Digital Social Hour - Ex-Sheriff's Shocking Truth: Law Enforcement's Dark Side | Chris Swanson DSH #673

Episode Date: August 28, 2024

🔍 Uncover the Ex-Sheriff's Shocking Truth about Law Enforcement's Dark Side in this gripping episode of the Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly! 🚨 Dive into a conversation packed with valuable insights as ex-Sheriff Chris Swanson reveals the hidden realities of human trafficking, police evolution, and the fight against corruption. With over 31 years in the force, Swanson sheds light on the challenges and transformations in policing today. 🌟   Join the conversation and explore how undercover operations work to dismantle human trafficking networks and the importance of police accountability. Don't miss out on Swanson's eye-opening stories and his passion for justice and reform! 💪   Watch now and subscribe for more insider secrets. 📺 Hit that subscribe button and stay tuned for more eye-opening stories on the Digital Social Hour with Sean Kelly! 🚀 Tune in now and be part of this exclusive conversation! ✨   #LawEnforcementEvolution #ModernPolicing #PromotingPoliceAccountability #ImpactOfModernPolicing #TraumaInformedPolicing   #CrimePreventionStrategies #DefundPoliceMovement #BuildingTrustInLawEnforcement #JusticeSystemReform #PoliceAccountability   CHAPTERS: 00:00 - Intro 00:36 - Sheriff Chris Swanson 03:22 - 100% Conviction Rate 05:54 - Chris Swanson 07:53 - Self-Inflicted Gunshot Incident 09:00 - Chris Swanson Insights 10:41 - Understanding the Situation 13:36 - Strategies to Stop Crime 17:15 - Fear in Operations 17:54 - Fent*nyl Awareness 19:24 - Mike's Dr*g-Free Life 20:35 - Mike's Fitness Journey 23:18 - Building Mental Resilience 26:27 - Chris Swanson Meets Jelly Roll 31:40 - Chris Swanson's Inmate Advocacy 32:40 - Education Programs in Prison 34:00 - Reforming the System 36:10 - Addressing Corruption in Law Enforcement 38:09 - Closing Remarks   APPLY TO BE ON THE PODCAST: https://www.digitalsocialhour.com/application BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail]   GUEST: Chris Swanson https://www.instagram.com/chris_swanson262   SPONSORS: Deposyt Payment Processing: https://www.deposyt.com/seankelly   LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I brought some props and things to talk about. So check this out. So what do you think that is? So this is an iPhone charger, right? This guy used it different. We had a complaint because this guy is caregiving for an autistic kid. Yeah. The autistic kid has a younger sister and he uses that iPhone charger, but it's a camera in her room.

So he'll take the video and the stills. And that's what happens when it comes to the human trafficking side because trafficking is not just ripping people out of an environment and selling them it's monetizing people's innocence all right guys we got a sheriff on we got chris swanson here today how's it going my man the first sheriff ever in your history i know right 700 episodes right on man i broke a ceiling. Yeah, it's hard to get you guys on and talk about stuff. You can ask me anything. Yeah, I love how open you are. Thank you, man. I feel like that's pretty rare as a police officer. It is, actually. And that's

part of what brings us a lot of our problems, too, is we keep everything in and we think everybody's after us, man. Nothing to hide, nothing to fear. Yeah, because right now, a lot of Americans fear police officers. Yeah. Well, we've turned that around, man, since George Floyd was murdered by somebody who looks like me yeah and uh what we did in flint by turning a uh a near ride into a walking together that reached 3.2 billion people in a day since that moment we've been able to redefine so i don't call it defund the police i call it police evolution we got to get better i love that yeah because a lot of cities spread that defund movement, right? And I think LA cut the funding. It doesn't win, man. You have to put the right people with the right training, the right heart, and that's what people respect. But man, just like anything else, if there's an

industry of people that do good and you have a couple that do bad, it's going to cast a dark shadow over all of it. And law enforcement is one of those. So it's my job to do my part. You know, we talk about people normally love the police, but it's our job to give them a reason why every day. And when you were climbing the ranks, because you're a sheriff now, but you had to climb the ranks. Did you see a lot of that when you were climbing? I did, man.

I mean, I started the sheriff's office when I was 18 years old. And I started full time at 20. So June of this year, I had 31 years on. Wow. When I got hired, I'd see people that had 30 years, and I thought they were like 100 years old. And now I'm that guy. You look good.

Thanks, dude. But I always seen that generation come through. Like when I started, we had dudes coming in for the late 60s and 70s. So I've seen the transition. And today's policing is totally different. You can still do your job, just don't be a jerk. Right. Cause now you, you guys have cameras, right? Cameras and accountability. And you know, we next, you know, no knock warrants and, uh, you know, chokeholds a long time ago, but not every police officer and police department chief

and sheriff are all created equal. So you gotta have people out there just setting a good tone. And there's a lot of them, but you gotta do it it what's a no-knock warrant uh that just means breaking down someone's door without announcing to the police oh wow and that's what happened to brianna taylor that was killed in louisville kentucky 2020 i'm friends with her sister dd taylor damn she was an emt her and her boyfriend in there and uh they hit the wrong house it was an apartment and her boyfriend thought that he was getting raided so he fired back and police fired back and killed brianna holy crap yeah and she was totally innocent they hit the wrong house. It was an apartment. And her boyfriend thought that he was getting raided. So he fired back. And police fired back and killed Brianna. Holy crap.

Yeah, and she was totally innocent. They hit the wrong place. Damn, that's terrible. But side note, Dee Dee Taylor, her sister, legit. She doesn't have any venom towards the whole thing. She wants to be a change agent. So she works with me all the time in honor of Brianna Taylor. I love that.

Now, you, on the other hand, you're precise. You don't miss. You got 100% conviction rate on your cases right for human trafficking yeah ghost cases wow that's from 2018 when we first started may of 2018 and it started because i did operations in haiti and then in mexico and that's what started us and the national human traffic enforcement movement so you've done 200 arrests in what what? Five years? Five and a half. Yeah. It'll be six years this way.

Wow. It's like 40 a year, man. Damn. That's like one a week. Dude. That's with agencies all over the state of Michigan and in seven states in the nation, including Las Vegas Metro right here in our home base with you. That's incredible.

We work a lot with those guys. They do a good job. Yeah. And you just get these leads and then you investigate. No, we go out there proactively and we start the operation. You know, we'll put scenarios and, you know, it's a way to attract those that are looking for underage individuals or vulnerable adults. Because human trafficking is not just sex, not just female. It's male, female, and it's also people that are, you know, being exploited for work and wages.

It's just people being sold for money. That's what human trafficking is. Majority of it is sex trafficking. And a majority of it is vulnerable adults and kids. And how are they finding these people to go after? So think of this as like another world, another language, another deep, dark web access. There are people that that's what they think of every single day.

That's all they think about. And they're usually consumers of the content or they create the content themselves or they facilitate and they manufacture and they monetize it. That's what you're always looking for. They are experts in being deviants. And so you have to go into their world and create a scenario where they come to you.

And at that point, when they come to you, the probable cause has already been done. And we ended up arresting them. And then we hold them accountable. And the spinoffs of those is really what really kind of drives it. Because a lot of these guys will come in with gruesome child pornography on their phone. And then maybe if they come to our scenario and we hold them accountable, they had a real victim, not just a police that said, now that this monster has been caught, I'm going to come forward. So we have a lot of spinoff cases that come because of our proactive arrests. Wow.

Yeah. But dude, I got chatters and decoys that are like soccer moms and people you would never expect. They have to talk for hours to hundreds of these individuals and be decoys. And they do it because they want to save people's lives. Yeah. So you beat them out. It's almost like Chris Hansen, how he does. Yeah. My buddy, Chris, I just talked to him on the way here. He's going to be on your show. Oh, sick. Yeah. When you're in New York. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. I love that show, man. He really, uh, I'll FaceTime him right now if you want. Let's do it, dude. That'd be sick.

Can you grab my phone? For real. You got all sorts of connections, man. This doesn't take away from my 30 minutes. Oh, look at that. I turned my phone off because I did not want to be disturbed. This man's got Jelly Roll on speed dial, Chris Hansen. Hey, listen, man.

I get it with Jelly Roll and that. But Chris Hansen, I learned who he was back in the day, but I started talking to him in 2020 because of the George Floyd thing, you know, the walk moment. And he asked if there's ever an interview you do with a like a media personality. Wait for the last questions, because that was the real question. I get done with this whole thing. And at the end, he goes, hey, he goes, so what else you got going on with human trafficking? And I'm like, well, we have ghost. That was the start of it. And since then we've done operations all over the country. Wow. Chris Hansen is the real deal, man. And he's a good

dude. And this guy's put more people away as a non-police officer than any other person in the entire country. Wow. With no vest, no nothing. He puts himself out there all the time. That is impressive. Yeah. I mean, and here's the guy who's in his sorry chris you're in your 60s but uh you go out there every single day and you're just like hey man we do crime con together down we're doing national tennessee you ever heard of crime con no what is that it's like comic con but for people to follow true life crime oh wow that sounds cool yeah man so we we tag team 5 000 people we go over cases and they just you know have a seat with chris hansen people love it so we go over cases and they just have a seat with Chris Hansen. People love it. So we go over these individual cases. That's awesome, man.

I love how much passion you have with your job. That's rare to find in people. It is. I love life. Even in the death and destruction that I've seen my whole career, my whole life actually. I've seen so much death and violence. You either go down a rabbit hole and never come out or you just turn it for good. These people didn't die and

suffer in vain. Yeah. You want to find out who did it and serve justice. Yeah. Yeah. Does that ever eat at you? The things you witness? It does, man. Cause I, you know, before I became a police officer at 21, I was a paramedic at 20 and I'm still a licensed medic. And that started because I saw a guy at 18 years old when I was doing a ride along, shoot himself in the head. And, uh And I mean, he was still alive. His wife just came back from Burger King. I could smell the burgers and the fries and she's screaming and his blood's on the wall and he's taking his deep breaths.

And I'm just like, they didn't teach us in high school, man. And I had to learn how to do it. So I figured if I'm going to learn this, I got to go EMT school. So I went that, then I became a medic. Then I became a police officer at 21. And I was on a dope team just three months after the police Academy, April of 1994. It's by an eight ball of cocaine at 21 years old. I'm thinking, man, I didn't know this is legal, but when you're undercover, you got to do that stuff. It was those days and those moments and

all that I've seen since then that you have to turn it off because you see so much death. I have had hundreds of people this is not trying to be dramatic for the show i've had hundreds and hundreds of people that i was the last person they saw before they died whoa that's a lot yep boom there we go yeah he made it happen hey chris you're with sean michael here in Las Vegas. What up, Chris? Hey, do you mind being on a podcast that has 11.1 million followers? Let's do it. And they're doing it in New York next month, bro.

Coming to you. Did you take the picture? Yeah. Okay, good. I'll send it to you. Hey, dude, they're like super, for for whatever it is they're a hansen fan i wonder why the whole world is too but uh he's been calling me out he's like there's no way you can talk to chris handsome like all right and then when you didn't answer i started getting nervous

but hey we're doing right in the middle of the show actually so i'll let you go but i just wanted to let you guys connect and uh you'd be great on this okay and hey they have this bougie water that when uh when you're out there it fits your bougie apartment in manhattan okay all right see See you brother. All right. Bye. Bye. All right. I accept your apology. No, you're good, man. Between you two, you've saved thousands of lives. So that's super cool to witness. It's just good stuff, man. Yeah. And what he does and the reason I'm on this podcast, I was telling, um, Spencer, he's like, thanks for coming out here. I'm like, man, there's a reason why I took a four and a half hour flight one way.

I'll be in Vegas less than 18 hours to go back because you have such a good platform that I believe what we're going to talk about is going to save lives. It will. It will. Because people don't even know this stuff's going on in our backyards. Right. And a lot of it's just awareness. Just awareness, you know. I told you, I brought some props, some things to talk about.

Yeah? Yeah. Dude, let's see some of them. Check this out. So what do you think that is? So this an iphone charger right of course except this guy used it different nicholas rodman lee right so check this out last october we had a complaint because this guy is caregiving for an autistic kid yeah but the autistic kid has a younger sister who's like barely a teen and he uses that iPhone charger, but it's a camera in her room. This is a camera. That is what a camera looks like. Where's the lens? The original one is in our evidence room. That is my iPhone

charger that I took and brought here. It looks just like that. Wow. And it records audio. So a guy like that will steal the innocence of a young girl and monetize it. So he'll take the video and the stills. And that's what happens when it comes to the human trafficking side, because trafficking is not just ripping people out of an environment and selling them. It's not just going to a sting. It's monetizing people's innocence sexually and selling the content and consuming the content. Child pornography, producing, manufacturing, distributing, or consuming and being a keeper of that. That's all part of the algorithm. So a guy like Nicholas Lee, he's a trafficker. He's just trafficking without her knowing it.

Crazy. But that's how easy that stuff happens. How'd you find it? So the parents had gotten worried about something. So they were going in her room and they found this plugged right in across from where she sleeps. So here's this little girl and they find it. They bring it to us.

We arrest him, get a statement, but we get his phone and we hit him with 30 more charges of child pornography. Whoa. The 249 graphic images of kids as young as single digits being just raped by grown adult men. Oh my gosh. And so we wouldn't have gotten that child pornography if it wasn't for doing the ghost case. If it wasn't for parents' due diligence, if it wasn't for doing what we're doing now, educating people what to look for. Yeah. Got to be careful. Spencer was just saying off camera about Airbnbs and other places and hotel rooms. I don't know if I can dime you out on camera,

but you got to be aware of all that stuff, man. Always be aware of your surroundings. I get sketched out at Airbnbs. I don't know if there's cameras in them. I know, man. I know. For real. I know. I'd rather stay in a hotel. Airbnbs. Yeah. I don't know if there's cameras in them. I know, man. I know. For real. I know. I'd rather stay in a hotel. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. But even hotels, they're finding sex trafficking there at some hotels.

Listen, man, it's almost like cancer. You have to fight it. You can't just give up and not. But will cancer be here? Yeah, it's going to be something that we have to deal with. Human trafficking is no different. It's the fastest growing criminal enterprise in the world today an american european male are the number one consumers of it in the world insane and where are these organizations based mainly so

they uh their organizations especially like in other countries because they don't have american policing like we do so for instance when i I was in Haiti doing an operation there in 2018, we go there as undercovers. So this organization that we'd work with would bring, you know, Delta Force or, you know, Marine Recons or SEAL team members, or in my case, undercover drug trafficking, you know, operators that have had history of going undercover and ice water in their veins. So we go, we play a role of coming into their country and wanting to get trafficked kids for a company party. And so we work with the traffickers and we set up these scenarios.

And then when they all come with the traffickers and the kids, everybody gets arrested. National police take the traffickers away. We go back to America. That being said, we're in Haiti. And the second day of operation, I'm playing a corporate boss. The owner's coming into Haiti. That being said, we're in Haiti. And the second day of operation, I'm playing a corporate boss. The owner's coming into Haiti. We want to get a bunch of people. We want a big corporate party. So we're doing this whole thing and we're setting up the

scenarios. And I remember I even cut a video as I'm coming down the stairs of my hotel to saying, hey, we're just about to go into this thing. And I just make this claim, like we are going to stop this because here in Haiti, it's rampant. And if it's happening here, it's happening everywhere, including United States. And that's exactly what we found. It's everywhere. Wow. Everywhere. That is scary, man. Yeah. Cause the U S has the best policing, right? Yeah. I mean, it's the most organized and we have, I mean, look at all the intelligence that we have, you know, from the federal, the state level. And and yet they still operate and they still know that we're out there and we're still arresting people.

The key is you have to keep hammering down. You can't give up. Do you have the support of federal agencies? So we work a lot with the federal agencies, a lot with Homeland Security. Secret Service actually has a whole division that does with child pornography. But my main federal partner that I work with is the FBI. Oh, yeah. And they do a lot of our intelligence. So when we do an operation, we'll go into a location, whether it's a house or hotel or some other location, and we'll set up an intel unit where that's where all the chatting is done. That's where all the communication is done. So let's say we put the bait out there with a scenario, you know, a mother selling her daughter, which happens and we'll get 30 people right out of the gate, start hitting like, Hey, tell me more about your daughter. And then when we get down to the age that she's 13, we'll get, you know,

90% of them just flick out for good reason. But then these other freaks are just continuing to say, well, tell me more, send me pictures, send me pictures of her feet feet let me see a picture of her in the tub you know and then you just start weeding them out that's what the chatters are doing right as that's happening that person's profile is being downloaded and we're getting every bit of information where they live where they work what cars they drive everything and so when that happens and they actually get closer and we have different circles of surveillance um then we realize that this car showed up. It's registered to this person. This is who it probably is.

This is their description. That information is pushed out. So it takes a lot of agencies to get all that intel. That makes sense. So parents are selling their own kids, you said? They do. But that's one of our scenarios, too. We do the proactive scenarios that our team does.

Yeah. So when they knock on the door to get that kid, it's law enforcement. Wow. Yeah. That is crazy. Right. Holy crap. Now some of your listeners or viewers, you'd be like, why would Swanson, you know, say the whole thing about how they do it? It doesn't matter. They're still going to come. Yeah. And I hope that your show scares people to death that if they were even thinking about doing it, they, they go get help before they knock on the door and see us. Yeah, I hope so, man. Or a real victim.

I really didn't know it was this rampant. This is crazy to me. I just invited your team too. If you ever come to Michigan, I'll do an op with you. Let's do it. So you can see it. That'd be fun. Yeah.

Now, since you've done so many, are you worried that your undercover will be blown? So because I'm a public figure and like you, you're out there. I mean, this is your brand. So I reach about 5 million people a month on social media and media and all that. So I don't personally go undercover. Those days are gone. Uh, but I have team members that do that. And, uh, so, you know, we build teams in order to go and infiltrate just like the fentanyl, you know, trade 85% of all the fentanyl coming into cities in America are coming on the expressways.

Wow. So we have different tools that we use to track all that. Well, no one agency can own that. They have to work with everybody. Right. Yeah. You worked in narcotics for a few years, right? I did. Yeah. So you're busting those fentanyl cases? Well, back in the day, it was just crack cocaine and heroin, but now it's straight up fentanyl. So we take a lot of that off the street before it even gets to the consumer. Because if you disrupt the supply chain, it doesn't get to the end user. But without a doubt, fentanyl,

here's again an example. You know, Flint, Michigan's got a history of violent crime, right? Right. 2023, 233 people died of fentanyl overdose and 733 were Narcan'd back, the spray Narcan. Yeah. Otherwise we'd had close to 1,000 people dead.

Imagine if there was 1,000 people murdered in any jurisdiction. People would be going crazy. But because it's a drug overdose, and most people, and I know your listeners can agree to this, that are dealing with addictions, there's a whole different way of looking at somebody who's truly addicted. And if people don't have experience in addiction, they look at that as, well, they deserve that.

That's the sad, you know, it can strike anybody at any time. Nobody is immune to the fentanyl disease and the destruction that it leaves. Nobody's immune. Dang, I didn't know it was almost a thousand. That's just in Flint? Just in Flint, Genesee County. I mean, you take a, you know, we're a big county in the state.

That is, you know, magnified throughout the whole country. Right. So it's gotta be in the millions if you take the whole country. Yeah. Millions. That's why Narcan. I mean, I have Narcan in my bag. I travel with it. And here's a guy who's, you know, I've never even tasted alcohol in my life, but I carry Narcan in case somebody else goes out, man, save their life. Just nasal Narcan. It's a opiate blocker. It saved their life. Wow. So you're completely sober and never tried any drug alcohol. No. Wow. Good for you, man. That's rare these days. It is, man. I don't know what the reason was in the beginning, but now it's to the point where I can't go back, but I just, I find joy in, in, in, in releasing on other things. And that's my focus. Super healthy, man. You're 49. You said 51, bro. 51. I know, man. Dude, you got good genetics or something.

I work hard, dude. Five Ironmans. Five Ironmans. Thank you for asking. Yeah. How long are those? Those are 50 miles. Come on.

Are you kidding me? Oh my gosh. It's 2.4 mile swim, 112 cycle and a marathon. 26.2, 140.6 miles. Holy. Back to back to back. Starts at 7 a.m. You got to be done by midnight. Dude, 140.6 miles. Holy. Back to back to back. Starts at 7 a.m. You got to be done by midnight.

Dude, that is insane. I can't even run a marathon. Oh my gosh. And you got long legs too, man. You'd be a killer on it. If I trained, probably. You would, man. I bet you would run a sub five mile.

As soon as you walked in, I think, man, that guy's a good sell. I used to run in high school. Did you ever break five in a mile? Yeah, I did. 440. How would I have known that? 440 was my best. Yeah. Yeah, height comes in handy in a mile? Yeah, I did. 440. How would I have known that? 440 was my best. You got genetics. Yeah. Yeah. Height comes in handy in a lot of sports. Yeah. Good for you. Are you 6'5"? 6'5", 6'6", with the fro. Got it. That's like Fletch,

the old movie Fletch. I love that. Yeah, man. Yeah. Were you big on sports growing up? No, man. I'm the opposite. I've always struggled with weight my whole life. What? Yes, yes, man. I don't have genetics. So fun fact, I grew up, as I said, a heavy kid. And if you just see the way I grew up, yeah, I mean, I was the kid who never wanted to be chosen as Skins. You know how they used to do shirts and skis? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, please, Lord, please call me Fitz Skins.

And then as I grew up, you know, I graduated from high school. I went to police academy, as I said, 21. And I was an okay person. I got cut from baseball in ninth grade i never competed for 14 years after that and i never played high school sports never went to a football game or nothing and it was uh right around the year 2000 uh i'd been on the job now for six years and i looked at myself in the mirror and i'm like what the heck and i said this has got to change. And I've always had a gear. I'm the youngest of four. My dad and my grandpa were both Detroit cops and my family is all been, you know, kind of Detroit folks, but I've been a different cat. I don't know why. Uh, but the bottom line is when I made a decision to switch that gear, that changed

everything. So I said, I'm going to do a bodybuilding show. So I did my first natural show in November of 2000. So I did four shows and then that led me into doing marathons. And then as I did my first marathon, cause somebody said, you should do a marathon. I'm like, all right. So I did Detroit, Detroit. I did a couple up North and I started doing some triathlons, some mini ones. And then my life changed when a guy came up to me, Dr. Jansen from a Genesis hospital. He's an ER physician. I was working the road. He's like, dude, you got to come over and check this out. So I go over there and he just finished the 2006 Ford Ironman in Panama City Beach, Florida. And I go into his office and he's got all these papers and he's got his medal there and his picture. He's like, I can give any medication on the planet. Nothing is better

than when they say your name and that you're an Ironman. Wow. Planted a seed. And so in 2006, November, I signed up for the Ford Ironman. I did my first one, November of 07, 14 hours, 11 minutes. And then I did some great stories. If we had time, I'd tell you a bunch of Ironman stories of crashing and flipping and all craziness. It's not a matter of if something's going to happen, it's about what's going to happen. So I did Florida, Kentucky, Florida, Wisconsin. I just did my fifth one last fall, September in Maryland. Which part of the race is the hardest in your opinion? It comes in ebbs and flows,

but the hardest part of the whole thing is just going for that long. Imagine whatever you did at seven o'clock in the morning today, whenever you listen to this episode till nine, 10, 11 o'clock at night, just nonstop, whether it's swimming or biking or running.

In Ironman, each leg rotates 35,000 times. Wow. Yeah. Holy. And then you get off your bike and you got to run 26.2 miles. So it's the mind game. It's the, it's the mental. And then that's doesn't include all the training to get to that point, right? You probably trained for six months straight a year, a year. Yeah. Six days a week, man. Wow. It's awful. You got good mental resilience. That's the key. It takes me to a level that you that I could not get without being tested to the limits. No, and I can go more. Yeah. And I think that's important to have as a police officer to be able to control your emotion in your mind. I think that's for everybody. And I mean, look what you're doing. Look, look at the burden that you carry here on the show. Like everybody's relying on you. Your show is going to people who are in hospital beds that are in, you know, awful situations. You've got a big burden. And if you're not mentally sharp with that burden, if you're not built to take it athletically, then, then you won't be able to do what you do right now. And so I think everybody should have a competitive athletic mindset doing whatever they do, raising kids, car wash whatever it is think everything is a competition there's a winner

there's a loser you you don't have a choice if it's a competition it is and whatever you choose winning and losing it will spill over to every aspect of your life so compete and win i love that yeah you got to be able to take the heat too. Yeah, man. You get a ton. I'm sure. Dude. Yeah. Especially in the profession that I'm doing. I mean, not trying to be a martyr, but you know, there's a lot of demand on that level and the higher you go, you know, to much is given much is required. But when it comes to athletics, it's just you, I mean, you know, this is an athlete. Like nobody can run your race for you. That's a great metaphor for life. Nobody can run it. You got to do it. And with that's going to come sunshine and storms. The key is don't stop. I tell people, I just talked to a dude yesterday, runs a huge Raymond James region, and he's doing his first Ironman. He goes,

so what's the key? The key is don't stop. If you don't stop, you won't quit. Yeah. I love that, man. Too many people quit too early in anything they do. Right. Whether it's sports, business, dating, health, too many people. And especially when it gets a little bit too difficult. That's the breakthrough. That's the platform that's going to take you to that next level of growth. It's like the birthing process.

Yeah. Just get through that pain, that suffering, and then, bam, it opens you up to this whole new world. Like, man, I made it. I did it. Absolutely. That's key. And that's how you became a sheriff with that mindset. It is, man. It's not easy, especially that's a big area. You probably a lot of competition. It is, man. And being elected official, you know, I mean, you know what that is. Everybody hears that and they automatically get a us and them, you know, mindset or an either or. I'm not like that, man. I, as an elected official, I take care of everybody.

Wow. And, you know, even though I'm associated with a party, I take care of people no matter who they are, where they live, what they look like, where they worship, how they're born, where they and how they live their life. I take care of people. I protect people. I serve people.

I unify people. Beautiful. And, man, that resonates. Yeah, that's massive. So you don't let politics get in the way or race or religion. Yeah, you can't. I mean, I got great people in my life from all walks of life, you know, just don't get your own perspective because then you start looking in, you know, start living in this tunnel, you know, they call it the, you know, the echo chamber, just my people. Man, you got to look at everybody and how do you serve people? How do you take care of people? You got to be intentional on that. You have to compete for that. Absolutely. How, you got to look at everybody. And how do you serve people? How do you take care of people? You got to be intentional on that. You have to compete for that.

Absolutely. How'd you meet Jolly Roll, man? Jolly Roll is, he's, I'm not kidding you. He's that guy that you see online in real life. So fast forward to 2022 fall. My buddy who owns a, not owns, but runs a big country music station in Detroit said, man, you got to come down to the country music awards. We're doing this media row thing. I want you to meet somebody named Jelly Roll. So I go down there and the way the media row is in Nashville

is they have a group of artists in the morning and then another set in the afternoon. I wasn't able to be there until the afternoon spot. He'd already come in the morning. So I missed him. So that kind of planted a seed. They were trying to say, hey, this sheriff in Jelly World would be a good hit. So summer of 2020, no, spring of 2023, they ask again, hey, man, can you cut a video? I'm like, great. So I sit in my car and I say, hey, what's up, Jelly World?

Chris Watson here, sheriff of Genesis County. We're doing a lot of stuff in Flint. Love for you to come up Genesis County. We're doing a lot of stuff in Flint. Love for you to come up and see what we're doing. Changing jail culture, educating people, reducing crime, building race relations, man. You're going to love it, bro. And I just cut it and I sent it to him. Well, he was doing a concert.

They showed it to him on his bus. So he gets off his bus with Busty the bus dog and sends me a video back. He goes, we're going to work it out, sheriff. I'm going to tell you, I love what you're doing up there. And I told about the barber school we're doing and welding class and all that. Well, fast forward to the fall of 2023, he's starting to land this plane because he's doing a concert December 5th at Little Caesars Arena. It's for iHeartRadio. And the radio station said, man, he's going to be here. And I think if we put something together, he might even come up to the jail because we were doing a big Ignite graduation. I highly recommend people look up Ignite, the Harvard study and

all the things we're doing. It's a game changer. It's the iPhone release of jail cultures. That's going to change the country. It's amazing. Yeah. Educating people. They don't break the law. They don't hurt victims. They don't re-addict. Just give them a job, give them a trade, give them value, give them hope. And people don't come back to jail. Guaranteed. I have the stats to show it. I'll leave them to you. I brought it from Harvard, Brown, Michigan. Yeah, I'd love to see that. I'm talking fast, man, because we have a ton of stuff, eh? But man, when we started working this whole thing out about Jell-O coming, I said, you're the modern day Johnny Cash, man.

And I would love for you to just play some songs for the fellas. And he agreed to play one song. So I had this whole floor. We're a big jail. So I took this one floor and I packed it all out. And I was going to pack the front lawn of the jail. uh six days before he was supposed to come i get a phone call and it's his tour manager and he said hey listen i hope there's no promotion of you know people being there media photos signatures he doesn't want any of that i was just like i gotta pull

this trade back right i said listen bro, listen, bro, I respect that. It won't happen. And so I had to cancel a bunch of people. And I just, I honored their wishes because Jelly won't rather come there to just talk to the fellas and give them encouragement and be at the graduation. So he gets there and he's supposed to fly in at 345 to Detroit Metro.

And I get a call at 330 still in Nashville, Tennessee, because then we got to take him from Detroit up the Flint, which is about a 45 minute drive. Then back down to Detroit for the I heart concert. We got them on scene from Nashville to Detroit, the Flint and less than an hour and 45 minutes. Wow. Fast flight, fast motorcade. And he walked in. I'm telling you, I even set off the offline. I said, you know, there's a story about what he did behind the scenes. When he walked in, he didn't look at any cameras. He did. He went right to one of my returning citizen guys who did 12 years for murder. It said, man, it's a nice suit you have there. And, uh, Percy was there. He turned to John L did 29 years for murder. Both of them were on staff.

I'm the full-time of deputies for me and, uh, just connected with people with no cameras, no nothing, you know, that's the kind of stuff. And I say, he's the real deal. He goes in my office, goes to the bathroom, freshens up, goes upstairs, meet with the inmates that are graduating, came upstairs and played five songs. Wow.

His first one was Johnny Cash Folsom Prison Blues. Legend. Then he played four more songs. And he midway through, he's like, you know what, Sheriff? He says, you're a man of your word. And I'm a man of my word because that's why I'm here. You know, it's tough. So we're coming back, man.

And you can fight anybody you want. That's because of respect. You know, nobody bombarded him. And then when he was getting done, this is the coolest thing. He looked down. We just graduated to Barbara. He goes, hey, man. He said, I have a show tonight in Detroit.

Why don't you cut me an edge before I leave? So he's getting his hair cut on the fifth floor of the jail with one of my inmates from the barber college. That's crazy. He looks over, he goes, hey, Sheriff, you know what you're missing here? Music. And that's when the red flag goes off because I have hundreds of courses,

but I don't have a music course. So fast forward, he goes, I'm going to put some money towards it. And this July, 2024, I launched the Jelly Roll J House Music Studio in honor of him. And it's a place where inmates in Genesee County now can learn about how to write and record music, to actually write and record the music, and then actually record it in a music studio a lot like this.

And they own the material wherever they go. It's their own information. It's their own intellectual property that they can go and my main goal is to one day have a hit that was recorded in jail i'm sure it'll happen man you know how much talent is in jail a lot especially athletes and music yes yeah ton dude and that's cool to see you care so much about your inmates because i feel like that's not common it's not common but we got to remind people that it that it may not be a big deal to you until it's your kid. That's true. And everybody has all been given a second chance, every one of us. And sometimes the second chance

has kept us out of jail, has kept us out of a jam because someone gave mercy to us. So I look at it as this way as a sheriff, how do I keep people from coming to jail? And that is don't break the law. And you can't expect them to do that when in jails in America, nine out of 10 of them are coming in addicted or co-addicted. Six out of 10 are diagnosed mental ill. Half of them cannot read a menu. Wow. Yeah. And the average math and reading is fifth and sixth grade. Crazy. So then you tell them, hey, don't come back anymore. That's impossible. I mean, 90% of the people in jails in America are going back to the neighborhoods.

They're not even going to prison. Only 10% of jail populations ever go to prison. So how are you supposed to break the cycle of generational incarceration and poverty without giving them a skill set? Right. Teach them. Because a large percentage of people who go

to jail go back, right? Yes. Yes. And when you add education, it reduces that return to jail significantly. And that's why Ignite, you can, I said, Google it. We launched it September, 2020. And we just teach people in jail and we've reduced violence in the jail by 49%. And we've increased math and reading by almost two grades. And we've reduced return of crime per inmate per year, 23%. Healed race relations. Wow. I'm telling you, total transformation. Massive.

And this is just in Flint or it's everywhere? No, man. We've got Ignite programs because when we launched it in 2020 and it worked within 90 days, started showing it around the nation. And so the first agency to actually do it was Minneapolis, Minnesota, where it all it in 2020 and it worked within 90 days, started showing it around the nation. And so the first agency to actually do it was Minneapolis, Minnesota, where it all started in 2020. Now we're in Charlotte, North Carolina, Fargo, North Dakota, Dallas, Texas,

Utah, Idaho, New York, Pennsylvania, all over. Beautiful, man. It is the trend now, and there'll be a day, I'm telling you, say it on here, that you will not have a jail that didn't know what it was like without Ignite. It's going to be the standard. Yeah, because the jail and prison system gets a lot of flack, right? It does. Rightly so, man.

Yeah, a lot of people just don't really seem to get better afterwards. So this is a Tuesday. The Friday before the show, I was asked to go up to a high level prison and to speak to American lifers, uh, uh, chapter one, zero one six.

These are lifers that have formed this association around the country. And they asked me to come up and be their guest speaker. So I spoke to 200 people that are doing natural life in prison. That's a population that people don't ever get to see very often. I'm telling you, man, the sadness, the brokenness, the body count that they have, the fact that many of those know who that person was that took that innocent person's life,

and they're paying that price. There's dudes that have done 30, 40, 50, 55 years in prison. I mean, it was moving to say that, how do you keep that from happening? You keep people from victimizing others. And if that doesn't happen, then people don't get arrested. They don't go to jail and society's a better place. That's why it's one of my passions to reduce crime by fixing the system. Yeah. Because crime's at an all-time high right now, right? In a lot of places, not in Genesee County. I love it. But you know, if you, if you, if you keep trying to treat the symptom

instead of solve the problem, remember I said, police evolution instead of defund, that's evolution. If you arrest a person three times over for domestic, what's causing the domestic fix that you're not making a domestic arrest, right? You're not having a domestic victim, you know, fix the person who's stealing, fix the person who's, you know, carjacking. If you can fix why they're doing this, then you don't have to worry about that. And that's the, that's the methodology. Oh, they don't have any food in the refrigerator. Oh, they have a broken family. They're addicts. Their kids, you know, don't have this law enforcement needs to fix that. The root problem. Yeah, man. Yeah. That's not talked about. Exactly. Yeah, you fix that. Similar to health too.

Instead of giving you a prescription, let's fix the problem. Bingo. Yeah, I love that mindset, man. More police officers should have that, I think. Well, I think that's a trend that we're seeing now in law enforcement. And that's part of my mission

is to be that voice, just like you, is to be that voice out there that either challenges other people or confirms and validates they're doing the right thing. Right. Now you see a lot of stuff on social media about these corrupt cops. How common is that actually from what you've seen in 30 years? Man, I've fired 26 people since 2019. Whoa. As sheriff.

That's a lot. Yeah. Cut it out. If you can't train it out, discipline it out, you got to cut it out, man. They ain't who we are. They ain't who we are, man. You have people that, you know, not only make bad decisions off duty that bring us all down, people who lie during internal investigations, people that treat inmates or arrestees and violate their civil rights. Man, I have no shame in holding them accountable because they aren't who I've been trying to be for 30 years. So the whole blue curtain, the blue line thing, that's to celebrate people who has given their lives, you know, in this profession, not to cover up dirty cop work, dirty police work. That's not who cops are, man. Yeah. And they shouldn't be. Yeah. It's a shame. There's a whole social media section dedicated to it. Yeah. Dirty cops. Yeah. Yeah. And here's the other thing is once you identify who that person is, they can't just go

around and cop shop, you know, they do it in Michigan. What would keep them from coming to Nevada doing it right here? You know, you change the, the, the, the landscape, but did they really change who they are most of the time? Not. Oh, so they could get another job if they get fired. Yeah. Wow. That shouldn't be allowed in Michigan. We have a criteria now through the statewide policing that they can't get recertified in Michigan. But the key is law enforcement has to do the due diligence. If somebody has been terminated because they had this bad action over here, then it's your due diligence to determine why would I give them another opportunity to violate it again? And that's that evolution, you know, make us a better

profession by making good decisions, not just, you know, decisions because you want to hook somebody up. Those days are gone. Yeah. Well, I think just human nature, it's easy to get greedy, right? And abuse your power a little bit. So you got to fight that. And you know what? You bring up a great point because, you know, when you are in a position of influence, it's

even that much more important because you have a wider voice. You know, the air on top of the mountain is thin. The journey is long, but the fall is rapid. Wow. I love that. I haven't heard that one before. Chris, it's been fun, man. Anything you want to promote or close off with? Man, let's do another hour, hour and a half on this platform.

Let's do it. We'll do a part two. I just want to say thanks to you, man. Thank you for using your gifts, your talents, your platform. Man, it was worth this adventure to come out here to Vegas. Absolutely. Thanks so much for coming on. It means a lot to really fired by you yep have a good one guys see you tomorrow check them out