SkiP HappEns Podcast
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SkiP HappEns Podcast
Police work is the greatest job on the planet, if you can find the right outlet.
and check to you too, too.
Speaker 2:This way I can monitor your level you good, I'm good, well you can watch the camera, you can look.
Speaker 1:Just we're having a conversation, hey, you know, kind of, come on, you do the tv thing usually they have some.
Speaker 2:The reporters like to give me a picture just look right here in my eyes I'm like, okay, yeah, easier said than done though sometimes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, all right, coming to you in three, two, one. Hello everybody. It is skip clark and I am live from the inner harbor media studios at the beautiful syracuse inner harbor, overlooking the harbor, of course, on a on a beautiful day, start to a Sunday, and you know what With me today. You may see him. I know he does a segment on CNY Central, but Sergeant Tom Blake is with me, not only a police officer, but you handle the media side of it plus you do the medical side of it plus you. Just there's so much that you do. How are you? I'm great.
Speaker 2:I hope you're well.
Speaker 1:It's great to be here with you finally, after all this time, I know the truth to the matter is we've been going back and forth with texts and emails and I've been trying to get you in and get you on, because there's a lot of important things we talk about. But the moment we met, all of a sudden, it just opened up a whole new door that we knew a lot of people in common and I hope, if you're watching this, that you would do this as well that when you see a police officer which was the case with me, with Tom he was in line grabbing a sandwich, working his day, you know, the day shift, whatever that is pulled up, got in line, he was ahead of me and I said, no, no, sir, I'm going to buy you your lunch and I want to say thank you for doing what you're doing. And then we started that conversation and you know now here we are.
Speaker 2:So you were very persistent. You would not take no for an answer.
Speaker 1:No, no, absolutely Well. You know what you do is. You know being on the streets every day and we all know how the world is changing. It's so very dangerous and I wouldn't be able to do a lot of what I do here with the radio stations if it wasn't for individuals like you whether it's the city, county, town, the police officers all deserve just a nice round of applause, a lot of credit for what you do. So I appreciate this. But we do want to talk about SPD a little bit, recruitment, and we'll talk about you just a bit. Can you walk me through your journey? You became a sergeant, but tell me about that journey. How did you start?
Speaker 2:When did you start? And now being sergeant? Sure, well, I started at a very young age. So growing up, my stepfather was a police officer out in the Mohawk Valley area, and so it's something that I kind of always had in the back of my mind as growing up, I got very interested in the medical part as well. Like first responders as a whole was always intriguing to me, but specifically I really liked the medical stuff. So I became an EMT.
Speaker 2:And then, after becoming an EMT, I decided maybe I wanted to follow in my stepfather's footsteps and become a police officer. So to do that, I ended up joining the air force and the only job they had open at the time was was military, police or security forces. So I went through that route and did that. And then, uh, uh, you know when I, when I got done, I kind of gave up the idea of being a nurse. I'm like you know what I can do, I can do this instead. Uh, let me go be a cop. So I ended up becoming a trooper in the wonderful state of South Carolina.
Speaker 1:Really, I had no idea. You never told me that yeah, I was a trooper. How long were?
Speaker 2:you, yeah, how long. A little over three years I was stationed in York County, which, if anybody's been down to Charlotte and drove south, you drive right into York County, south Carolina, right there near the Carowinds Amusement Park Now where are? You from, though? Are you from here? I am from a small town way up on the northern border, malone, new York.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, yeah, that's a little bit of a drive it's way up there.
Speaker 2:You probably haven't heard of it unless you watch that documentary about the. Either you watch the documentary about the prison break there out of Denimora or you are a lover of glazier hot dogs those are the two claims of claim that. Uh, one's good, one's bad, yeah yeah, I'm not sure which one's which yeah, I know exactly, but I'm being a trooper.
Speaker 1:How did, how did all that come about? Yeah, because you're from malone and now you're like south right, right.
Speaker 2:How did I get down to south carolina exactly so? Uh so my ex at the time she was moving to research triangle park, and so I went down ahead of time, knowing that she was going to move down there. And I got a. I got got a job, started applying for police jobs and South Carolina was the first place to hire me. And right about the time that I was getting off FTO, my ex had taken a teaching job at SU and decided she was no longer moving south. So, lo and behold, I came up here and started looking for jobs. Very quickly and, fortunately for me, syracuse Police Department became my new home and I've been there now for about 16 years.
Speaker 1:That's pretty old, wow, 16. So for 20 and out, I know I know We'll talk about that in a little bit because I want to talk about recruitment- yes, and I love SPD. So you do, I know, and you got a great, your chief, I mean best, the best I've ever seen.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I have a lot of admiration for.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's let's talk about some of the biggest challenges facing police recruitment today, especially right here in.
Speaker 2:Syracuse. Sure, well, there's a lot of challenges, right. So you know, when I came on and they would have information sessions you'd have wouldn't be uncommon to have four or five, six hundred people show up for these, where you would come in and get exposed to what it is that you'd be doing once you got on the job. And you know, the last 10 years or so, I think, generally there's been some negative publicity on the law enforcement career field and so because of that, we're getting a lot less people that are coming forth and being interested in doing this as a profession. So those numbers where you used to see four or 500 people show up, we're down to very low numbers, less than a hundred, and so that's your candidate. You know your candidate pool Now people sitting for the test.
Speaker 2:The numbers have gone down considerably. We are starting to see a trend where they are starting to come back up, so we're very hopeful. Slowly, though Slowly, yeah. So our recent academy sizes have been as small as 10 people. This one that we have in right now, I believe there's 22 people currently in the police academy. I was with them this morning training them on first aid and medical topics, and so that's encouraging to see those numbers start to come back the other way.
Speaker 1:It is what is. For example, you were out there this morning like what is the age? How does that vary? Are you get some that are like 19, 20 and others that have decided you know, I'm done with this career and I want to be a police officer.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's interesting you mentioned that. So I went around the room today and talked with the recruits that are in the academy and and the youngest one in the academy is is 20 and a half. So when he graduates the police academy, he won't be old enough to to take on a beer at that point, uh. And then there's somebody in the class that's uh in his forties as well so he's.
Speaker 2:he's going to be a member of the police force out at the airport, but he's in his 40s and he's done a career change. So interesting group. It's an eclectic group with an age range spanning over 20 years.
Speaker 1:So how has the Syracuse police adapted to their approach to attracting younger and more diverse candidates?
Speaker 2:So I think you have to kind of get a multifaceted approach. We realized that we weren't getting the same number of had. We've had somebody leave to go do landscaping. We've had somebody leave to go do automobile repair. We have another one that went into auto sales. So people were leaving for reasons that you just didn't see prior to five years ago. Traditionally, when somebody got into law enforcement, they were in there for at the very least 20 years.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and the same thing with fire. I mean, you know, my brother was with the fire department in the city, for he retired a little over 20 years he had put in. But you're right though, a lot of these guys are like just leaving. Is it because of the environment, is it because of what's going on in the world? And they're a little afraid I mean just being realistic about it to be out there in the streets and kind of like in the wide open. I mean, I think about that all the time. I've got nephews that are police officers down South, by the way, and I just pray every day that they're safe.
Speaker 2:Oh, no doubt. I think there's additional challenges that you didn't face even 10 years ago. You're dealing with a completely different dynamic. I would say now that the path to the right answer on how to handle any particular call is as narrow as it has ever been. You know, if you get there too quick, you're doing too much, you're overzealous. If you don't get there quick enough, then you're lazy, you're unmotivated, you're doing something else, then you're lazy, you're unmotivated, you're doing something else. So there's the, the satisfaction level, I think, for the, the police officer that's doing this job. Now it's it's. It's not what it used to be.
Speaker 1:Gotcha, what would you say to somebody that, let's say, they come up to you and say you know, I want to be a police officer. Why should I be a police officer? What would you tell that person?
Speaker 2:It is literally the greatest job on the planet. That's what I would tell them. I don't know anywhere else where you can go and get exposed to so many different things. Take, for example, my career path. I used to be a trooper, which I thought was great. I had never done the traditional style of policing, so I came here and I had to learn a whole new way of doing things. But I have never been at a job where I can get exposed to so many things.
Speaker 2:Throughout my career I've worked as a medic. I have worked in schools with the kids. I've worked community events. I'm currently working in addition to my patrol duties. I'm working in public relations. I've done, for a short period of time, did investigations. I've done pretty much everything that there is to do and no two things are the same and really rarely are any two days the same, coming from different lines of work. The other work to me was monotonous. Doing the same task over and over again just never appealed to me.
Speaker 2:In law enforcement you have the opportunity to do so many different. Every day is different at a hundred percent. Every, every call is different, every interaction is different and and really I I found a great home in this, this new role that I took on in public relations. It really gives me the opportunity to go out there and engage people in conversations and not maybe not necessarily change their mindset on how law enforcement is, but give them something to at least think about, something to take with them and go. You know what? That guy's all right, and people that I interact with that are looking for something new. Maybe they work in an office and they're just unsatisfied with their role. I tell them visit our website, come see what we have to offer. Come out to Citizens Academy and check that out. Request to do a ride along.
Speaker 1:I was just going to ask you you still do the ride alongs.
Speaker 2:We do. Officer Jackson handles the ride alongs and I would encourage anybody that's interested in doing it to reach out.
Speaker 1:Let me know, are you on the road at all?
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I'm still assigned a day shift patrol. I work six in the morning until four at night, in addition to the Lake and Clark road patrol.
Speaker 1:That would be awesome. I don't think.
Speaker 2:I think there wouldn't be any crime within a within no no sleep on the passenger side.
Speaker 1:I thought you said this is going to be interesting. No, you know, it's funny to say that my, my son, Carter.
Speaker 2:He went to school, for he wanted to be a robotics engineer.
Speaker 1:Oh, very cool, but he wanted to go out to like RIT, out to like rit, you know he wanted to go.
Speaker 2:So I'm thinking, oh boy, that's like 30 000 a semester, yeah. And so he was headed on that path and he goes, daddy goes. Can I do a ride along with you? And I'm like sure, son, if you want, I'm like come on out.
Speaker 2:At the time I was assigned to midnights and I think we were in the car about 20 minutes and armed robbery went out. In fact, steps from where we are now right over on genesee street. Oh wow, the suspects took, took off running and I, I told carter, I said we're up on the north side. I said if we cut across van branselier, I said we're gonna run right into that suspect. Sure enough, we pull up, get the guy, get him on the ground, get him in custody. Successful arrest on a on a robbery that just went out. My son was enthralled. He dropped the idea of going to robotics engineering. He's like I want to be a cop and uh. So he completely changed his path and in the end he he saved me about thirty thousand dollars a semester. He ended up going to courtland and playing rugby and doing all that stuff and I'm still waiting for him to come on here with us. But it's something I put in his ear all the time so he's considering it, it just hasn't actually made very, very seriously considering.
Speaker 2:And he'd make a. He'd make a fantastic.
Speaker 1:Are there any incentives for new officers? Or let's say, somebody's working in one of the town agencies and do you guys throw an incentive out there and say, hey, if you want to transfer to the city, you get so much Like I I know it was a while ago it was like 4,000 or something. You get a little bonus or something like that, but do you guys still offer that for other?
Speaker 2:I would. I would argue that the incentive is personal satisfaction. I would tell anybody it's. You can institute a impactful change in urban policing. I think it gives you, it affords you, an opportunity that you don't get in other agencies. You are exposed to so much here and our agency is just big enough to where everybody still knows you, but it's also not so small that you don't get the opportunity to to explore other areas of interest. So there is that Now. That said, if you are a law enforcement officer in the central New York area and you're interested in coming to us, yes, we have a very attractive lateral program incentive in place. It's a as last checked it was about $20,000 for coming over to us, which is great, and the money here is good, but the job satisfaction you get is second to none.
Speaker 1:Can you tell us you don't have to say exactly, but what's the pay range to become a city police officer?
Speaker 2:So an officer with five years on the job is base salaries making around $80,000 a year. Okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, excellent, and you just build from there. Oh, there's a plus, there's overtime. I mean you have a lot of different things going on. You and I have hung out at different events. You've been working at the event, so have I, and you know those little things as well.
Speaker 2:Oh for sure. Yeah, If you, if you want to put the time in and work several hours, you can definitely make money to have a very comfortable living here. There's no question.
Speaker 1:There you go. What is it? So somebody out of the blue wants to become a cop. What is the procedure? What does he do first and then? How does all that come about? That's a great question.
Speaker 2:First, internalize it. Make sure this is what you want to do. Make sure that you've thought about the good, the bad, the indifferent. Once you've done that, I would say you probably do a ride along, Talk to a couple of police officers you've been on for a little while Explore all the agencies and see which one's going to be a best fit for your personality. After you do that, go to ongovnet, Click on exam information. Sign up for the exam notifications. They offer them about twice a year. When you sign up for the notification they'll send you an email. You sign up for the test. You go, take the test. Now you're on the civil service list.
Speaker 2:When you're on that civil service list, you can be hired by any of the agencies in and around Onondaga County. And then, once you are canvassed, you go in for an information session. You'll meet with a background investigator. After you meet with the background investigator, you'll fill out a packet. You return that to the department. They'll begin a background investigation which I will say is pretty intrusive, a little bit of an uncomfortable situation, but it has to be. I mean, we want to make sure that we're attracting the best candidates and these people are going to be entrusted to enforce the laws of the state of New York. They're going to be entrusted with an awesome responsibility and that's not given out lightly. We have to make sure that we're getting good high quality candidates?
Speaker 1:Yeah, no doubt about that. Can you talk about how? Training, because you said you were there this morning, but can you talk to me about how training has changed in the recent years? Are there new emphasis on uh, you know, de-escalation? Thank you, absolutely, there is, yeah and community interaction.
Speaker 2:So I'll be honest with you. You know, going back probably six or seven years ago, there was a huge first you had to defund the police movement. They've proven throughout the country that that is not a good move, right, that just simply doesn't work. I don't care what environment you're in. They've proven time and time again. We've seen it all over the news with the autonomous zones and so on.
Speaker 2:You see what happens exactly, it doesn't last 12 hours and somebody's getting killed right. So, uh, they've proven that doesn't work. Now they have instituted a police reform, which I'll tell you what some of the stuff that's came out of it is great. Some of the way that we were doing law enforcement as a practice were archaic and needed to be changed. So I think, by and large, even the most salty of a police officer with years of experience at least understood the change and welcome some of it.
Speaker 2:It's hard to get an older cop to really change a whole lot. Police officers just don't like change. That's that's you dog, so to speak, and teach them new tricks. It's very difficult, yes, yes, you cannot take an old dog and have them jump through a hoop. It's difficult. So, uh, but at the same time, it was given to us, whether whether we liked it or not, and we had to. We had to do this new style of policing. Now, as folks come on, they know this new system and that becomes the culture, that becomes their norm. That's all they know. They don't know the old style of policing, which is great. And so, as time goes on, you're going to see these changes that were, that were put in place, implemented, and you're going to see how they play out, and some of it's good, some of it's bad, and so I think I think if you don't make change as you progress through any kind of profession, you're wrong. If you want to improve something, improvement requires change. If you don't change, somebody else will.
Speaker 2:It happens across the board.
Speaker 1:It's in any business Where's?
Speaker 2:Kmart today, exactly it's gone.
Speaker 1:Gone. But here's a radio station where we're sitting right here and there's change every day Technology and all that. If you don't keep up with the changes, you lose. Oh, you're, okay, you're in the dark. Can you um explain a little bit about a call 9-1-1 to report something. They take down all the information, they get a hold of the police. Why is it and this is not against anything or anybody just don't understand how it works. Sometime, maybe some of the viewers, some of the listeners don't understand that you may not get a police officer right away. You may not, you know, depending on the call. Is that correct to say, depending on you know? While you got to this guy walking down the street and he looks a little strange, you may not get a car right away because they prioritize things right.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So how it works is and a lot of folks probably don't know this because I didn't know it until I started working in law enforcement so when you call up in and they're the ones that actually dispatch it, so as these calls come in, they're put into a tiered system. You have priority one, two and three. So anything that's a priority, one that's going to be armed robbery, that's going to be a physical, domestic, it's going to be a shooting, it's going to be a stabbing, it's going to be something that requires police do immediate response. We don't wait, we immediately go, regardless of the territory Somebody's going to it.
Speaker 2:So when that call comes in as the person is on the phone communicating the problem to 911, the dispatcher is on another part they are dispatching that over the air and they're getting that information real time. So what that does it's not it's not a call taker taking a bunch of information and transferring it to somebody else. It's a completely efficient system. You're bringing in something and you're immediately putting it out through the means of another person. So it's great because as soon as that call comes in, it'll pop as a priority. One say it's a shooting. The dispatcher's putting out, requesting units, giving the address giving the information almost as it's popping up on the screen. Call taker is entering that information, Dispatcher's putting it out, Somebody's on the way and you're still on the phone. That's it. You might not even be finished telling them, and we're pretty close to getting there Could be pulling up.
Speaker 1:Then you have other levels, so that's a priority one call.
Speaker 2:A priority two call might be if you had a burglary at the house, maybe you've been in and you realize that there's nobody there, but you were burglarized. Maybe it could be something like a serious property complaint. It could be another type of domestic where maybe there's no injuries. So there is any number of things that could be put into that priority one designation or priority two designation.
Speaker 2:So, when it's a priority two. We're going to try to get there as quick as we possibly can, but priority ones come first. We're going to try to get there as quick as we possibly can, but priority ones come first. So that might be, you know, you might be up to an hour wait, maybe something like that, to to get an officer. And then the tertiary one, priority threes, those are everything else. That's a. There's somebody acting suspiciously, suspiciously. There's something in the road, there is a neighbor's dog is barking. My neighbor's dog is barking. My neighbor's dog is barking. These are all things that will come into us, that they will get them when we can, but those calls are probably going to.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm glad you explained that. I knew a lot of that already. But a lot of our viewers, everybody wants, like, gratification instantly. They want it all. Like where's the officer? I called you know 20 minutes ago and there's nobody here. Well, that explains it. Yeah, I called you know 20 minutes ago and there's nobody here. Well, that explains it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, Obviously they're not the only person that's having an issue as well, Right, and that's a problem and I do attend a lot of these community meetings and that becomes a point of contention or frustration. Like, well I'm, you know, I'm calling a cop and I should get one.
Speaker 2:Well, I agree I agree they should get one. So if you're a taxpayer and you call for the services that you pay for, you should get a police officer as quick as possible. So it's all about, like I said we're constantly trying to improve our system, so somebody shouldn't have to wait several hours to get an officer to show up to handle their burglary call and start the investigation.
Speaker 1:What about manpower too?
Speaker 2:That's the challenge that we have. I mean, you know it's cliche to say that we're low in numbers. We don't have the manpower. Well, that's why our chiefs have done a really nice job of coming up with new methods of how we can handle the increased call volume with the lower manpower. And so one of the ways that we're doing that now is through we have e-serve and we have teleserve. So if it's something where, say, your package that you got from Amazon came up missing, you can call in and you can do a self-report online. Or you can call and you can speak with an officer over the phone, and what that does is now you're not having a police officer show up at the house to take a report you might lose that officer for 90 minutes of service. That officer can go handle those more higher priority complaints in there as opposed to handling the minor stuff.
Speaker 1:So and sometimes it's still getting reported. It's still getting reported there, just like if an officer was at the house and we're responsible about it.
Speaker 2:So so you know there's there's specific parameters, there's dollar amounts, whether there's a suspect or no suspect there. There's a, an order in place that kind of shows whether something can go to teleserve or e-serve, and if we can handle it that way, we will. But if it's a situation where it doesn't meet those parameters, then you'll still get the officer when we can get one available?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're talking with Sergeant Tom Blake, the Syracuse Police Department. This morning you mentioned the meetings in the community, and how would you describe the current relationship between SPD and the community?
Speaker 2:Well, there's work to be done. There's definitely work to be done, but that's part of what I get to do when I put on my public relations hat and do that. As a public information officer, I'm in a unique position to go out there and interact directly with the public, and earning public trust is no easy task. When I do trainings for media with both police officers and with people from the community when they come in, I talk about this and how we refer to stories, for example, as green dot stories and red dot stories. So green dot's like a feel-good story, that is, you know, we might have shop with a cop event or we might uh, you know, we're highlighting great work that's being done by police officers that you just don't see a lot. So these are green dot stories and we need to try to emphasize more of those, because these are the stories that are untold skip.
Speaker 2:Everybody can go to youtube and find thousands of examples of the minority situations where cops do something wrong. There's a misstep. We're humans. Cops are going to make mistakes. Most of the time, it's not done intentionally, but these are the ones that run over and over and over again the 10, 15, 20 seconds of video clips with a narrative that's slightly twisted so that somebody can get more clicks or whatever. This is what, uh what gets put out there A lot of times. There's not a lot of emphasis on those stories where an officer stops in the rain to help somebody change a tire on their car.
Speaker 1:You never hear about that. You don't hear about it. It happens all the time.
Speaker 2:All the time this work is being done constantly, Absolutely and, and so part of my job is to get that out there too. So unfortunately, it's an uphill battle because you can have 20 of these, what we call green dot stories. These are great, you know, shows the public the great work that's being done by our officers. But the first time that a red dot story comes in or something bad happens, it's so hard to overcome. It takes so much work to rebuild that trust and we are we're public servants. We're accountable, maybe not to somebody's feelings, but we're accountable to be responsible for our actions and to hold ourselves to a higher standard, regardless of the conduct that's directed towards us, you know.
Speaker 1:I will say one thing, however I do work in the media, but the media is part of the problem as well. At times.
Speaker 1:And they're only showing. If we were to watch the news I mean, I watch you every Sunday morning on channel three and it's cool because I get to hear what's going on. But uh, you know, when you watch the news at night, all it it shows maybe a police officer with somebody's leg on somebody's neck and do it. But they don't understand. You know, that's all they're showing, and there's a lot more that's behind that that you don't see, and there's a reason for that. I'm not saying everything is perfect, I get that.
Speaker 2:No. So the other side of the coin is that piece right there the media relations. You have to and this is something I preach all the time internally to our members you have to have a good relationship with the local news media. You have to and I give an example when I'm doing these- trainings.
Speaker 1:I'll show a.
Speaker 2:Jackson Pollock painting and I'll tell everybody to look at it and I'll say what does everybody think of this? And I give them the opportunity to examine it and I want their honest feedback what do you think of this painting? And I have all sorts of answers that come back from this on what they think about it. And I talk about this is. This is truth, this is, and sometimes truth is elusive, and I use this as an example. So the painting that I use is, I believe it's called, I think it's called November 5th 1948. It's a painting by Jackson Pollock. It's sold for $140 million.
Speaker 2:Now, to me, when, when I ask people their opinions, there's a kaleidoscope of answers, but I tell everybody it looks like a place mad at McDonald's after my kids are done eating a happy meal. I mean, there's red everywhere, yellow, brown, it just looks like a mess, but somebody loved it so much they paid $140 million for it. And so why I use that is because to that person, this thing was the most beautiful thing in the world. To somebody else it just looks like trash. And so, uh, because there's a wide range in in in those truths or beliefs.
Speaker 2:As they say, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, you can have two very same scenarios with a completely different narrative. There's a lot of subjectivity and headlines, and so if you don't have a good relationship, if you're not working with your news media, if you're not understanding of their needs, what they want, if you're not cooperative with them, they're not going to go to you as the subject matter expert anymore. They're going to go to somebody else that may be much less credible. So it's very, very important that you get along with them and, based upon your relationship with them, it could grossly change the public opinion or outlook on your department. And to go to the point that you said Skip. When you have somebody on the ground and you're trying to get them into custody, it never looks good. When you're showing that, it's terrible. If I went into a supermarket and had to watch a cow be slaughtered in order for me to buy my hamburger.
Speaker 2:I probably would never touch it again. There are things that people just don't want to see, and the reality is to overcome force, you have to use at least two people to exhibit the same amount of force, or you have to use a force higher than what the person is using against you. It's common sense. The point of the matter is that, or the fact here and this is a fact is that if somebody doesn't want to go into handcuffs, it is inherently difficult to get them to go into handcuffs. The arm bars, the pinning to static positions, the forcing the hands behind the back, the deployment of a taser or application of a pepper spray, a chemical agent it doesn't look good, it looks terrible.
Speaker 2:As a cop between law enforcement, state police and city policing, I have over 20 years of law enforcement experience. I watch these videos. That's part of my job is to go back through as a sergeant and I review use forces. I look at it and to this day I'm like it's tell you that the vast majority, almost all of them, have met that standard of being reasonable and necessary and within the law Excellent.
Speaker 2:Excellent With all this that's going on what about mental health?
Speaker 1:I mean day in, day out, what the officers are subjected to? Many different variables, everything from the simplest to the like. Somebody did something you know took their own life. I mean, that's got to you think about family. You think about your job. You think about everything. Do I really want to do this? It affects your mental health. How do you guys handle all that?
Speaker 2:So before I speak to this, just to your listeners, skip. If anybody out there is dealing with somebody who maybe just do you guys handle all that. So before before I speak to this, just to the your listener, skip. If anybody out there is dealing with somebody who maybe just you know, took somebody, knows somebody just took their life, maybe they had a family member suffering with chronic depression, I can tell you, we we know and understand what that's like and we we sympathize with anybody that is either lost somebody to suicide or was going through it.
Speaker 2:It's no secret that law enforcement members and military members have some of the highest rates of suicide in any profession. Yeah, it's, it's no doubt. I will say that you know. At least with our agency we have done a lot. We have a wellness program that's in place. We have a doctor that's on staff where we can reach out if we're having these issues. They have really put a lot of things into place and so I think we're doing a good job.
Speaker 2:I think there's always room for improvement on that, but the emotional responsibility or the emotional, I guess, sacrifice that you make, it's a real thing and you have to find an outlet. I tell everybody that comes through the police Academy. It's one of the first things I'm like doing. 20 years of law enforcement. If you don't find a healthy outlet, here's the results. Here's what's likely to happen. We have one of the highest divorce rates. We have one of the highest alcohol abuse rates, and there's a reason for that. You have to find a healthy coping mechanism in there. Skip, nobody. Nobody calls to say hey, I just wanted to let you know you're doing a great job. Today People call because somebody hurt a child, somebody got beat by a loved one or spouse, somebody had something taken from them, somebody's stuck somewhere, there's a bad car accident, there is significant trauma, we we almost every time we get called, it's for a bad reason. And so, while it's a great thing to be able to go and have a successful outcome and have a positive impact on somebody, you take on some of that baggage, you take on some of that burden.
Speaker 2:And unless you are in a position where you've either served in the military and have been deployed or lost a friend because of a military conflict, or you've been in a position where and it's not just police officers I want to take that moment and be very clear it's not just police officers, it's peace officers, it's firefighters, it is emergency medical people, it is dispatchers. Can you imagine? So? I, so I. I tell my cops all the time that you know you have to worry about you, you have to worry about your partner. These dispatchers that are doing this job, not only are they worried about everybody that's logged in and currently handling calls, they are worried about what happens with you. They are worried about stuff that they have absolutely no control over whatsoever. They take calls and they might. Maybe it's a, maybe it's a an officer involved, right, maybe, maybe somebody took a shot at a police officer.
Speaker 1:It's happened multiple times, and it wasn't all day. Long ago, we witnessed that and broke everybody's heart Just everything that happened.
Speaker 2:Imagine being on the other side of it where you're listening to this call go out and you're helpless because you're trying to communicate and coordinate event over the radio but there's nothing you can do and there's pauses in the air and all this stuff. So emergency dispatchers as well are 911 center. I'm very grateful to what they do. They are also giving part of themselves that you can't return. So because of that, I think now there was always a stigma, always a stigma, specifically, I know, with law enforcement, where we're the ones they're calling, we can't have any problems, we're the ones that are sent there to solve other people's problems.
Speaker 2:I'm okay. Couldn't be further from the truth. And it was, yes, and it was cliche to even say to somebody hey, are you okay? That was you. Don't say that to somebody. We're tough, we're alpha type, we take control of the situation. We need to have command presence. We cannot have problems. Are you okay? Are you okay and it's, that's just it. It's simple to do that skip and it and it just. I would say within the last five years specifically, we've seen a huge shift. People are starting to recognize that cops suffer too. We're starting to realize that mental illness just like going to a dentist to fill a cavity is very important. You have to take care of yourself. You have to have some kind of relief from all the stress. Me personally, I play guitar.
Speaker 1:Not very well. That's your outlet, that's my outlet.
Speaker 2:I don't play it very well. I always tell everybody a guitar to me is that woman I love that never loved me back. There you go. As I'm talking to you, I'm looking at a guitar on the wall. I want to reach up on the wall, take it down and play some songs.
Speaker 1:You don't want to play that. It's out of tune.
Speaker 2:I can tell you right now, well, it's a stress relief, I'll take a hard rock song, I'll turn it into a soft song. I'll take a soft song, I'll turn it into a hard rock song, just to change it up. And for me that's that's a stress relief. And I tell these new guys coming in I said listen, I don't care what it is, play guitar like me, do artwork, go out and do something outside.
Speaker 1:Have a hobby.
Speaker 2:Have a hobby Work out. Some people like to do the. I'm not into it, but people like to do the modeling stuff or they like to do remote control cars. I don't care what it is, teach their own.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Find something that brings you happiness, because the worst thing you could do is turn to alcohol. It will ruin your marriage, it'll ruin you and might ultimately cost you your life at some point.
Speaker 1:No, no, don't do it, and I preach this to these guys, yeah.
Speaker 2:It's terrible. You know, like that song says, they put the bottle to the head and pulled the trigger. And that's true. We see, unfortunately we see a lot of people turn to alcohol and I think for some that becomes a natural progression. Maybe they grew up around it. I grew up my my father, my real father, was an alcoholic and I knew at a young age I don't know what I want to be, but I know I don't want to be that Exactly.
Speaker 1:How would you? Um, that didn't mean to cut you off. I apologize. How would you? Uh, what's the crime rate?
Speaker 2:right now in the queues, it's come down right.
Speaker 2:Yes, I am proud to say that we've had a reduction in a lot of this. We monitor every week and I would challenge everybody to do this. If you go to the city website, you can click on the Comstat report, and so every week we publish a report which is kind of an overview or a snapshot of what's going on for criminality within the city that you live in. You should be informed. I'll tell you what, skip.
Speaker 2:When I was a young guy, I was in the Air Force, I moved to Oak Street in the city and I was ignorant to what was going on around me. I had no idea of the stuff that was going on just a few houses over. I was oblivious to it. So I think to be responsible, be a responsible person, I think it's important to know what's going on so that you know how to keep yourself safe and you know how to not become the next victim. And so I would say review Comstat reports.
Speaker 2:We put it out there. It has a snapshot of mostly the part one crimes, the ones that are reported to the FBI, but it'll show you trends, it'll show you what's going on in your neighborhood, and that's part of my job If I see something where there's, say, an increase in stolen vehicles, or I see that there's larcenies on the rise within a particular section of the city. That's part of what I do, but we also have a whole team. Like, our commanders are in meetings every single week where they review this, believe it or not. Like they, we are paying attention to what's going on and we know and, based upon what we're learning, we're employing our resources the best we can.
Speaker 1:You'll be stepping up the trolls in a certain area, exactly. Yes, that's good. Tell me about the shot spotters. I know they've been around for a little bit I heard Matt Malinowski talk about it a while ago but are they very effective? I know I'm reading saying shots were fired uh, such and such street. Uh is noticed by a shot spot.
Speaker 2:Uh, spar sure so yeah, I can tell you so shot spotter is used throughout the country. Uh, what? What it does essentially is it's there are sensors that typically will sit on top of a building. They'll pick up a sound. They'll triangulate that sound to find out where it came from. Once they get that signal, it's sent out to california where people listen to it. So there's a human element.
Speaker 2:It's not just it's not just, oh, not know that oh yeah, somebody reviews it to say, okay, well, is that a car backfiring? Is that fireworks? Is that an actual shot? Right, this is happening almost instantaneously. So when a shot is fired and it's picked up by a shot spotter, it's instantly sent. Somebody's listening to it, vetting it, to say is this a legitimate source, is this likely a gunfire? And so once that happens, it gets sent out, we get an alert to our phones so the officers already know they can head there ahead of time and get there even before the call is getting dispatched.
Speaker 1:We are, we are aware of it and we're going to. So it goes across country and then comes back. Yes, that's amazing and almost almost instantaneously it's.
Speaker 2:It's a very quick process and I'll tell you what. It's remarkable how well it works. So when they triangulate it'll give a confidence factor, usually within a couple of meters, and more often than not we'll get there and it'll say here's your confidence factor, here's where it's coming out. We'll get there and find those spent shell casings in a very close proximity.
Speaker 1:We're talking about the spot shotter, but let's talk about fireworks, because I mean, it's been a big issue over the past few years. Come summer, look over the city, you're going to see lots of different fireworks. Does that affect the shot spotters?
Speaker 2:Yes, it does, but just like inflection. So if I'm talking like this, where it's like talking like this, like that rise. Fireworks sound very different over shot spotters so it's a little harder to discern during the times where you see the most fireworks out there. But fireworks are a problem. There's no question about it. I'd be lying if I said they weren't. It is one of the most commonly reported. I would say fireworks and ATVs are probably the two, and motorbikes right?
Speaker 1:Yes, because I've been going over Geddes Street, going down through Geddes area, and all of a sudden a couple of bikes go flying past me.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, yes. Unfortunately, we see that quite a bit, and those are two. As far as quality of life concerns go, those are two of the biggest ones, and so fireworks still remain a problem. We do put out fireworks details, so if you are caught lighting off fireworks in the street, you will be arrested. There's no question about it. We find you, you will be arrested for it. So we do have these events come up. It still remains a problem, it's still commonly reported and we have task force, like what they're doing, gotcha.
Speaker 1:Gotcha, we've been talking with Sergeant Tom Blake. A lot of great information this morning, and is there anything else you'd like to add?
Speaker 2:Well, first and foremost, I'm really happy to be here. I really really appreciate this opportunity.
Speaker 2:It's certainly very nice to sit down with you and, yes, what I would like to say is that we are seeing numbers increase with recruiting. We are getting those numbers back up to where we like them, but we still have some vacancies available. If it's something that you're thinking about at all, I would challenge you to reach out to one of our recruiters and speak with them about what we could offer you and what you could offer us, and it doesn't matter what your background is. People automatically think, well, geez, you know, I need to have a degree in criminal justice. That's not true. Do you know that, skip? We have people that have a GED and we have people that have a PhD. It is a huge range, and I believe truly that everybody offers value and everybody offers a different perspective. I love that and, yes, and we need you.
Speaker 2:I don't care if you're an auto mechanic, I don't care if you worked at a library. There's somebody in this academy right now that she was telling me today she is a scientist. She, uh, she worked in the in the field of, of, uh, healthcare science, and now she is becoming a police officer. I just think that is super cool. We have people that are, you know, which is great. So, no, I don't know anywhere else any other profession where you see people come from other professions who are just unsatisfied to become law enforcement officers. And I'll tell you, it's great because I've got friends now that are professional roofers. So you know what, if I need a roof done, guess who I'm calling? I got guys that have done HVAC, I got mechanics, you know. So you, you develop these relationships and everybody has something else to offer and it, and I think, uh, throughout history, at no point do we have a more eclectic, diverse group of people. I mean, we have people that haven't been in this country very long, their first generation. I mean, how unique is that to come?
Speaker 2:in and just yeah, and now you're, you're exposed to, to different cultures, different backgrounds, and it just really I'll tell you some of the some of the best friends that I that I've had I've met through being a law enforcement member and it just, it's uh, it's been super cool. So, if it's, you know, if, if your listeners are listening to this and they think you know, I I've been been kind of toying with the idea of maybe becoming a police officer or checking it out I can assure you, hand to God, it is the best profession in the world, it is, it is.
Speaker 2:And they say if, if, you know, if you love what you do, you never work a day in your life.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I, and I won't say that there aren't some bad days, but I can tell you that the good days really outweigh the bad ones and to have that experience, you know where you can go in. I go in. I recall a few times in my life throughout this journey where I know that I've made a difference. When somebody comes back years later and thanks you for what you saw as just a regular call.
Speaker 2:I had somebody approach my mom, somebody who suffered with severe substance abuse. She went and got clean, she got a great job. She ran into my mother and when they were just happy to be talking my mother was working fast food at the time and they just be happy to talk, talk and and and she goes. Oh my God, she goes. I know your son and she explained that call. That was just just another call for me, but how that call was handled was it was life changing for her and for her to go tell my mom and then have my mom come back to me.
Speaker 2:I felt a sense of pride with that. I felt like this is why I joined Right, so it's not people like, oh, I get to, I get to drive faster, I get to do all this stuff. I think, by and large, police officers join to make the situation better than it was before they got there, and that was for me. I saw a lot of frustrations. I saw I I didn't like the criminality that I was seeing. I did this to to be able to do something. But you know like when you're in traffic and somebody's going a hundred by you, they cut you off, they cut somebody else off, they almost caused two accidents and you're like, hey, and then they flip you off to have the ability to be able to, because I always got frustrated.
Speaker 2:I wish I could do something. I can't do anything about it. Well, you can. You know what you can do. You can come be a police officer. You can experience some of the greatest things, some of the funniest things. Skip, you're going to see stuff that you just want. I could write a book when I get done here.
Speaker 1:I can write a book. I'm just telling you. I'm just telling you there is some really wacky crap going on. I'll tell you, at least there's some great conversations.
Speaker 2:It really does, but I'll tell you what I can't think of another profession that is rewarding as being a police officer, and I can't think of a better age, and I mean that wholeheartedly. I love Syracuse police. I know that sounds cliche, but they took me on, they entrusted me and I swear allegiance to them.
Speaker 2:I still love my job to this day and I work with people that I admire. I won't say him by name, but if he's listening I know he knows there's one cop in particular that I just admire him so much for a number of reasons. I get to work with him, which I love, and I tell other people that because he trains in the academy as well. I tell other people I'm like you were fortunate to be able to sit in this chair and listen, because this guy is humble. He won't admit that he's one of the greatest cops to ever strap on a badge.
Speaker 1:I love that attitude.
Speaker 2:Oh, and he is so humble. And that's what I find typically is that the people that are humble and I find that they're most skilled and I just find it interesting, and and I find this particular cop interesting and and, uh, I tell everybody, if you're, if you're anything like him, you're going to be fantastic at this job. You know, and and and the other part, when I get somebody in a car, I'll drive around the city with them. I'll get a new recruit and and I'll one of the first things I do, skip, I'll pull up to an overpass and I'll point out to somebody that's down on their luck, got to sign up flying signs, begging for money, and I will look at them. And I'll look at the person in my passenger seat and I'll say I want you to look at that person right there. And I'll make them look over and I'll say remember something the only difference between you and them is that you made better choices, and that's it. You are no better than that person and you have the ability to step into somebody's life like that.
Speaker 2:You can't help everybody, skip. You can't help everybody, but you should try to. You should try Absolutely.
Speaker 1:And this job gives you the ability to do that Quickly before we say goodbye. What is the? You're getting more and more female officers.
Speaker 2:Yes, and I've noticed more black officers, I've noticed you mentioned a wide variety. So what is the ratio, for example, like female to male minority candidates? Because that's what the public wants. The public wants a police force that mirrors the demographics of the area, and that's, that's simple. And I, you know there's it, does I get it and I don't, but that's what the public wants. And so our department has been very, very diligent in trying to attract diversity, trying to get, uh, candidates that we we didn't have, and sometimes it's just people aren't interested in certain things. You know, you don't see, unfortunately, you know you don't see a lot of men being hairdressers, for example, right, so so it's sometimes like a lot of times, traditionally a lot of women weren't interested in law enforcement, but now I think, like we, the culture has changed a lot and and women, some of the some of the best police officers we have are women police officers.
Speaker 2:I admire and I look up to and and uh, the fact, you know, I don't like to make generalizations, but the fact is, women are generally more patient with people, they're more empathetic. Uh, they, they work very well and in most applications. And uh, we'll take as many as we can get and you're right and in recent time, like we are really really pushing hard.
Speaker 2:So, if you're thinking about it like and and you know we've highlighted some stories recently where people have come from from impoverished areas, poor areas, and they grew up in undesirable parts of the city and maybe before they were afraid of becoming a cop or maybe they felt like they wouldn't be embraced by that same community. If they came over and and some of these cops it's true, when they get on the road they do they kind of get a little backlash from from the people, but you know what? That is another opportunity for them to change. Sometimes all it is skip is it's it's it's a perception, it's it's information, it is education. And when they get exposed to this, then other kids say you know what?
Speaker 2:I don't want to be like this guy over here that has a flashy car but probably going to prison may lose their life. I want to be like this guy. I want to be like the guy who, who went against the odds, who went against popular opinion and became a police officer. I want to be this person. So that's who we should be going after. We should be going after people that live in the city, that are willing to step up and represent their community in a different way and just impact some, some, some real change quickly on govnet.
Speaker 1:Yes Dot net right yeah On govnet where they can find all the information about the SPD.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so yep, so we have uh. So we also have join spdorg so you can go to. You can go to either one, Uh, so if you go to the website for the County, it'll bring you to the exam information. It'll tell you like the police, salary and stuff like that. But, uh, you can go to our website, just type in join SPD, hit enter. It'll bring you right to the website. It'll tell you our, it'll tell you our hours. We have a great schedule, Skip, we just went to this new schedule. Never have we had more time off. It is an awesome schedule, awesome benefits. We have some of the best health insurance out there. There you go. The pay is very good and sky's the limit if you want to put the time in. But again, the pay is great. But the personal satisfaction is greater than the pay that you pay Again.
Speaker 1:Thank you for being here Just hanging out having a conversation. Sergeant Tom Blake, we watch for you on Sunday mornings on CNY Central. Always good information and if you're not there, the big guy's in.
Speaker 2:Traditionally it's Chief Cecil. I just fit in when I just fill in for him.
Speaker 1:So when he can't make it, it's like I'm the runner.
Speaker 2:I'm the B squad. I don't uh he, he does a much better job than I do.
Speaker 1:I'm just happy to step in when he can't makes it well.
Speaker 2:Thank you, thank you, uh, yeah, it's uh I I'm happy to do it. I'm very, uh, very thankful that you brought me on today and if, uh, if, you ever need me to come in again, I'm more more than happy to be your lunch.
Speaker 1:So I you know what you're right. No, I, yes, I do, yes, I do.
Speaker 2:I would never take that from you or any officer for what you do. Well, I tried to tell you no. You wouldn't take no for an answer. But, at some point.
Speaker 1:I'm going to do just that Return the favor, sergeant Tom Blake, and if you're the least bit interested, at least check it out. Go to ongovnet or.
Speaker 2:Google type join SPD. There you go, click on the link and it'll bring you to it. In fact, from our website, you can drop in and request to speak with a recruiter. They'll get ahold of you. Or again, I'm, I'm out there, I'm around, contact me. I'll be happy to tell you all about everything that SBD has to offer you. On a stop sign, you might need time. There you go. That's a quick way to do it and you don't have to schedule.
Speaker 1:Just kidding. Just kidding. Thanks for joining us, sergeant Tom Blake. Thank you for being here today. Skip, thank you so much I appreciate it.
