Locked In with Ian Bick - I Was A NYPD COP Involved In A Shooting | Steve Pedullo

Episode Date: March 23, 2023

Steve Pedullo worked as an officer for the New York Police Department for over a decade until a shooting forced him into an early retirement. Listen to find out what it's like to serve for the largest Police Department in the world and get a different perspective of the Criminal Mind.  Connect with Ian Bick: https://www.ianbick.com/Subscribe to our membership program on YouTube to get early access to interviews, see behind the scenes photos & more:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRvVklIft6DMelVW18M0oBw/joinPowered by Q29 Productions, LLC Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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It's the real California farm families behind it. Real people. Real care. Real intention. Why? Because real matters. So whether you're pouring milk, melting of cheese, or just grabbing one more spoonful of yogurt. Keep it real. Look for the seal. Real California milk by real California farm family. My name is Ian Bick, and you're tuned in to Locked in with Ian Bick. On this week's episode, I interview our first member of law enforcement, Steve Padulo, who is a former NYPD police officer.

We all make mistakes, experience failure, and fall down in life. But if you decide to get back up and use it as fuel to your fire, you can choose to not let it define you. You can make it through to the other side and turn it into an opportunity. I went from owning a popular nightclub when I was 19 years old to becoming a federal inmate by the time I was 21. Join me, Ian Bick, as I interview people from all over the country who have experienced the rock bottom of the American justice system. Steve, welcome to Lockton with Ian Bick. Thanks for having me, man. It's great.

You are our first law enforcement officer. I'm excited to be a man. It's great. It's fantastic. Yeah, we're excited to get your perspective and being an officer in like one of the biggest cities in the world. New York City like that crazy. The stories I'm sure you have for us are going to be insane. I have so many. I've probably forgotten half of them now because I'm so used to it over the years. But some I'm sure a lot of things will come back to my mind and we can definitely discuss a lot of that. Awesome. So starting from the beginning, where are you from? So from Nashville County,

Long Island, married father, two little kids, served in the New York City Police Department. I have 16 years of service. And here we are today. How old are you when you decided you wanted to be a cop? Ever since I was a little kid, I always had that intuition, that sixth sense. If something was wrong, I knew it. I just went with it as a kid, as I got feeling. So I could say probably, I was like five, six years old, I knew I wanted to be a cop. Because back in a day, I used to watch that show TJ Hooker.

You know what I'm talking about? Well, I'm 1995. Yeah, 95. So I used to watch, so ever since I was little, I always knew I wanted to be a police officer ever since then. I wanted to be a firefighter. Firefighter? Yeah, and then even in high school, I wanted to be an FBI agent, so it's kind of funny. Can you apply for the FBI or no?

I don't think so. I got the curve. I think you're my friend upon that. Really? Yeah, I think a little bit. I think you know what you should do? You should definitely apply and see how they respond. Yeah.

That would be funny. My cousin was going to apply, and then he's like, I think I got to cut you off for a little bit while I'm going through the application process. Do you know any known felons? No, wait a minute. Yeah. Was anyone in your family in an officer, too? So my uncle Frank, man he rest in peace.

He was a Port Authority Sergeant. He had over 30 years with the Port Authority Police Department. Unfortunately, he had passed away in 2008 from a 9-11-related illness. He wasn't in the towers, but he was working that day. And he had gotten sick, unfortunately, from that gut-awful event. And he came to his demise and may he rest in peace. I'm sorry to hear that. It's okay.

Thank you. I appreciate that. How old were you when you became an NYPD officer? I was 24 at the time. You went to the police academy, you know, six and a half months of, of grolling nonsense. Yeah, what's that like? I hear some stories about that. All right.

So when you go into a police academy from the hiring process, you have to take a written exam. Okay, so get past a written exam. And then you call it to a mini medical. So your mini medical is pretty much eight hours of sitting down, filling out paperwork. You're in this little chair. You're all cramped up. If you're mini medical, you have to go physical. psychological, and the psychological consists of 1,600 yes or no questions. Okay, so on a question,

let's say number 342, do you love your mom? And you circle, no, I'm serious. Do you like, all right, yeah, you circle yes. And in question number of 1,200, do you love your mom? And you circle no, okay? So now you, after you take your written psychological, you have to draw. And at the time, I kid you not, they wanted you to draw a person and they wanted you draw a house. And I was coached and how to draw it. I drew the house. I drew the sun in the corner, meaning I'm happy. You had to draw a tree, which I'll freaking know what the hell that's about. And then after all that, you sit down with your psychologist and you have to explain yourself. Like, do you have like a chart? I'm like, what are you looking at? Like, what the hell are you looking at? Because some questions

you've answered yes and some questions you've answered no. Maybe you made a mistake and they wanted to interview with that. And then you go for your physical. You have to be in somewhat of a decent shape before going into a police academy. You have to do running and sit-ups and all that good stuff. And once you pass all that, we'll let you know, kid. And then you get the, you literally, some guys I've heard, we get the call at like 10, 11 o'clock at night. You still want the job? We'll report to Queens College 8 a.m. tomorrow. What? Yeah. That's not a joke. Lisa had a couple of days notice. I could have told my employer, you know, listen, I'm resigning. You know why. I'm going to the process of the police department. And that's it. You get up,

You go to Queens College and three days of standing in a suit and sitting and he's very uncomfortable, but that's how it goes and kicks off from there. What year was this that you graduated the academy? So I went in July 1st of 2004 and then you graduated in January, like mid-January, right in time for the New Year's Eve detail. Which is my first, you know, my first New Year's Eve working. Technically he's still assigned to the police academy because we didn't graduate yet. We have something called Gun and Shield Day, which we knew we're graduating, so you're in your dress blue, in your blues, so to speak, and you're issued your shield and your firearm, and

technically you're a full sworn, you know, police officer, even though he's still in the police academy. And I'll go ahead, kid, welcome. They put you right on, right into Times Square, you know, which is pretty, which is nice, because we were lucky. I worked at detail three times in my entire career. And fortunately, it was all in the 30s. degree, you know, so to speak, or some usually use, like, negative eight, negative five with the

windshield and thank God I never had to deal with that. That is just freaking miserable. It's horrible. Being on, you know, being outside, you know, for 16 hours and you're standing on your feet the whole time. You know, get breaks here and there, obviously, but it's, you can't get that cold out of your body when you get home. It's horrible. But I was fortunate enough not to deal with that. And it's pretty cool. If you never met in Times Square, yeah, highly recommend it. It's unfortunate, though. Like, you weren't, they put you in their, they put you in the that pen. And people like, well, how do you go to the bathroom? They said, that's why the Lord invented adult diapers. People like, yeah, you got it. Just once you leave that pen, you can't, you're not getting,

you're not getting back in. That's wild. Yeah, it's crazy. It's pretty sick. What's like the craziest New Year's Eve story as an NYPD cop? I really don't have a crazy New Year's Eve story, but I remember one year's Eve I was working and, you know, you get there, get to be there early in the morning, like 7, 8 o'clock in the morning for the detail. Now it's like maybe, it's 11 o'clock at night. I'll never forget this. Four people come up to me and maybe five or six blocks from the deep the ball and like oh how do we how do we get close to officer i'm like i'm like a real smart ass i'm like oh you're early early for next year and like oh we just got and i felt kind of like an asshole because you know we just got married i'm like oh come on so i literally escorted them five true story i escorted them five blocks

we have something called uh like a family pan like for cops and stuff like that and i said to some other officer. These are my cousins. Okay. And be literally, I'm like, guys, any closer, you'll be, you can press the goddamn button yourself, okay, to let the ball drop. And to this day, I'm sure they have a story they're telling their children. So I felt, you know, I felt bad for them because I was like, a wise ass, I was tired and stuff. But, yeah, it's like a feel good story that they'll never forget. That's good. I'm sure not that many people would do that. Yeah, it's, it's not many people would do that. But, um, they think you're right, actually. Not many people would do that because a lot, it's unfortunate that when you are, you're human being at the end of the day, right? So you get that question

like, officer, can I cross the street? Officer, by like a 1,400th, 1400th time of hearing that that same question when there's police barricades and all that of the nonsense, people get burnt down, people get frustrated, right? So, but yeah, I had to do the right thing and hopefully enough to never forget that experience. I mean, I think it just puts it into perspective too because like from the criminal standpoint, they don't really know what the officer's going through, like what that person had to go through that day. you could be like their 10th arrest and you just don't know what the feelings like or what's going on their mind.

Of course. And I think a lot of people just don't understand that aspect of it. Yeah, it's, I cannot. I think you hit the nail on the head with that. Because if you got an officer on a car stop and if he or she may be a little disrespectful to the motorist or whatever the case may be, I always say try and get that person to benefit that one and vice versa. If I was the officer and was pulling somebody over and they were a little frustrated and

they were a little rude, I always try to give them. them the benefit of the dad as well. Maybe they're on the phone with their husband or their wives what have you. They got into a fight. The kids are sick. You know, people don't realize that we're human beings at the end of the day. And, you know, people do have bad days and maybe, you know, people's learn how to let that go every now and then and just give them the benefit of that, like I said. Definitely. So you get out of the academy, what's like your first assignment? So when you're in the police academy, um, you have a list of where you're going. Okay. And we're sitting in, you know, we're still in the academy and our OCI, you know, Fisher, it's called.

an official company, Straussing out last name. Smith, the 102, just one, whatever, Bedulo, 7, 5, and I'm like,

like, what? And if you don't know, the 7 5 precinct is probably if that, if not one of the busiest precincts in all of the police department, at least in Brooklyn.

And it was like throwing right to the lines, lines then. And back then, there were no, you know, cell phones, obviously,

but like there was no GPSs and stuff. So you got to the 75 precinct, and we have a couple of, of orientation, okay? And all right, orientation's over. Here's your map, kid. Go on. They give you a map. They physically give you a map. And you're walking around like, oh, wow, look at this. And it's like, you're in a, you're a rough table. You're no joke. Like, it's, it's, it's real world out there. And you walk it around. You learn that you learned real quick as you went and gone. Once you got settled in, what's like a typical day like as an NYPD cop? And that, in that

pre-send where I was at the time? Yeah. So what we did was, um, we would have a flip-flop schedule. So One week we would work, I believe, was like 9.30 a.m. till 6. And then we would flip-flop to the following week, which was 5.30 at night till 2 in the morning. So one week of days, one week of nights, when we could days, when we could nights. And after some time, you would have the way the posts would go, we would be like a steady post partner, so to speak. And this guy, Doug, I used to, Dougia, I used to work. What do you want to do today? All right, cool, we'll do this.

Well, you're looking for an arrest or you're looking to write some tags or whatever. and then we'll take our meal and then go about our day trying to try and think when it was cold out you try and stay warm you know it's just saying that a good cop never goes cold hungry or wet right so you would find out like we posted is we have the places to eat where could we hide out for a little bit if we needed to stay warm and where could we take our breaks and then like washing and just keep going over and over again is it true that like officers have actual quotas like for speeding tickets arrests that they need to accomplish in a day so it's not a quota but it's not a quota but it is a quota, so to speak. So I could, uh, I had this argument with someone. I'm actually a

coworker of mine years ago had, uh, I was having a, you know, summer party and one of his civilian friends were there. He's like, oh, I'm like, yeah, I work with this guy. He's like, oh, you guys and your fuck. He's like in your quotas. And I'm like, well, let me ask you do for a living. And the guy goes, well, I work for a boat factory. I'm like, oh, you work for a boat factory. Okay. So you sit at a desk. He says, yeah, I sit at a desk. Great. So if you would say you work 22 days a month and if you played on Facebook or your, whatever, whatever you played on your phone. And at the end of the month, you're, what, what, said to you, hey, Ian, what'd you do all month? I did nothing, boss. They're going to be pissed,

right? Yeah. So if they answer your question, there was a certain level of expectation and certain level of performance that you needed to do on a monthly basis. And they expected it from me. And if you didn't, you repercussions would come. Now, with like that pressure on someone, say, like, if it was a lazier officer, would they go out and look for people that maybe didn't deserve to get arrested or were innocent in that sense? Not necessarily in that, but in a lazier officer, and I know what you mean by that, they would be giving less desirable arrests. Maybe he was a homeless guy and he had an open container of alcohol, but then when you run him for warrants, he has an active warrant now, of course the guy, the gentleman didn't take care of his warrant. So with the open container,

plus the warrant, that equals an arrest. But mind you, some of these people haven't showered in probably weeks, we have a car full of stuff that it'll have to be vouchered. You can't throw that's their personal property. So that type of arrests would be a real headache to deal with. And that's why guys went out and they did what they had to do, you know, so they weren't given like a cold a bag of shit. So you weren't handed a bag of shit if you did your job as an adult. And as an officer, how much leeway do you get to decide, like whether you're going to give someone a ticket or arrest them? Like, where's the line? I know. So let's start with the hard is so on a domestic violence, my hands are tied. Okay. If you call 911 and we get there and the,

whether it's a male call or a female call, it doesn't matter. And they're like, well, but I just want him out of here. Well, I'm not a bouncer. So I'm not a bouncer. That's not my job to just throw somebody at the house because, um, if he comes back and kills you, that's on me. Okay. So with domestic, with the domestic violence call, there's zero tolerance. Um, on other, on other stuff, there is some discretion, you know, this different, to go around certain things and on this like at a car stop or something like that there's always discretion there's always my thing was if I pulled you over and if somebody's on the phone and somebody's talking you know what to get them a warning politeness I'm not asking you to I'm not

asking you to kiss my ass and call me sir every three seconds that that actually would annoy me but if you were polite with me listen officer I just got into a fight my boyfriend I'm really sorry 99-9 it would be man have a nice day please drive carefully if I pulled you over I I got the teeth sucking and the rolling of the eyes. This cops are racist. He's the only stopped because I'm blah, blah, blah, blah. Then you would get nailed. Then you would get nailed really hard.

And people don't realize that. Is that your demeanor and your attitude will work a long way when interacting with with, at least with me with the police. Yeah. Now, is being an NYPD cop like kind of what you see on TV, but the average American watch is a ton of TV. I watch like the rookie shows like that. Okay.

So I used to watch a show Blue Bloods. And ironically, with Tom Selleck. And ironically enough, they filmed that where I used to work. Really? They filmed that like three or four blocks on the actual. So I've been on that set, hundreds, like countless times. I saw I met Donnie Wahlberg a couple of times, a really nice guy. I never met Tom Selleck and some of the other cast members.

I don't watch like any of those shows, so to speak, because I can't. I just being a car for so long and some of the stuff that they put on television, it's totally off base. It's totally like, I would say a movie, like, pride in glory or Brooklyn's finest, like, some of the lingo was really spot on. But a TV show, I really... What's the most off-based thing, you would say? The most off-base? Okay, so in that show Blue Bloods, for example, so it's like his character, his name's Jamie,

right? So Jamie with like three years on the job, he's going into, like, the narcotics unit, or he's getting into the specialty unit. That's bullshit. that that's that's nonsense unless you know somebody or you have what we call a crane which is a hook then that person that officer can get moved around but in reality you have to have some time on the job before you even consider to apply for specialty units like highway patrol canine etc etc got now once you got settled in you have a few years under your belt what kind of officer do you become

what are your principles um well one thing i always said you have to be squared away so my my number one perspective was whenever I was in the public eye, I always, my shoes, my boots were always polished, my pants were always creased. My arm, my gig line was straight. My arm is a crease polished because my personal pet peeve was a sloppy officer. I can't stand it even to this day. Like, you ever, you ever see a sloppy state trooper? No. They're so squared away and so professional. And that's, I always felt my professional presence. When you're speaking to somebody, this officer means business or they're not screwing, you're not screwing around. And they interviewed, I saw this one interview with a cop killer. He killed a state trooper and he interviewed

this person and he's like, well, why do you, why did you challenge this officer? Because he looked like shit. And they thought he can get over and he did. And unfortunately, he, he murdered, he were not murdering that, that state trooper. Yeah, it's, it's, it's, so I've always, so to answer you a question, my officer that I became, I always, my goal was to always be squared away. If I worked 20 shifts a month, 19.5 of those shifts, I was, I was squared out. It was that was my number one goal. I'm curious. What are you what's your opinion on out of shape cops? Because I know like the public has a big opinion on an out of shape officer. Shame on them. Shame, shame on them. I just read recently that the NYPD dropped completely the one point you get a correct to graduate the academy.

You have to do a certain amount of pushups, certain amount of situps and you have to run one at one point five miles in a certain amount of time. You're a female. It's you know it's different time. But they scrap that run. They scrapped it completely. And that is you open. the floodgates as a joke. It's not safe. I'm not talking like a few pounds overweight. Like you have some officers that are graduating the academy out that are more really obese that are just like completely out of shape. It's not it's you're a walking heart attack. You're if you're fighting with somebody and I have to come help you and I can't because I'm out of shape. Like it's it's crazy. So to answer your question, it's you're asking for a lot of trouble. What if they let themselves

go on the job? Like you get in, you're in top tip shape. And then you let yourself go. It happens all the time. It happens to happen to me. It happened to the best of us. I used to be, well, to maybe 45 pounds heavier than I currently am now. You look great now. I appreciate it.

You flirting with me? No, we can do like, you know, off the camera. No, I appreciate that. But it happens, too. It's the job. You're working, you know, a lot of hours. You forgot to, you know, maybe you can't brown bag it. Or if you're doing a detail, you know, there is no place to ground.

You can't walk around with holding your lunch all day. So you have your Chinese food or your pizza. And after a while, it starts to trickle and it starts to, like, get out of control. And it's not good. It's not good. I always said that the police department, for example, so the state police, they used to have an incentive. So every six months, by volunteer, you could do push up, sit-ups, and run. And they would give you like an X amount of bonus.

So I could say it's a $2,000 bonus. You're telling me, if you're going to work out, I'm going to stay in, You give me two grand twice per year. Hell yeah. But with the city, it's such a large department. They can never do that because half those guys and girls will probably fail and do it or not pass.

And then we have a huge problem. Interesting. How does it work with like the free items? Like you see in TV movies, the officer gets like a donut or whatever? Like do you go into a place and they say, hey, officer, here you go. And they get some perks from that.

So the way that works like that, there's really nothing is a free item. Okay, we had certain areas that, you know, as a business owner, you can't tell me what to charge somebody, correct? Okay. But also as an officer, you can't take anything for free because that's a violation of a patrol guy policy. And you're, it's technically it's corruption. Okay. Really?

Sure. Of course. You know, why are you giving me this free sandwich? Are you going to let my customers double park or, you know, but there were business owners that would charge maybe less of what they would charge a civilian. and we appreciate it. It wouldn't influence my decision to respond to a call there any slower or faster.

Like, oh, this is Mike's Pateria, for example. I gotta have to do Mach 3 to get to him. But you always like to one restaurant we would go to like a Thai restaurant, right? They would say, okay, so no charge. You still threw money in the tech. You still put money because that business is going to lose, you know, money every time a cop walks at the door.

But unfortunately, what's I saying? No one bad apple spoils the bunch, right? No. So we had this one guy. I'm not going to mention him asshole, he would go in there and he would be like, all right, thanks, and he would go over and over and over. And I'll never forget this one time. I was picking up dinner for my partner and I, and you try not to, you would rotate restaurants. You wouldn't constantly go to one spot because it's, you get bored of the food, right? And it's not fair. It's not, this guy owns, this guy's running the business. So I guess like, oh, it's $28 and thank God I had money on me. Holy shit, because I did not be embarrassed. And I paid him and I found out this is an officer screwed it up

for the rest of us. So that went over very poorly, put it that way. On that topic, what kind of corruption do you see in NYPD? To be honest with you, and in my time in the police department, I saw zero corruption. Really? I never, I never, I could hold my hand over a stack of Bibles. I've worked with 99.9% of good men and women that are outstanding in every avenue in every aspect. I've never seen any type of corruption ever. Like I responded unfortunately to tons of dead bodies, right? And grandma, so to speak, had a thousand dollars cash in the apartment or whatever case may be that I easily could have put into my pocket, but morally I couldn't do it. But I never personally witnessed anyone,

anything in that level. Do you think it goes on or it just? I'm sure it does. I'm sure it does. Thank God I never personally saw something like that. And it's unfortunate. But, you know, if you're working at McDonald's and you're a piece of garbage or if you're the CEO of IBM, if you're corrupt, it doesn't matter where you are. You're going to, if you're not a good human being, you're going to do shady shit. Yeah, and eventually it gets found out and it's a minority. Oh, yeah, it gets found out. And it's not worth it at the end of the day. You have, if you do the math, you know, officers of retirement plus they have benefits. And if you live, you know, 50 years, God willing after your retirement, you're talking about millions of dollars,

millions of dollars with everything combined. Is it worth it to steal, you know, 500 bucks off a stranger to piss it all to get fired? Not worth it. Yeah, some of the people like I've been interviewing on the podcast, you hear their story about, like, say they took 200,000 from their employer, and then they lose 15 years of their life because of that. Yeah, so you do the math. It's not really worth it. So you're making what, like, if you break down, so you're 200,000, 15 years of life, so you're pretty much making like $0.3 an hour.

Yeah. It's not working. If you're going to steal, we're going to steal big. Now, Rikers Island, what's the story behind it? Why is it such, like, a hot ticket item that everyone talks about? Do you want to laugh? I've never been to the thing. island. I've never been, I've never been to bikers. I only can be informed by what I see on the,

what I see in the news. But you hear stories about it. Yeah, of course, you hear stories about, but the conditions are so deplorable on there, like with the toilets and the water and the shit's leaking through. But it's funny though, it's like, it's like the precinct too. Some of the conditions in the precinct, like you beyond doing your business, they're number two. And there goes a nice little cockroach right by you. If you're like, oh, you shit, like what the, yeah, it's, the conditions are obviously different than compared to, the island, so to speak. But from what I'm hearing, it's not good. And they want to shut it down. But where do you put those people? Where do you put the prisoners? You just, you let him go.

Like, what do you do with that? Like, it's how does it make you feel as an officer that you had people sent there, essentially? Well, I never really thought it's a really good question to, you know, to answer, that you asked me. I've dealt with, I've had maybe right around 200 arrests in my career. And I've dealt with guys from, you know, open container of alcohol with a warrant all the way up to, you know, the guy raped his child's mother and he beat her with a golf club and he burnt a cigarette in her forearm. Wow. So to send that piece of garbage to the island, so to speak, felt good putting somebody like that.

You know, it's unfortunate that this victim, he, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, me back up, he was part of the mafia, this guy, the Russian mob. Wow. And they got to her while he was in jail for a couple of days and she dropped the charges. And I remember sitting in an office and the attorney was like, oh, you look upset officer. I'm like, well, the women was just raped and we have no complainant. She was, what do you want me to do? Nothing.

I walked out of her office. It's frustrating. You see that a lot happen? You see it happens sometimes when charges are dropped or the officer, the paperwork, sloppy, so to speak, and charges get knocked down or dismissed. You know, it could be very frustrating. So maybe you see more like corruption on the defendant's side more than anything than the officer's side. And then the prosecutor's office, they always want to plea everything out. They always knock everything down. They don't want to deal with it. They have the conviction rate and so to speak. But like, whatever you charge, I could charge it with 20 different things. And they're like, oh, we're knocking this off. We're knocking this off, knocking this off. Because they don't want to deal with it, so to speak, which it's ridiculous.

Do you see situations where the prosecutor, like you're saying, pleads them out? And then those individuals are back on the street? All the time. And then they're back in? All the time. And how is that handled? all the time. It's just, it's like a revolving door now with, uh, with the laws and the no bail reform and stuff like that, which I obviously don't agree with. I mean, you have some of these guys that are getting out with very serious charges and it's like constantly rotating doors. It's an open door. In and out, in and out. At what point do you say enough is enough? Like it's what I read in the paper recently. Like I had three loaded firearms, three separate times and the guys out on the street.

I mean, that's, that's pretty serious. Yeah, I read an article where someone got out on bail and then killed someone or the stabbing incident too? Yeah, correct. And if the judge did their job, so to speak, that person would still be alive. It's crazy. But then there's also situations where, like, the no bail makes sense in certain, I mean, giving someone bail makes sense. Of course. But so how do you differ that? Like, what's a solution to that? That's a really good question that I don't know how to answer, that we could, a politician, politicians need to figure out. I mean, obviously, if someone does, has a suspended license or petty law, so to speak, something of a less of a violent crime, then that person deserves the bail.

Or no bail, so to speak, and they need to be released on their own economy. But if someone does, like, a home invasion or a burglary, a robbery, and then, like, you're getting out, that that's no good, man. That's crazy. I feel like the federal system has it more down pat. Like, in my situation, it's, are you a flight risk and are you a danger to the community? So if you say, rob the bank, they're going to mark you down as, like, a danger to a community. Of course.

I mean, you're doing a bank robber. Let's touch on that for a second. I guarantee that wasn't your first time. You didn't wake up on a Sunday. Hey, Ian, you want to go rob the National Bank? They've done that before. So it's a pretty serious crime. You had a long career with the NYPD. What are like the top three craziest things you've witnessed? Top three craziest things I witnessed. Well, one, I was involved in my shooting in July of 2016. It was, that was unbelievably. The second craziest thing I ever witnessed, unfortunately, with my partner. and we're about to go to dinner. And there's a car accident behind us. And I'm like, come on, man.

I got my food. I want to get out of the car. So as I'm getting out of the car, I see two cars, right? One rear end of the other car. But I don't see is the Chinese food delivery guy between both these cars. Oh, wow. Yeah. So this guy right here was actually just leaving his bachelor party.

And he blocked out drunk with the wheel. And this is a livery kit. And he literally pushed the delivery driver, so to speak. So I get out of the car and I'm like, you know, I have to pick up a car accident. And I look, I'm like, holy shit. There's a guy that's crushed. You could, I could literally see his skull. Did he survive or no? No, he died. It's unfortunate. He passed. And what it gets me to this day when I think about it sometimes is that now I had to go to the hospital. You know, these still did like the CPR and they tried to revive him, but you think I was a goner.

And I'm at the hospital, you know, I had to itemize his stuff from his wallet. I remember I take out his wallet and he has a picture of his little girl at the time and they were on the beach. Maybe the girl was like two or three years old. But the guy, they wanted to give that motorist seven to 15, I believe. And his attorney argued that if he were to get out in 15 years, his wife couldn't conceive. The judge bit. So I think he got like four to seven. He's out now.

He's the guy, he's released. And that's like a manslaughter charge? Yeah. So the exact, it's a vehicular manslaughter. I don't know the exact charge, but I can be one of the charges. And the third craziest thing I ever saw back, and I want to say 05-06 guy on a motorcycle was running from the cops, and then the guy, the motorcycle turned. And a guy who happened to be Dewee teabone the bike, okay?

And I get to the scene, and the guy was like maybe 42 years old. He was a 21-year-old kid. His body was here, but his helmet was like 50 yards away. And I remember, I'll never forget this. They're doing CPR on the body and the ambulance store on the side. was open and you could see the blood coming out of his mouth like it and doing chest compressions on this kid and a few weeks later I met you know barrage nightclub in westbury you know at the time and I see the guy who dies he's brother and I looked right at him and he looked at me like what do I know

meaning me what I know you from I should have went up to him I should have said something but I didn't I was just I was nervous like we were going to fight or whatever the case maybe I didn't want to deal with the headaches with my friends I was off duty I just left it alone and I walked away But those are the top three craziest things I ever experienced. When you see traumatic experiences like that, how does that affect your mental state, like as an officer? You know, it doesn't really, it can affect. Me personally, it never really affected me. I've been to, unfortunately, several suicides.

Like one woman, I remember, she taped, she went to her bathroom and she lit like charcoal in a bucket. And she was breathing in, what is that, the sulfuric, whatever acid that's coming from the trachshund? uncle and she made all the vents were closed off and she left it like she had a cat with her and like the cat's like lifeless the body is lifeless I've been to one guy hung himself and the body's just like sitting there and I'm like oh my god but as an officer you know that really didn't bother me as a parent that was like my child like she cut her all my oh my god oh my god but at work it really didn't affect me that much is there a support system for officers like check in up on you sure it is um we have something called Papa, police officers, peer action association, that if an officer feels,

you know, he or she needs help, you can call anonymously, okay, and you can get, you need to call you back, and you can talk, and the other person on the phone, it could be a cop you talking to, it could be a deputy inspector, you don't know who you're speaking with, and it's always, there's tons of ways an officer can reach out, but it's unfortunate that they don't reach out sometimes because this stigma of the mental health, and I'm glad you brought this up, actually, I was going through something back in a day and, you know, I decided not to go to the police spot. I got help on my own. Okay.

And I'm happy I got help. I got help for myself. But if you reach out, now you're labeled. Okay. We had this one officer. He did three tours in Iraq. And he wasn't right. He wasn't right in the head.

Whatever he saw, whatever happened to him. But guys at work were making fun of him. And I would get very offended. This guy's fucking, he's defending our freedom overseas. And he's asking for help now. And you guys are labeling this guy? You're out of your mind. But that stigma of like you reach out for help.

Now unfortunately they have to take your gun. They have to take your shield. You don't want you to inflict, you know, God forbid, do something stupid to yourself. And unfortunately you label. That's why you read in the paper. Like I read in the paper recently, a 23-year-old officer in Staten Island took his own life. And he was at home with his dad. And 22 years old, you have your whole life in front of you.

And it's not worth it. I mean, look what's going on with the senator too. He's getting labeled and ever. Everyone's, the Republican or Democratic aside, you know, he asked for help and now everyone's like he should resign, this and that just for going and asking for help. That's crazy. And it's shame on them for someone saying like this person needs help and you're shaming them for that.

And if anyone watching this, I want to say one message that I want them to remember, it's always okay. It's okay not to be okay. And it's never worth it at the end of the day. It's, you know, a suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem. And I want anyone watching this. I always want them to remember that. And take it for me.

Man, I'm happy I've reached out. I happy I got myself help when I got better. Very well said. Well, we're glad you made it through to the other side of that. I appreciate that. Thank you. Now, this has been a really big article and news story all over the U.S. right now. So I'm very curious about your perspective.

What do you got? In the prison system, as inmates, we see a lot of guards and CEOs hooking up with each other. Now, recently there was that article about that female officer. Yes, yes. Yeah. That was hooking up with those. Crazy. Does that happen in the New York police department?

Does that mean with the coworkers hook up? Yeah, our co-workers hooking up with each other. If I would be lying to you through my teeth, if I said that's not the case. You know, we have something called the patrol guide. And the patrol guide, it's like pretty much a 2,500 page book, so to speak, with different rules and regulations. Does everyone read that? You only read that book if you're studying for your sergeant's test. It's like reading stereo instructions.

It is the most dry, drawn-out material. I'd rather stab my eyeballs out than read that book ever again. It's horrific, okay? But in whatever procedure, whatever section is subordinate, okay? Supervisor is not permitted to date a subordinate, okay? It happens all the time. And whether, and if you get caught doing that, big no-no. But it does happen.

Me personally, I would never date at the time when I was on the... At Hyundai of Glendale, Lisa New, 2026 Hyundai-Tusan SC Frontwheel Drive for 269 a month. plus tax for 36 months with owners assurance in America's best warranty 10 year 100,000 miles. Stop by Hyundai of Glendale today or Hyundai of Glendale.com. 36 month lease, 4,49 to its signing. Tax title license and dock fees extra plus government fees and taxes. 7,500 miles per year expires 6126.

Who available at this payment? PH 71529, pH 71529. Job, another officer. It just, it wasn't for me. It just, it was something I'd never be interested in. it as severe as what's going on on TV right now with this female officer or was never that bad? I don't think it was ever, I think it was ever that bad. But like there was, um, this story last year how this officer from whatever priest and I believe in the Bronx,

she's at a holiday party and she's giving her lieutenant in a lap dance and then actually all the cell phones come out and now it's on the front page of the paper. It's there. The press is at this lieutenant's house, unfortunately. It's not good. Now, were you ever in a, in a position where you had to do something maybe against your morals or principles because other officers were going through with something, maybe someone that was higher above you? Thank God never. I never had to do ever. There being a few times that I was ordered to make an arrest. And if I'm giving a direct order from a supervisor, if I don't follow that order, I could be suspended on the spot. It's failure, you know, it's failure to a by, you know, a lawful order. And unfortunately,

if my sergeant or lieutenant or et cetera, that person's under arrest, you can't say no. You have to, you have to have to listen to that order. I don't agree with the order, but I had to do it. And does it happen? Of course it happens. Of course it happens. Sometimes more often than, you know, then the person likes. But if a supervisor is directing you to do something, you have to do it. Whether you agree or disagree with it. What was the most dangerous situation you were put in as an officer? My shooting that occurred on July 17th, 2016, 742 in the morning. I'll never forget that. day. I had a cover patrol, so I wasn't on patrol at the time, and I had a cover, and I was walking me into the precinct. It's a Sunday morning, and the boss is like, hey, Steve, you know, you want to

stay inside today, answer the phones, and I'm like, no, thank you. I can't just deal for it. Because when you're on the T, it's called the telephone switchboard, you get the dumbest calls. The public is like, it's stupid as shit. I don't want to deal with it, okay? But now I'll go out. So as I'm standing in a roll call, my dispatcher is, you know, saying, you're raising me up, you know, police language and saying we have an emotion that's their person at this, at this location. I'm like, okay, great. So I want to get breakfast. I'm all bent out of shape. It's early Sunday morning. And as we're getting ready to go out, my dispatch, you know, Central is saying we have a male Hispanic, you know, with a firearm, white shirt, red hat,

blah, blah, blah, blah. So now we're flying to the call. And she says about a minute later, be advised, it's now a 30, which is a robbery. She goes to 30 a gunpoint, numerous calls. And when she says numerous calls, it's legit. What does numerous calls mean? numerous 911 calls, meaning this person's calling, this person's calling, so I have numerous calls. So I pull into the parking lot and I'm driving and I exit the driver's side in under two and a half or three seconds, I see the guy walking, but he's taking a loaded 40 caliber from his waistband and I'm pulling mine out and I'm like, I scream, don't do it. He either said, die pig,

whatever he screamed at us and he opens fire directly towards us. Now the girl I was with, she split over to the right. I split to the left. That's your partner. That was my partner that day. I never worked with this girl a day in my life. Never worked her the day in my life. She fired twice. Him and I going at it. I fire 13 times and he's down and he goes for a second fire on. So when I key my radio, I'm like, show me your effing hands and he simulated it and I let two more rounds go. He didn't have it, but he was simulating a second firearm. Two more rounds flew. One missed one of him in his chest. And when I got hit in the chest, he got hit in the chest, he had blood on his hands. So now at this point, the backup is coming. And I'm screaming to the boss behind him and I cover this guy what the hell are you doing like so I walk up to him holster my firearm cuff him up and I walk off and I start to cry a little bit because I'm trying to process like what just occurred like what just happened now my boss my direct supervisor pulls up I'm like yo my hip bro my fucking hit my shot dude and it was just like he's like Steve turn around turn around

I wasn't hit thank God and um ambulance pulls up blood pressure is 186 over 110 your blood pressure yeah And like, you're going to struggle. We need to take you to Elmers for trauma. Was this your first shooting ever? My first shooting ever, yeah. And what year was this? Oh, 2016. So this is like, what, 12 or 13 years on the job?

2016? Yeah, just about, yeah. And now I go to the hospital. My delegate's like, you have to call your wife. Because it's Channel 5. It's breaking news. It's blowing up. Now, if I call somebody, right?

And you don't pick up. I'll text you. So I call my wife. It's Sunday morning. She's sleeping. And I leave her a long voicemail. And I kept reiterating, I'm okay. I'm okay.

And she had like, in the bathroom. She's like, why is Steve leaving me a voicemail? She calls me back like two minutes later. She's hysterically crying. I'm like, I'm not hit. I'm fine. Wasn't shot or anything. But from the shooting that took place, there was 22 rounds exchange and it was two buildings. So I have I wear these devices. I'm not during the car. I'm not wearing them now. I have severe tinnitus and which is nonstop ringing the ears. I also have hearing the loss on top of that. Oh, from the shooting? From the shooting, yeah, because there was so many rounds exchanged. Wow. So what happened to the individual? He went a passing away.

And what was that like when you found out that he passed away? Relieving, to be honest with you. You know, and I want to touch on that. It's unfortunate that a human life was taken. Okay. At the end of the day, we have families to go home to. I had to protect myself. I was only doing what I was trained to do.

My partner was only doing what she was trained to do. And we had to protect ourselves because we have loved ones to go home to. And it's unfortunate that he had to pass away, but that was his decision to have a gunfight and he lost. And what happens next? Do you go back on the job? Yes. So what happens is, so since I'm injured. from the shooting, I'm out, it's called line of duty, line of duty injury. So on performance of my job,

the performance of a police officer, I was out line of duty injury for about six and a half, seven months. Okay. So I have to see my department doctor every once a month to check in and go through numerous tasks, et cetera, et cetera. And by the seven months, he's like, you know, you're going to have to go up for early retirement. And I wasn't really too sure how I felt about that. You know, I loved the job at the time. but at the same time I'm thinking this might be a blessing in disguise of what's going on I'm lucky to be alive

because when you're involved in a shooting they do a 3D reenactment every bullet accounted for it came to my attention months later that one bullet was 18 inches from ripping my head off and just knowing that my hair standing off my hands right

just knowing that it wasn't my time it just it was not my time so anyway so I go up in front of a medical board and it was like getting all these questions like out of the left field and I walk out of the room like what just happened like I wasn't no I don't know what to expect I get home you know you can call you find out oh denied I'm like all right so I go up at front of the medical board three months later to give you three times to

go up in front of the medical board the second time I went up I was in 90 seconds went home called approved approved and then you have to wait three or four months for to go in front of a pension board instantly approved and then my attorney calls me I'll never forget I worked at midnight I mean, I worked overnight. So you're still actively working? I'm still actively working, but I'm working like, it's called restricted duty. So I'm on a desk, you know, I'm on a desk duty. It's like when a professional sports player has a certain amount of time left on that contract, right?

Let's say they injure themselves. They blow their ankle out. You know, they can't ride the bench, so to speak, until they, until their contracts on. Because it's the dead weight to the team, right? So the way the police department views you is you're pretty much your dead weight. I hate to say it like that, but it's the truth. Like, you can't be a full duty police officer. Okay.

So went in front of the board, instantly approved. My attorney called me, and he goes, you're done. And I'll never forget those words. He's like, it's been a pleasure. I said, it's been a pleasure. I hung up the phone. I looked at my wife. She's like, how do you feel?

She said, you're retired. I had no words. I couldn't even, to this day, I still can't understand it. I can't process, obviously. But it was so surreal at the time. You know, then you have to call the pension board. You have to make an appointment. Come down.

You know, decide what kind of monthly payout you want to do. We owe your money that you've saved and stuff like that. And they give you your retired police department ID card. I must have looked at it on the train for like, I was staring at it. It says, retired. Like, holy shit. Like, this is real. And it was just like, say again?

No, no. I was like, holy shit. Like, this is, like, I'm retired. It was 39 years old at the time. I mean, it's pretty, pretty chill to be like 39. And you're like, holy shit, I'm retired. And yeah, that's my story. And what did you retire as like a detective?

As a police officer. So we had spoken to my captain at the time and were like, get a detective. I kind of, I wasn't, I was very humble. Okay. I'm like, we get a detective shield and he was like, eh, I could put in for it. Like, I'm like, I'm not going to force it. It's a carry around the detective shield. Like, who cares?

But we did it right by us and we retired. Do you feel like that incident kind of like killed some of maybe your career dreams that you had for the NYPD? An incident like that, not that it killed some of my dreams, but it definitely put a lot of things in perspective at the time. I can't imagine going through that and experience ever again. It was so traumatic and so, I don't know what we're looking for. It's something I think about all the time. It's like a bad memory that I can't remove from my mind. You know, coming that close to, God forbid, not being here.

It's something I'll never get over, ever. On that note, did you ever have to deliver bad news of someone's death or passing? Never, thank God. It's always like a high-ranking officer that will deliver a message to a family member. It's never the rank of a police officer. It's a supervisor that's very high up. How do you think family members of police officers are feeling when they see incidents like yours occur on TV and they know their loved one is in the line of duty at that time?

What do you think is going through their mind? It's a lot of crazy stuff. Because like since I retired, I will see on the news, you know, this officer was killed. You know, and then this officer was killed. Like there was a female officer in Chicago two years ago. She was on a car stop, a young mother, and she went up dying. And I remember sitting there, I'm just crying, like almost boring. Like, it's so heartbreaking to see that stuff on television.

And especially like someone in my position, you know, you turn on the news, like this officer was shot, this officer got killed, et cetera, et cetera. It's, it's very hard. It's heartbreaking to see stuff like that. What about you after this shooting, any issues like with your mental health or PTSD from that incident? Mental health is fine. What happened was years later, I definitely developed some type of PTSD last year. Because I would see all the stuff on the news like these guys are getting killed. And it's just like being a father at home and I'm like holding my kids. And it's just like, I'm watching the news. And it's just like that just started to spiral and spiral and spiral to the point I'm like,

I need to guess I need to speak to a therapist, which it's probably one of the best things I ever did. And you still active? I'm still actively. I go to therapy once a week. That's great. It is initially, I was very embarrassed. Okay. And I'm like, no, I'm big, bad, tough guy and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

It's like an alcoholic who thinks they can get a grip on their drinking and they can't. and I was just, I knew I was going down a very spirally dark road. And I said to my wife, I'm wanting, I had enough. I need help. And she's excellent. Thank God. She is excellent with, you know, getting appointments and blah, blah, blah, and all that good stuff.

And she found the therapist, which with coronavirus, you couldn't find one. Yeah. I didn't know that. Apparently there's a lot of people going through a lot of different issues, a lot of different things. And it was very difficult to find a therapist. Thank God. Luckily enough, she was able to find me one who I am very comfortable with, which is another thing, which is second plus.

And she's probably one of the most amazing people. I could tell her anything. I don't hold back because building a relationship with your therapist, if I'm going to lie or not be honest, there's no point of going. There's no point. You're building a bullshit. You're building something on nonsense. Like you need to be honest and upfront with them for them to work through your issues. And it's probably one of the best things I ever did for myself.

And there's just like there's a stigma out there that if you're a bitch, if you're a man and you go to therapy. And I always like had that a little bit like, oh, men don't go to therapy. And then I had court ordered therapy as part of my probation. And I was like dreading doing that during prison. I was like, oh, I don't want to go to therapy when I get out. I find a therapist. The first one I meet, I actually hit it off with her. She's like this 85 year old woman who refused to retire. And I'm meeting with her. And it's just like it gives you a different perspective. Oh yeah. And we started at our first sessions, like not even talking about my situation. It was just like talking. Just bullshit, right? And she eventually got me to open up. And then once they forced her to retire

because of COVID and layoffs and everything, I went to see someone else and it was just like not the same. But it, you know, it's good knowing that like an adult like yourself, a man is putting it out there that, you know, therapy is good. Therapy is probably one of the best things someone could do, especially if someone had, not just cops. I'm talking people in general. If you're going through marital problems, if you're going to problems with your children, work issues, parent problems, your parents, any issue that someone might have, therapy is always, and you'll get to people, well, what's it going to do for me? Well, why don't you go to a couple of sessions and sit down and speak to someone? And you keep finding that you can hop around to a different person.

Of course you can. If it doesn't fit. Of course. If you sit down and, you know, I was fortunate enough to sit down with this woman, her name's Dominique, by the way. I'm going to tell us, hi, Dominique. Is that the cover up for like the hooker or the stripper? That's her. We'll talk about that off camera. She is the most like, and she's not judgment. She's not judgmental. I feel like I've known her for years when we sit down and we talk.

People let's say going to therapy makes you weak. Well, shame on them. Shame on them because you're a coward to say something like that. You're reaching out for help and it makes you weak. Well, then I guess I'm weak. And I guess everyone else is weak because I want to get myself better. Because mental health is just as important as physical health. Definitely. Now, we just heard from you some of the lowest points of being an NYPD officer. What were some of the high points, the positive aspects? Some of the high point. Okay, so I made some lifelong friends that I will forever consider them family. I've worked with some people that they're not my partners, they're my family. I've worked with several people that I am so proud to tell, call them, you know, who can tell them that you guys are like my brothers and sisters to me. I met a lot of great guys and girls.

on this job, had a lot of cool experiences. I met a lot of celebrities where I used to work. One of the nicest celebrities I haven't met, Stifler from American Polly, Sean William Scott. I never watched it. You never saw American Polly. Come on, dude, you got to get a slack. You got to slack on that. Maybe he's watching his podcast. I spoke to him for 20 minutes, like, as if we known each other for years. Paul Giamatti, you know who that is? You don't know who Paul Giamatti is? I'm a visual person. I'm a visual person. I've met several people. I've met several people like really it was very nice you know who that is you know you have to watch good fellas I think maybe I'm behind you know what you know watch good fellas

in prison yeah I lost three years of my life oh my dude um but to answer you question I know that's one of you know positive aspects and another good aspect is that I was I could proudly say that I paid for our wedding okay uh by ourselves you know we got married I got married in 2013 and Hurricane Sandy happened in 2012 I remember telling my boss I'm like listen just put me on the roll call for it. I'll go to Staten Island. I must have worked well over 100, 110 hours of overtime that month.

But that paid for my flowers, my DJ, blah, blah, blah, blah. And through my job, through my employer at the time, I was able to purchase our house where we live with my wife. That's great.

And no one gave me a thing. And I don't want to sound arrogant or whatever you want to say, but we earned everything that we have in our lives, we earned every single dime. You know, I know friends that are fortunate enough that parents give them,

like this all the house, like at a discount and all that other BS, not us. You're like the American Dream. American Dream. And we, you know, a few years ago, we did our yard over with the pavers and the grill and blah, the pavilion and blah, blah, blah. And it's, it's proud for me to say that we could afford it. And it's, but that's some of the positives is that if you want to earn, the money's there. Now, you just mentioned celebrities.

Were there any celebrity arrests you were part of or witnessed? Never part of any celebrity arrest or witness. but one time they were filming, you've watched Impractical Jokers? Yeah, of course. Okay. So shout out to Sal from Impractical Jokers because I wasn't there for this.

But allegedly, at the time, my mother-in-law, she had passed away, so I had to fly to Arizona. And my team, I was working with, they were filming Impractical Jokers, and they got out of the car and they knew it was Sal. They threw them against the fence. They coughed them up. They're pretending to talk on the radio.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. And, like, they flipped the script on this guy, and he was actually really cool about it. I wish I was there to witness it. But to answer your question, no, I never was involved in any. But I wish I was there to see him. Well, what's an officer's perspective on body cams? I'm for the body camera. I am 100 of that for the body camera because without the body camera, without any camera, so to speak, people are going to speculate.

Okay? People are going to make, oh, my God, this is what happened. No, no, no, no, no. Go right to the camera. there's the body camera because if you have nothing if you're not doing anything wrong you have nothing to be worried about that's how i look at it uh it's unfortunate i've heard stories of like you know uh you and all i are partners right and uh all right you have the arrest so i'm going to go downstairs but my body camera's running and i'm going to the bathroom

and i'm looking at my cell phone and i'm working at something i shouldn't be looking at and my body camera's running and then i look down and i'm like uh-oh so then i have to tell me it's more embarrassing if anything that they would tell my boss and blah blah blah blah but before I retired that's when they just started implementing the body cameras but to answer you question I'm for him and I'm 100% well now there's a lot of people in America that see the select few officers that are doing a bad thing that aren't like your typical normal officer and that causes a lot of Americans to be anti-police what is your message to those individuals I'm so happy you ask this question so I hope anyone watching this would never categorize an officer if they did something criminal,

if they did something immoral, okay, that every cop is like that, because that's not the case, okay? There are, are there bad apples? Yes. Are they a racist, so to speak? I'm sure there are. I didn't a person ever witnessed it. But I asked the public, I asked anyone watching this, please don't categorize any one person's actions as a whole, as a police apartment. Because truth be told, 99, 99% of guys and girls that take. that take that job are good men and women that uphold the law and they do their job flawlessly. That's great to hear. I mean, when I know looking back on it now, now that I'm older, wiser, and everything I've been through, I felt like I was very like anti all the police like this and that.

Just because of my situation, I felt like I was getting picked on and this and that. I can see where you come like in guys. Like, you know, it's. But throughout this journey of like owning the nightclub and stuff, there were some great detectives that were nice to me. They would give me a heads up if something was happening. And I gave them mutual respect. And then even now, like, some of my friends have family members that are officers and I have good relationships with them. And like, I'll get comments from people online. They're like, so are you like anti-police or this and that? I'm like, no, like, there's a couple bad apples. Yes. In my situation, there were bad apples. But that's not the norm and people

need to know that. Of course. I want to tell you. It was one story that I was told in the academy. So my instructor was telling me that once he was, you know, on the beat, whatever, he was arresting somebody. He was a transit cop and he locked somebody up for like, I don't know, I guess he had hopped the turnstile. But he bought this guy a slice of pizza, let him smoke a cigarette in the cell and he treated him like a gentleman. Just because he'd hop the turnstile doesn't make him a bad person, right? Several months later, the same officer is on the training platform and he's fighting with someone for us. He's fighting for his life. And the guy he had locked up four months ago was on that platform and he just, and he just,

jumped in and he helped the rest of this guy. He goes, now we're even. So ever since I heard that story, your reaction is great. Ever since I heard that story, I always try and treat someone with the utmost respect. Just because you ever suspend the license, you steal some bullshit from the store, doesn't make you a bad person. You knew who the players were and you knew who the bad dudes were, so to speak. And then the average person that might have screwed up and made a bad choice, a bad decision. Those are the people you treat with the respect and what they deserve.

Yeah, I love like hearing those videos and stories. about like if a prison guard is getting like jumped or attacked and the other inmates step in. I love because it's like that's not cool. You don't do that. Of course. And they defend that person. Yeah. Like whatever like I'm, you know, I'm retired obviously. But if I'm where I live, I've seen a car stop. I'm once a cop, always a cop. Okay. If I go to a restaurant, I'm always trying to sit in like my back towards the wall to watch who's walking in. Right. I'm always had that like, did your background check me coming into this? I actually was doing like 90. I'm like in, Google

Oh, we'll get to that in a second actually. It's funny you mentioned it up. But if I'm where I live, whatever, anywhere, if I see a car, a cop on a car stop, I slow down to see if that officer is okay just because that's who I am. Okay. It's funny you just mention that Googling.

My wife, we go on our first date and she Googled this shit out of me. Out of you. Out of me. We actually met online, my wife and I, believe it or not. Like Tinder? Tinder didn't exist back then. I'm happy it didn't exist.

So I probably have an SDD. So what is that like? I probably have like an SDD right. Like Iheartcupid.com or something? It was like big bold cops for you. No, no, no. No, we met out plenty of fish. And, I remember, so all the prisoners used to be on POF

because that's how they would meet girls to send them money. I heard. That's crazy. Like you're incarcerated and you're on POF. And women would dig that shit, right? I hopped on POF in prison. I was on Tinder, P-O-F, but it's so spammy. It's like there's all these spam things.

I totally forgot. about POF now that I gotta go download. Yeah, I gotta download that, right? So my wife and I, we met on POF. We probably spoke for like two weeks before, you know, we met in person and we talking. She's like, oh, how was your boxing match? I'm like, what the hell are you? What are you talking about? Like, how did you know I was involved in a boxing match? She's like, I Googled you. I'm like, oh, come on. It was pretty funny. She actually found that out because if you, my name is not that generic. My last name is Padulo and it's like, you Google me. You Google yourself? You're not you personally, but if someone, a lot of stuff comes up in the internet, it's sick.

Like someone wants to stalk you or something like that? It's great. Which I plan on doing after I leave you, by the way. I mean, I Google myself all the time because you look at the analytics and you have to see what videos are trending and stuff. Of course. And now, like, I feel like more good stuff's coming out. Like when you Google me, now my website's the first thing, whereas before you would Google me and it's damn very nightclub owner accused of fraud.

And it just causes so many issues because no one's looking at the date of the article. Yeah. Like you could do something terrible 20 years ago. and maybe it's not even that bad, but it's bad. And it can just ruin someone's life. And I think a lot of like inmates that don't have that are coming out of prison and are in like, say, my situation. But they're not actively on social media promoting a good message. No one's doing that good article about them that they turn their life around or this and that.

It's just like the bad article. The negative comes up. And that haunts them for the rest of their life. It's horrible. It's unfortunate. If someone makes a bad decision from the past, it should not affect their future, especially like a young man like yourself. Like you did, that's why I started following you on social media because you did such a positive turn around. He did a 180.

And I'm like, holy shit. Like, I caught on to that. And I saw all the positive information you started popping out. And by the way, shout out the JD, man. That was probably one of like the best things. Like Sunday night, the kids are going to sleep. I'm like, all right, honey, I'm going out, look at YouTube. I'm like, oh, it was great.

That was his, his, his, I'm a huge fan of that guy. It's awesome. Well, I'm glad you brought that up. So from a law enforcement officer's perspective, what's like your opinion on me and what I'm doing? like as a whole. Well, I could, looking in your eyes, I could hear the Beatles playing right now. I'm staring at your eyes right now. I can hear like that music going. But what you're doing as a whole right now, it's like I tip my hat off to you. Like, it's so much credit, especially if someone like that, like, Jesse, is that the guy's name that you? Jesse Crosson, yeah. Another big fan of

him. Like, he's trying to put out all this pods of energy and do the right thing and turn his like, it's amazing that you didn't fall back into that revolving door like we spoke about earlier. It's like, okay you got nailed let's see the next scam and i'm sure you being in prison you've talked about that like guys that's all we know is like the prison life so bothering you have to see the movie blow like they they get concoctioning all these different things they're ready to get released from jail oh it's not smuggling drugs again etc etc but it's great man i you you guys are like you're killing it i hope i hope this blows up like jo rogan status that'd be great that'd be great yeah do you think there's officers though at the same token or not even just officers maybe

agents, whoever, that don't feel that same way when they... Of course. Of course. Unfortunately, there are guys and some girls that they're like, you know, they're already filled with pissing vinegar. It's like, oh, this guy got locked up. Well, he's a piece of shit. That's not the case, man.

That's, you didn't beat your wife 20 times over, right? You made a mistake. You paid you death to the side of the last time I checked, right? Now you're moving forward. But yeah, there are, there are, unfortunately, there are officers like that that just won't, don't have that positive outlook and that positive. their perspective in life, which is very, it's very unfortunate. Do you think there are crimes, though, that aren't redeemable?

Like, for instance, we interviewed someone that walked into a school with a shotgun. Didn't kill anyone, but still nonetheless caused a lot of traumatic experience to individuals. I saw it. What's your opinion on that? Do you think he can be forgiven in that sense? That's a really good question that I don't know how to answer. Now, I didn't watch that interview fully, but I remember I did see some of that, how someone attacked him with a machete.

Yeah, that's a craziest part of his story that he serves 17 years, comes out, volunteering. He's genuinely remorseful, and then he just gets attacked. Yeah, like, that's like 17 years later, like, that's crazy. And then as he told that part, I never, I wasn't looking at his wrist during the interview, but then I'm like, holy, like, and the way he was explaining it in him, I'm like, his wrist was hanging out. And like, he was in rough shape. But there are some crimes, like, obviously crimes against children.

You can't, you can't articulate that. that that except crimes and stuff like that's that's that's like the worst that's not i'm sure you've seen in prison like guys who were violators of that got what they had coming towards them definitely and that's what what's the uh worst crime scene you've ever been on the worst crime scene it's an excellent question uh we gotta go we gotta go back to that question because i don't don't know off the top i so wasn't really a crime scene so we got a call for an eat i got a call for an idiot i'm like all right whatever So I'll never forget this

The guy, it was like a new apartment building It was like maybe eight or nine stories high The guy's sleeping in bed And The wind was so strong That the glass broke To his bedroom, okay? Bedroom window

And the glass like shattered his arm But hit like an artery So when he's getting out of his bed The blood is like splatting all over So when I get to the apartment Because when you haven't eaten The ambulance comes and the police get called also It looked like the guy was stabbed to death

No, he was still He wrapped up really good And stuff. I'm like, who died? He's like, no, this is me, bro. And I'm like, holy shit. Like, you survive this? Like, you need to say your prayers.

That's probably one of the craziest scenes I've seen, though. I mean, there was blood, like, at every inch of that apartment. It was like, it was like you're in the movies. Wow. What's it like working with informants in New York City? I personally never worked with informants. There's a whole procedure when it goes to that. Like, if you to be a CIA, you want to be a confidential informant,

there's certain guidelines and rules that, you know, the sergeant or lieutenant has to sign them up, and they have certain protocols to follow. I personally never worked with the CI, but I couldn't tell you to be honest. But do you have like unofficial informants, like as a regular officer? I'm sure you do. I personally never had one.

But that could bite the person, that could bite the officer in the ass. Working someone like off the book. Yeah, that's because if that person gets injured, okay, the CI gets hurt. And now the CI comes forward of like, well, I was working with Officer Smith. Unofficially, we have a huge problem. You can get like, you can get burned pretty big. for that. What are a couple facts that the average person wouldn't know about the New York Police Department? A couple of facts. Not all cops are racist. Let's start with that one. There is a

quota, so to speak, and the officer sometimes has no discretion. One of the facts about the New York City Police Department? It's a really good question, man. You kind of caught me off guard with that one. I'm bringing the heat today. You bring in the heat today. See that. I don't know. It's the best that I can answer that one. I think throughout your interview you've answered it too. So I want to see what else I could get out of you. You would fire away, man. I'm ready. Now to close out the interview, what is your message coming from a member of law enforcement to that person that maybe is like me and was involved in some crime intentionally or unintentionally as a youngster or someone that was middle-aged

or older, older than you? What's your message to those individuals? Okay. So first of all, off, I want these people, I want everyone to know that don't believe everything you hear or see. What I mean by that is like video is so we'll go back. So for my shooting, there was somebody on the seventh floor filming the whole thing. And what this kid did was he edited the part out of me being shot at first. Okay. He edited out all the good parts. He puts his bullshit video together.

And at the end of the video goes, guess what, y'all, he was a, that was a white cop that killed him too. Okay. So now this kid puts his video out on the internet. And people are so quick to judge and so quick to bite on something like that, it infuriates me because you don't have all the facts and circumstances. So all I ask for, the messages that I could put out, I want everyone to know that not every cop is a racist, not every black is a criminal, not every this person as a whole. Do you understand what I'm saying to you?

I want, before anyone who makes a judgment call or a decision, I want them to know all the facts and circumstances from a police involved shooting, about bad information. And also I want you to the public to know as well is that cops are good people, they're good men and women that are that are there for the public. That's why we took this job. That's where he took that employment. You know, you might interact with the cop to having a bad day. Don't take it personally. Don't take it.

Don't take it. If you got spoken to the wrong way, rub it off your shoulders. And tomorrow's the first start. Tomorrow's a first day. Definitely, you know, well said and agree. And I think it also, it goes the same to like an officer as well. I think there's a lot of, and you're obviously not one of them, but there are some officers that look at, like, say me, who's labeled as a felon, like not giving us that chance. And I think, like, there are cases where, you know, everyone should be kind of given a second chance if they serve their time. 100 percent. And I think if officers, you know, watching this and hearing your story and, you know, knowing your mindset, I think that's great that it's getting out there because it's not out there, you know, you don't really hear people coming out saying, hey, I support this person. He did X, Y, and Z. But this is.

why I stand behind the person. Of course, man. It's like just because people make mistakes and people screw up. And I screwed up in the past and nobody could walk on water last time I checked and I certainly can't walk on one. I had my imperfections like you have your imperfections, et cetera, and so forth. So I only ask is the public is not don't judge anybody. And they also have another message that be kind to one another, okay?

Because everyone has a battle that you know nothing about. Okay. So I saw that sign a long time ago and ever since then I tried to live my life like that. Some of them might fight alcoholism. I don't know. You're strongly alcoholic. And why is this person a fall down drunk? Or why is this person abusing narcotics that they need help with?

Or this person has a bad gambling problem or et cetera, et cetera. Which, by the way, I have to check my parli is after the interview. You know. Steve, we're putting out positivity here. That positivity. And at the same time, it's a great point. You brought up. You have to remain positive.

I'm a very positive person in general. I could be on an airplane and a guy. It could be nose diving. He'll pull off. Don't worry about it. Try not to have to scramble. handball, try not to panic. And if people are having a rough time in their life, always remember, the ship, the storm cannot last forever. Things will get better. I promise you.

Steve, thank you for coming on today. This talk has been incredible. It's been a pleasure, brother. Thank you for having me. You're awesome, man. We got to do dinner sometime or something. That's it. I'm looking forward with that prison lunch. Get that prison lunch? I don't know a lot, man. Definitely. You want the mackerel? Or? What am I choice? You have a menu? We've got mackerel and ramen noodles. Let's do it, bro. Thank you, Steve. Thanks, brother. I appreciate it.