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
Tattoos, Training & Tires: Officer Laine Strickland
A thunderous bang at a tire shop. A text about a gun. A lone unit just seconds away. We open with Officer Laine Strickland’s Abilene story that felt like an active shooter and turned out to be an ill-timed tire bead—and we use it to talk tactics, training, and the discipline that keeps people safe when details are thin. From there, Lainey traces her move to Allen, how a timely tattoo policy shift widened the talent pool, and why professionalism is about conduct, clarity, and care—not whether an officer has tasteful ink.
Welcome back to another episode of Allen Police Behind the Badge. We're your host, Officer Sam Ripamani and Alexis Birmingham.
Community Outreach Coordinator Alexus Birmingham:And today our guest is Officer Lainey Strickland. Thank you for joining us today. You're welcome.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:So before we get into what you do for Allen, you have you have some prior at other agency, right?
Officer Laine Strickland:I do, yeah. I worked for the Abilene Police Department. That's where I started. Went to college out there, did my internship out there. Um yeah, I I applied first time and didn't quite make it the first time, moved, moved home to back to Austin for a couple years, got some working experience, was briefly a dispatcher for the Austin Police. Really? I did not. Briefly. So if there are any of them are listening, I will not claim myself to be a full-blown dispatcher there because it was very very brief, but great experience. And then I reapplied again and got it on my second try.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:Alright. Well, between Able, so Abilene and Allen are your two cities. Between those two agencies, is there any any interesting or fun stories?
Officer Laine Strickland:Oh yes. I was in Abilene. I worked the most mostly worked the same beat. It's like kind of the middle of the town. Abilene split. North and south, there's a train tracks that are active that go through the city. So it's like, oh, it's Valentine's Day. That this day I'm working. It's like 7 30. About 7 30. It's dark out. Um I'm cruising up the street. I go over the rain uh the train tracks. And um a what we would call here a weapons call comes out. I cannot remember for the life of me what the call type was there, but something with a weapon. So and I I'm driving, this weapons call comes out, and I had just passed, it came from a Firestone tire shop. Weapons call at this this place. And I had I mean just passed it. I'm like, wow, I'm I'm here. Like I'm on scene. Basically. And the call notes were um third party caller. Um there's a a man in the inside the business with a gun and he's shooting. Something like really serious like that. I was like, oh, this is not good. Like I'm super close. Abline is a small town, but it's also not, it's super spread out. So it does take some time to get from A to B depending on where you're at. And I think that day my beat partner wasn't there, so it was me. Uh back of probably a good solid five minutes, which if you're waiting for somebody to show up and help you, it's a long time. So whatever. I turn around, I'm like, here we go. And I don't have a lot of information, right? It's just someone with a gun or shooting, I can't remember exactly, but inside the business. So I pull up, I take a right, the way that it's all set up, there's a couple of different roadways to come in to the business. Um, but I look over and there's a big like casino style bus in like the back corner, like northeast corner of the of the business. And I was like, okay, I'm gonna go set up behind that. So I go park my car back there. And it was dark enough that you, if I had my lights cut off, you probably couldn't see me show up. But so I hop out, I don't hear anything, I don't hear anybody yelling, like nothing like that, just traffic, whatever. So I get set up on this corner of the bus, and it's a firestone tire shop, so you can see the bay windows, right? The big bay windows, you can see the middle part, and then there's the shop part. Yeah, and I'm looking in the bay windows, calm, business as usual, as we say. Nothing going on, no one's yelling, nothing. Like, this is so weird. And then all of a sudden I just hear BAM like the loudest bang, like the sound like ricocheted off all the businesses that were around there, and I'm like, holy crap, like this is legit.
Speaker 00:You're ducking in your life. Yeah.
Officer Laine Strickland:So I mean, from what I could tell, I couldn't discern if it was anything else other than what I just allowed, I heard a loud noise, whatever. So I key up and tell my dispatch what I had just heard. Um, so the cavalry's coming, and uh but I'm still calling out, like, okay, well, I I see that and I could see people walking in in the business in the bay in the bay windows. No one's alarmed by anything. I'm like, what is going on? Like, this is so weird. So people finally show up. Um, we had it all triangulated, right? Everyone's on each corner. Um, dispatch makes a call inside, they get everybody out, everybody out of the business. We could call them out at gunpoint, right? That's just how we have to do it until we figure out what's going on.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:Everybody's a suspect.
Officer Laine Strickland:Yeah. So we get the manager out there. Come to find out. So it's Valentine's Day, right? He's in a TIFF with his girlfriend. He decides to scare her or something like that to text her and say, Oh my god, there's somebody with a gun in here. So she turns around and calls 911 to say, Hey, my boyfriend just texted me and said there's a man with a gun inside this shop. And so that's the response we get, right? But what so the loud bang I heard was just them in inflating a tire. Oh, really?
Officer Sam Rippamonti:When it seats you around the room.
Officer Laine Strickland:But like, what are the odds though that I'm there for a weapons call, basically? And that loud bang goes off.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:Your mind's already thinking.
Officer Laine Strickland:It didn't sound quite like a gunshot, but I'm also like, this is why I'm here. What do you do? Why would you ever text that? Oh my god. Oh my god. So and like that's you know, you could go to jail for that. It's a false report or whatever that whatever inciting, you know. But anyway, uh I th our sergeant at on the shift that time, I think he just he scared the crap out of that guy and was just like, if you ever do anything like that again, like you know, we'll we'll deal with it differently. But I think the whole scenario, you know, all the police there and the having to have guns drawn and stuff like that, I think that was enough for him. But that's scary. That was pretty wild. Almost active shooter.
Community Outreach Coordinator Alexus Birmingham:And that was an Abilene? Yeah. How many years did you spend with Abilene?
Officer Laine Strickland:Not too long, just a couple. Um I I loved Abilene. Uh it was a great place to start. Top-notch training out there. Um, really good place to learn how to be a cop because you see all kinds of stuff. Um but yeah, long term, like I'm from Austin. I like to go out and do stuff. Abilene's definitely like an outdoorsman's type place, you know. So long term I didn't see myself there. I did not see myself spending the rest of my life there. So it was kind of like, do I make that decision, rip the band-aid off, and go somewhere I think I'll be long term. And so I just went ahead and did it and here I am. What brought you to Allen? Not much. Uh, one of my best friends is from here. I did a little bit of research and I kind of like looked at Alan. I'd been here like once or twice, maybe, because my friend's parents still lived here. And I was like, I remember remember Allen. It was like a normal town, you know, like somewhere I grew up. So I looked into it a little bit and I was like, looks okay. And I kind of put out I put out uh applications to a couple places. Um, but Alan was the first to get back to me. Um that was really cool. Um and then I also almost didn't think I could was gonna make it here because the tattoo policy hadn't changed.
Speaker 04:Yeah.
Officer Laine Strickland:It changed like the Monday before I applied. Because I look I put in my application, I was like, you know what? Like Abilene, I could have tattoos, but I had to cover them, which no problem. And I'm like, surely they're not more strict about it in the DFW than West Texas, but uh uh I looked it up and it said nothing below the t-shirt line, like regardless. And I was like, oh my gosh, like I can't even work there. You couldn't even wear long sleeves as a cover. So I emailed uh investigator Gilmore at the time and I was like, hey, you can disregard my application, like I don't meet your your tattoo policy uh you know framework. And then like two days later she called me and she's like, Hey, we we just changed it. Do you still want to come out? And I was like, I mean, I guess. I was a little nervous, like, what am I getting myself into? I didn't know what kind of department it was, if that's kind of where it started, but pleasantly surprised, obviously, when I got here, that it wasn't, you know, just takes time for things to to change and move and all that. So um, but yeah, I Alan was great. I got out here and did all the stuff I needed to do for my application in like 48 hours. She's like, come out here, get that stuff done. That way when you're gonna you're done, you just uh we'll do our background stuff and then we'll go from there. And so it was no problem. That's awesome.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:I rem so I remember so I started in 07 here with Alan and you know, no tattoos, nobody at work had tattoos where you could see them. And I remember we went on a I think I was on a family vacation and we went down to San Antonio and there was a San Antonio officer just hanging out on the riverwalk doing probably a security job or something, and he was full sleeves on both arms, and I was like, I remember looking at him thinking, wow, like, whoa, this guy's got all these tattoos, and they're just out in the open. Yeah. And uh, you know, fast forward to now, and it's uh that's really cool. Well, it's great because that stigma has kind of changed where you know you disqualify a lot of really great candidates because of the of a tattoo. Now I get it, we can't have stuff that's inappropriate, you know, that we don't want the public to see. Yeah. But there's a lot of really intelligent individuals out there that want to be officers here in Allen. And if you know, if they have a tattoo, like Laney's tattoos, I think they look great. Thank you. I appreciate that. I'm sure they all have a meeting.
Speaker 04:They just complimented you finally.
Speaker 01:Take it back. Take it back.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:Who am I? No, so I'm glad to see that we have progressed in that area.
Officer Laine Strickland:And I get it, like it's a hard thing to see because of people they want to see a police officer, professionalism, absolutely. But to me, and a lot of people, professionalism is how you carry yourself and how you treat people. But it's it's very rarely how you look most of the time. It can be, don't get me wrong, it's you still need to look sharp and like you take care of yourself, but yeah, it's just your how you take care of yourself.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:But it's still regulated with with the department, right?
Officer Laine Strickland:Oh yeah, yeah. Yeah, so uh like I was telling you guys earlier, we've got uh a tattoo committee. There's three or four of us on it, I believe, but it's super ins uh not a big deal, but they'll send uh pictures of to our little committee about what they want to get. If they don't, they may not even have it yet. They'll be thinking about something we want to get just so they can get it approved before they go get it. But we all sign off and say, Yep, looks good, or no. Very rarely have we had one that's a no. Um and it's usually just stuff that we can actually see. So if it's like anywhere else on the body yet. No, thank you, sir. We all need to know about that. Yeah. So it's it's good. I'm I'm happy to be a part of it and I'm glad we started down that path. So I can get a big old shark or something. Yeah, no. Let it rip. One day we'll get neck tattoos, maybe. That'd be cool.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:Oh, yeah. No, we're probably not gonna do that on that side. I don't think that would hurt. Oh, that's temporary, it'd be fine.
Community Outreach Coordinator Alexus Birmingham:Are you are you on any specialized units or any other committees?
Officer Laine Strickland:Um not any other committees, but right currently right now I'm on patrol and I'm also uh an FTO. Um I've been doing that since 2018, 2019. So field training office. Yeah, right. Exactly. Sorry, yes, FTO, field training officer. Um I love that. I've really it gives me a chance to meet all the new people that come through. Um we get a lot of train uh people that transfer from other agencies. So um a lot of times it's just like riding with a buddy for a couple of weeks. Um every now and then we get someone fresh out of the academy, which is also a lot of fun.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:But are you tough on them? Are you that tough? I don't know. It just depends.
Officer Laine Strickland:No, no, no. I I love to have fun and cut up in the car by all means. But if I'm like, okay, we have some stuff we need to work on, then I'll dial it back down.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:So when I started in 07, it was terrifying. I've heard when I got out of the academy. I was all I'm hearing is these stories like you don't want to get this guy, this guy, this guy, and all of a sudden I'm like, I got that guy.
Speaker 04:Yeah, that happened to me.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:I had like serious anxiety starting, and you know, we used to have to do a flare in spare. So they would light a flare and you'd had to change a tire. And he walks out one day and it's on a squad car. And he's like, he's like, All right, light the flare, and I'm like, What there's nothing wrong with this tire, it's got air in it. They're like, No, but we want it changed before the flare, and they're like, you know, 15-minute flares or whatever. So they're well they know. I I worked in a tire shop in college. So you're like, watch this. Yeah, fell big, and they're just like, all right, get in the car.
Officer Laine Strickland:Yeah. No atta boys for you, just get in the car.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:It was uh it was definitely tough. You didn't walk around and talk and you just kind of but it you learned your way. Yeah, and yeah.
Officer Laine Strickland:FTO's definitely not how it is now, I think at a lot of agencies, then what it used to be. Yeah. I like I still like some of the the old school ways of like respect of officers, and you get a new new guy, not so not a lateral, not a not a transfer a lot of times. Because they everybody treated me like I was already one of the group when I got here, and I appreciated that, so I definitely try to pay it for it that way. But there's a little bit of like you gotta earn your your camaraderie a little bit. Sometimes you get you can't just jump right in. But um, so yeah, uh loved to the uh FTO. Um uh was on our honor guard. I'm kind of more reserved right now, but honor guard is great. My schedule just didn't quite allow for it. Yeah, but um as sad as obviously those funerals are, it's just such a great feeling to go support those agencies and those families when they go through those hard times. Every time I leave those, I'm like, I'm really glad I got to go do that.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:Unfortunately, I've been to too many of them.
Officer Laine Strickland:Yeah. Um, what else do I do? Oh, I'm on a bike our bike unit. Um, that's fun. We just did that at celebration not too long ago. It's hot, but it's it's super active. I I'm not a person that loves to stand in an intersection and direct traffic, so bike unit's a really fun way to go talk to people. Oh man, this past celebration was a lot of fun. We got to hand out a bunch of stickers and talk to a bunch of kids and adults about all kinds of stuff. So it was actually a lot of fun once the sun went down.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:You didn't even grumble at me taking pictures during the artworks. I didn't.
Officer Laine Strickland:I know you got a job to do. I try to I try to be a good sport about it. She was a really good sport.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:But I I can't believe you didn't wear the bike shorts, though. She has the option to wear shorts as a bike officer, and she chose not to.
Officer Laine Strickland:They'll see my tiny legs and my tiny calves, and they'll like, I'm gonna run from her immediately. Like, absolutely. They just it's not a good look for females on on bike unit to wear their shorts. It's just not it's not my thing. Maybe one day we'll get some special fitted, tailored ones. I don't know. I'm gonna have to help Melissa to help me with those. No, it's not a good look. It's not a good look. But I did envy those guys because they looked a lot cooler than I was, literally.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:Those bikes are such a huge huge tool for the police department. Yeah.
Community Outreach Coordinator Alexus Birmingham:Do you guys jump on trails, or what do you kind of do with the e-bike?
Officer Laine Strickland:There's not too many trails in Allen, but there are some that will cruise up and down. Um to me, the biggest benefit of them is every now and then we'll get somebody, I've caught somebody on a bike. So yeah, that's the big deal there. I'm just saying. Uh but every now and then we'll get that call, like somebody took off on foot. And if you've got a bike officer in the area, and this one in particular, they took off from a parking garage, but it went for a ways and they ran onto the trail. Um, and I was able to get up on the grass near the sidewalk, get my bike off, and just cook took off down the trail. Everyone else was gassed because they'd just been running after this guy. And uh, I think he was up in a at a what was it, C UTX trying to get a catalytic converter as we'd been dealing with those. But um, yeah, they chased him across waters over there to that behind that business park where the trail kind of butts up next to it. Yeah, so I got over there, hopped, grabbed my bike off the back, and they're just like all the guys are like you know, so I hopped up and I caught up to him, and he had uh just kind of like gone behind a big concrete enclosure where there was a dumpster kind of thing. So I lost sight of him for a second, but I got off my bike real quick and he was gassed too. I mean, everybody was exhausted that was involved, and I'm just like fresh-eyed, like, hey man, you're gonna go to jail. So we we got him there, and everybody showed up pretty quickly after, but it was like instances like that. It does happen. It's not super common, but it does happen. So the bikes are really, really good for that too.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:So bike school's no joke. It's no joke. Everybody kind of laughs like your bike officer. I did it, and we had yeah, there's several of us from the department that all went together. And we go out there. It's now uh Deputy Chief DeBlanc is one of them, and uh Compton, Detective Compton is with it, and then Officer Hester, it's us four. And we get in and we walk into class, and we're in our Nike shorts and t-shirts, you know, and our athletic wear, and everybody's in bike uniform sitting in that classroom, and we're 10 minutes. Really representing Alan Well, guys. As we walk in, everybody kind of looks at us and they're like, All right, now we can get going and uh let's get our bikes. We took off across Arlington that day. You're I don't know if you've ever ridden around Arlington. Arlington's nowhere near flat. Yeah, and uh uh it's hilly and uh you know you have to yell this stuff, take the lane! That way somebody would yell up in the front or at the back, like a real knowing everybody could move over, do the lane change. Yeah, all of a sudden my my bike starts messing up. And uh I thought my bike was the coolest one there because it had disc brakes at the time. So that automatically, like that wasn't everybody didn't have disc brakes back then. So it turns out the brakes didn't make any difference. All the other parts were more important, like the gears. So my chain gets in a complete knot. Like it's it's not just slipped off, it's the gears at the back messed up and it got all jammed in there. I get standing on the side of the road and I look up and the whole class just keeps on going. And I'm just walking up the hill. Like the person at the back is supposed to relay up that we lost someone, and they were huffing and puffing, trying to keep up by that point. They're just fighting for their lives. So finally, I sit there and fix this bike on the side of the road. I just went back to the class. I mean, what did you do? They were gone. I didn't know where they were. We didn't have GPS on our phones back then. So I just went to the class. Start over tomorrow.
Officer Laine Strickland:Follow today. I get it. Yeah, I did mine in Grand Prairie. Um, it was actually the most fun training class I've ever taken because it's a super active week, but the instructors were really, really cool. Um yeah, you learn how to ride upstairs. Yes, obviously down the stairs, hop curbs, which does not look as easy as it sounds. There's a lot more to it, unless you like unless you're on some little huffy bike, but if you're on a mountain bike, there's some technique to it. Um yeah, it was a physical week, but it was good. And Grand Prairie is also not flat, just for the rest. Yeah, it is very hilly. Yeah, I I'm not too proud. I got off and walked it up the hill. Yeah. So one more sorry, Chief Dye, for saying that I walked up.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:Side story to that. I'm not gonna name the person out of the four of us, but one of the four of us in our group. So we were doing this deal where you you take off this, go up the sidewalk, and then you go up two steps onto the tennis courts, practicing going upstairs. We'd all gone, and then the last person from Allen was getting ready to go, and we're all watching, and he goes to take off, and then our heads automatically turn, like you know, falling where he's gonna go. Or like, where is he? Turn around and look. He's still feet on the pedals on the bike, and he is laying in the grass like he's still riding a bike. The front wheel caught that edging between the grass in the sidewalk and just dumped him. Yeah, he was still on the bike, like just holding that pose.
Officer Laine Strickland:Falling on a bike as an adult is so bad. It hurts so much. Like when you're a kid, you don't care, right? You just hop right up and you just move on. As an adult, no, it's horrible. And then when you're trying to do bike school, right? And I'm not a daredevil, I don't, I'm not like a lot of police officers that just love adrenaline, and that's not me. So yeah, I've I've one of them we did a training, and I had to jump over like a one foot up onto a one-foot box.
Speaker 00:Okay.
Officer Laine Strickland:No, not doing that. Sure, I'll try, but it's not gonna, and it did not go well. I went right over the top of that thing, over my handlebars, skidded up like my the pads of my fingers, like so bad. And the guys are still going through this little obstacle course, and I was like, yo, I'm done. I'm sitting out. I'm gonna sit and watch you guys. They're like, You good, you don't want to try. No, I'm done. This is done for me. So it's it's hard if you fall and embarrass yourself, but it's a it's a lot of fun.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:I used to ride a lot of motorcycles, so we'd go on these long trips, and uh several guys from work were part of that group, and I I learned from one of our officers a stuff called monkey butt powder.
Speaker 04:Huh.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:It's like a gold bar. Or adultman or something. Well, just for anyone uh like you ride these long trips, and uh I had this stuff in my bag on day one, and everybody that came with us were laughing, like, what is what are you going with that? I was like, hey, you just wait. You just wait the next day. We went and rode like 20 miles or whatever it was that first day. We walk in and Detective Compton and all they're like, Hey, you got that powder? Yeah, that was a long ride yesterday. Like, yeah, we got a week of this.
Speaker 00:Yeah, you're not too proud now.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:Yeah, they all wanted it at that point. So that's awesome.
Officer Laine Strickland:Good memories, yeah, for sure.
Community Outreach Coordinator Alexus Birmingham:Are you guys using e-bikes or regular bikes?
Officer Laine Strickland:So initially, when we kind of revamped the unit, we did get a lot of e-bikes. We got some Benelli e-bikes, and I was just never like I rode one, they're a lot of fun. They can go really fast. Like, again, I'm not an adrenaline junkie, so a little too fast for me. I'd go like 26 and I'm like, yeah, I'm cool, like I'm good. I can slow down. But yeah, I mean, you can get those up on the on the road and like take a lane and go with traffic pretty well. But uh, we still had some regular analog bikes, and I kind of stuck to those. Because what we were if we're at celebration or somewhere where you're maneuvering around people, those big e-bikes are really clunky and they're kind of hard to get around people. So I preferred pretty much always until we had to like ride for a while, and I'm like, okay, I wish I had an e-bike.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:I need that battery.
Officer Laine Strickland:Yeah. Um, but since uh Chief Dye's been here, he he likes the the analog, regular, normal bike, and so we're going pretty much back to those um as a whole. Um so I like that a lot in law enforcement now.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:It just kind of makes that circle, comes back around.
Officer Laine Strickland:Like, I I get the e-bikes. I don't really I haven't quite seen or heard of a department where they're really useful for that. Also, they're really heavy. And not to be proud, but that's that's one more thing. Like, I don't want to have to pick up and lug. Like every time you get that bike off that rack, that's one more time you gotta put it back on, and the the analog bikes are so much lighter to just pick up and put back on. So because those e-bikes, the batteries on them are like so heavy, but they're really cool. Just I'll say that, they're really cool. But I'm an analog.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:Being one of our bike officers, one of the things we're starting to see a lot of are e-bikes all over Allen. Yeah. Um what are your thoughts on you know kids riding those?
Officer Laine Strickland:I don't like it. I'm just kidding. No, they're like I said, they're really fun. I think they're really cool for kids, but just the safety and awareness that we've the lack of that kind of that we've seen around it is it's troubling because I feel like we're kind of getting on that that incline of seeing cars and and bikes. Because we see those e-bikes or regular bikes of people just not paying attention and they're you know, the bikes are going across sidewalks, across private businesses and stuff like that. But yeah, I mean, and that's the thing. The faster those bikes can go, the harder it is to stop and correct your movement, whatever that is, avoid something. Um yeah, go watch our safety video with the fire department about all that stuff.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:I'll be honest, I we did a post this week trying to help people understand the difference of the electric bike versus the electric motorcycles. So electric bike, you know, has to have pedals, it's a bicycle. But I didn't realize there was three different levels to it. Uh you know, and a level three will go up to twenty-eight miles per hour with pedal assistance. And you gotta be state law says you have to be fifteen or older to ride those. Well, I think a lot of these bikes are level three, and you know, and it's just being educated on the law where parents know that hey, if your your kid's only eleven or twelve years old, they probably shouldn't I mean by law they shouldn't be riding that bike and it's it's not safe.
Officer Laine Strickland:Yeah. Yeah, it just makes me nervous. I mean, I'm all about being outside and doing fun stuff, but it does make me a little nervous to see the young kids just ripping up and down the sidewalks, and it's I'm sure they're aware of what they're doing and what's going on, but not wearing helmets. Yeah, half of them aren't even wearing helmets. There's a million chances for something to go wrong, unfortunately. But fingers crossed, people don't nothing goes too wrong.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:But so get to know the law and you know at least put a helmet on. Make your kids wear helmets for sure.
Officer Laine Strickland:Yeah, I agree.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:So you said you went to college in Abilene? I did. So a little interesting story about me and Lainey. So my sister, she's passed away now. When Laney came to work here, she kept popping up on Facebook as somebody I might know. And I'm like, well, yeah, she works for the police department. And then it would say one common friend. I was like, How do we have a common friend? So I I clicked on her page one day and I realized it was my sister Jessica. And I was like, what a small world. Like, how is she in you were in you played softball?
Officer Laine Strickland:Yeah, so Jessica, we called her Spring.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:That's yeah.
Officer Laine Strickland:Yeah. Uh she was one of the coaches for the organization that I played for. She didn't coach me, but I think I had was just ending my senior year of high school, or maybe around then, and then almost out when I met her. But she was in our organization for many years. She had a team within my organization for a long time. So I I saw her all the time. And then we had mutual friends once I got into college and stuff. She's so funny. She was the best.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:She was she was awesome. Um cancer's nasty.
Officer Laine Strickland:Yeah. She I I always remember her. She was like an old soul. She's super funny and spunky, um, but always like had like some serious back problems or something. I just remember her being like, she's, I'm like, she's young.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:Like, what is what she had a terrible back.
Officer Laine Strickland:Yeah, poor thing.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:But you should have watched her play basketball in high school. She was on the ground more than she was on her feet. She's a little girl. She would just sacrifice her body, like and she was tiny, so she was point guard and she would just drive in lane, and she was everybody you'd hear boom. She's picking herself up off the floor again.
Officer Laine Strickland:Uh she was great. She had the best, she was so funny, so much fun to be around. Yeah.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:It's just crazy a small world like that. Like, yeah. All of a sudden you come here and I'm like, how does somebody have a mutual friend of my sister?
Officer Laine Strickland:Yeah, because she was at Texas State. Um, but yeah, went to college at uh Harden Simmons. I transferred actually most of my collegiate time. I played softball in college, which is also obviously how I knew uh Jessica. But um transferred from Louisiana out to Abilene. I had some friends out there and I missed Texas, so I transferred. I don't know where I'd be if I hadn't transferred. Um I did my internship with Abilene PD while I was still in college out there, did a bunch of ride-alongs, had a blast, and I'm like, yeah, this is this is it for me. Um yeah, Abilene was was great. It was a lot of fun um being out there. I do miss West Texas a little bit, it's just a different environment, but Alan's great too.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:Well, you were a school resource officer at one time, right?
Officer Laine Strickland:Yeah, loved that. That was so much fun.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:You miss it?
Officer Laine Strickland:I do. Um, I do wish the schedule had kind of stayed the way it was, but I did a good two and a half years, so I definitely got a good amount of time.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:Maybe when you because you have young kiddos. I do. Maybe when they get up into the school.
Officer Laine Strickland:Oh, my son does not want me in his space. That's more reason to be there. What are you talking about? No, I'm kidding. Uh no, that would be really cool. I would love that. But yeah, the high school was awesome. Um, I really didn't realize how much I missed like the team environment, like being around the sports and stuff. Oh, yeah. Because I went up there for a pep rally one day just to help with crowd control when I was still on patrol and I was like, this is kind of fun, like this is cool. And um, yeah, there came an opportunity not too long after and and put in, and high school was so much fun. I made so many friends. People I still talk to today, friends I'll probably have for you know forever.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:You miss those Allen pep rallies?
Officer Laine Strickland:I don't there's nothing like it. It is the coolest thing. If you've out there in Allen, if you I have not. You haven't been to one? No. All right, we got to do it. It is a production. I'm not kidding. It is.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:They take the band and they march the whole all the way down that hall. That massive band, yeah. That massive Allen, was it like 700 people in the escadrille? Absurd. Is it that large?
Officer Laine Strickland:Yeah, it's the biggest band in at least Texas, if not the country.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:For high school, yeah. And they march it all the way into to the gym playing their instruments, and the drum line gets a bit chills going and it's the coolest thing.
Officer Laine Strickland:And that's just like the intro into it, right? Like the production into there's usually some kind of light show, something, the music's like so loud you can't even think. They do it right. It's really cool. It's really it's been on TikTok a few times. I know I've seen it.
Community Outreach Coordinator Alexus Birmingham:I think I did come across a a video. I think the lights were off and they were doing some dance. I was like, wow.
Officer Laine Strickland:This is impressive February. February this year. Probably the first one she needs to go to, because it's probably gonna be the best one.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:They still do the blackout February.
Officer Laine Strickland:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it's amazing. So and the dancing they get I mean, there's so many kids in that high school, like the talent pool for anything is massive. So they put it all on display. It's really, really cool. So I miss that stuff for sure. And I made friends with all the coaches and stuff, so I'd get to go watch their games, see them coach, and make friends with the kids on the teams and all that stuff. So it was a good time. I'm really glad I got to do it. But good relationship. Also love patrol. I will say that. I missed my having the crazy stuff, the real crazy stuff. Patrol.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:So and you got Matt Patrol.
Officer Laine Strickland:My work, my work husband.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:Hey, I had him for years. He yeah. Matt Matt Johnson, he's an officer here. He's the best. It's not really your husband. He's not, no. But great guy. He uh he was in street crimes out there with me for. For years. We've been on the fun, fun trips together and different things.
Officer Laine Strickland:So he was on a podcast once. Do you know that?
Officer Sam Rippamonti:I did not know that.
Officer Laine Strickland:Yeah, I didn't know it either. And then I'll you know, as marriages go, you learn things about each other. He is probably one of the smartest guys in our life. He is. Absolutely he is. Yeah.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:If I don't know about something else, he doesn't watch this because I don't want him to hear that.
Officer Laine Strickland:Oh, he better watch it, or he'll be in trouble.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:So is there anything new in patrol? Or coming to patrol?
Officer Laine Strickland:Sh shift change is coming.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:A lot of changes, right?
Officer Laine Strickland:A lot of changes. Lots of people promoting, lots of movement, which is exciting. Um, lots of opportunities for people to move, which is really cool. Yeah, Allen's, I mean, this is a great time to be here. New police department's coming soon-ish. Okay.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:This last update, they're still on schedule, too. That's awesome. So that's it.
Officer Laine Strickland:Even if they're not, that's okay. I'll I'll be here. I've only been in Allen eight years. I've got time. Oh, you got about 22 to go. Yeah. Oh my god, that's depressing. Did you get a cowboy hat? Oh yeah. Do you wear it? Not yet. Not yet. My bun doesn't quite go with a butt with the hat. Gotta wear a low bun. To say that I have it was really the the box to try to do that.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:They're really nice. Nice touch. I didn't know they were gonna put our embroidery name and badge number in. Really cool. That's really neat.
Officer Laine Strickland:Yeah. Do you know if like the public's been like, oh, those are nice. Have we gotten any feedback on them?
Officer Sam Rippamonti:It's all been positive from what we've got. Positive, yeah.
Speaker 01:Nothing negative from it.
Officer Laine Strickland:So they've been noticed, so people have noticed that we're wearing them? Yeah. Okay.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:We got a lot of comments about it. They people seem to like them. That's awesome. Officers.
Officer Laine Strickland:I knew it.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:It's better than the old bus driver hat. Yeah. Those were never a never a yes for me. It didn't cover your ears at all. Especially mine. Mine stick out.
Officer Laine Strickland:And if it rains, it's like, okay, well, the top of my head's still kind of wet, but here we are.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:So it's been nice. Um what about bike unit? Anything?
Officer Laine Strickland:They are in the I think that the new fiscal year, they want to start like a full-time bike unit.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:You have interest in that?
Officer Laine Strickland:I do a little bit. I'm not sure if riding a bike is something I want to do every day. So I'm still deciding on that. And then, you know, with kiddos, you gotta figure out schedule too. It's just a little bit of play and and how you make your decisions. But um I think it'll be really cool. And that's we'll start, you know, small with it and then maybe it will grow uh from what I've heard. But um really cool. I mean, a lot of Chief Dye's doing a lot of really cool stuff with the stuff.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:He definitely has a vision and yeah.
Officer Laine Strickland:You also teach CrossFit. I forgot all about that. I do. It's newer, I've never been like a hardcore CrossFit person. One of my roommates when I was in college and living in Abilene, she did CrossFit all the time. Hey Jody, how are you? Um she's I mean, and she's in impeccable shape. So I've been around it, I've seen it a lot, but I never really, really got into it. But um I had started, I had back surgery like three years ago. Um, this job will wreck your back and your body. So if you don't take care of it, that's what happens. But doing deadlifts and CrossFit style workouts really got my back in really good shape. But then yeah, with um Officer Brenza, who's already been on the podcast, when he got here, he opened up this door that Chief Dye like was super smart, in my opinion, to capitalize on. Um and he uh they asked for some people that wanted to jump in and be some help coach and be some instructors, and I was like, heck yeah. I love the team environment. I used to coach softball all the time, so this was something I was like all about. Um the uh certification course was really hard. But I've heard that it's yeah, it was no joke. It was no joke. Um not a gimme. Yeah, and again, we're we're doing CrossFit, but it's not the hardcore some of the stuff you see like at the games, you know, but it is intro, if you will. But I think it's awesome. I mean, it's like it's free. A lot of CrossFit gyms are not cheap. And for good reason, there's a lot that goes into them, but either way, the for the fact that the department can provide this feature, if you will, uh, to our officers is amazing to me. I don't know. I feel very fortunate. But I can coach at MB in the class.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:So I will say uh hopefully Will's not listen doesn't listen. But y'all are both like I've taken classes from both y'all, both great coaches. Thank you. You got them on your music playlist though. Yeah, I got it. Yeah, you got him beat away.
Officer Laine Strickland:By far. Thank you. That's all I've been looking for. The same five songs on repeat level that he plays.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:But then you get the you get the playlist going, and uh I would say right now it's you and then uh probably Dom right underneath.
Officer Laine Strickland:I heard Dom plays slow jams.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:Sometimes they get a little slow, sometimes a little slow, but I could get Dom to slow.
Officer Laine Strickland:My music taste is very eclectic, so I'd be like all the time. I know you guys, I know it's rock or some other variation of rock. There's not a whole lot of but yeah, I know. That's the fun part of it too.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:I get to make some cool playlists and even I think you had like hype it up, Taylor Swift or something along. I was like, I'm feeling this.
Officer Laine Strickland:I don't know anything about her, so you'll have to help me back.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:You want some Britney Spears? We had some uh girl music on there. Did I? I don't mean like it was a female singing.
Community Outreach Coordinator Alexus Birmingham:It was very upbeat.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:Okay, and uh I was I was like, this is good. It's it beat the 70s rock that we were getting.
Community Outreach Coordinator Alexus Birmingham:It was a nice change for once. I think uh he plays the same five songs every crossfit.
Officer Laine Strickland:And he says he's like, I love this part of it. I'm like, it doesn't sound like it will. You just phone it in, man. I mean we can only listen to Phil Collins from the air tonight so many times. Yeah, it's he makes up for it in his coaching for sure. That guy's a he's a beast, he is a beast, yeah.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:But it's the CrossFit's been awesome. Y'all are doing a really good job of that.
Officer Laine Strickland:And the new gym, whenever the new PD starts, is gonna be really, really cool. I'm very excited about that. That is gonna be great. Thank you, Citizens Alan, for our new place in general.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:But yes, our headquarters is gonna be nice.
Officer Laine Strickland:I'm excited.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:We're patiently watching them pour concrete over there.
Officer Laine Strickland:They're working. I love it. I love it.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:Well, that's awesome. We really appreciate you coming out today.
Community Outreach Coordinator Alexus Birmingham:Yeah, this is fun. If there's one thing you could tell the community, what would it be?
Officer Laine Strickland:Oh I think it's that you are in good hands with our department. Um, truly having come from another place and which Abilene was great as well. But I think I've been I've worked with a lot of people on this department, and I think if you're having the worst day of your life and we show up, we're gonna do a pretty good job taking care of it and taking care of you. So I feel fortunate to to work here and have the support of our citizens and yeah, I'm really thankful to be here.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:So we appreciate you being here. Oh yeah, no problem. 22 more years.
Officer Laine Strickland:Yeah, in this chair for 22 more years.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:Yeah, there you go. So cool. Well, thank you for coming out. You bet. If you'd like to learn more about our patrol division or our bicycle unit or upcoming events, go to the our website, allenpolice.org.
Community Outreach Coordinator Alexus Birmingham:And make sure to like and subscribe. And if you have any questions, leave them down in the comments below. Bye.
Officer Sam Rippamonti:Next time.