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It’s amazing what getting a job will do to you.

I was still taking classes at IU, but the Bloomington Police Department had already given me a call and confirmed that I was going to be hired in a few months.

My first full time job.

At the time I was working as a part time officer for IUPD while going to school and I was making about 7 bucks an hour. That was great, because at the time minimum wage was 4.25 an hour. Even then paying rent, putting gas in a car, and eating was about all I could afford.

That call changed everything. In just a couple of months I was going to be making 41,000 dollars a year as a first-year officer. That might not sound like much, but in today’s money that would be over 86K a year and I don’t think anyone would sneeze at that salary for a rookie.

That’s when my buddy hit me up.

Want to go to Florida for Spring Break?

Silly question, but in the past, I didn’t have any money, and while I still didn’t have any money, I had a big-time job coming and I had this little plastic thing in my pocket I had just picked up, a credit card.

I wouldn’t recommend putting a week’s spring break vacation on a credit card.

That was just the beginning of my troubles.

Right after swearing in, I bought my first brand new car. No more barely running rust buckets, but a nice shiny brand-new Geo Storm sports car…don’t judge me.

It was a budget sports car coming in at 12,000 dollars, see I was being frugal. And, just to put it in perspective that would be just under 30,000 bucks in today’s money.

My spending habits didn’t get any better.

As a matter of fact, I look back on about my first decade of policing and wonder.

“Where did all my money go?”

Financial Stability isn’t something that comes natural to cops. As a matter of fact, my story isn’t unusual. Actually, I did a pretty good job compared to some of the things we see new officers do with their money.

Since I decided to focus this season on retirement I new that I had to talk to a financial planner, someone who understood not only money, but the special issues that money brings to cops, and ultimately how to retire.

So, I reached out to Nick Daugherty at Financial Cop

Nick is the President/owner at FinancialCop LLC and Serve & Protect Financial Texas, a full service, fiduciary only financial service firm owned and operated by first responders for first responders. They are also the largest financial wellness training group for first responders nationally, having taught over 30,000 first responders from over 3,000 agencies, police academies, and conferences nationwide. 
 
 Currently Nick is a reserve officer for the Grand Prairie Police Department after 14 1/2 years as a full-time officer / sergeant.

https://financialcop.com/

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The Gold Watch

The Brass Ring

Retirement

You know … Winning

It’s a simple topic, one that everyone should be interested in and one that everyone should applaud. Ask a retiree if they regret getting out, odds are 100 to 1 that they will just laugh in your face.

Easy days of putzing around the house, playing golf, and waking up whenever you feel like it. No calls, no emergencies, no trauma, no adrenaline, just boring day in and day out.

I guess it’s a little more complicated than that.

With a decentralized law enforcement system in the United States, it is easy to guess that the retirement requirements and compensation differ across the country. Every state is different, and depending on the type of agency you are serving in, the retirement package for one officer in the county could be different from another officer in the county. Add in State Police and Federal Law Enforcement and retirement benefits quickly become difficult to navigate.

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I am blessed with friends.

I am blessed to have neighbors that rushed to my home to make sure that we were safe. I am blessed that I have people who will be there for me and my family in the darkest moments. I am blessed that I have friends who will reach out and provide moral and actual support when needed. I am blessed that I have met some amazing people over my career and they will take the time to chat with me on this podcast and I am blessed that people like you take the time to listen.

This is a heartfelt thank you to all of my friends out there, for everything they have done and will continue to do. I can never truly repay you with anything but my own friendship. I love all of you very much.

I hope you have enjoyed Season 5 of Blue Canary. As usual we are going to take a couple of months off and start planning for next year. If you have enjoyed Blue Canary please do me a favor and rate and review us on your favorite podcast platform. We are also now on YouTube so make sure you like and subscribe not just on your podcast app, but also on YouTube so that we can continue to help you tell your stories. And finally, like and subscribe so you don’t miss an episode.

We will be back in the spring with Season 6 of Blue Canary. What are we going to focus on for next season, well you will just have to subscribe to find out.

And remember, take a few minutes to make friends. They are everything.

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Jared Altic is a police chaplain in Kansas City, focusing his work in the patrol divisions of the Kansas City Kansas Police Department (KCKPD). He attends roll calls, goes on ride alongs, teaches at the police academy, and responds to homicides, suicides, and accidents in the city. Jared's passion is encouraging officer wellness among cops, which he also does through his podcast, Hey Chaplain.

I had the pleasure to talk with Jared about informal leadership and his role as a chaplain.

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Welcome to our annual Halloween Episode. These stories have been told to me by officers around the country and they swear they are true stories. Thanks to Parker for this one.

Happy Halloween.

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In the United States there are 3,116 local jails, 1,566 State Prisons, and 98 Federal Prisons. But let’s not forget the 1,323 Juvenile Corrections Facilities, 142 Immigration detention facilities, and 80 Tribal jails. These facilities house a little over 1.2 million prisoners.

These facilities are staffed with approximately 393,000 corrections officers.

At first glance that might seem like a lot.

A lot of facilities,

A lot of prisoners, 

A lot of jailers,

But it isn’t.

Let’s take a look at crime for a minute. The causes of crime have been studied for decades, and while some of the results may fly in the face of what we have been told over the years, facts are facts. For example, poverty does not cause crime, and the number one way to lower crime is through incarceration. You want your neighborhood to be safe. Easy, lock up the criminals. Consequences matter and holding people accountable for their actions has proven time and time again to be an effective deterrent.

Studies also show that 1 percent of the population commit over 60 percent of crime in America. Today there are a little over 1.2 million prisoners accounting for .36 percent of the US population. I would also argue that statistically we are living in a period of very high crime rates.

In 2008 the US prison population peaked at almost 2.5 million prisoners and you wanna know what else happened. Our crime rates were at a historic low.

Don’t believe me look it up.

There are around 800,000 police officers in the US today and they seem to garner most of the attention. They get most of the praise, the complaints, the glory, and the training … what little there is of that.

But what about those 393,000 corrections officers. They seem to be left behind when it comes to the praise, glory, and specifically training.

We refuse to do that.

[Insert Intro]

Jeff Carter retired in December of 2018 as the Deputy Director of the Fayette County Detention Center in Lexington, Kentucky. Over his 20-year career, he has worked all levels of custody inside a 1,300-bed correctional facility located in the horse racing capitol of the world. Jeff was an instructor for 5 years inside the academy, where he trained over 700 recruits, molding them into successful leaders in the Corrections field. While promoting through the ranks, he commanded the Professional Standards Unit where he specialized in Internal Affairs investigations and Gang Intel for 7 years.

I asked Jeff to talk about leadership, specifically in the jail system, but most of his advice is relevant no matter where you work.

[Insert Interview]

And that’s the story we have to tell.

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Chief of Police is a title typically given to the head of a police department, but that simple definition gets very confusing very quickly. Sheriffs are the name we give to elected officials who preside over county law enforcement in the US, while Chief’s of Police typically preside over municipal police agencies.

Sometimes Chief’s are elected. Sometimes they are appointed by a mayor or city council. Sometimes they are selected through the civil service act. Sometimes they are not called Chief’s of Police at all.

Police Commissioners are another term, frequently found in the larger metropolitan areas 

Chief,

When we talk about the police chief’s we are talking about the head of a municipal police department not affiliated with the local sheriff’s office.

What do chief’s do?

Sorry to make you laugh, it wasn’t a trick question.

Chiefs of police are typically responsible for operational oversight, budgeting, planning, discipline, direction, regulations, communications, and in smaller agencies general police work. All at the behest of a governing body, either mayor or city council.

It’s not an easy job.

I rose to the highest levels of administration in my police department. I was third in charge, so while I didn’t ever actually do the job, I did learn one thing.

You can’t pay me enough to do it.

[Insert Intro]

George Sippert spent 32 years serving the people of Flint Township Michigan. Flint township is located on the west side of the city of Flint Michigan. He took over as chief of police in 2004 an served until 2018. Throughout his career, Sippert also served in various roles including: Field Training Officer, Firearms instructor, School Resource Officer, Community Policing Division Commander and Motorcycle Unit Commander.

He is also a graduate of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Academy, a member of the Michigan Association of Chiefs of Police, Genesee County Chiefs Association, Central Michigan Chiefs Association, Genesee County 911 Advisory Board and the Flint Area Narcotics Group Advisory Board.

I have had the pleasure of knowing and speaking with George on a number occasions and I couldn’t think of anyone better to discuss the role of the police chief.

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Note: This was an extremely difficult episode for me to record. I want to apologize for the audio. It was the best I could do.

72 officers had to die.

I refuse to let that sacrifice go unremembered.

This one is for you,

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Ethics in Leadership

It’s an interesting topic and at times can be very controversial. Peter Drucker was an Austrian American management consultant, educator, and author, whose writings contributed to the philosophical and practical foundations of modern management theory. He famously said “The only definition of a leader is someone who has followers”

This statement has led to some interesting classroom discussions as well as arguments about leaders. In my courses I typically lead with a few definitions of leadership and then ask the class a question. I ask them to give me a list of “Good Leaders.” What follows is an interesting take on leadership. We will typically start with George Washington, Mahatma Gandhi, Winston Churchill, Abraham Lincoln, and then the class will typically throw in George Patton, Bear Bryant, and then a modern president. Which president however is based on where the class is being taught. This is where the arguments start.

Leaving the list of “Good Leaders” on the board I ask the class for a list of “Bad Leaders.” This list starts with Adolf Hitler, followed by Joseph Stalin, and Pol Pot. Jim Jones and David Koresh are added as the classes input starts to wind down. And then someone will throw out the name of the same modern president that was on the “Good List.”

Defining leadership as “someone who has followers” might be accurate from a technical point, but it fails to address what I believe is one of the major elements of leadership. Ethics. Those leaders in the “bad List” are leaders, they moved countries, cultures, and peoples to do some truly horrific things, but I could never look at them as leaders because to me ethical leadership is the most important element.

I believe that ethical leaders can lead anyone, but unethical leaders only lead unethical people, the rest they will drag along against their will.

Let’s take a look at ethics, morals and ethical leadership. 

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Commander Bob Meader retired from the Columbus Ohio Police Department in February of 2022. During his tenure at Columbus PD, he served in patrol, street attack unit, property crimes, legal and training. He retired as the commander of the Columbus PD Police Academy. While working Commander Meader managed to get his law degree and today spends his retirement training Ohio police officers on issues regarding the law in Ohio.

I had the pleasure to talk with Bob about legal issues pertaining to training, administration, and de-escalation.