Years of Service: 1967-2001

Skip became a Boise Police Department officer in 1967 when Boise had a population of about 67,000 people and when nights consisted of 4 patrol cars. As the population grew, Skip stopped working patrol and began working in one of the first-ever narcotics units in the area. Skip eventually began working as a detective in the major crimes unit where he handled cases involving rape, robbery, and murder. During this time Skip would read crime bulletins and books related to evidence processing and could be considered one of the first CSIs in Boise, Idaho. With Skip’s vast knowledge, he soon became a training officer and one year became the only training officer to ever train an entire graduating class of Boise Police Department officers. Skip is often still stopped in public by people who remember him for the kind way he treated them and helped others.

Years of Service: 1989-2012

Part two of the episode focuses on Larry with the Drug Enforcement Administration. From 1989 until 1997, Larry worked in the San Ysidro and San Diego California offices often working cases inside Mexico. From 1997 until 2001, Larry was assigned to the Tijuana Resident Office, and from 2004 until 2009 Larry was the Resident Agent in Charge in the Ciudad Juarez Resident Office. During his time with DEA, Larry was also a Group Supervisor in Fayetteville Arkansas, and was the Unit Chief and then Deputy Director at the El Paso Intelligence Center until he retired in 2012.

Part two primarily focuses on Larry’s investigations involving Mexico and many of the stories he tells appear very similar to those from the movie Sicario, the Netflix series Narcos, and the book Power Of The Dog by Don Winslow. While working in Mexico, Larry was awarded the Administrator’s Award which is the highest award a DEA Special Agent can be given by DEA. Larry was also awarded the Attorney General’s Award which is considered one of the highest awards an investigator can receive.

Years of Service: 1984-1989
Episode 29 is a two-part episode with Larry Roberts. To say that Larry has had a storied career does not do him justice. Part one of this episode focuses on Larry’s time with the United States Border Patrol. From 1984 until 1989, Larry worked the border between Mexico and California. During this time Larry became part of a specialized border patrol unit called the Border Crime Prevention Unit. During the time the unit was together, they were involved in 41 shootings that resulted in the wounding of United States Law Enforcement Personnel as well as the deaths and arrests of people known as Bandits. The team’s only focus was the targeting of Bandits that were involved in the rape, robbery, and murder of illegal aliens attempting to get into the United States. The stories told by Larry may sound familiar to those true crime experts who have read the book Lines and Shadows by Joseph Wambaugh which is a non-fiction book published in 1984. Part two of the episode focuses on Larry with the Drug Enforcement Administration. In part two Larry talks about his time with DEA working large-scale narcotics investigations. The stories he relates were those while he was stationed in California as well as while he was stationed in Mexico. Many of the stories he tells are very similar to the movie Sicario with the exception being that his stories are real.

Years of Service: 1997-2021

Ron began his law enforcement career in 1997 with the Sioux Falls South Dakota Police Department where he worked for about 4 years. He credits this time with the police department in helping him to later become an effective street agent. In 2001, he was hired by the ATF in Boise, Idaho. As Ron will tell you his primary focus throughout his career was gangs, guns, and drugs. He worked on many narcotics investigations and had a few significant cases involving outlaw motorcycle gangs. Ron has worked at the ATF academy helping to teach the new generation of ATF Special Agents and was a defensive tactics instructor, firearms instructor, and taser instructor. Ron also worked on dignitary protection details in Washington DC and New York City.

Years of Service: 2003 to Present

Brian began his law enforcement career in 2003 with the Ellensburg Police Department where he worked for 3 years. In 2006, he was hired by the Wenatchee Police Department which is located in Central Washington about 2 ½ hours from Seattle. Throughout his career, Brian worked in different positions such as a SWAT Officer and a detective in persons crime where he often investigated sexual assaults of children. Brian began to rise through the ranks of the Wenatchee Police Department and is currently one of two captains under the chief of police who said during Brian’s promotion ceremony that Brian may be the youngest person to ever be promoted to the rank of captain at the Wenatchee Police Department.

Years of Service: 1996-2018

Ernie began his career with the FBI in 1996, where he was assigned to Pierre South Dakota. Unbeknownst to Ernie he would begin working investigations on Indian reservations and by the end of his career would be considered one of the foremost experts on law enforcement on reservations in the United States. Some of the crimes Ernie investigated were murder, terrorism, public corruption, civil rights, violent crimes against children, and financial crimes.

Ernie worked as a Special Agent as well as a Unit Chief and Supervisory Agent in the field and at FBI Headquarters. During his career, Ernie was assigned to Pierre, South Dakota, Washington DC, Billings, Montana, Boise, Idaho, and retired as the Assistant Legal Attache in Bangkok, Thailand.

Years of Service: 2001-2023

Mynde began her career with the Twin Falls Police Department in 2001. Mynde started on patrol and then worked as a School Resource Officer, a Field Training Officer, and then as a detective in the Narcotics Unit. Mynde also worked as a detective in the ICAC unit which is the Internet Crimes Against Children program.

In 2018, Mynde was hired by the Bellevue Marshal’s Office. As explained during the interview, the Bellevue Marshal’s Office is essentially a police department but is called the Bellevue Marshal’s Office because of the initial founding of the department dating back to the 1800s. Mynde eventually became the Marshal running the department while still conducting her patrol duties until 2023 when she retired.

Years of Service: 2004-2012

Bryan began his career with the Marines in 2004. During his 8 years with the Marines, Bryan became a Crew Chief, Assistant Section Leader, and Platoon Sergeant all while learning valuable skills to include direct offensive and defensive engagement tactics with enemy forces, operating and managing live fire weapons ranges, and supervising the security of $50 million dollars in sensitive equipment. These skills helped him through 2 tours in Iraq and ultimately lead to contract jobs protecting the Ambassador and staff of the US Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan. In 2014, Bryan founded an organization called Wishes for Warriors that specializes in bringing back hope to disabled combat veterans through outdoor adventures and training, and events involving family and other veterans. During this time, Bryan came to realize that law enforcement officers often suffer from traumatic stress that has an emotional toll away from the job, and has started to offer the same types of help to law enforcement that his organization gives to combat veterans.

Anyone wishing to contact Bryan or his organization can do so at:
www.wishes4warriors.org
855-W4W-HERO (949-4376)

Years of service: 1984-2017

Don began his career in 1984, with the King County Sheriff’s Office. During his career, Don worked on patrol and was a member of the SWAT Team. In the world of law enforcement, there are individuals who serve as trainers to other law enforcement personnel and departments for the sole purpose of making them better and more professional. With Don’s background in martial arts, he naturally gravitated toward training other officers in defensive tactics, criminal investigations, firearms training, and crisis intervention. During his career, Don has trained thousands of officers throughout the country and is the founder of Arrestling which offers courses including weapon retention, violent encounter survival training, patrol knife carry courses, tactical control, active shooter training, and confined space survival to name just a few.

https://arrestling.com/don-gulla/

Years of service: 1991-2018

Jeff began his career in 1991, in Salt Lake City where he began working large-scale drug tracking organizations that included heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, marijuana, and LSD distribution. During this time in Salt Lake City, methamphetamine laboratories were a major problem, and in order to combat the problem Jeff, along with the other DEA Special Agents in the office, became clandestine laboratory agents who specialized in the handling of hazardous chemicals and the dismantling of meth labs. In 1997, Jeff was transferred to the Sao Paulo Brazil Country Office where he worked closely with Brazilian Law Enforcement to target drug trafficking organizations in Brazil as well as neighboring countries. Jeff was then transferred back to the Salt Lake City office in 2002, where he continued to work on different types of drug cases including a newly emerging ecstasy threat as well as an opioid epidemic that he targeted until retiring in 2018.