Cops and Writers Podcast

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What the Flock is going on? Thanks for joining me and my partner in crime, retired 20-year veteran detective of the NYPD, podcaster, and author, Marique Bartoldus, for the conclusion of our discussion on Flock cameras and our thoughts on the Lindsey Clancy case. 

A little bit about Marique. Monz attended John Jay College of Criminal Justice, where she graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in Police Science. Shortly after graduating, she was sworn into the NYPD. She was assigned to multiple units within the Precinct, including Patrol, Conditions, SNEU, Anti-Crime, and Field Intelligence, then left the 105th Precinct and became one of the first detectives assigned to the Animal Cruelty Investigation Squad, where she investigated dog fighting and animal cruelty complaints throughout New York City. She returned to the 105th Precinct, where she ended her career assigned to the Intelligence Bureau, investigating illegal firearm and narcotics sales and possession. She effected 400 arrests and executed hundreds of search warrants during her distinguished twenty-year career. 

Monz hosts the popular “Monz on the Mic” podcast and recently published Twenty and Out: A compilation of chaos experienced while serving 20 years in the New York City Police Department, and I can’t recommend this book enough.  

Please enjoy this informative look at the Flock hype and misinformation and stick around for our dive into the Lindsey Clancy debacle. 

In today’s episode, we discuss:

·      How police used Flock cameras to track down the suspect in the mass shooting at Brown University.

·      Albuquerque PD (using its own in-house ALPR system, not Flock) says the readers have helped solve 13 murder cases so far in 2026.

·      After a police officer in Oklahoma was shot, agencies mobilized across state lines, and Flock cameras in Grants, New Mexico confirmed the suspect's vehicle had entered the area, letting officers make an arrest.

·      November 2022 an officer at a real-time crime center got a hit on a missing woman's vehicle within 30 minutes of entering her plate — a camera captured the plate, letting the officer locate the vehicle live and direct patrol units to her location, safely reuniting her with her family.

·      Flock says its system supported roughly 1 million law enforcement investigations last year and helped locate more than 10,000 missing persons, and its CEO has argued the tech was a "big part" of the recent nationwide decline in crime. 

·      Recently in Oconomowoc, Flock cameras were instrumental in solving a fatal hit-and-run. 

·      Chicago getting rid of ShotSpotter.

·      The remarkably ignorant remarks from the jurors in the Lindsey Clancy trial.

·      The dangerous precedent this case can have for women in future cases and how they will be treated in the workplace.

All of this and more on today’s episode of the Cops and Writers podcast.

Check out Marique's Amazon Author Page.

Head on over to Monz on the Mic Podcast!

Visit the Cops & Writers Website!

What's the craziest thing you saw when you were a cop?

My first week on the job, a guy running at me with a butcher knife. He'd just killed his brother over the last hot dog.

That's chapter 1. There are 33 more.

Police Stories: The Rookie Years just launched - available on Amazon. 

Search 'Police Stories Patrick O'Donnell' or click th

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Send us Fan Mail

In this episode of the Cops and Writers Podcast, retired Milwaukee Police Sergeant Patrick O'Donnell reads Chapter 5, A Good Judge of Character, from his upcoming book:

Police Stories: Street Cop to Sergeant — True Crime, Chaos, & Life as a Big City Cop

These are true stories from Patrick's years working the streets of Milwaukee as a veteran officer, FTO, and eventual sergeant — stories of chaos, dark humor, tragedy, and survival that don't make it onto TV shows.

All stories are real. Names and locations have been changed where necessary.

🎧 This episode includes:

• Meet Boris — Patrick's new partner, a Bolivian-Croatian rugby coach who bore a striking resemblance to Vince Lombardi
• A cop knocked unconscious mid-sentence who springs back to life like a scene straight out of Pulp Fiction
• A biker who kicks out the rear window of a squad car from the inside
• A sixteen-year-old with a baseball bat who wants justice for his mom
• A pompous deputy inspector who tries to connect with a teenager and gets absolutely destroyed

📘 About the Book:
Police Stories: Street Cop to Sergeant is the second book in Patrick O'Donnell's true crime memoir series chronicling his twenty-five-year career as a Milwaukee police officer and sergeant. The book will be released on October 14th, 2026. Two weeks away.

🔗 Preorder now and save! Link below.  
https://a.co/d/04dS56ie

📘 Haven't read book one yet?
Police Stories: The Rookie Years — True Crime, Chaos, & Life as a Big City Cop is available now. Link below.
https://a.co/d/0arfcIz9

👍 Like, comment, and share if this story resonated with you.

Visit the Cops & Writers Website!

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

What the Flock is going on? Thanks for joining me and my partner in crime for today's show: retired 20-year NYPD detective, podcaster, and author Marique Bartoldus! On today's show, Marique (Monz) will break down the hysteria, misinformation, and the good, bad, and ugly regarding Flock cameras. Next week we conclude our Flock conversation and jump into the travesty of justice known as the Lindsey Clancy case. 

A little bit about Marique. Monz attended John Jay College of Criminal Justice, where she graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in Police Science. Shortly after graduating, she was sworn into the NYPD. She was assigned to multiple units within the Precinct, including Patrol, Conditions, SNEU, Anti-Crime, and Field Intelligence, then left the 105th Precinct and became one of the first detectives assigned to the Animal Cruelty Investigation Squad, where she investigated dog fighting and animal cruelty complaints throughout New York City. She returned to the 105th Precinct, where she ended her career assigned to the Intelligence Bureau, investigating illegal firearm and narcotics sales and possession. She effected 400 arrests and executed hundreds of search warrants during her distinguished twenty-year career. 

Monz hosts the popular “Monz on the Mic” podcast and recently published Twenty and Out: A compilation of Chaos Experienced While Serving 20 Years in the New York City Police Department, and I can’t recommend this book enough.  

Please enjoy this informative look at this hot topic through the lens of people who actually see the overwhelming good these cameras do in catching criminals and helping victims of crime. Make sure you join us next week when we wrap up the Flock camera’s hype and dive into the Lindsey Clancy debacle. 

In today’s episode, we discuss:

·      Why are people losing their minds over Flock cameras?

·      The Flock camera issue uniting the left and right.

·      Law enforcement has been using this technology for over 15 years; why the outrage now? What is fueling this?

·      Criminals celebrating the removal of Flock cameras.

·      There is no expectation of privacy for license plates attached to your car when you are driving down the street!

·      What the Flock system is and how it works. 

·      Your smartphone and TV are tracking you.

·      People complaining about Flock tracking them and volunteering to allow aps track adult children, spouses, and themselves. 

·      Comical public ‘outrage.’

·      The misuse of the few outweighs the good it has accomplished in helping solve major crimes.

Check out Marique's Amazon Author Page.

Head on over to Monz on the Mic Podcast!

Visit the Cops & Writers Website!

What's the craziest thing you saw when you were a cop?

My first week on the job, a guy running at me with a butcher knife. He'd just killed his brother over the last hot dog.

That's chapter 1. There are 33 more.

Police Stories: The Rookie Years just launched - available on Amazon. 

Search 'Police Stories Patrick O'Donnell' or click th

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode of the Cops and Writers Podcast, retired Milwaukee Police Sergeant Patrick O'Donnell reads Chapter 4, Not the Villages, from his upcoming book:

Police Stories: Street Cop to Sergeant — True Crime, Chaos, & Life as a Big City Cop

These are true stories from Patrick's years working the streets of Milwaukee as a veteran officer, FTO, and eventual sergeant — stories of chaos, dark humor, tragedy, and survival that don't make it onto TV shows.

All stories are real. Names and locations have been changed where necessary.

🎧 This episode includes:

• A senior housing project that was nothing like the retirement communities you see on TV
• A crack pipe that disappeared the moment a paramedic mentioned the police were coming
• A dead on entry call that takes an unexpected and jaw-dropping turn
• Two daughters fighting over a $200 Pontiac while their father is still warm

📘 About the Book:
Police Stories: Street Cop to Sergeant is the second book in Patrick O'Donnell's true crime memoir series chronicling his twenty-five year career as a Milwaukee police officer and sergeant. The book releases on October 14th, 2026.

🔗 Preorder now and save! Link below. 

https://a.co/d/04dS56ie

📘 Haven't read book one yet?
Police Stories: The Rookie Years - True Crime, Chaos, & Life as a Big City Cop is available now. Link below. 

https://a.co/d/0arfcIz9

👍 Like, comment, and share if this story resonated with you.

Visit the Cops & Writers Website!

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

I wanted to start today’s episode with a warning. Today’s episode went down some very dark roads and the subject matter is sensitive. We discussed the vicious murders of Cora, Dawson, and Callan Clancy at the hands of their mother, Lindsay. 

January 24, 2023, at the family's home of Patrick and Lindsay Clancy on Summer Street in Duxbury, Massachusetts Lindsay Clancy brutally and savagely murdered her three children, Cora Clancy (5), Dawson Clancy (3), and Callan Clancy (8 months) by taking them into the basement and strangling them one by one with an exercise band.

There's a lot of misinformation surrounding this case. It's time for conversations grounded in facts rather than feelings or bias. Helping me tackle it today is bestselling author, defense attorney, and expert on the pathology of the criminal mind, Kerrie Droban.

Kerrie is an award-winning author and criminal defense attorney in Arizona. She holds a master's degree from the Johns Hopkins University Writing Seminars and a Master of Fine Arts and Juris Doctorate from the University of Arizona. She has keynoted gang task force conferences and national writing conferences, and has appeared on CNBC's American Greed, A&E's Gangland, the American Heroes Channel's Codes and Conspiracies, Investigation ID, and the Discovery Channel's Deadly Devotion.

We recorded this conversation on September 14, 2026, after the trial ended in a mistrial. The killings aren't in dispute. The question at trial was whether Lindsay was criminally responsible, and prosecutors argued she acted deliberately. After hearing our conversation, decide for yourself.

In today’s episode we discuss:

·      The lack of outrage for the three innocent and defenseless children who were murdered by their mother.

·      The “Team Lindsay” movement throwing money and support at a mom who viciously and meticulously killed her three children. 

·      Gender bias: would a father who did this be seen as sick, or as a monster?

·      Aurora, which Kerrie co-wrote with Dr. Lynne Fenton, and how public opinion of blaming health care providers has shifted.

·      Postpartum depression is real and common ([verified stat, source]). Postpartum psychosis is rare, and Lindsay's diagnosis came only after the killings, from a forensic psychiatrist. 

·      Flaws in the mental health system: per the prosecution, about 30 prescriptions for 13 psychiatric medications in the four months before, taken sporadically.

·      Five clinicians and two hospitals saw her in that window, and none diagnosed psychosis or bipolar disorder

·      The evil that is in the world today and the monsters who can’t be helped.

·      Prosecutors focused on the vagueness of the voice Clancy claimed to hear: she had to choose where — the basement; she had to choose how — strangulation.

·      Lindsay’s preparation and premeditation before she killed her children.

·      Jurors who have raced to get their five minutes of fame. This quote from a juror sums it up. “He had the hardest time getting off the fact that Lindsay viciously killed her children.” 

·      “Team Clancy” is doing no favors for the feminist movement. This is setting a precedent. Do we have to test mothers who are coming off maternity leave with jobs that might harm others before we let them back into the workplace? Surgeons, cops, pilots, military- all jobs that were, and still are, male-dominated. Do you want a woman who is postpartum and potentially has postpartum psychosis with the launch codes to the nukes?

All of this and more on today’s episode of the Cops and Writers podcast.

Visit Kerrie Droban on her website!

Please visit the Cops and Writers website.

What's the craziest thing you saw when you were a cop?

My first week on the job, a guy running at me with a butcher knife. He'd just killed his brother over the last hot dog.

That's chapter 1. There are 33 more.

Police Stories: The Rookie Years just launched - available on Amazon. 

Search 'Police Stories Patrick O'Donnell' or click th

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode of the Cops and Writers Podcast, retired Milwaukee Police Sergeant Patrick O'Donnell reads Chapter 3, Oh Baby, from his upcoming book:

Police Stories: Street Cop to Sergeant — True Crime, Chaos, & Life as a Big City Cop

These are true stories from Patrick's years working the streets of Milwaukee as a veteran officer, FTO, and eventual sergeant - stories of chaos, dark humor, tragedy, and survival that don't make it onto TV shows.

All stories are real. Names and locations have been changed where necessary.

🎧 This episode includes:

• A partner who could balance chips, a Mountain Dew, and a cigarette while driving a squad car without spilling a drop
• A "theft of services" call that isn't quite what it sounds like
• A pregnant woman, a traffic stop, and two cops who had no idea where the hospital was
• Scott, a squared-away Marine cop, delivering a baby in a Walgreens parking lot while the entire district listens on the radio

📘 About the Book:
Police Stories: Street Cop to Sergeant is the second book in Patrick O'Donnell's true crime memoir series chronicling his twenty-five year career as a Milwaukee police officer and sergeant. The book releases on October 14th, 2026.

🔗 Preorder now and save! Link below. 

https://a.co/d/04dS56ie

📘 Haven't read book one yet?
Police Stories: The Rookie Years - True Crime, Chaos, & Life as a Big City Cop is available now. Link below. 

https://a.co/d/0arfcIz9

👍 Like, comment, and share if this story resonated with you.

Visit the Cops & Writers Website!

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

Visit George over at his website to learn more about him and his work. 

Head on over to my website!

What's the craziest thing you saw when you were a cop?

My first week on the job, a guy running at me with a butcher knife. He'd just killed his brother over the last hot dog.

That's chapter 1. There are 33 more.

Police Stories: The Rookie Years just launched - available on Amazon. 

Search 'Police Stories Patrick O'Donnell' or click th

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode of the Cops and Writers Podcast, retired Milwaukee Police Sergeant Patrick O'Donnell reads Chapter 2, I Don't Want to Know, from his upcoming book:

Police Stories: Street Cop to Sergeant — True Crime, Chaos, & Life as a Big City Cop

These are true stories from Patrick's years working the streets of Milwaukee as a veteran officer, FTO, and eventual sergeant - stories of chaos, dark humor, tragedy, and survival that don't make it onto TV shows.

All stories are real. Names and locations have been changed where necessary.

🎧 This episode includes:
— A domestic call that turns into one of the most brutal murder scenes of Patrick's career
— The discovery of an elderly woman beaten, strangled, and left in a basement
— A chance encounter at Froedtert Hospital with the man responsible - and the self-control it took to walk away
— A conversation with a nurse that says everything about how people survive doing impossible jobs

📘 About the Book:
Police Stories: Street Cop to Sergeant is the second book in Patrick O'Donnell's true crime memoir series chronicling his twenty-five-year career as a Milwaukee police officer and sergeant. The book releases on October 14th, 2026.

🔗 Preorder now and save! https://a.co/d/0eGjEeq0

👍 Like, comment, and share if this story resonated with you.

Visit the Cops & Writers Website!

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

Thank you for joining us on the show today for part one of my interview with Author, Instructor, Film Consultant, Public Speaker, and retired New York Police Department Detective George Sichler. 

George started his career in a part of the Bronx that was known the most dangerous square mile in the United States. He went on to become a member of the elite scuba unit and later became a detective and went on to the gang and violence suppression units. He was also a firearms instructor who taught Keanu Reeves on the set of John Wick! 

Please enjoy part one of this discussion with someone who has had a career that they make movies and books about. Part Two will go live next Sunday. 

In today’s episode, we discuss:

·      Growing up in the Bronx with future mobsters.

·      His father being a police officer with the NYPD.

·      His call to service.

·      Why NYPD? 

·      Getting on the scuba team. The danger and hazards of working in New York waters. 

·      Recovering evidence and dead bodies (in trunks of cars) in the water. 

·      Working during the 9/11 terror attack.

·      Being a member of the violence suppression and gang units.

 All of this and more on today’s episode of the Cops and Writers podcast.

Visit George over at his website to learn more about him and his work. 

Head on over to my website!

What's the craziest thing you saw when you were a cop?

My first week on the job, a guy running at me with a butcher knife. He'd just killed his brother over the last hot dog.

That's chapter 1. There are 33 more.

Police Stories: The Rookie Years just launched - available on Amazon. 

Search 'Police Stories Patrick O'Donnell' or click th

Support the show

Send us Fan Mail

In this episode of the Cops and Writers Podcast, retired Milwaukee Police Sergeant Patrick O'Donnell reads the Introduction and Chapter 1, You Don't Have to Be Sherlock Holmes to Solve This Crime, from his upcoming book:

Police Stories: Street Cop to Sergeant — True Crime, Chaos, & Life as a Big City Cop

These are true stories from Patrick's years working the streets of Milwaukee as a veteran officer, FTO, and eventual sergeant — stories of chaos, dark humor, tragedy, and survival that don't make it onto TV shows.

All stories are real. Names and locations have been changed where necessary.

🎧 This episode includes:
— The intro to life at District Five late shift, where the sinners and saints were hard to tell apart
— A robbery at a Burger King where the suspect lived a block away, skipped the mask, and left his employee file behind
— True crime, gallows humor, and raw street-level reality from Milwaukee's most dangerous neighborhoods

📘 About the Book:
Police Stories: Street Cop to Sergeant is the second book in Patrick O'Donnell's true crime memoir series, chronicling his twenty-five-year career as a Milwaukee police officer and sergeant. The book releases on October 14th, 2026.

🔗 Preorder now and save — https://a.co/d/07IfUkwj

👍 Like, comment, and share if this story resonated with you.

Don't forget about the book that started the series, Police Stories: The Rookie Years! 

Visit the Cops & Writers Website!

Support the show