The Greater Journey: Stories of Transformation with Gregory Rutledge

Safe Connect ID: The Tech That Could Save Lives

• Gregory Rutledge • Season 1 • Episode 1

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What if a single piece of technology could prevent the next tragic police encounter?
In this powerful episode, I sit down with Greg Alexander, founder of Safe Connect ID, and his business partner Eric Kibodeaux, a 30-year medical professional and public health advocate, to explore a groundbreaking solution to one of the most urgent issues in public safety today.

🛑 People with disabilities are 4x more likely to experience harmful or fatal interactions with law enforcement.
 âœ… Safe Connect ID is changing that—by connecting first responders to real-time data that can de-escalate situations before they turn tragic.

We discuss:

🔹 The real-life tragedies that inspired this movement
 ðŸ”¹ How the Safe Connect system works (and why it’s needed now more than ever)
 ðŸ”¹ The power of combining medical insight, tech, and advocacy to protect vulnerable communities
🔹 Their strategy to roll this out nationally — from partnerships to policy to AI
🔹 What YOU can do to support, share, and save lives

Whether you're a parent, educator, policymaker, or just someone who believes in justice with compassion — this conversation will move you.

👉 Visit https://safeconnectid.com/
to learn more, get involved, or register for yourself or a loved one.

This isn’t just a project. It’s a public safety revolution. And it’s already saving lives.

#SafeConnectID #MentalHealthVerification #GregAlexander #PublicSafetyTech #DisabilityAdvocacy #LawEnforcementReform #AIForGood #Podcast #SocialImpact #GregoryRutledge #GREATERFramework

0:02 [Applause] Welcome to the greater journey. I'm your host Gregory Rutled, author of From 0:08 Waiter to Greater and creator of the greater framework. On this show, we 0:13 don't just celebrate the highlight reel. We dive into the trenches, the doubts. Welcome to detours real, the lessons 0:20 uncut and the breakthroughs that shape who we become. Each conversation here is going to 0:26 follow the greater framework which you can find in my book from waiter to greater. My goal is to uncover the 0:31 moments that made my guest greater so you can find the courage to step boldly into your own journey. Let's jump in. 0:39 Welcome to the greater journey. All right. On today's episode, we have 0:46 future Dr. Greg Alexander and his COO Eric Kibido. Did I say that right? You 0:53 did. I did. Okay, perfect. And they are with Safe Connect ID. And I'm not even going 0:58 to like take away any of the glory of what this is and what it does. I'm going 1:04 to let them tell you what it is. But let me just say this. Mental health is 1:10 something that's been a buzzword, but it needs to be more than a buzzword. It needs to be something we take action on 1:16 because there are people that are dying every day because people are uneducated about how to handle 1:22 mental issues properly. And what they are bringing to the world is something 1:28 that every parent of a child with special needs will be much much 1:34 appreciative of. So what's the story guys that started you 1:40 that most people don't know? Well, it started with my dissertation. 1:49 You know, I wanted something to write about that was passion that was going to help, you know, people. And it was just 1:59 a blessing to know that um I came across this subject or this gap in mental 2:07 health. And so the research that I was doing was showing that people with disabilities, 2:14 people with autism, down syndrome, uh Alzheimer's, dementia, or even just any 2:23 disability at all, um are four times more likely to be um shot or um 2:34 misunderstood by police during their encounters. Yeah. And so what I did is, you know, I 2:42 thought if I'm going to write about this and do the research on it, then I'm going to build it. 2:47 So I uh found a great um uh tech engineer. 2:55 Okay. And um we got to work and uh I totally 3:01 funded this out of my pocket. Wow. And that's how passionate I am 3:07 about this. And um it it has been this 3:12 journey that helping individuals 3:18 um in need, you know, especially, you know, I have 3:24 relatives that have um you know, uh disabilities 3:29 and that could be easily misunderstood by police. And and I didn't tell you that I'm a police officer. I'm a current 3:34 Texas police officer right now. And so when whenever we come across 3:40 someone, let's say the little emblem on your tag, you know, the the handicap, it 3:46 doesn't tell us anything, right? I mean, we just see an emblem and we we 3:51 walk up on the car with we know this person has a handicap, but 3:56 what kind of handicap do they have? Could be a limp. It could be a stutter. 4:01 It could be anything like disability, you know, it's it's something people can actually 4:08 manipulate the system to get. Mhm. And you know, you never know who's 4:14 manipulated the system, who's pretending. So this safe connect ID tell. Okay. So, I know I knew kind of a 4:22 little bit of the story beforehand, but for the listeners, like what what was the d what was the thing 4:30 that that made you decide? Like I know writing the dissertation about it, being 4:35 passionate about it, but there's something under there that's driving this. Like usually someone's not 4:41 passionate unless there's something deeply personal to them. And I don't 4:47 know if you're comfortable sharing this, so I'm asking, but I don't want to mention it unless you're comfortable 4:52 with it. Well, it's not that I'm not comfortable sharing. It's just I 4:57 don't know that my other half would be comfortable sharing that. That makes sense. Okay, we'll leave that 5:02 alone. Um, there are family members that have a disability and you've seen 5:09 it in your work and that's enough. That's all we need to know. That's all passion you need. If you go back and and 5:15 look at the news, I mean, we have an incident in Idaho that happened several months ago about a 17-year-old with 5:21 nonverbal autism. They get shot in the front his front yard by police and killed. 5:27 Gosh. And so we need to 5:32 we need to give police tools that they can use in mental health situations. 5:41 And that's that's the passion. Me being a me being an officer, I'm tired of seeing police getting killed by by 5:47 mental health challenges and then police shooting people with mental health challenges. 5:52 Yeah. Yeah. Kind of goes both ways. It's it's not a it's it's a highway straight through. 5:59 It's not a bike path meet meets a highway, you know. I didn't I didn't even think about that perspective. The officers getting killed 6:05 for for mental disabilities. Like that's that's a perspective I literally did not 6:10 ever think of. Mhm. Wow. And so, Eric, where where do you come into this equation? Uh because I I 6:18 I found out a little ahead of time, but I just want the the audience to see how 6:24 this is the perfect combination of people to be working on this. Well, I mean, my background is in 6:30 healthcare, so I've been in the medical field for close to 30 years. Um, and so 6:35 dealing with some of the, you know, patient privacy and the HIPPA aspects of the platform and everything, that's kind 6:41 of where my skill set comes in. But just being a doctor and understanding a lot 6:48 of these even physical disabilities. Um, there's times where some people are 6:53 on some they may be struggling with a certain disability, but then they may also be on medications that slow down 6:59 their processing. Yeah. which escalates a police encounter. Um, sometimes you have an 7:05 individual who has certain specific triggers, which could be the strobe 7:10 lights of the police car or um high volume demanding officers where if the 7:17 officer knew ahead of time before he got there, it it may allow him to treat uh 7:25 individuals differently rather than escalating a situation. and it may deescalate a situation. 7:31 So, yeah, that's just basically how how I kind of fit into the picture here, 7:37 you know, and I have I have personal experience with this. Um, some a relative of mine, we'll just keep it 7:42 anonymous all the way across the board, right? Um, was in downtown Fort Worth 7:48 and he's waiting for an Uber, blacks out and wakes up in a jail cell with bruises 7:54 and his body hurts and has no recollection of what happened. the last thing he remembers is waiting for an 8:00 Uber. Um, so now he's sitting in this cell with public intoxication charges 8:05 for having a seizure. And it's like like h how is this okay? And how are we in 8:11 2025 and no one's done anything about this? But here you are. So I have to 8:17 ask, you know, there's there's always that that opposition, that disruption 8:23 that follows your intention. Was there a moment in all of this that you felt overlooked or under underestimated? 8:34 Um, I really haven't talked to a lot of people about this in a way that produced 8:41 any negativity. Um, they all think we need this. Um, I 8:48 think I think a lot of them that I've talked to are a little bit scared because this is something new. M 8:54 um you know I've heard mentions about what if the government got a hold of 8:59 this uh how would they use it? Um 9:05 but as far as really having any kind of challenging um I think the biggest part would be 9:12 HIPPA. That's probably I get most questions about HIPPA. And a lot of people don't understand is 9:19 HIPPA, there's no HIPPA with police. Um, as long as police are using it in an 9:25 investigative or probable cause manner. Now, they can't they can't drive around in their patrol cars, jump on their 9:32 NDTs, and run their ex-wife mental health to see what she, you know, was going on. That's a violation of HIPPA. M 9:39 they have to be using it in a way that's you know that is protecting public the 9:46 public's interest to protect and serve right and even even with the platform and I 9:53 know we haven't gone deep into the platform but even with the platform only certain things are are visible not just 10:01 any medical information so there are some things that are very much protected 10:06 and and that is correct what Greg is saying a lot of People are just kind of scared of the idea about HIPPA. But in 10:12 all fairness, if you bring Well, there's so many different inventions that have happened over the course of mankind that 10:19 when they first came on the scene, people were scared of it because it's something new. Yeah. Um 10:26 the other thing is a lot of times when people go to their physician, 10:31 they sign paperwork, which is assignment of benefits with their doctor. And the 10:37 assignment of benefits basically just allows the doctor to send over the 10:42 internet your diagnosis codes to insurance companies in some other state 10:50 uh to build your insurance. So that information is already being encrypted 10:55 and protected out there and that's all we're doing. We're doing the same thing where it's encrypted and protected. Um, 11:02 so it's just something new that more than anything is something, you know, people are scared about. But like we 11:07 started the podcast, mental health and physical disabilities 11:12 have been pushed to the forefront where the stigma is starting to kind of fade 11:17 away, where that's not uh quite so scary to 11:22 keep in a locked up lock box in a closet now, right? People need help. They need to get help. 11:28 Period. Um, and then secondly, um, it's not 11:33 quite as scary when you're talking about, uh, trying to protect people when 11:39 you see, um, unfortunate encounters every day on the news, newspaper, the 11:45 internet, everywhere. And so, we're just trying to close that, um, that that gap, 11:52 I guess, that misinformation gap. Yeah, it's such important work, man. 11:59 And and just to piggyback off of that, I've made it free for police 12:05 police departments across the nation, whether sheriff's departments, constables, 12:10 um police departments, uh federal, uh state law enforcement, they can all use 12:17 it for free. Wow. I didn't want to have to I didn't want barriers put in place because of of 12:26 political hoops that people have to jump through to be able to use something that 12:31 could you that could possibly save lives. Absolutely, man. This is incredible, guys. Like I 12:39 mean I know that just the the sheer amount of 12:47 senseless things that happen in the news. I mean, 12:53 people are quicker to grab their phone and try to create some viral content than to try to help someone with it. And 13:00 so, just putting this in place is that, 13:05 you know, it this isn't just a platform to inform. This is a movement to 13:12 transform the world. Because yes, it may start in the US, but like I imagine this 13:17 being worldwide because I don't know. I know you you had some numbers for me 13:23 when we spoke, but there are a lot of lives that are lost unnecessarily. 13:30 It's not just necessarily the lives that are lost, but just the human dignity. Yeah. 13:35 Uh that's kind of um misplaced sometimes with law enforcement officers. It may 13:42 not always result in a death, but just human dignity, like you mentioned earlier with somebody who woke up with 13:47 bruises in a jail cell. I mean, that person's they didn't pass away 13:53 thankfully, but I'm sure their dignity was uh violated along with whoever if 13:59 there was somebody around like you said with a cell phone trying to create content, right? Yeah. And you know, as as 14:07 the relative finding out about this the day, like you don't know where your relative is 14:14 and then you get a call that they're in jail. Like that could have been worse, right? But with with this in place, like 14:23 there's a lot of peace of mind, not just for the relatives, but for the the people that are that are affected. 14:29 So, I wanted to, if you don't mind, I wanted to piggy back off of that. the you know 14:34 the research that I did whenever I was putting this together is I I talked to a lot of people that had like uh you know 14:43 sons and daughters of autism you know high functioning autism non-verbal autism I did some research and talked to 14:50 people with disabilities and even people with Alzheimer's they will not call the 14:57 police again because they're scared how the police are going to interact with 15:02 their loved ones And even to the point where one individual said he he can't he's in a 15:09 wheelchair and can't use his legs. The police made him get out of his van to 15:14 prove that he was disabled. Talk about dignity. And so this platform will allow them to 15:24 go on to safeconnect.com. They can register a profile. They can 15:32 put as much information or as least information that they want to. They don't have to give their full medical. 15:39 They can they can put their name. They can put um high functioning autism. 15:46 They can even put their tag number because high functioning autistic people drive. And that way when police officers 15:54 run their tag information through the platform, it will pull this up as well. 15:59 And so um and then they put their con people to contact 16:05 um and then when when police run them through this information and they're having some challenges then they can 16:12 reach out to these people their contacts and say look I have your loved one here can you kind of give me some information 16:18 on what's going on or they have some information so they can have a more compassionate interaction. M that's so 16:27 it just the compassion the compassion is what we need more of and 16:33 you know the the thing that comes to mind I know it's done now or or just about 16:41 done now but were there was there a time where 16:47 there was a struggle or or setback that made you feel like this wouldn't 16:55 be done or like was there a time where you felt like it might not ever see the day of 17:01 light? Whenever I was uh develop developing the 17:06 platform, I hired an overseas company to to do the platform 17:12 and it was not a good experience and they kept wanting more money, 17:17 wanting more money and it was almost like they were holding it hostage until 17:23 I gave them more money. and and I I you know, of course, Eric 17:30 was with me with then and so was my tech and we just decided we're never ever 17:36 doing that again. We're going to keep everything local because it just about 17:41 didn't happen because I wasn't I wasn't I was funding this out 17:47 of my pocket and I was about to run out of money. Wow. Wow. 17:55 So, so it it it nearly didn't happen. Wow. And to think money, again, we 18:03 talked about this earlier, you didn't want money to be the blocker for this solution to to be in the world. And it 18:10 almost literally happened. Wow. And and as of this day, 18:16 you know, we you know, I I don't have an investor. I'm still funding this out of my pocket. 18:23 Um, that's how that's how passionate I am about this, how much I want this to go through. Um, you know, we're we're 18:31 not a nonprofit, so we really can't take any donations or anything like that, but for the sake, you know, um, 18:39 it it's been challenge. It's been a challenge in the financial area. Yeah. 18:47 And you know, I have I have no idea what it's like to build a platform like this. 18:56 It's scary, man. I I was going to say it's like, you know, doing a podcast, coaching people, 19:03 that's that's safe. That's easy, right? But like you're getting involved with 19:08 things that could potentially cause some political unrest, some some like 19:15 You know, Greg, you're gonna get I'll give you some information that nobody has. How? Only on your podcast. 19:21 Let's go. We developed a platform where gun vendors can run your mental health 19:27 without violating HIPPA before they sell a weapon. Get out of here. 19:33 No, we haven't released it yet. We have it developed. We have the platform built 19:39 and all the research that we've done is they would use it. Wow. 19:45 Because because you have to give consent to buy a weapon because they have to run 19:51 your criminal history. Yeah. So if you give consent for that and give 19:56 consent for the mental health part of it, you know, that's all in consent. 20:02 And once again, all that mental health information when it comes to the gun vendors is all protected. Nobody sees 20:08 anything. All you get is a pass fail type um notification. There's no 20:14 information that the vendor even sees or knows about other than just pass or fail. Um so yeah, there's times where uh 20:23 we've seen those kinds of stories on the news as well and everybody says, "Well, 20:28 we saw all the flags. We just never put it all together." Because in in retrospect, you you may see these um 20:35 indicators and it's just certain certain diagnosis codes. It's not just any mental health code, you know, there's 20:41 there are some critical health codes that are that are uh dangerous to themselves and to to society, and those 20:48 are the ones that get flagged, not not just any mental health because because who who who's truthful 20:54 about their mental health when they go buy a weapon? Uh yeah, really. I mean, most people 21:01 will probably want to buy a weapon off themselves or someone else. Well, we funny you say that because we were 21:07 talking to a big box uh and big box store that sells. We 21:13 don't want to name anybody, but we we were talking to because because we we went out and did our 21:18 research and one of the big box says, "Hey, there's people that has come in and went out in the parking lot and oped 21:24 themselves after they buy a weapon from them." So, it does happen. 21:32 That is so unsettling. So, we just, you know, we're we're we're 21:39 wanting to do a few more things on that before we release it. But, um, we feel 21:44 like that that we, you know, that that would be a very useful tool, um, you know, in the 21:51 coming. And again, these are all things that, you know, make people scared in the 21:56 beginning and we and we get it. We also know that we're to some degree market disruptors 22:03 and that that also gets either people on your side or very much against you. We 22:09 understand that. We also understand that it's a political hot potato, which we 22:15 get that. But we're here to serve the greater good, the community, the community of the United States and 22:21 people that should not be um you know shot or killed or 22:28 those types of things that would be um you know a danger to society. So that's 22:34 that's the other part of the the platform. But um I want to circle back to what Greg was talking about on Safe 22:39 Connect ID that yes, police and law enforcement and all law enforcement agencies, not just local police, could 22:46 be state police, uh national that anything get to use the safe connect ID 22:52 part of it for free. But families whenever they create a profile for their 22:58 sister, brother, parent, child, what or themselves, um they our fee right now is 23:05 only $36 a year um to have that profile. And so whenever they put in um whatever 23:13 information they want, uh they don't have to put they can only put in certain things. Let's say maybe they have 23:19 Asberers or Tourette's or something along those lines or auditory processing disorder. They don't have to put in 23:25 everything else, just whatever they feel is the most critical. Um, that $36 a 23:30 year is cheaper than what most people pay for their home security system and 23:36 registering it with their local police department. So, for instance, if you 23:42 have a home security, uh you normally pay roughly about $50 a year to your 23:47 local police department so that if your house alarm goes off, they get notified and come and uh check on your house. 23:55 Well, our our platform for them is $36. It's, you know, $14 cheaper than um than 24:02 that fee. Wow. And it and it goes everywhere in the United States. 24:08 Wow. That's that's using you you know all the police departments that are using this. So 24:15 that's about 10. So if you're on vacation in another state or if you're sending you know your your child with aspberers to grandma's 24:21 house in in Idaho, as long as those law enforcement officers or police 24:27 departments are using that, uh that information goes everywhere. 24:33 Wow. Now, this cost for the $36 a year, is it for the the person signing up with 24:39 the platform? So, that's who you're registering on that profile for that individual. So, if you're a 24:44 parent and you're registering, let's say your brother, your legal guardian, or maybe your parent with Alzheimer's, 24:52 maybe your child with Tourette's, uh, whatever the case may be. Um, now if 24:57 you have two children, then obviously it's 36 times two, but but but basically that's what you're 25:03 doing by creating their profile. Okay. Okay. I just wanted to make sure I 25:08 understood that. Okay. And this this will allow the police to continue to use it for free. 25:15 M so the cost is on the user so that 25:22 there's no friction from the government or law enforcement 25:27 to say oh we can't afford that we don't have the budget for that right that along with the parent is the one 25:35 volunteering healthc care information so they have decided to release that 25:41 information which means they're uh uh restricted by 25:46 HIPPA because you're volunteering that information and that profile. 25:52 And the only people that can see it, of course, are the law enforcement officers. Nobody else can see that, including Greg and I and anybody else 25:58 that works for mental verification technologies. We can't see that either. It's just there for the people that need 26:04 it when they need it. Correct. And when that child turns 18, that information would fall off because 26:10 they're an adult unless they're still under guardianship because maybe they 26:16 have uh, you know, a mental disability where they have to have a legal guardian. But if they are, let's say, 26:23 somebody with Asperers who can function, it's a high functioning autism. Uh, if they want to continue to pay for 26:30 it, they pay for it as an adult and keep that that profile. Otherwise, it just falls off at 18. 26:36 And does any of that stay in the system or do they have to pay to keep it in the 26:42 system? Correct. Okay. Could they pay multiple years in advance? 26:49 Yes, they can they can pay up to two years. Okay. Okay. And and the other thing is 26:57 is maybe uh you know this is maybe your child is having a hard time at school. 27:03 um you know, maybe they've had some mental health challenges and they want the school resource officer to know 27:09 about it. Well, they would be the only ones that could see that information if they ran the child's name, you know, in 27:16 our system. So, they would know how to have a more compassionate interaction if there was some mental health challenges there 27:23 during school. This is so beautiful. I I can't stop 27:29 smiling because like I remember when we we met a couple 27:36 years ago and you told me you were doing this and then we've missed each other every day since trying to do just this 27:42 and here it is. It's ready. It's going to change lives. It's going to save 27:48 lives. It's going to save people their dignity. How? 27:53 So this this is the first episode of this podcast. It's going to grow and people are going to go back at some 27:59 point and listen to this. What do you want that listener to hear when when 28:04 they are wondering how can I support this? How can I help them to get this to 28:10 the world? What do you want them to know? um 28:15 buy a profile for if if if you don't have children, everybody in the United 28:21 States knows somebody with a disability, maybe suffering from autism, maybe 28:27 suffering from Down syndrome. Everybody in in the United States knows 28:32 somebody that has challenges. Get them a profile. Buy them a profile and say, "Hey, I'm I'm buying you a 28:38 profile. Go on and register." Wow. you know, that that could save 28:43 their life. You don't you don't necessarily have to be their their their 28:48 relative. You can just say, "Here, I'm buying you a profile. Go on here and register. 28:53 I want to save your life." Or if you're a member, if you have a a child that has one of these types of um 29:01 illnesses or disabilities that's already part of a foundation, then tell other people in your network in that 29:07 foundation about it as well. Uh yes, tell your friends, family, co-workers, people that all have, we all know 29:14 somebody once or twice removed, even in our own families that might have one of 29:20 these conditions that need to have a profile. But if you're also a member of, let's say, the Autism Foundation or, you 29:27 know, Alzheimer's Society, um, network and tell other people because they're 29:33 all the most vulnerable and and are susceptible to these, uh, encounters and 29:39 and need to be need to be informed about a platform like this that can help possibly save their lives and their 29:45 dignity. I didn't I didn't tell you that on Safe Connect ID you can put a picture of your 29:51 child or you can put a picture of your adult on there so you know who you're looking for, 29:56 you know, so they can match. So it's it's it's not just information. It's it's a you can put a picture of 30:03 them on there. Yeah. So they know exactly what to expect, who who they're looking 30:10 for, and Wow. This this is incredible, guys. 30:17 And and we haven't even we haven't even scratched the surface. We haven't even 30:22 told you about Counselor Connect. We haven't even told you about the National Mental Health Information Center. 30:29 Well, let's go into it. I know these these episodes are supposed to be 30 minutes, but this one's good. I think this one will go a little longer. Let's 30:35 go. Let's scratch this surface. Okay. So, Counselor Connect is a platform 30:40 where counselors can schedule, keep track of their clients. They can um you 30:47 know, check you know, keep up with their practice and they can pull information 30:53 from the National Mental Health Information Center to better serve their clients. It's kind of like if I was a 30:58 counselor and I have somebody coming in and I ran them and it pulled up that they had schizophrenia. Maybe I'm not 31:04 the one that needs to be talking to them. Maybe, you know, or, you know, maybe 31:11 somebody's moving counselors and they need a counselor out in, you know, Arizona. So, you know, that person in 31:18 Arizona, as long as they're on our platform, can pull that stuff, pull their information, and pick up right 31:24 where they left off. Wow. So, it I'm trying to to fill the 31:30 communication gap in the counseling realm because it's very broken. Yeah. 31:36 And very needed. And the National Mental Health Information Center 31:41 uh carries EHRs, electronic health records, and it only goes out and it looks for 31:48 personality disorders. We're not looking for any kind of like little anxiety or depression. We're looking for 31:55 personality disorders and it and it and officers can pull that 32:01 as well. Besides the Safe Connect ID, it tells them what prescriptions they're on, what their diagnosis is, who's their 32:07 counselor, if there's one listed, when the last time they were in a mental health hospital. It gives them all of 32:14 that, which will be so helpful because I've seen videos come across my feed where, 32:20 you know, they they said this lady was drunk and they were asking her what she was on and she's just you can see she's 32:28 genuinely scared for her life and she's just taking her meds, right? But the 32:35 officer's like, "I don't believe you." and you know someone's recording it or the body cam's recording it and just 32:41 roughening her up and if there was a little compassion applied that could 32:47 have been a safe transaction they would have understood that oh okay she's not inebriated she's just on her meds 32:55 and okay go on about your way be more safe next time or something like that you know just wow I didn't even know 33:02 that there was a communication gap in the counseling Mhm. world. And I guess I should have because 33:09 that is the number one problem I think I see in every area I've been is communication. It always boils down to 33:16 communication. So there's two pieces to that counselor connect where counselors if they um want 33:24 to advertise on our platform society can even look for them. So 33:31 almost like a directory and if I'm looking for a counselor who deals with um you know divorce or 33:38 counselors that deal with other mental health issues whatever the case may be that counselor and when I say when we 33:45 say counselor we're also talking about psychiatrists and psychologists it's not just counselors. Oh wow. But but the thing is is if I'm looking 33:52 for somebody I need somebody who works in the specialty of the field that I'm looking for. And so I could be moving 33:59 to, you know, from Fort Worth to Little Rock, Arkansas, and I don't know 34:05 anybody, and I can go onto that platform and look for free. Uh, I can also try to 34:10 schedule or um it's almost like a virtual assistant if they use us where 34:15 the virtual assistant, I can go on to our website and say, I want a virtual 34:20 appointment or I want an in-person appointment uh Tuesday, November 4th. and I can put in it goes into that 34:27 person's calendar and so it's already scheduled. It also for the professional, the health care 34:33 professional works the same as electronic health records like Greg said where they can maintain all the the 34:40 electronic health records and then send those things off to, you know, insurance for billing and that kind of thing. But 34:47 on the front office of that um doctor's office, the assistant might see the 34:53 calendar populate with individuals with the scheduled time, but they don't get to see the medical records. Only the 35:00 back office, which is the medical professional, can see the mental health records. So, it's uh very similar to a 35:07 lot of your I think um simple practice is already out there and we're very similar to that, but we're able to do a 35:13 lot more than simple practice. So, it's somewhat of a competitor when it comes to the EHR records and stuff, but 35:20 our um our individuals, our the society can basically look and find a counselor 35:25 in their area um geographically and also the area of specialty 35:31 and and plus we're a lot cheaper. I mean, they can sign up for free right now and if they decide they like it, 35:38 they can pay $29 a month, you know, to use the full platform or $9 35:44 a month just to use part of the platform. Wow. So, you know, I I want to make it, 35:50 you know, me being mental health specialist myself, you know, um working towards my license, my uh LPC, 35:58 um I wanted to make it as cheap as I can for counselors. we're we're nickeled and 36:04 dying to death. And I want, you know, we need to be we need them to to be able to help others 36:12 without worrying about gosh, this is so expensive. This is so expensive, you know? 36:17 Right. So, but that's that's the the key on that. I mean, it it's we we just there's 36:25 so many rabbit holes that this can go down. Yeah, I'm seeing this. I mean, the military can use it for MEPS. 36:33 It would probably save the taxpayer a lot of money because, you know, being able to uh uh run their mental health 36:41 before they enter the military. Um, you know, there's just a lot of 36:46 things this platform can do, but it's taken this long to develop it. 36:52 Yeah. So 36:58 it's just Okay. And then you said so there's Safe Connect ID, the counselor connect, and 37:05 then the National Medical Information Center. National Mental Health Information Center. Mental Mental Health Information. 37:12 It works a lot like the National Crime Information Center. You know, where we can we can run your criminal history. 37:20 So why not have it run your mental health history? Wow. 37:29 Now, there's there's upsides to this for the for the people that, you know, um 37:37 need more compassion in the world. But what about the people that are 37:42 embarrassed about it? Is it just don't sign up? 37:48 Well, you know, you got to look at like this. What if you're living alone? uh with schizophrenia, what are the 37:55 likelihood of you getting shot and killed uh if police respond? 38:02 The biggest thing is there wouldn't be an advocate there like he's talking about if somebody's there by themselves, 38:07 you know, or uh you know there are some situations where a diabetic could be so low on 38:15 their blood sugar that they become very agitated and irritated. Yeah. uh and become combative almost. 38:23 There's not that we're focused on the diabetic side of things, but there are so many times where there may not be an 38:29 advocate there in your in your in your in your place because you yourself may 38:34 be the one that's suffering from the mental health crisis at the moment or having an auditory processing disorder. 38:41 Maybe you're just uh you could be a a person that deals with deafness and uh 38:49 you don't have um maybe you're fully charged uh earpieces and so you hear 38:55 them talking but you have no idea what they're saying and all that does is escalate a situation rapidly because they don't 39:02 take that into account at all. No. No. And they take it as disrespect or just Yeah. There's there's so many 39:11 ways this could go. Yeah. And police get police get 40 hours of 39:17 training in this area. That's it. Seriously, I I it took me three years to get a 39:24 mental health degree. Huge difference in knowledge and 39:30 training that the the police have to deal with, you know. So, so it's this 39:38 will close that gap for them. Wow. 39:45 We know we know nothing is perfect. Um, and we're not saying we're solving every problem, but the gap that Greg was 39:52 talking about in the beginning is a very giant uh chasm, if you will, between 39:59 police interaction and mental health. Yeah. And so what we're trying to do is 40:04 uh narrow that gap significantly and and if a lot of people including um 40:11 was it your cousin you said that had the interaction with the the police officers? His relative. 40:17 Yeah. Your relative. Yeah. Wow. If if that if that closed the gap even more then there's a lot of 40:24 people that we save, you know, number one their life, the possibility of their dignity. Um, but like we said, nothing's 40:32 perfect, but it's also getting people past the stigma of mental health and 40:38 being afraid to put a profile in because like you just asked in your question, what stops that person? Well, 40:46 if they if they deal with that shame, you know, we want to be able to help them pass that 40:53 by, you know, having less of their dignity uh robbed whenever 41:00 there's an interaction so that you know those those things happen and it's not a usually I mean 41:07 somebody might say, "Well, I've never had that uh that that interaction before with a bad outcome." Okay. Well, that 41:15 doesn't mean it's couldn't happen in the future. There's always, you know, a situation that can and we've seen things 41:22 on our own with our own eyes how a normal everyday encounter can go 41:28 sideways in a matter of seconds. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And and it's again back 41:35 to communication. If that person knew that there was something that like a 41:41 mental disability or some sort of health thing there 41:48 like for example weighted tables for 15 years I've seen all people from all 41:53 walks of life and the one thing I find is that hungry people are the worst. 42:01 uh we can become someone completely different when we're hungry, but you said something about the diabetics being 42:08 agitated, you know, because their blood sugar drops so low. There are people that don't know they're diabetic, right? So, what do what do we do for the people 42:14 that don't even know they have a mental disorder yet or they don't know? Like I 42:20 I would imagine through Safe Connect and Counselor Connect that 42:28 the over time people would get more than 40 hours, the 42:34 officers, the counselors would get more than 40 hours of understanding. Like now when they meet with the client, they not 42:41 only know what to prepare for and what what they have, but they know to kind of see the patterns of each diagnosis so 42:49 that, you know, as the time goes on, everyone becomes a mental health professional or at least more informed 42:57 to where the whole world could have a little more compassion because I don't I don't know about y'all, uh, but before 43:05 um you know, early on in life, we're not researching mental health on our free 43:10 time, you know, like trying to learn about someone with schizophrenia and how that works. It's it's only when it 43:17 affects us directly. Mhm. Wow. So, what there's a couple things 43:24 that came to mind. Let's say it's too expensive. Like cheap 43:29 is relative, right? Because cheap to a millionaire is like $20,000. 43:36 um cheap to someone that you know has mental health and can probably you know 43:42 well there's the option for the the relative to buy it for them or someone to sponsor them. 43:49 Are there any partnerships with like schools, employers, um insurance 43:56 companies that that you're considering to where, you know, this could be a service that 44:03 not not only does the the payment shift from the government and the officers, but 44:09 also shifts from the person to like an insurance company, so it could be part of their insurance or part of like 44:15 benefits packages. Well, we I mean, you know, we we I think 44:20 I've discussed this with Eric. You know, maybe an alarm, 44:26 hypothetically, let's say an alarm company comes to your house and you buy an alarm system from them. If they offer 44:31 a safe connect ID profile as part of that alarm system for maybe the family that has autistic children, 44:37 that could actually save them in their household, you know? I mean, all options 44:42 are on the table. Yeah. I mean, I I I just I just want to get this out. I just want people to start using it. That's 44:50 that's, you know, that's where we're at. And so, 44:55 um, you know, I wanted to tell you a quick story. Yes, please. Um, so 45:03 again, a relative, you know, um, you know, that was having some mental health 45:09 challenges, um, was, you know, more so uh you know it was it had to go 45:17 along the line of drug induced schizophrenia. And 45:23 over time this individual slipped through the system so many times 45:29 with the brokenness of the system that ultimately 45:34 led her to commit suicide. Wow. And so um you know and it it affected me 45:45 as well because you know I mean that was a family member. 45:50 Yeah. And so as as as much as we want to get 45:56 people that help. We may not be able to get that those people help directly, but 46:02 indirectly we could give them a profile or or or help them get a profile and then police could have that information 46:08 and maybe get them to the right people. So, you know, that's kind of I mean that 46:19 there there's a way to get this out and it's going to take the nation to do 46:24 this. Absolutely. And that's why this the logo uh you know I know hopefully you'll 46:31 you'll put the logo up on this. Um, I would like this logo to be a national 46:37 symbol between people with autism, disabilities, 46:42 um, you know, and police because 46:50 there has to be a a lifeline in that 46:56 that call for service and compassion. I'm gonna share it on the screen real 47:02 quick. And for those of you listening, since this is an actual podcast now, 47:08 um, go to safeconnect.com. 47:14 I I would love for that symbol to be a national symbol between police and people with the you know all those 47:20 disabilities, mental health, autism, 47:26 you know, because they can put police departments can put this on their website. People can click on this and 47:32 sign up. And I know that Florida passed a House 47:38 bill to do this. Wow. Kansas has also is doing this and 47:45 so is Maine. And I'm kind of like, hey guys, let us manage your database for 47:50 free and let let let's do all this electronically. So when your community 47:56 moves across, you know, state lines and stuff, they'll this will still go with them. They're doing it locally. Like uh 48:04 I talked to a police department in Kansas and they just they just do it by 48:09 CAD system. So when somebody somebody downloads the piece of paper, you send them the piece of paper and then they 48:15 put it in their system. It doesn't go anywhere else. It stays with that department. That needs to change. 48:25 So yeah, again, communication, right? It's 48:32 communication. I I don't know if you've ever been to Well, a a great example is 48:39 résumés, right? Like you got to fill out your application and send a resume. Then you talk to someone else and they're 48:45 like, "Hey, send me your resume. Then you show up and you got two, three copies of your resume printed. You give 48:50 one to the person at the front because they asked for it." Then you give it to the person that's interviewing you. Then 48:57 let's say you get a second interview. That person needs it. Like, why did I upload it and fill out my application? 49:03 Right. And then the first question, so tell me about yourself. 49:09 Did you not read my resume? Let's get to the conversation part. But 49:15 then the doctor's office, too. You fill out all this information. I had an an um an instance with a dentist. I won't name 49:21 any names, but let's just say I don't go there anymore. I had hepatitis C for 11 years. Thank god I got cured in 2018 49:29 thanks to some amazing insurance. Um, but when I had it, I went to this 49:34 dentist and they have you fill out all this health history stuff and I told him, "I have 49:40 hepatitis C, right? So, you you're going to have to wear gloves when you're in my mouth just for safety." And so, I'm 49:48 about to start and I just wanted to make sure because I know people don't communicate, hey, I have hepatitis C and 49:53 the doctor got an attitude with me. She's like, why didn't you tell me this? Why didn't you put it in your paperwork? 49:59 I was like, I did put it in my paperwork. So now, let's shift this back to you. Why didn't you read the 50:04 paperwork? Why didn't your staff inform you about this? Right? And this is just, you know, a viral or what what do they 50:12 call them? Um, not viral disease. Is it a viral? Whatever. It was a blood disease. A 50:18 bloodborne disease, right? It's a communicable disease. And so to punish me, she told me we'd 50:24 have to reschedule and then like put it out another month or something. And I was like, I'm never coming back here. This is ridiculous. Like, you have a job 50:32 to do with the information you asked for me from me what you need to do to make 50:39 sure you're taken care of. But if that information isn't passed, and this is just talking about, you know, resumes 50:45 and if we have this with with mental health or with health as it is, just 50:50 getting information, even if I was to put my mental health stuff on there and there was an incident, 50:57 how would that be handled? Right? If you're not even looking at the stuff that could protect you, 51:03 how am I supposed to know you're looking at the stuff that can protect me? Well, we've made it very simple. I mean 51:09 police we made it very simple. You know me being an officer myself we can only look at things in a split second. So we 51:15 made this very simple. So they see that logo they see the disorder. They see 51:21 they can see it quick. And is there like instructions of how to handle that person, how to approach them 51:27 that pop up too? The people can put that in there may may experience uh extreme this or extreme 51:34 that may be unsteady on their feet. Maybe, you know, they can put that in there. In fact, all they got to do is 51:41 put some information in the chat GTP and then copy that into the safe connect ID. 51:48 Yeah. So, they don't even have to write it. I know. However, however you feel like is the 51:53 best way to interact is what that person inputting that profile would put in. M 52:00 so there's some control there with the parent or the guardian or whoever they're um entering that child or uh 52:09 sibling or parents profile if they if there's a certain way that they need to 52:14 be interacted like no yelling or screaming or you know I mean we're going 52:20 into hypotheticals but I'm just saying that when you say uh is there a certain can 52:26 you put certain things in there yeah you're in control of what you want to put in If you fail to put that in there, then 52:32 as a guardian, you probably need to put in the correct things and on how to handle that individual. 52:40 And is there like when you sign up, is there a guideline for what like a recommendation for what they should put? 52:47 Uh they just kind of just follow the the prompts. Okay, perfect. And there is a there is a place that 52:53 they can upload a doctor's note for the police if they want to for proof. Wow. 52:58 And there's a way that whenever the police um can pull up that information, if they're going to, let's say, a 53:05 residence or if they happen to pull a car over, they can run it by a license 53:12 plate because you may not be at home and that person's sitting in the passenger seat or the back seat or something like 53:19 that. So that car would go with that that license plate can be ran along with 53:25 a residence if you're going to the residence. And here here's another thing. People in 53:31 jail can use this when they're bringing inmates in you know or they're or you know or they're bringing people into the 53:37 jail and they're using the system. So they know they can use it to see if there's any mental health. 53:43 Yeah. You know we have we've had there's been many deaths reported in jails for mental health stuff. 53:53 So sad. And and when you're in jail, you're treated like the worst of humans. Like 54:00 they don't they don't care what you did. You're a criminal now. Mhm. They may not care what you did, but at 54:07 the same time, you may need certain medications and you're missing those proper um dosages at a certain time 54:14 because you're sitting overnight or or some of the some of the um noises or 54:22 just the anxiety may trigger certain episodes of certain things. Yeah, 54:28 man. There's so like you said, there's a lot of rabbit holes we can go down with this one. Absolutely. because mental health is so 54:34 broad even just the name mental health uh you know and I will tell you this 54:41 because this was a challenge for me I actually got a patent on this so that was a challenge in its own so you know 54:50 because of all the drawings and all the technical uh information and and 54:56 I mean it was it was a challenge but it finally went through so 55:03 So in this process what was the hardest setback that you faced and how did you bounce back 55:11 um right now I think I I uh the financial setback 55:17 um you know we don't have a marketing you know I don't I mean pretty much I 55:22 I'm I'm sustaining the database um and and so that the users that are 55:29 already on it can continue to use Um, right now I'm not making anything 55:35 off of it. So, sustain. We only we only lost it launched a couple of months ago. So, now it's just 55:41 a matter of people like yourself that's putting us on your podcast and um other 55:47 you know what other social media that we can try to do because since Greg said earlier we're bootstrapping this 55:53 ourselves, there's not this uh deep marketing budget. So, we're um trying to 55:59 get the word out basically so people tell people. Hey, word of mouth is the best way to 56:05 spread. So, what's one last thing you want our listeners to hear? 56:13 All right. I would just say I would just say that um when your listeners hear this uh take 56:22 take a little bit of action. Don't just uh enjoy the the content. Uh tell 56:29 someone that you know in in your circle of influence, whether it's a co-orker or you know, like I said, once or twice 56:35 removed or if you do have a family member, create the profile because this 56:40 doesn't work. You we can sit back and and enjoy the idea of us filling a a 56:46 major uh gap in the mental health interaction world with law enforcement. 56:52 But until you take action and create a profile or tell somebody who needs this, um this ends up being just listening for 57:00 your enjoyment and not um helping helping kind of save the world, if you 57:05 will. Absolutely. I, you know, I'm all about action. So, I 57:12 would second that. Don't just be hearers of this word, be doers of this word, 57:17 and go spread the word with someone you know that could benefit from this. Uh we 57:23 all have that member or those members in our family that could benefit from this. I think every family at least has one 57:31 and they're suffering. They're suffering and and we just want to maintain, you know, their dignity in 57:38 society. you know, uh we we look at physical disabilities and and mental disabilities sometimes uh in a different 57:46 light. And so we're just trying to give those individuals same dignity that the 57:51 rest of us walk around with because everybody in the everybody 57:58 deserves the same compassion during police interaction. 58:04 That was a bar. Everybody deserves the same compassion during a police interaction. 58:10 Absolutely. Absolutely. 100%. 100%. Man. Okay. So, where can they find y'all? How can they support? I know you 58:18 said you can't take donations, but like uh safeconnect.com. 58:26 Uh www.mentalverificationtechnologies.net. 58:32 uh they can also email us on the platform. Okay. Um you know if if we run into an 58:39 investor, you know, everything's on the table. So um we just want to make sure 58:46 that the direction for society is still maintained 58:52 because that's what this is about. It's it's about helping people that haven't 58:59 been treated fairly in the past. And it also helps to follow us on on 59:04 even our own social media channels because Greg and I do put out content from time to time. And even though 59:10 social media is um kind of the the way to market, the only way you can get 59:15 other people to hear about it is to get more and more people just to to follow us on Instagram and X and YouTube. So 59:22 that's just that's just the following piece because we're putting out content, but the biggest thing is just telling 59:28 everybody to create a profile and save the life of your loved ones. Beautiful. And what are those social 59:35 handles? It's MVT for um for X and I believe it's also for 59:41 Instagram as well. So MVT is short for mental verification technologies. Okay. MVT at MVT. So simple. I love it. 59:50 Guys, thank you for sharing this with the greater journey. Um, I will do 59:56 everything in my power to get this out to the world starting with this podcast, but 1:00:02 I just envision a world where people have their dignity saved. There's more 1:00:09 compassion in every police interaction and people's loved ones don't have to be 1:00:17 treated unfairly because of something that they cannot control. 1:00:23 So, I thank you for coming on the podcast. Um, stay tuned afterwards. Uh, we're going to have a little 1:00:28 conversation backstage. I'm going to do the outro and we'll see you in the next episode. 1:00:34 Awesome. 1:00:44 I just love the outro music too. 1:00:49 This has been the greater journey. We will see you in the next episode tomorrow. Thank you for tuning in. 1:00:55 Safeconnect.com, guys. 1:01:04 [Music]