Blood, Duty and Redemption: Season 2 Recap

In this powerful Season TWO recap of Line Up with phitPD, we revisit the unforgettable voices that shaped Season Two - stories of sacrifice, resilience, redemption and the human spirit behind the badge.  From a police captain's untold story of policing in the 1980s dealing with PCP, Crack and Cartels to a discussion with seasoned law enforcement defensive tactics trainer's who believe that stronger training builds community stronger trust, every guest shared raw truth and purpose.

We reflected on the cost of the badge with a former La Mesa police captain turned clinical psychologist, explored the aftermath of New Generation Jalisco Cartel leader "El Mencho's" death through the eyes of a former DEA chief, the unfiltered conversation with a former EME prison gang member who talks about his first homicide and heard a cop's mother's emotional story of fear, faith and family.  We delved into surviving multiple shootings, the strength of women in law enforcement and the lessons of empathy and respect from the perspective of the El Cajon Police Chief.  From a Marine Cobra pilot-turned-cop to a Mexican police officer dealing with the Mexican cartel in Sonora, each episode revealed transformation born from struggle.

This finale honors every story, every scar, and every moment of humanity shared this season - reminding us why understanding the humanity behind the badge and proper training are vital to saving lives on both sides of the badge.  As a tribute to this season, the addition of the podcast theme was created, "Drain the Swamp" which summarizes the urgent need of raising the minimum training standards for police and getting rid of people who are part of the problem on both sides of the issue.

Season THREE starts Tuesday, June 2, 2026, with new powerful themes: Prison - Survival Behind the Walls, Bringing Down El Chapo Guzman and responding to America's First Mass Shooting. 

🎯 Whether you're a first responder, military, or someone interested in becoming a law enforcement officer—this conversation will move you, challenge you, and inspire you.

👇 Drop a comment with your favorite takeaway, and remember to subscribe if you want more real conversations like this.

#bulletproofmindset #podcast #resilient #police #motivation #policeofficer #cops #lawenforcement #firstresponder #policeacademylife #policefitness 

Contact Information:
phitpd22@gmail.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Surviving an incident is one thing, surviving the aftermath, completely different. Oh, the door is on fire. That's not gonna work. Everybody says I'll take a bullet for my family. How can you say that when you aren't preparing yourself to defend your family to begin with?

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Yeah, getting hit in the face sucks. Like I have a metal plate in my face. We didn't know it was bad because we were in the environment. I had so many nightmares.

SPEAKER_01 0:21

I was I couldn't sleep. It was real to me.

SPEAKER_02 0:24

That made the situation a little more difficult because now we didn't know if our suspect had managed to get out of the scene or not. It was overwhelming grief that hit me instead, as if he were dead.

SPEAKER_00 0:36

God blended diet.

SPEAKER_02 0:37

You're not getting paid for what you do, you're getting paid for what you're gonna have to do. You're gonna have to pay a price to be in law enforcement. It's a guarantee that you're going to get in a fight with someone. We have what's called normalcy bias. That's what predators are looking for. And the pause is when bad stuff happens. That's when we get killed, we get shot, we get hurt. You have your target, and you know, now you actually have people that are trying to hurt you or or you know kill you sometimes. You're not just having your your drill instructor yelling at you because you weren't fit. I was now determined to be the worst that I could do. My journey began in 1969. That's what my first uh street homicide.

SPEAKER_01 1:17

Welcome everybody. My name is Juan Cefas from FitPD, and this is lineup with FitPD. This episode is gonna be a little bit different. I want to recap season two. Had several different guests, and I want to discuss a little bit as to why I selected those guests and just give you a little bit of behind the scenes. You know, uh the mission is still the same. It's twofold. First of all, still want to humanize the law enforcement profession. We had a uh an officer shot in Washington, D.C. just uh less than 24 hours ago. And it seems as if there's an officer shot somewhere in the United States almost every single day for the last few years. I want to change that. I want to humanize the badge and uh remind people that the people behind the badge are just people. Could be your brother, your sister, your uh mother, your father, uncles, aunts, your daughter, your son. That's part one of the mission. Part two is to raise the minimum training standards in the state of California for peace officers. What the current standard is, is um really uh puts peace officers in a predicament where when they need to use force, sometimes it things don't go well. And that's been exposed through um social media and videos that have gone viral. For season two, one thing that I wanted to do that was new is I I um wanted a theme song for this particular podcast. And I looked at a lot of different songs that um exist, different bands, and um I decided, you know what, I'm gonna write my own lyrics and have uh one of my friends that's a professional uh musician actually perform it. That's what happened. And the lyrics really talk about the song is titled Drain the Swamp. What that means is that um we need to drain the swamp. And when you take the water out of a swamp, there's a lot of garbage. We need to get rid of all that garbage. And what I was referring to is in law enforcement, we have some people that are not doing the job correctly, whether they're using excessive force, killing people. Uh, and that was exposed during the uh these ice uh raids. We want to get rid of people that are not doing the job professionally, people that are unethical, people that are immoral, people that are criminal. The message is twofold because we also don't want to have citizens that are rioting and looting and taking advantage of other people, uh preying on the weak, on the helpless. And so if we drain the swamp, we drain our society of both bad cops as well as bad citizens, we'd have a much better relationship with the community and we'll be able to uh solve problems and work out things that uh we need to work on. One more thing that I added to uh season two was a uh prayer for all peace officers that were working around the the clock. And uh that message came from our brother in law enforcement, our brother in Christ, uh Greg Adminson, who is an ordained minister. He's also uh he's got a doctorate. He's a black belt in two different disciplines. He was a former um deputy, former uh cop on the street, and is currently a federal officer. He's got so many titles, but I asked him to put together a message for our peace officers on duty, and that's what he did. So um I wanted to make sure that we are always reminded that we need to uh thank those that are on duty for keeping us safe and for doing the job, being willing to do the job. So our first guest in season two was uh Lieutenant Sedden. Lieutenant Seddon, she was actually one of my recruits when I was a training officer at the police academy. And uh I will tell you that I was not one of her favorite training officers. I was probably the least favorite of hers. She uh struggled with being in a paramilitary organization, and um, you know, she was able to graduate and slowly matured. We kept in touch uh several years after she graduated when she was shot in the line of duty. She was shot by friendly fire. And the emotional psychological injuries were far worse than her physical injuries. Today, she's got a um whole different outlook on life. She has a personal mantra that says um get better, be better every single day. Uh very proud of her, wanted her to be on the show because she wanted I wanted her to share the uh mental struggles that she went through to recover from this injury and the work that she's doing to help others in similar situations. So thank you, Lieutenant Seddon, for actually uh being a guest on the show. The next guest that we had actually it wasn't a guest, we had a um peace officer in Mexico. I went down to Hermosillo Sonora to train uh peace officers, and one of the officers down there uh was willing to talk to us on camera. He talked about the conditions under which they train. And uh one of the things that stood out is the fact that their uh vehicle hotstops look completely different than the ones we conduct in the United States. We have the luxury of time on our side, which is something they do not have. They'll have four to eight officers with long guns conduct a hot stop on a vehicle, and they get every single occupant out all at the same time, prune them out, and take them into custody. Time is of in essence because what they told me is that as soon as they pull somebody over, or as they're about to pull somebody over, the occupants of the vehicle will get on a radio and call for backup. And anywhere from five to fifteen or plus more people will show up to uh help them out and will use violence if necessary. It was a great um special report because I wanted officers in the United States to appreciate what our counterparts in Mexico are going through and the current struggles, especially with everything that we know about what's going on with the cartel and how their tactics, the uh peace officers, have to use different tactics in response to the tactics that the uh cartel uses. In episode two, we had uh Officer Crystal Jordan. Crystal Jordan was also one of my recruits when I was a training officer. Actually, no, I was um in a different capacity at the academy, and she contacted me through social media. She had a little bit of difficulty getting hired. I looked into it, it was something simple. But, you know, the people in backgrounds, they're very busy, so they don't have time to really help people as much as they can. I looked into it, long story short, uh, told her what I saw that was a uh a potential problem. She fixed it, got hired. She ended up being in my defensive tactics class with very little experience as far as defensive tactics are concerned. She was athletic, but not a defensive tactics person. Upon graduation, she um decided on her own that she was gonna become a boxer. And she now has over 10 bouts under her belt. And very proud of her because she's taken her um lack of knowledge in a certain area and mastered it by um getting her training way, way above standard, which is part of our mission. We want peace officers to take the initiative on their own, even if their departments are not willing to help them out, or the state is not willing to help them out. Ultimately, we're responsible for our officer safety and for the safety of those that we um encounter. And that's exactly what she did. So, Officer Jordan, thank you. Thank you for being a guest. Up next, we had um two guests, Officer Cummings and uh we had Oscar from uh the federal government. Both are outstanding defensive tactics instructors. Ashley is a professional fighter as well as former peace officer. She has her own defensive tactics program at her local gym, one of the very few in Southern California. And together we talked about use of force, we talked about common practices, we talked about the training gap that has been identified. We actually gave constructive criticism on several different videos, and we talked about how there's a need for peace officers to train to keep not only themselves safe, but also to keep the public safe. We talked a little bit about getting punched in the face. What we see in training is that many uh peace officers or future peace officers, when they get punched in the face, they panic and they resort to uh greater force than needed. We gotta learn that getting punched in the face is not gonna kill you most 99.9% of the time, and not to panic, control your emotions, and then respond appropriately. That conversation was a great, great conversation, and I really appreciated both uh Ashley Cummings as well as uh Oscar Magania being on the show. Thank you. The next episode we had um former Captain Mike Rosari on the show, and he talked about policing in the 1980s. He talked about PCP, he talked about crack, and he talked about the cartel. He talked about his experiences and how he identified that um there was a relationship forming between street gangs in Logan Heights, the Mexican Mafia prison gang, and the uh Ariano Felix organization cartel. Mike Rosario has always been very approachable, has always been uh the type of person that will lead from the front. And his stories were definitely very beneficial for our um subscribers to listen to because he talked about how policing really hasn't changed much in the fundamentals and the importance of sticking to the fundamentals. He's a he was a great guest. He's gonna come back, talk about a little bit regarding uh Active Shooter. He was actually the first person to respond to uh McDonald's massacre back in the 80s. So we're gonna be uh privileged to have him back and um talk about that. In episode uh five, we had uh Kimberly King, who is actually a former local news anchor. And she um is also the mother of a peace officer and the wife of a peace officer. She shares stories that show that uh human side of law enforcement, where sometimes we don't think about how law enforcement and the things that uh peace officers go through affect their loved ones. But imagine being the mother of a peace officer, your son or daughter are out there working late at night, encountering uh dangerous situations. She shared some of the stories also uh regarding some of the stories that she covered as a news anchor. So uh Kimberly, thank you. Thank you for being a guest on the show. Up next, we had Chief Larson. Chief Larson, currently the chief of El Cahon Police Department. I met him as uh DTAC instructor. He and I both taught several classes together, and the thing that impressed me about uh Chief Larson is the fact that he was always very positive with the people we trained. He gave uh great feedback, he took his time and ensured that people learned the techniques, they learned them properly. He was very patient with students. I think that's the way he actually leads his police department, which is something that um is a pleasure to hear about. We talked about leadership, we talked about critical incidents, we talked about his um time with SWAT and how he responded to an officer that was shot in the line of duty, he was shot in the head. And um Chief Larson, when he was a young patrol officer, responded to that call and uh he shared some of the lessons learned. Chief Larson, thank you for being a guest on the show. We also had Dan Sheehan. Dan Sheehan is a former Cobra pilot in the Marine Corps that had two tours uh during the war in Iraq. He's also a current um sheriff's deputy. He talked about uh PTSD and how PTSD manifests in humans in different ways. He talked about his own personal experiences, he talked about his own challenges and battles within. He's an author, wrote a book, a couple of books on the topic. And we're gonna bring him back to talk a little bit more about what he's seeing in law enforcement today, so that we can continue talking about this topic, which is so important, which sometimes leads to um suicide. If you uh ever have those type of thoughts, know that you're not alone and please talk to a friend, talk to somebody. Dan, thank you for being on the show. Appreciate your work. We next had uh Mike Martinez on the show. This officer has been involved in four shootings in his career. And this was that's a rookie. I met him at the academy. He was in one of my classes, I was teaching the gang class. He came up to me after class, introduced himself. We had a little chat for a few minutes. We talked about how growing up around gang members is kind of a superpower because it gives you some insight into the mindset of gang members, their viol, the violence that they're involved in, and their lifestyle. Not a lot of peace officers have insight into that lifestyle. So we talked about that, and we um reconnected when his um he participated in his episode where he talked about PTSD. He talked about some of the struggles that he went through uh with so much trauma, so much uh exposure to uh death and uh violence. He's now working in the wellness unit. He's helping other officers that are also struggling to get better, to understand that um communicating with others, talking about what they've experienced is a way to heal. Mike, thank you for being a guest on the show. We're gonna have to bring you back again. For episode nine, we had Lieutenant Sam Bryder. Lieutenant Sam Bryder, I met him when I was a training officer, and he was a training officer in the uh Detentions Academy. For as long as I known him, he always led from the front. He would not ask anyone to do anything if he wasn't willing to do it himself. I think that we don't have enough of that in uh law enforcement or in the world. We have to have leaders that walk the talk. And Sam definitely is one of those people. He's now a lieutenant in the uh sheriff's department, and he's also he was an acting sergeant major in the United States Army. And what uh he did over in Croatia was he um took over hundreds of uh troops and led from the front. He was given that assignment last minute and willingly took over, and as he always has, leading from the front, he was able to accomplish the mission. Sam was a great guest, great friend, and uh Sam, thank you. Thank you for being on the show. We also had a special report where we had uh DE retired DEA chief, Mike Vigil, who uh provided a recap of the killing of El Mencho in Puerto Vallarta. This particular interview was three days after the incident in Puerto Vallarta, and I was very thankful because Mike Vigil was great and willing to help out and give this interview, despite the fact that he is sought after around the world, and he's giving interviews in different countries, newspapers, um, TV shows, and I was just very thankful and uh honored that he was willing to be on our show and provide our listeners with the uh update on what was happening with El Menchul, the possible consequences of his um killing, because the way he ran the uh cartel, the new generation cartel was as a monarch. So he was the top of the chain and did not allow other people the same type of power beneath him. And what that happened when what happens when somebody runs an organization like that is that it becomes fragmented when they're gone. And now there's a lot of internal fighting, internal violence, and the country suffers. So, Mike, thank you for being such a great guest. Thank you uh for providing all the information, and we're definitely gonna have you back because you have so much more information on what happens with the cartel and some of the training camps with cartels, which we're gonna bring you back to talk about that. So, Mike, thank you. In episode 10, we had um former La Mesa Police Department captain David Bond, who is currently a clinical psychologist working for focus. His work has helped hundreds, if not thousands, of Peace officers and first responders in the area of post-traumatic stress. He trains cops, he trains first responders, and he also provides counseling, supervises counseling team. His work is invaluable and it's going to continue to help many, many people, many generations to come. Very thankful that James Bond was on our show. Please continue to do your work. Thank you very much. Up next, we had Jason Schwartz, who is a CEO of Jiu Jitsu 5.0. It's an online program to teach peace officers, first responders, how to defend themselves, keep themselves safe, keep others safe through the use of jujitsu, jujitsu techniques. This falls in line with our mission to raise the standard for peace officers in the state of California because his techniques work. And a lot of the failures that you see on social media, he's got the fix for them. I encourage all my recruits and peace officers to continue some kind of training post-graduation. Jason's doing that. He's doing that across the nation. He's training in person as well as through social media. I met him when he came out to San Diego, California. He put on a seminar here, outstanding seminar. Jason, keep doing what you're doing. And thank you for being a guest on the show. Up next, we had Autum Schmidt. And the topic that we talked about with Autumn was what happens when your career ends. There's uh times when your career may end prematurely. Maybe you get fired. Or, you know, you could get incarcerated. We had a peace officer here in San Diego County recently that was incarcerated for excessive use of force, uh, wrongful death. In her case, she was injured. There are a lot of officers that get injured on duty and their career ends. A lot of people don't imagine themselves just one day, a couple years into your career, um, your career being over. And many people struggle with reinventing themselves. Well, she thought about what she did to reinvent herself, and she actually is the CEO of She's an Asset, where she empowers women to be a better version of themselves and not be a liability. I love that because there's a lot of um bullying in law enforcement. Oftentimes, women are the target. I mean, we just recently had an incident like that at the police academy, and unfortunately, it's not the first incident. I'm glad that at least we're holding people accountable. But we need to make sure that um we have an inclusive work environment and that we support one another. And that's why I had uh Autumn on the show to talk about her experiences, talk about her current work that is empowering women to be a better version of themselves. And Autumn, thank you for being on the show. In episode 13, we had the POA president of the San Diego Police Department, Jeremy Hoff. He was also a former recruit, and he remembers that we used to do a lot of push-ups. I think most of my recruits remember that we did a lot of push-ups, and uh many of them felt that I was torturing them with push-ups. Just so you know, I did the push-ups with them. So if they felt tortured, I probably felt tortured too. But it's just weakness leaving the body. That's what I tell them. With Jeremy, he uh he uh very proud of him because he's now a sergeant, he's the uh president of the POA. And we taught about use of force. We taught about the importance of understanding that just being fit is not good enough for this profession. You actually need to be ready for a physical altercation. Just going to the gym to lift weights is not good enough. It's part of the solution, but it's not good enough. I always tell recruits that you need to have three things. You need to have knowledge of the law, your policies and procedures, use of force law. You also, number two, need to be physically strong. Not the strongest person, just be physically strong, get stronger every single day. And the third thing is that you need to be skilled at some kind of um martial art so that you can effectively take somebody into uh custody. Jeremy agreed with me. He also um fought in uh 2022 in the Battle of the Badges here in uh San Diego on the midway and is going to fight again in 2026 in the Battle of the Badges. We wish him luck. Thank you for being on the show, Jeremy. Up next, we had Dan Mejico. He is the CEO of 911 Strong, a social media strength and conditioning program. He used to be a peace officer in Orange County and is uh a personal trainer, former athlete. He um talks about the importance of being strong on this job, which falls in line with our mission. We need to ensure that peace officers' standards are higher, and that includes physical fitness standards. Sometimes people wonder why are some people so heavy? Well, that's because we don't have any standards. We don't have a test ever after you graduate. There's never a test. So, you know, stuff in your face um is something that, you know, has no repercussions until you have to fight someone or have to chase someone and you can't do it. Not being physically fit uh can it can be a detrimental problem for your safety and the safety of other people. Last episode in season two was with uh Mundo. Mundo is a Mexican mafia prison gang dropout. He turned confidential informant and helps train police officers across the nation. He talks about his days as a member of the Mexican mafia. He talked about his first murder and uh redemption. He talks about giving back, he talks about moving as far away as possible from that former life that he had. He gives thanks to Christ and his experiences he now shares with law enforcement so that we can learn about officer safety, we can learn about the criminal mind. Most peace officers don't grow up around um criminals, don't grow up with family members that are criminals. They come in with biases and hearing from somebody who's been there, who's done that is very beneficial. Mundo, thank you for being a guest on the show. In finishing up this uh episode, I just want to say that we're gonna make some changes in season three, just some minor changes, uh, but I want to bring quality guests, more quality guests, to the show. I want to um think we're gonna bring in a uh prison guard that talks about life behind prison because guards are doing time just like the prisoners, and the officer safety behind there. It doesn't matter if you're in a prison or you're in the street, officer safety is still officer safety. So that's gonna be a great conversation that I'm looking forward to. We're gonna bring in my friend, former partner uh for a short period of time, David Contreras. David Contreras has a great, great story. I won't spoil it, but he's got a wonderful story. And he's got so much experience working in the prisons, working on the streets as a police officer, and just giving back to the community. He's also helped me a lot, been a big supporter of uh Fit PD, and he has his own podcast, The Gray Line: The True Stories Behind the Blue Line. Him and his uh co-hosts, Chalo and Benny, great, great people. If you get a chance, please check out their channel. Producer Andy, just uh been a great, great supporter and his daughters that uh are also great, great customer service, just uh supporters of uh our mission and the uh show. I want to thank them. Thank you very much. To close it off, I'm gonna leave it up to uh our brother in Christ, our brother in law enforcement, Greg Adminson. He's gonna say a little prayer for everybody that's working or everybody anybody that's uh gonna be going on duty to make sure that uh they come home safe. We're thinking about you. God bless you. Thank you for watching.

SPEAKER_00 31:46

We come before you with gratitude for the brave men and women who have answered the sacred call to protect and serve. You said in Romans 13, verse 4, that the one in authority is God's servant for your good. Lord, we thank you for every officer who stands the line. We thank you for every officer who runs toward the sound of danger when others run away. We thank you, God, for every officer who brings order out of chaos, and who seeks justice with compassion. Father, as warriors in a fallen world, we draw our strength from you. Your word declares in Psalm 144, verse 1, Blessed be the Lord my rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for every battle. Train our hands, Lord, not only for the battles of the street, but for the battles within. Give us courage when fear whispers, give us patience when tempers rise. Grant us wisdom when decisions must be made in an instant. Lord, we ask for your divine protection over every officer in the field. Surround them with your angels as a shield, as you promised in Psalm 91, and let your peace guard their heart and mind in Christ Jesus. When they grow weary, remind them that those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength, they will soar on wings like eagles. Almighty God, you are our strength, you are our shield, you are our ever-present help in times of trouble. Father, when the day's work is done, bring them home safely. Restore their spirit, renew their joy, and remind them that they do not fight this battle alone. For you go before them, you go beside them, you are with them. In the mighty name of Jesus Christ, our commander and king. Amen.