Allen Police: Behind the Badge
Behind the Badge explores the relationship between the Allen Police Department and the community. Join us as we get to know our officers by learning who they are, what they do, why they do it and how it relates to you.
Allen Police: Behind the Badge
From NFL to APD: Rookie of the Year Officer Villarreal
Officer Brandon Villareal shares his journey from professional football player with the New Orleans Saints to Allen PD's Rookie of the Year. His unexpected career path demonstrates how life's detours can lead to finding deeper purpose in serving the community where you grew up.
• Surprising candor from suspects, including a memorable traffic stop turning into a major drug bust
• Transitioning from an NFL career to teaching and coaching for 12 years
• Making the decision to join law enforcement at age 40 following the Allen mall shooting tragedy
• Balancing being a police officer with watching his sons play football for Allen High School
• Advice for drivers: always pull over to a safe location when stopped by police
If you'd like to know more about upcoming events, go to our website, allenpolicedot.org. Make sure to like and subscribe, and leave questions in the comments below.
Welcome back to another episode of Allen Police. Behind the Badge, we're your hosts, officer Sam Ripamani and Alexis Birmingham.
Outreach Coordinator Alexus Birmingham:And today our special guest is Officer Brandon Villareal. Thank you for joining us.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:Not a problem, hey Brandon. So how?
Officer Brandon Villarreal:long have you been with Allen now? Just a little over a year and a half.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:All right, I was hired in.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:October of 23.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:And you're currently in patrol. I am so any interesting stories you can share from your patrol over the last year and a half.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:Yeah, sure it actually happened to be on training. That's the most recent one I can think of. That's an interesting story because it never ceases to amaze me how honest people will be. It took me completely by surprise how honest people will be. It took me completely by surprise. I went through phase two of training with Officer Bly and Officer Garcia Lugardo Garcia, who was they're both amazing, Learned a lot from both of them, and I heard a lot about Officer Bly being one of those guys that just knows how to find things If things just find him, you know and it just never happened and I kept giving him a hard time Like man, when are we gonna find something he's like I?
Officer Brandon Villarreal:don't know, maybe you just canceled these things out, and so he happened to be on vacation the last day that I was on training. So I went with Corporal Murray at the time who's you know now in a different division, and I never really got up on the highway very much and he's like, hey, why don't we take a trip up and down the highway? Once I was was like sure, why not? And so we got on just at Legacy, starting to head northbound. It got a little slow. Traffic was about 50 miles an hour, some people kind of slowing things down and someone comes barreling past us. Wasn't speeding per se, just unsafe for the conditions. So I kind of sped up a little bit and he's like I don't know what that person's doing. I was sped up a little bit and he's like I don't know what that person's doing. It's like I don't know.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:She went from the left lane all the way to the right, all across all lanes, without signal. I was like, all right, I'm gonna stop her. So I pulled her over, rolled the window down and I was like whoa smelled very heavily of marijuana and I was like, okay, hey, where are you heading today? She's like, oh, just going to see some friends. Okay, I'm going to get another unit out here. So they sent another unit and I have her step out of the car and I told her the reason for the stop but I was like, hey, I could smell marijuana in the car. When was the last time there was any marijuana in there?
Officer Brandon Villarreal:She goes probably earlier today. Oh, okay, okay, was it yours? Um, was it yours? She's like, yeah, I have, you know, some conditions that I need it for. I said, okay, am I going to find anything more than maybe just that little bit? Or she goes, uh, just my deliveries. And I was like, oh, so, like your your uber deliveries or something. She goes, no, my weed deliveries. I was like, okay, well, why don't you go ahead and turn around, put your hands behind your back? Um, you're detained at the moment. And so I sat in the car and, sure enough, they had. She had a big bag that had a whole bunch of stuff in there that was labeled for each of the cities she was going to. Um had some vape pens and some thc wax and, um, don't worry, I clarified, she is not a resident of allen she was passing through.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:um, but it just it never ceases to amaze me how, how honest people are with you, and that kind of took me by surprise and I kind of laughed at the moment. But then I looked back and I was like man, that's a pretty hefty deal that she had going there.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:Yeah, you know, I always tell my kids if they get pulled over be honest.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:But I don't think honesty is getting you out of that. She took honesty to an entirely new level, that's for sure, entirely new level, that's for sure.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:Yeah, that was not, I mean honesty's not helping you on that one. That's awesome.
Outreach Coordinator Alexus Birmingham:So were you always an officer, or what did you do prior?
Officer Brandon Villarreal:This is actually a third career for me.
Outreach Coordinator Alexus Birmingham:Okay.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:You know, I'm actually originally from Allen. We moved here when I was really young, back in 94. Went through Allen High School, went on and played football at Purdue University, got a sociology degree, which kind of falls in line with some of the stuff that we do in this profession. But ideally, I was thinking I'm I'm majoring in football. You know, I wanted to go be a football player. Yeah, um, still kept good grades but signed a uh, a free agent deal with new orleans, uh, with the saints, right after college, spent about 18 months with them and then kind of did that. Hey, we don't really need you anymore, so we're gonna need the playbook, um, so, turning the playbook, came back home, had our first kid, um, and worked a corporate job, which I don't really consider my second career. It was kind of like a, a stepping stone to the next part.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:Um, and I realized that there had to be some sort of interaction with people other than sitting in an office on a phone doing sales. That just wasn't for me, so I got into coaching and teaching. That was my second career, so I started at lovejoy high school.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:Um over there in lucas was there for six years, left there and went to mckinney north high school as a defense coordinator for six years, had a chance to get out of teaching and coaching. Not because I wanted to, but I had an opportunity to work from home, see my kids more, make some good money and then again I was like my gosh, I, I can't, I can't do this anymore I can't
Outreach Coordinator Alexus Birmingham:do it.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:I actually intended on running for school board, actually for the city of Allen, allen ISD, and that didn't work out. But the day of the election happened to be May 6, 2023, which is a very sad day in the city of Allen and I thought to myself I can find a way to help serve this community better than just sitting on a school board. And so, uh, rip, you know my father-in-law, I called him. He used to be an officer in this department for 36 years and I said do you think this is something I could do? I mean, I'm 40 years old, he goes, absolutely he goes. You need to start that application process now. And so I did, and was contacted by um investigator Gilmore and everybody there, and here we are, a year and a half later. It's just I've always had this knack of wanting to serve and protect people. On the fact that it's my hometown something I'm very well invested in and deep-rooted in was a no-brainer so backtracking a little bit on your story.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:So with when, the football, and that fast. It's fascinating to me because as a kid I'm like I'm going to play in the NFL one day. I had zero chance of playing in college let alone the NFL. But I think that happens to more often than not where they're like okay, your services aren't needed anymore, like you were saying, so it's something. I guess it's a business. It is, you hear that a lot Like this is a business that's cut through. I mean we see that in Dallas right now with the Mavericks.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:That's going to go down as one of the worst trades of all time.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:Absolutely, but that's just my opinion, sure.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:So I'm sure that was a I mean realizing all right football's over. It hit me worse than I thought it would. To be honest with you, you know you go through your entire life doing something you love, thinking this is going to be what I do for the rest of my life, and knowing that at some point in time either I was going to choose or somebody else was going to choose for that to be my time to be done and I had to have my next step. But nobody thinks that you're going to get that taken away from you before you're ready, you know so I thought I'm going to have this long, illustrious career, be able to retire with millions and be able to just live off of those millions. Well, that didn't happen.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:You know, you get 18 months in and they're like, hey, so about that playbook? Like what are you talking about? So when, initially, I sat down in front of Sean Payton I said, is there anything I can do? I mean, you want me to go be a long snapper, because I did that in college too. Didn't play just D-line, and he's like it's a little early in the season for us to figure that part out. So we'll have to take a couple of weeks and figure out if if we need to make any more adjustments. I was like, well, look, I'm a cheaper option. You know your long snappers, a 12 year vet, he's making $900,000.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:You can pay me 300 grand you know let's do this and he's like I, so people ask me if I like to watch shows like what's it on HBO?
Officer Sam Rippamonti:Hard Knocks Hard.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:Knocks. I'm like that's like PTSD for me. Yeah, because I see those guys walking through the locker room and they're like bring your playbook.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:I'm like ooh, oh man, you remember that day vividly.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:I feel that pain for those guys. So yeah, it was a little bit unnerving, to say the least, but I look back on it. It made me better for who I am now.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:You had your college yeah absolutely, and, to Sean Payton's credit, after leaving there he treated everybody who left the organization like royalty. So if we wanted to go back down there, we were always welcome to go. Be with the team, be at the locker room. When they came here to Dallas I would always take my kids to go to the team hotel, hang out with the players while we talk with them, go to the games on Sundays and all that stuff Awesome.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:So you still have friends that you played with in the league today. Yeah, absolutely so. You're in touch with some of them.
Outreach Coordinator Alexus Birmingham:Mm-hmm.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:So you went into coaching. Yeah, your way to make it whole like kind of you know I'm done with football but now I can still be part of football, yeah, it was um.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:I didn't know that initially that you had to be a certified teacher in the state of texas as a public, as a public coach, public school coach.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:Yeah, I just thought they always did teach, because I just happened to be there, so somewhere right, right, yeah, so I got into it, wanting to become a coach, and I was like, well, I've got to become a teacher.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:So I went through that, that process, and um, the alternative certification yes, I went through an alternative certification program and I learned to love teaching more than I ever thought I would yeah um, what subject? I was a business teacher, okay, so thankfully I didn't have to worry about standardized testing um I could just have the kids enjoy the class.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:Do test grades by, you know, doing um group work or projects projects and things of that nature, and the parents loved it too, because I didn't send any homework home yeah, they're like they already have enough homework.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:I'm sure the kids really.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:Oh, they love that too um, but I learned to love that because in order to be a great coach, you have to be a great teacher to some degree, and it's not always about the curriculum, it's about life lessons, it's about relating with one another and making them better people, and I think that's what really drove me to want to go back every single day and love what I do, which I think helped prepare me for what I'm doing now being able to just connect with people. That was a huge deal doing now being able to just connect with people. Yeah, um, that was a huge deal. And if, in my opinion, if you can connect with teenagers well enough, I mean you can really connect with just about anybody, because they're they're tough to get along with sometimes. All right, I have.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:I have three of those at home. It's tough day to day depending on, yes, especially with my middle one. She's. It's my daughter.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:Yeah, but I love the waters, sometimes just to see yeah, I loved it. I enjoyed it. Um, I felt like it was my way to give back to kids the same things that were given to me as far as my knowledge of the game, with the coaching side of it and but, yeah, I loved it. It was something that I wish I would still do from time to time to go talk football, but the good Lord has me where I need to be right now.
Outreach Coordinator Alexus Birmingham:This is where I want to be, so you don't coach on your free time anymore.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:I do actually some individual sessions with D-line kids, some 8th graders, 9th graders, some high school kids, mostly through Allen. I've got a couple kids from Prosper and McKinney that'll come out to Allen. We'll do a one-hour session just teach them some football stuff. My biggest thing is I just want them to ask questions. Ask me a football question. I don't care if it has anything to do with that specific position. I'll teach you that stuff. If you want to know why did the Chiefs call this play on third and four, if I've got a good answer I'll tell you. If I don't, then I'll find it for you. But I want those kids to love the game and want to be more invested in it, have a reason to want to go play. So yeah, I do a little bit of coaching on the side, but it's definitely not putting in 90 hours a week like I used to by any stretch.
Outreach Coordinator Alexus Birmingham:What do?
Officer Sam Rippamonti:you do for the department. Now you're a patrol officer. So what's a day of a patrol officer? Or a night, sure? So I'm working nights right now.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:Yeah I'm 6 pm to 6 am. Um, I'm one of those people that I'm very, very early, so I, if I'm not on shift till six, I'm usually at the station by 4 45 people like what are you, what are you doing? Here.
Outreach Coordinator Alexus Birmingham:This is just how I've always been game planning.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:Yes, that's exactly what it is. When I was in, when I coaching, I was there at least an hour before the kids were Funny story actually, now that I think about this, the reason why my parents always taught me to be very punctual. My grandfather was a naval. He was a ranked officer in the Navy, oh wow and was very big on punctuality and English. Those were the two things. Proper grammar um freshman year of college I was red shirting. Now I'll keep this short.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:My father-in-law and his family came to watch the game that weekend. Well, on sunday we had to get a lift in before we went to do anything and then we had to come back at 2.30 for team practice. Got my lift done at 5 o'clock in the morning and Mike says we want to go to Chicago. I'm like that's two hours away. He's like it's fine. I was like we've got to be back here no later than 2 o'clock because I've got a team meeting at 2.30. Got it, we're standing in the middle of Chicago at 12.30. And I was like we got to go. He's like, oh crap, we got to go.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:Oh my goodness, Totally my coach.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:So, needless to say, we get all the way back and I walk into the team meeting 10 seconds late and my coach is like get out of my meeting and so. So I went through practice and then the next three days I had to condition because I was late to a meeting 10 seconds, 10 seconds late. So, um, I carried that for the rest of my career and then on into what I do. People like I'll be 15, 30 minutes early. I'm at least an early.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:So to get back to what my patrol day is like, I'm usually at the station about an hour early, get prepped, get my car ready to go, any extra gear that I need check to make sure you know, press, check my firearm, make sure everything's good to go there.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:If something needs to be oiled, go to the armory, oil my gun down. If I need to Go to briefing and then hit the street. Um, if there's any specific things we need to look at, you know, when we get into briefing, if there's been a string of bmvs burglars, motor vehicles, if there's been retail thefts, we'll add some extra patrol around those specific areas and just ensure that we're keeping a better eye on those things. But from there it's just trying to do our best to make sure that we're making good traffic stops, keeping the streets safe, uh, from a traffic standpoint, and then the biggest thing for me is being good responders to the calls for service that we have. In my opinion, that's, that's the first and foremost thing that we need to do. Um, when the public needs our help, we need to be there.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:Yeah, so I'll get a lot of calls at night.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:Yeah, there's more. It depends. It's crazy because it depends on the day. You would think that Friday and Saturday nights are always going to be the highest call volume nights. Sometimes they're dead, sometimes it's a Wednesday night just randomly, all of a sudden, all these things pop up and it's call to call and next thing, you know know, it's two o'clock in the morning, like what the heck just happened in my night like I had no idea that this was going to happen, but there's quite a few calls, more than I, more than I anticipated to be happening between midnight and three o'clock in the morning on a wednesday or thursday.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:Yeah, um, but yeah, there's a good amount of calls I used to joke that allen was a very fair weather community, like when it's cold outside now and at nighttime oh yeah it's, you see rabbits everywhere. But you don't see people very much no like you can drive down city streets it seems like for miles and not see a single car. Because it's cold outside, people are locked up yeah and you'll see coyotes too, coyotes and rabbits we used to joke about that, so it's good to see it hadn't changed a lot.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:No, not much. It's pretty much the same.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:And this year at the awards banquet. I think somebody got some hardware there, oh boy.
Outreach Coordinator Alexus Birmingham:Yeah, he did.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:Rookie of the year. Yeah yeah, that's a pretty big one, man.
Outreach Coordinator Alexus Birmingham:I didn't think you were going to bring that up so I appreciate that we're going to embarrass you a little bit. We don't want to embarrass you a little bit.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:That's pretty awesome, though, because we've been hiring a lot of officers in Allen, and so it's not like it's just one or two of you to choose from to win that award, and we got some exceptional officers. Our hiring standards in Allen are pretty high.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:They're very high.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:And the fact that you came in and won that.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:that's amazing. I was shocked, to be honest with you, with the amount of guys that we have and girls. Either way, there's a lot of great officers in our department, absolutely.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:Very humbled by it.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:Well, thank you Very, very humbled by it. I kind of looked at it as, yeah, rookie of the year means you haven't had a whole lot of experience experience so they're basing it off of everything you've done to that point. But I look at some of the guys that I've been through the academy with, been on shift with, and I'm like how in the world did that guy not get it? You know, because I've always been one of those people to try to build others up and not put myself in front, if that makes sense.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:It actually took my wife until about year eight or nine, when I was coaching, for her to say would you just step up and tell people you want to be a head coach now, instead of trying to help other people become head coaches? And I was like what do you mean? She's like you're always trying to help others, why don't you do it for yourself? Now? I was like it's not about me, it's about the whole team and, as cliche as it may sound, that's just how I've always team over me, correct, and so I couldn't care less about a title, an award, but at the same time I'm humbled by it. I'm thankful that the department and and supervisors and those that I work with, felt that I was worthy of that.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:People notice.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:It's an awesome deal. I think I've been cursed by it since, though. Since then, all the fun calls I'm usually dealing with those are yours now no. I've been dealing with barking dogs when all the fun stuff's going on, or a 911 hang-up. That's a good problem. Or a Norris complaint and I'm like oh, that was man. I wish I could have been a part of that one over there.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:So it's kind of an ongoing joke right now. That's funny. So if a pursuit kicks off, where's Villarreal? He's probably picking up ants on the side of the road, or something like that.
Outreach Coordinator Alexus Birmingham:Is there anything new in your unit?
Officer Brandon Villarreal:Or how's drive to thrive affecting what you guys are doing on a day-to-day base. Sure, um, you know, I think the drive to thrive um initiative has been good, especially for days. I think people are definitely taking that into consideration. We don't have quite the volume of cars on the road at nighttime, but I am seeing a lot better driving. To be honest with you, um, and that includes criminals, I don't know. I guess the criminals know that we're out quite a bit. They know that we like to patrol. Chief Dye is very, very high on traffic stops and making sure that we're visible and I think that everybody sees that and I think it's also helping people drive a lot better. So that initiative has been awesome. Doesn't change the fact that people still don't get their registrations updated.
Outreach Coordinator Alexus Birmingham:So get your registrations updated, people yep um as far as new I don't really know there's anything new right now.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:I know we're supposed to be hopefully getting some new um computers in the cars.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:I know those have been out they've been doing that this week, so you'll probably have a new one today when you that'll be awesome.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:So that's about the newest I can say, and I I know that we have a couple of guys that just got out of either training or lateral officers, so we're still kind of gelling as a unit. I'm on the B2 shift. It's a great group of guys, very high active group or proactivity wise. They're a very, very good group of guys. Um, and even though I'm one of the newer to the profession, I'm also one of the older on the shift too. Um, because I'll be 42 here in a couple months and I look at them like you guys are babies, you know they're like shut up, grandpa, hey, I feel that I feel the same.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:You know I'll be 44 this year, yeah so, um, as far as what's new, I don't know a whole lot, except for maybe the computers right now, but I just know that what we're seeing out there from people driving-wise it's getting better, and I'm hoping that some fun stuff will start taking place here in the next couple weeks as well.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:We're good with quiet too though, no 100% we like quiet too.
Outreach Coordinator Alexus Birmingham:We did get some promotions, though, sergeant, and you guys got Lieutenant Frank Page.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:Yeah, so Lieutenant Page is on the one side of the week, our lieutenant is Lieutenant Maness on ours, but Sergeant Williams went to B1 as well, which he happened to be one of my um ftos during training was he, so that was really nice man he's. He's a great officer. He's got a great story too. He'd be another person, be a great one oh, he's on for this podcast.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:He doesn't know it yet, but he's on the list. See, I'm already thinking like you guys are. He's, he's a good one to get, but, um, yeah, and then, uh, you know, serge Sergeant Centeno over on A2. There's been a lot of great promotions. I think they fit in very well. There hasn't been a single shift that I've seen that I've worked on, either during training or that I'm currently on, where I don't see some sort of gelling going on. There's no dissension between people.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:I can sense that yeah around the station, being around all the officers and guys. That feel like everybody's kind of bonding, that we really are. It really is a family, brother, sisterhood is really growing 100, which is great to see.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:We absolutely enjoy the group of people that we work with, and over the course of training and through now, I was able to go through every different shift and I didn't feel at any given time like I wasn't a part of that shift the first day I was on it and when I left that I couldn't come back to that group. So it's a really great group of patrol officers that we have.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:And then, really across the entire department, there isn't anybody that you can't walk through the hallways and doesn't say hello or make you feel like you've known them for a long time. But some of them.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:I have, so I've got to pick on your father-in-law just a little bit.
Outreach Coordinator Alexus Birmingham:I hope he's watching this.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:If he watches or listens to this, he's going to have some words to say to me. Next time I see him, sure, love him to death. I've been here 18 years and I've known him since the beginning and he knew my in-laws from my fallen old retired state trooper. So they've known each other for years. So Mike's always been really good to me. We've played golf together, we've laughed, we've yelled at each other for years. So mike, mike's always been really good to me.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:We've played golf together we've you know we've laughed, we've yelled at each other like the whole. You know he talks loud anyway sure just a loud guy.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:But that guy is a salesman. He's the only man I know that could go get dispatched to a rollover accident and walk away there without any paperwork. And I don't you laugh, both of y'all, I am not making this up. He could go to a call where somebody gets stabbed and he's going to somehow figure out how to not do paperwork. He was the king of talking his way out of a report and it actually took on a name. Have you heard the name?
Officer Sam Rippamonti:such in it, such in it I don't know if it's alive and well anymore. I think. I think we're in a different age now there's.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:There's still a good amount of people who know that that term, that term, we used to laugh about it like, oh, I'm gonna go such this.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:I mean, we were just joking, sure, but we would always say and he'd be like oh, whatever, and he'd get mad and yell at us, yeah yeah, um, I was fully aware of that.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:Um, I don't know that that that mentality lives so much, but it's, it's.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:It's in the lore of alan pd, for sure, I think that's the old days for sure absolutely, but it absolutely we've teased him about that for years and I'm gonna have to make sure to say something to him again. Oh yeah, he'll watch this and he'll he'll probably text me and I'm gonna have to make sure to say something to him again.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:Oh yeah, he'll watch this and he'll he'll probably text me well, I'm sure that mayor brooks will too, because I know that mayor brooks knows about it too. Oh, that's funny.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:He'll tell me I owe him a round of golf. Yep, you know like that's what he tells me every time I see him. So, and you might be able to beat him I don't know why you think he plays enough.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:But every time I see him he's like oh no, I shot like 88, 89. I'm like, how are you not shooting in the low 70s by now? He's like I don't know, I've got to figure something else out, because he's all gas, he's just always wound up All gas, no brakes.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:Man, he's just going. Yeah, I Years ago last time we played and he was actually.
Outreach Coordinator Alexus Birmingham:He's a good golfer, he can hold his own.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:He is. He's a good golfer.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:And he's talking the whole time. Oh yeah, I'm like this guy and you better hurry.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:Oh, like he's not joking, no, he doesn't want to wait on anybody he's ready to go.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:It doesn't matter if you're not moving at Mike's such pace. You're not moving fast enough, that's awesome.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:So goals with Allen Police Department. You want to promote what do?
Officer Brandon Villarreal:you think that's on the shelf for now. I mean, I want to make sure to get a good enough amount of time on patrol to really figure out what it is I want to do. I thought initially coming into being an officer that a couple years in maybe being an SRO might be a natural fit for me, having been in schools for 12 years. I don't know, maybe it is, maybe it isn't. I've toyed with the idea of maybe wanting to get into canine. I love the idea of being a canine officer and then maybe to potentially promote or even go into CID maybe later in the career and work crimes against persons. I've always loved the idea of investigating things and solving cases and things of that nature. But in all honesty I don't know what the full-on long-term goal is, because I'm still getting my feet wet into patrol and I love every second of it, and I don't just say that because I'm on this podcast or around people in the department. I truly do enjoy what I'm doing every single day.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:It's a reason to get out of bed and go make a difference, because although we get to take people to jail that do crimes and that's a great part of our job a lot of it is just connecting with the community. There's, over the last however many years I think, there's been kind of a 50-50 view of what law enforcement is and sometimes if you just show a little bit of grace and humility towards people, they tend to change. Like the second you stop. They're like why am I being pulled over? And then, hey, man, just thought I'd let you know your taillights out. Oh, okay, when are you going to get that taken care of? And just have a conversation with people and then next time you see them they don't have quite that same demeanor about them. So I enjoy that community engagement, involvement and really connecting people.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:So I don't know.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:We'll see Eventually. I would love to promote, but I don't know when that's going to be.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:If you go back in the schools, man, they're going to have you helping coach football in uniform, then you'll be really out there no doubt, no doubt do you have any collateral duties or any passion for anything right now in the department?
Officer Brandon Villarreal:you know, I'm actually working to get into the drone unit. Um, I've worked with drones before. I just don't have my fa license. So working on the process of doing that, that's something that I have a pretty big interest in, and once I can get myself figured out with that side of things and helping out with that, I'll see if there's some other things that kind of catch my interest. But for right now that's something I love the idea of. Yeah, maybe I'm not involved in the pursuit because I wasn't close enough, but I'm the only drone guy available and they need someone in case there's a foot bail. Well then I can go get involved with it. So I love that opportunity to potentially be a part of that. So that's one of those things that I'm hoping over the next couple weeks here we can get certified and get started.
Outreach Coordinator Alexus Birmingham:There's a lot of use for the drones. I mean not just you know pursuits. I mean any like child loss.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:Oh yeah, I mean helping locate suspects, helping locate missing people, runaways things of that nature. Um, I think it's a huge deal, Um, and to have that big eye over the sky helping see things that other people can't. I would love to be a part of that, and that's why I'm going through the process of it.
Outreach Coordinator Alexus Birmingham:You can come out to our events and show off the drones.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:Kids love the drones. No doubt they love seeing all the technology that we have and it's pretty interesting.
Outreach Coordinator Alexus Birmingham:Even robotics. That's pretty neat too, the little robot that we have.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:So the drones are fascinating to me the way they fly them indoors now. So it's so much safer if we have someone barricaded in a house. We don't send a person in anymore, or even a canine, for that right that takes the risk of getting hurt. We can fly those drones in and you know, if a drone gets knocked out of there, they're all insured you know, nobody's hurt, we'll send another one in.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:Yeah, whatever we need to do and what you know one call that comes to mind with the drone. We had a uh, it was a robbery suspect and he fled into a neighborhood. A robbery didn't happen in our city, but he carried over into Allen and he wrecked his car out and fled on foot. We had a patrol officer that got a drone up out of their car, got it up in the air right away and they watched him. He was going through backyards trying to run and the drone didn't go anywhere.
Outreach Coordinator Alexus Birmingham:They're so fast You're not going to outrun it Faster than a dog. The drone didn't go anywhere. They're so fast. You're not going to outrun it Faster than a dog, oh yeah.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:So that drone just hovered. He's right here, crouched down under these trees and these bushes and they surrounded it and he finally peeked up over the fence and I think it was Lieutenant Page standing there, and that's who we went eye-to-eye with he's like, oh man, I messed up that.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:That's not the guy you want to be eye to eye with. He snatched him up real quick.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:That one was done at that point and it's such a valuable tool. What you guys I mean, like Chief Dye says, y'all are the hub of the department. We're all just a spoke on that wheel Patrol is what makes this department go around, and we appreciate what y'all do Well thank you.
Outreach Coordinator Alexus Birmingham:We appreciate everything you guys do as well out there at night time when we're home asleep it's like you know, people lose sight of that and forget about that.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:Uh, you know a lot of sacrifices made. Now one more thing I want to talk to you about. You have kids, right? I do two boys I do have two boys all right, is any one of them playing football?
Officer Brandon Villarreal:so my oldest is a uh, is a junior right now on the allen varsity football team, um, and then my youngest is a seventh grader in the middle school program and he's already a bigger than I am taller than I am, for that matter so they're, they're pretty athletic kids. My oldest plays football, does a little bit of wrestling, my youngest is basketball, baseball, football all right.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:So what's that like as dad now watching your boy on friday night out there?
Officer Brandon Villarreal:it's alan eagles. Yeah, that's a big team, that's a big stadium like spotlight yeah, the uh, the soft side of me says it warms my heart, you know to seeing my son play. You know my alma mater and doing, in my opinion, better things than I did when I was in high school and on a team that's way more successful and has way more notoriety than I ever had.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:And then the other side of it. I have to keep myself from wanting to just unload on him for things that he's not doing or doing, oh, things he could do better, correct. Then my coaching side comes out. But I have to tell myself, no be dad. What positions he play. He's an offensive lineman, so he plays center. Um, that's probably what he's going to project at in college. Um, or potentially guard.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:Just kind of depends on where they need him so you would have been lining up across from him yes tackle do you ever line up in front of him? I still tell, tell him to this day.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:I don't care how in shape you are and maybe how in shape I get to the point when I'm not maybe it's 100% between the ears I can still whoop him every time and I tell him I got that old man strength.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:Old man, strength and wisdom.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:And I said there will never be a time that your old man can't beat you.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:Well, I think we should definitely make this happen One day.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:Get y'all in pads and let's, let's do it I'll be good for one play, and then I'll be tapping out yeah, we'll get that play on video. Yes, that's the one but yeah, so it's it's. It's pretty cool to watch him play um, and then my young also be coming up in a couple years what positions he play. He's a quarterback and I never thought I'd be a quarterback dad tackle those guys exactly, so it's a little weird for me.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:Um, when he gets hit, I'm like yeah, oh wait, I can't I can't do that yeah um, but no, he's, he's enjoying that. He really wants to be a basketball player. Um, I kid you not. When I watch him he reminds me of luca, the way he moves around. He's kind of got that, and this is the way I talk about Luka. He seems like that old man at the local gym that just knows how to play.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:Yeah, you know, and he just sinks every shot. He's not super fast or anything. How does he?
Officer Brandon Villarreal:do that. That's exactly what he looks like, but he's incredibly intelligent for the game of basketball. He sees everything. He sees passes and I'm like what are you?
Officer Sam Rippamonti:oh, that was pretty cool so he's a very good basketball player and he's a pitcher in baseball. He's totally different than you.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:He's doing quite a few things, so we're still trying to figure out what the route is, but I have no intentions of stopping him on any of the three. If he wants to play all three of them through high school, I'm all for that. He needs to be a well-rounded athlete. With my oldest being junior going into senior, he's kind of focused on football now. Um, so we'll see. He's got a couple scholarship offers from some smaller schools.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:He does want to play and spring ball is right in the mix right now, so I'm sure some more will be coming down the pipeline and we'll see absolutely that's exciting is if there's one thing you can share with our community, what would it be?
Officer Brandon Villarreal:when you get pulled over. Find a safe place. I can't tell you how many times we'll pull someone over and you stop dead in the middle of the road. Um, that's a safety issue for everybody, and I laugh when I say it at first, because sometimes you look back what were they thinking? But at the same time, if we pull you over, just find a safe spot. If you're worried that we're going to think you're evading or you're taking off, we don't think that. If you want to find a spot that's more well lit, we greatly appreciate that. And don't stop in the middle of a major roadway. Find a side street. Get off to the right side. Find a parking lot. Don't stop immediately in the middle of the road. That's a safety issues. That would be the one thing I would tell everybody yeah, we've had many close calls yes and I think some of them are.
Outreach Coordinator Alexus Birmingham:Some of our units have been hit because of sure it's.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:It's a, it's a big time safety deal and if that means you have to drive a half mile to somewhere, you feel safe as long as you're not speeding up and trying to move evasively. As long as you can find a safe place, please do. I would greatly appreciate it and other officers would greatly appreciate that.
Outreach Coordinator Alexus Birmingham:So I heard that we're getting cowboy hats.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:Yes Are you excited. Highly excited about that.
Outreach Coordinator Alexus Birmingham:Are you going to get fitted for one? Yes, I am or have you already been fitted? I have already been fitted the. Are you going to get fitted for one? Yes, I am, or have you already been fitted?
Officer Brandon Villarreal:I have already been fitted. The first day they said we could go in there, I was like I will be in there as quickly as I possibly can. Now I know we're supposed to use them in inclement weather. If you're going to be outside in the sun for extended periods of time and working on nights, I mean I get that many opportunities but you better, well believe I will have that thing with me. I will. I will gladly wear that every chance I get. Are the other patrol guys and gals excited?
Officer Sam Rippamonti:from what I could tell, most people are pretty excited about it I've been seeing some pictures floating around everyone trying their hats on and I got a big old dome.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:I had to get one of the bigger sizes. It wasn wasn't quite a size 8, but it's one of the bigger ones.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:I tried them on and I'm not what I thought I was. I had to go a couple sizes bigger than what I thought my head size was.
Outreach Coordinator Alexus Birmingham:I guess it's grown a little over the years Since that boomer post.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:I think it's grown even bigger. That's all the wisdom. That's all the wisdom. That's all the wisdom.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:That's what Brandon says the wisdom. Well, Brandon, we really appreciate you coming on, Absolutely Appreciate you coming in on your free time to chat with us, so we appreciate it. Keep doing what you're doing man Will do. You're knocking it out of the park out there.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:Well, thank you and everyone notices. I appreciate that, appreciate y'all having me.
Outreach Coordinator Alexus Birmingham:Yes, we would love to see you promote. You would be a great fit.
Officer Brandon Villarreal:Thank you, I appreciate that.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:Thank everyone for listening or watching today. If you'd like to know more about upcoming events, go to our website, allenpoliceorg.
Outreach Coordinator Alexus Birmingham:And make sure to like and subscribe, and if you have any questions, leave them down in the comments below.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:All right, see you next time.