Mountain Cog
Mountain bike podcast that will make you laugh and learn. Featuring a wide range of passionate guests. Available everywhere (Apple, Spotify etc).
Mountain Cog
053 - If only our chief of police was an avid cyclist. Oh wait, he is! (Chad Kasmar, Tucson Chief of Police)
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Today's guest, Tucson Police Department Chief Chad Kasmar, is a passionate cyclist with a fascinating career in public safety. Kasmar shares his journey from a tricycle-riding child to an avid mountain biking adult. We delve into his adventurous Leadville race experiences, discuss his transition from dirt bikes to mountain biking, and explore how his public safety career influences his approach to cycling.
Safety, of course, is paramount. Therefore, we zoom in on the critical aspect of cycling safety, where Kasmar stresses the importance of situational awareness, reflective clothing, and lights. Drawing from a chilling incident of his friend being hit by a car while cycling, he provides insights on collision prevention. We further examine the often-strained relationship between cyclists and motorists, the role of courtesy on the road, and the laws' significance.
Delving into the intersection of public safety and cycling, we investigate the potential of e-bikes in police patrols. As the discussion broadens, we touch upon the etiquette between cyclists and motorists, bike patrol's role in community policing, and the impact of biking on addressing community issues like poverty and bike theft. So gear up and join us as we traverse the challenging yet rewarding terrain of biking, public safety, and community involvement with Chief Chad Kasmar.
https://www.tucsonaz.gov/Departments/Police
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Police Chief's Love for Cycling
MikeSo the police just came to my door and said that my dog was chasing a kid on his bike . I just closed the door . My dog doesn't even have a bike , so thank you . So the reason I brought that joke into the mix here was because we have a very special guest from the police department , in fact the chief of the police department , chief Chad Casmer . Thanks for coming in , brother .
Chad KasmarOh , thanks for having me .
MikeYeah , this is great . I wanted to start off with a brief introduction for our guest today , if that's okay .
JoshGo for it .
MikeBrad . Okay , all right . So this was from an Arizona Daily Star article from Kate Lynch-Mitt . This is from December 27th 2021 . And it's just a few paragraphs of it . So it says Casmer grew up in Tucson and is a graduate of Amphitheater High School and the University of Arizona .
MikeHe began working at TPD Tucson Police Department in 2000 and spent his seven years as an officer on assignments , including patrol in the Midtown Division , bicycle patrol , solo motor patrol in Operations Division South and on a hostage crisis team . He was promoted to Sergeant in 2007 and Lieutenant in 2011 , taking command at TPD's Office of Internal Affairs and Operations Division West . He worked as a captain from 2014 through 2016 , serving as chief of staff to the then chief , robert Villesignore , and as patrol division captain for Operations Division East . When Magnus was retired , was hired as TPD's chief in January 2016 , he promoted Casmer to chief deputy , a position he held until January 2021 . When he was tapped by city manager Mike Ortega to serve as interim director of the Public Safety Communications Department , there , casmer led the charge to consolidate fire and police operations within the 911 Center , restructured the department and leadership team and increased staffing levels . He said that experience gave him a fresh perspective and then , shortly thereafter , chief of police .
Chad KasmarYeah , welcome , thank you . Thanks for having me .
JoshCan you start by saying your last name for me ?
Chad KasmarYeah , casmar , casmar , okay yeah .
JoshCause , like I got this Casmer from Pinkbikes . You ever watch Pinkbikes ?
Chad KasmarYeah , oh yeah .
MikeSo I have that one . I like their videos . Make sure I'm not screwing up here . Yeah , they're so good .
JoshWell , hey , man , I appreciate you coming . It's Sunday afternoon on the MCP here . I appreciate you coming out and spending a little time with us . I'd love to start by just kind of like hearing about how you got started in cycling and like what's your relationship with the bike .
Chad KasmarYeah , so I fell in love with . I have a picture on my phone of my dad , who was a big guy , six , five , hunched over , you know , helping me on my bike with tricycle . You know wheels , it was blue and yellow and you know probably some Kmart special or something . But you know I fell in love with a cycling as a young boy and it was freedom and you know , back then , you know you , you checked in with your parents in the morning and you said I'll be back for lunch and you were gone .
MikeSo I was still the street lights , yeah .
Chad KasmarAnd in a way to connect in a way to , you know , get a couple miles across town . So I , you know , much like a lot of people in our community , I grew up in a divorced family and there were pros and cons to that . When I was two , my parents separated and for a variety of reasons and challenges , like , like again , most folks here in our community , and so the bike was just a sense of freedom , whether I was at my mom's house or at my dad's house on the weekends , and that really never stopped . With that sense of freedom . And as an adult , through a 23 year career in public safety , it's become much more than that and there's a lot of , you know , space in between those .
Chad KasmarYou know being a two or three year old to you know , being 22 and starting a career in public safety and now having been doing that for 23 years . But now it's much more . It's my mental health and wellness . I'm not . I'm not healthy mentally or physically If I don't spend enough time on my bike . Staff at work doesn't like it when I'm not riding my bike and my kids don't like it either .
Chad KasmarSo that's a win-win for everybody .
JoshYeah , hey , so . So what's your favorite style of riding these days ?
Chad KasmarYou know I love both . In fact , we were just talking , so I this .
JoshWait , there's only two .
Chad KasmarYeah , no , there's a lot . I love it all the problem you know , as we've gotten older , gravity you know you have a deeper appreciation for gravity and crashing and we don't heal as quick , as we used to .
Chad KasmarBut for sure , I live off of near river and Lackanyatta a part of town , so I do a lot of my road cycling north , where I'm grabbing the loop and heading up to Mount lemon , or I like to hit the BR ride on Saturdays . Had spent a long time since I was doing the shoot out or the old man shoot out . I love that ride too , so I like let's start with
Road Cycling and Leadville Race Experience
Chad Kasmarroad cycling . What I love about road cycling , and and I started I got my first road bike as a freshman in college .
Chad KasmarRalph over at farewell sold me my first carbon bike and my dad thought he was going to have to take a mortgage out to pay for that carbon track and it was probably an entry level one . But it was big money back then . I mean more than my dirt bikes had cost . And I grew up racing dirt bikes through high school and even early college .
Chad KasmarBut I got . I wanted to get serious about Enduro racing and cross country . So I met up with Scott Blanchard from pyramid coaching back in the day and he was like hey , bud , you're going to have to get a road bike , and little did I know you'd spend 80% of your time on a road bike training for mountain biking . So I had the skill riding skills from racing dirt bikes for so many years , but I didn't have the cardio , and so that's what was tough to come by and , as we all know , it's cumulative .
Chad KasmarSo now I've been I've been serious on and off , serious cyclists for geez you know since my freshman year of college . So it's , it's , that's a 27 years ago , and so I've got quite the base right . So I can , I can , I can go out cold and suffer with the best of them . I've got a pretty good hurt locker , like this morning when I was out on Mount Lemon and I got it right in much the last few weeks . But it was beautiful sunrise watching up and then I got a buddy getting ready to go out to two buddies getting ready to go race Leadville .
JoshYeah , we're actually going out to support one of the guys Outstanding .
Chad KasmarYeah , I raced in 2011 . I think it was .
JoshYou saw that .
Chad KasmarAnd so , fortunately for me , I got it one and done and got that big belt buckle and haven't had to go back because it's a it's a part time job to train for that race . It's 20 hours a week on the bike and Scott had us on a . There were three other police officers that we did it together , four of us , and we were riding , you know , 20 hours a week , 200 , 250 miles a week and we were doing back to back .
Chad KasmarSo we would do like a Mount Lemon Epic on a on a Friday , which is , if you've never done that as you started on an Oracle on a mountain bike and you ride north up to the town of Oracle , up the backside , down the front , back to an Oracle . It's about 108 miles and then you do the shootout on Saturday that's called the the Mount Lemon Epic Mount Lemon .
MikeEpic . How many miles is that ?
Chad KasmarIt's 108 miles and it's not bad until you get into the summer . What's your training right now in the summer for Leadville ? And so the you're just . You know , I it was the I'll tell you I don't know if you want to jump into that story how that all happened .
MikeYeah , please do kind of jump all around . So yeah , yeah .
Chad KasmarSo I was another cover surgeon at the time , and let's see , so my , my , my oldest son , chase , would have been about seven , eight years old at the time , and we had just had her second son and I I I just tested for a lieutenant and I decided okay , I've had enough fun assignments , I need to start being home more at night and on the weekends , and and so I decided to put the family first . So my phone rang I was still in undercover squad and and my , my buddy , mark , called me and said hey man , there's this race called Leadville and it's a lottery and we probably won't get in , but I need your credit card number . I'm sorry .
MikeI'm sorry , I'm sorry , I'm sorry , I'm sorry , I'm sorry , I'm sorry , I'm sorry , I'm sorry , I'm sorry , I'm sorry .
Chad KasmarI would have loved to have charged in , got the letter , but I've had no late-night training that she and I при that there was so much effort between the team or the squad and the girls from the forces .
JoshYeah , of course we waited until it's over and we got our class is the only thing we needed .
MikeBut the thing is that the seven can already花audience recognition yeah .
Chad KasmarOtherwise I would have had to go back to I was doing research on . But I'm gonna do something related to EdgePoint or if there's someone I had a second chance at , I'm gonna say a second you can do that .
Chad KasmarI could . You can do that at that point , because I think we probably should not check out it out or do private research to her , but we'll talk about that in a moment at the end . 11 years and together about 14 . So she asked for this crazy life . She knew what she was getting into , but she was super cool about it . But she was like , do you really think this is a good time ? Because she knew it wasn't just the $400 entry fee , it was a new bike , it was training with Scott again for six months and her not seeing me , or those days where you're doing those 100 plus mile rides and this heat and then you're smoked the rest of the day If you're no good to anyone . You're basically like Bob Dylan .
Chad KasmarSo she was a trooper and ended it up being , you know , like a lot of things in life , the race is the race which you have zero control over that day , with the weather , a mechanical , you know . You were there with 2,000 people and it is the coolest , most chaotic race I've ever been involved with , and Lifetime Fitness puts on amazing events . If your listenership hasn't done one , you should sign up for one Super professional . But the thing about it that year was , if you were a rookie racer in that series and you didn't qualify , you have to start in the back .
Chad KasmarYeah , in the back row and it was mayhem , you know . I thought , oh , it's an endurance race , everybody's going to start out pretty chill and he's into it . I was redlined for the first hour like a sprint and BAA race . I mean it was nuts Just to get to the first hill where you don't . If you're not there fast enough , you have to walk .
JoshYou're stuck .
Chad KasmarAnd I didn't want to have to walk . But you know what turned out into a funny story of her being super pissed at me , like a lot of crazy things I've done and continue to do , which I think is what makes our marriage fun . It turned out into the most epic training journey . The guy that I one of the guys that I race with they're all great guys , but one of them specifically , mark Fuller , is a retired Tucson Police Department Sergeant . His wife actually trained me when I was a brand new sergeant and that's how I met them , kerry Fuller , and then became we joke now that Mark I was Kerry's friend first and then Mark found me and stole me from Kerry . But Mark and I have done thousands and thousands and thousands of miles together and he's just been like a great older brother type role model for me and just somebody to bounce things off of . And hell I should pay I joke with him . I should pay him counseling services because I'm a talker and he's a good listener .
MikeSo we have this amazing relationship .
Chad KasmarBut the journey , the race , was a big deal and it was fun that day . But when I look back on it it was more about the journey to get there . It was a sacrifice my family made . It was the bonding that Mark and I and Jim and our buddy Brandon did , and the teasing and camaraderie and just the build up to it is the big deal and I think that's what a lot of people don't get , especially like look , if you're a young athlete and you're training to be pro , that's great and I hope that they could even figure out it's you know , it's a journey , you know , and to enjoy that so it doesn't become , you know , you don't want you don't have to dread putting your leg over your bike . That's such a sad thing but it was . It was . It was just such an honor to train with my buddies and then go do that event . And then it happened to be really cool that the event worked out well and I made my marks that day and worked through a lot of suffering , 2011, .
JoshSo 2009 was Lance , 2010, . Race Against the Sky came out 2010 , levi Leipheimer won , and then it comes into 2011 . That I mean that race had never been bigger . At that point it had just been just a circus .
Chad KasmarIt was a circus and I , mark's wife Carrie , took the perfect photo of us . Where you're , you know , there's just imagine 2000 people plus all their support . So it's and you're in this little mining town and that's really what I don't know if a lot of people know that race really saved that town .
JoshIt's about yeah , bringing tourism .
Chad KasmarAnd so it's . It's , you know , it's super cool , it's like you can't get into a restaurant , it's organized mayhem . But we were leaning up against the wall just hanging out and Carrie snapped this photo that I have in my office and it it it damaged . All four of us are very different people and different personalities in this moment in time and this picture captured , like all of our personalities at that moment . Oh , that's cool , who was worried , who was having fun .
Joshyou know , you can see it which one were you at ?
Chad KasmarNo , I'm a race day guy . I've always done , you know , even back to you know I used to ride dirt bikes . Dirt bikes kept me out of a lot of trouble . That was the tool that my dad leveraged over me to behave . Half my half my friends went to prison and half my friends became cops . And I probably would have been prison if it weren't for dirt bikes .
MikeSo your , so your dad , like , encouraged and helped out with the dirt bikes .
Chad KasmarOh , yeah , he never bought me like and he could afford it . He never bought me the latest and greatest , you know . He made me work for it . He made me do all the the wrenching on the bikes . So that's where I learned how to wrench on things , which turned into then , you know , later in life , me taking auto body and auto shop and high school and turn it into me . You know remodeling houses and flipping houses and to this day , you know , in fact , my , my oldest son and I we have a 900 square foot shop in our backyard were wrenching on on on his truck and then I was , you know , tinkering with . You know a couple of other things . I just picked up a I'm an old truck guy , so I just picked up a 75 Ford F 100 custom super cat . Oh , wow , that I'm going to be , you know , restoring and tricking out .
JoshHow about a shop ? Or how about a ? Shapes it in ?
Chad KasmarIt is like a barn , find it . It was an older gentleman who a grandfather who had just gone through the motor just put brand new beef good rich , all trains on it and then got sick and they parked it and it's been sitting there 23 years . No way , and so his family finally got to the point like , okay , sentimental value , like we got to move this thing . But it was up in Phoenix , just bacon in the sun . So it's got a perfect patina . It's the vineyard gold model .
Chad KasmarOh wow , yeah , it's super cool . So I've got a 75 short bed orange , a big block , 460 , you know , big , nasty , motor , slammed street truck . I've got a 94 Ford Explorer , a four wheel drive that my son and I during COVID my oldest son and I chased it a auto shop in the house at the shop since he couldn't have it at school Cool , and we did a full .
Chad KasmarIt was , like you know , $500 auction car that we bought and took the thing you know the basically frame , frame off , restoration on it , build it into a little rock crawler , and then he moved on to a Ford Mustang . So I took the Explorer back . My little guy , deegan , is 13 , says that's going to be his first car . So yeah , we like to tinker and stay busy .
MikeSo your dad like there was a method to it , he knew what he was doing when he when he botched , you know , to get the latest and greatest made you work on the bikes , and now you're passing that along to your kids . That's really cool .
Chad KasmarYeah , I definitely spoil . You know , we , this new generation of kid , I think we all you know it's , it's generational right . So our kids have a little bit easier lives probably than we did with our , our parents , and I think that that's every parent's aspiration to make their kids lives better and be a little more a better parent than they were , you know .
JoshAre we making them soft , though ? That's the best .
Chad KasmarYes , I think we are , and so I certainly recognize that . But it's so hard . You know your kids are great . You don't want them to not have things .
MikeYeah , it is tough ,
Biking and Career Trajectory
MikeAll right . So you , speaking of kids , you mentioned that your kids are very like good on bike . And then you know our kids are good on bikes as well . They don't try it , they just they're good at it . So you grew up on the dirt bike . In the last recording , we released Last podcast we put out yeah , was air awareness . Yeah , so I'm guessing you probably gained air awareness as a youngster on the on the motocross .
Chad KasmarYeah , I did they all . My buddy Paul who , who was the , the creator and owner of oral value bikes he jokes with me like that you know , I never . I'm never on the ground . So if I see a rock and I can jump and then turn you know , 30 , 40 degrees in the air and land a different , you know way , those guys three rocks , then so that's what I'm Two motor whips and all that with the mountain bike ? Yeah .
MikeYeah , that's really cool . So then , how did you go from the dirt bike scene , where you , you know , throttle , no pedaling , to wanting to do the mountain bike ? You crash a lot Okay , so that was okay .
Chad KasmarYeah , in fact I remember my one of my first dates with my wife . My wife done , I was like , okay , I got to get this training right in and so I went out to star pass and there was this . You know , this is back when there were barely houses on the on the kind of West End out on the back ?
JoshYeah , for sure .
Chad KasmarAnd there was this double out there and I thought I'm going to hit that double today . And you know , of course I didn't , I didn't , I didn't scope it out or do anything and I cased that thing and about took half my face off and showed up to the first date with the hamburger face Well , the first date . Yeah , so again I go back to . She knew what she was getting in herself .
MikeYeah , right from . The shop .
Chad KasmarShe asked for this crazy life . So you know , the biggest thing is is learning that you just can't blip your throttle to get you out of trouble and you , you have to carry that momentum . So it is different , but it is similar . It is similar as well . And then there's clips . Right , and I , I , I love clips .
JoshSo I took to , I took to clipless pedals pretty quick and really attached Still are you still riding them , even in the mountain bike ? Oh yeah , really yeah .
Chad KasmarYeah , so much more efficient to push and pull Like it feels very foreign to me if I try to ride a bike without it and I'm you know we , we do Sedona every year and you know full commitment on some pretty nasty stuff .
JoshYeah , highline , and all that .
Chad KasmarYeah , you can get out . I mean , when you've been riding long enough and you need to get out of those clips , you get out , you get good at it .
MikeYou do All right . So , um , you mentioned the training and the road bikes and that , and then it's , it's funny if you , you know Google chief's name in mountain bikes , you know you've got the Leadville , you know the , that's still there , right . And then also , um , very impressive , the two-day Tucson , I think one year , 13th place .
Chad KasmarLast year . Yeah , I did the 66 . Um , I got . I will say I got lucky . You know again , road cycling is a . You know , cycling is a chess game and it's about being strategic and where you position yourself .
Chad KasmarI had not been riding much and somebody's got me , um , some local business community wanted me to do the prologue , which I was able to do , and you know , super epic , uh . And then I thought , yeah , I'm going to do the 66 too , and so what happened was , um three of the larger teams had had guys that went off in the first two minutes , and so that really kept all of the work really moderate through the , so nobody , nobody could really go great . I mean , there were , there were one offs , and you know small teams that kept trying to push the pace , but your bike ranch and your natural grocers and a couple of other big teams , um , christian cycling , pull it all back . They know , they just they wouldn't do the work they would . They were keeping it at a certain pace . So I had actually ended up doing a fair amount of work , um , just to just to keep the tempo fun , and um , I just happened to be in the right place at the right time and thought I had a little left in the tank to suffer .
Chad KasmarUh , you know what the funny part , though , was . You know how that finished was a different spot this year right by the police station . I've silly me . I thought when we went around the corner , um , I can't remember , was it um not church convent or something ? And and I thought , as soon as we hit the corner , it's going to be the finish line . So I was like I was tapped by the time we made it .
JoshIt's like another 400 yards or something . It was another 40 yards , yeah .
Chad KasmarSo I lost a few spots in that last 40 .
JoshSo I was like what , what what hey reconciles something for me , okay , so , so I'm hearing about you know , please , chief of police .
Chad KasmarYeah .
JoshI'm hearing you know illustrious uh career with with the police department there . I'm hearing about you working on cars and flipping houses and and mountain biking and and motocross and I'm trying to reconcile the fine arts degree .
Chad KasmarYeah , help me understand that . Yeah , so , um , you're not the only one , so it's funny . When I was in college , um , I certainly I knew I wanted to do something . So my original plan was to do officer candidate school for the Marine Corps , rotc , and then once I got out of college , but while getting a fine arts degree , and then once I got out of college , then , I'm sorry , college , then you know , marine Corps , then I wanted to do DA or FBI or do some . Yeah , it was really looking at the undercover style work was what's a draw to me . So , um , my sophomore year , so what ? So let me even backtrack a minute because it kind of all intertwines here . So in 1996 , I graduated from AFI high school and I thought I'm going to be a lifeguard Sounds like a cool job , right and I was like you know , other young people and girls and bathing suits and swim with kids all day , like I'm in you know , and it was like 675 and I was like that's amazing .
JoshGood money , that's a good job .
Chad KasmarA lot of lifeguards back then were swimmers . Right , they were on the swim team and all that stuff .
Chad KasmarSo I lived , actually went to high school in San Diego for three and a half years because my stepdad had gotten a job when I graduated from eighth grade and so the family said , hey , do you want to stay in Tucson or do you want to go to San Diego ? And I was like dad , I'll be back in the summers . So first year it was actually I only spent one summer in San Diego . So my stepdad and I , the summer before my freshman year of high school , went out to San Diego and Mission Valley together .
JoshYeah .
Chad KasmarAnd you know you as a parent . You look back and you think , like what the hell are my parents thinking ? So my stepdad would drop me off at Mission Beach every day at like 6am and pick me up at 6pm . Nice , and I'm still alive today , which is a miracle .
MikeYes .
Chad KasmarAnd but the beautiful part of that right . My life was different back then as I learned how to surf in the summer and surf became a big passion . But every summer beyond that I came back and spend it with my dad and saw all my high , all my school buddies and all that stuff .
Chad KasmarSo , so , anyhow , fast forward . I thought , well , if I was a surfer , I cannot drown in the ocean , I can certainly swim in a pool . So I , I , I took all the tests , I passed . So that that's when I actually met . My wife was going to Catalina Magnet here off of Pima and she was going to be . It was a summer before senior of high school . We had a long time boyfriend . Boyfriend I was getting ready to go to college , so she was cute and flirted with her , all that good stuff , but I wasn't looking to settle down and she was in relationship . So , fast forward . We worked together at Amphi High School that summer , then the next summer we also worked together and then what happened was this is pre-sale phone , so it dates all of us right . I wish we still had those days .
MikePre-sale phone Likewise .
Chad KasmarAnd I was going up for officer can at school , testing up to Phoenix , so I called her parents .
JoshThis is for the Marine Corps , for the Marine Corps .
Chad KasmarIt was a sophomore year of college at U of A , so I call her parents and I'm like , hey , I worked with your daughter . Could I get her number ? Because she was going up to ASU as a freshman and I joke with people like the biggest . The best thing the city ever gave me was opportunity to meet my wife , even as chief of police , and this is director then one center . But I also tell everybody I rescued my wife from making the worst mistake of her life , which was good .
Chad KasmarASU Because , seriously , seriously , who looks good in Marine and gold , rune and gold , but so yeah so . I go up there to do the testing . Bad news was I figured out I had a couple blown out . You know bad disc from either a bad car wreck I had been involved in or dirt bike racing .
JoshRight which one ?
Chad KasmarBut you know I spent that weekend with my to be wife and we started dating . You know that lunch turned into a dinner , turned into a weekend , turned into her coming back to Tucson after her freshman year of college at ASU .
JoshOh , wow , yeah .
Chad KasmarYeah , so fine arts .
JoshWe're going to get there some . So sorry , I know there's all these .
Chad KasmarNo , no , it's hard to weave all this stuff , yeah , so work with me , follow me so you can tell I have a lot of energy . This is me , by the way , not on caffeine .
JoshYeah , you just drink it Record . You just drink in water over there .
MikeAnd did wrote up Mount Lemmon this morning already .
Chad KasmarYeah , I've been up since four and getting it done , so I have a lot of energy Energy . But so yeah , so you know , the way my life worked out was like okay , what am I going to do now that I can't ? My , my plan A didn't work out and so .
Chad KasmarI thought well , at the time , one of my best friends from elementary school , who I was living with in college , two buddies , jason Bentley and Randy Suter is also a business owner and a phenomenal athlete and cyclist Randy Suter , over at O'Plewlem gymnastics , yep . But so we were all childhood friends , from kindergarten and we were living together and I was thinking , man , what am I going to do ? So Jason's dad was a TBD sergeant at the time . He said hey , you guys are juniors now , sophomore to juniors . You got to test . You got to get in the first time , but you should probably test . And I tested .
Chad KasmarSo at that time I was not telling all of my you know fine art , you know peers that I was going to be a cop or go to the Marine Corps , obviously , and then fast forward . I got a job offer and I thought at that point Don and I were engaged , we owned our first house here in Tucson together that we were remodeling and um , and I thought you know , man , I'm ready to get my life started . And it was probably the one time I really listened to my dad , after not wanting to hear him , but I listened to him and he was like hey , if the PD wants you , they're going to let you let you finish school .
Chad KasmarSo my junior year I accepted the offer to TBD and I postponed , for I had one year which meant , you know , full load , winter , uh , summer , summer session . So I ended up walking in winter . So I took , you know , I had to take classes everywhere , but I had to walk in in May of May of 2000 .
Chad KasmarOkay , but I had a few classes to finish up so I finished up summer school , got my diploma Mid-month in August of 2000 , on a Wednesday . I got married that Saturday . I started the police Academy two weeks later . That's a great two weeks . It was a busy two weeks . I told my wife for like the first three years of our marriage , life was gonna slow down , and then I stopped because I figured out it was never going to slow down and it hasn't since it really hasn't it has not .
MikeYep , very cool , all right . So what one more race I want to talk about which I thought and then maybe we can lead into , that'll take us into some of the Kind of the connection with the community and law enforcement , things like that .
Chad KasmarThat's okay .
MikeSo the you mentioned the 24-hour race that you've done for years , you know , and I love the . The headline from , I think it's 2019 is called call the cops 24 hours in the old Pueblo Tucson Police Department , and I think your team was you remember the name and Then they blew line . Yeah , yep . And and you had a nice quote in there about celebrating officer wellness Yep , you know , kind of bringing that to the forefront on bicycles , of course . And the other piece I thought was really neat in there which , josh , I know you've gotten your notes here yeah , is the part about I think I can't remember his name , but he gave you guys donated jerseys for look , save a life .
Chad KasmarYeah , brendan Lyons Okay , save a life . Great sponsor
Cycling Safety and Car-Bike Relationship
Chad Kasmar. I've no Brendan for for quite a few years and he's always avid supporter of public safety and that's a . It's a nice marriage . I've helped him out on a few things just to create awareness for cycling safety . It's . It hits close to home to me .
Chad KasmarI've been blast on , knock on wood here that I've , you know I won't say I've never crashed a road bike , but the , the ratio of my , my crashing and miles that I put down is is is good and a few years into retirement I'm actually like the first within the first year of retirement carry for the sergeant I told you about . You know she worked up , you know , 20 years to be able to retire and then retire and she's on her road bike and you get , I got the call that you never want to get , which is Kerry's been hit by a car and and from a friend of a friend , and at the time we had it we couldn't track her . Her husband was also out riding bikes and I was at work Down downtown and and so I took off to . Kerry had been hit on , old , old , old , old , sunrise up there and what happened was a lady was going to turn in off of the main drag into a neighborhood and it was a gate , it was like a retirement home and she reached up to hit the visor control and the her arm blocked Care the view of Kerry , and she made the left turn and she hit Kerry head on while she was doing about 1520 and Kerry was doing you know , probably 2030 , and so she took Kerry over the hood and Kerry had catastrophic injuries and and so , as for a police officer , you know it's interesting that when you're working and you get sent to the hospital for Collision victim , if they don't show up quickly , that's not a good sign .
Chad KasmarAnd and so I was at the hospital for some time and she wasn't showing up and I thought now , man , this maybe it's gonna , you know , maybe it's gonna turn into a fatal , and so Certainly , you know , she , she did survive and she's had a pretty crazy recovery with a lot of hardware , but she definitely inspires me that she doesn't ever give any excuses to this day , she's to get out on her bike and she's still getting it done .
JoshShe's still riding , so she'll get .
Chad KasmarOh yeah , she's amazing , that is amazing .
JoshSo that kind of leads us into like one of the topics I want to talk about . You know kind of like the relationship between cars and bikes here in Tucson and like you know your thoughts on you know what can well , a handful of questions . So we'll start with , like what can our cyclists do to avoid accidents ?
Chad KasmarYeah . So the you know you got to be smart . I mean , there's difference from being from commuting on a bike , I think , through town at any given part of the day versus when you're gonna try to get out to get your workout on or in , right , and those are very different things . So I try to . I try to get my workout done first thing in the morning . It's not always possible , so I have a couple different routes that I'll go do intervals or in a residential area so there's less traffic . So it's really just about mitigating the potential .
Chad KasmarSo higher volume of cars , higher risk of getting struck , yeah , right , and and so and in your tire .
Chad KasmarSo if you're , you know , if you're gonna ride with music , which I like to do , I never have more than one earbud in so that for twofold one I want to hear those tires Squealing or braking . If it's a vehicle or verse , my own , yeah . So you just your your situational awareness . You're your reflective clothing , whites , you know , I have a black helmet , but road bike helmet but whites . Better , you know . So again , the more visible you're , you are I always have a flashing , just like this morning , even though it wasn't gonna be dark a nice flashing LED tail light just to draw awareness right and then courtesy right . So there's times where we buy lock and ride to a breast just about anywhere , but there's times where it's better not to . And so I'm just like everybody else when I'm on my weekend and I've certainly had a run in with quite a few Drivers that I've had to educate on the Arizona Vice statute laws , which I enjoy doing they have no idea who I'm , who's yelling at them .
Chad KasmarBut you know , a lot of my buddies were have the LED Tail light , that also has the camera so we can capture those aggressive drivers . I will say , you know , obviously I can make sure that my staff follows up on on On aggressive driver complaints and the Pima County Sheriff's Department does a great job with it as well . But you know , we this this morning we were riding up Mount Lemon and between you know , some of the motorcycle Community are great and then other ones are jerks who are doing triple the speed limit up Mount Lemon , and so there will be some deployments of TPD and Sheriff's Department Motors up there In the future to catch people who you know , and that includes cyclists
Improving Relations Between Motorists and Cyclists
Chad Kasmar. Right , we have to be careful too , and we're descending and we're passing cars and you know we're , we're partially responsible for the attitude that people have with us . I try to be a good steward of both , you know , and I can't say I don't ever roll a stop sign if nobody's around , but those are the things that really form and put a bad taste in people's mouth when they look at all cyclists .
Chad KasmarAnd you got to remember to you know too . You know two guys might be cycling together and have words or have a total attitude With somebody in a car , but it doesn't mean that that car later that day , that week , that next month , and run into a solo cyclist or you know young , a young woman or a young adult or young , you know A teenager , and take out that frustration that they had with the previous two cyclists on , and a cyclist had nothing to do with that , and we did get , we did have somebody pass us . Probably today there was no reason for them to get this close , but within 12 inches , yeah yeah , definitely not three feet .
MikeYeah , yeah , in in some places there's that tension , I think , kind of reference between cyclists and motorists , right , and so I don't know , like , as far as the community goes , like what can meet , what we can do together ?
Joshto like improve the relationship between Motorists and cyclists . Yeah .
Chad KasmarI think . I think it's . It's better than than probably most people give us credit for . I mean , what we have to remember is this is not an easy town to get across . I mean it definitely .
Chad KasmarThe arterial roads weren't built for over a million people in a major metropolitan of , well you know , half a million major metropolitan is well over a million , and so everybody's just got to be a little bit patient . The loop is a great way , as a cyclist , to get across town . Yeah , so definitely a big advocate of that . But if folks are right , we don't . We don't have , I'm pleased to say we , you know , most of our collisions and fatalities with Vehicles and in cyclists aren't avid cyclists through either a commuter or somebody who didn't have a light , didn't have reflective clothing on , didn't have a helmet or was intoxicated . So it certainly happens , but the percentage is pretty low here in town .
JoshTypically it's not an avid cyclist .
Chad KasmarOkay , it typically is not .
JoshOkay , so if , if it's all right , no , no go ahead . If , if we do run across an aggressive driver , what's the right protocol as a cyclist to report it ?
Chad KasmarThe best thing to do is and not engage . If there , if you , if everybody pulls over and you can get a , you know what I recommend if there's more than two people and somebody's engaging with that person , then somebody else should have their phone out recording it . Get video . The video is the best thing . In fact , you can go to the Tucson Police Department org and in and already just Google Tucson police and a pull it up , but you can submit videos for aggressive drivers .
Chad KasmarOh , that's , one way and that's really . You know , we'll follow up and that tends to just be communication like hey , you were reported that you were aggressive . But it's a first step . If it's if somebody's using their car to swerve at you or brake check you , like we've we've seen before that that becomes something different and we can start looking at felony aggravated assault charges on those individuals . So it's a real deal . But here's what I would tell people is COVID changed behavior and we have a gun problem here in Tucson . Last year we had 870 non fatal gun incidents Wow . And people are spontaneous . Violence is on the rise across the country post COVID , and it's certainly that way here too , and includes juvenile . So you know , if you've got a car full of aggressive people , it you know go , turn around and go the other way .
MikeYou know get your get to get a snapshot of the .
Chad KasmarYou know the plate , you know the foot , quick photo where you can report it .
MikeBut the best thing is just don't don't , don't engage on a huge yeah , it's . That's interesting , the statistics since the pandemic , that is , it's right , we're no kidding . Yeah , homicides used to really have a correlation that there was a note you know there was some known nexus either .
Chad KasmarFolks were in an intimate relationship , they were doing a drug deal , they were coming crime . Together was something , and those numbers have just radically changed , not just in our state or here in Tucson , but across the country post COVID . So shorter fuses .
MikeShort refuses yeah , you're . You're quoted also by by Caitlin in that article from December 2021 . Is that you have ? Well , I'll start the top here . We're not going to tolerate another year of 80 plus fatalities in our community .
Chad KasmarYeah , and then we probably had almost 100 . So that was a definitely rookie chief comment and I probably had to put my foot in my mouth . Don't use numbers , but , but I like to where you know .
MikeYou had priorities right and there was a basis for that . You said you have more odds of being a victim from a vehicular accident with your driving , pedestrian and bicycle than you do of being of a violent crime .
Chad KasmarYeah , you do . And so here's the thing I mean I am , while I live on the , you know , the county city line , just in the county . All of my commerce is in this in the city and the in the O5 and 4040 North Oracle is my wife's target , my boob barn , my you know small my automotive shops , my Home Depot and my Chipotle and all these different things .
Chad KasmarSo so you know my oldest son is driving in the city . So you know I definitely have a . All my family lives here in town . So I it's , it's personal for me , it's not just I'm the chief of police , it's that I care about . You know my officers who are out there , and it's risky and dangerous for them . You know every shift that they have it's . You know my family I drive through , I ride my bike through town . So , yeah , it's , it's an all hands on deck .
Chad KasmarAnd so you know the point I was getting across , and I actually don't regret the comment because I want people to know . Like you know , though , you know every one of those numbers represents a family who isn't going to have that person home for the holidays . So , and it impacts the person who committed the offense , and they're , although they may have criminal charges , at something they have to deal with the rest of their lives Left turners , what I would tell them an avid motor motorcycle rider to this day . I just got motor recertified so I can ride motors with my officers occasionally , and you know whether you're on a bike or you're a pedestrian or crossing the street . You know green doesn't mean go , you have to pay attention . There's so many distracted drivers with these phones and all the technology and vehicles and so you know my , if you have kids and you're listening to this podcast , what I would tell is like get you know . Hope you have fun listening to a variety of my squirrel moments , but also get get you know .
Chad KasmarHave that conversation with yellow mean stop it doesn't mean floor it . If you're going to make a left turn , make sure that thoroughfare is clear . My neighbor lost a nephew last year right by her house at River in La Cunhata to a left turner and it was a young woman who I don't know ultimately who was at fault , but it doesn't really matter , it was . You know the motorcycle was going straight through the intersection , she was making the left turn . So whether she was running the red light or he was , you know she's a young woman now that has to deal with taking the life of another human being .
MikeYeah , yeah , tragic . Can I shift gears a little bit Before , but still along these the veins of the law enforcement , of that in well , I guess just kind of your interactions with
E-Bikes' Impact on Policing and Safety
Mikethe community . With the rise of e-bikes , is that change anything as far as like policing and safety , anything like that ?
Chad KasmarIt's funny , we have a few e-bikes , but even my , some of my . So we have . We have a . The downtown district , in the downtown quarter , has set bike officers who use bikes quite a bit to to , you know , to get around downtown . And then we use bicycles in our four different patrol divisions . We have four different patrol divisions that cover 250 square miles and , just a reminder , this is the 33rd largest city in the country . So we're not . You know , it's sleepy old Pueblo .
MikeYeah .
Chad KasmarThis is a major city , yeah , and so in each division they have a fleet of bikes that then officers get trained to be able to ride and then they'll go out and do overtime shifts and community engagement or go work in our car parks or different things on the bike . So we don't really have a whole lot . In fact , I'm looking at picking up a few more because I want some of the staff to start doing some deployments , really from Park and Ajo down to about Grant and I tend that whole , that whole bike path quarter , with the unsheltered population sometimes set up tents right under the bridge . It's really unsafe and I do the loop , full loop , about once a month and so we're going to .
MikeWe're going to be doing everything .
Chad KasmarYeah . And so you know the cops are wearing you know 30 pounds of gear with their vest and their gun belt , and so the e-bikes become a really cool you know force multiplier to help them not to have to have create this crazy high fitness . They're not cyclists , they're cops who are riding a bike to deploy , and so we're going to be scaling that program . It is funny , I do see quite a bit of e-bikes on . You know people are two spaces with the e-bikes , right , like you're totally offended that somebody who's clearly not good enough you know good of shape as you passing you and you know , I have a motor .
Chad KasmarIt's okay , I'm not in that camp . You know it's like to each their own . Hey , if that makes them feel better about themselves or they have some physical limitation , I'd rather see people get out on the trail or out on the path , and if the e-bike is a source for that , then great .
Chad KasmarBut it is funny . You know there's occasionally will be , you know , the group of four or five of us either doing the full loop or we're commuting over to Mount Lemmon and and you know you'll see this you'll see a guy on a bike who's you know , maybe 10 , 15 years older than you and maybe 20 , 30 pounds heavier than you and he's in flip flops and he's ripping like 25 miles an hour , you know . And then he wants to pass you like he's you know he's kicking your ass and you're like look , dude , we all know you're on an e-bike , like you're not , it's not that cool . You know to pass somebody . Would you want to do so ?
Mikeyou know , to each their own , but I don't get .
Chad KasmarYou know I have plenty of other things to worry about in my life . I don't get too spun up .
JoshAre the laws any different for e-bikers on the roads than they are with ? It just depends on their .
Chad KasmarThey're more , more . Most of the city code or the state laws are related to the actual , the gas power that really the laws haven't . You know it tends to . The laws take a few years to catch up to the technology and so you know we've . You know , we all saw for years around town everybody who had a DUI or the license suspended was ripping around one of these you know beach cruisers that had a chainsaw motor slapped in the middle of it .
MikeAnd that's why you saw so many of those .
Chad KasmarSo . But now you're seeing more and more of the e-bikes . So you know I don't think they're supposed to be on the loop . I don't think you're supposed to be , you know over and you know you're not . I don't think you're supposed to go over 20 , 25 miles an hour , 22 . I can't remember what the loop , you know past speed , is . But you know , some of the avid cyclists are just as guilty of going way too fast on the loop . Like they need to remember . Like that is a recreational path for walkers , for people , kids and dogs , and it's , it is a way for us to get across town to do another ride , and so we forget that too sometimes . Don't hammer it so hard on the loop .
MikeYeah , what was so ? I think I remember you were on the bicycle patrol for some time . What was that experience like ?
Chad KasmarIt was interesting . So the problem when you're on , you know you go ride a bike up for 10 hours in this heat . You do not want to ride your bike on the weekend , so I probably cycled less personally when I was doing it for a living , but I but I did have a blast doing it . I only did it . I did an operations division midtown , which was where I was a brand new officer , I think my third to fourth year , and then I was in that for about a year , year and a half , and then I moved from there back to patrol , then to motors . So again , you know , I traded a bicycle for motors , and motors is a whole another , you know , whole another challenge with being out in the heat and having the you know the heat between your legs all day . And but I , you know , I was old school motor back on the Kawasaki , you know John and Pott John and Pott John Chips .
MikeOh , I love that show .
JoshYeah , yeah Me too , yeah , so what
Bike Patrol and Community Involvement Conversation
Josh? What do you task the bike patrolmen with ? Like , what do they do ?
Chad KasmarSo they can do a variety of things . So , like downtown , it's just a , it's a , it's the perfect tool to quickly , you know , cover a lot of ground . So you know , we , we , we put all . You know the city is invested under , you know , the mayor's leadership and the city manager's leadership has invested a lot of dollars . We own a way of over , like if you haven't been downtown for a second Saturday or gone down there to have food , like it's you know , put us on the map .
JoshIt's beautiful , it's definitely .
Chad KasmarI was a brand new sergeant down there working midnight , you know , seven years into my career before it was nice , yeah . So I you know I take that deeply personal and I'll tell you , when the year I was gone at the 911 center , I did the tour that year and my family met me down there and you know the planning wasn't great from a PD perspective and there was some some questioning whether or not the event was going to go and I was like there's no way , it's not going , it's Tucson . So that's a Tucson .
JoshThey'll figure it out .
Chad KasmarThey're going to figure it out and they did and they always will , and it's such a great draw . But the interesting part was , you know , we are thin staffed and so that was part of it , planning was part of it . But when I did that race and I finished and it would finish that year at Armory Park and my wife and my and my youngest met me down there , you know there wasn't like one visible cop down there because they were all , all the cops we could pull together at work and point and it is a brutal , I'll tell you like if you're a cyclist and you're doing L tour every intersection , every time you see a cop , you need to thank them , because one year I worked Congress night 10 , which is at the end of the race by the end of the day .
Chad KasmarI hated everybody . I hated motorists .
MikeI hated the cyclists .
Chad KasmarYou know it's a long day on your feet and the fumes . And you know people , eight hours into it , think that they're like in contention to win . You're like no , I'm sorry , you're going to have to wait while I let these four cars go through . You're going to be all right .
Chad KasmarSo , you know it's one of those days you can't win with anybody , but I share that story and experience because I didn't see a police officer down there and you got , you know , thousands of people down there and you want , you know , that day is a good day for Tucson to be on the map . So we ended up going down to Fourth Avenue for dinner and then we came back downtown to the Screamery for Ice Cream because you know at that point you can eat whatever you want .
Chad KasmarAnd again I didn't see one officer . So just when we and we had an interaction with an unsheltered gentleman who was , you know , harassing my wife , and then there were some other you know sketchy dudes by my car to get my wife to load my son up on the street , and I just thought we're not doing this If I ever came back as chief . Like this is not happening . And so the next year , you know , I've made chief and guess what we did ? We started planning six months out and I made it really clear , like so we had all the positions filled months before . I wanted high visibility , like so , you know .
Chad KasmarSo downtown is also deeply personal to me and you know , you know , I go down there with my family on the weekends to have dinner and socialize and do different things . So , you know , the idea is like let's be proud of the investment that we make , but , like any , it's like your , it's like your yard . You can you have a beautiful , you can spend Thousands of dollars on landscaping on your yard and in six months , if you don't do any upkeep , it looks like crap .
MikeYeah .
Chad KasmarWell , the same thing goes for policing and city investment , metro , government investment in spaces . If you know you , it's not just the investment , but then you actually have to do the upkeep to keep it habitable .
MikeYeah that's good analogy . So that brings us to why we got in touch with you Was from Scott Reith and it was regarding that , the tour , the Tucson , I think , and if he brought it up about , outdoors magazine voted the tour nation's best road cycling event , right ? So yeah , and and from your , you know , like the law enforcement and policing of it , I mean , you're a big part of that , right ? So yeah kudos , and thank you for that .
Chad KasmarIt was a fun day , I mean for me to be able to ride at the 66th as chief , and I had a lot of pride and all the city staff who did a heart did the hard work to get the roads ready and and put that race together .
Chad KasmarAnd then , of course , all the local public safety , because it takes all of us chipping in . There's 11 different public safety organizations in this , in this valley , and it takes us all that day to pull that race off . So talk about a fun day to be . You know , doing what I love for a living , which is be a cycle , you know or not , for you know being a police officer for living , but also doing what I love for passion , which is cycling and I'd be able to see my staff and intersections I was .
Chad KasmarIt was like such a cool day where I was proud of my staff , proud of Tucson , and In the roads are getting better . I like the route , I like the ratwood . Did this last , this , last year .
JoshYeah well , registrations open . Now it's November 18th .
Chad KasmarYeah 7500 people the earlier you do , at the cheaper days 7500 , 7500 people .
JoshIf it feels super hot right now , don't worry , because on November 18th it's an . It's between 49 and 72 degrees is what it is . So it's like beautiful , yeah , come on out and and spend some time with us , man .
MikeSo the other thing that Scott mentioned was you're a big part of in the community , in the cycling community and then Tucson overall is the fundraiser that you do Collaboratively with some other folks , and can you talk about that ?
Chad KasmarYeah , it's just a boys and girls club it's . There's a lot of organizations that put in . Jim click is a big part of it , obviously . So there's a lot of local business that basically chips and fundraisers and purchases bikes and then and then we , and then we give those Bikes out to kids in need
Tackling Poverty and Bike Theft in Tucson
Chad Kasmar.
Chad KasmarSo you know , we have double the poverty rate and know that most people are really clear on that here in Tucson , but we have almost twice the poverty rate of the rest of the state and the rest of the country . And while , while you know , again , city and county leadership are doing a great job of of Working on that , that's a . That's a that's something that impacts all of Tucson and we all have a responsibility to help . You know , our youth see that poverty is Poverty , is not generous , does not have to be generational and it's not a handicap should you not want it to be ? But sometimes , you know , the kids just have to to see a brighter future . So I'm actually in my third three-year term on the boys and girls club board , so I get to interact and they're obviously super involved with this effort as well .
Chad KasmarSo how can our listeners help ?
Joshthere .
Chad KasmarYou know so . So first register for the race , right , that helps , and then you know , obviously they'll tour . They make donations to local news , donations to local nonprofits as well , through the through your race funds .
Chad KasmarBut then as a race gets closer , we'll be trying to do a better job of advertising , where they can do extra donations and things . And Another way they can do to is buy a bunch of secondhand warm clothes because you're not gonna , you're not gonna have a friend there at four in the morning to gather them up or seven when the race starts so what's cool is everybody can grab warm gear and you know , and basically use it the morning of the race and then just leave it there and then we'll collect that and give it to .
JoshOh , I didn't know they did that . Yeah , that's super cool yeah .
MikeYeah , nice .
JoshAll right , pete , can I pivot again ? Yeah , go back to pivot . Yeah , I want to talk about bike .
Chad KasmarSpeaking of pivot , pivots got a new bike coming out , I think they do .
JoshOh yeah , I just Just picked one up for his wife from Dane shop the guru . Yeah his new shop anyways . Bike theft .
Chad KasmarYes .
JoshHow's it going in Tucson these days ?
Chad KasmarWe still have . You know , property crime is way down . Post cove it again , because cove change things . Yeah , people working from home and remotely . So overall our property crime in the last five years down about 20% .
MikeOkay , because people are home . I mean , that's part of it .
Chad KasmarI think that's part of it . Yeah , okay , so it is one of the benefits , I'd like to say , because I think our cops are doing a better job and we have better partnerships and prosecution as well . But I think it's mostly has to do with people being at home and it's harder to steal things and ring cameras and security cameras . So the best thing I can tell you is Software technology . Ring is great and you can actually give the police department access to that should a crime have occurred .
Chad KasmarWe don't log into it like big brother , we just only ask you to go and do it if crimes so we solve a lot of crimes on public facing cameras a lot of fatalities on a homicide , a lot of thefts , so I've got one on my house , you know .
JoshSo I know who's got one too , but I didn't know I could give you guys access you can .
Chad KasmarSo if there's a crime that's being occurred actually , or you can register it , you can register it and then we'll know to come knock on your door or send you an email say , hey , we're you . Know , we're looking for crime footage from this time at this date and we have access to it . But the big thing is you got to keep your bikes secured . You know , know your half pictures of your soul . You're not your soul screen , your serial number . They should come with a soul security number for what they're charging for these new Nice . They don't even have an engine , but so know , know those numbers . A lot of times folks are gonna quick , try to do quick flips on on Craigslist or some other social media platform .
Chad KasmarYeah but you know , the best thing , vice is , we watch the second hand stores upon shops , the . But if we have the serial number we can register it and then if they do try to sell it to a pawn shop , then the pawn shops have to register that number and then we do searches to find those things now I was , I was reading it like back in 2010 2013 time frame , that you guys were looking at doing some type of Voluntary bike registration and actually had like a system built to do that .
Chad KasmarWe did make a run on that . I tell you to be you know that didn't , that didn't work as well as we thought it would . The best way is still just good , old-fashioned have your serial number , yep , and if that occurs I mean , there's obviously new technology now with air tags and in different things that you can track it .
JoshYou can track your . Yeah , there's a million different ways to hide a air tag on a bike these days .
MikeYeah , yeah , for sure . Yeah , I got my ring camera after I was not smart about my kids BMX bike and it was easy , you know , just grabbed it in a couple minutes and it was gone . But I have her in camera now , so I Don't know . At least I gotta watch them . Take my break .
Chad KasmarAt least we'll be able to find out . We're really good , and so is the county , tracking down and oral Valium ran on like if we have a video or photo . Our cops are really good about knowing who folks are out there and we're committing crime . But what I'll tell you is it's not just and you know , being secured means not just in your backyard .
Chad KasmarYeah so somebody can peek over your wall and see a bike . It's no big deal for them to hop over , and dogs are not as much as a deterrent . The one time I've been burglarizing the house I'm in right now , but in their 13 years at the time we had a ferocious looking 90-pound crop deer Doberman . I was home .
JoshIt's a big , scary dog .
Chad KasmarYes , it is , with a big dog door that they used to like doggy door to come right into our house and oh wow and rob us . So Wow , you know dogs . Dogs can be a deterrent , but on on somebody who's a professional thief . It's not a big deal for them .
MikeYeah , I was encouraged when I call the pawn shops Just to see if they a purple subarosa BMX showed up and they said , no , we , we hold our bikes for I forget what they said . X amount of time we clear them with the TPD . Yeah , I go . That's cool . You guys got in the background .
Chad KasmarYeah , so we do . Yep , no , they're good partners and it works .
JoshI had a Ellsworth stone out of my garage . The wife , when she was pregnant , left the garage open and I think maybe three weeks later they found it at a pawn shop .
JoshYeah and I'd already . The weird thing was I'd already gone through my insurance and my insurance was like and you guys called and said , hey , come pick it up , and called my insurance . I'm like you guys already paid me . What do I do ? Yeah , I can't pick it up . It's like a 10,000 hour bike and they're like tell them to donate it . So I called you guys and said give it , give it to goodwill . And like all my buddies were like going around all good Looking for it . I don't think it made it out . If it ever , if you made it from the shop , I don't think it made it to . Yeah , in any of the stories .
Chad KasmarThat's a good example of . It . Doesn't matter if you live in Vale or Saladita or Moran or Valley city of Tucson , and you know inner city is that , yeah , it's crime of opportunity , you know . It's just like , well , I just had it out and I was just gonna go do this one thing and you know the next thing . You know you come out and your bike's gone .
JoshYeah , what the sheriff told us was that the bike thieves like kind of know where the high-end bikes are and they just drive around looking for open Grouches .
Chad KasmarYeah and they just , you know , we got high bikes , take seconds .
JoshYeah , yeah , my wife doesn't leave the garage door open anymore . Yeah .
Chad KasmarYou were stoked because you got a new bike .
JoshYeah , same exact bike , arizona cyclist . I just bought the exact same right on speak speaking of bikes .
MikeSo you you mentioned you're gonna kind of go to bike nowadays . Yeah , can you tell us about that ?
Chad Kasmarso the wife put the foot down a week or two ago . It's like , okay , you got four mountain bikes . That's ridiculous . And I was like I'd like seven , five more garage space and she was super pissed because in the summer I have to have it . I'll leave you my bikes in the in the house and , like the , we're in the dining room that we never eat .
JoshI don't know what the problem is . I don't either , man . Yeah , I'm with you , I hear .
Chad KasmarBut the sealant goes right like bakes it .
JoshYes , it's true .
Chad KasmarSo you're saving the ceiling , saving the sealant and you know , would you like to go sit in the garage all day without air conditioning ?
MikeYeah , my baby .
Chad KasmarExactly , you have , look , you know what we pay for these things because she does you know , I've direct deposit and she does a checkbook , so there's no , I basically have to ask for an allowance . So there's no Right when I'm getting a new bike . But yeah , so I
Biking Technology and Law Enforcement Discussion
Chad Kasmar. So I decided , okay , I Was on a stump jumper For kind of my chunky , my chunky bike . And then I'm an avid single speeder . I have been since Gary Fisher created them and and the back then when the technology sucked and the geometry was horrible . But I was , you know , back then we've read 29 or single speeds and people look at us like we were crazy . Yep , like they were e-bikes .
Chad KasmarSo I've always , I've always , I always have a single speed and and then I always have a full suspension bike . So I was in Sedona last Memorial weekend . We always do . There's about 20 families that go up and camp and and do two rides a day for a couple days straight and and and that the bike was . I was , you know , and I'm not . You know , I'm certainly not as fit as some of my friends who are getting ready to go race Leadville . So you're always looking for that advantage . And I thought , man , I'm , I just don't need all this travel out . I'm watching these guys on these epic evo , especially as epic evil , and they were doing just fine . So I promptly came back home and ordered one before I sold the stump jumper . So it worked , all worked out . I had given my my buddy son a really good deal . I just got the military on a stump jumper , so he's super pumped .
Chad KasmarYeah and then . So I basically , right now I have the last year , I think it's a 2019 hardtail carbon Stump jump for stump jumper frame , when they were still calling them stump jumpers as my single speed that I picked up new used after I snapped my crave frame out . At Sedona I won the year before I everybody , I only had my single speed . Everybody said you can't ride a single speed in Sedona .
JoshI've done it .
Chad KasmarIt was probably a challenge , so I did ride it , but I did a break in the frame .
MikeTo change a chain ring though .
JoshI yes before you went up there . Yeah , to get up a little .
Chad KasmarNo , you know I'm a run , what you're brung , so I like a little stiffer cadence . Okay , so I'm 195 pounds , six feet , so I like to . I like a slow grind versus a fast spin .
MikeOkay .
Chad KasmarSo I tend to run a little bit stiffer gear . But then , yeah , so I ended up just picking up a Stump jumper I'm sorry , specialized evo , and then I probably had to get my son one too , so it was like dumb way .
JoshI see it by two .
Chad KasmarYeah , thank God I found his use through a buddy's friend who Bought one for his wife and she wrote it twice and it wasn't for her , so we keep talking about that a smoking deal . So yeah , Deegan's rolling his first carbon Carbon carbon evo , so he's pretty pumped nice , and you noticed a difference , though , as far as the yeah , I like the pros .
Chad KasmarYou know the I go through . I try to you know . If it seems like , if you're on that two-year mark Flipping bikes , you , you , you . Just it's the sweet spot . You still lose your butt on them , even if you get a good , good deal on it . But that's not why we're in this right .
MikeNo , no , no , but you know at the two-year part you're .
Chad KasmarYou know , other than changing brake pads and tires , you're not getting into suspension , big changes of having to send your suspension off and all that good stuff . So for me I've always found that's a sweet spot , but it is . I have to say it's the they're . They're hard to compete with because they spend so much money on their engineering . This bike is amazing .
JoshYeah , it's the pro and it's yeah yeah , what's the what's the group on that ?
Chad KasmarIt's , it's SRAM , it's a SRAM group . Oh so . I think it's . That's no , x , x .
JoshX is it , is it it's one step below the . Is it a wireless ?
Chad Kasmarit is wireless . Yeah , so I'm actually . I actually like the shift SRAM shifting better , the wireless , then all , then all , then a Shimano , but I like Shimano brake products better .
JoshHave you seen them ? So do I did the same thing . Have you seen the new Shimano that they just came out with it in the last week ? No it's a automatic drivetrain .
Chad KasmarI've heard about it , but I have not seen it yet .
JoshYeah , it shifts for you , man , that's crazy , so it like feels attention . Yeah , but like when you coast your front cog is spinning Whoa wrap your head around , yeah .
Chad KasmarWell , you know , it's funny last night , it's funny , you see it . So last night I'm like I , you know , I haven't charged the bike . So I'm on my , I have an 8th , those specialized road bike , and it's got Ultegra products , shimano , ultegra components , but the so on the road bike , you have to plug it in , you have to plug the bar in . Versus , what I like about the SRAM products is they have the batteries right and but I was just chuckling . So I've got my bike plugged in , I've got my you know Wahoo plugged in and I've got my light plugged in and I'm like what a world we're living in you know you've got three different , you know , usb cores running to your it's not an e-bike , right ?
JoshI mean , it's still an acoustic bike , yeah , yeah .
Chad KasmarYeah , you just want your shifter to work when you're going up my lemon .
JoshChad . Do you run with the ? Do you run the radar system that Garmin has ?
Chad KasmarNo , no , I'm a , I'm a Wahoo guy . In fact , after Leadville I was so burnt out on technology like like the ride , like so many rides based upon back then heart rate . Now you know , obviously it's done by Watts , yeah , and I didn't use a heart rate monitor for like five years , didn't have any kind of technology . I used Strava to track everything that , but you wouldn't see what you were doing till after you got home .
JoshYeah .
Chad KasmarSo I'm coming out of that and back to it . I you know , one day when I grow up I'd like to get a , a nest works for a bike and have a power meter on it and all that good stuff . But 14,000 dollar price points hard to choke down .
JoshThat's like a car .
Chad KasmarIt's . Yeah , I mean you can go buy a KTM 450 , you know which is the sweetest ? You know , 450 they make . For less than that . So I just have a hard time wrapping my head around and now they can justify that cost . But yeah , it's crazy , it is crazy .
JoshHey , um Chad , you got any final thoughts for our listeners ?
Chad KasmarYeah , I guess it . You know it hasn't been an easy couple years post George Floyd , the murder of George Floyd for for public safety . What I like to tell our troops is you know , this is our time to define our profession . It's always been a noble professional . Continue to be there , certainly Bad police officers that do bad things , but there's there a minute percentage of the workforce that's out there . That is , you know , here and dedicated to keep our community safe . So TTPD , for example , responds to about 400,000 calls for service . We have over a million contacts 400,000 thousand .
Chad KasmarYeah , we have over a million contacts with the public a year . We average about eight officer involved shootings a year . So a million contacts . Eight of our highest level use of force is eight , eight to ten and our we use less than a thousand Thousand reportable incidents of what we call , you know , reportable uses of force incident . So what I would tell people is you know the media doesn't pay . To put things into context , they pay to sell airtime .
Chad KasmarAnd so if you have a question about police use of force , whether local , national , like , do the homework , don't just listen to what you see on , whether it's Fox News or CNN or local media . Like , you have to do your homework , be educated about it . And what I tell people is you know , pre George Floyd , post George Floyd , or even going even back further , ferguson , which was eight years ago Police departments across this country are built around a nine month training curriculum . Nine months . So in nine months we take people who are might still be living at home , who've only driven a car for two years , who have never been in a fight , don't have never fired a gun , and we teach them constitutional law , state law , city code , personality law for authority , all that , all the 21st century expectations of police use of force that surround , like you know , things that they have to know . You know we teach them fitness , because a lot of these kids who are sitting in front of a computer all day , every day , they're fitness , they're , they're morbidly obese when they start the academy . We have four months to get them in a shape to pass Arizona post certification process .
Chad KasmarSo what I tell people in this country is , if we want different outcomes from our police officers . It doesn't come with nine months of training , so it's just like you have to be . If you want to be a licensed plumber , electrician is four years of trade , Right . You go to Pima College for two years to get an associate's degree and then what do you do with that , right ? So if we want different outcomes from police , that comes not actually with not the funding . It comes with investment and training . And so , as you know , I'm super passionate , also having a 19 year old son that's getting ready to join the army . That you know seal teams . You know that go out and keep our country safe . They train 90% of the time , they deploy 10% of the time .
Chad KasmarOh we we deploy 95% of the time and we train 5% of time . So that just goes to . We have such amazingly dedicated young women and men in our organization who are out there every day Learning , keeping the community safe . There's a lot of OGT . It's high risk and we , you know , we give them nine months of training . We put a camera on their chest . So my challenge to all the listeners is Next time you see something you're like , wow , that doesn't look good . Well , if you strapped your , can't your cell phone and you turned your video on when you left your house tomorrow morning and it rolled all day with your kids and your spouses be proud of you , Everything that you did .
JoshPerspective right .
MikeAnd so you know .
Chad KasmarI'm in a really cool job where I get to give perspective to community , to our officers , and sometimes it's giving perspective to the other side . So you know , just like you've heard some of my stories today , like Policing is my profession and I'm passionate about it and an honor to continue to lead this organization . I mean , never in a million years I think I'd be the chief of police at a major city police department , because there's only 70 Major city police departments in this country , right , and we're one of them . We're in the NFL policing , and so to be the chief and to have that responsibility is a huge honor
Promoting Mental Health and Cyclist Conversion
Chad Kasmar. But I'm trying to use that to , you know , elevate mental health and wellness in our organization . I'm converting all of the golfers to cyclists is my real goal . The running joke in the department , which isn't too big of a joke , is you have to , you know , drink carbonated water , have a go bag and own at least one or two bikes to get promoted .
Chad KasmarThey're catching on to my tactics , but I think it's pretty healthy . Yeah , exactly , so you know , look for me out on the out , on the out on the road . I'm out there , I'm out mountain biking , and or , if you see me in uniform , come by and say hi .
MikeWe love Tucson and thank you for for all you do to keep our community safe .
JoshYou and your , yeah , thank you all of the force . You in the entire department , man , I really appreciate it .
Chad KasmarWe had a busy weekend with those monsoons that rolled through double our double our call load on Friday , saturday night . So well , yeah , in the troops just got out there and got it done , with 20,000 houses without power or dark intersections , and Just to keep things in perspective , you know From 9 o'clock in the morning till 6 in the morning , I'm sorry . So yeah , from 9 in the morning till 6 in the morning , I basically have two squads out in each division , so you could have 5 to 10 cops out in each division and just imagine the magnitude of that storm rolling through , 20,000 houses without power .
Chad KasmarOh my gosh , yeah , so they do amazing things every day , so super proud of them , yeah , very cool .
JoshWell , thanks for coming and spending some time with us , right ? On appreciate you out on the trail . Cheers Thanks .
