI, after we did our research on 

the 160 active shooter incidents, 

we took those police records and 

we provided them. This was the 

intent in the FBI the whole time 

to do a two-part study. 

So, the first part was my study 

on a hundred active shooter 

incidents. The second part was a 

study that our behavioral experts 

did on 63 of those shooters 

because they were able to get 

enough information specifically 

about those particular shooters. 

And one of the things that they 

found is that every shooter and 

every killer involved had four 

to five, what they call stressors. 

Four or five things in their life 

that were stressing them out to 

the point that they – there’s kind 

of this concept of why did this 

person become a brittle individual 

and commit this heinous 

crime because they were under 

all these stressors, all these 

different things. And at the top 

of that list, mental health issues, 

not behavioral, you know, mental 

health where you’re worried 

that somebody is getting care 

for some highly critical situation, 

and the FBI found like 60% of 

those people had mental health 

as one of their stressors. 

Those things very often were 

anxiety. They weren’t necessarily 

what you think of as a more 

severe diagnosed mental health 

challenge, which I tell you that 

because, you know, the National 

Council of Behavioral Health has 

said, “Please don’t use this as a 

predictor.” Because the vast majority, 

the one half of the 1% of 

the 1000% – and so many people 

need to get mental health care 

for the most major and minor 

things. So, using mental health 

as a predictor is bad if it makes 

people not get mental healthcare 

because they’re worried about 

getting their clearances for instance, 

and things like that. It’s 

that whole concept of we have 

to de-stigmatize getting good 

mental health care. 

Plus, we also know that a lot 

of people who have had mental 

health concerns, they don’t 

get any mental health treatment. 

So, they’re not identified 

as a person who’s had mental 

health treatment. So mental 

health is absolutely a factor, but 

not necessarily a good predictive 

factor. That’s kind of where 

I land on mental health. Guns, 

a whole different issue, right? I 

teach at DePaul University at the 

law school. I teach a class on the 

culture of the second amendment. 

So, I have guns all over in 

my head about where we have it, 

why we have it and how people 

feel about it. And particularly for 

law enforcement. I answered the 

same question that probably a 

lot of people do when they say, 

we should just get rid of all the 

guns, which every one of us has 

heard a million times. 

And as I said to somebody 

recently, I’m not against guns, 

I’m against killing. But that said, 

I think that we are in the process 

now of having to, as a country, 

come to grips with things, 

because we do have, 300, 400 

million guns in the United States. 

Do we need to put into place 

some check systems? And there 

are slews of those on guns and 

different people support different 

ones, but red flag laws and 

trigger locks and more accountability 

for parents who let their 

kids get access to guns. I mean, 

most of the guns in these instances 

are legally purchased, 

legally owned. 

Jim Dudley (13:58): Okay. So, 

I want to get into some more 

measurements of active shooters. 

So oftentimes when we talk 

about the variables, the mental 

health or the condition of the 

shooter, or whether the guns 

were legal or illegal, or how 

many rounds, are we accurate 

in our measurements of active 

shooters? If the FBI defines a 

mass shooting as requiring three 

or more casualties, are we lumping 

them in with the domestic violence 

disputes or someone who 

carefully plans to rent suites on 

a high rise and start spraying 

an outdoor concert with thousands 

and thousands of rounds? 

I mean, aren’t we comparing 

apples to oranges sometimes? 

Katherine Schweit (15:09): You 

know, that’s a great question. 

And I’m really glad you asked 

that because I think it depends 

on what question you’re trying 

to find an answer to, right? So, 

if we’re looking for prevention 

methods and what are the prevention 

methods, for somebody 

who wants to go out in public 

and do these killings. When we 

were speaking amongst ourselves 

at the FBI, I actually was 

fortunate enough to bring in local 

law enforcement from Minneapolis 

and California, Texas. 

And they came in and worked 

on my team for nine months, a 

fantastic group of people. And 

so, I really had that very great 

local perspective all the time 

who were questioning us. One of 

the things that we talked about 

was if you are trying to identify 

who is going to do this, why 

we’re going to, why this is going 

to happen? 

What are we trying to, what 

are we trying to tell the public, 

how are we trying to help 

the public, or are we trying to 

help law enforcement? So, we 

researched active shooter incidents 

because we wanted to 

be able to focus on prevention 

and help the law enforcement 

community, who is always the 

last line of defense, find answers. 

When people come to them and 

say, “this neighbor of mine is 

doing X. This one this person I 

work with is doing Y,” a better 

understanding. The behaviors of 

concern give us the prevention 


capabilities. Certainly, somebody 

does something afterwards 

and a person shooting in a high 

rise is not the same as a person 

shooting in a house. But when 

you talk about predictors, we 

don’t necessarily need to research 

why a shoot goes bad 

in a drug house. We don’t need 

to research why that particular 

murder-suicide occurred with 

three or four children in the 

house, because it was a domestic 

situation that you look at 

those individual situations. 

When we made the decision 

at the FBI to do this research, 

what we wanted to do was to 

exclude things that we already 

did a lot of research on, that 

the community, academia and 

law enforcement had done a lot 

of research on. We know a lot 

about gun deaths and gun violence 

in gangs. We know a lot 

about gun violence in drugs. We 

know about a lot of gun violence 

when it comes to domestic 

violence. And even to some 

extent, workplace violence. But 

what we found is that when we 

dissected and we pulled out just 

these particular incidents, we 

found some fence fascinating 

patterns. So, for example, when 

you look at specific data and, 

in our research, we found that 

probably 10% of the time when 

a shooter came into this kind 

of scene, an unarmed civilian 

disarmed the shooter. 10% of the 

time. We never would see that if 

we were pooling in the data with 

domestic violence and guns and 

gangs and drugs. We wouldn’t 

see that. 

So that was part of the help, 

part of the great data research 

that comes out. When you look 

at the right numbers, we also 

found that half of the shootings 

occur in places in the workforce, 

that 25% of them occur in educational 

places, schools and 

stuff. We found amongst those 

two groups, when your shooter 

is shooting at a middle school or 

a high school, or your shooter 

is in a place of business that is 

closed to the public, like a shipping 

facility, a packing facility, a 

law office. When the shooter is 

from a closed place of business, 

that the public doesn’t transit, 

or a middle school, or a high 

school that shooters already inside 

shoots from there. So, when 

you look at whether you should 

put up more security locks and 

alarms magnetometers, if your 

shooter’s already inside, they 

already have badge access, more 

concerned about prevention, less 

concerned about putting people 

in a workforce environment. 

That’s like a prison. And that’s 

where the numbers helped us to 

dissect and why we thought it 

was valuable to do that. 

Jim Dudley (19:40): And that 

was certainly the case in Sandy 

Hook when it was the son of an 

employee, right. And the administrators, 

she wasn’t a teacher. 

Katherine Schweit (19:49): She 

wasn’t working at that school. 

He had gone to that school at 

Sandy Hook through the school. 

At Sandy Hook, most people I 

think don’t recognize or don’t recall, 

but as horrific as that situation 

was, those kids, there were 

about 550 people in the school 

at the time, 82 people working 

there at the time. And those people 

had just had active shooter 

training just a few weeks before. 

So, it wasn’t unknown. And 

that was back on December 14, 

2012. And there, if you look at 

the people who survived that 

shooting, there is heroic story 

after heroic story, after heroic 

story of people who properly 

barricaded themselves, who did 

the hide part of run hide fight, 

did that lockdown. And then 

there were also children who 

survived because they ran out of 

the classroom. And that’s something 

that helped to validate our 

findings. It is important to teach, 

run, hide, fight, not because you 

want people to do everything 

and you want kindergarteners to 

go running out of a building, but 

we know that first graders ran 

out of a room and they’re alive 

today because of it. 

Jim Dudley (20:59): Right. 

Survivability. So, okay. Your book 

is out, and we want to know the 

answer. You, the book title is 

“How to End the Mass Shooting 

Crisis.” So, how do we stop mass 

shootings in America? 

Katherine Schweit (21:18): I 

think we do more conversations 

about dispelling the myths, like 

the idea that these are all young 

kids in their parents’ basement 

playing video games. When in 

fact the data shows us that the 

bigger risk is between the ages 

of 30 and 40, the bigger risk 

is that kid’s dad upstairs in the 

living room, who’s frustrated at 

work. So first of all, we have to 

bust the myths. That’s really why 

I wrote the book. The first chapter 

is myth-busting basically. 

And then we have to be on the 

same page about definitions and 

the same page about numbers. 

I think I would say this to this 

audience, and maybe not to others, 

but I think we have to look 

realistically and individualistically 

in terms of states and local 

communities about what we 

can do in terms of kind of some 

potential regulations that might 

help in the gun world. 

I’m not as much as I know 

about guns. And even though 

I teach a class in that I’m not 

advocating one way or another 

specifically, but I will say that I 

think we need to do, we’d done 

a decimation, I think of ATF. 

And when they’re doing firearm 

searches on paper, that’s absurd 

in this day and age, the fact that 

their data isn’t in a database. And 

the fact that the ATF can’t track, 

very easily, gun dealers because 

you can go from store to store to 

try to buy your guns. So, there’re 

a lot of spots where I think if we 

tighten up, so the answer to your 

question, which I seemed like I 

was avoiding, but I’m not. 

The answer to your question 

is that this is a death by a thousand 

cuts. We’re only going to 

get rid of this. If we stopped 

saying when you and I speak 

and we’re having a beer, if I 

say, it’s all about mental health, 

and you say, no, it’s all about 

guns. And the next person says, 

it’s all about the ATF. And the 

next person says, it’s all about 

ghost guns. And the next person 

says, it’s all about suicide and 

domestic. My list of folders on 

my data for this subject area is 

probably 40 folders. And they’re 

all on different subjects because 

it is death by a thousand 

cuts. We’re only going to kill this 

trauma in the United States if 

we, if you think about what you 

can do, whether that’s training 

somebody, taking care of your 

employees. All these shootings 

occur in places of business close 

to the public. 

We had a third of those shootings 

occur where the employee 

was fired that day or the day 

before. What is happening in the 

HR departments? So, everybody’s 

got to figure out what they can 

do. And that’s really why I put the 

book together. It’s like, there’s a 

section on books. There’s a section 

on schools. There’s a section 

on churches. I am so passionate 

about this, that I wrote my entire 

training curriculum for run, hide, 

fight, and put it in the book. I’ll 

just give it away. I don’t care how 


to train for it. It’s there. Everybody 

has to be invested in it. And 

right now, they’re just not. 

Jim Dudley (24:43): Well, don’t 

give it all away right now. You 

want people to buy the book. So 

don’t spill all the beans. But what 

has been the feedback been 

like? Have you heard from DOJ 

or members of Congress saying, 

“Hey, help us implement these 

things.” Are you going to put the 

band back together? I volunteer. 

Katherine Schweit (25:06): I like 

it. I think the response so far has 

been fantastic on the book. And 

I would say the nice part about 

that is its people still in the business, 

people who are working in 

consulting now, who I know I can 

be part of that band and make 

it happen. And you know, I think 

that there are a lot of people 

talking about the gun issue, and I 

think that clouds everything. So, 

we’ll see. I mean, I think it clouds 

it only because we don’t talk 

about anything else. 

Jim Dudley (25:38): Yeah. And I 

don’t know if we’re going to see 

immediate benefits. I mean, with 

the reform movement, people 

are getting out of jail quicker. 

The chronic recidivous are not 

staying in jail for long terms. As 

harsh as some of the 1994 crime 

laws were, now with the reform 

and COVID, we’re letting these 

mass numbers of people who 

probably should be in prison out. 

And it’s not unusual to see someone 

involved in a gun-related 

crime who’s out early from a 

gun-related crime. 


Yeah. I taught the Chicago police 

department as part of my work 

over at DePaul. And I completely 

agree with you about that. 

The gun issue is a bigger issue. 

I bleed for my law enforcement 

partners who are particularly 

my personal friends in Chicago 

who are dealing with what they 

struggle with every day. And I 

think this subset of what I was 

working on, I continue to work 

on is just that it is a subset of the 

gun issue. I say gun issue because 

that’s the way somebody 

else says it. And I don’t mean 

that what I mean is the violence 

issue. It’s a violence issue. And a 

lot of the other matters about, 

like you said, people getting out 

of jail and getting bonded out 

right away on things like that. 

I get that I was a prosecutor in 

Chicago. So that’s a kind of a different 

issue, these shooters and 

these mass shooting situations. 

I think one of the things that 

makes it so challenging is these 

gentlemen -- primarily gentlemen, 

that’s the only dataset we 

really have a clear demographic 

on is that they’re primarily men, 

98%, I think -- is that they don’t 

have bad criminal histories. They 

may have some criminal history, 

but they don’t have the kind of 

criminal history you think about 

that puts people in jail. You 

know, they have anger issues and 

court orders about domestic violence 

situations. They may have 

had brushes with the law, but 

we’re not going to find our mass 

shooters necessarily by looking 

at gun violence. And I think that’s 

an important message. I never 

phrased it that way before, but 

see, you’re good at this. So, you 

pulled that out of me. 

Jim Dudley (28:06): Well, I 

can’t wait to read the book. How 

can our listeners find it? 


The easiest way is to pop onto 

my website, Katherineschweit. 

com. And on the buy the book 

link, there’s a link to every place 

where you can buy the book. 

Hint, if you sign up for my newsletter, 

you can get a substantial 

discount. I negotiated with the 

publisher. So, sign up for the 

newsletter and you’ll see the 

discount code. 

Jim Dudley (28:42): I’m doing 

it. Well, thank you so much for 

taking the time and talking about 

this really important issue and 

shedding light on research and 

data collection and listeners. 

We’re not going to talk about 

a novel and tell you who killed 

who at the end, so buy the book 

and see how you can lend a hand 

in stopping mass shootings in 

America. 


Thank you so much for the time. 

And thanks for sharing the message. 

It’s so important. 

Jim Dudley (29:15): It is, and 

to our listeners. Thanks again 

for listening. I hope you found 

today’s show interesting. Let 

me know what you think. Are 

we on the right track to reduce 

mass shootings in America? Do 

you have an opinion? Do you 

have some ideas? Let us know. 

You can get in touch with me or 

someone from the Policing Matters 

team at policingmatters@ 

policeone.com. Drop us a note, 

share your ideas, suggestions, or 

just say hello. Rate us on Apple 

Podcasts. Give us five stars if you 

like the show, it really helps us 

out. If you don’t like the show, 

don’t rate us. That’s my advice. 

Hey, thanks again for listening. 

Stay safe. Check back in soon. 

I’m Jim Dudley. 


WHO WANTS TO BE A COP? 

New series takes deep dive into St. Petersburg Police Academy 


By Suzie Ziegler 

TAMPA, Fla. — A new series from the Tampa Bay 

Times asks one simple question: In an age of police 

reckoning, who wants to be a cop? 

To find an answer, Times journalists spent nearly six 

months at St. Petersburg College’s Law Enforcement 

Academy. There they were given permission to observe 

training as cadets tackled physical challenges and 

grappled with a national attitude shift about policing. 

The result is an eight-part series that takes a deep 

and poignant dive into the police recruit experience in 

2021. 

(The first three chapters are printed in this issue of 

The BLUES and the remainder will appear in September) 

According to the paper, the academy director allowed 

Times journalists to drop into classes and 

training at any time. They were present for most of the 

scenes described in the series and interviewed other 

attendees when they were not. The coaches provided 

copies of cadets’ textbooks, tests and slideshows. The 

journalists also closely followed three cadets, who 

shared their essays, presentations and test scores. 

In the first installment, recruits explained in their own 

words why they chose to attend the academy. 

“I want to come home at the end of the day and 

know I made a difference,” said Hannah Anhalt, a 

25-year-old criminal justice major at the University of 

Central Florida. 

Another recruit described having positive interactions 

with police while growing up in a rough family. 

Others want to be heroes, find camaraderie, mirror 

their mentors and save juveniles from sex trafficking. 

These 30 recruits are mostly white and male, says 

the Times, but their class is still the most diverse yet: 

seven women, five black people, two Latinos. Their 

instructor, identified as Coach Saponare, says he expected 

applications to plummet after last year’s protests. 

Instead, more people than ever applied. 


PART 1 

The New Recruits 

“I want to be the change.” 

By LANE DeGREGORY, 

Times Staff Writer 

They can’t get over the wall. 

It’s 6-feet tall, made of smooth 

wood. Nothing to hold or stand 

on. 

Even the tallest men are struggling. 

“Run at it. Get a grip. Haul yourself 

up,” shouts a coach in a red 

shirt. “Don’t give them a huge 

target.” 

You never know when you’re 

going to have to chase a suspect 

over a wall. 

It’s a drizzly day in late September. 

The police recruits are lined 

up behind St. Petersburg College’s 

Allstate Center, between the rifle 

range and shoot house. 

Three weeks into training, 

they’ve learned to keep their eyes 

on the door, do push-ups on cadence, 

tell reasonable suspicion 

from probable cause, frisk someone, 

search a car and carry coffee 

in their left hand so they can grab 

their gun with their right. 

Brittany Moody is the first woman 

in her class to conquer the 

obstacle course. She played five 

sports growing up and works out 

every morning. 

This morning, they’re starting the 

obstacle course that’s designed to 

predict their perils: crawl under a 

fence, slither through a tube, hoist 

yourself into a make-shift attic. 

They’re slick with sweat, covered 

in dirt, cheering each other on. 

“You got it! Come on! Keep going!” 

If you fall, you have to start 

over. 

“You have three chances,” the 

coach says. 

In the real world, you might only 

get one. 

Class 219 is mostly white and 

male, but it is the most diverse 

yet, said Joe Saponare, who oversees 

recruit training at St. Petersburg 

College’s Law Enforcement 

Academy: seven women, five Black 

people, two Latinos. Half went to 

college. Six were in the military. 

The youngest, age 19, lives with 

his parents. One of the oldest is 

raising a son. She’s already earned 

a nickname, Mama Moody. 

Some registered for the academy 

last spring, before George Floyd 

was killed, before people took to 

the streets demanding that governments 

defund the police. They 

decided to attend anyway. 

Others applied because of those 

outcries. 

They know they will be insulted, 

targeted, hated — some critics 

are openly hostile. But 30 young 

people signed up for the first class 

since the pandemic closed the 

academy. 

Saponare, who cadets call 

Coach Sap, expected applications 

to plummet after the protests last 

year. Instead, he said, more people 

than ever applied. 

No agency tracks how many 

people apply to U.S. police academies, 

according to the National 

Police Foundation. Anecdotal evidence 

from the country’s 18,000 

law enforcement agencies is 

contradictory. Some departments 

are struggling to fill vacancies. 

And officers are quitting at record 

rates, many after only a few years. 

In September 2019, even before 

the protests, the Police Executive 

Research Forum released a report 

about the “workforce crisis.” It 

said the job of policing has become 

more challenging, as officers 

grapple with social issues 

like mental illness, and new types 

of criminals, like those who deal 

in cyberspace. 

St. Petersburg Police Chief Anthony 

Holloway, an officer for 35 

years, said last summer was the 

first time he questioned whether 

he still wanted to serve. “It felt 

like everybody was against us,” he 

said. “I’d like to see the naysayers 

see what our officers have to deal 

with every day.” 


The new batch of officers should 

be a hybrid of old-school meets 

new ideas, Holloway said. He 

wants recruits who want to be 

part of their community, not just 

bust bad guys. “I want us to be 

like the fire department: When we 

come into your streets, we’re here 

to help, not hurt you.” 

After lunch, on this September 

day, the recruits sit at long tables 

in the classroom, with highlighters 

and textbooks. A coach walks 

them through “Psychological 

Stressors for Veterans.” 

“So many of the people you deal 

with are in crisis,” says the coach, 

who was an officer for 32 years. 

“It’s hard for them to focus on 

what you need them to do, just to 

get them to answer questions and 

follow simple instructions.” 

He shows them a video of a 

veteran begging a cop to kill him, 

another of a drunk Marine attacking 

an officer. He encourages 

them to be empathetic but not put 

themselves in jeopardy. He warns 

them about PTSD and how they are 

going to see things not everyone 

sees. 

One officer he knew turned in 

his badge the first time his life 

was threatened. “If you have 

doubts, talk to somebody,” he 

says. “It’s not a sign of weakness.” 

He explains how to deal with juveniles 

— and their parents. Tells 

them some homeless people don’t 

want to go to shelters. He’s about 

to move on to the next chapter 

when he stops, closes the book 

and looks up. 

“I’m just curious,” the coach 

says. “With all the news all across 

the nation, with everything you’re 

seeing going on, why would you 

want to be a cop?” 

No one answers. 

“We used to get a lot of respect. 

But that’s all changed,” he says. 

“Now everything we do gets questioned 

and second-guessed.” 

The recruits stare at their laps. 

The coach says, “There’s no bad 

answer.” 

To get into the academy, candidates 

have to go through extensive 

background checks, physical 

and psychological exams, written 

tests and intense interviews. 

About 20 percent won’t make it to 

graduation. By the end of the first 

month, two cadets in Class 219 

will drop out and another will fail 

the first test. 

Some have been sponsored 

by the Pinellas County Sheriff’s 

Office, the St. Petersburg Police 

Department, Clearwater, Largo. 

Others paid $4,000 tuition, hoping 

an agency will hire them by 

graduation. 

Most of the training is mandated 

by the Florida Department of 

Law Enforcement, and at the end, 

recruits have to pass a state test. 

Individual academies can add to 

the curriculum, but not to the duration 

of the academy. 

In St. Petersburg, coaches revamped 

some training in October 

2019, having cadets focus more on 

defensive tactics than offensive 

moves, emphasizing de-escalation. 

But last summer’s protests 

didn’t really spark any changes, 

Coach Sap said. “We just reiterate 

that there’s a ban on chokeholds,” 

he said. “We teach them how to 

get out, escape, but not to do it 

on a suspect.” 

The academy has a team of 

40 coaches, mainly current and 

former police, all adjunct. Like the 

recruits, the coaches are mostly 

white men. Class 219 has six Latino 

instructors, five female coaches 

and two who are Black. During 

the training, coaches always wear 

red shirts. 

Classes are held in a blue, 

two-story building in south St. 

Petersburg, on a sprawling campus 

bounded by U.S. 19 and I-275. 

Training lasts almost six months, 

Monday through Friday, from 7:30 

a.m. until 4:45 p.m. 

Mornings start with the recruits 

raising the American flag to 

recorded bugle music. And every 

day, someone reads the name of 

an officer killed in the line of duty. 

In the classroom this afternoon, 

the coach calls on each recruit, in 

alphabetical order. 

A white woman whose brown 

hair is in a bun sits up straighter 

in the front row, then turns to 

address the room. “I want to get 

away from a desk job, do something 

more fulfilling,” she says. “I 

want to come home at the end of 

the day and know I made a difference.” 

Hannah Anhalt, 25, majored in 

criminal justice at the University 

of Central Florida, got a private 

investigator’s license, uncovered 

fraud for an insurance company. 

The job paid well, but she found it 

boring. When the pandemic shuttered 

her office, and she started 

working from home, she told her 

boyfriend she needed a new career. 

A former Marine wants to be a 

hero. A blonde woman wants to 

help strangers. A fair-haired man 

grew up with a rough family, lost 

both parents young. “Police were 

called to my house a lot. They 

really helped me,” he said. “I want 

to help people like me.” 

One recruit wants to take bad 

people off the streets. Another 

misses the camaraderie he’d 

had in the military. Someone else 

wants to save juveniles from sex 

trafficking. 

“My uncle and family friend are 

in law enforcement. And they’re 

great men,” says a muscular Black 

man. “There’s a lot of good people 

out there who want to do the right 

thing.” 

KeVonn Mabon, 27, was a wide 

receiver at Ball State University. In 

2017, he got picked up by the Tennessee 

Titans and played in four 

preseason games. He was playing 

football professionally in Germany 

last year. When the pandemic hit, 

he moved to Florida to live with 

his pee-wee football coach and 

got a job in a gym. Then that shut 

down. So he applied to work at 

the jail. 

A recruiter with the Pinellas 

Sheriff’s Office saw his application, 

offered to pay his tuition to 

the academy and, if he graduates, 

hire him as a deputy. Mabon 

thought about it for a few days. 

He didn’t tell any of his childhood 

friends. Most of them hate cops. 

Some are in prison. 

A Black woman wearing glasses 

tells classmates, “I grew up in a 

rough area outside of Baltimore, 

seeing drugs and alcohol abused.” 

Everyone she knew, she says, felt 

like the police only came to arrest 

and harass, not to help. 

Brittany Moody, 31, is the second-oldest 

recruit. She has a 

7-year-old son and helps parent 

her partner’s middle-schooler. 

She had thought about becoming 

a cop for years, but everyone 

around her tried to talk her out of 

it, asking, “Why would you want 

to become a pig?” 

For the last three years, she 

worked in the uniform department 

at the Pinellas County Sheriff’s 

Office and in the jail commissary. 

The summer’s Black Lives Matter 

protests strengthened her resolve 

to become a deputy. 

“As the mother of a Black son, 

I want to help make a change 

in policing — from the inside,” 

Moody says. If she had been one 

of the officers on the George Floyd 

or Breonna Taylor call, she says, 

she might have been able to save 

them. 

Over the next five months, the 

recruits will learn how to clear 

buildings and carry their partners 

out of harm’s way, how to respond 

to suicide attempts and school 

shootings, how to speed through 

slick U-turns, disarm suspects, 

revive overdose victims. 

They will have to pass 18 written 

tests and six “high-liability” proficiency 

exams, prove that they can 

master 28 defensive moves and 

spend 80 hours on the firing range. 

They will be indoctrinated to see 

threats everywhere. And they will 

be told — every day — that they 

might die in this job. 

The culture of policing, in 2021, 

is still paramilitary, valuing aggression 

and machismo, dividing 

humanity into good guys and bad 

guys. 

These recruits will have to police 

communities that don’t trust 

them, and police each other. 

Coaches will reinforce the need 

for accountability, and how everyone 

is watching police nowadays, 

scrutinizing behavior. They’ll tell 

the cadets that they have to earn 

the public’s trust. And they will 

repeat, again and again, that the 

biggest problems are individual 

failings. 

Several recruits will struggle 

with the physical training. Others 

with the academic tests. Some 

will question their decision. 

Will they still want to do this 

job once they learn about the life 

they’re facing? Once they’ve been 

shot with simulated bullets and 

seen scenes of screaming, bleeding 

children, after a cop dies at 

the U.S. Capitol and a Hillsborough 

deputy is killed on his last 

shift before retiring? 

“To me, it sounds scary. You’re 

risking your life. You don’t even 

know what’s around the next 

corner,” says Anhalt, the woman 

who used to work at an insurance 

company. 

The book work will be easy, 

she says. She’s always been a 

good student. But she doesn’t 

know how to load a gun, and 

she’s never been in a fight — never 

even felt threatened. 

Of everything she’s facing at 

the academy, she says, all the 

trials and tests, the thing that 

freaks her out most: being blinded 

by pepper spray. 

“Nobody really wants me to do 

this,” she says. “Am I crazy?” 


PART 2 

The Pepper Spray 

“This could happen to you.” 



Photographs by 

JOHN PENDYGRAFT 

“True story,” a coach tells the 

cadets. “This could happen to 

you.” 

The 27 recruits are lined up 

along the driving course behind 

the St. Petersburg police academy, 

wearing gym shorts and white 

T-shirts, sweating under the October 

sun. 

Several are wearing glasses. No 

contact lenses today, they were 

told. Those will only make your 

eyes burn more. 

“Not too long ago, not too 

far from here, a state trooper 

pepper-sprayed a perp on the 

Howard Frankland Bridge,” the 

coach says. “Wind blew it right 

back into the cop’s face. The guy 

picked up the trooper to throw 

him into the water, but the trooper 

shot him. Justifiable homicide. 

“You need to know how incapacitated 

it can make you if 

someone uses it on you.” 

Don’t panic, he says. “Don’t go 

flapping your arms all around out 

there. We’ll laugh at you! When 

you get done, you’re going to 

shower. Don’t bend over or the 

contaminant is going to run down 

to parts of your body you don’t 

want to burn. And don’t come 

running down the hall naked. 

We’ve had that. It’s time to cowboy 

up and take a little pain.” 

An ambulance is standing by. 

Two paramedics watch the cadets 

crowd around an eye-wash 

station made from PVC pipes, a 

hose, and a shower head. Bottles 

of baby shampoo wait below. 

Around the asphalt, coaches 

have set orange cones — four 

stations the recruits must run to 

after being shot in the face with 

pepper spray. 

“You’ll have to pick a partner, 

someone to guide you. You won’t 

be able to see,” says the coach. 

“Hopefully, you’ll always have a 

partner. Or at least back-up.” 

As soon as the coach sprays 

them, they must define one of the 

“levels of resistance.” The coach 

yells: passive, active, aggressive 

or deadly force. 

Officers are allowed to respond 

with one level higher than the 

threat coming at them. 

At each station, they must 

perform a defensive technique 

they learned last week. At the 

last stop, while their eyes are still 

burning, they’re supposed to grab 

their gun and fire into a target. 

KeVonn Mabon, who played in 

the NFL, is ready, eager to get 

it over with. Brittany “Mama” 

Moody had meditated on it that 

morning, and found peace. 

Hannah Anhalt admits, “I’m 

terrified.” 

A recruit in uniform staring at a 

mock marijuana cigarette held by 

the instructor. 

Anhalt reacts to a fake joint 

used during a training class. 

After five weeks at the academy, 

the recruits have learned knee 

spikes and ankle kicks, how to 

unlock handcuffs and break up 

a party, to differentiate human 

trafficking from smuggling, when 

to read Miranda rights, how to 

de-escalate a situation with “verbal 

judo.” 

They’ve learned what not to 

do, too, from a cop turned lawyer. 

“Don’t be stupid,” he warned. 

Don’t be a pervert. Don’t molest 


females. Don’t have sex on the 

hood of your cop car, even if 

you’re in a cemetery. Dead men 

don’t tell tales, but dash cams do. 

They’ve memorized the Law 

Enforcement Code of Ethics: To 

serve the community, to safeguard 

lives and property, to protect 

the innocent against deception. 

They’ve watched videos of a guy 

who killed his kids and stuffed 

them into barrels. Analyzed crime 

scene photos of a human head 

on a shelf, a shooting victim who 

bled out, a man who put a bomb 

in his mouth and exploded all 

over his bathroom. 

They’ve talked about how cops 

are targets, more than ever. 

One cadet was driving home 

with his uniform hanging in the 

backseat and a guy on a motorcycle 

flipped him off. 

Anhalt scraped the Blue Lives 

Matter sticker off her car. 

“I don’t know anything about 

defensive tactics. I think as I get 

more training, it will become 

less scary,” Anhalt said. “At least I 

hope so.” 

She grew up in Davie, just north 

of Miami, and trained as a gymnast. 

Her dad mostly raised her 

and her older brother. In high 

school, a friend’s mother, who 

worked for the Secret Service, 

invited Anhalt to shadow her 

on “Take your daughter to work 

day,” which sparked her enthusiasm 

for law enforcement. 

She’s always loved shows like 

48 Hours and true-crime podcasts 

like Sword and Scale. “My 

boyfriend is always saying, ‘You’re 

going to kill me, aren’t you?’” 

Tyler Dressel, 29, is a wine 

vendor. They met in college and 

have been together six years. He 

supports her but worries. She’s 

5-foot-3, 130 pounds. Could she 

hold her own against big guys 

and people with guns? 

“It’s a very dangerous job. That 

weighs on me,” Dressel said. 

“But I know she’ll be good at it. 

She can be intimidating. And she 

doesn’t take any BS. Other people 

will see her as a cop. But I know, 

deep down, she’s a sweetheart.” 

Over the summer, they got 

engaged and moved into a house 

in Dunedin with their two greyhounds. 

“Of course, I want to help people,” 

Anhalt said. “I’m a people 

person. I also need to do something 

for my future. I want to 

make myself proud.” 

She calls herself “pro-police,” 

though long before a jury decided 

on the George Floyd case, she felt 

he was murdered. 

“Something needs to change 

with the training,” she said. “You 

have to have other officers’ backs, 

but also be able to bring them 

down, de-escalate things. They 

need good cops out there now 

more than ever.” 

From the back of a darkened 

room an image of Martin Luther 

King, Jr. is seen between the silhouettes 

of seated students. 

Recruits have to give presentations 

to educate or inspire their 

classmates. 

The $50,000 salary will be 

enough to help support a family. 

She wants to have a family. And 

after 20 years on the force, she 

said, retirement benefits will be 

sweet. If you make it that long. 

“My dad keeps telling me, ‘You 

can still be a realtor,’” she said. 

He’s an optometrist, who fitted 

her for contact lenses when she 

was in fifth grade. All those years 

of wearing contacts, he said, 

might make her eyes extremely 

sensitive to pepper spray. 

“Okay, you ready?” a coach asks 

Mabon at 9:30 a.m. 

He’s by the eye-wash station, 

rocking in his sneakers. He’s 

always moving, bouncing like a 

boxer. “Hands behind your back,” 

says the coach. “Don’t touch your 

eyes.” 

Mabon takes a deep breath 

and throws back his shoulders. 

The coach, barely a foot away, 

squirts a stream of pepper spray 

into each of his eyes. He winces, 

shakes his head. 

“Okay, now look at me,” shouts 

the coach. “C’mon, c’mon, look at 

me.” He can’t open his eyes. “How 

many fingers am I holding up? You 

gotta look at me!” 

A man tries to open his eyes 

wide enough to count fingers on 

the trainer’s hand. 

KeVonn Mabon struggles to 

open his eyes so he can count a 

coach’s fingers. 

He squints, and can barely make 

out her hand. “Four?” he guesses. 

“Okay,” says the coach. “Go!” 

The other recruits watch, knowing 

now what’s coming. 

Mama Moody is up next and 

takes off her glasses. When the 

pepper spray hits her eyes, she 

stomps, slaps her thighs, tugs her 

shorts. “All right, active resistance,” 

yells the coach. Moody 

spits, shakes her hands, coughs. 

“Active resistance!” the coach 

calls. 

The face of a woman, eyes 

clenched tight and grimacing in 

pain, fills the photo. 

Brittany Moody tries to focus 

after being pepper sprayed. 

She spits out the definition, then 

takes off, eyes closed, running in 

the wrong direction. “This way!” 

calls her partner. “Follow my 

voice.” 

She makes it to the first punching 

bag, then doubles over, 

spitting. “Hit it! Hit it hard!” says 

Coach Joe Saponare. Moody 

keeps missing the bag. “They’re 

trying to hurt you!” the coach 

screams. “You wanna go home? 

You gotta fight like you mean it. 

It’s a life-or-death battle!” 


She stands still for a second, 

shakes her head, tries to focus. 

Behind her burning eyes, she 

pictures her son waiting for her. 

She opens her eyes, tears washing 

away the pepper, and starts 

unleashing all her anger and fear 

on that bag, determined now, 

shouting, “Police, get back!” 

She just had to remember what 

she was fighting for. 

A woman punches at a heavy 

pad held by an instructor. Her 

eyes are clenched shut. 

Coaches keep shouting at 

Moody to fight through the pain. 

When it’s Anhalt’s turn, she tries 

to stay silent. But as the pepper 

hits her face, she whimpers. It 

takes her twice as long as anyone 

else to open her eyes. “Okay, 

go!” the coach finally shouts. 

“Go!” Anhalt veers to the left, way 

off course. Her partner calls her 

back, but Anhalt doubles over 

coughing. Snot is spewing from 

her nose, dripping off her chin. 

“Breathe!” says her partner. 

“Calm down! Open your eyes.” 

She punches at the first station, 

runs to the second, then steps 

back from the kick bag, gagging. 

“Get angry!” screams Coach Sap. 

Somehow, she makes it to the 

final stop, pulls out her gun — 

and fires straight into the bullseye. 

A woman tries to aim a pistol 

with the help of an instructor. Her 

eyes are shut. 

How do you shoot a gun when 

you can’t see? Anhalt cries as she 

tries. 

A woman holds her face over a 

spray of water, washing pepper 

spray from her eyes. 

If she makes it through the 

academy, and gets hired by a 

law enforcement agency, Anhalt 

might have to get pepper-sprayed 

again. 

“You did it! It’s over. Calm 

down,” her partner says, leading 

Anhalt to wash her face. She 

squirts baby shampoo into each 

eye, gasps as the water carries 

pepper spray down her neck. 

“I can’t breathe!” she cries. 

“Your face will cool down. You 

got this!” says Moody, putting her 

arm around Anhalt’s shoulder. 

“Get your hands off her!” shouts 

a coach. “Stop babying her! You 

can’t do that on the street.” 

Moody backs away. Anhalt 

swallows tears. “It feels like 

someone is cutting my eyeballs 

with glass,” she says. “Like my 

face is melting.” 

Two women try to recover from 

the effects of pepper spray, one 

with a towel wrapped around her 

head. 

Moody and Anhalt try to cool 

their aching eyes in front of a fan. 

In the classroom that afternoon, 

two former Marines say that was 

more painful than being gassed. 

Was it worse than childbirth? 

someone asks Mama Moody. “It’s 

right up there,” she says. “But 

there’s not the happy ending.” 

It makes me wonder, one female 

recruit says: Should police 

be allowed to gas protesters? 

“Now I feel bad for them.” 

At the end of the day, Anhalt 

still can’t open her eyes and must 

call her fiancé to drive her home. 

She can’t see the academy textbook 

to study for the next day’s 

exam, so he has to read to her. 

That night, for the first time 

since she started the academy, 

she breaks down. She had paid 

her own way to attend. She hasn’t 

been hired by an agency yet, 

doesn’t owe anyone anything. 

“What am I doing?” she cries 

to her fiancé. “Why am I doing 

this?” 

A woman leans over a table, 

holding her head with one hand, 

trying to recover from pepper 

spray as other recruits look on. 

Anhalt, in class after being 

pepper-sprayed, is one of the 

few recruits paying $4,000 tuition 

at the academy. Most of the 

other cadets already have been 

hired by local agencies. 

The day after being pepper-sprayed, 

Anhalt still can’t 

see. She has to catch a ride to 

school with another recruit and 

keeps leaving class to rinse her 

swollen eyes. 

She’s in the academy bathroom 

when Moody comes to get her. 

“The Clearwater PD is here to 

see you.” 

Anhalt dries her face and tries 

to blink back the pain as she 

greets the officer waiting in the 

hall. 

“We’ve been watching you,” 

the man says. He admired her 

drive, had seen progress in the 

physical training and been impressed 

by her problem-solving 

skills. “We want to offer you a 

patch.” 

Just like that — after one of 

the worst days of her life, one of 

the best. If she graduates from 

the academy, and passes the 

state exam, Clearwater police 

will refund her tuition. And hire 

her. 

First, she has to learn how to 

shoot a moving target, tackle a 

suspect, tie a tourniquet. 

And talk to strangers at 

Walmart. “That’s the part I’m 

dreading the most,” Moody says. 

“I’d rather be pepper-sprayed.” 

PART 3 

WALMART 

“What did you think this job was?” 



She doesn’t want to do this. 

“Not. At. All. I’m not ready,” she 

tells the other cadets. 

They’re wearing their uniforms, 

ties and shiny shoes, finishing 

lunch on this Friday in late October. 

They’re getting ready to 

move onto the next assignment 

at the St. Petersburg police academy: 

Interviewing. 

“I don’t know what people are 

going to say. If I’m shopping, I 

don’t want people bothering me. 

Especially a cop,” she says. “Especially 

now.” 

Brittany “Mama” Moody rarely 

complains. 

Recruits on their backs with 

their legs in the air. 

Moody keeps up with her 

classmates during the physical 

drills. 

Not when she got punched in 

the face during boxing, or kicked 

in the shin during a take-down, 

or thrown on her stomach and 

handcuffed. 

But she’s been dreading this 

day: The recruits must talk to 

strangers. 

“Is someone going to hit us?” 

Moody asks. “Will we have to 

use our defensive tactics?” 

For some people, this part is 

easy. Much better than having to 

run 1.5 miles in 100-degree heat, 

learn dozens of legal definitions 

or tackle a suspect on a gravel 

road. 

Moody sees it as torture. 

Coach Joe Saponare laughs 

at that. What did you think this 

job was? Most of your time, you 

spend talking to strangers. You 

gotta get used to this. 


It’s generational, he says. When 

he was coming up 30 years ago, 

people still talked to each other. 

Face to face. All the time. And 

phones were not for texting. 

Some of these millennials — or 

are they even younger than that, 

Gen Z’s? — anyway, they don’t 

talk even when they’re in the 

same room, Coach Sap says. 

“It’s getting worse every year,” 

he says. “That’s why we got to 

get them out there, practicing 

their communication skills.” 

Six weeks into their training, 

Class 219 has lost six recruits. 

One’s infant got sick. Someone 

caught COVID. 

The 24 who are left have 

learned how to fall and break 

falls, the difference between an 

interview and an investigation, 

how to holster a gun, approach 

a burglar, take fingerprints, collect 

evidence and handle a body 

when its skin is stuck to the 

floor. 

All but four already have been 

hired by local agencies. Everyone 

except the youngest is keeping 

up with the physical training. 

That affects them all. When one 

person doesn’t pump enough 

push-ups, they all must start 

over. Cadets started making the 

19-year-old work out at lunch, 

KeVonn Mabon drilling him as 

if he were training for the NFL. 

While others eat at the long 

tables, Mabon counts squats and 

sit-ups. 

“I’ll talk to anyone,” Mabon 

says that Friday as they clean up 

after lunch. He turns to Moody. 

“You got this.” 

Hands of a man wearing a 

uniform holding a pen and note 

paper. 

KeVonn Mabon isn’t worried 

about talking to strangers. 

Take really good notes, a coach 

tells the cadets. 

“Notice tattoos and piercings, 

write those down. After the interviews, 

you’ll all be up here at 

the podium reporting back to us. 

So, make sure you can read your 

notes. Get quotes. They have to 

be direct quotes. Get their first 

and last name and occupation. 

Use small notepads, don’t open 

your laptop in front of them. 

“Avoid generalizations. Ask 

follow-up questions. What does 

that mean? Every call you go 

on, you’re going to meet two or 

three people, at least. And you’ll 

have to talk to all of them. You 

can’t be shy.” 

Surely some of you have been 

face-to-face with strangers before, 

the coach says. “What other 

jobs have you had?” 

Security. Dog track. Receptionist 

at a chiropractor’s office. 

Army. Marines. Cable guy. Server. 

“You have to explain quickly 

why you’re out there, what you 

want,” the coach says. “Anybody 

have the heebie-jeebies?” Half 

the class raises their hands. “Just 

work through the fear. Today, our 

mission is to find out what their 

perception is of law enforcement 

officers.” 

Someone groans. Others exchange 

glances. Moody hangs 

her head. 

“If they’re anti-law enforcement, 

ask: What can I do to 

change your perception?” 

He projects a map of Walmart 

on the screen behind him. It’s 

right across the street from 

the police academy. “Try to get 

people approaching as opposed 

to leaving. They might want to 

get their groceries home. Don’t 

go inside Walmart,” he says. 

“And remember your interview 

stance: feet shoulder-width 

apart, gun leg back. Be nice. Be 

human. Try to make a connection. 

If someone gets in your 

face, back off.” 

Moody doesn’t have a notebook. 

Mabon needs a pen. They 

team up, and stake out a spot by 

the garden center. 

“Excuse me, Sir,” Mabon calls 

to a middle-aged Black man 

walking through the parking lot. 

The man doesn’t stop. Mabon 

catches up to him. “Can I ask you 

a question?” The man shakes his 

head. The next woman does the 

same. 

“We should’ve gone to Publix,” 

Moody says, “where people are 

happier.” 

It’s hot in the afternoon sun. 

The air smells like asphalt. The 

cadets are sweating in their 

long-sleeve dress shirts and 

polyester pants. “Excuse me, 

Ma’am,” Mabon says, approaching 

an elderly Black woman. “I 

just want to get your opinion on 

law enforcement.” 

“Well, that’s a big topic,” says 

the woman. “You mean, locally?” 

“How do you think the officers 

who’ve been deemed bad can be 

better?” asks Mabon. 

Police need to get out into the 

community, she says. Build relationships. 

Know who they serve. 

“Yes, Ma’am.” And you have to 

train them so their response 

isn’t excessive, she says, make 

them show some respect. “Yes, 

Ma’am.” 

And you’re in danger, too, 

she tells him. Protect yourself. 

Protect your partner, she says. 

“Thank you, Ma’am.” 

Moody puts on sunglasses, 

watches people slide by, gears 

up for rejection. When a Black 

man wearing a Vietnam vet ball 

cap nods at her, she nods back. 

“How are you doing, sir? Can I 

ask you a question?” The man 

stops. “I just want to get your 

opinion on law enforcement.” 

A uniformed woman recruit 

shares a laugh with a man she is 

interviewing. 

Be courteous. Make eye contact. 

Find a connection, a coach 

tells cadets. Here, Moody does -- 

with Walter Canty, 73, who used 

to work near where she grew up. 

“I tell you what,” says the man, 

chuckling. “It’s a whole lot different 

than when I was in law 

enforcement.” 

“Oh, you were in law enforcement?” 

asks Moody. 

“Yep, 23 years, retired now, 

from Washington, D.C.” 

“That’s where I’m from!” Moody 

says. “Well, I’m from Baltimore.” 

For the first time all day, she 

smiles. 

She has wanted to be a police 

officer since she was 7, her son’s 

age. Her dad is a security guard 

at George Washington University, 

and as a girl, she loved watching 

him put on his uniform, felt 

proud that he protected people. 

“I wanted to do that,” Moody 

said. “Help people.” 

Moody’s parents were high 

school sweethearts, and she and 

her older brother grew up with 

them coming to her volleyball, 

softball, soccer and basketball 

games. She was 10 when they 

split up, which “took a huge 

toll on me,” she said. Her mom 

worked at the post office and 

took a transfer to Tampa when 

Moody was in seventh grade. 

In high school, Moody played 

sports, studied karate, hung out 

with kids who hated cops. Her 

grades started slipping, she was 

acting out, getting in trouble. 

Two images of the recruit at 

different ages and dress styles 

are projected on the wall. 

“Perception is everything,” 

Moody tells the recruits, sharing 

photos of how she transformed. 

During a presentation at the 

academy, she showed a photo 

of her back then — wearing 

a sleeveless navy undershirt, 

baggy khakis slung below her 

hips, a big, gold cross necklace. 

Then she showed a photo of 

her in shirt and tie. She talked 

about perception, how she’d had 

to change and cut off everyone 

around her, shut down social 

media. “You are what you put 

out into the universe,” she said. 

At the University of South 

Florida, Moody studied criminal 

justice but didn’t get her degree. 


She worked at Burger King, Cold 

Stone Creamery, Ikea. 

Her son was born when she 

was 23. 

He was a surprise; his dad is 

her best friend; they met bowling. 

They co-parent from separate 

homes. Now, she said, “we’re 

like brother and sister.” 

After Bryan was born, Moody 

decided it was time to pursue 

her passion. She applied to the 

academy, sailed through the 

physical tests but failed the 

written entrance exam. Twice. 

So, she took a job at the Pinellas 

County Sheriff’s Office handing 

out uniforms, learning what 

deputies do. 

In the driveway in front of an 

open garage, a child points out 

the holes in a silhouette target 

held by his mother. 

Moody proudly shows off her 

target practice, though she does 

not want her son playing with 

toy guns. 

Finally, last summer, she was 

accepted into the academy — 

and the Sheriff’s Office sponsored 

her. If she graduates, and 

passes the state exam, she’ll be 

a deputy. 

“Just because you fall down 

doesn’t mean you stay down,” 

she said. 

Moody lives in a townhouse in 

Brandon with her girlfriend, her 

girlfriend’s 12-year-old son, her 

boy and a friendly pit-bull mix 

named Maggie. Every morning, 

she gets up at 4 a.m., drinks a 

protein shake, packs lunch, meditates, 

then carries her sleeping 

son to her truck and drives to her 

mom’s house. She eases Bryan 

into bed beside his grandmother 

about 5:45, kisses him good-bye, 

then drives another 45 minutes 

to the academy to run three 

miles and do CrossFit training 

with Coach Sap. 

A child sits on a living room 

couch with one shoe on, the other 

being tied by his mother. 

Before she wakes her son, 

Moody meditates. Then she 

drives Bryan, 7, to his grandmother’s 

house and heads to the 

academy. After class, she takes 

him to basketball practice. 

After all day at school, she 

picks her son up and heads home 

by 6:30. Except twice a week, 

when she takes Bryan to basketball 

practice at the YMCA. She 

helps the second graders warm 

up, running drills and rebounding 

their shots. When practice 

starts, she sinks into a folding 

chair on the far side of the gym 

and takes out her basic training 

textbook, highlighter and flashcards. 

“I’m super exhausted all the 

time,” she said. “But there’s no 

doubt in my mind that I want to 

do this.” 

She doesn’t want Bryan to fear 

cops. She wants him to know 

they are here to help. 

Moody’s mom, Stephanie 

Johnson, said she was surprised 

when her daughter told her she 

wanted to be an officer, “especially 

in light of all the stuff 

going on right now.” 

After an exhausting day at the 

academy, Moody races home 

to grab her son for basketball 

practice. She seldom has time to 

herself, or to sleep. 

“She’s a Black female with alternative 

sexual orientation, raising 

a small son. I told her, ‘How 

many more things do you want 

stacked against you?’ But she 

won’t entertain a negative comment 

about what she’s doing. 

She’s very driven. And stubborn.” 

She doesn’t test well, her mom 

said, but she’s a good leader. 

“She’s going to impact lives, 

change perceptions. The Sheriff’s 

Office is lucky to get her.” 

As his mother sits on a bench 

studying, a child shoots a basketball. 

While Bryan is at basketball 

practice, Moody studies for an 

exam. 

Close up of a workbook and 

study notes. 

Moody has never been good at 

taking tests, so she makes flashcards 

to help study. 

Of course, Johnson is worried. 

She’s a mental health counselor 

now, well aware of the psychological, 

as well as physical risks, 

police face. 

Once her daughter is on the 

streets, Johnson said, “I’m going 

to have to be on prayer all day.” 

In the Walmart parking lot, the 

man in the Vietnam vet hat asks 

Moody about her dad’s work in 

security, how long she’s been at 

the academy, how she’s doing. 

She does most of the talking. 

Then she remembers her assignment. 

“So, you said law enforcement 

is a lot different than 

when you were in it,” she says. 

“How?” 

The man strokes his white 

beard and says slowly: “People 

in policing now, they come 

from an environment of bullying. 

They need training, someone to 

teach them to help and be kind.” 

Moody races to write down his 

words. “And when the police 

break the rules,” the man says, 

“you have to hold them accountable.” 

Compare rates and save at Progressive.com 

We’ll help you find a great rate. 

Even if it’s not with us. 

They talk a little more, and 

Moody thanks him “so much” 

for his time. “I hope things will 

change with training, and whatever 

else it takes,” she says. 

“Good luck to you,” says the 

man. 

Back in the classroom, the cadets 

compare notes. Some shoppers 

praised law enforcement, 

or had officers in their families. 

Many refused to talk. 

A nurse told one recruit that to 

some people, her Black teenage 

son looks like a thug. But he isn’t. 

“Don’t be too quick to judge.” 

Instead of arresting autistic 

kids, cops need to learn to talk 

to them, a teacher said. A cafeteria 

worker told a cadet, “Don’t 

be trigger happy.” 

Moody tells classmates about 

the man she met. She was supposed 

to talk to at least two 

people but only interviewed him. 

“He said police need to grow up 

and take responsibility for their 

actions or fire them,” she says. “A 

lot of officers are getting in trouble 

and nothing’s happening.” 

A youth counselor told a female 

recruit that sheriff’s deputies 

have always been rude, then 

called her a “paramilitary a-- 

hole.” 

“So, what have we learned today?” 

asks the coach. 

Nothing they didn’t already 

know: Lots of people hate cops. 

It’s good to keep that in mind 

out in the field, when a suspect 

is holed up in a building, and 

you’re the only thing between 

him and jail. 


Death of a Policeman’s Dream 

It had always been my dream 

to become a policeman when 

I grew up. My dad was a cop. 

My grandfather and his father 

before him. It was a tradition 

in my family and one that I was 

happy to carry on. I remember 

my grandpa taking me to the 

range when I was only 12. And on 

career day, my dad and grandpa 

came to talk to our class along 

with my Uncle Jake who was a 

fireman. So, I was destined to 

continue the Jones legacy. 

I meet Joanie in the 5th grade. 

We were best friends from the 

minute we met. Our parents 

knew we were meant for each 

other and knew we would get 

married as soon as we graduated 

from high school, which 

we did. And we both went off 

to college and graduated on the 

same stage. Joanie went on to 

get her RN in nursing and I joined 

the police academy. Life was 

moving along just as planned. 

The academy was a lot different 

than I thought it would be. 

Not because the material was 

difficult, but because I pushed 

myself to be number one in 

the class. I had the Jones bar 

to maintain and I wasn’t about 

to let my family down. And on 

graduation day, they were all 

there. My grandfather gave a 

speech about dedication to the 

job and my dad pinned on my 

badge with Joanie by my side. 

It was the proudest day of my 

life and the saddest as well. See, 

my grandpa passed away that 

very night. He was almost 90 

and frankly I was surprised that 

he even made it to my graduation, 

much less got on stage and 

made a speech. But my dad said 

his goal was to live long enough 

to see me sworn in, and by damn 

if he didn’t do just that. 

My first week on patrol ended 

with my first funeral as a cop. 

Unfortunately, I had attended 

dozens with my dad and gramps 

before, but this was my first in 

uniform standing at attention 

with everyone else. All to honor 

my grandpa and all his years on 

the department. And even though 

I had been here so many times 

before, it was all so different 

when it’s your family lying up on 

that stage. Thankfully this funeral 

wasn’t because one of our 

blue family had been killed, but 

that didn’t make it any easier for 

my family. It did make me proud 

to see gramps all dressed up in 

his Class A uniform, even though 

it would be the last time I would 

ever see him. 

The following day, I resumed 

my FTO training and for the next 

few months I soaked up as much 

real world experience as possible. 

But this was all so much 

different than those ride-alongs 

with my dad back in the day. I 

couldn’t quite put my finger on 

what was different, but something 

was. When my six month 

training period was up and I 

walked into roll call on that final 

day, I was surprised to see my 

dad talking to the watch commander. 

As soon as we were 

called to attention, the watch 

commander announced my dad 

would be giving me my final 

inspection and riding with me to 

conduct my final signoff. 

Riding with my dad in the 

right seat was a bit strange. I 

had ridden with him many times 

and watched him interact with 

people, but this was way different. 

My dad was now watching 

ME do MY job and GRADING me. 

But it was actually a very busy 

shift and it went by really fast. 

Too fast. I was really enjoying 

working side by side with my 

dad and backing each other up. 

I had dreamed of this my entire 

life. Working with my dad and 

doing the job he loved so much. 

As we pulled into the station and 

parked the shop, I looked over 

and pretty sure I saw my dad 

tearing up. “Well ole man, how 

did I do? Did I pass?” 

“Yes son, you passed with flying 

colors. I wish your grandpa 

could be here with us today, but I 

know he’s watching over us from 

heaven and he’s as proud of you 

as I am.” 

As I walked over to the board 

and hung up the shop keys, my 

dad gave me a hug and said, 

“You’re on your own son, do us 

all proud.” The watch commander 

walked out of his office, 

talked with my dad for a minute 

and then motioned for me to 

come into his office. 

“Well Jones, I guess tomorrow 

you start the night shift with a 

new partner and chance to prove 

who the best Jones is at patrol.” 

I said, “Yes sir, see you tomorrow 

night.” 

As I drove home, for the first 

time in along time, I felt relieved 

that I had finally crossed all the 

bridges to becoming the officer 

I always wanted to be. Halfway 

home, I decided to stop by the 

hospital where my wife worked 

to give her the good news. It was 

in fact her first night in the ER on 

the night shift. New beginnings 

for both of us. But when I walked 

in the ambulance entrance, I 

knew right away her first night 

was going to be anything but 

normal. They had a shooting 

victim, several major accident 

trauma cases and the ER waiting 

room was packed. As I stood 

there watching my beautiful wife 

helping patients, I knew she too 

was doing what she loved. She 

saw me standing there, walked 

over, and said, “Are you here for 

the accident or the shooting?” 

I said, “No, I’m here to see you 

babe, but I see you’re busy, so I’ll 

see you when you get home.” I 

kissed her and drove on home. 

The next night at roll call, I 

was assigned a new partner who 

had just finished her final training 

as well. Officer Garza and I 

had graduated from the academy 

together and I was actually 

looking forward to working together….showing 

each other the 

ropes so to speak. After roll call, 

the watch commander handed 

me the keys to a brand-new 

shop and said, “She’s all yours 

Jones, take good care of her, she 

only has 20 miles on the clock.” 

Garza and I gathered all our 

equipment and loaded it into the 

shop and decided we’d get organized 

before we left the station. 

The MDT was new and needed a 

program update, so while Garza 

worked on getting it up and 

running, I checked my phone for 

emails and sent my wife a text 

and told her how much I loved 

her. Ten minutes later, as the 

update finished loading and the 

laptop rebooted, we both heard 

a loud bang. 

I looked over my shoulder to 

see where the noise had come 

from, I saw two, maybe three 

bright flashes of light right behind 

the shop. The next thing I 

heard was glass breaking along 

with the sound of gunfire and 

rounds hitting our shop. I yelled 

at Garza to get down but when 

I look over at her, I saw blood 

running down her neck and she 

was slumped over the dash. 

Then I felt a burning in my neck 

and right shoulder and knew I 

had been hit as well. That was 

the last thing I remember from 

inside the shop. 

The next thing I remember was 

bright lights and people yelling 

and screaming and seeing my 

wife standing over me. She was 

holding my hand, crying saying, 

“Baby hold on, please don’t die, 

we’ve got you.” There was more 

yelling, and people were moving 

so fast around me and then it 

was so quiet. Why did it get so 

quiet? 

When I woke up, I was sitting 

in a chair in the trauma bay with 

my gramps sitting next to me. He 

was wearing his uniform and he 

looked so much younger than the 

last time I saw him. He looked so 

much like my dad. “Gramps, why 

are you here? Why are we here? 

Is Joanie Ok?” 

“No son, she isn’t ok but eventually 

she will be. I am here to 

bring you home.” 

“I’m confused gramps.” 

As we walked out of the room, 

I saw my dad in a chair crying, 

he was holding Joanie and 

everyone from the station was 

there including my watch commander. 

Everyone was crying. As 

we walked outside, there were 

even more cops, fireman, news 

trucks, and the Chief was there. 

“Gramps what happened?” 


“God sent me to bring you 

back home to heaven. It wasn’t 

his plan to have you join me so 

soon, but sometimes the dark 

side steps in and interferes with 

our Father’s wishes. And when 

it does, God sends one of his 

angels to bring them home. This 

time he sent me.” 

“But gramps, I had just got 

started. I didn’t even get a 

chance to make you and dad 

proud of me for being the cop 

you both were, or to make Joanie 

proud of me. We hadn’t even 

started a family gramps. Why 

now, why me gramps. Why?” 

“Well I can’t answer the why 

part, but son you made your dad 

and I proud the minute you were 

born. And when you took your 

first step, graduated kindergarten, 

then high school, and college. 

We watched you on your 

first day at the academy and both 

cried when your dad pinned 

my badge on your brand new 

uniform. We were both proud 

of you from day one. Just like 

Joanie will be proud of your son 

when he’s born.” 

“Wait! Gramps, Joanie is pregnant?” 

“Yes, but she doesn’t know it 

yet. But soon after the service 

she will discover that you left 

her with the gift of a baby boy 

she will name after you. And that 

boy will grow up with the dream 

to be just like his dad.” 

So far in 2021, over 179 police 

officers have lost their lives in 

the line of duty. Countless sons 

and daughters will grow up 

without their mother or father. 

It’s time to end the senseless killing 

of police officers in America 

and around the world. 

Dedicated to Arkansas Officer 

Stephen Carr, who was shot and 

killed while sitting in his patrol 

car in the parking lot of the 

Fayetteville Police Department 

in December of 2019, and every 

officer killed in the line of duty 

doing the job that they always 

dreamed of doing. God Bless 

the Peacemakers as they are the 

Children of God. 

Have a unique story you’d 

like to share with the 

BLUES readers? 

Send it to: bluespdmag@ 

gmail.com. Please change 

all the names to protect the 

innocent and to avoid prosecution 

in the event that 

the statute of limitations 

hasn’t expired. 

LE AGENCIES 

CALIBER: 5.56 NATO 

CAPACITY: 30+1 

SIGHTS: REAR FLIP UP 

BARREL LENGTH: 11.5” 

STOCK: ADJUSTABLE 


CAPACITY: 30+1 

SIGHTS: REAR FLIP UP 



CALIBER: .68 

OPERATION: COMPRESSED AIR 

MAG CAPACITY: 15 PROJECTILES 

BARREL LENGTH: 10” 

OVERALL LENGTH: 29” 

CALL FOR 

PRICING 

Supplying Law Enforcement 

Equipment for the State of TEXAS! 

11713 

M4 

TACTICAL 

SHOTGUN 

CALIBER: 12GA 

CAPACITY: 7+1 

SIGHTS: GHOST RING 


STOCK: TACTICAL PISTOL GRIP 

LE M4 

COMMANDO 

CR6933 

Comes with Magpul MOE furniture. AGENCY ONLY AGENCY ONLY 

3228929290 

M&P 15 

SBR 

12GA 

12720 

SBR 

SBR 

AGENCY ONLY 

FN 303 

MK2 

LAUNCHER 

LESS LETHAL 

CALL OR EMAIL US FOR PRICING OR ASK US ABOUT DEMOS OR TRADE-INS 

Tel: 800-367-5855 

www.proforceonline.com 

SBR 

AGENCY ONLY 


DDM4 V4 S CAPACITY: 30+1 

SIGHTS: SOLD SEPARATELY 



AR15 

RM06-C-700672 

DDM4 RMR V7 S 

Type 2 

Red Dot Sight 

3.25 MOA 

02-088-11034 

STANDARD CR2032 BATTERIES 

LOW PROFILE DESIGN 

Gear & accessories for law 

enforcement AGENCIES 

CHECK OUT THESE GREAT 

MANUFACTURERS 

AIMPOINT • BERETTA • COLT 

H&K • BIANCHI • TASER 

SMITH & WESSON • CZ USA 

DANIEL DEFENSE • EOTECH 

SIG SAUER • SHADOW SYSTEMS 

DEFENSE TECHNOLOGY • AGUILA 

SPETZ GEAR • BURRIS • UTM 

MOSSBERG • PROTECH • RUGER 

STREAMLIGHT • MAGPUL 

SAFARILAND • SPRINGFIELD 

BLACKHAWK • OSS • HOLOSUN 

TRIJICON • SUREFIRE 

US PEACEKEEPER • OTIS 

NIGHTSTICK • FNH USA 

NOTE: TERRITORY RESTRICTIONS MAY APPLY 

Visit our website today for up to date 

information, pricing and products! 

PROMOTION ENDS 8/31/21 

Support Center: 2625 Stearman Road, Prescott AZ, 86301 Tel: (800) 367-5855 Fax: (928) 445-3468 

e-mail: sales@proforceonline.com | www.proforceonline.com 


When we think of the word 

or term “Aftermath” we tend to 

think in the darkest or most somber 

of terms. We think of bridges 

burned, lives destroyed and even 

lost. We might think of loved 

ones or friends who are gone, far 

too soon. 

However, there is another kind 

of “Aftermath” whereby we are 

exuberant and excited when 

whatever we just went through, 

is over. For example, a long, 

fast, and furious (no akin to the 

movie) pursuit whereby several 

cars are destroyed, the suspect 

is apprehended, and no one lost 

their lives. You might find officers 

rather excited at the end of such 

events and wonder, “What in the 

hell are they so happy about” 

or, from a supervisor’s/administrator’s 

point of view, “They 

wouldn’t be so happy if they 

knew just how much paperwork 

they’re about to have to do!” 

And yet, as anyone who has 

even been in a fight, a gunfight, a 

dangerous pursuit, or any other 

kind of critical incident/engagement 

can tell you, there is a real 

sense of relief and joy even when 

it’s all over. The smoke can still 

be lingering in the air, and you’ll 

WORDS BY REX EVANS 

be like “HELL YEAH!!!” Only those 

of us who’ve been there will truly 

understand and appreciate this 

form of “Aftermath.” For it is an 

anomaly reserved for those who 

only dare to go where we are 

called upon to go and do what 

we are called upon to do. 

Maybe it’s as simple as a D.A. 

telling you “Yeah, I’ll take that 

charge…” or as complicated 

as hearing the medics tell you, 

“You’re shot to s**t, bro. But 

you’re gonna be alright…. we got 

you!” Aftermath elation (I just 

came up with that newfangled 

term) is not a new phenomenon. 

Look at any old footage from 

any war, combat mission, police, 

fire or ems critical incident and 

you’ll see it. It is in fact, a normal 

human reaction to successfully 

surviving a serious series of 

circumstances. It is, inherently in 

our DNA. 

For those who criticize such 

behavior, I’d suggest you’ve not 

done much living, yet. I mean, 

stop and think a minute. How 

about this kind of “Aftermath?” 

You didn’t study for a test but, 

you by some divine intervention, 

pass the darn test anyway. You 

immediately experience a release 

of chemicals in your body 

which allow for elation, happiness, 

relief and wait for it…. excitement. 

Maybe you’ll remember 

as a kid, doing some crazy 

ass stunt on a bike, four-wheeler, 

horse or whatever and, somehow 

you survive said stunt (Now 

all you must do is survive your 

parents killing you). 

I can recall many an “Aftermath” 

moment in my lifetime. 

I reckon we all can if we really 

put our minds to it. Some great. 

Some good. Some, not so much. 

And yet I find I am grateful for 

them all. For I am still here… 

much to the dismay of a few 

around here, and that in a way, 

is a whole other “Aftermath” of 

sorts. Some folks will do their 

best to destroy you, hurt you, 

ruin you. Sooooo, when you 

successfully rise above whatever 

it is they’ve tried to do, there it 

is…that “Aftermath” moment of 

elation and relief. Not to mention 

the feeling of successfully 

out maneuvering the shot they 

(whomever they may be) took at 

you! 

This column is dedicated to 

the men and women who have 

been there. Who’ve experienced 

something dramatic, exciting, 

dangerous, timeless and above 

all, just about unbelievable to 

everyone who wasn’t there at 

the time. Why unbelievable? 

Easy…… 

1. Because we were probably 

crazy to be there in the first 

place. 


crazy enough to recognize we 

shouldn’t be there, and we stay 

anyway. 


crazy enough to do whatever we 

had to do to survive and eventually, 

make it home. 

And finally, (you had to know 

this was coming) because we 

were just plain damn crazy!!!! 

So, next time you hear the term 

“Aftermath” or think about what 

all happened after that wild 

chase, fight or whatever it was 

you somehow (by the Grace of 

God) survived, try not to think 

inside the box about it. Be happy! 

Celebrate life. Let it all out and 

understand, the aftermath of any 

critical incident beckons the soul 

to celebrate just simply being 

alive. 

God bless. Be safe and as 

America’s Sergeant (Phil Esterhouse-Hill 

St. Blues) used to say, 

“HEY! Let’s be careful out there” 

Have a unique story you’d 

like to share with the 

BLUES readers? 

Send it to: bluespdmag@ 

gmail.com. Please change 

all the names to protect the 

innocent and to avoid prosecution 

in the event that 

the statute of limitations 

hasn’t expired. 




History of the Conference 

Sheriff ’s Association of Texas 

143rd Annual Training Conference & Expo 

Sunday August 1-Wednesday August 4, 2021 

Henry B Gonzalez Convention Center 

San Antonio, Texas 

The Sheriffs’ Association of Texas met for the first time on 

August 14, 1874, in the courthouse in Corsicana, Navarro County, 

Texas. The meeting was called to order by Sul Ross, Sheriff 

of McLennan County, who later became a notable part of Texas 

history. 

The Sheriffs began annual training conferences in 1878. 

These training conferences today are the largest composite 

gathering of law enforcement officers in Texas. Sheriffs and 

other county and local law enforcement officers, federal and 

state officers, and major industry security personnel attend. 

The Office of Sheriff in Texas was created by the Texas Constitution. 

There are 254 Counties in Texas, and each county has 

a Sheriff. By statutes, the Sheriff is a Texas peace officer, a conservator 

of the peace, enforces the criminal laws of the State, 

and is responsible for the county jail, bail bonds, civil process, 

and security of the courts. In some small counties the Sheriff is 

also the tax collector. 

The Office of Sheriff is one of the oldest offices known to our 

system of jurisprudence. Sheriffs are elected to office and serve 

for a four-year term. The size of Texas Sheriff’s offices are as 

diverse as the population of their counties. 

The preamble of the first meeting: “That we, as Sheriffs, have 

assembled in convention for no political purpose whatsoever, 

but for the purpose of more successfully aiding each other 

as officers, to execute the laws, in the discharge of our duties 

against criminals, and for the further and better protection of 

the citizens of our respective counties and the State at large.” 

The goal and mission of the Association remains the same 

today. 


2021 Annual Conference Schedule 

Saturday July 31 

3-5 pm Board of Directors Meeting (Grand Hyatt-Bowie BC-2ndFl) 

Sunday August 1 

8 am Golf Tournament (Tapatio Springs Resort) 

Breakfast at 7 a.m., Lunch after tournament 

1-4 pm Early Registration (CC-Hall 4 West Registration Area) 

2 -4 pm Training Session (CC-Bridge Hall) 

5 -6 pm Cowboy Church (CC-Hemisfair Ballroom) 

Evening On Own (Suggest Saga at San Fernando Cathedral) 

Monday August 2 

8 am-5 pm Registration (CC-Hall 4 West Registration Area) 

9 am-5pm Exhibits, Silent Auction & Raffle (CC-Hall 4) 

Professional Individual Photos will be taken in the Exhibit Hall 

5-9 pm Youth Event @ Tower of the Americas (Meet in Youth Room CC-206) 

6 pm Welcome Dinner & Dance (CC-Hemisfair Ballroom) 

Sheriff ’s Association of Texas 

143rd Annual Training Conference & Expo 

Sunday August 1-Wednesday August 4, 2021 

Henry B Gonzalez Convention Center 

San Antonio, Texas 

Tuesday August 3 

8 am-12 pm Registration (CC-Hall 4 West Registration Area) 

8:30-12 pm Opening Ceremony/General Session (CC-Hemisfair Ballroom) 

8:30 am-5 pm Youth Event @ Natural Bridge Caverns (Meet in Youth Room CC-206) 

11 am-5 pm Exhibits, Silent Auction & Raffle (CC-Hall 4) 

Professional Individual Photos will be taken in the Exhibit Hall 12 pm 

Sheriffs Group Photo-Immediately following 

General Session (CC-Park View, Meeting Room Level) 

12 -1:30 pm Complimentary Attendee Lunch (CC-Bridge Hall) 

3 pm Blue Bell Ice Cream Social (CC-Hall 4) 

3 -5 pm Exhibitor Prize Drawings (CC-Hall 4) 

4:30 pm Conclusion of Silent Auction Must be present to win (CC-Hall 4) 

Evening On Own (Suggest Saga at San Fernando Cathedral) 

Wednesday August 4 

8:30 am-8 pm Youth Event @ Six Flags (Meet in Youth Room CC 206) 

8:30-12 pm General Session(CC-Hemisfair Ballroom) 

11 am-2 pm Spouse Event (CC-Room 006-River Level) 

12 -1 pm Complimentary Attendee Lunch (CC-Bridge Hall) 

1 -5 pm Training Sessions (CC-Rooms 213AB, 214A, 214B, 214C, 214D) 

6:30-9 pm Awards Banquet (CC-Hemisfair Ballroom) 


What to Do? 

Making the Most 

of Island Time 

Attractions 

Galveston Island is home to some of the 

best attractions Texas has to offer, including 

Moody Gardens, Schlitterbahn Waterpark, 

the Historic Pleasure Pier, unique 

museums, dazzling Victorian architecture, 

and 32 miles of sun-kissed beaches. 

Galveston Beaches 

With 32 miles of shoreline and a variety of 

parks, Galveston Island offers something for 

every kind of beachgoer. 

Sandcastle Building Lessons 

My name is Emerson and I’ve been a professional 

sandcastle builder for over 10 years. Join me every 

Saturday this summer at Stewart Beach and learn 

the fundamentals of sand sculpture (Yes, it’s sculpture!) 

We’ll cover the basics of making strong structures 

and how to carve them. 

Free sandcastle lessons are available at Stewart 

Beach on Saturdays at 11 a.m., 1 p.m., and 3 p.m. 

No reservation necessary. You can find me by the 

water’s edge, straight down from the pavilion. Private 

lessons are also available by appointment 

throughout the week at the beach of your choice. 

For more information, click here. Join me and learn 

how to have more fun at the beach forever! 


Katie’s Seafood House 

2000 Wharf Rd. (409) 763-65688 

Where to Stay? 

Casa Del Mar Beachfront Suites 

Be the hero of your family vacation! With 

a relaxed vibe, beautiful views of the Gulf 

of Mexico and steps from the beach, 

Casa del Mar is ideal for a family vacation 

or weekend getaway. Each suite offers a 

private balcony, a small living room with a 

queen sleeper sofa, a studio kitchen, private 

bedroom, and junior bunks for small 

kids. 

Famous as the Galveston restaurant 

industry’s busiest fresh-fish supplier, 

Katie’s Seafood Market is now providing 

stock for its own new establishment, 

Katie’s Seafood House. This 

brand-new “boat to table” restaurant 

is located at Pier 19, steps from The 

Strand Historic District, Pier 21, and 

the Galveston Cruise Ship Terminals. 

Owner Buddy Guindon, a local leader 

of the fishing business, has operated 

that family-owned wholesaler 

for roughly 40 years, and is thrilled 

to enter the burgeoning Galveston 

restaurant scene. 

Queen’s Bar-B-Que 

3428 Avenue S, Galveston, TX | 

Phone: (409)762-3151 

Tours & Sightseeing 

Whether you prefer to stroll down quaint 

alleyways by foot or trot through the streets 

in a carriage, all paths can lead you on an 

unforgettable journey back in time. You’ll 

be entertained and enlightened by knowledgeable 

guides giving tours on foot, 

carriage, shuttle or even boat. If you prefer 

to do you own thing, we’ve assemble 

self-guided tours of popular sights with 

maps designed for mobile devices. 

Explore the Ocean’s Depths 

MOODY GARDENS 

Dive into the oceans of the world in 

a 1.5-million-gallon aquarium teeming 

with creatures from tuxedo-clad 

penguins to seals, stingrays, sharks 

and more! 

Queen’s is family-owned and operated, 

and has been serving up oak and 

pecan-smoked favorites since 1966. 

The Island mainstay offers delicious 

barbequed beef, ribs, links, smoked 

turkey and ham, seasonal brisket Texas-style 

chili, and mouth-watering, 

finger-lickin’ sides and daily specials. 

Gaido’s Famous Seafood 

Restaurant 3828 Seawall Blvd,| 

Phone: (409)761-5500 

Gaido first opened his doors to the 

public in 1911, the same year air conditioning 

was invented. With an 

unwavering commitment to serving 

the freshest Gulf seafood, Gaido’s is 

a cherished tradition for thousands 

of both locals and visitors – offering 

only the freshest seafood prepared by 

hand and the some of very best service 

you’ll find anywhere. 


CLICK TO WATCH 

THE OPEN ROAD 

by Michael Barron 

Hennessey Celebrates Horsepower By 

Summoning Special Exorcist 

Exclusive Production Run Of 30 Individually Numbered Hennessey Exorcist Camaro 

ZL1 Muscle Cars Celebrates 30 Years of Hennessey Making Fast Cars Faster 

Sealy, Texas – Hell-raising Hennessey 

Performance Engineering 

will offer 30 customers extra-special 

versions of its iconic Exorcist 

Camaro ZL1. Celebrating three 

decades of making fast cars faster 

(1991-2021), the Texas-based 

high-performance vehicle specialist 

will complete its 100-car production 

run of The Exorcist with this 

ultra-exclusive set of muscle cars. 

Each Hennessey Exorcist 30th 

Anniversary Camaro will feature an 

anniversary logo on the car’s front 

flanks, set behind each front wheel. 

In addition, each of the 1,000 bhp 

models will be individually numbered 

with an anniversary edition 

chassis plate denoting each of the 

30 models’ build number. 

The Exorcist was created by Hennessey 

to ‘slay the Dodge Demon,’ a 

task it more than achieved thanks 

to its 217-mph top speed, 2.1 second 

0-60 mph time and 9.57 second ¼ 

mile. Hennessey’s iconic enhancement 

of the stock Chevrolet Camaro 

ZL1 raised the bar on muscle cars 

with customers worldwide queuing 

up for its supercharged V8 thrills 

and 883 lb.-ft of torque. 

John Hennessey, company founder 

and CEO: “The Exorcist is the 

epitome of the American Muscle 

car and has the off-the-line performance 

to embarrass almost any car 

on the planet. We’ve been making 

fast cars faster since 1991, so our 

30th Anniversary Exorcist pools all 

we know into one ferocious supercar 

slayer.” 

Hennessey’s engineers upgrade, 

re-calibrate and improve almost 

every area of the Camaro’s powertrain 

from installing a high-flow 

supercharger and air induction 

system, to a custom Hennessey 

camshaft, ported cylinder heads, 

long-tube stainless steel headers, 

and high-flow catalytic converters. 

The upgrades and Anniversary Edition 

Exorcist is priced at $135,000 

(including the base Camaro ZL1) 

with the model benefitting from 

Hennessey’s two-year/24,000-mile 

warranty. 

Customers across the US and 

around the world can specify The 

Exorcist Anniversary Edition in 

coupe or convertible form with 

an automatic or manual transmission. 

Orders can be placed through 

authorized Chevrolet retailers or 

with Hennessey directly by calling 

979.885.1300 or visiting www.HennesseyPerformance.com. 

POWER: 

• 1000 bhp @ 6,500 rpm 

• 883 lb-ft torque @ 4,500 rpm 

PERFORMANCE: 

• 0-60 mph: 2.1 sec. 

• 1/4 mile: 9.57 @ 147 mph 

• Top speed: 217 mph 

THE EXORCIST UPGRADE INCLUDES: 

• High-Flow Supercharger Upgrade 

• High-Flow Air Induction System 

• Custom HPE Camshaft 

• Ported Cylinder Heads 

• Auxiliary Fuel System Upgrade 

• Upgraded Valve Springs and Retainers 

• Upgraded Intake valves & Exhaust Valves 

• Upgraded Lifters and Pushrods 

• Oversized Heat Exchanger Upgrade 

• Long-Tube Stainless Steel Headers 

• High-Flow Catalytic Converters 

• All Necessary Gaskets & Fluids 

• Professional Installation 

• HPE Engine Management Calibration 

• Dyno Tuning & Road Testing 

• Limited Edition Chassis Plate 1 of 30 

• Exorcist Exterior Graphics 

• 30th Anniversary Edition Exterior Graphics 

• Hennessey Premium Floormats 

• 2 Year / 24,000 Mile Limited Warranty 


Leadership Starts with You 

“We have the lowest morale ever,” 

said a commander from a police 

department in a large city. 

“There’s no accountability. Officers 

are afraid to act because they are 

now the target of our city’s politicians,” 

he continued. 

What do we do when it all seems 

to be falling apart? The once coveted 

job as a police officer is taking 

more from us than ever before. With 

our police chiefs caught up doing 

battle with local officials, and training 

budgets slashed, we are left to 

fend for ourselves, relying on supportive 

police associations, and the 

public to champion our cause. 

When it seems that there is no 

place to turn, how can we help 

ourselves? First, make the choice to 

lead. By our nature, we operate with 

excellence at our core. Our training 

helps build it. Once trained in our 

police duties, we sometimes only 

rely on that training to solve everything. 

There is a famous quote that 

says, “You will always fall to the 

level of your training.” By making 

the choice to lead, you choose to do 

more, to be more than what your 

training has provided to you. 

Next, create a plan to lead yourself. 

After all, if we simply try to 

be an excellent mom/dad, partner, 

spouse, supervisor, wearing lots of 

hats every day all the time, overwhelm 

and stress are typically the 

result because leaders want to be 

the best. When we try to wear a lot 

of hats all the time, typically we are 

not “engaged” or “present” in it. It 

becomes rote and robotic. So, what 

can you do to build a leadership 

plan for yourself so you can serve in 

all your roles effectively while also 

being “present?” 

First, go back to the beginning 

and define your why. Specifically, 

why did you decide to be a police 

officer? Author Simon Sinek says 

it best, “Your why is the one constant 

that will guide you toward 

fulfillment in your work and life.” 

Once you define it, write it down 

and put it in all the places you find 

yourself each day. Your office, your 

patrol car, your locker, your personal 

vehicle, and in a pocket in your 

uniform. When times get tough, and 

they will, you have your why as reminder 

of your excellence and why 

you chose to become an officer. 

Second, write out what is important 

to you right now, in the place 

you find yourself. Perhaps you are a 

new shift supervisor, and the most 

important thing right now is to be 

a good listener. Or maybe you are 

a veteran officer who has sought 

out some help because you cannot 

seem to separate job life from home 

life. For you, the most important 

thing may be to learn how to be dad 

or mom again when you walk in the 

door from work. 

Third, learn a strategy to delegate. 

We use control or the feeling of it to 

alleviate stress. Control can sometimes 

backfire however, often causing 

more stress in the end. While “in 

the moment” control makes us feel 

good, when things get quiet and we 

cannot turn off the control, however, 

we often find ourselves wound 

tighter than a rubber band, ready 

to “snap” at the next person who 

asks for something, or worse at our 

own family. Ask others to do certain 

things at work and at home which 

can help alleviate the feeling that 

you need to do everything and be 

everything to everyone. 

Another strategy is, take time for 

yourself. Make YOU a priority. This 

is one of the most self-LESS and 

important things you can do. Whether 

it is setting a specific gym time 

each day or making time for your 

favorite hobby. The more purposeful 

you are with things away from your 

job the better your brain’s function. 

You can “turn off” and be in moment. 

A note of caution here. Should you 

find yourself unable to “turn off” it 

may be a sign of hypervigilance and 

uncontrolled “fight or flight.” Please 

reach out for help. 

Make the choice to lead yourself 

first, so you can lead others more 

effectively. When things go sideways, 

or you get stressed remember 

your why. Be more effective at work 

and at home by putting yourself first, 

and delegate. By implementing these 

strategies, you will be able to be 

engaged with everything. 

Samantha Horwitz is a regular 

contributor to The Blues Police Magazine. 

She is a 9/11 first responder, 

former United States Secret Service 

Agent, speaker, and author. She 

and her business partner, ret. NYPD 

detective John Salerno created A 

Badge of Honor, a post-traumatic 

stress and suicide prevention program 

for first responders. 

John and Sam host MAD (Making 

a Difference) Radio each Wednesday 

7pm central live on FB @Makingadifferencetx. 

For more about 

Sam and the wellness and resiliency 

workshops for first responders, visit 

ABadgeofHonor.com. 

CLICK OR SCAN HERE 


What Does Liberty Look Like? 

In 1776 our country declared that 

it would begin a new life no longer 

bonded to Europe. We love freedom 

and long for all the citizens of 

the world to enjoy liberty. 1776 is 

the year that is revered by Americans 

as our birth year. We add the 

digits together 1+7+7+6 to find the 

sum 21, which is the most illustrious 

number in our nation’s treasury 

of symbols. We can’t fire salutes 

of 1,776 with rifles or cannon, but 

we can fire 21-gun salutes. The 

U.S. Army’s Old Guard Unit at the 

Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington 

takes 21 steps back and forth in 

the endless march to venerate our 

honored dead. At the end of each 

21-step march, the soldier will turn 

and face east for 21 seconds, then 

turn and face north for 21 seconds. 

Twenty-one is our shorthand for 

1776 and freedom. 

This year I no longer take my 

freedom for granted. I can see liberty 

attacked around the world by 

those who would deny others basic 

human rights. Our army is being 

withdrawn from Afghanistan to 

the detriment of the peace-loving 

people who live there. I cherish my 

freedom, but can’t help feeling bad 

for those who will come under the 

whip and boot of the Taliban. 

The road from Kabul to Jalalabad 

is about 90 miles long. It’s a 

dangerous journey now and always 

has been. The harsh mountainous 

terrain is unfriendly to man and 

beast. The people who live there 

know how to survive. They are a 

very tribal population, and they 

engage in alliances that are ever 

changing. These fighting tribesmen 

are at home in the mountain passes 

and villages of the Hindu Kush. Their 

leaders have historically lived off 

the compensation (bribes) offered 

by western governments in exchange 

for their support. 

Sometimes the tribesmen come 

up against western armies. I’m 

thinking of one instance where one 

such army had to break out from 

Kabul in an attempt to get to Jalalabad 

or “J-Bad” as it is referred to 

by our military. The unit consisted 

of about 16,000 troops and civilians 

that came under immediate attack 

on the road. The commander was 

a major general who had a wealth 

of experience in the operations of 

armies in combat. The tribal attacks 

were heavy and became more brutal 

as the march wore on. 

The army came to a place on the 

road called Gandamak. The commanding 

general decided to make 

a stand there and then continue to 

J-Bad. This would go down as one 

of those “last stands” in history 

books that illustrate man’s courage 

in the face of devastating odds. 

The number of soldiers that finally 

reached Jalalabad was, well, one. 

One of the surgeons in the army, 

William Brydon, reached J-Bad after 

the last stand of his army. It has 

been said that the Afghans allowed 

Doctor Brydon to escape so that he 

could tell the world that Her Majesty’s 

44th Regiment of Foot, the Bengal 

Native Infantry, the Bengal 5th 

Light Cavalry, and other elements, 

commanded by a hero of the Battle 

of Waterloo, Major General William 

Elphinstone, had been wiped out 

by 30,000 Afghan tribesmen. The 

British Army had been killed or captured 

to the last man, save one— 

Doctor Brydon. January 1842 seems 

like a long time ago to us, but it’s 

not in a land that is timeless. 

General Elphinstone died in 

captivity, but the Afghans returned 

his body to the British garrison at 

J- Bad. He was buried in an unmarked 

grave in the city wall there. 

This British disaster was the worst 

since the Battle of Yorktown where 

General Washington defeated Lord 

Cornwallis and our liberty was won. 

The next British disaster would be 

the Fall of Singapore one hundred 

years later when the Japanese 

defeated an “impregnable fortress” 

and an entire British army entered a 

barbarous captivity. 

Afghanistan is one of those places 

where time, it seems, stands still. 

The rugged environment breeds a 

rugged people who are resistant 

and resilient. The U.S. Army has 

been there and supplied aid and 

support for the people who want 

freedom, but that army is leaving 

now. It is leaving under its own 

terms, unlike the British and Russians 

before it, but the real mission 

was never completed. Through no 

fault of the courageous American 

soldier, the Taliban is an enemy 

who can survive in the rocks, caves, 

and ice of the Hindu Kush. They are 

a cruel and patient enemy. They 

hide in the mountains of Pakistan 

coming out like cockroaches in the 

dead of night. They believe that they 

are doing the will of Allah. They 

have eternity to wait out western 

soldiers and more pressing, the 

mostly inept politicians that direct 

them. They have been trained 

to fight and survive in their native 

environment for generations. They 

trod the same trails their ancestors 

did centuries ago. General Elphinstone 

and his command provide an 

inspirational tale that modern Afghan 

fighters still tell around their 

campfires at night. 

My thoughts and prayers are for 

the young men and women who 

fight in our country’s name to come 

home from such an unforgiving 

place and be reunited with their 

families and friends. There have 

been 2,312 members of our military 

killed in Afghanistan, but they did 

not sell their lives cheaply. One estimate 

is that 35,000 Taliban fighters 

were killed in operations against 

our military. Of course, the war has 

also taken 71,000 Afghan civilian 

lives. Many of those were children 

who died because the infrastructure 

and health care system are 

not fully capable thanks to Taliban 

attacks. Many others were Afghan 

police officers who aided the U.S. 

mission and their fellow citizens 

manning the thin blue line between 

civilization and savagery. I’m sure 

the Taliban is especially proud of 

those numbers and their role in 

the destruction of Afghan national 

resources. 

The insurgency will no doubt 

return in force and claim an Allah-provided 

victory. As I pray for 

my own country’s young people, 

I also pray that the innocent people 

of Afghanistan will be able to 

survive and rebuild their country. 

It is my hope that one day they can 

enjoy the basic freedom that makes 

life a joy to live, but I understand 

that isn’t likely with the disengagement 

of our troops. Of course, 

when people get a taste of liberty, 

it is hard to return to oppression. 

The photos included here show 

what freedom and it’s naturally 

accompanying compassion look like 

to children who have known only 

war and hardship for their entire 

lives. If your red, white, and blue 

hearts aren’t bursting with pride 

in our nation’s sons and daughters 

who represent liberty wherever 

they go, you may have a different 

notion of what liberty looks like 

than I have. When I view the photos, 

I am reminded of what the Apostle 

advised the Christians in Corinth, 

“Where the spirit of the Lord is, 

there is liberty.” 

God bless all freedom loving people 

in a world gone mad. 

God bless the United States of 

America on this Fourth day of July 

in this its 245th year of sweet liberty. 


Photography 

Professional 

Video 

Professional 

- 3D Walk Through 

Matterport 

Showing 

Virtual 

Houses 

Open 

Tips 

Staging 

media marketing for 

Social 

extra Ah Ha! 

the 

Seattle Report Says Officers Could Have Defused 

Violence by Siding with Protesters & Taking a Knee! 

WAIT....WHAT? 

The Seattle Police Department 

needs to find a better way to 

interact with anti-police demonstrators, 

including allowing 

officers to express solidarity 

with protesters marching against 

police brutality and racism, according 

to the first in a series of 

detailed critiques of the department’s 

response to protests and 

riots. Are they serious? 

The city’s Office of Inspector 

General for Public Safety report 

on local demonstrations that 

arose after the May 25 death of 

George Floyd in custody of Minneapolis 

police, said the department 

needs to do more to ensure 

officers at protests don’t show 

contempt for the people whose 

rights they’re supposed to be 

protecting, regardless of fatigue 

and stress. 

The review committee, made 

up of SPD representatives and 

community members, found that 

officers who were sympathetic 

to the protesters and condemned 

Floyd’s death felt constrained 

from saying anything by the department’s 

code of conduct that 

requires political neutrality on 

duty. That silence was interpreted 

by the crowd “as an alignment 

with, or at least a refusal 

to refute, the police brutality that 

was the source of the protests,” 

the Seattle Times reports. 

“The panel felt that ‘taking 

a knee’ or standing publicly 

against police brutality … was 

a show of support for fair and 

just policing, and something SPD 

officers should do without reservation,” 

the OIG found. 

Take knee...in the middle of a 

protest? Seriously? 

In all, the OIG panel offered 54 

recommendations in a 122-page 

critique of the department’s 

response to the first of what the 

panel identified as five distinct 

waves of riots and protests that 

rocked Seattle during the summer 

and fall of 2020. The report 

focuses on the response to the 

first three days of demonstrations 

downtown, May 29-June 1, when 

officers used pepper-spray, tear 

gas, batons and other weapons 

against thousands of protesters 

after vandals in the crowd broke 

windows, looted, and stole guns 

from patrol vehicles before burning 

them. 

The OIG specifically stated the department 

should move away from 

the concepts of “crowd control” 

and “crowd management” to one 

of “crowd facilitation and crowd 

safety.” 

Ok these people are just frickin 

crazy. This OIG panel is comprised 

of a bunch of nut jobs that have no 

idea what it’s like to be surrounded 

by thousands of angry protestors 

and quite frankly they aren’t going 

to give a shit about whether or not 

you agree with their cause. If you’re 

wearing a police uniform, they hate 

you and they want to hurt you, because 

you stand for everything they 

are against. Once again Seattle, you 

win this month’s Light Bulb Award 

by a landslide. Keep up the good 

work and try for another. 

heelllloo nneeiighboor 

H I N K I N G S E L L I N G ? 

about 

____________________________________________________________ 

T 

NOW IS A 

T I M E 

T O S E L L 

great 

YOUR PROPERTY VALUE WENT UP 

Kriistiinna Martiinnak 

KMartinak@TheJamieMcMartinGroup.com 

___________________ 

WHY USE THE 

JAMIE MCMARTIN GROUP? 

____________________________________________________________ 

call or text 

281.505.4747 

Concierge Service 


Supporting the Mental 

Health of our Corrections 

Officers: A Call to Action 

As the 2021 Annual Texas Sheriff’s 

Association Conference 

is held in San Antonio in early 

August, I am utilizing this month’s 

column as a call for action for 

correctional administrators in 

the state and across the nation 

to examine the need for more 

comprehensive mental health 

programs and support for their 

officers. According to a National 

Institute of Justice paper (Ferdik 

and Smith, 2017) titled “Correctional 

Officer Safety and Wellness-What 

We Learned from the 

Research Literature”, correctional 

officers experience high stress 

levels, burnout, and a variety 

of other mental health-related 

consequences as a result of 

their jobs. The combination of 

the negative physical and mental 

health for correctional officers 

can also have harmful effects on 

the wider jail institution. Between 

COVID and difficult working 

conditions, staffing shortages 

now consistently exist with low 

officer-to-inmate ratios and high 

turnover rates in staffing which 

can threaten a correctional facility’s 

ability to implement appropriate 

security measures. 

Both police and corrections 

officers experience similar issues 

including but not limited to 

constantly rotating work shifts, 

irregular sleep patterns, exposure 

to trauma and violence, and the 

challenges of family-work-life 

balance. These problems can 

contribute to increased stress 

levels, physical problems such as 

heart disease and diabetes, and 

the increased risk of suicide and 

domestic violence. However, far 

more law enforcement agencies 

have focused their attention and 

funding resources on assisting 

police rather than correctional 

officers. Many jail institutions lack 

appropriate mental health counseling 

for their correctional officers 

and much of this deficit can 

be attributed to difficulties in locating 

adequately trained clinical 

providers who are knowledgeable 

about best practices related 

to correctional mental health. 

Specialized training programs in 

corrections mental health should 

be developed and encouraged in 

graduate programs for mental 

health professionals. Additionally, 

both internal and external 

programs and policies designed 

to address these issues are absolutely 

critical in improving the 

overall psychological health of 

corrections officers and perhaps 

these lessons can be borrowed 

from police practices. Simply put, 

DR. TINA JAECKLE 

do not reinvent the wheel. 

One well known strategy that 

could be implemented to manage 

correctional officer stress is the 

establishment of peer support 

programs and it should be noted 

that there are a number of correctional 

agencies nationwide 

that have adopted this technique. 

Peer-support programs recruit 

workforce colleagues who can 

offer emotional and social support 

to those who may have experienced 

traumatic events, both 

on and off the job. These peers 

offer support and education to 

their colleagues to help them 

cope with the consequences of 

their stressors. However, in my 

experience over the last two decades 

training countless law enforcement 

critical incident stress 

management and peer support 

teams, I have directly observed 

that the emphasis for programs is 

often placed on the mental health 

needs of police rather than correctional 

officers. Although there 

are events that can occur in the 

jail setting that can be considered 

traumatic for most (inmate 

suicide, attack on an officer, etc.) 

some are frequently overlooked 

or not assessed as a reason to 

activate a peer support team. 

These policies must be re-evaluated. 

Recently I was provided the 

privilege to train a group of specially 

selected correctional officers 

who work at the Lake County 

Sheriff’s Office (Florida) jail 

facility. While we already have 

an established critical incident 

stress management and peer 

support team there was a glaring 

absence of members solely from 

corrections. Although one CISM 

team can be comprised of peer 

members from police, dispatch, 

and corrections, true peer to peer 

support is most effective when 

there is a more comprehensive 

understanding of the job responsibilities 

of each role. In other 

words, much like police to police 

peers, correctional officers supporting 

other corrections officers 

simply makes sense. With the 

assistance of Lake County Sheriff’s 

Office Chaplains Jason Low 

and Jim Cornell, we have now 

created a best practices model 

though a specific “jail” team to 

focus solely on corrections. It 

is important to note that these 

programs cannot exist without 

full endorsement and recognition 

of the administration and com- 

Congratulations to 

Alan Helfman 

on your 

Lifetime 

Achievement Award 

PROUD SUPPORTER OF THE BLUES 

FOR OVER 36 YEARS 

mand staff. Lake County Sheriff 

(FL) Peyton Grinnell shared his 

thoughts on the new team, “The 

purpose of this new peer support 

program is quite simple. We recognize 

the 

To 

inherent stress associated 

with the environment that 

our correctional officers work 

in, and we want to give them the 

tools and resources they need to 

effectively deal with that stress. 

Our goal is for them to stay 

healthy and enjoy a long, successful 

career here.” I encourage 

you to recognize that both police 

and corrections officers provide 

an essential role in our criminal 

justice system and should receive 

equally appropriate mental 

health support. 

HELFMAN’S 

RIVER OAKS CHRYSLER 

JEEP • DODGE • RAM • CHRYSLER • FORD 

FIAT • ALFA ROMEO • MASERATI 


unning 4 heroes 

Total Miles Run in 2021: (as of 7/31/21): 190 

Total Miles Run in 2020: 401 

Total Miles Run in 2019: 376 

Overall Miles Run: 967 

2021 Run Stats: 

Total Miles Run for 2021 fallen LEO’s (Non COVID-19): 91 

Total Miles Run for 2021 fallen Firefighters (Non COVID-19): 39 

Total Miles Run for 2021 fallen COVID-19 Heroes: 18 

Total Miles Run for 2021 fallen Canada LEO’s: 2 

Total Miles Run for 2021 Non Line of Duty Deaths: 0 

Total Miles Run for 2020 Fallen LEO’s: 24 

Total Miles Run for 2020 Fallen Firefighters: 6 

Total Miles Run for 2020/2021 Fallen K9’s: 0 

Total Tribute Runs by State for 2021: 10 

States/Cities Zechariah has run in: 

Zechariah 

Cartledge: 

a True American Hero 

Florida - Winter Springs, Lake Mary, Clearwater, Atlantic Beach, Neptune Beach, Orlando, Temple Terrace, Blountstown, Cocoa, 

Lakeland, Daytona Beach, West Palm Beach 

New York - New York City 

Georgia - Cumming, Augusta, Savannah 

South Carolina - North Myrtle Beach, Charleston, Sumter 

Pennsylvania - Monaca 

Illinois - Springfield, Naperville, Glen Ellyn 

Texas - Houston (2), Fort Worth, Midland, New Braunfels, Freeport, Madisonville 

Kentucky - Nicholasville 

Arkansas - Bryant 

Nevada - Henderson 

California - Mt. Vernon 

Arizona - Mesa 

North Carolina - Concord 

Tennessee - Bristol 

Delaware - Milford 

Minnesota - Arden Hills 

Indiana - Sullivan, Spencer 

Missouri - Springfield 

Iowa - Independence, Des Moines, Cedar Rapids 


emembering my hero ... 

... Fort Worth Officer Henry Nava, Jr. 

Concerns of Police Survivors is an organization whose mission is to help rebuild the 

shattered lives of those family members and co-workers of law enforcement officers 

that are killed in the line of duty. KayLeigh Nava bravely recounts the tragic death of 

her father, Fort Worth Officer Henry “Hank” Nava, Jr. 

I vividly remember the moment 

when I was wrapped in my 

mom’s arms and was told that 

there had been an accident, my 

dad had been shot and they did 

not think he was going to survive. 

I remember darkness, tears, 

as my mom hugged me tighter. 

I describe that moment today 

as feeling like a lamb going into 

the slaughterhouse – receiving 

the news that would change that 

nine-year old’s life forever. 

Before that moment, the day 

seemed like any other in my 

childhood. I woke up for school 

and got ready, rushing around 

the house until it was time to 

leave, in a hurry so much that 

I did not walk to say goodbye 

to my dad who was still sleeping. 

The day went in the normal 

way until dismissal time where I 

went home with my best friend 

instead of another family that 

we carpooled with at the time. 

Something I didn’t think anything 

of, I was just excited to go play 

Barbies with my friend. When 

her mom got home, she later 

pulled me aside and said my dad 

had been in an accident and that 

we were going to the hospital 

to see him. I still remember not 

thinking anything of this news, 

not being worried, because my 

dad always had made through 

any other injuries, not grasping 

the fact that his fate would not 

be the same this time around. 

When we got to the hospital 

there were police lights 

and news cameras. Our family 

friend was waiting for us at the 

hospital doors. He scooped me 

up onto his shoulders and we 

rode the elevator up to the ICU 

unit. When the doors opened, 

it seemed like everyone I knew 

and loved was there. This is the 

moment when I felt like a lamb, 

incidentally, waiving and smiling 

at everyone, not knowing the 

news that I was about to get. 

My dad and his team went to 

the suspect’s home to arrest 

him on a parole violation warrant. 

They were greeted at the 

door by a female who invited 

them inside the residence. The 

female allowed them to enter 

and search the trailer for the 

suspect after telling them that he 

was not currently at the location. 

As they entered the trailer, 

she loudly announced that “the 

police are here and are going to 

search the house.” 

My dad opened a bedroom 

door, and rounds of gunfire came 

from the suspect that was in the 

bedroom. He was shot just above 

the left eye. After the shooting, 

the man fled to a nearby home 

where he took a hostage and 

hours later surrendered to the 

police. 

The next few days were spent 

at the hospital. I remember 

spending time with my dad in 

his hospital room. On December 

1, 2005, my dad, Officer Henry 

“Hank” Nava Jr. died from the 

gunshot wounds. The moments 

and months that followed his 

death seem like clear blur in my 

memory. Some moments stand 

out, like walking with the honor 

guard at his visitation, seeing the 

mass of people who attended 

his funeral, and getting so excited 

to make cheese sandwiches 

for the officers who patrolled 

outside of our house during 

that time. Other moments are a 

blur, lost in my memory in what 

seems like another lifetime. 

The impact of losing my dad 

has touched every thread of my 

life, from the way I grew up to 

what I do in my life today. My 

dad was my hero, and my heart 

breaks for the moments with him 

that were taken away from me. 

I’ll be forever appreciative to the 

community in the Fort Worth 

Police Department of people 

who have walked beside and invested 

in my family since losing 

my dad. They were there during 

school performances, teaching 

me how to drive, cheering me 

on at graduations, and even a 

birthday parade during COVID. I 

chose to attend college at Texas 

Christian University, a dream I 

had ever since I was a little girl 

with my dad. The plan was he 

was going to work for the department 

on campus, so that I 

could attend. While everything 

did not go according to the plan, 

I felt him there through the other 

officers at TCU. 

My teachers were an integral 

part of my grief journey as 

school was always a safe place 

for me after losing my dad. Because 

of their impact, I majored 

in elementary 

education and 

am now a firstgrade 

teacher 

hoping to love 

and impact my 

students the 

same way my 

teachers once 

did for me. As 

a family, we 

honor my dad 

during the anniversary 

of his 

death through 

a blood drive 

where we can 

impact hundreds 

of lives 

through blood 

donation each 

year. I have felt 

his energy and 

spirit through 

all these encounters 

and 

we still to this day, get to connect 

with people who knew my 

dad and get to hear new stories. 

I’ve started calling these encounters 

a God wink – and I am ever 

thankful for all the “winks” I’ve 

received over the years. 

Through the 15 years since 

losing my dad, there have been 

moments of painful sorrow and 

moments of indescribable joy 

but there has been one constant, 

as I have navigated my grief 

journey – C.O.P.S., Concerns of 

Police Survivors. My first experience 

with C.O.P.S. was attending 

kid’s camp a few years after my 

dad passed away. At camp, we 

were connected with a counselor 

there who later went on to 

help me go through a process to 

meet with the man who killed 

my dad. I had questions for him, 

but most importantly, I wanted 

to forgive him. While it might 

be a decision that not everyone 

agrees with, I was grateful for 

the peace it brought me in my 

grief journey. I’ve stayed connected 

with my local chapter, 

Metroplex C.O.P.S throughout the 

years going to events and volunteering 

alongside my mom. I now 

serve on the board for my local 

chapter and love the connections 

that I get to make with my “blue 

96 The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE 


family” – others who have 

lost a loved one in the line of 

duty. I believe where there is 

great grief, there was great 

love. There is an automatic 

connection, or maybe bond is 

the better word, when getting 

to talk with people who also 

walked a similar path to you. 

We always say when our blue 

family is together – it is a club 

that we never wanted to be 

a part of, but a club I am so 

thankful to have. There is hope 

and healing through connecting 

with others and sharing our 

stories, and C.O.P.S. provides 

opportunities for the connections 

and relationships to start. 



Detective 

Greg Ferency 

Terre Haute Police Department, Indiana 

End of Watch Wednesday, July 7, 2021 

Age 53 Tour 30 Years Badge # N/A 

Detective Greg Ferency was shot and killed outside of the FBI Indianapolis 

Resident Agency near the intersection of Wabash Court and First 

Street in Terre Haute at about 2:15 pm. A subject drove to the gate of 

the building and threw a Molotov cocktail at it. The man then confronted 

Detective Ferency and shot him as he came out of the building. Despite 

being wounded, Detective Ferency was able to return fire. An FBI agent 

also rushed outside and shot the subject, who then drove himself to a 

local hospital where he was taken into custody. 

Detective Ferency had served with the Terre Haute Police Department for 

30 years and was assigned to the FBI Task Force. He is survived by his 

two children, parents, and sister. Detective Ferency was posthumously 

awarded the Medal of Honor and the Wounded in Combat medal by Terre 

Haute Police Department. 

Sergeant 

Joshua Blake Bartlett 

Lubbock County Sheriff’s Office, Texas 

Police Officer 

William Earl Collins, Jr. 

Doyline Police Department, Louisiana 

End of Watch Friday, July 9, 2021 

Age N/A Tour 10 Years Badge # N/A 

Police Officer Billy Collins was shot and killed while responding to a domestic 

disturbance call on Green Tree Street at about 6:00 pm. A subject in the home 

opened fire on him and two deputies from the Webster Parish Sheriff’s Office as 

they arrived on the scene. Officer Collins was struck in the head by one of the 

rounds. He was flown to Ochsner LSU Health where he succumbed to his wound 

about two hours later. The subject barricaded himself inside his home after the 

initial shooting. He was taken into custody at about 11:00 pm. The subject 

died on July 17, 2021, from wounds sustained during the incident. 

Officer Collins served as a part-time police officer with the Doyline Police Department. 

He served as a full-time correctional supervisor with the Webster 

Parish Sheriff’s Office. 

Reserve Deputy Sheriff 

Tom Larry Hoobler 

Childress County Sheriff’s Office, Texas 

End of Watch Thursday, July 15, 2021 

Age 38 Tour N/A Badge # N/A 

Military Veteran 

Sergeant Josh Bartlett was shot and killed during a barricade at a home 

in the 1100 block of 10th Street in Levelland. Earlier in the morning, the 

subject had been stopped by a Texas Highway Patrol trooper for reckless 

driving and attempted to bait the officer into a confrontation. The subject 

returned home after the encounter and began walking around the neighborhood 

with a firearm at about 1:15 pm. When officers with the Levelland 

Police Department arrived, the man opened fire on him and then barricaded 

himself inside. The regional SWAT team was requested as the man randomly 

fired shots from the home. Sergeant Bartlett and three other members 

of the SWAT team were shot as they engaged the subject. Sergeant 

Bartlett was transported to Covenant Medical Center in Levelland where 

he succumbed to his wounds. Several other team members were wounded, 

one critically. Sergeant Bartlett was a U. S. Army veteran. 

End of Watch Saturday, July 17, 2021 

Age 74 Tour 18 Years Badge # 132 

Reserve Deputy Sheriff Tom Hoobler suffered a fatal heart attack shortly 

after directing traffic during an unusually hot and humid day at the Childress 

Old Settlers Rodeo parade. 

He had completed his traffic detail when he responded to assist with a 

disabled traffic trailer on U.S. 287 east of Childress. He passed away 

while sitting in his patrol car while waiting for a tow truck. 

Reserve Deputy Hoobler had served with the Childress County Sheriff’s 

Office for 18 years. He is survived by his wife, daughters, brother, grandchildren, 

and great-grandchildren. 



Sergeant 

Jeremy Brown 

Clark County Sheriff’s Office, Washington 

End of Watch Friday, July 23, 2021 

Age 46 Tour 15 Years Badge N/A 


Sergeant Jeremy Brown was shot and killed while conducting surveillance 

at an apartment complex in the 3500 block of Northeast 109th Avenue 

in Vancouver. He was approached by three people and was shot as he sat 

in his vehicle. Two subjects were arrested near the scene. The subject who 

shot Sergeant Brown was arrested by members of the United States 

Marshals Service on July 25th, 2021, and charged with first-degree 

aggravated murder. 

Sergeant Brown had served with the Clark County Sheriff’s Office for 15 

years and was assigned to the Clark-Vancouver Drug Task Force. He was 

a U.S. Marine Corps veteran and had previously served with the Washington 

State Department of Corrections and the Missoula County Sheriff’s 

Office in Montana. Sergeant Brown was posthumously promoted to the 

rank of Sergeant. 


Marquis Moorer 

Selma Police Department, Alabama 

End of Watch Tuesday, July 27, 2021 

Age 25 Tour N/A Badge #N/A 

Deputy Sheriff 

Phillip Campas 

Kern County Sheriff’s Office, California 

End of Watch Sunday, July 25, 2021 

Age 35 Tour N/A Badge # 1392 

Deputy Sheriff Phillip Campas was shot and killed during a barricade at a 

home near the intersection of 1st Street and Poplar Avenue in Wasco. 

Deputies had initially responded to the home for reports of a shooting 

at about 1:00 pm. A subject inside fired at the deputies and then barricaded 

himself in the home, prompting the agency’s SWAT team to be 

deployed. At about 3:00 pm the subject opened fire on members of the 

SWAT team as they approached the home. Deputy Campas and another 

deputy were struck by the gunfire. They were both transported to a local 

hospital where Deputy Campas succumbed to his wounds. 

The subject was shot and wounded when he exchanged more shots with 

the SWAT team at about 6:30 pm. 


Ryan Bialke 

Red Lake Nation Police Department, Tribal Police 

End of Watch Tuesday, July 27, 2021 

Age 37 Tour 6 Years Badge 235 

Police Officer Marquis Moorer was shot and killed from ambush while 

stopping at his apartment for his meal break at about 4:00 am. 

He was approached by a subject who then opened fire on him outside of 

the building in the Selma Square Apartments. Officer Moorer suffered 

fatal gunshot wounds and his significant other was also wounded. 

Police Officer Ryan Bialke was shot and killed while responding to reports 

of a suicidal subject at home on Highway 1 one mile west of Redby. The 

subject opened fire and shot Officer Bialke as he arrived at the home. Officer 

Bialke was transported to the Indian Health Service Hospital where 

he succumbed to his wounds. The man then fled into the woods after 

shooting Officer Bialke but was apprehended a short time later. 

The subject fled the scene but was arrested the following day by members 

of the Alabama State Department of Investigation and the United 

Officer Bialke had served with the Red Lake Nation Police Department for 

States Marshals Service. The subject was subsequently charged with 

six years. He is survived by his wife and four children. 

two counts of capital murder and one count of attempted murder. 



Trooper 

Micah May 

Nevada DPS- Nevada Highway Patrol, Nevada 

End of Watch Thursday, July 29, 2021 

Age 46 Tour 13 Years Badge # 6203 

Trooper Micah May succumbed to injuries sustained the previous day 

when he was struck by a fleeing vehicle on I-15 while deploying spike 

strips. Officers with the Nevada Division of Parole and Probation and 

other troopers had chased the stolen vehicle for approximately 20 miles. 

Trooper May was deploying spike strips on I-15, in the area of West 

Sahara Avenue in Las Vegas, when he was struck by the vehicle and went 

through the windshield. The subject was then shot and killed by other 

troopers as he reached for Trooper May’s service weapon. Trooper May 

was flown to University Medical Center where he succumbed to his injuries 

on July 29th, 2021. 

Trooper May had served with the Nevada Highway Patrol for 13 years. He 

is survived by his wife of 13 years. 

Deputy Sheriff 

Courtney Couch 

Lane County Sheriff’s Office, Oregon 


Lewis “Andy” Traylor 

Austin Police Department, Texas 


Age N/A Tour 9 Years Badge # 7258 


Police Officer Andy Traylor succumbed to injuries sustained in a vehicle 

crash three days earlier while responding to an emergency call for service 

at about 2:10 am. He was traveling on FM 969 when a tractor-trailer 

attempted to make a U-turn in front of him at Decker Lane. Officer Traylor 

was unable to avoid a collision and his patrol car became pinned beneath 

the trailer. He was extricated from the vehicle and transported to a local 

hospital. He remained on life support and passed away on July 31st, 

2021, after his organs were donated. 

Officer Traylor was a U.S. Navy veteran and had served with the Austin 

Police Department for nine years. He is survived by his wife and five children. 

Supervisory Patrol Agent 

Daniel Cox 

Homeland Security - Customs and Border Protection - 

End of Watch Sunday, July 25, 2021 

Age 36 Tour 7 Years Badge #N/A 


Deputy Sheriff Courtney Couch drowned while attempting to rescue a 

child from Foster Reservoir in Linn County while off duty. She was paddle 

boarding with friends when she noticed a child, who was not known to her, 

in distress near the swimming area at Lewis Creek Park. She slipped off 

her paddleboard and went under the surface while attempting to rescue 

the child. Other bystanders were able to pull her from the water and performed 

CPR until medics arrived. She was pronounced dead a short time 

later. The child was rescued by other bystanders. 


Age 52 Tour 24 Years Badge # B022 

Supervisory Border Patrol Agent Dan Cox was killed in a vehicle crash near 

milepost 128 on State Route 86 near Sells, Arizona, at about 12:20 

am. 

Agent Cox’s patrol vehicle and another vehicle collided head-on. Agent 

Cox and the driver of the other vehicle were both killed in the crash. 

Agent Cox had served with the United States Border Patrol for 24 

years. 

Deputy Couch was a U.S. Army veteran and had served with the Lane 

County Sheriff’s Office for seven years. She is survived by her husband 

and son. 



Yes, you read correctly. Mr. Outdoors - Rusty Barron has checked out and left on 

vacation for the Colorado Mountains. But don’t despair, our own Rex Evans also 

stepped out on vacation and filed this report from the deck of Carnival Cruise Lines. 

We’ve all 

endured this 

previous 18- 

20 months 

together. 

Many of 

us, have 

lost family 

or friends. 

People we’ve known, worked with 

and grown up with have passed 

away. 

Our country and the entire world 

has suffered, sacrificed, and endured 

the trials, troubles, and 

tribulations each of us and our 

loved ones have endured, has been 

enormous. 

Most of us, never stopped working. 

We kept doing what had to be 

done. Because had we not, things 

would’ve been worse. Much worse. 

Thus, this Fourth of July, I saw 

that Carnival Cruise Lines was going 

to have their “Maiden Return Voyage” 

as the binds and layers of the 

past year began to peel away. 

Well friend, I’m on that very 

cruise. I knew history would be 

in the making and, being an avid 

“cruiser,” I desperately wanted to be 

a part of this historical event. 

I wanted to not only experience 

this journey, but I wanted to share it 

for those who could not. I wanted to 

express how humbled and grateful 

I truly am, to be here on this beautiful, 

completely brightly repainted, 

clean ship. 

The morning in Galveston at the 

Old Pier was truly “magical” in every 

sense. Bright smiles, tears of joy 

and embracing of one another was 

very emotional to witness. 

There was a press conference, of 

course. This was after 

all, a world history 

kind of story. Big news 

as it were and, it was 

not lost on anyone 

present. 

As we walked 

through the doors onto 

this beautiful ship, the 

smiles and welcoming 

demeanor of the 

crew made everyone 

feel truly, very special. 

We could all feel that 

this was a very special 

moment in time. 

This morning, July 

4th, 2021, the profound, 

symbolic and dynamic 

emotion of “freedom” 

could be felt throughout 

this great ship. 

Everyone appreciated 

the fact that we were 

here. Reduced capacity 

made things a bit 

surreal, true enough. 

But one step at a time 

is probably a smart move. 

I’ll close with this; our Nation’s 

Freedom has been tested by fire and 

many a life has been lost since it’s 

very inception. This past year or so 

was no exception. 

We’ve watched our country and 

the world in fact, change. Whether 

for better or worse, is not for 

my debate today. For I know this 

fact for sure, for the first time in a 

long time, I was able to enjoy the 

“freedom” to step foot on this ship, 

leaving many a trouble and worry 

behind, even if for only a few days. 

Freedom has always had high 

price. What we’ve all sacrificed 

this past year was no different. Our 

freedom had never been tested in this 

way before, really. 

This cruise, this trip, this moment 

in time on this very special day was 

just one more re-affirming step forward 

to ensuring America isn’t going 

anywhere. We’re still here. We’re still 

strong. We’re still one of the greatest 

societies in World History. 

Much like this cruise, the things we 

once took for granted, aren’t taken so 

lightly, anymore. God bless our country, 

Texas, and our Thin Blue Line. 

May God above continue to watch 

over us and keep us safe underneath 

the beautiful canopy of Heaven above. 

Message from HPOU President 

As President of the organization, I 

get all the negative feedback from 

members regarding ever aspect of the 

department as well as the HPOU. I 

often get frustrated when people come 

in and make comments without knowing 

what we really do here. I recently 

had an officer come in and ask exactly 

what his dues go for every month? 

Believe it or not, I appreciate people 

coming in and asking questions, and 

actually take an interest in what the 

organization does for them. I could tell 

he was frustrated, and this interaction 

give me the opportunity to show what 

we actually do (and brag a little). We 

spoke for almost an hour, and I believe 

that he was satisfied with what I had 

to say and felt more comfortable when 

he left. But our conversation made me 

realize that we do not do a very good 

job talking about the good things we 

are doing here at YOUR union, but that 

is about to change….. 

I never expected to be in this position, 

but I believe that the good Lord 

puts you where he wants you when he 

wants you there. I am blessed to be 

here representing the members of the 

Houston Police Officers’ Union and will 

always do so to the best of my ability. 

This being said, it is important to note 

that the HPOU does not run the Houston 

Police Department. Our job is to keep 

the leadership in check and most often 

this is done through arbitration or negotiation. 

But both are always done after 

a decision is made and moved on by 

the leadership of the department. We 

will always fight the battles that we 

are legally able to fight. I do my best to 

always work with the leadership of the 

department but there are times when 

we will just not agree. I have had 

more than one shouting match with the 

Chief and I am confident that there will 

be more. As most know, we are not 

paid at the union, and we volunteer to 

do this job, so I can’t complain about 

dealing with people who don’t like us 

for whatever reason. I know that I will 

DOUGLAS GRIFFITH 

never make everyone happy but I will 

always do what’s best for the officers, 

the organization, and the department. 

Now back to what you get for your 

money from the HPOU. First is legal 

protection. We have four full time 

attorneys and 4 contract attorneys for 

conflict cases. (no you do not get to 

pick your attorney, as we have to fairly 

distribute the workload). You also get 

representation work done by me, Tim 

Whitaker, Ken Nealy, Tom Hayes, and 

our Executive Director, Ray Hunt. We 

often make deals that help officers with 

discipline, work issues, workers comp, 

and insurance issues. It should be noted 

that we have spent a lot of money to 

represent the Harding Street officers 

and the Gazin Street officers and will 

continue to spend whatever it takes to 

give them the proper representation. 

In July, I went out on 4 officer involved 

shootings, not because I have to, 

but because I believe that it is important. 

I worked 229 hours in the Month 

of July to further the mission of this 

organization, PIP meeting, town hall 

meetings, wherever I can talk about 

what we do or what we need. I keep 

detailed notes on time that I work and 

want people to know that I do not do 

it for recognition, I do it because I care 

about my brothers and sisters here in 

this department. Our officers are the 

best in the nation, and I do my best to 

let everyone know it! 

Other areas important to know is 

how we fight in Austin to kill bad bills 

what would affect our membership. 

We had no less than 20 bills this session 

that would have killed our ability 

to effectively do police work in Texas. 

Everything from removing qualified 

immunity, to making it a crime for 

an officer not acting against another 

officer who may have been accused of 

using excessive force on a scene. Ray 

worked in Austin during the entire session 

watching bills and meeting with 

legislators to stop these bad bills. 

Another area beneficial to membership 

is the insurance arm of the organization. 

Most are not even aware that 

as a benefit of membership, they can 

get partial reimbursement on Dr visits 

and prescriptions, and everyone has a 

disability benefit should you be out for 

over a week for an accident on or off 

duty. As a benefit of membership, you 

are a member of the State and National 

Fraternal Order of Police, and we 

have your membership card here at 

the HPOU. Another benefit that we are 

pushing is the Internet Scrubbing service. 

We pay for that service for each 

of our members and if you have not 

done it, please come down and sign up. 

I know that this is a lot of information, 

but I want members to know that 

the entire Board of Directors work hard 

for the membership. I have put it out 

that members can call me or email me 

anytime, as my number and email address 

is on the app, in the calendar, and 

on the website. Please do not hesitate 

to contact me if you have question or 

need some clarification on rumors. Also, 

start looking for our weekly “rumor 

control” emails to be coming out soon. 

I want to thank each and every one of 

you for your hard work. Stay safe and 

keep up the good work! 


MARKET PLACE - DISCOUNTS FOR FIRST RESPONDERS 

HR Blue Line Classic 

Regular Price $54.99 

Show your Honor and Respect 

in style. These shoes feature 

a fly-knit outer material with a 

supportive foam sole. 

HR Red Line Classic 


Show your Honor and Respect in style. 

These shoes feature a fly-knit outer 

material with a supportive foam sole. 

BUY NOW 

BUY NOW 

LIMITED EDITION: 

HR Military Shoe 


LIMITED EDITION: 

HR USA SHOE 


BUY NOW 

IN STOCK - ORDER NOW 

BEFORE THEY ARE GONE. 

These shoes feature a flyknit 

outer material with a 



BEFORE THEY ARE GONE. 




BUY NOW 

BUY NOW 

ALL NEW EDITION: 

HR Blue Line II 



MOST SIZES AVAILABLE. 




HR Hooded Sweatshirt 


50% cotton, 50% polyester 

Machine wash, Soft and durable fleece 

made for comfort 

BUY NOW 

Patriotic Back The Blues - Front & Back Design 

BUY NOW 

Back The Blue Texas 

Front Design 

BUY NOW 

Gildan Ultra Cotton 

$18.00 

Bella Triblend 

$20.00 

Gildan Ultra Cotton - $18.00 

Bella Triblend - $20.00 

Back The Blue Patriotic 

Front Design 

BUY NOW 

Back The Blue Patriotic US 

Front Design 

BUY NOW 





108 108 The The BLUES BLUES POLICE POLICE MAGAZINE 




The Battle of Houston-Hezbollah 

Attacks $ 10.99 

What would happen if a terrorist force numbering 

almost one thousand attacked a major 

American city and conducted a series of coordinated 

terror attacks that lasted nearly a month? 

This book will show the reader what could 

happen in the event of a major terror attack on 

a large U.S. city and the effects of the terror 

on the population and the men and women of 

the police departments who must fight them to 

the death. BUY NOW - AMAZON 

The Battle of Houston- 

The Evil That Men Do $9.99 

The Battle of Houston continues to its final 

devastating end when a malevolent country 

sends its best fighters to Texas to cripple the 

petrochemical industry in the United States. 

Three oil tankers bearing not crude oil but Quds 

Force fighters, attack helicopters and combat 

drones are sent against the Texas gulf coast oil 

refineries and chemical plants for a knock out 

blow. 

BUY NOW - AMAZON 

CENTRAL POLICE SUPPLY 

GLOCK 

43X Black 

(Blues Label) 

PRICE: $358.00 

713-225-4392 • 1410 WASHINGTON • HOUSTON 


Full Line 

of On & Off 

Duty Holsters 


The Battle of Houston- 

Mouton’s Revenge $9.99 

The Battle of Houston continues as the Houston 

Police Department is joined by the Harris County 

Sheriff’s Department, the National Guard and the 

Texas Rangers to fight the hundreds of terrorists 

unleashed on the city by a malevolent country. 

Outgunned in every fight, the men and women 

of law enforcement must overcome the forces 

sent to destroy their city. As each terrorist attack 

is fought to the death, another attack explodes 

in another part of Houston. BUY NOW 

Red Mark USA 

Rescuing the Innocent 

Houston Police officers, Harris County Sheriff’s deputies 

and deputy constables are imprisoned by a corrupt 

district attorney on trumped up charges. A progressive 

police chief investigates and fires officers by the dozens 

on spurious complaints. The USA is under the control 

of a leftist government. Anyone found in contempt of 

the new ideology has their bank accounts closed and 

locked. That’s the Red Mark. Available on Amazon 

Kindle or paperback. Deacon 

STORE 

Blue is a 

LOGO 

retired Houston 

Police Officer. 


PERFECT FIT BIFOLD 

WALLET WITH SINGLE ID 

(ID SIZE 2-1/2" X 

3-3/4") 

PRICE: $32.95 



HOUSTON POLICE 

DEPARTMENT 

FAMILY BADGE 

PRICE: $34.95 


Back The Blue 

Vinyl Bumper Sticker 

7” x 6” 

$5.00 

Back The Blue 

Adams Cap 

$20.00 


STREAMLIGHT 

STINGER 2020 W/ “Y” 

USB CORD (78100) 

PRICE $134.95 


STRONGSUIT ARMOR 3 

TOUCHSCREEN GLOVES 

PRICE: $24.95 

CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE 




Back The Blue 

Reuseable 

Face Mask 

$8.00 

Back The Blue 

Reuseable 

Face Mask 

$8.00 



Back The Blue 

Bella+Canvas Women’s 

Relaxed V-Neck TX Flag 

$20.00 

Back The Blue 

Bella+Canvas Unisex 

V-Neck - TX Flag 

$20.00 



110 110 The The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE 


ADS BACK IN THE DAY 




City of Onalaska Get Info Telecommunicator 09/12/2021 - 5pm 

Prairie View A&M University Police Dept. Get Info Peace Officer 09/30/2021 - 5pm 

Oak Ridge North Police Department Get Info Peace Officer 09/14/2021 - 5pm 

Hemphill County Sheriff’s Office Get Info Peace Officer 09/10/2021 - 5pm 

La Porte Police Department Get Info Peace Officer 09/21/2021 - 5pm 

Briscoe County Sheriff's Office Get Info Peace Officer 08/31/2021 - 5pm 

Fair Oaks Ranch Police Department Get Info Peace Officer 10/10/2021 - 5pm 

Haltom City Police Department Get Info Peace Officer 08/19/2021 - 5pm 

Frisco Police Department Get Info Peace Officer 10/07/2021 - 5pm 

Bruceville-Eddy Police Department Get Info Peace Officer 08/31/2021 - 12pm 

Waco Police Department Get Info Peace Officer 08/31/2021 - 5pm 

Cibolo Police Department Get Info Peace Officer 09/19/2021 - 5pm 

Seagraves Police Department Get Info Chief of Police 08/27/2021 - 5pm 

City of Bay Get Info Peace Officer 08/15/2021 - 5pm 

Highland Village Police Department Get Info Peace Officer 08/08/2021 - 5pm 

City of Center Get Info Peace Officer 09/23/2021 - 5pm 

City of Bryan Get Info Deputy City Marshal 08/08/2021 - 5pm 

City of Brownwood Get Info Peace Officer 09/15/2021 - 5pm 

Ingram Police Department Get Info Peace Officer 08/08/2021 - 5pm 

Kosse Police Department Get Info Peace Officer 09/24/2021 - 5pm 

Plano Police Department Get Info Peace Officer 10/30/2021 - 5pm 

Weatherford College Police Department Get Info Peace Officer 08/31/2021 - 5pm 

TSTC Get Info Peace Officer 08/07/2021 - 5pm 

Sam Houston State University Police Dept. 

Eastland Police Department Get Info Peace Officer 08/07/2021 - 5pm 

The Woodlands Campus Get Info Peace Officer 09/20/2021 - 5pm 

Walker County Sheriff's Office Get Info Peace Officer 08/09/2021 - 5pm 

Sunset Valley Police Department Get Info Peace Officer 10/01/2021 - 5pm 

Naples Police Department Get Info Chief of Police 08/09/2021 - 5pm 

Denton County Water District Police Dept. Get Info Peace Officer 09/27/2021 - 5pm 

City of Texas City Fire Department Get Info Fire Marshal 08/05/2021 - 5pm 

Sterling County Sheriff's Office Get Info Peace Officer 08/10/2021 - 5pm 

North Central Texas College Get Info Peace Officer 08/11/2021 - 5pm 

Loving County Sheriffs Office Get Info School Resource Officer 08/11/2021 - 5pm 

NEW - STATEWIDE VACANCIES FOR JAILERS 

Daingerfield Police Department Get Info Peace Officer 08/14/2021 - 5pm 

Denton County Sheriff's Office Get Info Jailer 12/20/2021 - 5pm 

Salado Police Department Get Info Peace Officer 08/06/2021 - 5pm 

Hunt County Sheriff's Office Get Info Jailer 08/08/2021 - 5pm 

Hamilton County Sheriff's Office Get Info Peace Officer 09/15/2021 - 5pm 

Mills County Sheriff’s Office Get Info Jailer 08/08/2021 - 5pm 

Memorial Villages Police Department Get Info Peace Officer 08/16/2021 - 5pm 

Dallas County Sheriff’s Departmen Get Info Jailer 08/21/2021 - 5pm 

Cleveland ISD PD Get Info Peace Officer 08/16/2021 - 5pm 

Polk County Sheriff's Office Get Info Jailer 08/27/2021 - 5pm 

Alief ISD Police Department Get Info Peace Officer 08/13/2021 - 5pm 

Bosque County Sheriff's Office Get Info Jailer 09/18/2021 - 5pm 

Ingleside Police Department Get Info Patrol Captain 08/15/2021 - 5pm 

Bell County Sheriff's Office Get Info Jailer 09/14/2021 - 5pm 

Ingleside Police Department Get Info School Resource Officer 08/15/2021 - 5pm 

Tarrant County Sheriff's Office Get Info Jailer 09/21/2021 - 5pm 

Ingleside Police Department Get Info Peace Officer 08/15/2021 - 5pm 

Ingleside Police Department Get Info Peace Officer (Motor) 08/15/2021 - 5pm 

Clifton Police Department Get Info Peace Officer 07/31/2021 - 5pm 

Killeen Police Department Get Info Peace Officer 08/22/2021 - 11pm 

City of Denton Get Info Telecommunicator 08/22/2021 - 5pm 

Attention 

JOIN OUR TEAM 

Horseshoe Bay Police Department Get Info Peace Officer 10/01/2021 - 5pm 

WALKER COUNTY 

Brazos River Authority Get Info Peace Officer 08/31/2021 - 5pm 

Recruiters 

Stinnett Police Department Get Info Peace Officer 08/31/2021 - 5pm 

SHERIFF’S DEPT. 

South San Antonio ISD Get Info Peace Officer 08/30/2021 - 5pm 

Swisher County Sheriff’s Department Get Info Peace Officer 08/30/2021 - 5pm 

Run your 

Stratford Police Department Get Info Peace Officer 08/30/2021 - 5pm 

College of the Mainland Police Department Get Info Peace Officer 08/26/2021 - 5pm 

Travis County Fire Marshal's Office Get Info Deputy Fire Marshal II 08/30/2021 - 5pm Recruiting Ad in 

Travis County Fire Marshal's Office Get Info Deputy Fire Marshal III 08/30/2021 - 5pm 

Dalhart Police Department Get Info Peace Officer 08/30/2021 - 5pm 

Polk County Sheriff's Office Get Info Deputy Sheriff Patrol 08/27/2021 - 5pm The BLUES for a 

The Walker County Sheriff’s Department is now accepting applications for the position of Patrol Deputy. We are a family based department that is dedicated to 

Wise County Sheriff’s Office Get Info Peace Officer 09/02/2021 - 5pm 

preserving the lives and property of the citizens of Walker County which is currently around 73,000 residents. As a Patrol Deputy within our department, you would 

be patrolling over 800 square miles of small towns, national forest and East Texas countryside. Our county seat is the town of Huntsville, Texas which has many of 

Port Houston Police Department Get Info Peace Officer 09/30/2021 - 5pm 

the comforts and amenities of larger city while still providing a small town atmosphere. 

One Time Fee of 

Childress County Sheriff's Office Get Info Peace Officer 09/07/2021 - 5pm 

Perks: 

Kaufman Police Department Get Info Peace Officer 09/07/2021 - 5pm 

• Starting Salary: $55,160.00 

• Retirement: Vested after 8 years in TCDRS. Every $1 invested in retirement is matched 210%. 

TJC Police Department Get Info Peace Officer 09/05/2021 - 5pm 

• Insurance provider: Blue Cross Blue Shield 

ONLY $250. 

• Equipment: Uniforms & Patrol Equipment Provided. Currently issuing Glock 22’s and Colt SBR Rifles. 

Bosque County Sheriff's Office Get Info Peace Officer 09/18/2021 - 5pm 

• Vehicles: Take home Chevy Tahoe • Schedule: 12 hour shifts, every other weekend off. 

• Time Off: Paid Vacation / Holidays on a yearly basis. • Patrol Style: Proactive /Community Based Policing 

City of Hurst Get Info Peace Officer 8/26/2021 - 5pm 

Requirements: Must be TCLOE Certified; Must have a valid Texas Drivers License; 


Must pass a written & physical test; Must complete a rigorous Field Training Program in a timely manner. 

The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE 117 

APPLICATIONS CAN BE SUBMITTED ON THE WALKER COUNTY WEBSITE (WWW.CO.WALKER.TX.US) OR BY CONTACTING PATROL LT. JASON SULLIVAN (936) 435-2400.

JOIN OUR TEAM 

WALKER COUNTY 

SHERIFF’S DEPT. 

The Walker County Sheriff’s Department is now accepting applications for the position of Patrol Deputy. We are a family based department that is dedicated to 

preserving the lives and property of the citizens of Walker County which is currently around 73,000 residents. As a Patrol Deputy within our department, you would 

be patrolling over 800 square miles of small towns, national forest and East Texas countryside. Our county seat is the town of Huntsville, Texas which has many of 

the comforts and amenities of larger city while still providing a small town atmosphere. 

Perks: 

• Starting Salary: $55,160.00 

• Retirement: Vested after 8 years in TCDRS. Every $1 invested in retirement is matched 210%. 

• Insurance provider: Blue Cross Blue Shield 

• Equipment: Uniforms & Patrol Equipment Provided. Currently issuing Glock 22’s and Colt SBR Rifles. 

• Vehicles: Take home Chevy Tahoe • Schedule: 12 hour shifts, every other weekend off. 

• Time Off: Paid Vacation / Holidays on a yearly basis. • Patrol Style: Proactive /Community Based Policing 

Requirements: Must be TCLOE Certified; Must have a valid Texas Drivers License; 

Must pass a written & physical test; Must complete a rigorous Field Training Program in a timely manner. 


APPLICATIONS CAN BE SUBMITTED ON THE WALKER COUNTY WEBSITE (WWW.CO.WALKER.TX.US) OR BY CONTACTING PATROL LT. JASON SULLIVAN (936) 435-2400.

ALDINE ISD POLICE DEPT. 

now accepting applications for 

Dispatch Supervisor 

Salary starting at $47,211 

Dispatchers 

Salary starting at $32,373 

EMPLOYMENT BENEFITS 

• Paid Vacation 

• Sick Leave 

• Paid Holidays 

• Personal Days 

• Compensatory Days 

• Certification Pay 

TO APPLY VISIT 

WWW.ALDINEISD.ORG 

OR 

Contact the Personnel 

Department at 

281-985-7571 

OR 

Contact Sergeant R. Hall at 

281-442-4923 

HIRING PROCESS 

• Oral Board Panel Interview 

• Complete Personal History Statement 

• Psychological Evaluation 

• Medical Examination 

• Interview with the Chief of Police 

Memorial Villages Police Department 

Bunker Hill • Piney Point• Hunters Creek 


EOE/M/F/D 

5+ Years Patrol Experience Required 

The Memorial Villages Police Department (Located on the West Side of Houston) currently has 

openings for experienced officers who are self- motivated and enthusiastic about community 

policing. We have overwhelming support of our communities and encourage our officers to be 

proactive and innovative. 

$1500 Sign on Bonus 

Starting Salary Range 

$71,179 – $82,808 (DOQ) 

• Healthcare Insurance, DHMO Dental, Vision – 100% paid for employee, 50% for 

spouse/dependents. 

• Paid long-term disability and life insurance for employee, with additional life insurance 

available for spouse/dependents. 

• Health Savings Account with departmental contributions up to $4200 annually 

• TMRS Retirement 2 to 1 match, 7% Employee ,14% Employer Contribution. 

• 457 Plan with employer contribution of 2% of annual salary 

• Bi-Lingual Pay (2.5% of Base salary) 

• Shift Differential Pay $3600 annually 

• Tuition reimbursement 

• Longevity Pay up to a max of $2400 annually at 10 years of service. 

• College Education incentive up to $3000 for a master’s degree 

• LEMIT or FBI NA pay $1200 annually. 

• ECA (Emergency Care Assistant) $1300 Annually, training provided to each employee. 

• 12 hour shifts with every other Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off. 

• Officer certification pay, Intermediate, Advanced, and Master up to 7.5% of Salary. 

To learn more or apply, visit our website at www.mvpdtx.org 

Or contact Sgt. Owens 713-365-3711 or lowens@mvpdtx.org 

Or Commander E. Jones 713-365-3706 ejones@mvpdtx.org 

11981 Memorial Dr. Houston, Texas 77024 


MAKE A 

DIFFERENCE 

IN YOUR 

COMMUNITY 

We are looking for outstanding individuals to 

join our team! As a Pearland Police Officer your 

mission will be to prevent crime and disorder, build 

partnerships within the community, and positively 

impact the quality of life for all our residents. 

CITY OF PEARLAND, TEXAS 

• Competitive Salary • Outstanding Training 

• Career Advancement • Exceptional Benefits 

The City of Pearland is one of the fastest growing 

communities within the region. Pearland is located 

approximately 20 minutes south of Downtown Houston 

and the current population is approximately 130,000 

residents. 

JOIN OUR TEAM 

HIRING POLICE OFFICERS AND CADETS 

$5,000 Hiring Incentive for T.C.O.L.E Certified Police 

Officers who qualify with at least 2 years of experience. 

TEST DATE: 

SATURDAY, APRIL 24, 8:30 A.M. 

Register by: April 12. 

Pearland Recreation Center & Natatorium 

4141 Bailey Road, Pearland, TX 77584. 

Doors Open: 7:15 a.m. No admittance after 7:45 a.m. 

Candidates must park in the north parking lot. 

SOCIAL DISTANCING MEASURES WILL APPLY 

• Attendance limited to first 150 arrivals 

• Mandatory temperature checks 

• Masks required, hand sanitizer available 

• Candidates seated 6 feet apart 

 

 

•Be a citizen of the nited tates able to read, 

write, and speak the English language 

• Have a high school diploma or equivalency certificate .E.. certified by 

the issuing agency with: 

0 credit hours with a cumulative PA of 2.0 or higher on a .0 scale from an accredited 

institute of higher learning or 

- Minimum 24 months of active duty service with an honorable discharge authenticated by 

a Member 2 or Member orm 21 or 

15 credit hours with a cumulative PA of 2.0 or higher on a .0 scale in addition to Basic 

Peace Officer Certification from TCOLE or 

An Intermediate Peace Officer Certification from TCOLE 

• Valid driver’s license with acceptable driving record 

• Must meet all legal requirements necessary to become a licensed Peace Officer by the Texas 

Commission on Law Enforcement TCOLE. 

• Be between 21 and 5 years of age at the time of the examination or 

• Be between 18 and 21 years of age if the applicant has received an associate’s degree or 60 

semester hours of credit from an accredited college or university or has received an honorable 

discharge from the armed forces of the nited tates after at least two years of active service. 

: Cadet $1. hourly Police Officer $2. hourly. 

 

 

 

 

 

April 12, 2021. Applications will not be accepted after this date. 

Submit applications online by visiting pearlandtx.gov/careers. 

THE CITY OF PEARLAND IS AN EQUAL OPPORTUNITY EMPLOYER 

pecial accommodations are available when necessary to aord equal opportunity to participate 

in testing. Please make request in writing, five business days prior to the test date to City of 

Pearland, HR Department, 3519 Liberty Drive, Pearland, TX 77581. 

or questions regarding the application process please contact Terene uddsohnson at 

281.652.1617 or hr@pearlandtx.gov. 

List will remain in eect for one 1 year or until exhausted, whichever is sooner. 

122 The For BLUES additional POLICE information MAGAZINE and to register for an upcoming Civil Service Exam, visit 

The BLUES POLICE MAGAZINE 123 

pearlandtx.gov/PDCareers

Montgomery 

County Pct. 4 

Constable's 

Office 

full-time 

& 

reserve 

COME JOIN US! 

great retirement & 

great insurance 

Advancement Opportunities: Criminal 

Investigations - Special Response Team - Honor 

Guard - Special Response Group - Swift Water 

Rescue Team - K9 - Mounted Patrol - Drone team 

overtime opportunities: step - dwi 

enforcement - special teams - evidence - jp 

security 

Stipend Pay: k9 - specialist - fto deputy 

paid time off: holiday - vacation - comp time - 

personal - paid training 

salary - step pay slotted based on tcole full-time years of 

service: 

Under 2 yrs - $48,755.20 9 Yrs - $59,508.80 

2 Yrs - $51,188.80 12 Yrs - $61,150.40 

4 Yrs - $53,726.40 15 Yrs - $65,270.40 

6 Yrs - $56,368.00 16+ Yrs - $68,536.0 

license certification (up to $3599) and longevity pay 

civil service protected 

LATERAL DEPUTY 

MORE INFO: 

Constable Kenneth "Rowdy" Hayden 

Pickup and complete applicant in 1. 

person. 

questionnaire 

Pct. 4 Constable, Montgomery County, TX 

assessment, 2. 

written exam 

Firearms qualification, fitness 

21130 personality Hwy assessment 59 scheduled. 

Ste. C New Caney, TX and 77357 

www.mcco4.org - 281.577.8985 - 

candidates 3. 

passing Successfully personal 

receive will 

@mcconstablepct4 

book. 

history 


board. 

4. Oral

Come join the Plano Police Department 

Plano Police Department currently employs over 414 peace officers, who are dedicated individuals that 

work with the community to create and maintain a safe, secure environment for our residents and visitors. 

We are a diverse department, which is a reflection of the various cultures within the community, and offering 

many different opportunities to promote the safety of the citizens which we serve. 

Registration Deadline: 

Friday, July 30, 2021 

Register at: 

https://www.plano.gov/1183/Employment 

The Plano Police Department will conduct 

a Civil Service Examination in order to 

establish an eligibility list for the position 

of Entry-level Police Officer. The eligibility 

list is created as a result of this examination 

and application process will remain in effect 

for a period of (6) months (beginning 

on date of test) or until the list has been 

exhausted, whichever occurs first. 

For more information: 

Contact the Plano Police recruiter 

Officer Andrae Smith at: 

andraes@plano.gov 

or go to our website at: 

ppdrecruiting@plano.gov

AUGUST 2021 Blues Vol 37 No. 8

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?