Locked In with Ian Bick - I Was a Las Vegas Cop for 26 Years — This Is What I Can Never Unsee | Sasha Larkin

Episode Date: October 15, 2026

Sasha Larkin spent more than 26 years with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, rising through the ranks to become the first woman in Nevada history to serve as an Assistant Sheriff. In this episode, she takes us inside her career in Las Vegas law enforcement — from her unlikely path from professional dancer and bartender to police officer, to working the streets, rising through leadership, and responding to some of the most difficult moments the city has ever faced. Sasha shares stories from decades on the job, the trauma officers carry home, and her experience serving as an incident commander during the October 1, 2017 Route 91 Harvest Festival mass shooting. Thank you to CASH APP for sponsoring this episode: Download Cash App Today: https://click.cash.app/ui6m/6pao71et #cashapppod Cash App is a financial services platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash App's bank partner(s). Prepaid debit cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC. Cash App Visa® Debit Flex Cards issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC, and The Bancorp Bank, N.A., pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc. See terms and conditions for the Sutton prepaid card, Sutton debit flex card, and Bancorp debit flex card. Discounts and promotions provided by Cash App, a Block, Inc. brand. Visit cash.app/legal/podcast for full disclosures. 🔒 Want more Locked In? Get bonus episodes, ad-free listening, exclusive content + a FREE welcome box. Subscribe here: https://lockedin.supportingcast.fm/ Connect with Sasha Larkin: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sasha-larkin-2012sjs108 Website: https://www.sashalarkin.com/ Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://ianbick.com/\ Timestamps: 00:00 Introduction: The Shooting 00:40 Childhood and Early Life 03:31 Inspired to Become a Cop 04:48 From College to Vegas Showgirl 07:30 The Ride Along That Sparked a Calling 10:40 Family and the Switch to Policing 14:35 The Police Academy: Equal Pay, Equal Hair 19:30 Early Career and Mentors 23:00 A Humbling First Chase 25:15 Realizing Your Strengths 28:20 Policing a Distrustful Community 31:05 The Suicidal Man and the Car Hood Death 36:15 A Captain's Advice: The Gray Cloud 38:20 Becoming a Training Officer 39:10 The First Officer-Involved Shooting 50:55 The Second Shooting: Thanksgiving Chaos 59:20 Guns and Uniforms 01:01:45 The Sergeants Test and Kathy O'Connor 01:07:55 First Day as a Sergeant 01:12:00 The Mosque Outreach 01:17:15 Learning from a Notorious Drug Dealer 01:20:00 The Route 91 Harvest Festival Shooting 01:55:25 Re-Entry and Prison Reform 02:06:15 Retirement and a New Chapter at FIFA 02:14:30 Reflections and Wisdom To advertise on the show, contact [e-mail] or visit https://advertising.libsyn.com/LockedInWithIanBicka

He's got a gun in his hand, and I'm screaming, and drop the gun, drop the gun. And he lifts the gun up, points it right at me. So I shoot him, and he goes down. I still don't see my partner. I come around the side, and I get on top of him, a handcuff. I'm like, you killed my partner. And he says to me in Spanish, may the devil take your soul. That's Sasha Larkin.

She spent 20 years with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, eventually becoming Nevada's first female assistant sheriff. She worked the streets and led officers through some of the darkest moments in Las Vegas history. Today, she's taking us inside the story she witnessed along the way. So I'm born and raised in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and went to high school and I went to college there, graduated from the University of New Mexico. I was a lobo. And always thought I was going to go on to be, you might not know this reference. It's a little dated, but I thought I was going to be Agent Scully. Do you know who that is? I just know, like, what is that, Monsters, Inc., Scully?

She's close. It was a show, I want to say it was in the 80s, maybe the early 90s. It was called the X-Files. I've heard of that. And she was an agent, like an FBI agent, and I was like, oh, that's what I'm going to do. And so that was my whole goal. What was your childhood like? Were your parents in law enforcement at all? No. My mom is actually a nurse practitioner, still in Albuquerque. I just went to Albuquerque to celebrate her 85th birthday. And she's a professional ballroom dance. And I was raised by a single mom. My dad left when I was a baby and it was just me and her. She remarried a man who, and this is like a story all into itself. It's a little bit like a Jerry Springer TV series where you're like, that can't be true. She marries this guy charming. He looked like, you know Oliver North was, Ollie North. He was, he was in charge of the military

back in the 80s. And handsome, like, silver, salt and pepper gray hair. And he became rather abusive, rather quickly, right, after they were married, right? Like, physically, mentally, emotionally, and then sexually at the end. And he, my mom was wife number three. He impregnated wife number two with two children while married to my mom. So we raised one of them. And then we were moving to Hawaii with him.

And in the middle of the night, he got up and was like, oh, I got to go buy a box of wine, which should have been a clue if you're drinking boxed franzi a wine. And he left with all of our things and drained my mom's bank accounts and had her sign over all of my inheritance from my grandparents and basically took every dime we had and left and disappeared and was already married to wife number four in Hawaii. So my mom and I for about six months lived in a battered, women's shelter and really got ourselves back together. And then we moved in with her friend. And that's how I started high school with three pair of clothes. And, you know, the struggle was real,

but it was humbling, right? When you don't have much, you learn very quickly to appreciate what you do have when you get it. And that was that. We never, I never saw him again. And we never got our money back. And now he's on wife number 11 and lives in Costa Rica evading the U.S. government because he owes them so much money for taxes and lawsuits. So it was a challenging childhood, but it was awesome. Do you think that experience influenced you to get into law enforcement as well? Yes, I do. And about, I was about 16. I went on a ride along with some police officers in Albuquerque because I was doing martial arts at the time. And I was getting ready to test for my brown belt. And they said, hey, you should think about being a police officer.

So I went on a ride along and I went with these undercover narcotics guys. And they let, like, they could never do this today. But they let me buy a rock of crack cocaine. And the bad guy put it in my hand and I was so nervous. I was sweating. And, you know, when a second it touches your skin, there's a chemical reaction. And I remember thinking, oh, my God, I'm going to be high. And I never, I'd never done anything.

And so I gave it to the police officer. And it was just so exhilarating that I was like, this is what I'm going to do. This is it. And then like 30 seconds later, some guy, in front of our undercover van gets shot in the head and drops in the middle of the street. And I was like, oh my God. I couldn't wait to be a cop. Like, that's all I ever wanted to do.

And so I finished college. And it's a little bit of a turn. So don't laugh when I tell you, okay? It's a little bit of a turn. So I finished college and like all good people that finish college, I decided I'm going to be a bartender. Because that's what you do when you have a college degree. You don't put it to use right away. I moved to San Francisco because I followed a guy and bartended in this wild San Francisco nightclub.

Had a blast. And one weekend, I met my mom in Vegas for a karate tournament because I was still competing nationally. And so I went to this tournament in Vegas. And afterwards, I had won grand champion. And so she's like, we have to go celebrate. And I'm like, okay, where do we do? And she's like, let's go to a show. I'm like, great.

So she takes me to the thunder from down under. Right. which is basically the Australian Chippendales. And I get pulled on the stage and I've never been. There's guys wearing like little banana hammocks swinging their junk around in my face. And I'm mortified because I'm in front of my mom. I'm like, oh my God, I want to pretend not to enjoy this because that's weird. And as I was leaving the showroom, the show manager says, hey, are you a dancer?

Now in Vegas, you have to remember, you have to be careful how you answer that. And I said, I'm a classically trained ballet dancer. And he goes, that's what I meant. And I said, yes, I am. He goes, I can tell by the way you walk. And he goes, hey, we're holding auditions for the first time in like 10 years. You should come audition. And I was like, no, no, I do karate.

Right? Like my ego was like, no, I'm beneath me. So stupid. And so he got my number and started talking to my mom. My mom was like, Sasha, just go audition. Who knows what could happen? So I come down to Vegas. I audition for the show.

And for some unknown reason, they hire me to be a Las Vegas show girl. right so I moved to Vegas and so out of my sorts because you have to remember I've been doing martial arts I've been wearing a cup in between my legs and I walk like a dude and zero feminine qualities happening at this point in my life and so they had to teach me how to walk in heels how to do makeup how to like they taught me everything and all the women I sat next to were 10 15 20 years older than me and they were amazing. And it was incredible. Like, I was a Vegas showgirl in the 90s when it was still Vegas. Like, you still had the remnants of like the Rat Pack era and the Frank Sinatra era. And looks to be honest, still the mafia era, like this underground kind of experience. And it was

incredible. And so I worked this show and would take different modeling gigs during the day. And it was amazing. I had no responsibilities, really. I had a dog, and that was it. And I was bartending one day at this brewery called Gordon Beersh. And these guys would come in, and they were police officers that worked in recruitment. And they were like, hey, you should come on a ride-along. I'm like, no, no, no, I'm going to go to the FBI. I've been on a ride-along. They're like, why? Why the FBI? And I was like, well, you know, I want to be like Agent Scully. And they just laughed. And they said, okay, one ride-along and we'll never ask you again. I was like, okay. And a really good tip-ers. So I was like, if I tell them no, they're not going to tip me anymore. So I was like, okay, I'll go on

and ride along. So I went like on a Tuesday because it was a day that I didn't have a show. And it was awesome. Nothing exciting happened. Nobody got shot. We didn't even drive fast, but it was Vegas at night. It was so addicting. Being able to roll up and ask people questions and learn about them. Like it's totally my personality. Why did you do this? How did you end up here? What's in your pockets? And I would, they say, I came back the next day and they were in for lunch. They're like, what did you think? And I was like, trying to play it cool. Like, oh, it was pretty good. It was pretty cool. And so they gave me this three by five index car, because remember, it's 1998 at the time. And they're like, okay, fill it out and you have to take it downtown and

turn it in. And it was so seedy downtown Vegas. I was like, oh my God. So I'm standing in this line with literally 600 other people. Because the first time they'd open applications in a while. And I'm standing there with my little three by five card. And there's vagrants everywhere. And I'm like, oh my God. So I turn in my card. And I don't hear anything for a little bit. And I'm like, okay, dancing in my show. At the time I was doing other, they were filming a bunch of TV shows in Vegas. So I was working as an extra on these silly TV shows. And then they call one day and they're like, hey, we want you to come down and take the written tests and physical tests and all the So I went down, took all the tests.

And I don't hear anything for a few months. And my mom and I, ironically, were in South Beach, Florida. I was working a, I was so, Miss Toyota. I don't know, some show. So I'm standing there in a red jumpsuit for Toyota, like saying, hello, hi, hi, welcome. And my flip phone, because we had very cool flip phones back then, my flip phone rings. And it was the Las Vegas Police Department.

They're like, hey, we'd like to offer you a job. The Academy starts January 25th, 1999. Would you like to come? like, yes. And that was it? There's no other interview process, nothing. Well, there was. I went to a physical test, written test, psychological test, polygraph, you know,

the whole rigmarole. But then, you know, there's a waiting period where they're like doing your backgrounds and checking everything. But look, I was 22 years old. I'd never, I, if I'd never done a drug, the first time I got drunk was my 21st birthday. Like, I was petrified to do anything. And so I was squeaky clean. I think I missed a cell phone payment once, and so my credit had a half of a ding on it.

Like, that was it. And so that was the start. That's how I got to Vegas and began the career that I loved so much. What did your mom think when you told her you were making the switch again? So interesting that you picked up on that. So in high school, I went to high school with, do you remember that show, Dugie Hauser? Yeah, my dad would talk about it. I never watched it.

So the lead actor, his name was Neil Patrick Harris. I went to high school with him. Harold and Kumar. Yes. You went to high school with Neil Patrick Harris? I did. He was two years older than me, but we all, I mean, our high school is kind of small. And then my best friend in high school was Freddie Prince Jr.

He was in, he's like Fred and Scooby-Doo, and he was in, I know you did last summer. And his dad, Freddie Prince, was a very famous actor in our parents generation. And so Freddie and I did martial arts together and we were just best friends. Went to senior prom together. And so Freddie, after. high school went to L.A. to become an actor and was very, obviously, very successful. And my mom was like, you need to go to L.A. You need to go be an actress with Freddie. And I was like, mom, it's just not my dream.

Being a Vegas showgirl was different because I loved the live theater. I have a degree. My minor was in theater. And so I love live theater. I love that something can go wrong every day. I love the interaction with the audience and that neurofeedback, right? But I don't want to go to L.A. My mom was really disappointed. She was really disappointed. And I felt like I was going to disappoint her again when I told her. I was going to the police academy. But she knew that it's all I ever wanted to do from the time I was three years old watching chips on TV. And so I called her.

I mean, I leaned over to her in this South Beach nightclub. And I was like, Mom, that was a police department. I started the academy next month. So she was happy. And I think she thought it was going to be a passing phase. Like I would get there and go, oh, this isn't for me. But just the opposite happened. I got there and felt like I was at home. Do you think L.A. in her mind was a better life for you?

Yeah. She symbolized it with that. For sure. And let me be honest, I'm an only child. So I think there was a little bit of her enjoying living the experiences with me and through me, right? In high school, when I was about 17. And please remember, this is the 90s. Things were a little bit different. We had fake IDs, and I hope my children don't hear this. I had a fake ID, and we used to go in the nightclubs, not to go drinking, but they would have swimsuit competitions.

And, you know, like I'm 17. I'm ripped. Like, it was awesome. I would go in and smoke these competitions. And I had cash all the time. Like I would have $500, $600, $600 from winning these competitions. So my mom was like, I should get the rights to the Hawaiian Tropic competition. So I entered the Hawaiian Tropic competition in Albuquerque.

It's not like there's a ton of competition. It's not like it's L.A. And so I win. I get to go to the international competition in Hawaii. And at the time, I'm 18 years old. So I go to the competition. My mom goes with me. And she was great. She never left my side. And then so the next year, I win again in New Mexico, because I don't even place in a top 20 that year because I'm, I have no idea. Again, I told you I walk like a dude. No idea what I'm doing. This is pre-show girl. And she's like, I'm going to get the rights to this. So she applies to Hawaiian tropics and she gets the rights

to the swimsuit competition. And she hosted swimsuit competitions for Hawaiian Tropics for almost a decade in New Mexico. And she loved the thrill of the glitz and the glamour and the excitement. And I did it because I was making cash. I didn't really care. And I never did place in the nationals because those girls had big boobs and they were like really skinny. And I just wanted to kick people and do martial arts. I didn't know the difference.

So it was a great experience. And all that to say, that by the time I had done that, had some life experience, I'd traveled the world with karate and with Hawaiian tropics. It totally prepared me to be a police officer. Because I had at 22, you know, even though I grew up in this little small town called Albuquerque, I'd seen the world a little bit. And it prepared me just enough to go into the police department with an open heart and an open mind, which is, I think, what we're going to talk about today.

What do you think of the academy? So fun, fun fact, this was 1999, and women were really fighting for equal rights, right? I mean, obviously we could, we had equal rights as far as voting and things like that, but I'm talking about equal pay, talking about equal respect in the workforce. So when I got there, it was 120 people in my police academy, and they took us and they broke us in half, so 60 and 60, and they ran the academy seven days a week. So we worked four days, four tens, and then the next academy, we overlapped with them one day, and they took us and they took us and they broke us in half, so 60 and they ran the academy, we overlapped with them one day, And then they worked four tens. So out of 120, there's only six women, which was fine. It's about average at the time.

And so the very first day of the academy, and you can see how long my hair is. I can actually tuck my hair right now into my waistband, right? And remember, I'm a showgirl at the time. Like, it's all about being sparkly and having long hair and this femininity. So we get the academy, they're like, hey, ladies, the good news is. You guys have been fighting for this whole equal rights thing. like, good for you, right? You're going to get it. Here, you're all treated equal. You're going to wear the same lovely wool and polyester blend uniform with a lovely level of Kevlar underneath.

Oh, and did we mention you have the same grooming standards. I'm like, that's cool. I can put my hair in a bun, right? Like hair off your collar off your ears. I'm like, no problem. I'm a bun master. I do it every night at the show. And they're like, no, that's not what I mean. You will shave your head above your ears and above your collar and it can't be more than half an inch tall in your head. So I really thought that they didn't mean that. So the first day, I cut my hair above my collar. And it was like a little kind of silly bob.

And I'd come back on standing in inspection the first day and they destroyed me, yelling and screaming, spit flying out of their mouth. We told you, don't come back. They were, don't come back tomorrow unless you've had a haircut and it's above your, it's shaved, and you understand recruit. And, you know, I'm not a crier, but it was as close as I ever came to bursting in tears. I was like, oh, sir, yes, sir. And it's a Sunday.

Like, we're going to need a haircut at 5 o'clock on a Sunday. Well, some random spa was open, and I walk in, and I'm like, do you have anybody that can shave my head? And this woman was there, and she's like, fresh out of beauty school. Like, seriously, just probably just graduated last week. She's like, I can do it. And so I sit down, and she's like, so. do you want to shave your head? I was like, yes, I need to shave it all off above my ears and above my collar.

And she's like, okay. And so we do it. And to this day, she's my hairdresser. 30 years later, she is still my hairdresser, right? And that was it. But here's the great thing, Ian. They took my hair. They took my femininity.

They created the great equalizer. Right? So I felt exactly the same as the dude standing on each side of me. There was nothing they could do to make me quit. Couldn't go back. What was going to be a bald showgirl? I couldn't go back. That was it. That was the defining moment for me. I was like, I am here. There's nothing you guys can. And people quit every day. They couldn't handle the stress, getting yelled at the pushups. I'm like, I will do as many pushups as you want. You can yell and scream. I am never leaving. And that was that was my attitude. The whole career, I was like, you can do whatever. I'm never leaving. I belong here. You could probably kick the crap out of 90% of those men there, too.

It takes a minute to come into your own, though, right? It's intimidating. You know, like you get big guys, strong guys, corn fed Midwest guys, guys right out of the military. And remember, right, like, at this time, women hadn't really busted into policing yet. Like, we were still making our way. So we were still an anomaly. And most people didn't want us there. Like the old school generation, like the 70s and 80s guys, they didn't think we belonged there. And they made no bones about telling us that.

And just a few decades before, women were still wearing skirts on patrol. Wait, really? Yes. Yeah, my mentor, her name is Kathy O'Connor, who helped me throughout my career. She came through and they were still wearing skirts. Like, we are not that far along. You know, it seems like a long time ago, but really in perspective, it's not. I don't think I've ever seen a photo of what that looked like back in the day.

I've got to look for that. You know, I'll send you one. we have them lining the walls of our headquarters building in Las Vegas, and you see the women with their pencil skirts on and, you know, their little uniform shirts. And you just think, how does that work? Well, women had a different role. They would handle the victims. They would go on nonviolent calls. It was just different. Tell us about your first day on the job after the Academy. I had the greatest career of a lifetime. I don't have any, I mean, there's hard days,

but none that I ever regretted my choice. And my first day out of the police academy, we had, it doesn't happen often in Vegas, but we had flooding. It rained for like two days, like torrential rains. And we're not set up, it's the desert. We're not set up for irrigation. right?

And you can see it it was on the cover of magazines all around the country cars were like floating down the street people got stuck in the arroyos and I mean it was it was chaos

it was like the end of the world Noah's Ark kind of flood especially for us because we weren't you know we don't have proper equipment and so that was the first week we were dealing with floods and it was incredible to watch people come together

and watch really for me it was seeing humanity for the first time. You see humanity, people taking care of one another. And that started to be the theme throughout my career of seeing people step up in situations and help other people, which is why I think I loved that career so much. It's amazing. Even people that you would never expect, step up in times when you need them to the most. Now, your mentor, is that who you met on day one, too? No, I didn't meet Kathy until many years later. Look, I signed up to drive that police car, and I didn't think I would do anything else. I wanted to wear that uniform with my shiny little seven-point badge. They told a sneak had to me. I'll never forget this. They said, listen, because you don't obviously get your badge to you graduate. They said, the day you put on that badge and you click the little lever over, you should feel something, like a rush, pride, gratitude, all of the above.

and every day that you put your uniform on and you click that little lever over, if you don't feel something, it's time to go because it's too dangerous. It's not worth it, right? There's too much room for error. Don't go complacent. And I never forgot that, right? And every day I'd click it and I would wait to see, do I feel something? Yeah, they still love it. So that first couple of weeks is all about understanding how to take those principles that you learn in the academy and apply them. How do I take this book knowledge and put it into use? Right? Because now you're dealing with real people that don't react like they do in a scenario, right? There's so many unknowns. My very first FTO had been a police officer 35 years. I mean, he'd been around forever. He used to

call it, he said he's been around since the Billy Club error, which means he carried one of those long PR 24s that you see in the movies. And they had call boxes on the side of the street where they would get their radio calls, right? He was great. And then he retired. His son jumped off their roof and missed the swimming pool and died. And it was very tragic.

And so he retired. And my second FTO was a female, the only female training officer I had. And she was remarkable. And so this is my fourth week out of the academy. By week four, you're like, yeah, I got this, right? You're like, if you start to get a little bit of confidence. And so this, we were, we were running radar, and the call comes out of a guy that had robbed

a liquor store and his description, and they give it to us. And it was like, two blocks away. I'm like, oh, we're so close. Can we go? And she's like, okay, let's go. So I drive over there and I see him. I see the subject running. I'm like, so I jump out of the car and I go running after him.

Like, I'm sure I did a hundred things wrong. Like, I probably didn't get on the radio. I just was tunnel vision like, I see the bad guy. I want to get him, right? And I'm excited. My adrenaline is rushing and I'm chasing after him. And out of the corner of my eye, I see this big man coming, big red hair cop. And he runs past me and kind of like glares at me.

And then he runs and he tackles the guy, like jumps on him. And then so I jump in the dog pile too, which is totally not what you're supposed to do. But I'm so excited. I'm like, yes, dog pile. And so we get him into custody and he goes, don't worry, sweetheart. I got it. And he's like, you can go handle the paperwork. And I was like, do you just call me sweetheart?

Because it's so demeaning, right? I'm like, that's your sweetheart. And I get up and I brush myself off and he stands the guy up. And I walk back to the car and my FTO's like, got her arms crossed. She's just kind of glaring. I mean, I was like, what? I got him. She's like, mm-hmm.

And I was like, what? What, I did good, right? I mean, I went after the bad guy. I'm like looking for, I thought I was going to get recognition. And she goes, you know, Sasha. she said you do know you're never going to have a penis right and it was like what she goes that's what that whole move was right like you're thinking that you're one of them right you're trying to swing it between your legs and i was like no i no i just wanted to catch a bad guy 22 years old right and she's like

okay and so we sit down the car and she proceeds to have the conversation with me about maximizing my strengths and look i'll be honest dean it didn't kick in for five years six years seven years I didn't, it didn't sink in what she was really saying. Like, I didn't have to try to be something I wasn't. And that took a long time for me to understand. And it was probably the greatest lesson I could have ever had. Because once I recognized what my strengths were and I really leaned into them, that's when I became really successful.

What were their strengths? I'm a really good listener. I'm a really good team builder. I enjoy leadership. and I enjoy, I'm the big idea, I'm the big idea fairy. I'm not the greatest at implementing details, so I need detail people around me. But I enjoy that aspect of going, my team used to always say the most dangerous words that ever come out of my mouth where, hey, I got an idea.

But I love trying to figure out ways to connect to people and remove the barriers of separation. And once I recognized that that was, in a way a superpower, then that's what I spent the rest of my career doing. And it was not just fulfilling, but I got to meet people I would have never otherwise been exposed to. And what a gift. Running a podcast with a big audience, you would not believe the scams people try to pull. One of the craziest ones is people pretending to be connected to my show. They'll reach out to somebody and make it look like they're a part of my team. Tell them they could get them booked on locked in and then start asking them for money or personal information. And the scary part

is these messages can look legit. They know the name of the show. They know what kind of guests I interview and they create the sense of urgency like we need you to do this right now or you're going to lose your spot. Meanwhile, I'm sitting here thinking, I don't even know who you are. That's why I'm really careful anytime somebody asked me to send money. If the story doesn't make since, the account is somebody I've never dealt with before, or they're putting pressure on me to act immediately. I'm stopping and checking everything before I send anything. And that's something I like about Cash App. Keeping your money safe from fraud deserves to be a priority, and Cash App treats it that way. With security lock, Cash App requires a successful face ID or

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terms apply, download cash app today, and make your money work for you. Visit our link in bio. How did the public treat police officers in the late 90s, early 2000s in Vegas at that point in time? I love that you ask that. So let's keep in mind what was happening in the world. So when I joined in, we were still on the heels of Rodney King. Now remember, that's the first time people in the United States at least had seen police brutality like that. And it was like caught on camera.

And it was rough to watch. I mean, even now I go back and watch that video sometimes or I use it in a class. It's disturbing. You're like, damn, you know, and that was probably not an isolated incident. So the area in which I worked, once I became a fully fledged police officer out of training, was an area that was Section 8 government subsidized housing. It was very economically deprived. It was interesting because on one side of a street,

it was mostly African-American. And on the other side, it was very Hispanic and immigrant, Mexican immigrants that had come up across the border. And there was a real divided line between them. And they did not like the police. They did not trust us. And we did nothing to make that better then. And so the sentiment to your question was that police were what they saw on TV in L.A.

Because remember, we weren't that far from L.A. We were a four-hour drive. So we got a lot of that backlash. And rightfully so, right? And then right before I graduated the Police Academy, there was two cops in Vegas. Very famous story, Brady and Mortensen. They were riding together one day. And they were going down the street.

I'll never forget the streets called Royal Crest. and there was a gang member. Now, I'm sure they have their own side of the story, but the story that we learned, right, we're in a police academy, is there was this infamous gang member, and they had been having issues, and they drive by one day, off duty,

and they shoot and kill him. And then one of them shoots, and the other one's driving, and then they take the car, they strip the car down, they repaint it, all these things happen. And when it comes out,

like the investigation starts to unfold. Obviously, our homicide unit takes the case. They're able to figure out that it's these two guys, cops, active cops. It was not good for the community, right? Here we are in the heels of Rodney King, and now we have two off-duty police officers that shoot and kill a man, regardless of his gang affiliation, or alleged gang affiliation. And so it was really rough in those days.

We would ride four deep in the car. Wow. Yeah, it was really, really rough. There was no community trust. and it was very dangerous and very violent. And where we worked, it was the most dangerous, violent square mile, they said in the state of Nevada, this specific area. And however, as a brand new patrol cop, it was the most fun. We were rolling code every night.

We were rolling on homicides. I had two officer-in-ball shootings in one year. I had, I don't know who this happens to, but in my career, I had three shots, stabbed or dead bodies fall in the hood of my car. Like, it was just crazy. It was like the Wild West. It was everything you'd imagine to be. But every day, you're like, you're learning, you're absorbing, your understanding. But it's very negative. It's exhausting. Your adrenals are fried every night. But it was a great way for me to get a grip and an understanding of what the street was like. I mean, I spent six hard years out on the street working patrol.

And after my second officer involved shooting, which was Thanksgiving of 2004, You're off for six weeks while they do the coroner's inquest, and then I come back to work. I've been back to work. I don't know. It was right after the new year. So maybe six weeks, maybe two weeks by the time I came back. And I go on this call and they said, there's a guy he's suicidal. He's on the third floor of this apartment building.

And he's threatening to jump. I'm like, okay, cool, no problem. So I get to this apartment complex. It's like 11.30 at night. And as I'm walking up the stairs, the native. are like, careful, careful officer, he got the hiv, he got the hiv. And I didn't understand. It didn't, for some reason, it just didn't register in my head. And I know this probably will freak people out, but this was before COVID and before, like, we didn't wear rubber gloves that often.

I mean, we would wear, like, leather gloves sometimes if it was cold, but we just didn't wear gloves that often. And so I get up to the top floor, it's the third floor, and there's a man, and he's standing inside his apartment, and he's naked. You know why? They're always naked. They're always naked, right? He's standing there naked. He's banging on his window and he's yelling and he's screaming and I'm thinking, okay, I'm not going to be able to negotiate with him, right? He's obviously in what we call excited delirium. He's probably taken some sort of controlled substance and he's having this reaction. His body, when they get into excited delirium, their body temperature rises. They start to overheat so they shed their clothes. Very natural. And before I can get on the radio and say anything, he backs up and jumps through his window. And so now he has shattered his front window and he literally has glass shards in his body. And he's standing there naked and bleeding with glass shards.

And I'm thinking to myself, well, they didn't teach this in the academy. So I'm like, sir, you know, let me help you. Let me help you. Just calm down for a second. And I'm calling for medical. And so the two huge firemen come up the stairs. And they look at me and they're like, well, let us know when you get him into custody. I'm like, can you help me?

He's like, that ain't our job, honey. Okay. So he throws me a blanket, like a yellow, like these blankets that they would wrap people in. And I'm like, sir, if you'll just take a deep breath, I'm going to hand you this blanket and we can walk downstairs together. I'm going to get you some help. You're bleeding. We need to help you. And I can tell nothing is processing.

And he backs up. And before I can do anything, he jumps over the side railing. And where does he land? On the hood of my car. Right? He jumps all three floors and now impales himself on the hood of my car. So I run downstairs. Well, the glass shards have now punctured his organs, and he's profusely bleeding out.

And by the time I get down there, I recognize what they were saying was he's got the Hiv. He's HIV positive. I have no gloves. The fire guys won't help me until he's in custody. And he's now bleeding out on the hood of my car. So I'm like, well, okay, here goes. So I throw the blanket on top of him, and I'm doing the best I can to, you know, move the glass shard so I can stop the bleeding.

So the fire guys will come over and help me. And my partners at this time now are showing up and we end up getting him into custody. But now he's like freaking out and his body's convulsing and he dies. And this is considered an in-custody death, right? Because he's in our custody and he dies. And I'm like, you've got to be kidding. So now I have to be off again. Right?

And most people would be like, that's great. You get a vacation. It's not great. I didn't want to be home. I wanted to be on the street working. I loved my job. It was tortured to be at home. I had no kids.

I had nothing to do. Like, oh, okay. So we get this guy, right, they take him to the hospital, they can't save him. And I go home, like, I have to go through the interview process. And it's very, it's emotionally depleting. My two officer involved shootings were very emotional for me. In one, the guy dies, and I'll tell you that later. And one, he doesn't.

And my captain, who's really funny guy, he sees me one day when I get back to work finally after this third time off. And he's like, hey, I think that you have a gray cloud following you around. And I was like, thanks. boss. I really appreciate that. And he's like, no, I don't, I don't mean that in a bad way. He said, I think you should test for the police academy. And I was like, I don't want to know. I'm a street cop. Right. Like so now I have a little ego involved because I think I'm one of the guys. And he's like, no, no, no. He's like, what you've been through could really help these young

officers that are coming through. And that got me. I was like, oh, I could help them. And he's like, yeah, so he explains to me kind of the job. He's like, just test for it. Just put it in for it. It's like, okay. And then he said something to me, which I'll never forget, and being that I'm a lifetime yoga practitioner, it clicked for me. He said, you know, sometimes if we spend too much time around things, we become more comfortable around those things, and it starts to shift our energy.

And he said, your gray cloud is just the darkness you've collected and that you haven't gotten rid of. And I was like, I understood. like it made sense to me. Like I'd been working in really awful area for a really long time. And I wasn't, at that time, let me be honest, we weren't helping people. We were taking them to jail. That's it.

You know, because you have to remember back then, our theory was lock them up, throw the key away, move on to the next. We arrest the same person 15 times. You're not making a difference. You're resting the same person 15 times. And sadly, we had a thing called Broken Windows Theory. which came out of something Bill Bratton used to talk about in New York City,

but the way we implemented it was if somebody was jaywalking down in a in a high crime underprivileged area, we would arrest them for jaywalking because then they wouldn't be on the street to commit a bigger crime. Sleeping on a bus bench jail, right? Spitting on a sidewalk, jail.

Looking back, you're like, I can't believe we did it, but that's how we policed, thinking that then we would catch the big fish in the net. But then you catch the little fish, too. You catch the hardworking construction worker just trying to get to work, who his registration expired.

You catch the maid trying to get to her job, so she j-walks, right? So for me, that was a big turning point. I was like, okay. So I tested for the police academy. I was emotionally depleted, spiritually. You know, I felt like I had taken a man's life. This guy dies on hood of my car. I couldn't save him.

I was like, yeah, you know, it's probably time. And so I went to, I took the tack officer test. and came out number one on the list, and they took me right away. And so that was the first day of the rest of my life in my career. And is that as like a trainer at the academy? Yes, so TAAC stands for training and counseling officer. And so almost like if you'd seen those movies,

like a drill sergeant or something like, I used to tell people it was the greatest job because they paid me to work out, tell my war stories, and yell at people. It was awesome. And I did that for about two and a half years. And during those years,

it was 2005, end of 2000, yeah, 2005 to the mid-2007. We had a tax initiative go through an estate. So we did mass hiring. Like we were putting through an academy nonstop. And we had two staffs running at the same time. And so it was great. We were so busy. And I was in charge of PT.

So I built a PT program, in which case I got to build a yoga program, taught the recruits yoga, which was incredible. We got to decrease. injuries by doing so. And then I was in charge of some of the tactical training. And it was a really, those two years probably saved my life because I was really going down a dark space. You know, like working patrol, we'd go out after work and I was drinking a couple nights a week, you know, trying to keep up with the guys. It was just really not a healthy lifestyle. Even though I was still working out and doing my yoga, it still wasn't, it wasn't great. Can you tell us about that first

officer involved shooting? Sure. April Fool's Day, 2004. Such an interesting day because, so we ride solo unless we are training a new kid. And at the time, I was training a new kid, but he was doing a sit-along, a dispatch on this day. So I was in a car by myself. And I went on a call this is such a Vegas thing. I went on a call in this area. It's called Commercial Center. And it's like where they have these kind of wild sex clubs. And it's a really interesting old Vegas kind of location.

And I went on a call on this really dilapidated apartment complex next door to Commercial Center. And this woman answers the door and she's covered in blood. And I'm like, oh, my God. So I like bring her outside. And my backup shows up and he's talking to the other woman. and she says, oh, my girlfriend and I, we got in a fight, and then we were having sex, make-up sex, and then she bit me on the clitoris. And I was like, oh, that would explain the blood, because there was, I mean, blood everywhere.

And so she goes, let me show you. And I was like, no, no, like, if we're staying at us, I was like, oh, I'm not ready for that. So she drops her pants, and she has a very bloody clitoris, but she also has a penis right behind it. And I was like, huh. And she's like, yes, yes, yes, yes, I have both. And I was like, no, no, no, no, judgment. I, in full disclosure, I've just never seen it before. And she, and I said, how do you want me to refer to you?

She says, I identify as a woman. When I was born, my parents wanted me to make the choice as to which way I wanted to identify. She said, I identify as a woman. I just never had the surgery to remove it. I was like, okay, cool. Okay, yep, back to business. let's let's let's you know we gotta make an arrest now of this other woman and so that is how my day started right a hermaphrodite lesbian domestic violence so i was i was thinking wow okay

so i finished that call and uh then there was a call of a a burglary at the apartment complex literally right next door so i was like okay i'll go i'll go clear the apartment and i walk in and my backup the guy that was with me at the time i was like okay you go left i was a little two-bedroom little shack. And as I go into the bathroom, the shower curtain is closed. And I remember my very first FTO, PJ, he said, always open the shower curtain and look under the bed. And as I started walk out of the bathroom, like, I didn't open a shower curtain. And so I opened the shower curtain thinking, of course, there's no one going to be back there. And oh, there is. There's a man. Naked. Why? They're always naked. There he is, standing in a bathroom naked with his hands over his

genitals and I was like oh and he says oh I'm sorry officer I'm sorry I'm not going to hurt you I'm sorry and I was like oh put your hands by on your back you know I'm like I'll flustered now so I handcuff him naked walk out of the bathroom and I sit him on the couch and I like throw a pillow over his private parts I'm like do you live here he's like no I'm a you know I just need a place to stay I needed to change clothes and you know the door was open and I just want to take a shower and I was like okay so I'm doing the report and I'm like where are your clothes and he's like they're on the couch. It was a skirt and fishnets and high heels and a tube top. And I was like, these aren't your clothes. He's like, those are my clothes. Of course they are. Okay. So now I can't

get this grown ass man back in fish nets, right, to transport into jail. So I helped this poor dude put his skirt back on and his tube top. And he's a big hairy man. I mean, you have to understand. Like, I'm thinking, it's April Fool's Day, right? So this is the irony of the whole thing. I'm like, am I on candid camera? Like, what is it actually happening here today? So I get this poor man who was so sweet. Like, I ended up having an incredible conversation with him about how he ended up in this position.

He was at the time, I know the LGBT community has a new word for it, but at the time he was a cross-dresser, right? So he wasn't transgender. He liked being a man, but he enjoyed wearing women's clothing. But he was straight. So I know that there is an official word for that. but at the time it was called cross-dressing. So I said, hey, you have to go to jail like this.

So I'm going to wrap you on a blanket. I mean, the rest is up to you. He's like, no, he's like, this is not my first radio. It's fine. Like, okay. So he ends up getting, we put him in the paddy wagon, the prisoner transport wagon, and he goes to jail. And I'm thinking to myself, I, I just need a break.

I need some dinner. So I call the dispatcher, who is a friend of mine. I'm like, hey, can I? I know it's like 15 minutes before my lunch hour, which was at 7. I said, can I go eat? I'm so hungry. This has been a weird day. She's like, no problem.

She's like, actually, the casino right next to where you are. It's called the Eureka. And it's not like a real Vegas casino. It's like a little shithole casino. And she's like, can you just go check? There's some guy at the bar causing a ruckus. Can you just go in there and check? Please, real quick.

I'm like, okay. So I go over there, and the description was a very loose description, like white male, 5-8, you know, brown hair. It was very, like, oh, okay, that's helpful. And so I pulled in a parking lot. There's a guy I see walking out of the casino, white male, approximately 5-8, and he looks like he's in a hurry.

So I pull up behind him like, hey, hey, get in front of my car. Let me talk to you for a second. So he stopped. He's like, what's up, officer? And he literally has a straw, like you'd pick wheat in a field, like in his teeth. And he's got a pair overalls on,

and one side is unbuckled. Remember, like you ever seen the movies? Like in 80s, they were... He's like a wife-beater tank top underneath. He's kind of dirty. He's, like, chewing on this. straw. Like, wow, you look like you walk right out of the movie. Did you just come from the casino? He's like, yeah. And I start to have a conversation with him. And my backup pulls up in the parking

lot. And I tell him, I'm like, I don't worry about it. I think this is the guy who's causing a raucous. And right then, three people run out the front door of the casino and they're screaming. And they're running towards us or away from the casino or both. I'm not sure. And so I said to my partner, what are they saying? He's like, I don't know. And so right then, the call comes in over the radio shooting inside the Eureka casino. And I'm like, I said, well, control, I'm in the parking lot. What is the detail? She says, some man has opened fire inside the casino.

So I tell the overall wearing guys, your lucky day, go, go, go. And so my partner says, I'm going to go around back. You go in front. Copy that. So I swing my car around. And as I'm going towards the front doors, masses of people are running out. Some of them with blood on them and they're screaming, like, oh, my God, he's got a gun. And I'm like, where is he? What does he look like? I don't have any information.

Like, he went out back. He went out back. So as I started to go in the front door, they said he went out the back. I get on the radio, I give that traffic. I'm coming around the side of the building, I hear gunshots. Boom, boom, boom. Like, oh, my God. And so I'm yelling for my partner, and he doesn't respond. I'm thinking, oh, my God, the bad guy shot him. And so as I get, as I round the back of the casino, I see the bad guy. And he, the subject. And he's got a gun in his hand. And I'm screaming, and I'm drop the gun. drop the gun. And he lifts the gun up, points it right at me. So I, I shoot him and he goes down. I still don't see my partner. I come around the side and I get on top of him, a handcuff. I'm like, you killed my partner. And he says to me in Spanish, may the devil take your soul. And so I handcuff him.

And then my partner comes up behind me. He's like, oh, okay, you got him. I got him. I got him. I said, you're alive. Like this wild volley of emotions happens. And he dies. And so then the worst part is, then I go in the casino to see what has happened inside there, and there's a deceased man at the bar. And it hurts my heart even now to tell the story. He was a royal-mounted Canadian police officer. He had just retired after 30, 35 years of service and came to Vegas for his retirement trip. And he's at the bar when this man, our suspect, gets into a verbal altercation with a bartender. and he says to the bartender, hey, I just lost my last $100.

It was my rent money. You got to help me get it back. And a bartender's like, yo, man, I can't help you do that. He's like, I don't have access. You know, we don't get keys to the slot machines. And he's like, come on, man. You know, I've been coming here, blah, blah, and he gets in a screaming match with a bartender. The bar chast is like, dude, I don't know what she wants me to do.

So the subject gets up. He goes outside. We sit on camera. Goes to his car, gets his gun, comes back in the casino, and now he points the gun across the bar at the bartender, he says, I'm going to give you one more chance. And a bartender's like, yo, man, he's like, I'm sorry, I don't have access to that. And the Royal Man of Canadian police officer who's sitting on his side reaches up and grabs the guy and bear hugs him. Well, the guy now is bear hug like this, just switches hands with his gun and slides it under his

armpit and fires a trigger and shoots the police officer. Police officer releases his grip. He grabs him by his collar and executes him right there on the ground. It's awful. Somehow he doesn't shoot the bartender and nobody else is hit and then he runs out the casino and that's when we engage him And it's it's honestly you know it was so heart-wrenching it was so heart-wrenching But let me tell you the interesting thing about the universe in 2019 I go to Houston Texas actually For a funeral of the very first Sikh police officer ever killed in the line of duty It was in Harris County

And I went with one of my police officers who is from Pakistan. She is Muslim, not Sikh, but she has a very close affinity for all religions. And so her and I, we funded the trip ourselves. We went. And we're standing there, and there were Sikhs from all around the world. It was incredible. And I see a group of Sikhs from the Royal Mount of Canadian Police Force. And so we go and we're talking to them and, you know, sharing our condolences for their brother.

And I said to one of them, I said, I met, well, I said I had the fate of, and I tell them the story. And this one man, he was very, very tall. And he had, like, a look in his eye and he said, that was my training officer. He said, I knew him. He was a great man. He said, we were all heartbroken over that. And I said, I'm so sorry, we didn't get there sooner. Like, I carried that burden for so long.

Like, I was outside. I was in the parking lot. Had I just gone in, I could have saved him. Like, that was really the albatross I carried, probably still. carry to some degree. Like I'm outside talking to the guy with straw in his mouth when I could have been inside the casino. And I felt, I don't know, I just carried that for so long. I felt like it was my fault. And then I got to say to him, I'm so sorry. I'm sorry. Right. But it was really an interesting way that the universe closed that loop for me. I want to give a shout out to canines.org and the

work they're doing through canines for cops. We wouldn't be able to get these amazing law enforcement guests without them. Across the country, law enforcement agencies need a highly trained canines, but don't always have the funding to get them. Canines.org helps bridge that gap by placing trained canines with departments at no cost to the agency. These canines work alongside their handlers to help find dangerous drugs, apprehend suspects, locate missing people, and protect the communities they serve. But canines for cops is just one part of a much bigger mission. Canines.org also places canines in schools through canines for kids and in hospitals through canines for care. Three programs, different needs. One mission. Putting highly trained canines where they can make the greatest

impact. When you support canines.org, you don't have to choose which part of the mission matters most. Your support helps make all of it possible. Visit canines.org to learn more and help bring the next canine to a community that needs one. When something like that happened so early on in your career, does it make you, I guess, question or wonder why these things happen the way they do and why people do that? Yeah. I mean, for the average person, they would never go back and grab a gun and go in over any amount in regards to that. Yeah, I think desperation is a funny thing, right? Like he, we later learned from his wife during interviews that he had a gambling problem and a couple months in a row he'd gambled away there, rent money. And every time for somebody has a gambling

addiction, they're going to win it back. Just one more time, I'll win it all back. And so now they were going to get evicted out of their apartment and they were going to be on the street. So she was very upset. And he knew that she was going to be very upset. So I think he felt like he had nothing to lose. And that's a really scary place to be in when you have nothing to lose. Were there a lot of incidents at casinos during your time on patrol? Did tourists cause a lot of problems?

You know, not really. Look, I have to give the casinos credit. They do an incredible job from surveillance to security to there really is almost a sense of omnipresence there. because think about the amount of money wrapped up in gaming. You get things like drunk people jumping into the fountains at the Bellagio. You get drunk tourists doing silly things, but you don't get, you get every once in a while.

We would get a casino cage robbery. You know, they try to rob the casino cage. Like the Ocean's 11 kind of thing, right? Never very successfully. But they try. But that's our lifeline. That's our bloodline. So we protect it very well.

Yeah, go on? No, no, no. So the casinos. They spent a lot of money in resources and protection. Now that second shooting, you mentioned, what happened there? Again, it was on a holiday. I don't know if you consider April Fool's Day a holiday, but this one was Thanksgiving. Same year.

So I'd been off work and I come back. And I went to my best girlfriend's house, actually, who I used to sit next to in my Vegas show at Enter the Night. her name was Sinsen, and she would cook like Martha Stewart. Every Thanksgiving, she'd have 30, 35 people over, so I'd always go over on duty. I always worked the holidays because I didn't have kids at the time, and I felt like people that had kids should be home. So I always volunteered to work home, and plus you make extra money, and I'm like, yeah, I don't mind. So I go to her house and I eat like a complete pig.

And remember, we did not wear stretchy pants. They were wool and polyester with zero stretch. So my belly is so distended when I finish. I have to unbutton my pants underneath my gun belt. True story. So I have my unbuttoned pants and I leave and I go back to my area. And the guy that was kind of like the guy that I ran calls with, he's not really a partner, but there's usually somebody that you run calls with,

even though you're in different cars. And we were parked driver's window to driver's window facing opposite directions. He had finished eating with his family. And so we're just sitting there talking. it was 9.30, 10 o'clock at night. Night was winding down. Call comes out that there's a shooting in the nightclub that is about three blocks over.

Well, the way he's parked, he can just drive forward and head that direction. I have to flip a U-turn and go out the other way. So he takes off, and as he's going down the street, the car that was involved in a shooting leaves the nightclub, and as he's driving by my partner opens fire in a car, boom, boom, catches the door. Doesn't hit my partner.

But I hear, he says, you know, shots fired. They hit my car. And so now he's got to turn around and get behind him. And as he's the bad guy's kind of the street, now I'm in a position to get behind him. So I get behind him and I perform what they call the pit manure. And I get up by his rear quarter panel and I tap the side to spin his car around. Well, now we're nose to nose. What they don't tell you, or maybe I just didn't listen, is that when you have a guy with a gun and now you're window to window, it's not really the best place to be inside your car.

So he does fire through the window and I bail out of my car. He takes off running. I take off running after him. And at the time I was clearing a Glock 40-22c, which is a 40-calibur Glock with compensated on the top of it on the slide. And it begs the question, well, why did you carry that gun? Well, because everybody else was. Really, there's not a great answer.

A couple guys on my squad that were like, really tax-law, we're like, oh, this is the best gun. You got to get this gun. So I'm like, okay. Look, I was never a gun nut. I just kind of listened. The thing about a 40 caliber round is it's a very hot and heavy round, which means when you pull the trigger, the recoil on it is really intense. Like it's got a lot of kickback. And if you limp wrist it, meaning you don't have a good grip on the gun, it will stovepipe,

which means when the round, the shell ejects out of the gun, it won't eject sometime all the way. And when the slide comes back, it gets stuck on the shell. So now you have a stove pipe. So the next round can't feed down the chamber, down the, down the, down the, um, down the muzzle. So that's what happens. I have the radio on one hand and I'm giving radio traffic, you know, suspect running southbound, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I'm running after him.

Here's his description. Here's where we are. And I'm firing rounds because he's kind of doing one of these firing behind him, firing over his head at me and I'm firing back. So my gun stove pipes. I have to like kind of drop down. take cover, release, I have to drop the magazine out of my gun, push the slide back, clear the malfunction, reload a new magazine, and now re-engage. So it happens twice where my gun malfunctions,

because I'm limp-rissing it, because I don't have both hands on the gun. So finally, I'm like, shit. So I put my radio away, and now I have to put both hands on the gun and really engage. And I fire 10, 12, 15 rounds. And this man is still running. I'm like, oh, my God, either I'm not hitting him or he is Superman. He's like, the Terminator. Well, then my partner is also running after him, and my partner is shooting him with shotgun, with birdshot. And I think he fires four rounds. The amount of holes this man had was extraordinary.

And of course, he doesn't die, right? And then he goes around the side of this building and crawls under a bush, and we can't fire anymore because there's people inside of the restaurant. And so we end up having to do call out, and we finally get him out and get him medical attention. He loses his leg from one of the rounds. but he had shot three or four people in the nightclub. So that's, okay, so it gets even better. So now I'm like, oh my God, what just happened?

Now, mind you, my pants are still unbuttoned. It is still Thanksgiving night, and I have a very full stomach. I'm going to let you in on a little secret. I don't tell this part of the story very often. You ever had a good adrenaline release? Yeah. Yeah. Other biological things happen when you have an adrenaline dump.

No pun intended. And I go to the 7-Eleven that's on the corner. And I, at this point, really have to use the bathroom. And it's a little hole-in-a-wall bathroom. It's not very nice. They had, like, use of this storage, but they let us when we're on duty go in. And I know the guy at the desk, Big Rob was his name. Like, hey, Big Rob, he's like, hey, Missy, he's like, go ahead.

He's like, one of your partners is back there. I said, okay, thanks. So another patrol cop comes out of the bathroom, throws me the key. I grab and I walk in. And it's not pretty. It's not pretty at all. Like Thanksgiving dinner ran right through me. And now the toilet is broken.

And it doesn't flush. I'm like, oh, my God. Oh, oh, my. And I'm like panicking. Like, this is worse than the shooting I was just in. I'm like, oh, my God. Oh, my God, what am I going to do? And I'm like, pulling the lid off the toilet.

I'm jiggling a little chain. I'm doing everything that I can think of to do. Damn it. Okay. Forget it. Like, I can't be in here. So I put it all back. And I'm like, oh, well, sorry for whoever comes in next.

And I walk out and the undersheriff. The number two on our department's like, oh missy can you throw me that key and this guy Ian you have to understand i thought he walked on water he had been in swat he was the coolest calmest most collected he was like the quintessential police leader like he was the guy and you'd think that i would have some game and be like no sir you don't go in there it's broken nope i didn't i threw him the key yep ran out of that 7-11 like a little bitch and couldn't look that guy in the eye for many years he never said anything to me but like let's just say, I probably did not make a good impression.

You never ran into him about that. I never said a word. And he was such the consummate professional that he never said a word. But every time I saw him, I would turn bright red. And when he retired, as much as I hated to see him leave, I was like, oh, thank God. So embarrassing. But I had so much adrenaline. I had just been in a shooting.

My gun had malfunction. I thought my, like, you just, you don't think clearly. But it gave me great insight to what must happen to people in, traumatic situations when you can't think clearly. You just do and say dumb things. And that was my really dumb moment. Now, was that normal that you were able to select your own gun? Yeah, we had, you know, we could carry a nine, a 40 or a 45, and we had specific manufacturers that we could pick from. And that was, you know, Glock was obviously one and then a 40. Is that normal across all police departments? No, every police department has different rules. Those were just ours. We had to pay for it

ourselves. They would issue you, like in academy, they issued us, a Smith and Wesson 9mm and it was like a boat anchor, we used to say. They were, they're now, they're like historic artifacts, but I think I had it for like a week and then I went and bought my own gun. And could you carry two on you, like one on your ankle or no? Yeah. Okay. You can carry a backup gun. I carried one on my ankle for a while until I got to a car accident and almost broke my ankle with that on my ankle. And then I carried it, I carried a little tiny glock in the, um, under the trauma plate of my vest. And then I tried it, where else did I try it? On the side of my boot in the back. I tried at a bunch of different places. It's tricky. You have to see what works for you. Everybody carries

it somewhere different. And you have to practice with it. How hard does it operate in the heat, especially when you're running and you're in like a shootout with a suspect? You smell like a litter box every day when you're done because the dry cleaning chemicals are nasty and you sweat and it's yeah it's nasty and wool does not breathe well but you it sounds weird but you kind of get used to it now one summer the summer of 2003 they got the bright idea to give us shorts so do you ever see reno 911 yeah yeah that's what we look like it's not pretty not everybody should wear shorts and so imagine us we have black combat boots on white or black socks underneath our combat boots

and in these tan tailored shorts that were puffy on the sides and came in and tapered in your mid-thigh. They were awful. We would show up on calls that summer and the public would just start laughing. Like whatever reason they called us, they would forget because they were laughing so hard at how we look. They're like, oh my God, really? 9-1-1.

And anyway, they didn't last very long. By September, they were gone. How long were you at the Training Academy for? I was there two and a half years. And one night, I was up at, we used to call it SWAT night. It's where the recruits would train with the SWAT team. They would get CS gassed. We'd put them in the house and we'd gas them with CS to make sure they could fight through it.

They would learn building clearing, you know, how to go over walls and it was really a lot of fun. And I was up there talking to one of the SWAT guys that I had known. And he was like, yeah, you know. You should take the sergeant's test. I'm like, I don't want to be a sergeant. I'm a street cop. He's like, you should take the sergeant test. He's like, as a matter of fact, I want you to talk to my friend Kathy O'Connor.

I was like, the chief? She was the second female deputy chief and she was just amazing. And I was like, ah, I wouldn't know what to say to her. He was like, I'm going to set it up. He's like, I want you to email her, tell her I sent you, and you go talk to her. And I was petrified. So I took me back. about five days to work up the courage. So I finally email her. And like, this is before Chat,

CBT. I could say chat. Write me a professional email. You know, I had to like figure that out of my own. And she emailed me back, meet me at 24 hour fitness, 6 a.m. on this date, treadmill number seven. And I was like, that's so weird. I was like, that's the weirdest coffee meeting I've ever heard because I asked her, can I ski for a cup of coffee? So I showed up at 24-hour fitness at 6 a.m. at treadmill number 7. And sure is shit, she's on treadmill number 6. And she had just had shoulder surgery. And so she's in a sling.

And she's walking, like one of those women that you see walking around the mall in the 80s, she's walking on a treadmill like four miles an hour at a 15 incline. And I get an extra, I'm like, hello, ma'am, I'm Sasha. And she just looks at me. And she goes, so tell me. you want me to help you? Yes, ma'am. All right, so you're going to take the sergeant test?

Ma'am, I think I'm going to take the SWAT test. Don't waste my time. I was like, yes, ma'am, yes, ma'am. Why do you want to take the SWAT test? I said, I just really, I love tactics. You go back and be the SWAT commander. And I was like, what? I didn't understand.

I was like, I was very confused. And she said, no, you're going to take the SARGIS test. But if you don't come out in the top 10, I won't help you. And so the way it worked was written test, oral board, practical problem, oral board. And they were, you got 90 days to study for the written test because it was a lot of information, like the whole policy manual and Miranda and search and seizure. And so she said, if you don't come out in the top 10 of your written test, don't bother. And I was like, yes, ma'am.

She's like, I'll talk to you in three months. Yes, ma'am. So I step off the treadmill. I'm like, oh, my God. what did I just volunteer for? So that was it. That started my journey. I printed out all the study material, and for three months, I studied my butt off.

And I got a 99 on that written test, which put me in the top one or two. So I emailed her. She said, great, meet me on Sunday this night. So there began our friendship. And what I learned very quickly, she's an introvert. And she said to me, I'm an introvert. I speak before I think. You are an extrovert.

obviously speak to think. I started laughing. She goes, we have to work on that. I was like, yes, ma'am. And I'll be damn, man. She got me through that practical problem in the oral board. And I came out number one on the sergeant's test out of like 300 people. Not because I was any smarter, because trust me, I was not.

She was just very good at understanding the process. And that is where I learned about process. That was the second pivotal turning point. of my career. And I got to go back to patrol. Every time you get promoted in our agency, you go back to the street. So I went back to the street as a sergeant, and I worked a neighborhood I'd never worked before called Bolden Area Command, and I was a swing shift sergeant. And the rest of my career begins to unfold very quickly. I'm running a crew of guys. We were a training squad. And this is actually where the second dead body falls on the hood of my car. It's my first night. My very first night is a

sergeant. I'm like, I should go learn the area. Now, Vegas is set up by 100 blocks, which means all the streets have a number associated with them. So on our computers, we would get a call for service. It would say the 1,600 block of, you know, whatever street. And I could navigate there by just using 100 blocks. So I'm like, I'm going to go learn 100 blocks. And this specific area was the alphabet, so I'm like, I got that down. And then it's the presidents in the order that they were president. So, right, Washington, Adams, Monroe, and that's how the streets are organized. So I go driving down the street, and I go into this apartment complex, and it's huge. And it's right outside our substation, I don't know, like, minute and a half, two minutes away. And it's 1701, 1801,

J Street. And it's right in the middle of the mecca of excitement. And as I pull into the complex, because I hear gunfire. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, like a lot rapid gunfire. I'm like, oh, you've got to be kidding me. So as I'm sitting there, I'm looking, trying to figure out where it's coming from because they're really tall buildings. And so the sound is a little distorted. And I hear more gunshots, boom, boom, boom.

And then I see people starting to round the corner. And so I start to get out of the car. And right then the guy is running and I hear another gunshot, boom. And he like does the midair. It's like slow motion where you see the round go in his back. And where does he land? Right on the hood of my car. I'm like, okay.

And so I get on the radio. mic control and I give my call sign. Be advised. There's a shooting, looks to be a gang shooting back and forth, victim on the hood of my car, roll medical, and she's like, copy, I forget my call sign was, 777 location. I don't know. I was like, I'm in an apartment complex just by the substation. And luckily, the guys on my squad knew the area very well. And they're like, she's a 701J Street. So I get out and start running after the bad guy. But that was my first day as a sergeant. I mean, it was my career, Ian. Like every, I would be buying my own business,

and literally the bodies were falling on under my car. So I spent a year and a half in patrol, and then they asked me to take over a plane-clothes, like detective investigative unit there. And we're out trying to catch this really notorious drug dealer. So what would happen is the officers would go on calls and give us their reports and we would do follow-up on it, try to put cases together.

And there was a guy that was slinging dope All over the west side where we worked And his name was old wee-wee That was the street name, right? It's not a very tough street name But that was a street name And he was infamous And he was very slippery

And nobody could ever catch him And so we would sit surveillance on his house We couldn't catch anything And we would see him in the street He had a little yellow moped We'd try to chase him he'd get away So one day One of my guys was like

He drove this oh we we had a limo it was like a 1979 old school like lincoln limo totally beat up well there's a law that if you park your car in front of your house more than I can't remember it was 12 or 18 inches you can be towed

so we had a ruler and we measured the limo and it was like 32 inches it was drastically off the thing I don't just park like a drunk or something and I was like we got him and it was right in front of his house and we knew he used to

sling dope out of his house. We knew he was home. It's like, boys, ticket it and call a tow truck. And so now we're waiting. We're like literally hiding in the bushes waiting for him to come out. So the tow truck shows up. And you know, they make a lot of noise. Until he like hooks up his car. Sure shit. He comes out. He comes out. He's like, hey, he's like yelling his tow truck driver. And we jump out of the bushes. We're like, put your hands up. Metro Police. Takes off front of. Doesn't run into his house, though, interestingly enough. He runs around the corner and down this alley. and he goes into this place, so he has these huge green gates, and he runs in the gates, and we're far enough behind

where it's not considered hot pursuit, right? And he hasn't committed a crime. Let's keep that in mind. He has not committed a crime. He's just running from the police, which is not illegal necessarily, in this instance. And so he runs into this building, goes in the gate, goes in this building, and slams the door. And he's looking at us through the window.

And my guy's coming up, like, Sarge, Sarge, what do we do? Do we go in? Do we go in? I'm like, ah, what is this place? They're like, I don't know. It's one of those Muslim places. And I was like, a mosque? And they're like, I don't know. Well, it's sure enough.

It was a mosque. It was called Majid al-Sabur. And I didn't know anything about Islam. You know, this is 2008. So it's a post-9-11 world. What do we know about Islam? Terrorists, bad. You know, flew planes in the World Trade Center, killed.

lots of people. That's all I knew. What CNN and Fox had told me. And they said, do we go in after him? I was like, no, it's not worth it. We don't know what's in there. No, absolutely not. So we put our tail between our legs, went back to our car. He got his limo toad. We went back to the station. And man, I was embarrassed. I was like, my guys asked me, what is this place? What do we do? And I didn't know. And so I started researching. What is Islam? What does it mean to be Muslim? What happens inside a mosque. And I probably ended up on an FBI watch list with all the Google entries I had. And I ordered a book, any book I could get my hand on in Islam. And I, after over the weekend, I came back and I told my guys, okay, we're going to get into that place. I bet, I bet there's

some shady stuff going on in there. Let, we're going to find a way to get it. Okay. Here's our plan. I've been working on it all weekend. And they're like, okay, what is it, Sarge? I'm like, okay, I told, I had two guys, had one African-American guy, my buddy Ivan at work for me, and then this guy named Braden, I'm like, Braden, every day you're going to drive by this mosque in uniform, in a patrol car, and I want you to wave to them. I found out they pray five times a day. You can even find the little prayer times. They have them on these cards. When their afternoon prayer gets out right after we get out of briefing, you're going to drive by and wave at everybody. Say, how you doing? He's like, then what? I'm like, no, no, that's it.

They're like, that's your plan? I'm like, yeah, guys, that's all I got right now. That's my plan. Okay, Sarge. So that's what we did. Every day. Ivlin would walk by, hey, how you guys doing? Great to see you. And they were like, looked at us. Braden would drive by. We were watching, watching, watching. Now, mind you, I figured out that the emmaum, the head of the mosque, had been arrested. He was an ex-felon. A lot of people that weren't there were ex-felons. It's in the middle of a high-crime neighborhood. So I'm thinking, oh, I get it. They're just harboring ex-felons here. Okay. All right, I got it. I'm going to get these guys. So about two and a half, three months into this little dance, the imam, he stops Braden, and he's like, excuse me, officer, he's like, I see that you've been driving by a lot. He's like, I'm Imafatine. Would you like to come in? And Braden was like, to the mosque? He's like, yes, sir, to the mosque. He was like, yes, I would. So he calls me, Sarge, well, we just got an invite. Come on, get over here, quick. So I go racing over to the mosque. And before we go in, he says, do you know, mind taking off your shoes. And at first, you know, my guys, I was like, we're not taking. I was like, guys, take off your shoes. We're getting the gold invite that we've been waiting for. Take off your shoes. So we take off our shoes and we walk in. And I got to tell you, I was half disappointed, half relieved. There was not the 800 kilos of cocaine. I thought they were hiding in there. There was no ex-felons hiding in there. There was a kindergarten. There was a health clinic for the homeless,

and there was a food pantry. And I felt about this big. I felt, like a little tiny imbecile because I had made all of these snap judgments about people that I didn't know. And I was really humbled and embarrassed. And I told my guys, I'm like, we suck. We assumed the worst. So we sat with Fatina and talked to him for like three hours. And I told him, I said, I'm really sorry. Like, you don't trust us at all. And I said, Jesus, we don't trust you either. And he was like, I appreciate that honesty. And I was like, well, I mean, think about how many arrests we've made of people here. And he's like, think about how we feel about the people

that took our freedom away and our parents' freedom. And I was like, you're right. So we shook hands that day, which they, he didn't shake my hand. He shook my partner's hands because obviously it's against their cultural beliefs. He said, let's make a deal. He said, if you come around here regularly,

I'll introduce you to our congregation, to our folks, and you can start to teach us about your culture, police culture. And let's see if we can start to trust one another. I was like, okay, deal. So that's what we did. We went two or three times a week. We would go to Friday, Juma Prayer, the one o'clock prayer. And I prayed with the ladies, and my team went down with the guys.

And for about 18 months, we became very, very entrenched in this mosque. And we learned everything about Islam. We learned the prayer. We learned their history. Imam Fatin, his father, was one of the original creators in Chicago in the 16th. season 70s of the Black Panther movement. So imagine how he grew up, right, in his perception of police. And this man had so much love in his heart.

Like, he had found the ability to try to learn a different perspective. And I will always be grateful for him for that because he opened the door that changed how we policed in Las Vegas. He did that, right? We were just lucky enough to be on the receiving end of him recognizing there was a better way to do things. and here's what he said to us. He said, we didn't ever ask him for anything. We weren't like, hey, is there a terrorist here or anything? We never asked him for anything. As a matter of fact,

I said, what can we do for you? How do we earn your trust? And he said, hmm, he said, actually, you see across the street, there's this abandoned boat, an abandoned car, and it was on fire at one point, and it's been there for years. He's like, and there's always prostitution and drug deals, and they smoke out over there. And this is when we leave mosque after prayer, what we see. He's like, it's awful. He's like, I've called the city, and they hang up on me. He's like, I've been trying for months. And I was like, I got you. So I told Braden, I said, this is your project. I want you to go follow up on it. She's like, I got it. So he does. He goes back to the station. He makes a couple calls, talked to the county and the city. And within 48 hours, they have it removed.

So we earned a little bit of trust that day. And that was the beginning of our community police, like really understanding the community. And then my mentor, Kathy O'Connor, calls me and says, hey, I see what you're doing over there in Bolden. It's pretty impressive. She's like, I want you to come to help me build out the Fusion Center and build out an outreach program for the entire department. I was like, okay, all right. Yeah, cool. So I brought Braden and I got to pick two other guys and that started outreach in Las Vegas.

And that was the first day of the rest of my life. And how long did you do that for? So, I led that team for about two years. And then Kathy was like, hey, you need to test for lieutenant. I was like, I don't want to test for lieutenant. I love my job. I love what I'm doing. So now at this point, in 20, so it's 2015.

In 2015, the Sikh shooting in Wisconsin happens. That active shooter goes into the Sikh temple. opens fire, kills five, injures four, or maybe kills four, injures five. I can't know which way it goes. But the sheriff calls down to us and says, hey, I know you guys doing all this outreach. I want you to go to the Sikh temple and make sure they're okay. We're like, Sikh temple. We were all Islam all the time.

We knew every mosque in Las Vegas, which at the time there was about 10. We knew every imam. We were so well entrenched in the Islamic community, Muslim community. we didn't know anything about the other religions. I'm like, oh my God, fail. But okay, new opportunity. And maybe it's, anyway, it's 2012. I'm sorry. So 2012, the Sikh shooting happens. So 2012, we go to the Sikh temple, hat in hand, and we're like, hey, we saw what happened to Wisconsin. We're from the Fusion Center. We're building an outreach program. And we apologize for not coming here before tragedy struck your community. You want to be friends? I mean, essentially,

what we said. And there was a man there named Amar Chata, who's to this day one of my dear friends, and he said, we've been waiting for you. And they embraced us with such love. And so we did the same thing in the Sikh community. We learned, went to all of their events. We learned their religion. We went to their services. We went to their kids' birthday parties. And that began the diversification of our outreach program. We went to the Hindu temples. We went to the Buddhist temples. We went to the Baha'i temples, everything. We created a department-wide religious outreach. So then fast forward, I go to a Turtle Affairs, I get pregnant with my twins, I come back to work, I take the lieutenant test while pregnant with my twins, I get promoted while I'm on leave, I come back to work,

I go to the streets, I'm back in the streets working, and this is going to come full circle. It's June of 2014, I'm a lieutenant, and Northeast Area Command in Las Vegas. is very Hispanic. There's a large Hispanic population of mostly immigrants, many illegal. So they, and this is during a lot of drama with immigration.

They don't necessarily trust the police. And we didn't really do a whole lot to earn their trust during those days, right? June 8th, 2014, to Sunday. The day before this, June 7th, two of my guys, well, that worked on. So as a lieutenant, I had four sergeants who had squads of eight to ten guys.

On one of the squads, two guys had gotten into a disagreement about a call if they were in hot pursuit or not. So during debrief, they were still like really fighting about this, like arguing. And the sergeant said, look, tomorrow, you two ladies are riding together. And you guys can kiss and make up and you'll spend the day riding together to overcome your differences. So on June 8th of 2014, these two guys were riding together. I told you we don't normally ride doubled up, but in this day they did. Alan Beck and Igor Soldo. They were riding together. They went to have lunch at Cici's Pizza when Jared and Amanda Miller, and I only say their name once because they really don't deserve the notoriety of me saying it more than that, had been planning this day to go out and kill

and assassinate as many police officers as they could because they wanted to create a revolution. They walk into Cece's Pizza. Alan and Igor are sitting at a table, one with their back to the door, one facing the door, and they were sitting right next to the soda machine. So people were walking past the soda machine to get sodas. Amanda and Jared, one, Amanda walks past and goes behind one of the officers, and Jared stands behind the other officer, and they open fire and shoot them to the back of the head and instantly kill them. When they fall to the ground, they take their guns, and they put on their chest a manifesto,

and a swastika, a don't tread on me, you know the snake flag, yellow. They put that on them with a manifesto. Basically, Jared is talking about how he's going to create a revolution, and this was the beginning. Now, the restaurant's filled with people. It's a Sunday morning, and people are, like, hiding under the tables,

or, you know, police officers just been assassinated in front of them. Amanda and Jared calmly walk out. They walk across the street. They go to the Walmart, which is right across the street. As they walk in, Jared is a few clicks in front of Amanda. As he walks in, he fires a couple rounds. Boom, boom, boom. He says, the revolution has begun.

And people, of course, are now freaking out. Well, they don't realize that Amanda is with him. There's a man. His name is Joseph Wilcox. He's standing in line at the customer service desk, and he sees this. He says to his friend, he's like, hey, I'm CCW. I have my gun. I'm going to go get this guy.

As he goes behind Jared, Amanda is now behind him. And as Mr. Wilcox pulls out his gun, Amanda pulls out her gun and assassinates him. So he drops to the floor. Now people are running out and they go to the back of the store in the automotive section. At the time I arrive at Cece's Pizza while Walmart is unfolding as they're loading Alan and and Igor into the ambulance. I end up staying at Cece's Pizza for a little bit because my guys make entry into Walmart. One of my guys, his name was Brett Brosnahan. He makes entry first into Walmart and ends up

running into Jared, I'm sorry, running into Amanda. And they exchange and he sees Jared come around. He realized two-on-one is not a good matchup. So he backs out right then. Other officers are starting to arrive. My sergeant Kurt McKenzie makes entrance with a team. Anyway, long story short, they end up getting in a shootout with Jared. They shoot and kill him. And Amanda takes her own life. Brett's round had hit Amanda earlier, so she was already down. And then they both end up dying in a very tragic shootout in this Walmart.

So a couple things that we learned that day. Number one was, you know, it took people inside the restaurant inside Cece's Pizza over a minute to call 911. Now, could be that they were in shock, could be that they were scared, that they didn't want to move. All those things are very true. But there was pictures of our officers on social media before the first 911 call came out, which tells me that they didn't have enough respect for our officers to call it in right away, because we had not done a good job of earning their trust or their respect. And I took that really personal. I wasn't mad at them. I understood Right? But I was even more determined at that point that we had missed so many communities that we were falling short on them understanding.

Look, as local police, we don't care about your immigration status. That wasn't our job. We didn't pick up people based on immigration status. We didn't even ask them, ever. And when 287g became a thing and when immigration really became a hot topic, we got caught in the crosshairs of that. And this was during that time. And so I actually felt like, man, what an eye opener for us? These people were too scared to call. Because if they called 911 one, then they think we're going to ask them their name and their immigration, right? And they don't want to go. And I get that. And then we tragically lose our two police officers on this, I mean, on this day. And then Amanda and Jared and Mr. Wilcox.

And it was just so much loss of life, right? And, you know, again, I felt a sense of responsibility because those are my guys. And what could we have done to make sure that that didn't happen? And we had run into Amanda and Jared before. not us specifically, but other officers, other detectives, they'd been, because they were just whack-doodles in a lot of ways. And we didn't pick up on the signs. Like, we missed so much.

And anyway, not too long after that, I got transferred to the gang unit, and then we decentralized, the sheriff decentralized gangs and all of the detective bureaus and put them back in the area commands. And so I didn't have a job. And I said, hey, what do you think about me building an outreach program? that focuses on gangs, human trafficking, and terrorism, and really is about how we intervene before they get into a life during the life or once they're incarcerated.

And I wrote a proposal and the sheriff brought off on it. And he said, okay, build it. And so I took a few detectives from my gang outreach and we built a office called the Office of Community Engagement. Right after we stood it up, it was July of 2015, the shooting in Orlando in Florida happens at the Pulse Nightclub, right? Largest mass shooting in history. 49 people die.

But even an amazing thing happens on that day. And I'll never forget watching the news. It was a Sunday, Sunday morning. I called my team, I said, get dressed. We're going to work. And they're like, boss, it's Sunday. I said, get dressed. We're going to work.

Meet me in the office. Where are your uniform? So we show up. We printed out. a list of every mosque, which we knew, but we printed them out to make sure we didn't miss any, every LGBTQ nightclub or bar. And I said, we're going to pair up. You guys are going to take the LGBT clubs, you guys take the mosques, and we're going to go in there or check on them. Because here's what the news did. I don't know if you remember how old you were when this happened,

but what I got when I watched the news was the news said, and I'm paraphrasing, they said, another Muslim terrorist goes into this gay nightclub and opens fire and kills a bunch of people and the cops like a bunch of cowards stand outside and they wait and they don't make entry and more people die than they should have so the cops are cowards

the Muslims are terrorists and the gays probably incited this right with a broad brushstroke three different communities are labeled and I was like oh my God and then I thought no Sasha don't get mad it's like a great equalizer go in there and relate to them So that's what we did.

We walked into these LGBTQ clubs, because Sunday is actually a very big day for day drinking and parties and industry days. We walked in and we said, I'm so sorry. This must be petrifying for your community. And Ian, every club that we went into, which was probably like 10 or 11, cried. They cried. They were like, oh, my God, we thought you hated us. I was like, we don't hate you. We don't hate you.

We just got busy doing other things. And that's no excuse. I'm sorry. You're not invisible. And we hugged them and they cried and, you know, we had these incredible bonding moments and the same thing happened in the mosques. We already had relationships there, but we went in and we said, we're so sorry you got pain with that brushstroke again. That must feel like shit. And so then began our work in the LGBT community where we started to integrate them into our use of force boards, our citizen review boards, right?

They became, and we started to do work in their community. And I remember after about a year running this unit and doing this work, Braden and I went to the LGBT Community Center downtown to check in. We always went by once or twice a week. And there was a transgender man. So he was a man by birth but lived and identified as a woman and was married to a woman. But he was pre-operational. So he still had male genitalia, but identified as a woman, right?

And he was great. She was great. A very good friend of ours. And she said, I have to show you something. We're like, okay. So we go in their back room. And there was, it was during Passover. And there was these very wealthy Jewish families, probably 75 people in this back room,

celebrating and having a feast. And the LGBT Community Center was providing the food, right, to their specifications. And the servers were all like these transgender, very, like, flamboyant, men, women cross-dressing, they were wearing rainbow yarmacas, they're singing, they're dancing, everybody was clapping and embracing. And I stood there with Braden and I said, this is a mic drop moment because we had introduced the Jewish community to the LGBT community during these community events that we had done over the course of, you know, I don't know, 12 months, 15 months from the Paul's nightclub shooting. And now independent of us, they were loving each other.

They saw the humanity in one another. And I asked the head of the ADL, she's a very dear friend of mine, she said, you know, we realize that, and we know this, she said, the Jews have been persecuted for, you know, centuries. She said, we know what it's like to be judged and treated differently. And we recognize that we have more in common than we do apart. And we want to unite with as many people as we can. And so what happened in our community was every time there was something involved

a Muslim community where the Muslim community was painted bad, the Jewish community would show up and stand in solidarity. When the tree of life event happened, the Muslim communities came and stood up for the Jewish community. When the post nightclub shooting it, right? So we had this organic, incredible melding of these communities that would show up and support one another. Now, it doesn't mean it was 100% every community may love every community member, but on the greater whole, they were showing up for each other. So that left us one piece. Incarceration. So we had done a really good job in the schools. We had the PAL programs and the sports programs. We were in the schools. We're doing, you know, dare programs. We're like, okay. We're doing okay there. We were doing

really well getting people out of the lifestyle. We were, we had programming. We had, we were helping women in human trafficking. We were building out programs in partnership to understand the victim side of human trafficking. Because when I worked vice as an uncovered detective, we would just arrest the girls and put him in jail. We didn't recognize what was actually. happening to them being trafficked, actually being victims. And we met this incredible woman named Amy A. Ube, who herself was a victim of human trafficking. And she came in and started teaching us from a victim standpoint, from a survivor standpoint, what was actually happening. So it took us a few years, but we completely revamped how we looked at vice and human trafficking and how we did

enforcement. And that was a big chunk of what we did. And then the last piece of that was, okay, now they're incarcerated, and we had a very high recidivism rate. We were resting the same people, their cousins, their family, their brothers, you know, their sons, like, what are we missing? So I think I told you the beginning of this that I'm a lifelong yoga practitioner. I started teaching yoga in 1999 and have never stopped. And it taught me a lot about myself, right?

Like I still can't put both feet behind my head, but I can take a deep breath. before I react. And I got to thinking, what if people that were incarcerated for the most violent crimes had taken a breath? Like, I'm just wondering

what would have happened. So, I wrote a proposal and I said to the sheriff, hey, I want to teach yoga in the jail. As a matter of fact, I want to teach yoga, nutrition, parenting, and leadership.

And they were like, why? I said, because I have a theory. He said, give me a year. Give me a year. It won't cost you any money. I'm going to get volunteers, not one extra dollar. And that's how you make sense to the bosses, right?

Is it going to cost me anything? No, sir. It's not going to cost you anything. I will do it within the course of my other duties. It won't take away from anything we're doing. And let's let the number speak for themselves. Let's see if we can make an impact. They were like, okay.

So they partnered me with a lieutenant in the jail. His name was Yancey. And look, let me be very honest. People were not happy about this. They were like, this is bullshit. We're going to teach yoga in the jail. Like, my peers laughed out loud at me. They're like, you're so stupid.

This is ridiculous. Like, I can't believe you're going to waste your time on this. And I was like, maybe. Maybe, but I'm going to try. Because what would we have to lose? So I called my buddy. His name is Drey Gardner. And Drey and I have been friends, now 28 years.

We met at Gold's Gym in Vegas before I was a cop, right? And Drey was one of my first yoga students when I started teaching yoga. And he's African-American. He was born and raised in Orange, California, raised in South Central California, tattoos from head to toe. When I met him, he had long Rossafarian braids. And then he went back. to Santa Ana for junior high and high school and moved to Vegas. So he definitely didn't have a lot of

love for the police. When I went to the police academy, he was like, oh, okay. But he always supported me. And then he became a yoga teacher. I was like, Dre, let's go to yoga teacher training together. So we did. So we became yoga teachers together. And now he is a lifelong yoga teacher. And he's incredibly. He's a huge following. So I called him up and I said, hey, let me ask you question. I want to teach yoga in the jail, but I can't teach the men. It's just not appropriate. Will you do it? I can't pay you. I need you to come twice a week for 12 weeks. We're going to put on a trial program. And he was like, I'm in. So he built out a program, and he came twice a week for 12 weeks, never missed. And we had 72 inmates that were already

convicted, but awaiting sentencing. And they were going to go away to prison. But they were waiting. Like they were appealing their case or whatever. So sometimes they'd be there. three months, sometimes they were there 15 years, right? I mean, you know how the appeal process works, sometimes very slow. But they were all for like murder, armed robbery, like very serious violent crimes. I said, I want these guys. So we put them through this yoga program. And I have to tell you, it was, I went every, I went every class and would stand in the back and watch. Now, he's not teaching them anything crazy, right? They're not definitely not putting their feet behind their head. but he's teaching them breathwork and stillness.

And I will tell you, when you have a lot of chatter in your brain, it's very hard to sit. But when you teach people how to link breath to movement, something happens in your nervous system. Something awakens and something else quiets. And Ray did that with them. He got them to a point where they could go inward. By the end of the 12 weeks, we surveyed them. What did you get out of it? What did you learn?

98% of them are like, like we love it. Life-changing. Still can't touch my toes, but, and I remember a couple of the guys when Dre and I were talking and they're like, man, if we'd have known how to pause before we had a reaction, we wouldn't be here. And for me, it was like, that was everything. It was everything.

And Shane came in, my friend Shane Stewart, he ran a nutrition store. He came in and taught them about nutrition. We actually got them to let us bring blunders into the jail. And he taught them how to juice. He taught them about green vegetables. And it was like, hey, this is why you should eat green vegetables. And you were like, nobody ever told us this. They're like, we give our kids McDonald's twice a day.

Like, yeah, well, let us tell you what a phytonutrient is. Let us tell you about, right, game changer. And then Braden taught them my buddy that worked for me, parenting. And one of the first classes he taught them was why you have to tell your children you love them or people that you love that you have to say it out loud. and I would say that 80% of these guys were like, no, no, no. By the end of the 12 weeks, they were like writing letters and telling their family and their kids that they loved them. They were like, nobody ever told us.

So we never told our kids. For me, that was the most important work we did, right? Because the truth is, 99% of them are going to be released. And what did we do to offer them something they would have never otherwise had exposure to that will allow them to maybe make a different decision or have different awareness when they leave. And I asked Ray the other day, I said, hey, what was the biggest takeaway you think we got? And here's what he said, and I think it's important noting. He said, we are not our past.

And we can change by embracing the journey inward. Because the most important relationship we have in this lifetime is the one we have with ourselves. Self-love and self-care will never hurt you. The relationship we have with ourselves sets the foundation for every other relationship we'll encounter in this lifetime. And that was what they got in that program. And that began my journey in working in reentry and prison reform. I'm guessing you did two years there and got another promotion.

I did. I did, yeah, just about two and a half years there. And then I tested for captain. And I stayed there as a captain the first couple months until they got someone to take it over, and I took over Vice in partnership with that unit and got to really work human trafficking, which was one of my favorites,

and work with the victims. And then I got my own area command, which was so cool. You're basically like a chief of police in your own area. My area command had all eight religions with a house of religion in that area, 300,000 residents. I had 260 cops that worked for me.

And just for a frame of reference, there's about 16 to 18,000 police departments in the United States, and most of them have between zero and 20 officers, right? So you think that I'm now a captain, which is basically like a police chief in my own little area, so it was great experience. But then a little thing happened while I was a captain called 1 October, 2017, the mass shooting at Mandalay Bay. and you know yesterday obviously was the anniversary nine years ago that that happened I was at home it was 10 o'clock at night Saturday night and my husband and I were going to go to Hawaii he was going to co-teach with Tony Robbins the great Tony Robbins and I was going to go lay on the beach for a few days for much needed vacation and my phone rang and it was one of my

sergeants. His name was Chris Gorell, Incredible Street Sergeant. He said, hey, you got to turn on your radio. I was like, dude, I'm going to Hawaii. Whatever it is, I'm sure you guys can handle, you know, because there's always something. And he's like, boss, you don't understand. He said, I think there's an actor shooter on the strip. And I was like, what? He goes, I'm serious. Turn on your radio. Okay. So I ran down the hall and turned on my radio, my little pack set. And it was chaos. people were screaming. Shots were being fired. I could hear the yelling on the radio, and I was like, oh, my God.

I walked back to the bedroom just white as a ghost, and my husband was packing, and he said, what's wrong? I said, there's an active shooter on the strip. He said, you got to get dressed. He said, yeah. So I went in my closet, I'm listening to the radio, and I'm sweating. It's like a weird reaction when your body knows.

Something's happening. Like, you just start sweating. And so as I'm putting it on my uniform, I'm like, okay, all right. right, we're ready for this, we prepared for this. I spent all this time in the fusion center. We've been preparing for this, and I should add that in November of 2012,

Locke Shari Taiba terrorist organization came in off the banks of Mumbai, India, and took over. It was the first time we saw multi-assaults happening. They took over the Taj Hotel, the Oberi Hotel. They put explosives in taxi cabs, and at cafes, and in hospitals. And then when first responders came, they blew them up. So they not only were shooting people.

When the first responders came, they then attacked the first responders. It was the first time the world had seen that outside of warfare. So we had gone to India to learn about this. And what we learned, Ian on that day, saved lives on one October. We learned that the police and the fire had not necessarily trained together. And so when the gunmen, there was many of them. inside the Taj Hotel. Three days, they had this hotel under siege,

and they're actively killing people room by room. And the police basically say to the firemen, hey, because there's explosions happening. The parts of the hotel are on fire. They're like, hey, can you please go put out the fires inside the hotel so we can catch the bad guy? And the fire guy's like, can you go catch the bad guy so we can put out the fires?

And we recognized that we had that same stalemate. So we started training with the fire department, like in 2012, 2013, with how to do rescue forces, task forces where you put a fire guy inside a circle of cops basically and you go into a hot zone, warm zone, and you extract the patient out and you can get them help and save their life. So we've been training with fire for years in a protocol called MACTAC, multi-assault, counterterrorism action capabilities. And my unit had been in charge of doing that.

And so I was thinking to myself, okay, we're ready. We've done MACTAC. We know that they're probably going to siege more than one place. And so I'm like going through this in my head, okay, I'm getting dressed. and sure is shit, right then, the calls start coming in. Actors shooter at the Tropicana Hotel. Actors Shooter at the Hoorish Hotel. Actors shooter at Mirage.

I'm like, oh my God, they're up and down the strip. I'm like, okay, you got to stay calm, Sosh, get dressed. I put my vest on, get everything ready. Very quickly. Like, I'm prolonging the story, but this happens, like, in a matter of 90 seconds. And I say to my husband, I'm like, I can't go to Hawaii. Have a good time, be safe. And then I was like, he's like, you should probably go say goodbye to the kids.

at the time my son was in fourth grade and my twins were in first grade and they were asleep and I walked down the hallway and I don't know what it was Ian I never had this feeling I never thought I might not come back never never but that day I did and I kissed them goodbye like thinking to my heart it should be the last time I kiss him goodbye kiss my son goodbye and I was like okay this is what I trained for I'm gonna stuff my fear in my pocket this is what I trained for kiss my husband goodbye get in the car

So at the time, the highway patrol had shut down to freeways because we didn't know where they were coming from, except for emergency cars. So it was so eerie. I get on a freeway and I drive mock 20 and I get there very quickly. And when I get there, the gunfire is just still happening. And so I park and I get into the route because my chief had called it said, hey, you're going to be the incident commander at the Route 91 lot, which is this where the concert was. So I get to the lot and it's just chaos. there's no order to what's happening and I had called my team

and everybody gets deployed well I had one guy that worked for a neighboring police department that worked for me at the fusion center his name was Craig Tamayo and I called Craig did you ever see the movie Police Academy? Maybe. The old school comedy movie with Steve Gutenberg Probably not

but in it there's a character. His name is his name is Tackleberry and he's like the gun-n-n-n- He's got like 40 guns and rifles. And he's like really tactically sound. And this is my buddy Craig. Like he's very tactically sound. He always had his rifle.

He was always squared away. And I call him like, dude, I need you. He's like, okay, where do you want me to go? I said, me at this intersection, bring your rifle. You have one job. I have to be this incident commander. I can't be watching my back. We don't know where the bad guys are.

We don't know if they put, you know, I'm thinking like Mumbai. And like, we don't know if they put explosives in the concert. You're to watch my back. That's your only job. do not let me get sniped. He's like, I got it, boss. And this, this man stood on my, what we call on my six, right, behind me all night for 18 hours. So we, I get there, we get the lot evacuated of all the concert goers, but it takes hours and hours and hours and hours, because people are hiding like under benches and in trees and under blankets because they're

scared. And a team led by Levi Hancock, who's one of one of our SWAT guys, and Josh Bitsko, who was a canine guy at the time, they make entry to where Stephen Paddock was on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay. And he's already killed himself and we're able to determine that he was a lone shooter. Even with all of the conspiracy series out there, he was a lone shooter. And we find his thousands of rounds of ammunition and his plethora of guns. But now down at the lot, we're having to walk with the fire department to go body by body, to pronounce them deceased.

And it takes us quite a while to lock down the scene. And we run that scene for about three days. And our sheriff at the time, Joe Lombardo, who's now our Nevada governor, credible leader, credible man, does a hell of a job leading us through this time. And lots of people are responsible for that night, homicide, counterterrorism, the cert and fit team come out and everybody does it which are the guys that investigate when an officer uses force or gets into shooting and it it was it's almost incomprehensible to describe like it's really hard you know who the movie director quentin tarantino is right from dust till dawn i always described that night that that's what it was like it was really windy there was at one point 65 mile an hour winds it felt like and money was blow this is when people still use that's when people still use that it was like it was blowing this one people still use that it was so you

cash. Money was blowing everywhere. Like they had, you know, the bartenders had tip jars on the sides of the bar and the tip jars had gotten blown over. Thousands, tens of thousands of dollars blowing around this lot. And there was cowboy hats blowing around and people that had literally run out of their boots and there was cell phones ringing. And it was like a scene out of this movie. And they had a bar that had those swinging barn doors. And they're blowing and went, it was so cool. It was so creepy and and it looked like a movie set because the bodies didn't even look real most of them were headshots and these people dressed in this cowboy gear and you're like it your brain does something weird where it goes no this this isn't real and you're like oh yeah it's not real okay

I can finish working 18 hours here and it was the most awful thing I've ever seen how do you go home after that well by the time I left the lot it was about one o'clock in the afternoon the maybe a little bit later. I went to my kids' school because I knew they were scared. And like I was still like my, obviously adrenaline is still running. And I go to the kid's school and I have them bring my son out to me and he hugs me because we're very close. And he was like, Mom, mommy, I'm so happy. You're okay. I thought you were dead.

And then I hug the girls and I go home and I can't sleep. And I'm like, I got to go to debriefing, right? Because look, police work doesn't stop. I still have a substation of 200 plus cars. They went to work that next morning. So I went to the station. I went to debriefing, swing shift briefing, sit and talk to them. And then one of my guys, his son, Brady, was shot that night.

It was day two of training. He graduated the police academy on Friday, on Thursday, had Friday, and then Saturday was the second day in field training. And he gets shot in the side. It misses his vest and goes in the side of his arm and through his rib cage. So I went to the hospital to see Brady because his dad worked for me. And Brady went on to work for me for many years. So I stayed at the hospital with him for a little while.

And then I lost one of my dear friends, Charleston Hartfield, who had worked for me at the Fusion Center and who I put through the Police Academy. He died a hero. He was off duty at the concert with his wife, helping people and got shot, killed. One of my other guys, Casey Clarkson, who I also put through the Police Academy, got shot in the neck. He was working the concert but survived. So I spent that next day checking on all of them.

I went to graveyard briefing that night to see my guys. And then was up and then at the hospital all night. So the next morning, I still haven't slept. So it's now, I don't know, 36, 40 hours later. My adrenaline starts to come down. And my husband's out of town, right, with Tony Robbins. And I'm like, I got to go for a run. So I put on my running shoes.

And I never forget. I lived in this neighborhood where there was lakes everywhere. Like, man, it was called the lakes. And I went out for a run. And I was like four miles. into my run and lost it. I told you I'm not a crier, but man, I cried like Jim Carrie in a scene of, you know, the crying game. I just lost it, like snot flying out of my nose. Like it was the ugly cry, right? But it was all of that pent up trauma. And then I got

myself together and went back, I went home and slept for, I don't know, three or four hours. went back to work and changed the course the trajectory of all of our lives did Vegas stop that night did everything just stop it did for a little bit yeah

McCarran Airport for one of the first times in history shut down because people were jumping over the fence like where Jason Aldeen where his bus was parked was right kind of backed up to the back part of McCarran Airport

and people were so scared God bless them they were jumping over the fence and on the flight line, so they actually shut down McCarran. And Stephen Paddock shot at the fuel tanks. Actually, he actually hits the fuel tank three times, two, two and one, I think. And so they shut everything down, not sure if it was going to explode or what the follow-up was going to be. The world shut down for about 24 hours after that. I mean, it was a big deal.

And the hard part for us was a couple weeks later, we had to host the rock and roll marathon, which went down Las Vegas below. Well, now our whole paradigm is shifted, a high-rise shooter, and now we have a marathon going down Las Vegas Boulevard, like, holy smokes, how are we going to check every hotel room? Right? It changed everything about the way we police, about the way we partnered with the casinos. It was very scary. It was very, and the New Year's Eve, that New Year's Eve, because remember, hundreds of

thousands of people come to Las Vegas to celebrate New Year's Eve on the strip. So it was the first time we were, we had government. support for that New Year's Eve. It's called a SEER event, special event assessment rating. They rated a SEER 1 event, which means we get support from the federal government. We get canines. We get drone support, helicopters, agents in the crowd, which is a huge deal, huge deal. And so we were Sierra 1 event that year. And it was very scary for like six months. We held our breath every time something was on the strip outside. But police work doesn't stop, right? I mean, we had still 30 homicides between October and December.

Our guys were still working their butts off. People are still doing crazy things. It doesn't stop. But also during this time, we're working reentry. We're working very hard on our reentry. I'm now running a second area command called Summerlin Area Command. And I tell my team that I want us to start working with a guy named John Pond. Have you heard of him?

John Ponder was, he created a program called Hope for Prisoners. And Hope for Prisoners really focused on decreasing recidivism. John had been arrested for robbery and served some time. And I'm trying to remember, I have in my notes what year he was arrested. And he, when he got out, wanted to help people. that were incarcerated, reintegrate into the community after they were released. So Hope for Prisoners is a program that takes them and puts them through mentorship, guidance, some religion, spirituality, helps them find a job.

He partnered with different places that would hire ex-felons that would, you know, truck driving, get them there, truck driving license, and working the casinos, working for the carpenters union, different unions, like it was phenomenal. know. And so what happens is we as a police department end up partnering with for prisoners. And so we would go to their graduations. We would show up because, let's be honest, the association they had with our uniform was we took their freedom away, right? Something I learned when we started working in the mosque. So they weren't necessarily happy to see us in the beginning. And I'll be honest, the cops were like, duh, this is bullshit.

Why do we have to be here? They didn't want to do it either. But over time, we started to see the And he decreased recidivism in the 90s, like 90% with the groups he was working with. It's incredible. Because the statistic was that they were reoffending within the first year. They felt like if they made it three years without reoffending, that they were on a really strong path. But if we could really support them that first year, then it was incredible, right? And this program was built around that. And John was a very charismatic leader.

He had this energy about him that could inspire people. And he was a pastor. So, right, he could get up and talk about God and talk about all. And people would listen. He was very, very charismatic. Now, I want to tell you what happens. So I was looking for the year that he was arrested, but it doesn't matter. So we start partnering with them.

And I see the success. And I'm like, wow, this is impressive. And we decide that we're going to host the graduations for Hope or Prism. which I think they graduated one one a month. So every month we'd have the metro headquarters and we would graduate with John 20 30 40 50 people from this program. It was amazing. And we would have judges come and and state senators and congressmen. It was amazing. It was a very high flutin event, televised sometimes. Really impressive. And I was like, wow. So around the same time I have this area command. We have a group of youth, young youth, like 13, 14, 15,

carjacking. They're carjacking old people. They're carjacking. Like, it was running rampant. We couldn't catch him. Like, 13 years old. We finally catch the first group, 13, 14 years old. Like, what the hell is going on in their home? Why are they out carjacking people at 2 in the morning? Like, where are their parents? So I start to think about it. And I'm like, okay, we need to, what if we create a hope for prisoners for juveniles? So I asked John. He's like, I don't have time. He's like, I'm so busy. I don't have time. Like, I get that. He's like, you should do it, though. Okay. So I say to my lieutenants, hey, what do you think about this? They're like, let's do it, right? Got those ideas. I got an idea. So we have an outreach team at the station

and have a young, very ambitious kid on this team. His name is Dante Baptiste. I'm like, Dante, I want you to take lead on this project. I tell them exactly what I just told you. I want to create a program for the youth that basically when they get arrested, we take them and we prevent them from reoffending. But we need to work with their families. We need to go into their families and meet them and talk to them and say, what's going on in the home life? How can we support you? What do you need? What's happening at school? Are you working at night? That's why your kids out at two in the morning. How can we support you? What programs can we connect you into? So we call it the dream program. And we get our first class. And we reach out, we have 10 or 15 kids in the class. And these parents,

Ian, we're so happy to see us. They were like, we're overwhelmed. We don't know what to do. Little Johnny is just crazy. He's out of control. I can't control him. And look, I'll tell you, I have a 16-year-old son. It's not easy. It's not easy. They're very willful. They're very strong. And they have power of the group or power of the pack, right? So the dream program becomes a thing. We start putting youth through this program modeled off of hope for prisoners to prevent recidivism. And it starts out there's just a few kids, and this is in 20, I don't know, 2017, maybe, 2018. Well, now it is department-wide. Now it is, they're graduating 100 kids, 150 kids, right?

My young officer, Dante Baptiste, and at the time I had a lieutenant, her name was Michelle Tobariz. They took this program and grew it into something phenomenal. And they're still doing it. I'm so proud of them. But it helps the families and the youth understand how to have a better, re-entry process, right? Because nothing changes if nothing changes.

And so the program is built around giving them change and exposure to things that can really help them. It also builds or builds a bridge between law enforcement and those communities too. 100%. 100%. Because they didn't have the same opinion of us, right? So my yoga program eventually gets shut down because Yancey, my friend in the jail that was a lieutenant that supported us leaves.

And the new leadership wasn't real hot on it. But I will tell you, we had a great run. And I know that we made an impact. So I continued to work with John and over prisoners. And then something happens where one of my closest girlfriends, her name is Missy Young, and I did get her approval to talk about this. Her son, her adopted son, his name is Dakota. He's now 31.

she became his mom. She, Missy marries his dad when he's eight, so she raises him. He had a lot of childhood trauma, and unfortunately, she said they didn't really understand the extent of his trauma, and he really struggled with drugs and alcohol. During COVID, she gets him into treatment, and I'm working with her all along on this, and we're talking about it and what she can do. He successfully completes a 45-day inpatient program. He spends about six months in rehab, and then he joins a sober living community.

So we're like, this is great. He's killing. He's doing awesome. He's on the right path. He's committed to sobriety. He's really excited about his new life. And now COVID, you know, starts to change the way everything is happening. So at the end of 2021, she says, she calls me. She's like, hey, we're starting to notice a few things. I'm worried. Something doesn't seem right. We don't have proof yet, but I think he's fallen off the wagon. And then November 6th of 2021, she calls me and she says, I need your help. I said, okay. She said, and this is right in the middle of now the end of COVID where the whole world has changed. She said, Dakota is at a party where he was drinking and doing drugs and he was very intoxicated. And in the early morning hours, he's sitting with his best friend, Adam, and they start playing with a gun that belonged to somebody else. And as all sad stories with guns go, Dakota thought the gun was unloaded and he pulls a trigger and she's and kills his best friend. Dakota is now serving a 16-year sentence in Arizona, obviously been sober since the accident, and works on maintenance crews, plays the drums, and is doing therapy. He was 26 when it happened. He's now 31. And I will tell you that what I love about people that are committed to working with reentry and folks that have been incarcerated is it becomes a deep passion that you can't turn off because you see the change that's so necessary for people.

So Missy decides that she's going to create grit and mercy. That's a new program. And she works with incarcerated individuals in Nevada and in Arizona because she came to realize you can't just, religion is not enough, right? Finding God is not enough. It's great. Therapy is not enough individually by itself, right?

A workout program is not enough. So what she does is she combines therapy and education to being the key to true, rehabilitation, and she talks about grit and mercy, really transforming people that are trapped in this visual cycle of trauma, crime, addiction, and recidivism, and then switches that into a healthy, educated adult that are willing to make positive contributions. And here's what I love, Ian. She says, repair, retain, restore. So we repair through therapy, retrain through equipment and education, and restore through connection and community. So she took all the efforts that me and John and

so many people working in the jails were trying to do and puts this beautiful packaging around it. And it was like all of the work that we had done, she took it because of the humanity aspect of how it touched her life and has now brought it into fruition in this program. And she's helping women and men that are incarcerated. And, you know, here's a woman, and it's important to note, here's a woman that is self-made. and she became the C-O of a major corporation, major corporation, built it from the ground up, you know, got to ring the bell in the New York Stock Exchange,

like just incredible woman. And she gives it all up now. She walks away from her executive corporate life to just do reentry work because she believes so deeply. And she's watching the change happen in women and men every day. She calls me, odds, she's like, you'll never believe this.

story, this woman, blah, blah, blah, and she got out. Now she's, and that's what it's about, right? Like, that's what this reentry work that we started in 2015, teaching yoga, was all about, right? She's taking it to the next level. And so that's how I get to stay connected to it, is the dream program still running for the youth, and Hope for Prisoners, is still running with a couple changes to the leadership. And now Missy's running this program. And I think you're going to see in the next decade that reentry looks very different because enough people are waking up to the fact that there's opportunity to really help people. How did you finish off your career? I, after one October, I was at Summerlin, my area command. Then we had COVID. I'd lead them through

COVID. We have the George Floyd riots. We get through that. And then the sheriff comes and says, hey, I want you to come lead the Office of Internal Oversight and Constitutional Policing Unit, which is the ones that respond to all the officer mall shootings. So I get transferred over there. And then about a year after being there, he promotes me to deputy chief. So that now puts me on executive staff. And I'm in charge of the Homeland Security Bureau. So I'm back in counterterrorism. and I lead. So now, full circle to the beginning of my story when I told you I wanted to go to SWAT.

And Kathy told me, no, you're going to go lead SWAT one day. I got to go to SWAT as a chief, which was awesome. Now, I don't get to go through doors or kick them down or do anything fun, but I get to go down to the SWAT hanger and work with the guys, get them the supplies that they need, the equipment that they need. I show up on their callouts.

I got to learn from them and be a part of their mission, which was extraordinary. I was a chief for about two years, and then I got promoted to assistant sheriff, and I promoted as the first female assistant sheriff. On the same day, another woman also promoted, which was really exciting, and I got to be the assistant sheriff over everything except for the jail and patrol and human resources. So I had counterterrorism, all the investigative units, the fusion center, SWAT, K-9,

all the fun units, which is how we got to get new canine dogs through Christie. and I spent about a year and a half as an assistant sheriff before I retired to go to FIFA. How long did you do overall with your career? I did just shy of 26 years. Wow. It was amazing. It doesn't even look at it. Thank you.

The beauty of Botox. You know, look, I never had hard days, but I never regretted one of them. I loved my career. I loved being a police officer and learning about our community and being a part of it in that way. When you leave, you know, that first day after 26 years of service, what does that feel like? Sucks. You know, a lot of people have countdown tickers for retirement.

Not me. I didn't want to retire. I really didn't. I didn't want to leave. I thought I would go on to be the next sheriff. I wanted to stay. I wanted to make our community better, better and better and better. And sometimes, God.

has other plans for us and there was you know when you get to an executive level a lot of times there's politics to come into play and there was a lot of politics on my organization and at that level I was struggling to navigate them I had started an outreach group for women with Kathy my mentor back in 2008 called the women of Metro and I was doing a lot of work with those women developing them. And it loved my job, but the politics and toxicity that I was operating in was so bad. I wasn't sleeping. I was not healthy. I was probably, I was working out a lot just to cope and really struggling on all aspects of my life, emotionally, mentally. my marriage was taking a toll

and I wasn't home enough for the kids and it just wasn't a good thing and I was like, you know what, I need to ask the universe for some guidance and like, I'm not kidding, 30 minutes later I get this thing on LinkedIn it says FIFA posted for the director of intelligence

and C4 operations, which means someone that's going to run command and control communication for the World Cup. And I was like, that's a cool job. And so I was like, hey, you know what? I should just put it to see what I've never been through a job interview outside Metro. I've been here 26 years.

So I put in for it. And I didn't hear anything back for months, right? Well, that year, 2024, we had F1, right, the F1 race through Las Vegas Boulevard, which I oversaw special end, so I was a part of that planning. We had the Super Bowl that year, and we had New Year's Eve, all within three months, right? F1, New Year's Eve, Super Bowl. So we were running these major events And I was like, man, I'm all I can run major events

I mean, I can do with my eyes closed We do these every day in Vegas So the guy that worked for the NFL His name was G.B. Jones He was the director of international, the international games for the NFL. He came to Vegas when we were playing for the Super Bowl. I met him, shook his hand.

And I said to him, you have the coolest job. I'm going to work for you one day. And he was like, oh, it is a great job. He was such a nice guy. Anyway, that was it. He went away. well, I get on this job interview for FIFA, G.B. Jones. I'm like, hey, you're the NFL guy. And he's got a voice, like, he used to do radio. Like, he's got an unbelievable voice.

So we end up talking on the interview, and so I go through two, three, four interviews, and they end up hiring me. And at the same time, I was topped out at Metro. I couldn't make any more money and couldn't go any higher without running for sheriff. and my sheriff was going to do, he had another two years of his term and then it was going to run again. So he was another six years. So I had to wait six years to run anyway. So I was like, I'm going to go to FIFA. And so I moved to Miami and became the director of intelligence for the World Cup. Are you happy?

You did that? Yeah. It's been awesome. It's been awesome. It was exactly what my mind, body, and soul needed to reset. And listen, it's different. Like when you're the assistant sheriff over homicide, robbery, vice, every phone call you get is death and destruction.

It's like, hey, boss, we just had three people killed a baby and a flamingo. And like, every story is awful. When you're planning the World Cup, everybody's happy. It's the best day of their life, not the worst, right? You see the parallel. And it was extraordinary because FIFA didn't have an intelligence unit. I got to build it. I got to build a team, an incredible team at that, and my team and I built the intelligence unit for the FIFA World Cup in 16 cities, in three countries with 48 countries that came to participate over 39 day period.

We basically did three Super Bowls a day for 39 days. That's incredible. It was amazing. It was amazing. And everybody was so happy, and it was interesting, right? Like we got to work threats, both international and national. We got to work with our federal partners. We got to work with the White House Task Force.

We got to go to D.C. I mean, we got to work at the highest levels of government. It was amazing. How do you feel today, you know, when you look back on the 26 years, you did? Grateful. I love my job. I loved being a police officer at every rank, at every turn. There was some terrible days.

But the humanity I got. to see is what it's all about, right? I mean, cops, we hire from the human race. We're not all perfect. Lots of cops make mistakes. Some of them even make dumb decisions. Some of them even do unethical things. But I would say 99% of cops wake up wanting to do the right thing. And I loved being a part of that culture. I've met cops from all around the world. I've trained all around the world and all of them, you know, we always say we bleed blue because it's just, you run towards gunfire, not away from it. You enjoy getting to see parts of humanity you would never otherwise see and finding out what makes them tick. Why is somebody homeless? Why is somebody

a victim of human trafficking? What happened? And how do we help them? Like, you know, you want to fix all of the woes of the world. And I feel so blessed that. I got to do that. But God gave me the opportunity to help on a level that was extraordinary. What would you tell your teenage self if you could sit across from her today? Not to be afraid to step into my power. It took me many years to step into that level of confidence. You know, I think when you work at a paramilitary organization,

you learn very quickly that there's a chain of command, right? You answer to the person above you. You have respect for that. I was raised many years by my grandparents while my mom was in nursing school, which was the veteran generation. My grandfather was a Navy man for 32 years. So I followed rules.

My generation follows rules. You know, we were told, do this. Okay, you didn't ask why. And so it was, the police department was perfect for me. Told to what to do? Okay, we'll do it. No problem. So I would tell my teenage self,

don't be afraid to step into your power sooner. Don't be afraid to be that visionary. And there's always room at the top. Don't, don't, don't, don't, you never have to operate from a place of jealousy or fear or scarcity. There's enough for everyone. Well, Sasha, I appreciate you taking the time to come out here today. Thank you. I loved being here.

This was such an incredible interview. You had to mesmerized the whole time. So awesome. You're just great storyteller, great person. Have you written a book? I have. And it is with the editor now. Okay.

And it will, you know, hopefully it will make the cut and somebody will pick it up. Yeah, well, let us know. once it's out. So we'll add the link going back into this episode and whatnot. Thank you. I will. I really appreciate that. Yeah, I appreciate you. Thank you.