Reasons We Serve: Police Careers & Officer Experience

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.

Years of Service: 1979-2016

In 1979, Cloyd was hired by the Seattle Police Department. Cloyd spent several years on patrol and was a member of the Seattle Police Department’s SWAT Team. Cloyd was promoted to detective in the sex crimes unit before transferring to homicide where he worked from 1994 until 2016. After retirement, Cloyd became the Chief Criminal Investigator for the Washington State Attorney General Homicide Investigation Tracking System. Cloyd has been interviewed many times for television including 48 Hours, Discovery, Lifetime, and Oxygen to name a few, and has been featured in podcasts and books, by Ann Rule, Charles Lachman, and William Neal. Cloyd is also the author of two books called Seattle’s Forgotten Serial Killer: Gary Gene Grant and Homicide: The View from Inside the Yellow Tape.

Years of Service: 1982-2011

In 1982, Monte began working as a prosecutor at the Ada County Prosecutor’s Office in Boise, Idaho. While there, Monte prosecuted many cases including burglaries, robberies, child abuse, narcotics, and homicide. After 5 years of working as a county prosecutor, Monte was hired as an Assistant United States Attorney where he was the lead Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Attorney working on large-scale drug trafficking cases. In 2011, Monte left the U.S. Attorney’s Office and began speaking across the country as a motivational speaker focusing on educating people on the dangers of the drug culture and instead seeing the wonders of the world around them. While Monte was an AUSA, he took up photography as a type of self-therapy and is now a professional photographer. His photographs can be seen on his website montestiles.com.

Years of Service-1985-2015

Chris began his law enforcement career in 1985 with the Caldwell Police Department. Chris started on patrol with the Caldwell Police Department when there were 22 officers compared to today where there are currently 70 officers. As Chris rose through the ranks of the department, he often shifted between patrol and detective and then into supervisory roles. While at Caldwell Police Department Chris was a member of the SWAT Team, a Field Training Officer, an EVOC Instructor, and an OC spray instructor. Chris rose from a patrol officer to corporal, sergeant, lieutenant, and captain until 2007, when he was promoted to Chief of Police for the Caldwell Police Department. Chris served as chief until 2015 when he retired. After retirement, Chris was a member of Caldwell’s City Council and currently is a House Representative for District 11 in the Idaho Legislature.

Years of Service: 1990-2015

Wendi began her career at the age of 19 as a dispatcher with the Caldwell Police Department from 1990 until 2002. During this same time period, from 1992 until 1994, Wendi became a reserve officer and was pursuing her goal to become a full-time officer until she was hurt in a training accident. She later went back to work for the Canyon County Sheriff’s Office where she resumed working as a dispatcher. Wendi was promoted to training officer and later worked as a supervisor in the civil records department until she retired in 2015.

Years of Service: 1989-2013

Brady began his career with the DEA in 1989 in the Salt Lake City Office. In the beginning, Brady worked a variety of different investigations involving high level drug trafficking organizations including methamphetamine manufacturers. In 1996 until 2011, Brady began working as a Special Agent with the DEA internationally. Brady was assigned to the Country Office in Chiang Mai Thailand and was later promoted to the Country Attaché for DEA in China. During this time, Brady worked in numerous countries primarily focusing on Asia. Some of the countries Brady worked in included Italy, Vietnam, Mongolia, Afghanistan, Korea, Japan, Cambodia, Laos and Burma to new a few. In 2011, Brady was transferred to Billings, Montana where he was the Resident Agent in Charge until he retired in 2013.

Years of Service: 1996-Present

Tracy began his law enforcement career in 1996 with the Meridian Police Department. Tracy started on patrol with the Meridian Police Department when there were 20 officers and the population of the City of Meridian was about 20,600. As Tracy rose through the ranks of the Meridian Police Department he worked as a Drug Recognition Expert on patrol and was then promoted to detective in the narcotics unit and was deputized by the Drug Enforcement Administration where he was assigned to the DEA Task Force. As a narcotics detective, Tracy worked high-level drug trafficking organizations and often worked undercover. Once back on patrol, Tracy began to gather expertise in use of force and control techniques that are used today in his department. Tracy was quickly promoted from officer to sergeant, lieutenant, captain, and assistant chief. In 2021, Tracy was promoted to Chief of Police for the Meridian Police Department which currently consists of 143 officers, as well as 43 support staff who serve over 129,700 citizens. Tracy is best described as a “cop’s cop” and in this interview discusses his career and leadership philosophy guiding his department along with his command staff and mentoring younger officers.
www.joinmeridianpd.org or call (208)888-6678

Years of Service: 1971-1997

Jim began his career in 1971, in New York City where he began working cases targeting organized crime and the Mafia. One of the cases he worked had ties to the French Connection and heroin trafficking. Jim was later transferred to San Ysidro, CA where he investigated cases involving drugs being smuggled across the southern border. Jim worked in several enforcement groups in the San Diego area and one case he worked on involved a group known as the Coronado Company who had convinced their high school Spanish teacher to negotiate with their Mexican suppliers and who began their smuggling operation after recruiting some of their high school swim team members to swim drugs into the United States. Jim later served 6 years in Bangkok Thailand working heroin and large-scale marijuana smuggling cases before being promoted and heading back to San Diego where he supervised a group targeting methamphetamine traffickers. Jim was finally transferred to DEA Headquarters where he served in the Foreign Operations section until he retired in 1991.