WEBVTT
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Good morning.
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It's Leo and welcome back.
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Today let's get into being a playmaker.
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It's a sports term for somebody they uh they have an X factor.
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Uh an athlete that you call a playmaker, they may not be the fastest, they may not be the best at whatever position they're playing, but they just make stuff happen.
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They have some X factor that they are a problem solver.
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They're taking responsibility for the game.
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Anytime they're in, they want to impact the game.
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And those are the people you generally want on your team.
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If you've ever coached a team, you have a bunch of players and then you have a couple of playmakers.
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Or if you've ever been on a team, you got a couple of people that just make stuff happen.
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They're not that strong.
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They're a running back, they're not that strong, but they just bounce off people because they are not going to go down.
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They're a playmaker.
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They're going to find a hole.
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Even if it's not written into the play, they find the whole, they find a different hole because they're a playmaker.
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They're always looking for solutions to everything.
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There's another way of putting it, and there's a theory or a book or something about coming from a place of yes.
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And what that means is it doesn't mean being a yes man.
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It doesn't mean being a people pleaser and getting manipulated all the time.
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What it means is trying to trying to make stuff happen.
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If you can say yes, you're saying yes.
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And it's it's kind of similar to being a playmaker, and we're going to talk about it in the regard of law enforcement and being a playmaker in law enforcement.
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And if you're a playmaker, it's going to bolster your career.
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You're going to come off as successful because of the little things you do.
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What do they say in that movie Waiting, the old movie about how people at restaurant staff put pubic hair in people's food and spit on their steak on the ground?
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The boss says, hey, the difference between being ordinary, being extraordinary, it's that little extra.
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It's very much the same in law enforcement.
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It's the little extra.
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It's coming from a place of yes, it's how do I playmake this situation?
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Instead of walking away and going, nothing I can do, which is a bit of a jackwagon move.
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If you're constantly going, not in my purview.
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I'm not saying operate outside the bounds of the law and the policy, but I am saying if there's something lawful but awful going on, if there's some problem that's going on, you should take it as, hey, I should try to solve this.
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I should try to figure this out.
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So let's get into a few examples of my personal examples and others that I've seen of playmaking.
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And I consider myself somebody that tries to be a playmaker.
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I try to be a problem solver over a law enforcement officer.
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My problem solving results in me enforcing the law a lot.
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But if I'm a patrol cop, a narcotics officer, a whatever, wearing a badge, carrying a gun, peace officer status, I'm going to try to solve the problems of the community.
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So there's a video circulating right now of the Fort Worth chief of police.
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He's kind of cool.
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He's got like a shaved bald head, you know, he's he just comes off as like motivated and positive and kind of proactive.
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And he's talking about a hotel in the area that's a nuisance.
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If you're a cop, you know these hotels.
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They're they're just run down.
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Management is either complicit or defeated, and people are just prostituting and selling drugs and shooting each other, and it's just it's out of control.
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It's dangerous.
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Regular people go stay there sometimes and they get victimized, or the surrounding businesses get victimized.
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People are running back to these hotels, very transient places, and they're just a wreck.
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So he did a press release basically saying this hotel is a nuisance and he plans to shut it down.
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Like if this doesn't get fixed, he's shutting it down.
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And that's how it should be.
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That's that's playmaking right now, or right there.
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That's problem solving.
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We had a hotel when I worked in Savannah, Georgia called the Thunderbird Inn.
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And when I was working there, when I started in 2010, it was an absolute dump.
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Crack, crack dealing, crack smoking, and prostitution were always going on.
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There were, you know, things getting thrown through people's windows, people getting stabbed.
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It was just ate up with drugs.
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That's all that was in there.
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The maintenance man was selling some drugs.
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We found out later when I was in narcotics, he was like, had his little buggy where he was doing towels and crack rocks at the same time.
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Management wasn't, they weren't criminals, but they were definitely allowing the criminals to operate there unhindered.
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And so I went in when I was a patrol cop shortly before I left patrol, and we had a form called a citizens agreement form, which I think they got rid of, and it was a wonderfully useful form.
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And I did it with all these hotels and businesses on that stretch of road.
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I think the department decided it was some kind of Fourth Amendment issue, which I would disagree and say it is not.
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It's actually a brilliant creation of an exception to the Fourth Amendment.
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What the Citizens Agreement Form says and does is you go to the owner of the business or the general manager, and you bring this form that they can sign or not sign.
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And it says something along the lines of, I do not want the following criminal activity taking place on my property.
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So I get the Thunderbird in, I would write drug dealing, prostitution, loitering, and trespassing, something like that.
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And I give the police permission to stop and identify anyone on my private property, because this is private property stuff, on my private property who are engaging in these activities, who are suspected of engaging in these activities.
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Now you do have to be careful not to misuse it.
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I got it done at a supermarket called Red and White, and it's a big supermarket.
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The general manager was concerned that I was going to be jacking up his customers in the parking lot.
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And I was like, hey, it's not that.
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I'm trying to, you know, you have a straight up crack motel next door.
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It wasn't the Thunderbird.
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It was called the Arbor Cottages, and it was the same.
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It was, you know, a half mile from the Thunderbird, and it was the exact same thing.
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And they're, you know, their prostitutes would go over and do their business in the red and white parking lot, and they were selling crack over there and all this stuff.
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And so I was like, hey, I'm not gonna, you know, if somebody's pushing a buggy and they're buying some meat, I'm not messing with them.
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It's gonna be the girl in a mini skirt that's walking with a guy and climbing into a car and then they're not getting out for walking from the hotel next door.
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That's who I'm looking at.
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The people that are tricking in your lot.
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And so that that's something you need to be aware of is not misusing because these are legitimate businesses and it is a citizen agreement.
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Uh, you can do it for private residences as well.
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It's great if you have people, you know, trespassing on a porch and they're always up there selling dope on the porch of a vacant house.
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Find the owner of that vacant house and get a citizen's agreement for them.
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And now there's no question that they don't want the people up there, and you can stop and talk to the people that are trespassing on their property.
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So the Thunderbird Inn.
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I went to them with a citizen's agreement.
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Management was a little iffy about it because that's their whole client base.
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And I said something kind of similar.
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Did I bully a little bit?
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I don't know, but I said something kind of similar to what this chief said.
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Something like, you, this hotel has become an absolute nuisance in the area.
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I think somebody had just died, had gotten killed there not long before I did this.
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I was like, hey, people are dying, people are overdosing, there's shots fired all the time.
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We're not gonna deal with this.
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We're not gonna act like this is normal.
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So I want to get this form so that I can show that you are helping law enforcement and you don't want the crime eating this place up.
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And I I don't want your business to get shut down.
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Which is true.
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I didn't.
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Like, I don't want this place shut down, but I'm not gonna tolerate this going on.
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There there are nuisance foreclosure laws that I'm gonna look into.
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I didn't say you you will be shut down if you don't do this, but I did say if if you keep this pace, we're gonna have to look at other approaches to this.
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So they signed it, and I got them for all probably 20 businesses up and down this short stretch of road that was just ate up with crime.
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So then I was able to stop and talk to people when they're sitting in cars waiting for their drug deal.
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I could go detain them and I would tell them, I would have the citizens' agreement form on file, and I would go up and say, Hey, I'm Officer Leo, I'm with Savannah Police.
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Do you have a room at this hotel?
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And often they would say stuff like, I don't have to talk to you, bro, and try to blow me off.
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And I'd go, well, actually, you do, because management is tired of the ongoing crime problem here, and they've asked me to look into any trespassers on the property.
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And that includes people that don't have rooms.
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So I do need to see your ID, actually.
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You are detained.
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And that's kind of how things would go.
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It was private property, and management was asking us to deal with the problem.
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And again, you had to be careful.
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Some officers did misuse it, which made it more difficult for those of us that were trying to use it right.
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They would jack up, you know, people just standing outside a hotel room and go ID them.
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And I was like, hey, that's not what it's for.
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It's for people that are on the property to do something nefarious, that are out there, you know, five guys out there at 3 a.m.
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standing on the corner of the property.
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That's who we're using this on.
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But when so I got all these done and I was trying to make a little dent in my area of the city, and then I went to narcotics.
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So the mission ended.
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Some of my old informants, quote, informants from patrol, you know, people that would just call me when something was going on.
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They weren't documented.
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Hotel man, a couple of the hotel managers would call me direct and be like, hey, dude in 312, like just pulled up in a rental car, carried in a duffel bag, and now there's people coming and going from the room like every two minutes.
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Like he's selling drugs for sure.
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And so they would keep calling me and be like, hey, who's who's actually working over here now?
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Like who will come deal with this?
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And so I try to plug them into people, but be the person that actually deals with that stuff that they can call and you play make on it.
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You you solve it.
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So I go to narcotics and grew my beard out, grew my hair out, got an earring.
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Actually, thought it was funny when I first got there.
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I got my ear pierced and had a little stud or whatever.
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And I went into work and I thought I looked like, you know, I thought I was like gonna be a good undercover.
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And my boss started laughing.
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He was like, You look like a 1980s undercover dope cop.
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And I was like, okay, all right.
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Maybe I'm not as good as I think.
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So I get all undercovered out and I go to the Thunderbird.
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I'm doing low budget UC to start, and you know, driving a truck, riding a bike, having a beer, buying some crack.
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So I go to the Thunderbird, like easy place to go get some crack rocks from a stranger.
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And the person, the lady that ran it saw me come in and she came outside.
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And I guess she recognized that I was a scumbag.
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And she was like, We uh she was like, What you need?
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And I was like, I was like, Oh, I'm just looking for somebody.
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Where's the where's Marvin at?
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Marvin was like the maintenance man that was selling crack.
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I was like, Where's Marvin at?
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And she was like, I got rid of Marvin.
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He was selling drugs, we can't have that anymore.
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She starts like ranting.
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She's like, we can't have that anymore.
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Because Officer Leo, he came out here and they were gonna shut us down.
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So anybody that was doing that, they're gone.
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We don't do that up here anymore.
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It's gone.
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Like she wasn't, she didn't say she was selling drugs, but she did say like she had proactively run it off.
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So that's kind of what you want.
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You want like them policing themselves because they're nervous about doing crime, right?
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So she didn't recognize me because I had like shagged out and all this.
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And so she starts like telling me about me and how me on patrol was going to shut down her hotel and get them in trouble, which was actually weirdly common when I when I started going undercover, people not recognizing me multiple times buying from people that I had arrested multiple times on patrol, dealt with dozens of times.
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They just didn't recognize me.
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I bought from a triple murder suspect in those in the Arbor cottages next to that that grocery store I mentioned.
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I pulled in one night, I can't remember if I was on the bike or in a truck, but I pulled in, I think I was on foot, and he was he was out there.
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He had killed three people in a neighborhood a mile away.
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And so bought some crack from them and they busted him.
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And then I called homicide and I was like, hey, Rob, isn't Angelo like a suspect in a murder?
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He's like, Yeah, we got warrants on him for that triple.
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And I was like, oh, how do we just buy-busted him over here in the arbors?
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And he I knew him well.
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I mean, I dealt with him all the time on patrol.
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He was always hanging out in there selling dope.
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So moving on and continuing with playmaking, kind of getting off the hotel and citizen agreement form.
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That's just one technique, that's one tool in your toolbox that will allow you to playmake instead of just go, yeah, they sell drugs at the Thunderbird Inn and just chalking it up to the game.
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It's like taking accountability.
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I mean, like, nah, I'm gonna be a playmaker on this.
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How do I solve this?
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Drug dealing.
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I mean, wherever you work, I don't care if you're in Tulsa, Oklahoma or Toledo, Texas, people sell drugs.
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And if you're a decent cop, you're gonna start getting a feel for where they sell.
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You might not be able to prove it, but you're gonna see the traffic, you're gonna see the people that have money versus the people that are in the depths of deprivation and addiction and or not, maybe the addicts aren't going to this place, but you know, every car you stop, the guys have money and no job and a history of, you know, drug trafficking.
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Every time the last three you stopped have history of being in federal prison for drugs.
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Like, all right, they're leaving the same house and they're different guys.
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There's probably something going on at this house, right?
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So once you have that, what do you do?
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And I dealt with this quite a bit as a patrol sergeant.
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Officers saying I would hear the scuttle butt, the little rumors of like, oh man, they're they're getting after it at this one house in my area.
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Like they say, like, I'm gonna go set up on it or whatever.
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And I'm all for playmaking on that house, or or just ignore it.
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Like, oh yeah, they're doing it big over there, and then go ride your calls.
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So there's a lot of options for a drug house.
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Let's go into some of that.
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How to be a playmaker on a house where they're selling dope.
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I told my officers several times, an option you have is to go knock on the door.
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And I'm telling you right now, if they're out, if they're out hanging out on the porch all day, they got a nice security system on a$60,000 house, and you think they're selling dope all day.
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If five of us go up there, that's me plus four patrol officers, we'll do it at the beginning of shift before we're busy.
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We go up and knock on the door and we say, hey, fellas, we think y'all are into some stuff over here.
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It needs to be somebody that can talk kind of smooth because you don't want to come off super accusatory.
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You don't want to go start a fight.
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That's not what I'm talking about.
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I'm talking about just going up and giving them a reasonable warning.
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Hey, fellas, how you doing?
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I'm Officer Leo.
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I'm with Savannah Police.
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Uh, we've had some complaints that there's some drug dealing and drug using going on at this house.
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We see the different cars that are in and out of here.
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You know, I see some people staring hard at my officers.
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Cool, y'all do whatever you want to do.
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I just want you to know that we don't, if there is crime going on, we don't really support that.
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And the house is kind of on the radar.
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So, you know, if somebody's doing something stupid, if my officers are trying to pull people over and they're taking off, if people are running away, you know, all this stuff going on.
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People are scared to be outside.
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We're gonna get involved over here.
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We're not trying to put anybody in jail, but we are gonna do our job to protect the area.
00:18:34.319 --> 00:18:35.759
So y'all do what you want to do.
00:18:35.920 --> 00:18:38.319
I just wanted to come over and talk to you.
00:18:38.799 --> 00:18:44.079
And man, a lot of time they'll just be like, all right, but the stuff will stop.
00:18:44.799 --> 00:18:51.440
And they'll probably appreciate it, honestly, because if you don't have time to do some big undercover sting crap, then you can just go talk to them.
00:18:51.519 --> 00:18:53.359
And it literally takes about five minutes.
00:18:53.519 --> 00:18:56.559
Just go deep enough that you have safety and security.
00:18:56.799 --> 00:19:06.400
And if it's a small town, you know, drug house, you might be able to go with one or two officers and just have an honest, heart-to-heart conversation about what's about to happen.
00:19:06.480 --> 00:19:08.240
Like we're about to be on to you.
00:19:08.640 --> 00:19:13.440
Another option for drugs is involving other agencies.
00:19:13.680 --> 00:19:20.400
So if you're on patrol and you're too busy, there are a million drug units everywhere.
00:19:20.559 --> 00:19:21.839
Put your drug unit onto it.
00:19:21.920 --> 00:19:26.079
And if they suck, I mean, if they should be able to give you an honest time frame.
00:19:26.480 --> 00:19:28.720
Like a lot of time they want to be Mr.
00:19:28.879 --> 00:19:36.480
Mysterious and like, hey, I got this drug house over here, and they're too cool for school because they're allowed to wear a baseball hat backwards to work.
00:19:36.640 --> 00:19:39.680
So they're like, oh, all right, thanks.
00:19:39.920 --> 00:19:46.240
If they're kind of dismissive of you, it's okay to ask that narc, like, hey, do you know how long it'll take?
00:19:46.319 --> 00:19:47.839
Just so I have a time frame.
00:19:48.240 --> 00:19:51.440
And if they're dismissive, I'm all for going somewhere else.
00:19:51.519 --> 00:19:54.960
Like, all right, I'm gonna put, I'm gonna try somebody that wants to help.
00:19:55.119 --> 00:19:56.640
Find somebody, find a playmaker.
00:19:56.799 --> 00:19:59.200
If you can't do it, find a real playmaker.
00:19:59.359 --> 00:20:03.119
Most drug units have at least a handful of people that get shit done.
00:20:03.440 --> 00:20:12.799
And you need to find them because if you pass it off to a slug, it'll go into a file and it won't get investigated properly, if at all.
00:20:13.519 --> 00:20:18.160
So find a playmaker on that unit or find a playmaker unit, find a team that's high functioning.
00:20:18.319 --> 00:20:19.599
Maybe a federal agency.
00:20:19.680 --> 00:20:21.920
If it's a big target, DEA might do it.
00:20:22.079 --> 00:20:34.640
If it's a smaller drug target, if it's the normal patrol level target that we always dealt with, I had a great relationship with ATF, and they were awesome in Savannah back then.
00:20:35.119 --> 00:20:39.599
And man, I could call and be like, hey, they're over here doing it big, I think.
00:20:39.839 --> 00:20:42.799
And they'd be like, All right, I'm on it.
00:20:43.039 --> 00:20:44.640
And I knew they were actually on it.
00:20:44.720 --> 00:20:46.640
They did what they said they were gonna do.
00:20:46.879 --> 00:20:52.079
And next thing you know, they'd be calling me either, hey, hey, great job, appreciate the info.
00:20:52.160 --> 00:20:55.839
We got a search warrant on that house, we got three guns and an ounce of Coke.
00:20:55.920 --> 00:20:57.759
Those are the calls I would get from them regularly.
00:20:57.920 --> 00:20:59.039
I would just give them a target.
00:20:59.200 --> 00:21:01.279
A week later, they'd be hitting the target.
00:21:01.440 --> 00:21:03.519
Like that's why I called them.
00:21:03.759 --> 00:21:09.839
And so feds on the other side of the coin provide that service, serve your local agency.
00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:12.079
And if they call you, show up.
00:21:12.720 --> 00:21:20.640
And if they give you a tip, if they're a reliable tipster, I mean, if they're just calling about everything and they don't have an eye for crime, that sucks.
00:21:20.720 --> 00:21:22.000
You know, lose that relationship.
00:21:22.079 --> 00:21:25.599
They're just either develop them or or find something worth your time.
00:21:25.759 --> 00:21:31.759
But if they're a good, reliable tipster, if they're a good cop with an eye for stuff, move on their stuff.
00:21:31.920 --> 00:21:33.359
Give them updates.
00:21:34.240 --> 00:21:36.000
I mean, you can call them before you hit it.
00:21:36.079 --> 00:21:38.000
Hey, we're getting great stuff out of that house.
00:21:38.160 --> 00:21:40.160
Keep doing what you're doing, stay away from it.
00:21:40.240 --> 00:21:41.119
We're gonna finish it up.
00:21:41.200 --> 00:21:42.400
I'll call you when we're done.
00:21:42.559 --> 00:21:44.319
I'd love to have you on the search warrant.
00:21:44.480 --> 00:21:45.279
So do that.
00:21:45.440 --> 00:21:47.039
But find the unit that works for you.
00:21:47.440 --> 00:21:51.440
ATF or small time drug stuff where they're also toting guns and shooting people.
00:21:51.599 --> 00:21:52.799
That's who you want.
00:21:53.039 --> 00:21:55.519
But most states have investigative agencies.
00:21:55.680 --> 00:22:07.920
There's nothing wrong if your city or county's narcotics or pro whatever the proactive investigative agency is, if they kind of Suck, or they just or they don't suck, but they don't really take tips.
00:22:08.240 --> 00:22:11.759
A lot of them just kind of want to do their own thing and develop their own leads.
00:22:11.920 --> 00:22:16.960
If they're like that, if you're in Tennessee, call the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
00:22:19.359 --> 00:22:20.160
Call somebody else.
00:22:20.240 --> 00:22:21.920
If you're in Mississippi, call MBI.
00:22:22.000 --> 00:22:24.879
Hey, do y'all have a drug unit that works in Memphis?
00:22:25.119 --> 00:22:27.599
Because we got some stuff going on.
00:22:27.680 --> 00:22:29.279
I'd love to get this house looked into.
00:22:29.440 --> 00:22:30.400
Solve the problem.
00:22:30.559 --> 00:22:37.119
If you hit a wall the first time you try to solve the problem, find another solution.
00:22:37.279 --> 00:22:44.240
If you get in a narcotics investigator who you think is a dead end, I mean, and you could even tell them there's no ego in this game.
00:22:44.319 --> 00:22:50.720
Like if two weeks go by and you call them back and you're like, hey, I just want to see if you're making any progress, like they're doing the same stuff.
00:22:50.960 --> 00:22:53.440
And they're like, oh yeah, I've been busy.
00:22:55.839 --> 00:22:58.720
And it ends there, you don't have to beg them to work it.
00:22:58.799 --> 00:23:05.440
You can just go, okay, are you like it's not rude, but are you gonna work it or should I do you want me to give it to somebody else?
00:23:05.519 --> 00:23:06.480
Like I'm trying to get it solved.
00:23:06.640 --> 00:23:10.799
And if they get mad at you for asking that, well, I'm gonna get to it, but you know I got a lot going on.
00:23:11.039 --> 00:23:12.559
I don't even need that, man.
00:23:12.640 --> 00:23:13.200
People do that.
00:23:13.279 --> 00:23:14.559
I'm saying this firsthand.
00:23:14.720 --> 00:23:21.839
People do that, where they're not working it, but they're offended if you ask for an update.
00:23:22.079 --> 00:23:25.359
And so, yeah, whatever.
00:23:25.440 --> 00:23:26.799
I'm not dealing with that guy anymore.
00:23:26.960 --> 00:23:28.160
We're moving on.
00:23:28.559 --> 00:23:31.519
But just know your resources for drug work.
00:23:32.640 --> 00:23:33.920
Look at it like speeding.
00:23:34.000 --> 00:23:34.480
What do they do?
00:23:34.559 --> 00:23:37.920
What do traffic units do when there's complaints of speeding on a street?
00:23:38.079 --> 00:23:39.440
They put a cop out there, right?
00:23:39.519 --> 00:23:44.879
They put one of those stupid signs that like flashes at you if you're going 36 instead of 35.
00:23:45.599 --> 00:23:46.799
Just look at it that way.
00:23:46.879 --> 00:23:47.759
That's problem solving.
00:23:47.839 --> 00:23:49.119
They're working the problem.
00:23:49.279 --> 00:23:51.519
Do the same thing with everybody.
00:23:51.759 --> 00:23:57.920
And then a couple of firsthand stories where I applied my problem solving.
00:23:58.160 --> 00:23:59.680
It's not, I'm not trying to be a flex.
00:23:59.759 --> 00:24:01.119
I'm just trying to give examples.
00:24:01.359 --> 00:24:03.519
And this is always kind of how I did it.
00:24:03.599 --> 00:24:05.680
And it helped my career to always move forward.
00:24:05.759 --> 00:24:07.599
It helped me to get into investigations.
00:24:07.759 --> 00:24:24.879
Because if you're working a murder, a shooting, a robbery, you need to be a playmaker because eventually your video evidence is going to stall, your witnesses are going to stall, and you're either going to move the case forward or you're just going to stall and it's going to go in the unsolved bin.
00:24:25.279 --> 00:24:29.680
So in the investigative uh units, they want playmakers on it.
00:24:29.759 --> 00:24:32.079
But the playmakers, they don't fill those units.
00:24:32.160 --> 00:24:33.200
They don't fill the ranks.
00:24:33.359 --> 00:24:37.680
They want them to fill the ranks, but they generally aren't filled with playmakers.
00:24:37.759 --> 00:24:38.480
There's a handful.
00:24:38.640 --> 00:24:42.799
And if you become a playmaker, you will succeed in this career field.
00:24:42.960 --> 00:24:44.240
Most career fields.
00:24:44.400 --> 00:24:46.079
I mean, we're comparing to sports.
00:24:46.240 --> 00:24:48.160
Sports playmakers are the superstars.
00:24:50.720 --> 00:24:54.799
Leo Messi, Killian Mbappe, Michael Elize, they're playmakers.
00:24:54.879 --> 00:24:56.879
They make something out of absolutely nothing.
00:24:57.119 --> 00:24:57.759
Be that.
00:24:57.920 --> 00:25:03.200
So my two examples that I have written down might have another one come to mind, but probably just two.
00:25:03.599 --> 00:25:10.160
When I promoted to be a sergeant, actually, these are both from when I started supervising.
00:25:11.519 --> 00:25:20.640
There was this house, and there was this lady at the house, and she was just all the way mental health consumer.
00:25:21.759 --> 00:25:27.599
She could live alone, but she was like, I don't know exactly what she had.
00:25:27.680 --> 00:25:34.480
I would guess probably like paranoid, schizophrenic, but I don't, she had some kind of severe chemical imbalance going on.
00:25:35.839 --> 00:25:38.079
So, and she was just kind of mean.
00:25:38.319 --> 00:25:45.359
So I saw, I came back to patrol and I started seeing these calls all the time at this house.
00:25:45.519 --> 00:25:46.960
Pretty nice neighborhood.
00:25:47.200 --> 00:25:51.839
And there were these weird calls coming out of her like just doing weird stuff.
00:25:52.000 --> 00:26:03.920
And so after a few days of like my officers going there like three or four shifts in a row, I asked somebody like at the at roll call, I'm like, hey, what's up with this house on like, we'll call it like Wemberly Lane.
00:26:04.000 --> 00:26:05.440
Like, what's up with the house on Wemberly?
00:26:05.519 --> 00:26:06.559
Like, y'all are allers out there.
00:26:06.640 --> 00:26:07.200
And they're laughing.
00:26:07.279 --> 00:26:08.640
They're like, oh, that lady's crazy.
00:26:08.720 --> 00:26:09.759
I'm like, what you mean?
00:26:09.920 --> 00:26:13.200
They're like, oh, she's just, she's always just doing weird stuff.
00:26:13.359 --> 00:26:15.279
She kind of messes with her neighbors.
00:26:15.440 --> 00:26:16.640
So I'm like, all right, what weird stuff?
00:26:16.799 --> 00:26:17.759
Like, what are we talking about?
00:26:17.920 --> 00:26:20.000
And they're like, oh, she just, she hates her neighbors.
00:26:20.079 --> 00:26:22.799
And so she just starts drama with them.
00:26:23.359 --> 00:26:25.039
But she was like crossing lines.
00:26:25.119 --> 00:26:29.039
Like she wasn't just being rude, like, I'll explain.
00:26:29.279 --> 00:26:38.559
So that day, a call comes out, and it's one of the neighbors calling, and it says that she threatened them with a gun.
00:26:38.720 --> 00:26:40.240
So I go on the radio.
00:26:40.400 --> 00:26:42.319
My call sign was like four alpha one.
00:26:42.480 --> 00:26:47.119
I'm like, four alpha one, I'll take that, I'll take that threat call.
00:26:47.359 --> 00:26:52.799
So I ride over there, talk to the neighbor, and they're like, yeah.
00:26:53.039 --> 00:26:54.799
She kissed the neighbor across the street.
00:26:54.879 --> 00:27:02.240
They're like, that lady came out in a trench coat, and she was just standing in the street in front of me.
00:27:02.319 --> 00:27:06.879
And she was like, and then she reached under the trench coat and smiled at me.
00:27:07.440 --> 00:27:12.240
And I was like, all right, yeah, that's weird and kind of lawful, but awful.
00:27:12.480 --> 00:27:15.839
So let's see if we can play make something on this.
00:27:16.079 --> 00:27:20.640
So, and I had another officer with me who had a body cam.
00:27:20.799 --> 00:27:22.480
Sergeants didn't have body cams at the time.
00:27:22.640 --> 00:27:26.480
So, me and the officer, we go over to this lady's house, knock on the door.
00:27:26.640 --> 00:27:27.440
She's being nice.
00:27:27.599 --> 00:27:32.480
That's what they told me is like she's usually nice and she acts like nothing happened.
00:27:32.799 --> 00:27:35.680
So, you know, I'd been in investigations for a while.
00:27:35.759 --> 00:27:38.400
I'm used to rapport development.
00:27:38.480 --> 00:27:44.079
You know, I just did the episode on developing rapport, and I was very used to that by now.
00:27:44.160 --> 00:27:46.960
So I dove right into rapport hot and heavy.
00:27:47.279 --> 00:27:52.799
If I came in tough or abrasive with this lady, hey, you can't be out there standing in a trench coat.
00:27:53.039 --> 00:27:54.799
Like, what's gonna happen, right?
00:27:54.960 --> 00:27:55.200
Nothing.
00:27:55.279 --> 00:27:57.599
She's gonna deny it, and then she's gonna do it again tomorrow.
00:27:57.839 --> 00:28:01.440
Um, so I went over, the lady was being nice.
00:28:01.839 --> 00:28:03.200
Officer probably thought I was crazy.
00:28:03.279 --> 00:28:05.920
So I was like, oh, can I come in and hang out?
00:28:06.079 --> 00:28:08.240
She like took us to the living room.
00:28:08.400 --> 00:28:09.680
I was like, I'm kind of thirsty.
00:28:09.759 --> 00:28:10.319
Do you have any water?
00:28:10.400 --> 00:28:11.599
She's like, Oh, yeah, I got water.
00:28:11.759 --> 00:28:13.440
She's like, gets me a glass of water.
00:28:13.599 --> 00:28:17.279
We're hanging out, talking about nothing, not about the incident at all.
00:28:17.440 --> 00:28:18.720
Sitting on the couch.
00:28:18.960 --> 00:28:24.240
The officer's like, My new sergeant definitely like smokes weed by a campfire.
00:28:24.400 --> 00:28:26.000
Like, what are we doing here?
00:28:26.400 --> 00:28:29.519
Well, I'll tell you this, we never had to go back to that house again.
00:28:29.759 --> 00:28:32.240
So, or the officers didn't.
00:28:32.720 --> 00:28:38.960
So we're talking probably, I'd say 50, I was gonna say 30 minutes, but I think that'd be exaggerated.
00:28:39.200 --> 00:28:53.119
Probably 15 minutes of nothing but small talk, talking about her son who moved away, talking about this and that, what it's like living alone, how I like her house and how she has it set up, blah, blah, blah, all this bull crap.
00:28:53.839 --> 00:28:59.039
So then I say something along the lines of like, hey, what's up with your neighbor?
00:28:59.200 --> 00:29:00.720
Do they have some issues?
00:29:01.200 --> 00:29:04.960
I'm not accusatory at all toward this lady, but I am trying to solve the problem.
00:29:05.039 --> 00:29:06.079
I'm like, what's up with them?
00:29:06.319 --> 00:29:08.879
She's like, oh yeah, they're so annoying.
00:29:09.119 --> 00:29:13.119
So now we're like in a conspiracy together against the neighbor, right?
00:29:13.200 --> 00:29:14.720
That's how she's viewing it.
00:29:14.879 --> 00:29:16.319
She's like, oh yeah, they're so annoying.
00:29:16.400 --> 00:29:17.359
I was like, yeah.
00:29:17.599 --> 00:29:19.279
And I knew she knew we'd been over there.
00:29:19.359 --> 00:29:21.119
I was like, yeah, I just talked to her.
00:29:21.839 --> 00:29:22.480
Agreed.
00:29:22.640 --> 00:29:23.920
Like, what's up with her?
00:29:24.079 --> 00:29:25.759
And she was like, oh, she's the worst.
00:29:25.839 --> 00:29:26.400
Blah, blah, blah.
00:29:26.559 --> 00:29:32.799
So she starts like dragging this neighbor who she had done this weird, vague, passive aggressive threat to.
00:29:33.200 --> 00:29:41.599
And I kind of just like give her a look when she's done talking, and she, and then she goes, and I got her good today.
00:29:41.839 --> 00:29:42.879
And I was like, Are you?
00:29:43.119 --> 00:29:48.160
I'm smiling because I'm like, we're solving the problem, but also like I'm building rapport.
00:29:48.240 --> 00:29:49.039
Like, I'm smiling.
00:29:49.119 --> 00:29:54.559
I've gotten this lady to trust me enough that she's about to admit to a felony, which she did.
00:29:55.200 --> 00:30:02.720
So I like smile at her and just like an encouraging smile, just like, I can't wait to hear how you got this lady, this little weirdo.
00:30:02.960 --> 00:30:06.640
And she's like, let me tell you what I did today.
00:30:07.200 --> 00:30:11.119
I went out there, I put on my trench coat just to mess with her.
00:30:11.200 --> 00:30:13.680
And I just stood out there and looked at her.
00:30:13.839 --> 00:30:16.240
And then here's where she admitted to a crime.
00:30:16.400 --> 00:30:19.519
She goes, when she looked out, I could tell she was scared.
00:30:19.680 --> 00:30:22.400
She came out on the porch and she was kind of scared looking.
00:30:22.559 --> 00:30:29.359
So I reached under my trench coat, you know, like I had a gun, and she ran back in the house.
00:30:29.599 --> 00:30:32.879
And Georgia has a statute called terroristic threats.
00:30:33.200 --> 00:30:45.279
Like, if you threaten someone's life and make them feel like they're in danger, she she said that she intentionally made them feel like she was reaching for a gun and it scared them.
00:30:45.680 --> 00:30:48.400
That's an admission to a felony, and we charged her with it.
00:30:48.559 --> 00:30:50.640
And we never went back to that house.
00:30:50.960 --> 00:30:53.759
I mean, did she need mental health help?
00:30:54.319 --> 00:30:54.960
Probably.
00:30:55.119 --> 00:30:58.879
That's a whole different conversation of what could have been, what should have been.
00:30:59.119 --> 00:31:02.799
But as far as playmaking, we didn't have to go back to that damn house.
00:31:02.879 --> 00:31:03.599
It was done.
00:31:03.759 --> 00:31:09.359
She didn't get held over in jail, but she stopped messing with the neighbors because there was a consequence.
00:31:09.680 --> 00:31:15.359
Another one, when I was a new sergeant, I went to a meeting in a nice area.
00:31:15.519 --> 00:31:19.839
Again, this was it was the south side of Savannah, so it was a pretty nice part of the city for the most part.
00:31:20.799 --> 00:31:27.119
And I went to a neighborhood meeting, coffee bluff, which like goes down to this little marina.
00:31:27.359 --> 00:31:30.879
It's like, I don't know, half million, million dollar houses, a nice area.
00:31:31.200 --> 00:31:33.440
So I have to go to this community meeting.
00:31:33.519 --> 00:31:36.319
I'm like, oh my God, I can't believe I got to go to these meetings now.
00:31:36.480 --> 00:31:37.279
This is my life.
00:31:37.440 --> 00:31:42.240
I'm just off the fugitive task force with the Marshalls, and I'm like, this is what, this is my job now.
00:31:42.559 --> 00:31:43.519
Kidding me, bro.
00:31:43.839 --> 00:31:55.839
So get to the meeting, and this guy starts telling me about this problem of, hey, there's this sheriff deputy that lives at this house and she's always at work.
00:31:56.000 --> 00:31:59.200
And then her husband is always at work.
00:31:59.440 --> 00:32:00.960
That's the kid's stepdad.
00:32:01.039 --> 00:32:07.839
And these teenage kids like get drunk while the parents are gone and like have some people over.
00:32:08.160 --> 00:32:10.720
And his big thing was like they come over and pee in his yard.
00:32:10.799 --> 00:32:12.879
Like they get drunk and they pee in his yard.
00:32:13.519 --> 00:32:17.359
So then he goes into like, and here's what you're gonna do.
00:32:17.599 --> 00:32:19.279
And I'm kind of defensive anyway.
00:32:19.440 --> 00:32:21.599
So I'm like, okay, this dude's about to tell me what I'm gonna do.
00:32:21.680 --> 00:32:22.960
He's like, here's what you're gonna do.
00:32:23.279 --> 00:32:30.000
You're gonna put an undercover cop watching the house, and then you're gonna put like three police cars down the street.
00:32:30.319 --> 00:32:39.599
And when they leave drunk, you're gonna pull them over and give them DUIs, and then they'll stop, you know, peeing on my trash or peeing in my yard.
00:32:42.000 --> 00:32:44.879
So I was like, okay, got it.
00:32:45.200 --> 00:32:49.200
I'm just still kind of processing that this is my job, that I'd go to these meetings.
00:32:49.359 --> 00:32:50.079
But I do.
00:32:50.240 --> 00:32:52.640
So I'm like, okay, get the address.
00:32:53.440 --> 00:32:57.680
I think I said something like, I'm not gonna do that, but I will solve your problem.
00:32:58.160 --> 00:33:04.799
So get in my patrol car, I drive over to the house, knock on the door, dude answers.
00:33:04.960 --> 00:33:07.279
I'm like, hey, do you have some stepkids that live here?
00:33:07.519 --> 00:33:08.640
He says, Yeah.
00:33:08.879 --> 00:33:10.079
I was like, okay.
00:33:10.400 --> 00:33:14.960
Neighbors are saying that they get drunk when you're gone and they pee all over the place and act like idiots.
00:33:15.279 --> 00:33:16.559
Does that sound like them?
00:33:16.799 --> 00:33:18.559
And he was like, Oh, I don't know.
00:33:18.799 --> 00:33:19.519
Blah, blah, blah.
00:33:19.839 --> 00:33:24.720
I said, Look, I'm not doing some undercover sting at this point.
00:33:25.119 --> 00:33:28.400
I'm just having a grown-up man-to-man conversation.
00:33:28.720 --> 00:33:30.400
Can you get these kids to stop?
00:33:30.640 --> 00:33:32.000
You can make me the bad guy.
00:33:32.079 --> 00:33:39.039
I'm glad to talk to them if you want, but we are gonna start pulling cars over that leave if they continue to drink.
00:33:39.200 --> 00:33:40.720
We're gonna come over here and get them.
00:33:40.879 --> 00:33:42.720
I understand your wife's a deputy.
00:33:42.879 --> 00:33:44.480
You guys don't need this crap.
00:33:44.640 --> 00:33:46.240
Stop the behavior.
00:33:46.720 --> 00:33:48.160
And he was like, Yes, sir.
00:33:48.400 --> 00:33:48.960
He thanked me.
00:33:49.039 --> 00:33:50.160
He was like, and most people will.
00:33:50.319 --> 00:33:51.920
He was like, I appreciate the warning.
00:33:52.079 --> 00:33:53.200
I'll take care of it.
00:33:53.440 --> 00:33:54.960
Never heard from anybody again.
00:33:55.119 --> 00:33:56.240
The problem was solved.
00:33:56.559 --> 00:33:59.279
So just playmake, problem solve.
00:33:59.359 --> 00:34:03.440
If you can get them to stop drinking and driving, or maybe do it somewhere else.
00:34:03.599 --> 00:34:04.879
Hopefully that's not what happened.
00:34:05.039 --> 00:34:06.160
Hopefully they stopped.
00:34:06.319 --> 00:34:09.840
But I wasn't trying to lock up some 16-year-olds for DUI.
00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:15.520
It sounds all in all terrible in every aspect, but I did want to solve it.
00:34:16.080 --> 00:34:17.280
So that should be your goal.
00:34:17.440 --> 00:34:19.840
Be a playmaker, be a problem solver.
00:34:20.400 --> 00:34:24.640
And I think your career will go exactly wherever you want it to go.
00:34:24.880 --> 00:34:26.080
Thanks for listening.
00:34:26.240 --> 00:34:29.120
The temperatures are dropping finally.
00:34:29.600 --> 00:34:31.600
Maybe it's because the ice caps are melting.
00:34:31.760 --> 00:34:33.280
I don't know, but it feels great.
00:34:33.440 --> 00:34:34.640
Hope you guys have a great one.
00:34:34.720 --> 00:34:35.040
Bye.
00:00:04.799 --> 00:00:05.759
Good morning.
00:00:06.000 --> 00:00:08.160
It's Leo and welcome back.
00:00:09.199 --> 00:00:12.080
Today let's get into being a playmaker.
00:00:12.320 --> 00:00:18.079
It's a sports term for somebody they uh they have an X factor.
00:00:18.560 --> 00:00:30.079
Uh an athlete that you call a playmaker, they may not be the fastest, they may not be the best at whatever position they're playing, but they just make stuff happen.
00:00:30.320 --> 00:00:34.960
They have some X factor that they are a problem solver.
00:00:35.359 --> 00:00:38.479
They're taking responsibility for the game.
00:00:38.640 --> 00:00:41.919
Anytime they're in, they want to impact the game.
00:00:42.159 --> 00:00:44.960
And those are the people you generally want on your team.
00:00:45.199 --> 00:00:50.320
If you've ever coached a team, you have a bunch of players and then you have a couple of playmakers.
00:00:50.399 --> 00:00:54.559
Or if you've ever been on a team, you got a couple of people that just make stuff happen.
00:00:54.799 --> 00:00:55.839
They're not that strong.
00:00:55.919 --> 00:01:01.119
They're a running back, they're not that strong, but they just bounce off people because they are not going to go down.
00:01:01.359 --> 00:01:02.079
They're a playmaker.
00:01:02.159 --> 00:01:03.119
They're going to find a hole.
00:01:03.280 --> 00:01:09.040
Even if it's not written into the play, they find the whole, they find a different hole because they're a playmaker.
00:01:09.120 --> 00:01:12.000
They're always looking for solutions to everything.
00:01:12.240 --> 00:01:20.719
There's another way of putting it, and there's a theory or a book or something about coming from a place of yes.
00:01:21.600 --> 00:01:25.359
And what that means is it doesn't mean being a yes man.
00:01:25.440 --> 00:01:29.040
It doesn't mean being a people pleaser and getting manipulated all the time.
00:01:29.280 --> 00:01:34.480
What it means is trying to trying to make stuff happen.
00:01:34.640 --> 00:01:37.120
If you can say yes, you're saying yes.
00:01:37.359 --> 00:01:46.160
And it's it's kind of similar to being a playmaker, and we're going to talk about it in the regard of law enforcement and being a playmaker in law enforcement.
00:01:46.320 --> 00:01:50.480
And if you're a playmaker, it's going to bolster your career.
00:01:50.640 --> 00:01:55.760
You're going to come off as successful because of the little things you do.
00:01:56.000 --> 00:02:06.960
What do they say in that movie Waiting, the old movie about how people at restaurant staff put pubic hair in people's food and spit on their steak on the ground?
00:02:07.120 --> 00:02:12.639
The boss says, hey, the difference between being ordinary, being extraordinary, it's that little extra.
00:02:13.199 --> 00:02:15.919
It's very much the same in law enforcement.
00:02:16.000 --> 00:02:17.120
It's the little extra.
00:02:17.199 --> 00:02:21.120
It's coming from a place of yes, it's how do I playmake this situation?
00:02:21.280 --> 00:02:28.560
Instead of walking away and going, nothing I can do, which is a bit of a jackwagon move.
00:02:28.719 --> 00:02:32.079
If you're constantly going, not in my purview.
00:02:32.239 --> 00:02:47.759
I'm not saying operate outside the bounds of the law and the policy, but I am saying if there's something lawful but awful going on, if there's some problem that's going on, you should take it as, hey, I should try to solve this.
00:02:47.919 --> 00:02:49.359
I should try to figure this out.
00:02:49.519 --> 00:02:57.280
So let's get into a few examples of my personal examples and others that I've seen of playmaking.
00:02:57.599 --> 00:03:02.639
And I consider myself somebody that tries to be a playmaker.
00:03:02.719 --> 00:03:06.799
I try to be a problem solver over a law enforcement officer.
00:03:07.039 --> 00:03:10.239
My problem solving results in me enforcing the law a lot.
00:03:10.399 --> 00:03:23.199
But if I'm a patrol cop, a narcotics officer, a whatever, wearing a badge, carrying a gun, peace officer status, I'm going to try to solve the problems of the community.
00:03:23.599 --> 00:03:31.120
So there's a video circulating right now of the Fort Worth chief of police.
00:03:31.919 --> 00:03:32.639
He's kind of cool.
00:03:32.719 --> 00:03:38.879
He's got like a shaved bald head, you know, he's he just comes off as like motivated and positive and kind of proactive.
00:03:39.120 --> 00:03:44.239
And he's talking about a hotel in the area that's a nuisance.
00:03:44.479 --> 00:03:46.719
If you're a cop, you know these hotels.
00:03:46.879 --> 00:03:48.719
They're they're just run down.
00:03:49.280 --> 00:03:59.840
Management is either complicit or defeated, and people are just prostituting and selling drugs and shooting each other, and it's just it's out of control.
00:03:59.919 --> 00:04:00.959
It's dangerous.
00:04:01.120 --> 00:04:06.879
Regular people go stay there sometimes and they get victimized, or the surrounding businesses get victimized.
00:04:07.039 --> 00:04:12.079
People are running back to these hotels, very transient places, and they're just a wreck.
00:04:12.399 --> 00:04:18.720
So he did a press release basically saying this hotel is a nuisance and he plans to shut it down.
00:04:18.800 --> 00:04:21.199
Like if this doesn't get fixed, he's shutting it down.
00:04:21.279 --> 00:04:23.039
And that's how it should be.
00:04:23.199 --> 00:04:26.159
That's that's playmaking right now, or right there.
00:04:26.240 --> 00:04:27.360
That's problem solving.
00:04:27.519 --> 00:04:32.399
We had a hotel when I worked in Savannah, Georgia called the Thunderbird Inn.
00:04:33.039 --> 00:04:41.839
And when I was working there, when I started in 2010, it was an absolute dump.
00:04:43.599 --> 00:04:49.519
Crack, crack dealing, crack smoking, and prostitution were always going on.
00:04:49.680 --> 00:04:55.120
There were, you know, things getting thrown through people's windows, people getting stabbed.
00:04:55.680 --> 00:04:58.480
It was just ate up with drugs.
00:04:58.560 --> 00:05:00.159
That's all that was in there.
00:05:00.399 --> 00:05:02.560
The maintenance man was selling some drugs.
00:05:02.639 --> 00:05:10.159
We found out later when I was in narcotics, he was like, had his little buggy where he was doing towels and crack rocks at the same time.
00:05:11.039 --> 00:05:21.039
Management wasn't, they weren't criminals, but they were definitely allowing the criminals to operate there unhindered.
00:05:21.279 --> 00:05:36.959
And so I went in when I was a patrol cop shortly before I left patrol, and we had a form called a citizens agreement form, which I think they got rid of, and it was a wonderfully useful form.
00:05:37.519 --> 00:05:42.399
And I did it with all these hotels and businesses on that stretch of road.
00:05:42.800 --> 00:05:49.199
I think the department decided it was some kind of Fourth Amendment issue, which I would disagree and say it is not.
00:05:49.360 --> 00:05:53.839
It's actually a brilliant creation of an exception to the Fourth Amendment.
00:05:55.920 --> 00:06:10.800
What the Citizens Agreement Form says and does is you go to the owner of the business or the general manager, and you bring this form that they can sign or not sign.
00:06:11.039 --> 00:06:19.599
And it says something along the lines of, I do not want the following criminal activity taking place on my property.
00:06:19.920 --> 00:06:28.480
So I get the Thunderbird in, I would write drug dealing, prostitution, loitering, and trespassing, something like that.
00:06:29.439 --> 00:06:47.759
And I give the police permission to stop and identify anyone on my private property, because this is private property stuff, on my private property who are engaging in these activities, who are suspected of engaging in these activities.
00:06:48.480 --> 00:06:51.039
Now you do have to be careful not to misuse it.
00:06:51.279 --> 00:06:59.680
I got it done at a supermarket called Red and White, and it's a big supermarket.
00:06:59.759 --> 00:07:04.879
The general manager was concerned that I was going to be jacking up his customers in the parking lot.
00:07:05.519 --> 00:07:08.079
And I was like, hey, it's not that.
00:07:08.240 --> 00:07:13.199
I'm trying to, you know, you have a straight up crack motel next door.
00:07:13.279 --> 00:07:14.159
It wasn't the Thunderbird.
00:07:14.240 --> 00:07:16.639
It was called the Arbor Cottages, and it was the same.
00:07:16.800 --> 00:07:21.360
It was, you know, a half mile from the Thunderbird, and it was the exact same thing.
00:07:21.519 --> 00:07:30.719
And they're, you know, their prostitutes would go over and do their business in the red and white parking lot, and they were selling crack over there and all this stuff.
00:07:30.879 --> 00:07:36.959
And so I was like, hey, I'm not gonna, you know, if somebody's pushing a buggy and they're buying some meat, I'm not messing with them.
00:07:37.120 --> 00:07:45.920
It's gonna be the girl in a mini skirt that's walking with a guy and climbing into a car and then they're not getting out for walking from the hotel next door.
00:07:46.079 --> 00:07:46.879
That's who I'm looking at.
00:07:47.039 --> 00:07:48.800
The people that are tricking in your lot.
00:07:50.639 --> 00:08:00.240
And so that that's something you need to be aware of is not misusing because these are legitimate businesses and it is a citizen agreement.
00:08:00.319 --> 00:08:03.120
Uh, you can do it for private residences as well.
00:08:03.279 --> 00:08:11.439
It's great if you have people, you know, trespassing on a porch and they're always up there selling dope on the porch of a vacant house.
00:08:11.759 --> 00:08:15.599
Find the owner of that vacant house and get a citizen's agreement for them.
00:08:15.839 --> 00:08:23.680
And now there's no question that they don't want the people up there, and you can stop and talk to the people that are trespassing on their property.
00:08:24.959 --> 00:08:27.839
So the Thunderbird Inn.
00:08:27.920 --> 00:08:30.159
I went to them with a citizen's agreement.
00:08:30.480 --> 00:08:34.560
Management was a little iffy about it because that's their whole client base.
00:08:35.200 --> 00:08:37.439
And I said something kind of similar.
00:08:37.600 --> 00:08:38.879
Did I bully a little bit?
00:08:39.039 --> 00:08:44.000
I don't know, but I said something kind of similar to what this chief said.
00:08:44.159 --> 00:08:49.840
Something like, you, this hotel has become an absolute nuisance in the area.
00:08:50.080 --> 00:08:56.240
I think somebody had just died, had gotten killed there not long before I did this.
00:08:56.480 --> 00:09:02.319
I was like, hey, people are dying, people are overdosing, there's shots fired all the time.
00:09:02.480 --> 00:09:03.679
We're not gonna deal with this.
00:09:03.759 --> 00:09:05.679
We're not gonna act like this is normal.
00:09:06.000 --> 00:09:15.840
So I want to get this form so that I can show that you are helping law enforcement and you don't want the crime eating this place up.
00:09:16.879 --> 00:09:20.720
And I I don't want your business to get shut down.
00:09:21.200 --> 00:09:21.919
Which is true.
00:09:22.000 --> 00:09:22.559
I didn't.
00:09:22.720 --> 00:09:28.000
Like, I don't want this place shut down, but I'm not gonna tolerate this going on.
00:09:28.159 --> 00:09:32.399
There there are nuisance foreclosure laws that I'm gonna look into.
00:09:32.559 --> 00:09:40.240
I didn't say you you will be shut down if you don't do this, but I did say if if you keep this pace, we're gonna have to look at other approaches to this.
00:09:40.399 --> 00:09:49.519
So they signed it, and I got them for all probably 20 businesses up and down this short stretch of road that was just ate up with crime.
00:09:51.919 --> 00:09:58.559
So then I was able to stop and talk to people when they're sitting in cars waiting for their drug deal.
00:09:58.720 --> 00:10:09.360
I could go detain them and I would tell them, I would have the citizens' agreement form on file, and I would go up and say, Hey, I'm Officer Leo, I'm with Savannah Police.
00:10:10.319 --> 00:10:12.319
Do you have a room at this hotel?
00:10:12.559 --> 00:10:18.319
And often they would say stuff like, I don't have to talk to you, bro, and try to blow me off.
00:10:18.399 --> 00:10:28.720
And I'd go, well, actually, you do, because management is tired of the ongoing crime problem here, and they've asked me to look into any trespassers on the property.
00:10:28.960 --> 00:10:31.439
And that includes people that don't have rooms.
00:10:31.759 --> 00:10:34.720
So I do need to see your ID, actually.
00:10:35.039 --> 00:10:36.319
You are detained.
00:10:36.480 --> 00:10:38.559
And that's kind of how things would go.
00:10:40.080 --> 00:10:43.840
It was private property, and management was asking us to deal with the problem.
00:10:44.159 --> 00:10:46.319
And again, you had to be careful.
00:10:46.480 --> 00:10:51.919
Some officers did misuse it, which made it more difficult for those of us that were trying to use it right.
00:10:52.000 --> 00:10:56.799
They would jack up, you know, people just standing outside a hotel room and go ID them.
00:10:56.879 --> 00:10:58.559
And I was like, hey, that's not what it's for.
00:10:58.720 --> 00:11:05.039
It's for people that are on the property to do something nefarious, that are out there, you know, five guys out there at 3 a.m.
00:11:05.360 --> 00:11:07.120
standing on the corner of the property.
00:11:07.360 --> 00:11:09.200
That's who we're using this on.
00:11:10.879 --> 00:11:22.240
But when so I got all these done and I was trying to make a little dent in my area of the city, and then I went to narcotics.
00:11:22.480 --> 00:11:24.240
So the mission ended.
00:11:24.879 --> 00:11:31.439
Some of my old informants, quote, informants from patrol, you know, people that would just call me when something was going on.
00:11:31.600 --> 00:11:33.200
They weren't documented.
00:11:33.759 --> 00:11:47.200
Hotel man, a couple of the hotel managers would call me direct and be like, hey, dude in 312, like just pulled up in a rental car, carried in a duffel bag, and now there's people coming and going from the room like every two minutes.
00:11:47.279 --> 00:11:49.279
Like he's selling drugs for sure.
00:11:49.519 --> 00:11:53.519
And so they would keep calling me and be like, hey, who's who's actually working over here now?
00:11:53.679 --> 00:11:55.840
Like who will come deal with this?
00:11:56.159 --> 00:12:02.639
And so I try to plug them into people, but be the person that actually deals with that stuff that they can call and you play make on it.
00:12:02.720 --> 00:12:03.759
You you solve it.
00:12:03.919 --> 00:12:10.639
So I go to narcotics and grew my beard out, grew my hair out, got an earring.
00:12:11.120 --> 00:12:13.279
Actually, thought it was funny when I first got there.
00:12:13.360 --> 00:12:16.559
I got my ear pierced and had a little stud or whatever.
00:12:16.879 --> 00:12:24.879
And I went into work and I thought I looked like, you know, I thought I was like gonna be a good undercover.
00:12:25.039 --> 00:12:26.319
And my boss started laughing.
00:12:26.399 --> 00:12:29.840
He was like, You look like a 1980s undercover dope cop.
00:12:30.240 --> 00:12:31.840
And I was like, okay, all right.
00:12:32.559 --> 00:12:34.319
Maybe I'm not as good as I think.
00:12:34.639 --> 00:12:38.799
So I get all undercovered out and I go to the Thunderbird.
00:12:38.879 --> 00:12:45.919
I'm doing low budget UC to start, and you know, driving a truck, riding a bike, having a beer, buying some crack.
00:12:46.080 --> 00:12:50.159
So I go to the Thunderbird, like easy place to go get some crack rocks from a stranger.
00:12:50.799 --> 00:13:00.159
And the person, the lady that ran it saw me come in and she came outside.
00:13:00.480 --> 00:13:02.960
And I guess she recognized that I was a scumbag.
00:13:03.120 --> 00:13:07.600
And she was like, We uh she was like, What you need?
00:13:07.759 --> 00:13:10.559
And I was like, I was like, Oh, I'm just looking for somebody.
00:13:10.799 --> 00:13:12.240
Where's the where's Marvin at?
00:13:12.319 --> 00:13:14.240
Marvin was like the maintenance man that was selling crack.
00:13:14.319 --> 00:13:15.759
I was like, Where's Marvin at?
00:13:16.000 --> 00:13:18.720
And she was like, I got rid of Marvin.
00:13:19.200 --> 00:13:21.360
He was selling drugs, we can't have that anymore.
00:13:21.439 --> 00:13:22.319
She starts like ranting.
00:13:22.399 --> 00:13:23.840
She's like, we can't have that anymore.
00:13:24.159 --> 00:13:31.120
Because Officer Leo, he came out here and they were gonna shut us down.
00:13:31.279 --> 00:13:33.200
So anybody that was doing that, they're gone.
00:13:33.279 --> 00:13:34.480
We don't do that up here anymore.
00:13:34.559 --> 00:13:35.600
It's gone.
00:13:35.919 --> 00:13:41.679
Like she wasn't, she didn't say she was selling drugs, but she did say like she had proactively run it off.
00:13:42.159 --> 00:13:44.000
So that's kind of what you want.
00:13:44.080 --> 00:13:50.000
You want like them policing themselves because they're nervous about doing crime, right?
00:13:50.639 --> 00:13:54.639
So she didn't recognize me because I had like shagged out and all this.
00:13:54.799 --> 00:14:18.319
And so she starts like telling me about me and how me on patrol was going to shut down her hotel and get them in trouble, which was actually weirdly common when I when I started going undercover, people not recognizing me multiple times buying from people that I had arrested multiple times on patrol, dealt with dozens of times.
00:14:18.559 --> 00:14:20.639
They just didn't recognize me.
00:14:20.960 --> 00:14:30.319
I bought from a triple murder suspect in those in the Arbor cottages next to that that grocery store I mentioned.
00:14:30.639 --> 00:14:39.679
I pulled in one night, I can't remember if I was on the bike or in a truck, but I pulled in, I think I was on foot, and he was he was out there.
00:14:39.759 --> 00:14:43.200
He had killed three people in a neighborhood a mile away.
00:14:43.519 --> 00:14:47.679
And so bought some crack from them and they busted him.
00:14:47.759 --> 00:14:55.120
And then I called homicide and I was like, hey, Rob, isn't Angelo like a suspect in a murder?
00:14:55.279 --> 00:14:57.120
He's like, Yeah, we got warrants on him for that triple.
00:14:57.279 --> 00:15:00.480
And I was like, oh, how do we just buy-busted him over here in the arbors?
00:15:02.240 --> 00:15:03.840
And he I knew him well.
00:15:04.000 --> 00:15:06.240
I mean, I dealt with him all the time on patrol.
00:15:06.399 --> 00:15:08.720
He was always hanging out in there selling dope.
00:15:09.039 --> 00:15:18.240
So moving on and continuing with playmaking, kind of getting off the hotel and citizen agreement form.
00:15:18.480 --> 00:15:31.120
That's just one technique, that's one tool in your toolbox that will allow you to playmake instead of just go, yeah, they sell drugs at the Thunderbird Inn and just chalking it up to the game.
00:15:31.519 --> 00:15:33.200
It's like taking accountability.
00:15:33.279 --> 00:15:34.960
I mean, like, nah, I'm gonna be a playmaker on this.
00:15:35.200 --> 00:15:36.639
How do I solve this?
00:15:38.559 --> 00:15:39.679
Drug dealing.
00:15:39.919 --> 00:15:47.519
I mean, wherever you work, I don't care if you're in Tulsa, Oklahoma or Toledo, Texas, people sell drugs.
00:15:47.759 --> 00:15:51.919
And if you're a decent cop, you're gonna start getting a feel for where they sell.
00:15:52.080 --> 00:16:19.200
You might not be able to prove it, but you're gonna see the traffic, you're gonna see the people that have money versus the people that are in the depths of deprivation and addiction and or not, maybe the addicts aren't going to this place, but you know, every car you stop, the guys have money and no job and a history of, you know, drug trafficking.
00:16:19.519 --> 00:16:23.600
Every time the last three you stopped have history of being in federal prison for drugs.
00:16:23.759 --> 00:16:26.879
Like, all right, they're leaving the same house and they're different guys.
00:16:27.039 --> 00:16:29.519
There's probably something going on at this house, right?
00:16:29.759 --> 00:16:33.200
So once you have that, what do you do?
00:16:33.439 --> 00:16:37.120
And I dealt with this quite a bit as a patrol sergeant.
00:16:38.639 --> 00:16:46.080
Officers saying I would hear the scuttle butt, the little rumors of like, oh man, they're they're getting after it at this one house in my area.
00:16:46.240 --> 00:16:49.840
Like they say, like, I'm gonna go set up on it or whatever.
00:16:50.080 --> 00:16:53.519
And I'm all for playmaking on that house, or or just ignore it.
00:16:53.600 --> 00:16:57.279
Like, oh yeah, they're doing it big over there, and then go ride your calls.
00:16:57.519 --> 00:17:00.080
So there's a lot of options for a drug house.
00:17:00.319 --> 00:17:01.360
Let's go into some of that.
00:17:01.439 --> 00:17:04.799
How to be a playmaker on a house where they're selling dope.
00:17:05.279 --> 00:17:12.319
I told my officers several times, an option you have is to go knock on the door.
00:17:13.119 --> 00:17:25.200
And I'm telling you right now, if they're out, if they're out hanging out on the porch all day, they got a nice security system on a$60,000 house, and you think they're selling dope all day.
00:17:26.079 --> 00:17:32.319
If five of us go up there, that's me plus four patrol officers, we'll do it at the beginning of shift before we're busy.
00:17:32.559 --> 00:17:39.440
We go up and knock on the door and we say, hey, fellas, we think y'all are into some stuff over here.
00:17:39.599 --> 00:17:44.559
It needs to be somebody that can talk kind of smooth because you don't want to come off super accusatory.
00:17:44.640 --> 00:17:45.759
You don't want to go start a fight.
00:17:45.839 --> 00:17:46.960
That's not what I'm talking about.
00:17:47.119 --> 00:17:50.319
I'm talking about just going up and giving them a reasonable warning.
00:17:50.559 --> 00:17:52.559
Hey, fellas, how you doing?
00:17:52.640 --> 00:17:53.759
I'm Officer Leo.
00:17:53.839 --> 00:17:55.599
I'm with Savannah Police.
00:17:55.759 --> 00:18:01.119
Uh, we've had some complaints that there's some drug dealing and drug using going on at this house.
00:18:01.359 --> 00:18:04.079
We see the different cars that are in and out of here.
00:18:04.240 --> 00:18:07.039
You know, I see some people staring hard at my officers.
00:18:07.279 --> 00:18:09.599
Cool, y'all do whatever you want to do.
00:18:09.839 --> 00:18:15.119
I just want you to know that we don't, if there is crime going on, we don't really support that.
00:18:15.359 --> 00:18:18.079
And the house is kind of on the radar.
00:18:18.319 --> 00:18:27.279
So, you know, if somebody's doing something stupid, if my officers are trying to pull people over and they're taking off, if people are running away, you know, all this stuff going on.
00:18:27.440 --> 00:18:28.559
People are scared to be outside.
00:18:28.720 --> 00:18:30.000
We're gonna get involved over here.
00:18:30.160 --> 00:18:34.160
We're not trying to put anybody in jail, but we are gonna do our job to protect the area.
00:18:34.319 --> 00:18:35.759
So y'all do what you want to do.
00:18:35.920 --> 00:18:38.319
I just wanted to come over and talk to you.
00:18:38.799 --> 00:18:44.079
And man, a lot of time they'll just be like, all right, but the stuff will stop.
00:18:44.799 --> 00:18:51.440
And they'll probably appreciate it, honestly, because if you don't have time to do some big undercover sting crap, then you can just go talk to them.
00:18:51.519 --> 00:18:53.359
And it literally takes about five minutes.
00:18:53.519 --> 00:18:56.559
Just go deep enough that you have safety and security.
00:18:56.799 --> 00:19:06.400
And if it's a small town, you know, drug house, you might be able to go with one or two officers and just have an honest, heart-to-heart conversation about what's about to happen.
00:19:06.480 --> 00:19:08.240
Like we're about to be on to you.
00:19:08.640 --> 00:19:13.440
Another option for drugs is involving other agencies.
00:19:13.680 --> 00:19:20.400
So if you're on patrol and you're too busy, there are a million drug units everywhere.
00:19:20.559 --> 00:19:21.839
Put your drug unit onto it.
00:19:21.920 --> 00:19:26.079
And if they suck, I mean, if they should be able to give you an honest time frame.
00:19:26.480 --> 00:19:28.720
Like a lot of time they want to be Mr.
00:19:28.879 --> 00:19:36.480
Mysterious and like, hey, I got this drug house over here, and they're too cool for school because they're allowed to wear a baseball hat backwards to work.
00:19:36.640 --> 00:19:39.680
So they're like, oh, all right, thanks.
00:19:39.920 --> 00:19:46.240
If they're kind of dismissive of you, it's okay to ask that narc, like, hey, do you know how long it'll take?
00:19:46.319 --> 00:19:47.839
Just so I have a time frame.
00:19:48.240 --> 00:19:51.440
And if they're dismissive, I'm all for going somewhere else.
00:19:51.519 --> 00:19:54.960
Like, all right, I'm gonna put, I'm gonna try somebody that wants to help.
00:19:55.119 --> 00:19:56.640
Find somebody, find a playmaker.
00:19:56.799 --> 00:19:59.200
If you can't do it, find a real playmaker.
00:19:59.359 --> 00:20:03.119
Most drug units have at least a handful of people that get shit done.
00:20:03.440 --> 00:20:12.799
And you need to find them because if you pass it off to a slug, it'll go into a file and it won't get investigated properly, if at all.
00:20:13.519 --> 00:20:18.160
So find a playmaker on that unit or find a playmaker unit, find a team that's high functioning.
00:20:18.319 --> 00:20:19.599
Maybe a federal agency.
00:20:19.680 --> 00:20:21.920
If it's a big target, DEA might do it.
00:20:22.079 --> 00:20:34.640
If it's a smaller drug target, if it's the normal patrol level target that we always dealt with, I had a great relationship with ATF, and they were awesome in Savannah back then.
00:20:35.119 --> 00:20:39.599
And man, I could call and be like, hey, they're over here doing it big, I think.
00:20:39.839 --> 00:20:42.799
And they'd be like, All right, I'm on it.
00:20:43.039 --> 00:20:44.640
And I knew they were actually on it.
00:20:44.720 --> 00:20:46.640
They did what they said they were gonna do.
00:20:46.879 --> 00:20:52.079
And next thing you know, they'd be calling me either, hey, hey, great job, appreciate the info.
00:20:52.160 --> 00:20:55.839
We got a search warrant on that house, we got three guns and an ounce of Coke.
00:20:55.920 --> 00:20:57.759
Those are the calls I would get from them regularly.
00:20:57.920 --> 00:20:59.039
I would just give them a target.
00:20:59.200 --> 00:21:01.279
A week later, they'd be hitting the target.
00:21:01.440 --> 00:21:03.519
Like that's why I called them.
00:21:03.759 --> 00:21:09.839
And so feds on the other side of the coin provide that service, serve your local agency.
00:21:10.000 --> 00:21:12.079
And if they call you, show up.
00:21:12.720 --> 00:21:20.640
And if they give you a tip, if they're a reliable tipster, I mean, if they're just calling about everything and they don't have an eye for crime, that sucks.
00:21:20.720 --> 00:21:22.000
You know, lose that relationship.
00:21:22.079 --> 00:21:25.599
They're just either develop them or or find something worth your time.
00:21:25.759 --> 00:21:31.759
But if they're a good, reliable tipster, if they're a good cop with an eye for stuff, move on their stuff.
00:21:31.920 --> 00:21:33.359
Give them updates.
00:21:34.240 --> 00:21:36.000
I mean, you can call them before you hit it.
00:21:36.079 --> 00:21:38.000
Hey, we're getting great stuff out of that house.
00:21:38.160 --> 00:21:40.160
Keep doing what you're doing, stay away from it.
00:21:40.240 --> 00:21:41.119
We're gonna finish it up.
00:21:41.200 --> 00:21:42.400
I'll call you when we're done.
00:21:42.559 --> 00:21:44.319
I'd love to have you on the search warrant.
00:21:44.480 --> 00:21:45.279
So do that.
00:21:45.440 --> 00:21:47.039
But find the unit that works for you.
00:21:47.440 --> 00:21:51.440
ATF or small time drug stuff where they're also toting guns and shooting people.
00:21:51.599 --> 00:21:52.799
That's who you want.
00:21:53.039 --> 00:21:55.519
But most states have investigative agencies.
00:21:55.680 --> 00:22:07.920
There's nothing wrong if your city or county's narcotics or pro whatever the proactive investigative agency is, if they kind of Suck, or they just or they don't suck, but they don't really take tips.
00:22:08.240 --> 00:22:11.759
A lot of them just kind of want to do their own thing and develop their own leads.
00:22:11.920 --> 00:22:16.960
If they're like that, if you're in Tennessee, call the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
00:22:19.359 --> 00:22:20.160
Call somebody else.
00:22:20.240 --> 00:22:21.920
If you're in Mississippi, call MBI.
00:22:22.000 --> 00:22:24.879
Hey, do y'all have a drug unit that works in Memphis?
00:22:25.119 --> 00:22:27.599
Because we got some stuff going on.
00:22:27.680 --> 00:22:29.279
I'd love to get this house looked into.
00:22:29.440 --> 00:22:30.400
Solve the problem.
00:22:30.559 --> 00:22:37.119
If you hit a wall the first time you try to solve the problem, find another solution.
00:22:37.279 --> 00:22:44.240
If you get in a narcotics investigator who you think is a dead end, I mean, and you could even tell them there's no ego in this game.
00:22:44.319 --> 00:22:50.720
Like if two weeks go by and you call them back and you're like, hey, I just want to see if you're making any progress, like they're doing the same stuff.
00:22:50.960 --> 00:22:53.440
And they're like, oh yeah, I've been busy.
00:22:55.839 --> 00:22:58.720
And it ends there, you don't have to beg them to work it.
00:22:58.799 --> 00:23:05.440
You can just go, okay, are you like it's not rude, but are you gonna work it or should I do you want me to give it to somebody else?
00:23:05.519 --> 00:23:06.480
Like I'm trying to get it solved.
00:23:06.640 --> 00:23:10.799
And if they get mad at you for asking that, well, I'm gonna get to it, but you know I got a lot going on.
00:23:11.039 --> 00:23:12.559
I don't even need that, man.
00:23:12.640 --> 00:23:13.200
People do that.
00:23:13.279 --> 00:23:14.559
I'm saying this firsthand.
00:23:14.720 --> 00:23:21.839
People do that, where they're not working it, but they're offended if you ask for an update.
00:23:22.079 --> 00:23:25.359
And so, yeah, whatever.
00:23:25.440 --> 00:23:26.799
I'm not dealing with that guy anymore.
00:23:26.960 --> 00:23:28.160
We're moving on.
00:23:28.559 --> 00:23:31.519
But just know your resources for drug work.
00:23:32.640 --> 00:23:33.920
Look at it like speeding.
00:23:34.000 --> 00:23:34.480
What do they do?
00:23:34.559 --> 00:23:37.920
What do traffic units do when there's complaints of speeding on a street?
00:23:38.079 --> 00:23:39.440
They put a cop out there, right?
00:23:39.519 --> 00:23:44.879
They put one of those stupid signs that like flashes at you if you're going 36 instead of 35.
00:23:45.599 --> 00:23:46.799
Just look at it that way.
00:23:46.879 --> 00:23:47.759
That's problem solving.
00:23:47.839 --> 00:23:49.119
They're working the problem.
00:23:49.279 --> 00:23:51.519
Do the same thing with everybody.
00:23:51.759 --> 00:23:57.920
And then a couple of firsthand stories where I applied my problem solving.
00:23:58.160 --> 00:23:59.680
It's not, I'm not trying to be a flex.
00:23:59.759 --> 00:24:01.119
I'm just trying to give examples.
00:24:01.359 --> 00:24:03.519
And this is always kind of how I did it.
00:24:03.599 --> 00:24:05.680
And it helped my career to always move forward.
00:24:05.759 --> 00:24:07.599
It helped me to get into investigations.
00:24:07.759 --> 00:24:24.879
Because if you're working a murder, a shooting, a robbery, you need to be a playmaker because eventually your video evidence is going to stall, your witnesses are going to stall, and you're either going to move the case forward or you're just going to stall and it's going to go in the unsolved bin.
00:24:25.279 --> 00:24:29.680
So in the investigative uh units, they want playmakers on it.
00:24:29.759 --> 00:24:32.079
But the playmakers, they don't fill those units.
00:24:32.160 --> 00:24:33.200
They don't fill the ranks.
00:24:33.359 --> 00:24:37.680
They want them to fill the ranks, but they generally aren't filled with playmakers.
00:24:37.759 --> 00:24:38.480
There's a handful.
00:24:38.640 --> 00:24:42.799
And if you become a playmaker, you will succeed in this career field.
00:24:42.960 --> 00:24:44.240
Most career fields.
00:24:44.400 --> 00:24:46.079
I mean, we're comparing to sports.
00:24:46.240 --> 00:24:48.160
Sports playmakers are the superstars.
00:24:50.720 --> 00:24:54.799
Leo Messi, Killian Mbappe, Michael Elize, they're playmakers.
00:24:54.879 --> 00:24:56.879
They make something out of absolutely nothing.
00:24:57.119 --> 00:24:57.759
Be that.
00:24:57.920 --> 00:25:03.200
So my two examples that I have written down might have another one come to mind, but probably just two.
00:25:03.599 --> 00:25:10.160
When I promoted to be a sergeant, actually, these are both from when I started supervising.
00:25:11.519 --> 00:25:20.640
There was this house, and there was this lady at the house, and she was just all the way mental health consumer.
00:25:21.759 --> 00:25:27.599
She could live alone, but she was like, I don't know exactly what she had.
00:25:27.680 --> 00:25:34.480
I would guess probably like paranoid, schizophrenic, but I don't, she had some kind of severe chemical imbalance going on.
00:25:35.839 --> 00:25:38.079
So, and she was just kind of mean.
00:25:38.319 --> 00:25:45.359
So I saw, I came back to patrol and I started seeing these calls all the time at this house.
00:25:45.519 --> 00:25:46.960
Pretty nice neighborhood.
00:25:47.200 --> 00:25:51.839
And there were these weird calls coming out of her like just doing weird stuff.
00:25:52.000 --> 00:26:03.920
And so after a few days of like my officers going there like three or four shifts in a row, I asked somebody like at the at roll call, I'm like, hey, what's up with this house on like, we'll call it like Wemberly Lane.
00:26:04.000 --> 00:26:05.440
Like, what's up with the house on Wemberly?
00:26:05.519 --> 00:26:06.559
Like, y'all are allers out there.
00:26:06.640 --> 00:26:07.200
And they're laughing.
00:26:07.279 --> 00:26:08.640
They're like, oh, that lady's crazy.
00:26:08.720 --> 00:26:09.759
I'm like, what you mean?
00:26:09.920 --> 00:26:13.200
They're like, oh, she's just, she's always just doing weird stuff.
00:26:13.359 --> 00:26:15.279
She kind of messes with her neighbors.
00:26:15.440 --> 00:26:16.640
So I'm like, all right, what weird stuff?
00:26:16.799 --> 00:26:17.759
Like, what are we talking about?
00:26:17.920 --> 00:26:20.000
And they're like, oh, she just, she hates her neighbors.
00:26:20.079 --> 00:26:22.799
And so she just starts drama with them.
00:26:23.359 --> 00:26:25.039
But she was like crossing lines.
00:26:25.119 --> 00:26:29.039
Like she wasn't just being rude, like, I'll explain.
00:26:29.279 --> 00:26:38.559
So that day, a call comes out, and it's one of the neighbors calling, and it says that she threatened them with a gun.
00:26:38.720 --> 00:26:40.240
So I go on the radio.
00:26:40.400 --> 00:26:42.319
My call sign was like four alpha one.
00:26:42.480 --> 00:26:47.119
I'm like, four alpha one, I'll take that, I'll take that threat call.
00:26:47.359 --> 00:26:52.799
So I ride over there, talk to the neighbor, and they're like, yeah.
00:26:53.039 --> 00:26:54.799
She kissed the neighbor across the street.
00:26:54.879 --> 00:27:02.240
They're like, that lady came out in a trench coat, and she was just standing in the street in front of me.
00:27:02.319 --> 00:27:06.879
And she was like, and then she reached under the trench coat and smiled at me.
00:27:07.440 --> 00:27:12.240
And I was like, all right, yeah, that's weird and kind of lawful, but awful.
00:27:12.480 --> 00:27:15.839
So let's see if we can play make something on this.
00:27:16.079 --> 00:27:20.640
So, and I had another officer with me who had a body cam.
00:27:20.799 --> 00:27:22.480
Sergeants didn't have body cams at the time.
00:27:22.640 --> 00:27:26.480
So, me and the officer, we go over to this lady's house, knock on the door.
00:27:26.640 --> 00:27:27.440
She's being nice.
00:27:27.599 --> 00:27:32.480
That's what they told me is like she's usually nice and she acts like nothing happened.
00:27:32.799 --> 00:27:35.680
So, you know, I'd been in investigations for a while.
00:27:35.759 --> 00:27:38.400
I'm used to rapport development.
00:27:38.480 --> 00:27:44.079
You know, I just did the episode on developing rapport, and I was very used to that by now.
00:27:44.160 --> 00:27:46.960
So I dove right into rapport hot and heavy.
00:27:47.279 --> 00:27:52.799
If I came in tough or abrasive with this lady, hey, you can't be out there standing in a trench coat.
00:27:53.039 --> 00:27:54.799
Like, what's gonna happen, right?
00:27:54.960 --> 00:27:55.200
Nothing.
00:27:55.279 --> 00:27:57.599
She's gonna deny it, and then she's gonna do it again tomorrow.
00:27:57.839 --> 00:28:01.440
Um, so I went over, the lady was being nice.
00:28:01.839 --> 00:28:03.200
Officer probably thought I was crazy.
00:28:03.279 --> 00:28:05.920
So I was like, oh, can I come in and hang out?
00:28:06.079 --> 00:28:08.240
She like took us to the living room.
00:28:08.400 --> 00:28:09.680
I was like, I'm kind of thirsty.
00:28:09.759 --> 00:28:10.319
Do you have any water?
00:28:10.400 --> 00:28:11.599
She's like, Oh, yeah, I got water.
00:28:11.759 --> 00:28:13.440
She's like, gets me a glass of water.
00:28:13.599 --> 00:28:17.279
We're hanging out, talking about nothing, not about the incident at all.
00:28:17.440 --> 00:28:18.720
Sitting on the couch.
00:28:18.960 --> 00:28:24.240
The officer's like, My new sergeant definitely like smokes weed by a campfire.
00:28:24.400 --> 00:28:26.000
Like, what are we doing here?
00:28:26.400 --> 00:28:29.519
Well, I'll tell you this, we never had to go back to that house again.
00:28:29.759 --> 00:28:32.240
So, or the officers didn't.
00:28:32.720 --> 00:28:38.960
So we're talking probably, I'd say 50, I was gonna say 30 minutes, but I think that'd be exaggerated.
00:28:39.200 --> 00:28:53.119
Probably 15 minutes of nothing but small talk, talking about her son who moved away, talking about this and that, what it's like living alone, how I like her house and how she has it set up, blah, blah, blah, all this bull crap.
00:28:53.839 --> 00:28:59.039
So then I say something along the lines of like, hey, what's up with your neighbor?
00:28:59.200 --> 00:29:00.720
Do they have some issues?
00:29:01.200 --> 00:29:04.960
I'm not accusatory at all toward this lady, but I am trying to solve the problem.
00:29:05.039 --> 00:29:06.079
I'm like, what's up with them?
00:29:06.319 --> 00:29:08.879
She's like, oh yeah, they're so annoying.
00:29:09.119 --> 00:29:13.119
So now we're like in a conspiracy together against the neighbor, right?
00:29:13.200 --> 00:29:14.720
That's how she's viewing it.
00:29:14.879 --> 00:29:16.319
She's like, oh yeah, they're so annoying.
00:29:16.400 --> 00:29:17.359
I was like, yeah.
00:29:17.599 --> 00:29:19.279
And I knew she knew we'd been over there.
00:29:19.359 --> 00:29:21.119
I was like, yeah, I just talked to her.
00:29:21.839 --> 00:29:22.480
Agreed.
00:29:22.640 --> 00:29:23.920
Like, what's up with her?
00:29:24.079 --> 00:29:25.759
And she was like, oh, she's the worst.
00:29:25.839 --> 00:29:26.400
Blah, blah, blah.
00:29:26.559 --> 00:29:32.799
So she starts like dragging this neighbor who she had done this weird, vague, passive aggressive threat to.
00:29:33.200 --> 00:29:41.599
And I kind of just like give her a look when she's done talking, and she, and then she goes, and I got her good today.
00:29:41.839 --> 00:29:42.879
And I was like, Are you?
00:29:43.119 --> 00:29:48.160
I'm smiling because I'm like, we're solving the problem, but also like I'm building rapport.
00:29:48.240 --> 00:29:49.039
Like, I'm smiling.
00:29:49.119 --> 00:29:54.559
I've gotten this lady to trust me enough that she's about to admit to a felony, which she did.
00:29:55.200 --> 00:30:02.720
So I like smile at her and just like an encouraging smile, just like, I can't wait to hear how you got this lady, this little weirdo.
00:30:02.960 --> 00:30:06.640
And she's like, let me tell you what I did today.
00:30:07.200 --> 00:30:11.119
I went out there, I put on my trench coat just to mess with her.
00:30:11.200 --> 00:30:13.680
And I just stood out there and looked at her.
00:30:13.839 --> 00:30:16.240
And then here's where she admitted to a crime.
00:30:16.400 --> 00:30:19.519
She goes, when she looked out, I could tell she was scared.
00:30:19.680 --> 00:30:22.400
She came out on the porch and she was kind of scared looking.
00:30:22.559 --> 00:30:29.359
So I reached under my trench coat, you know, like I had a gun, and she ran back in the house.
00:30:29.599 --> 00:30:32.879
And Georgia has a statute called terroristic threats.
00:30:33.200 --> 00:30:45.279
Like, if you threaten someone's life and make them feel like they're in danger, she she said that she intentionally made them feel like she was reaching for a gun and it scared them.
00:30:45.680 --> 00:30:48.400
That's an admission to a felony, and we charged her with it.
00:30:48.559 --> 00:30:50.640
And we never went back to that house.
00:30:50.960 --> 00:30:53.759
I mean, did she need mental health help?
00:30:54.319 --> 00:30:54.960
Probably.
00:30:55.119 --> 00:30:58.879
That's a whole different conversation of what could have been, what should have been.
00:30:59.119 --> 00:31:02.799
But as far as playmaking, we didn't have to go back to that damn house.
00:31:02.879 --> 00:31:03.599
It was done.
00:31:03.759 --> 00:31:09.359
She didn't get held over in jail, but she stopped messing with the neighbors because there was a consequence.
00:31:09.680 --> 00:31:15.359
Another one, when I was a new sergeant, I went to a meeting in a nice area.
00:31:15.519 --> 00:31:19.839
Again, this was it was the south side of Savannah, so it was a pretty nice part of the city for the most part.
00:31:20.799 --> 00:31:27.119
And I went to a neighborhood meeting, coffee bluff, which like goes down to this little marina.
00:31:27.359 --> 00:31:30.879
It's like, I don't know, half million, million dollar houses, a nice area.
00:31:31.200 --> 00:31:33.440
So I have to go to this community meeting.
00:31:33.519 --> 00:31:36.319
I'm like, oh my God, I can't believe I got to go to these meetings now.
00:31:36.480 --> 00:31:37.279
This is my life.
00:31:37.440 --> 00:31:42.240
I'm just off the fugitive task force with the Marshalls, and I'm like, this is what, this is my job now.
00:31:42.559 --> 00:31:43.519
Kidding me, bro.
00:31:43.839 --> 00:31:55.839
So get to the meeting, and this guy starts telling me about this problem of, hey, there's this sheriff deputy that lives at this house and she's always at work.
00:31:56.000 --> 00:31:59.200
And then her husband is always at work.
00:31:59.440 --> 00:32:00.960
That's the kid's stepdad.
00:32:01.039 --> 00:32:07.839
And these teenage kids like get drunk while the parents are gone and like have some people over.
00:32:08.160 --> 00:32:10.720
And his big thing was like they come over and pee in his yard.
00:32:10.799 --> 00:32:12.879
Like they get drunk and they pee in his yard.
00:32:13.519 --> 00:32:17.359
So then he goes into like, and here's what you're gonna do.
00:32:17.599 --> 00:32:19.279
And I'm kind of defensive anyway.
00:32:19.440 --> 00:32:21.599
So I'm like, okay, this dude's about to tell me what I'm gonna do.
00:32:21.680 --> 00:32:22.960
He's like, here's what you're gonna do.
00:32:23.279 --> 00:32:30.000
You're gonna put an undercover cop watching the house, and then you're gonna put like three police cars down the street.
00:32:30.319 --> 00:32:39.599
And when they leave drunk, you're gonna pull them over and give them DUIs, and then they'll stop, you know, peeing on my trash or peeing in my yard.
00:32:42.000 --> 00:32:44.879
So I was like, okay, got it.
00:32:45.200 --> 00:32:49.200
I'm just still kind of processing that this is my job, that I'd go to these meetings.
00:32:49.359 --> 00:32:50.079
But I do.
00:32:50.240 --> 00:32:52.640
So I'm like, okay, get the address.
00:32:53.440 --> 00:32:57.680
I think I said something like, I'm not gonna do that, but I will solve your problem.
00:32:58.160 --> 00:33:04.799
So get in my patrol car, I drive over to the house, knock on the door, dude answers.
00:33:04.960 --> 00:33:07.279
I'm like, hey, do you have some stepkids that live here?
00:33:07.519 --> 00:33:08.640
He says, Yeah.
00:33:08.879 --> 00:33:10.079
I was like, okay.
00:33:10.400 --> 00:33:14.960
Neighbors are saying that they get drunk when you're gone and they pee all over the place and act like idiots.
00:33:15.279 --> 00:33:16.559
Does that sound like them?
00:33:16.799 --> 00:33:18.559
And he was like, Oh, I don't know.
00:33:18.799 --> 00:33:19.519
Blah, blah, blah.
00:33:19.839 --> 00:33:24.720
I said, Look, I'm not doing some undercover sting at this point.
00:33:25.119 --> 00:33:28.400
I'm just having a grown-up man-to-man conversation.
00:33:28.720 --> 00:33:30.400
Can you get these kids to stop?
00:33:30.640 --> 00:33:32.000
You can make me the bad guy.
00:33:32.079 --> 00:33:39.039
I'm glad to talk to them if you want, but we are gonna start pulling cars over that leave if they continue to drink.
00:33:39.200 --> 00:33:40.720
We're gonna come over here and get them.
00:33:40.879 --> 00:33:42.720
I understand your wife's a deputy.
00:33:42.879 --> 00:33:44.480
You guys don't need this crap.
00:33:44.640 --> 00:33:46.240
Stop the behavior.
00:33:46.720 --> 00:33:48.160
And he was like, Yes, sir.
00:33:48.400 --> 00:33:48.960
He thanked me.
00:33:49.039 --> 00:33:50.160
He was like, and most people will.
00:33:50.319 --> 00:33:51.920
He was like, I appreciate the warning.
00:33:52.079 --> 00:33:53.200
I'll take care of it.
00:33:53.440 --> 00:33:54.960
Never heard from anybody again.
00:33:55.119 --> 00:33:56.240
The problem was solved.
00:33:56.559 --> 00:33:59.279
So just playmake, problem solve.
00:33:59.359 --> 00:34:03.440
If you can get them to stop drinking and driving, or maybe do it somewhere else.
00:34:03.599 --> 00:34:04.879
Hopefully that's not what happened.
00:34:05.039 --> 00:34:06.160
Hopefully they stopped.
00:34:06.319 --> 00:34:09.840
But I wasn't trying to lock up some 16-year-olds for DUI.
00:34:10.000 --> 00:34:15.520
It sounds all in all terrible in every aspect, but I did want to solve it.
00:34:16.080 --> 00:34:17.280
So that should be your goal.
00:34:17.440 --> 00:34:19.840
Be a playmaker, be a problem solver.
00:34:20.400 --> 00:34:24.640
And I think your career will go exactly wherever you want it to go.
00:34:24.880 --> 00:34:26.080
Thanks for listening.
00:34:26.240 --> 00:34:29.120
The temperatures are dropping finally.
00:34:29.600 --> 00:34:31.600
Maybe it's because the ice caps are melting.
00:34:31.760 --> 00:34:33.280
I don't know, but it feels great.
00:34:33.440 --> 00:34:34.640
Hope you guys have a great one.
00:34:34.720 --> 00:34:35.040
Bye.
