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Blue Grit Podcast: The Voice of Texas Law Enforcement
2024: Ranked #1 Law Podcast
Host: Tyler Owen and Clint McNear discussing topics, issues, and stories within the law enforcement community. TMPA is the voice of Texas Law Enforcement, focused on protecting those who serve. Since 1950, we have been defending the rights and interests of Texas Peace Officers by providing the best legal assistance in the country, effective lobbying at state and local levels, affordable training, and exemplary member support. As the largest law enforcement association in Texas, TMPA is proud to represent 33,000 local, county and state law enforcement officers.
Blue Grit Podcast: The Voice of Texas Law Enforcement
#034- “The STEP Sista”
Come and join us as we embark on a fascinating journey into the world of law enforcement training and grants. Our special guest, Katie Alexander, will guide us through the crucial role played by Law Enforcement Liaisons in Texas. These liaisons are a vital link between law enforcement agencies and the community, supporting data-driven decision-making. This episode is packed with stories of bravery, determination, and a deep sense of commitment to saving lives. Get ready for an unforgettable experience! So, fasten your seatbelts and prepare to be inspired!
email us at- bluegrit@tmpa.org
This episode of the BlueGrip podcast is sponsored by Saving a Hero's Place. Their Gala is September 23rd in Biloxi, Mississippi.
Speaker 2:So a law enforcement liaison. Basically, we serve as an in-between between the Texas Department of Transportation and law enforcement agencies across the state of Texas. What we do is a lot of training but serving as an in-between, the way that we're able to get into law enforcement agencies versus Texas Department of Transportation. They are civilians.
Speaker 3:Hey everybody, we're back. Bluegrip podcast Clint McNeer and Tyler Owen To you.
Speaker 1:What's going on, man?
Speaker 3:Not a nada. I was drive this morning. It was beautiful, it was amazing. I flew, I didn't flew, I was drove the speed limit through Waco with no traffic.
Speaker 1:And that Ford In the Ford Like a Crown Vic.
Speaker 3:I bet Drought more like a Chevy Caprice.
Speaker 1:but it was a good day. I flew down.
Speaker 3:We have a cool episode today. We have Katie, Katie, Katie or Katie Joe.
Speaker 2:So lots of people like to call me Katie Joe just because of my Facebook, but I don't put my last name on there because I worked undercover in narcotics and, yeah, not a fan of that.
Speaker 3:So Katie, katie, joe KJ deputy.
Speaker 2:No, I actually work for city police department. Oh, that's right, that's right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, welcome to the BlueGrip stage.
Speaker 2:Welcome you, happy to be here.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. Katie works on the grant side of our organization. We've got five, six grants.
Speaker 2:So there are multiple grants, but they have several within each program.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so like a LEL program, we have our one program and then SFST has the Friday at the DAPT. You know a ride, things like that.
Speaker 3:Leaders. Yeah, yeah, we have a bunch of grants that are state funded that afford the opportunity to for agencies to have really good professional training, whether it's safe sexual assault, family violence investigations, leaders training, sfst updates, lel training. There's a broad, broad spectrum of really professional training that our grants bring out, and that's the side that Katie's on. But let's, before we get started, tell everybody who the hell Katie is.
Speaker 2:Oh gosh, well funny that you mentioned safe it, because I actually started as a part time instructor for safe it about maybe 17 years ago. I guess it was law enforcement. Started my career in Montgomery County, out north of Houston.
Speaker 3:Is it where you grew up?
Speaker 2:No, I am, I'm an Army brat, and so I actually grew up in mainly in Germany. I was born in Okinawa, japan, and grew up in Germany, wow.
Speaker 1:Damn.
Speaker 2:So I've kind of been around the world, but my hometown, I guess, because it's my parents hometown I call Brownsville, Texas. My hometown is, and a lot of people that don't know where Brownsville is. It is as far south as you can get before you hit Mexico.
Speaker 1:Isn't that the hometown of Selina?
Speaker 2:No, that is Corpus.
Speaker 1:Corpus Okay.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's Corpus.
Speaker 2:Okay, love Selina.
Speaker 3:For our listeners. The very bottom tip of the state, when you think you're in Padre and you're on the south end of Texas, goes south from south from south Padre, and when you get to the very tip I think that's SpaceX is there.
Speaker 2:Yes, it is. I was actually teaching a class in Cameron County and I had a couple of hours to spare and went down there to check it out. It's really really neat, just a really cool. You can get up close and personal, and I mean until they kick you out and stuff. But if you know people it's good.
Speaker 3:Shout out to Elon yeah, elon Musk, yeah, we're tight. So hometowns Brownsville grew up in Montgomery County.
Speaker 2:No, so, like I said, grew up mainly in Germany, but started law enforcement career.
Speaker 3:Yes, Got here as fast as I could, as you could say. And what would you start? What kind of what would you start your law enforcement career?
Speaker 2:So I started in Montgomery County. I've pretty much always worked in Montgomery County. I went for a small stint in Waller County to work undercover narcotics out there and worked a joint task force and that was a lot of fun. I mean they paid me to, you know, sit in a bar and drink beer and pretend I was a stripper. So that was interesting.
Speaker 3:Is there nothing for that?
Speaker 2:now, you know there might be, there might be.
Speaker 1:It was a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:It's definitely a lot of fun. Of course, I found my way back to a city of Oak Ridge, north is is who I work for. That is my part time, part time position, as my full time position, as you know, is here, so yeah.
Speaker 3:What does a day in the life of Katie look like as an L E L?
Speaker 2:Do you really want to know? Super busy. So, uh, I've my phone goes off all the time. Um, you know it's funny because I was, you know, as we were setting this up and Linda was kind of like the in between and I'm going. You know, doesn't Tyler have my phone number? I thought every law enforcement officer in the state of Texas had my phone number and shout out to Linda Walker yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, she is. Uh, so Linda runs our program and you know we're all very passionate about traffic safety and that's pretty much you know what it's all about. That's what we do, um, you know, when my phone goes off at you know, in the late evenings on a Sunday night, saturday night, uh, I am one of those that I answer my phone all the time and, um, you know anything I can do to help law enforcement and getting through the struggles that they get through with either their grant or they need training or um, you know, a big focus of mine is mental health. I tend to answer my phone, um, all the time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we have a lot of listeners not in law enforcement. Kind of break it down what. What does LAO mean and what you guys do.
Speaker 2:So, law enforcement liaison, basically we serve as an in between between the Texas department of transportation and law enforcement agencies across the state of Texas. Um, our main goal, of course, is to save lives. That's, that's what we're all about. That's what we are all very passionate about. Um, you know, what we do is a lot of training, um, but serving as an in between, the way that we're able to get into law enforcement agencies versus Texas department of transportation. They are civilians, Uh, and so sometimes it could be a little difficult for them to get into the door of a police department and say, hey, we have some, you know, some step money, some grant money.
Speaker 2:Um, are you guys interested in taking it?
Speaker 2:And with all of the law enforcement liaisons, we all have a background in law enforcement.
Speaker 2:Uh, some of us are retired, some of us, like myself and, um, you know, Linda Trent, um, you know Tammy, we're all still active in law enforcement, and so, um, you know, we're able to kind of get in and speak the language and kind of say, hey, you know, this is what we do, Um, as a law enforcement liaison, serving as that in between. You know my job. I walk into an agency and say, hey, you know you, you've got some serious crashes going on out here and you know, if you want some money to pay your officers over time, you know I can help you with that, and so, um, literally from sitting down next to them, helping them build their grants, um is a lot of what we do so, facilitating teaching, helping them, I guess, teaching them how to write a grant or helping them understand what the grant could do to help and also identifying where their crash reports are and stuff that you go over there, the I guess the you analyze their crash reports and look at that with them, or oh, absolutely so.
Speaker 2:The state of Texas is, uh is very unique when it comes to our step grants, and that we actually work based off of D-Dex, so it's data driven. And so we walk into an agency and say hey, you know, this is where your crashes are happening. We show them a map. Uh, the way I like to put it is you see all those dots on there. They kind of represent either somebody that was seriously injured or, uh, killed in a crash, and that's where our problem areas are.
Speaker 1:And in 2013,. Uh, text out trans, transitioned over to the what is the crash and what's crash, Isn't it? Uh yeah, uh, which probably improved the getting or, I guess, collecting the data. It's probably easier, so much easier now to click on a button and to collect that data Absolutely.
Speaker 2:So one of the the common things that that I share on the national level, and so, um, like I was telling you guys earlier, we have 238 law enforcement liaisons across the nation.
Speaker 3:Uh, and 38 across the nation.
Speaker 2:Yes, so there's a lot of us everywhere, and yeah, but really not, though, if you think about that, that's, that's that's small, I mean in reality it is, um, and you can blame Texas.
Speaker 2:So we, um, when you look at states like Florida, they, they have way more LELs than we do, and look at the size of Florida, georgia, same thing North Carolina, and so you know, as our team, um, we are, we're stretched, uh, we cover a lot of territory amongst ourselves. Uh, I cover El Paso and Houston, san Antonio, dallas and South Texas, and so I'm kind of everywhere.
Speaker 1:It's a lot. It is a lot.
Speaker 2:And so you know when you ask what I do on a daily basis. Well, you know, my phone rings from all over. You know from pretty much anywhere.
Speaker 2:But we all love what we do and and that's, I think the most important thing for us is is that we all love what we do. We're very passionate about saving lives and doing whatever we can, but when it comes to our reporting, um, you know when I go and I teach the other LELs on the national level, I go. You know Texas yes, I know we're number one because we are, we're number one in fatality crashes. Um, we can blame Houston a lot for that, not so much Dallas or Austin.
Speaker 3:Uh, but we drive good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a little better than in Houston, a little better, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So, um, the one thing that I can I can brag about is that we're number one in reporting our numbers, so our Chris system works. That's good.
Speaker 3:It's pretty good. I think you saw yourself short. We have, when we look at our metrics, we have a lot of listeners outside the United States. Um, and so far listeners. When you said you cover El Paso, dallas, san Antonio, houston. Just for our non Texas or non Americans, el Paso to Dallas is 10 hours 12 hours.
Speaker 1:It's not, it's over. Uh man, it's Nine, it's over 900 and something miles. I wrote it on the motorcycle one time. It's, it's that's. That's some distance.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's other parts of the world and country where you would be driving across a country or driving across across multiple states. So when you say, well, I just cover from El Paso to Dallas, san Antonio, houston, that's like saying you know, I cover Rhode Island and Maine and Maryland and yeah, you're, you're right. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right, it's, it's a lot of territory, um, you know, and, and, with El Paso, a lot of people. You know why? Why are you going all the way to El Paso? I absolutely love El Paso. Um, they have a very, very good um, they have great programs out there. Uh, a lot has to do with the traffic safety specialist out there. She is very involved with her law enforcement and a lot of car seat technicians which is one thing I didn't mention where you know all of our team were national certified car seat technicians.
Speaker 2:Um and so that's just another little realm of what we do.
Speaker 1:Nice. So explain kind of, uh, the other things that that you would do before a department is you, you established the grants, but then what else would you do for that department, uh, after the grant is is established.
Speaker 2:Well, uh, so during COVID, we had to figure out a way to um to kind of assist them virtually, and so came up with a core step one one, and um, basically, what that is is, I go in and you know, we, just we teach them how to work the grant, um, what to do, what not to do, um, what to not do. That would possibly land them in an orange jumpsuit, uh, and so, giving all of those basics to them, uh, in addition to that, you know, building their grant, we give them T-Cole credit for it. It's two hours of T-Cole credit. But it's also when they have trouble with their grant and reporting. And you know, if they take a grant from tech thought, there's required reporting. So when they have issues with that, or they don't know how to do something, they pick up the phone and go hey, I'm stuck on. You know, um, as a matter of fact, garland police department, while I was there at the conference. Um, you know he's calling and and he's like hey, so I didn't spend all the money. And you know um.
Speaker 3:Cause we're thrifty and Garland.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, yeah, you know we have a Garland does a fantastic job with their step program and so he doesn't. He never really requires a lot of help, but every once in a while he'll have a question and and pick up the phone and he knows he can contact me on my cell phone anytime and I will walk out of wherever I'm at to answer it, and that's. We want to make sure that they're successful in their grants.
Speaker 1:In a nutshell, and is it just text operated the of what you do primarily, that's, that's solo what you do.
Speaker 2:So we actually partner with a number of of different resources. Um, of course, mothers against drunk driving. Um, if, if you guys have, uh, you know and I think I told Clint at the at the last conference that our new national president for mothers against drunk driving test roll in, um, fantastic, you know just, very, very um, she speaks very well and one of the things that she says is that when she was hit by a drunk driver in Florida, um, law enforcement, they were the ones that were there for her and, and so you know the amount of support that we have for mad. Now, um, with with tests in in office. It's, it's incredible and she is, uh, yeah, it's definitely a great partnership with her. Um, so we work with mothers against drunk driving.
Speaker 2:The Kaylee Mills foundation, which is a seatbelt safety organization. We work with them very closely. Um, if you don't already know, they have a first responder program. Um, they they do anything and everything for seatbelt safety and, unfortunately, in law enforcement, uh, we have an issue with officers not wearing their seatbelts, and so we have worked together. Uh, just recently, we did a video with a deputy from Polk County, uh, caleb Boyer, and saw that they.
Speaker 2:You know they paid for it, you know they. I called them up and I said, look, I would love to take this kid and I call him a kid because all three of mine are older than him but I'm like I would love to take this kid to all of my trainings where I am embedding in the heads of law enforcement to be safe out there, uh, but I can't do that. So is there any chance you might be able to do a production and get them on video? And they were happy to do it. And, yeah, you know they paid for it. And we, I, uh I was able to present it at the national sheriff's association conference. Uh, I sit on their traffic safety committee. Um, because one of the things that that we struggle with is getting sheriffs on board with our programs. Um, you know, sheriff's department in general, they don't see traffic enforcement as as a thing, and so it went.
Speaker 3:A lot of sheriffs departments don't work, crashes, correct yes, and so they may not see data or firsthand the importance of it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's, that's one of the things that we strive to do is, you know, get more folks involved, get more sheriffs involved in traffic safety. For, you know, those of you guys maybe you've heard in the street with tech start, but November 7th of this year will make 23 years of every single day we've had somebody die on Texas roadways every single day, every day. And so you know, 23 years straight where every day, somebody's dying, and you know, the sad reality is that we're losing actually 10 to 12 people every day, and not just one. And so we strive to get back to that day where an officer doesn't have to knock on the door and, you know, tell a family that their loved one's not coming home again.
Speaker 3:That's one of the worst duties as a cop is notifications. Yeah, absolutely, it's tough. So how does the lead develop? How do you? I work for 10 buck to PD you cold call. Do we reach out to you? How does a lead, how does something like that develop?
Speaker 2:So we do a lot of cold calling, but we have found that in person meetings work way better, and so we will stop at a police department and knock on the door and say you know, hey, we have this available and if you guys are interested, we have some money. Garza County Sheriff's Office. I never knew that there was a Garza County and you know I go in there and it's in the Lubbock area. And I walked in and I said you know, hey, this is what I have available. I get some free training, so on and so forth. And their response to me is nobody ever gives money west of Austin. And I was just like, sure, we do, and you know, and it just kind of went from there and so we can get them board on board for step. A lot of what we push is our training. Our training is extremely important to us. We offer a lot of free training for law enforcement as well as civilians.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and for non Ellie listeners, a step grant is essentially a set amount of money is provided to an agency.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 3:And then that agency can post for it and, as an example, these hours and you can go work seatbelt step grant or various step grants, red light step grant, and so I can work my 10 hour shift. I can then sign up to go work, say four hours step grant. I will then go sit at an intersection or a section of roadway and I will work under that step grant where I am making money outside of my normal hour time to address an issue. Whether it's seatbelt, red light is a step grant and most cops just call it step. Whatever it may apply to Specifically, it's, it's step. I'm a I've got to work step tonight on step stands for selective traffic enforcement program.
Speaker 2:Yes, so we are now calling it strategic because we are data driven. Our step program has actually changed a lot within the last four or five years, probably since the last time you were working it. We are now data driven and you just called me old.
Speaker 1:Yeah, me too, I guess. Yeah, now that we're out of the question, I'm right there with you, I promise.
Speaker 2:I promise. But basically all of our grants work the same way. We're not looking for tickets, we're not looking for arrests, we're looking for stops and we're looking for high visibility enforcement. And so you know, for the non law enforcement listeners, you know I don't want you to think that they're out there getting money just to write tickets or make arrests. It's not that way anymore. They are just there to be visible. Stop cars so that other people can see them.
Speaker 3:And contrary to what citizens appreciate, you know, if you're having an intersection where there is repeated, repeated crashes and repeated foot fatalities, if you send officers out there and oftentimes it's under a step grant and you have either high visibility or you begin to write people for disregarding the stop sign it effectively affects and saves lives. And you may not like getting the ticket or you may not like getting pulled over and getting a verbal warning, but if it saves some lives, that's what that boils back down to.
Speaker 1:But just like you showed up to was a Garza Garza Sheriff's Office. You show up and Garza Sheriff's Office is typically do not pull or do not work Sheriff's Office for the non law enforcement out there. In those those situations, dps typically is responsible for working traffic accidents. But let's just say, for this example, garza County Sheriff's Office works accidents. So you would show up and say, hey, garza County, I'm your liaison, we're going to look at your data. You pull the data and at Main Street and Second Street it's obvious that there's an issue with traffic accidents Data storage. So we're going to be what did you not? We don't call it step anymore, we call it what now? Strategic, strategic. So we're going to, we're going to refer to this step.
Speaker 3:So we're going to step. This is no longer selective, it's strategic.
Speaker 1:Okay, so we're going to have a strategic plan in place for the next two weeks. So you have normal operations of patrol. So a normal patrol shift has, let's just say, four deputies for Garza County. Well, now the state's going to come in and provide funding to have an additional deputy for Garza County, right?
Speaker 2:So it's over time, uh, over time. Deputies that are already there, that are already there.
Speaker 1:Yes, so they're going to have a deputy for that strategic location for that intersection, because data is proven for the intersection that there's an accident going on at that location. Correct, right, yeah, that it's. It's real simple, man, because there's data to prove it.
Speaker 2:Exactly. And so with with D-DAX, which is basically what our step program is based on, it's, it's, it's simply just taking your crash map and your crime map and overlapping the two and saying, okay, these are your problem areas, let's kill two birds with one stone. And that's essentially what we do, and I do apologize if you saw me twitching a little bit when you said the word accident.
Speaker 1:Um, so it's crash. Yes, excuse me, back in two thousand years. Yeah, yeah, oh my gosh yeah. Yeah, well, in 2011 is when they refer to it as crash. Crash is when this was over. Yeah, so yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:It's one of those um and you know we have a retired sheriff in Oklahoma, sheriff Wetzel, that puts on a really good presentation about you know why? Why we don't say the A word, and that's what we call. It is the A word and um.
Speaker 1:So we were we were intentional actions or or yeah you can't prevent.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it just kind of seems like it's inevitable. Yeah, that's right, so yeah.
Speaker 1:You can prevent everything is what is what I it presentation that I've seen.
Speaker 2:Well, when we look at, our this chart?
Speaker 1:yeah, but do you know, is there any grants, I guess, for the crime prevention stuff too, or is it all strictly with crashes or some type of vehicle data driven?
Speaker 2:Well, when we look at clicker ticket, which is one of our, one of our grants, um, looking at clicker ticket, a lot of people tend to kind of fly towards the C belt and you know, and fail to realize that, hey, there's a kid back there that's probably not in a car seat, and you know, you guys know, you ask any officer what's their biggest pet peeve, what's something that they're always going to ride a ticket for oh yeah.
Speaker 2:And it's going to be a car seat and you know a lot of that. That is. You know why we have the program that we have. We teach a four hour child occupant restraint enforcement class. The national certification class is a four day class and it is you know I.
Speaker 2:I was at the crime prevention conference recently in Rockwall and I had a guy that came by and he goes I think I have PTSD from you know, staring at that car seat right there that was one of the hardest, you know, and I'm going really. So I mean, it is hard for some people, but in law enforcement, you know, we kind of tend to go to these classes and we learn and we take a test and you know sometimes the the tests that we take are pretty easy, but when it's when we're dealing with kids lives, like I can't give you an easy test. I need to make sure you know what you're doing, and that's why so many people think it's hard. And so what we offer? Obviously we go out and we assist with teaching that class as much as we can, but we offer a four hour crash course on it and just to kind of give them the basics.
Speaker 1:No pun intended. Yeah yeah, don't go to a drone class if you want to, but a hard hard hard course.
Speaker 3:I never wrote tickets. I did never wrote tickets. Yeah, but if you had no insurance and you had a kid flopping around in the car, not sitting in a car seat, I stroked every one of those. Otherwise yeah, I wasn't going to write a set. I wanted to stop a bunch of people to make contact. But pull somebody over and you got a two year old running around the kid like they're on the playground of McDonald's.
Speaker 1:I can't say that.
Speaker 3:What's it really?
Speaker 1:A lot of tickets, oh.
Speaker 3:I had, you had your mom yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, Ken Ken not a car seat.
Speaker 1:There's just a zero excuse but but as far as the stuff that you do there's no crime. Uh, I guess grants that that you specialize in as far as the ligase on no crime, maps or data that you can.
Speaker 2:So we do work closely with um the DDEX program, which is run by I analyst, and they provide a lot of um analyst training and things like that to kind of be able to um detail their crime maps and things like that.
Speaker 1:But no grants available as of yet for for crime.
Speaker 2:No, so we're grant funded through the Texas department of transportation.
Speaker 1:And so our focus is mainly on traffic traffic stuff yeah.
Speaker 2:Everything related to traffic.
Speaker 1:Cool.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like it I do too.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, uh, is there anything else that you wanted to touch on, or?
Speaker 2:Uh, no, I mean just you know. Thank you for allowing me to come in here and share what we do. We have a lot of free training available, um how can they get in contact with you? So they can go on the buckle up Texas website and our information is all on there. Um, of course, if, if you know, like I said, most people have my cell phone number, um, and you know we're, we're very easy to reach um that through text, through you know our website. Um, you know anything that we can do?
Speaker 2:you know to to help solve the problems that we have here in Texas. Um, you know, we're willing to do it. One of the most important things that that I think we didn't touch on was um, one of the trainings that we provide. Um, we currently call it distracted driving for law enforcement, but, um, it is more geared a little bit more like the below 100 course. Um, when I teach that course it's actually one of my favorite courses to teach. When I teach that course, I start off by telling them look, guys, I'm not here to teach you guys anything that you don't already know. I'm here to remind you that it's important to make it home to your family at the end of the day.
Speaker 2:Um we all love teaching that class. When, when I can get you know, I get text messages and emails saying you know, hey, I just stopped at Bucky's on my way home from your course Uh, I didn't get on my phone on my way home or somebody calling me saying you know, I was on my way to the deer lease and I've never worn my seatbelt before, and when I took your class it changed my mind. So not only do I wear my seatbelts on duty, but I wear it off duty, and I just flipped my vehicle and I would not be here calling you today if, if I hadn't taken your class. So you know, to us that's very rewarding Our entire team that's what we strive for is changing the minds of, of, you know, our law enforcement, um, and trying to be safe out there, because you know I'm sure you guys already know I mean, it's, it's um, you know I go to police week every year.
Speaker 2:That's, that's technically my vacation every year. Um, you know, I, I make it a point to go there every year and when I have to stand at attention for that lengthy period of time because we put so many officers on our wall. Anything that we can do to change that, that behavior and change what's going on out there. We're all happy to do it. We love doing what we do and saving lives and um spreading that message.
Speaker 3:Well, and our job is designed where you have to be multitasking while you're driving. We have a computer that we're getting updates. While we're in route to a call, we have radio traffic. We're having to talk on the radio, you're having to look at intersections as you clear intersections in case you pull up on a robbery in progress. You have to know your location at the time. Our job is 24 hour but while we're on duty, multitasking and it's driving to the call, hearing updates, reading a map, figuring out where you're going If you don't know where you're going. So a seat belt, being aware, is so important and sometimes it even the old heads we need to be reminded about. Hey, put your, put your seat belt on and be cognizant, be intentional of what you're doing as you do it.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. And you're looking at the statistics, you know, if you guys don't already know this 47% of our police officers that are involved in fatality crashes are not wearing it. Not wearing it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, still.
Speaker 2:Single vehicle related crashes. It goes up to 52%, and so that's you know, that's that's why we do what we do. We want to spread that message and it's like you know this this is preventable and you know, if you train like, you train with your weapon, it's muscle memory.
Speaker 3:Wear it till you get in the area and exactly. When you tell them I'm in the area the call, click it and get out of it so you can bail if need be.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, it's, it's, yeah so those numbers.
Speaker 3:I didn't think those numbers would be that high yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, we're, we're changing that, or we're trying to at least so the training that we provide. You know, I always say, if I can change the mind of one officer, that's enough.
Speaker 1:I guess when we started I was always trained not to word.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I was too.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you're bound up. You're not going to be able to get to what you need to. You can't bail out to get in a foot chase. Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and, and that's why that you know Kayla Boyer's story, you know, was so important.
Speaker 1:He's going to be in our podcast, by the way, is he really?
Speaker 2:Oh, that, you know, remarkable young man. And, and I will tell you this, you know, it's things that we do and in our position that that make us known for you know, for that traffic safety element, because the way that I met Caleb, it was on Sunday night eight o'clock. I get a phone call from a trooper and they had just had a trooper in Missouri County that was literally squished in between two vehicles. And so this trooper calls me. He used to work for Harris County Sheriff's office and he said, hey, or he sends me a text message, are you still teaching that officer safety class? And I said yeah, and he goes.
Speaker 2:You know, I just happened to be at the hospital with our trooper and I am in the room of a young man from the young man from Polk County and I went, oh my gosh, you know, is he okay? Is there anything he needs? You know anything we can do for him? And he said, you know, he told me he wasn't wearing a seatbelt. And you're the first person I thought of. And I went what you know? Do they need a class? I'm happy to whatever I can do to help.
Speaker 2:And from there it just kind of trickled down and that's how we got to that video and doing the things that we did. Kaylee Mills Foundation gave them a check for $4,000 to kind of help them with his recovery. They've provided funds to Dallas area. When we have law enforcement that are killed out there not wearing their seatbelt, it's not something that's advertised. But I pick up the phone and I ask and so you know. But yeah, so it is astonishing to see those numbers. But you know our desire is to make those numbers go down as much as we can, one person at a time.
Speaker 2:Exactly, exactly.
Speaker 1:Well, rapid fire time. And you do it because I always mess up the first question and I don't want to be accused of planting the seed for certain questions.
Speaker 3:Here we go. Are you ready? Did you study for this?
Speaker 2:No, I did not.
Speaker 3:All right, favorite cop movie or best line from a cop movie.
Speaker 2:Oh man, you guys, you just caught me off guard. Um favorite cop movie. Oh gosh, you know, police academy was on the other day and I watched a little bit of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a classic.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I did watch a little bit of it, yeah.
Speaker 2:I don't. Unfortunately, I don't watch a lot of TV at all. I don't watch. You know. People ask me all in hey, are you watching that Netflix series?
Speaker 1:I'm like I read a lot I'm doing research.
Speaker 2:I can't.
Speaker 3:Best police vehicle ever made.
Speaker 2:Oh, crown Vic, that's right, hello, thank you very much. I actually owned one up until about a year ago, so as my personal vehicle.
Speaker 3:Crown Vic. All right, let's, let's, let's drill down on this. When did you get in the police?
Speaker 2:2003. All right.
Speaker 3:There you go. Before your time there was a vehicle. Oh. God Lord the Chevrolet Caprice. Kenneth Gardner, my brother will take it.
Speaker 1:There's been one person on this whole podcast that had like 33 episodes.
Speaker 3:It's ever agreed 150 miles an hour.
Speaker 1:Oh, I'm sorry to I was told 150 miles an hour.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, all right. So three your favorite drink, your drink of choice. When Katie Joes off the road and wants to unwind, what's the drink of?
Speaker 2:choice, oh gosh. Well, you know, growing up in Germany, I like a good half of Eisen.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, that's up quite Sally.
Speaker 2:So I mean nothing in particular. Whatever is on draft, I do like draft beer. When I go to police week I drink those black ops. You guys have ever tried it. But it's like a mixture of the Guinness and light beer and you know there's a little Irish pub out there, out there on the wharf that makes them really good.
Speaker 1:I like it. Yeah, all right, it's dope, didn't last.
Speaker 3:Didn't last Guys. That's it for this episode. If you're interested in the grants, take a look. We have a bunch of grants that can enhance what you have going. Budgets are tight and there's a great opportunity to bring in a professional like Katie and a bunch of our other staff that will be featuring in some episodes, to come in and get some good professional training and it's stuff that you can drill down on something the family violence investigations or sexual assault investigations, things like that. Yep, please hit subscribe, like. Share. Post on your Facebook, your Twitter, twitter, twitter.
Speaker 2:I think it's called X. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:You want to call me the day and ask me if it's okay to change the name. I thought it was okay, sorry.
Speaker 3:X axis X is share with your X, share with it. No, share it with your X means you need to come. Share with your X has a different meaning.
Speaker 1:You guys also hit the saving a hero's place dollar. Hit their Facebook up and please, please, please for taking that.
Speaker 3:Yep, that is September the 23rd or something like that.
Speaker 1:I will put that somewhere in the screen. Yeah, somewhere, that's right.
Speaker 3:Well, x in Mississippi, seven heroes place. Come join us down there for that.
Speaker 1:Yeah absolutely.
Speaker 3:Thank you all for tuning in. Please stay safe. Take care of one another. Go home to your family, love your family. Take time away to go on your kiddos, stay safe. Call us if you need us, we'll see you as always, god bless Texas.
Speaker 1:We're off, bye, bye.
