Locked In with Ian Bick - I’m a Florida Cop — Here’s the Dark Side of the Job | Danny Herrera

Episode Date: March 19, 2026

Danny Herrera joins Locked In with Ian Bick to share his journey from being a teacher to becoming a police officer in Florida and the life-changing moments he experienced on the job. Danny talks about the first real call he responded to that still haunts him today, the officer-involved shooting he survived, and the mental health challenges many police officers quietly deal with. He also explains why he chose to become a school resource officer, what it takes to keep kids safe in today’s world, and how he later trained to become a hostage negotiator. This episode dives into the reality of modern policing, the emotional toll of the job, and the lessons Danny has learned from some of the most intense moments of his career. _____________________________________________ #floridacop #policeofficer #lawenforcement #copstories #policelife #truecrime #policepodcast #ianbick _____________________________________________ Thanks to GOLD DROP SELTZERS for sponsoring this episode: Head to https://www.thedryoak.com/ and use promo code LOCKEDIN at checkout for 10% off your order. _____________________________________________ Connect with Danny Herrera: https://www.instagram.com/officerdanny.safe?igsh=MXVmemo1NHJxMnYzMg%3D%3D&utm_source=qr _____________________________________________ Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en https://ianbick.com/ _____________________________________________ Shop Locked In Merch: http://www.ianbick.com/shop _____________________________________________ Timestamps: 00:00 First Big Police Calls & Real-Life Chaos 00:56 Growing Up in a Cuban Family 04:07 Family Values, Discipline & Life Lessons 07:19 Teen Struggles & Early Life Challenges 13:02 Personal Loss That Changed Everything 16:22 From Odd Jobs to Becoming a Teacher 21:11 Leaving Teaching for a Career in Law Enforcement 24:33 How Teaching Helped Me Become a Better Cop 26:42 Police Academy Training & First Days 32:27 First Patrols & Field Training Experience 35:35 First Arrests & Gaining Confidence as a Cop 40:19 The Call That Changed Me Forever 48:55 PTSD, Trauma & Mental Health in Policing 54:00 Officer-Involved Shooting — What Really Happened 01:01:01 Breaking Down a Critical Incident 01:08:28 Policing with Empathy, Humor & Respect 01:14:08 Becoming a School Resource Officer (SRO) 01:21:20 School Safety, Lockdowns & Crisis Preparation 01:25:20 Warning Signs in At-Risk Youth 01:27:00 Parenting, Accountability & Society Today 01:33:00 Role Models, Family & Life Decisions 01:38:00 Becoming a Hostage Negotiator 01:41:47 Hostage Negotiation Tactics & Psychology 01:48:28 Real Hostage Situations & De-escalation 02:03:02 Lessons from a Career in Law Enforcement 02:08:39 The Human Side of Policing 02:11:06 Final Thoughts & Outro Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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There's always those moments in these calls where you're like, bro, how the heck am I going to get there? This person is being just difficult. They don't want to come out. They're like, F you're hanging up on you. Danny Herrera was once a teacher before deciding to leave the classroom and become a police officer. in Florida, but the reality of the job was far different than he expected. In this episode, Danny shares the first call that still haunts him to this day. The officer involved shooting he survived and the mental health struggles many officers quietly deal with.

He also talks about becoming a school resource officer responsible for protecting kids and how he later trained as a hostage negotiator working in some of the most intense situations law enforcement faces. So I grew up in Hyaliyah, Florida. Okay, Hyaliyah, Florida is in Miami-Dade County. They call it almost like a, like a sub-city, like of Miami. Very heavy Cuban population. Just Hispanic population, you know, a lot of Dominicans, Venezuela, were not predominantly Cuban.

And grew up in a very, very humble beginnings. My parents, my siblings and I have an older sister. I have a younger brother. And it was, I call it the Corps Five. It was just us. You know, we did have uncles and aunts somewhere, you know, in there and grandparents or whatever but well I had a grandfather the rest of my grandparents passed before I was born but nothing nothing like how my kids have

grown up we were talking offline my youngest is now 18 we have three kids 24 20 and 18 they grew up with my sisters kids their cousins you know it was beautiful the way they grew up I didn't have that so we were just us five and hi-a-lea and and we we We're rich in love, but we had struggles. My parents came from Cuba. They stressed to us get an education and work hard and do what you love. My parents didn't do what they loved. They did what they had to do, you know, to provide for us.

And they are the best parents stood together, the best grandparents, you know. My wife and I, our style is a little bit different, but as far as like being a dad, right? Like I always say if I'm half the father, my dad is, I'm doing preemptive. pretty damn good. What do your parents do for work? So my dad was in collections for a mortgage company and then my mom did payroll for many years. So, but again, man, like the balance of it all, like my dad, very strict. My mom is a just natural sweetheart. My mom, the running joke, I always say, and I know they're going to watch this and she'll say, yeah, he says it all the time. She actually thinks a car salesman's trying to help you, right? Like, she's just that, and she, I mean,

you can find like a murder and she'll be like, oh, but maybe he had a rough day. You know, like she just sees the great and everybody. And there's part of me that wishes I was more like that. I'm more like my father. Like if you're, you know, I've gotten better. I've gotten older, but I'm always trying to figure out. I'm always like in defense mode. Like, what's this person's angle?

You know, like, what are they? Like, I got to get time to know you before, like, I'm going to trust you or be kind of like, you know, fully like into the relationship. My mom, she just sees the beauty and everybody. But so like totally different attitudes, right? And they've made it work. They're almost 50 years married. And but yeah, my dad, very strict.

Showed us love, though. You know, like I said, the balance coached me and my brother's little league teams and was always there. And, you know, but big on respect, big on, you know, hey, we got chores. We got to get things done. You know, we don't disrespect. women, we don't, you know, all that kind of stuff. Did you end up following those principles they instilled in you throughout your teenage years and childhood?

Yes. Teenage years, we all go through stuff, right? Like, you know, like everybody, that's why now, like, with raising our kids now, that, again, they're all adults now, there was different moments, even now. Like, all my three kids, I don't agree with everything that they say or do. I'm very happy that we have raised very strong self-exam. motivated, self-sufficient kids, our style, my wife and I, a little bit, I would say a little bit rougher than my parents in the sense of, um, just, you know, again, my mom, God bless her,

but, you know, sometimes, and we have this discussions even nowadays, right, where, even with me or my brother, my sister, mom, I don't want you to tell me when I messed up that like, no, maybe I had a, no, I want you to tell me I messed up, you know, we're very honest. So my wife and I very honest with our kids. And I give the example now of like, like in a school conference with any one of our kids. Never. Ian, I swear to my mother,

not one time did I have a teacher tell me about my kids and me be like, what do you mean? My son would never. You know what I would tell him? I'd say, thank you for that. He probably won't be at school tomorrow

because I'm going to beat his ass. You know what I mean? J.K., JK, I'm still employed. You know what I'm saying? But like, we didn't play that, you know? And I always give this example also of my wife, who's the mom and no doubt nurturing and the motherly figure. But what she would tell my little one is a great example of the way we were honest with our kids.

The little one played baseball growing up. And it would happen every nine again, let's say especially when he was like eight, nine, 10 years old. Let's say he went out for a travel team, right? And, you know, he didn't make it. Instead of what we see from a lot of parents, no, baby, it's not you. It's the coach. He doesn't know what he's doing.

You know, or, you know, they don't like Hispanics. That's what it is. No. My wife would get him and be like, hey, little man, come here. You know why you to make this team? It's because you're not good enough. You're mediocre. You're just a guy.

Now, the good news is you can work hard and get better or you can just stay a guy. You can be an asset or you can be just like anybody else, like irreplaceable, right? And how rewarding it would be when he would work hard, get better, and then make these teams, Right. And I tell that story and some people tell me like, your wife would tell your kid, you're mediocre. I'm like, yes. What would I like, we're not going to lie to them. And that's where I think parenting nowadays, like I always say like our gender, we just discussed our age earlier, a little gap there just a little bit. But like I'll say my generation of parents overall, I think are terrible. Terrible. Because this is a generation of like twinsies, you know, we're besties. And I'm like, Jesus. No, you're not besties. And also like, like, like no one thinks you look like your daughter like that you're the mother that's you know what I'm saying that's a daughter at accordingly we're not you know I don't think we're supposed to be like friends

with our kids when they're little as you get older like I always say like my mom and my sister now they're it's more of a friendship but my mom was the mom you know and my dad was the father and so um just we raised our kids just to be I always say like our style was I'm not going to pretend the storming and to come the storm being just life right but we raised our kids to, hey, look, when that storm comes, I'm going to prepare you for that motherfucker. You know what I mean? Like, get you ready for it. To be tough mentally.

And I think that that's a little bit lacking nowadays. When you look back on it now, do you think there was one pivotal moment in your childhood that led to the career you would end up choosing later on? Not at all. Because police wasn't even a thought. Not even a thought. I was going to be a major league baseball player. Can I tell you what the problem was?

I wasn't that good. You know what I played my whole life. And, you know, when you're little, you think you kind of work hard. I don't know if you ever had this with anything that you do. You know, you're doing a lot now, right? You think when you're younger, like, no, I'm working hard. And as you get older, you're like, bro, I really didn't work hard at all. If I can go back, man, like, I would have really grinded and put, you know, just put more effort into it, you know.

And even now, like, we may get into later on, like, I'm a hostage negotiator, right? Or just my role as a police officer or whatever. And one of the compliments I get now is, Danny, man, you know. you can speak to anybody, anywhere, anytime. And when I tell people, when people tell me that, it's a great compliment, but I said, it took a lot of hard work. Because you asked about, like,

when I was a kid, anything to do with law enforcement? The opposite, because I was so shy growing up, I could not, I didn't want to get called upon for anything. I was so quiet in school. I had, like, the glasses at some point. Then I had the braces. Then I had, like, I mean, my wife herself calls me deducting, right? And, you know what I mean?

But like, I just, I didn't want to be way in the back of the classroom. It just, just the way I was. With time, I got used to. And my dad would always say, look people in the eye, shake their hand. And my dad would always say, what's the worst anybody can tell you? No, right? So don't be afraid to speak up. But I was, I mean, I was, you know, and I would mumble.

And it was a disaster. You know what I mean? With time and age, that got better. But no, I mean, growing up, late 80s, 90s, It was like after police, right? Like NWA, like I was super into like gangster rap. And even now, I mean, huge Tupac fan, right? And I always joke I had a like serious identity crisis

because I thought I was like a Hispanic Tupac. You know what I'm saying? Like I look back at Pichols and I'm like, I'm 11 wearing cross colors. Like, what am I doing? I don't know if you know what cross colors was. You know, but very like African symbols and all this. And I'm like, bro, my dad had to be so patient with me because I'm like, you know,

Like I always, I tell the kids now, like my generation invented like the cat scratches on the eyebrow and all that stuff and crisscross and, you know, so it was just cool not to like cops. So, and I didn't know any cops growing up either. I don't remember any cops. I can't tell you if growing up we had cops in our school, I don't think so. At that time, you know, like now there's SROs, which is what I do. But so no, no idea about being a police officer at all. That came later on as an adult. When you were in high school, did you plan to go to college?

When I was in high school, the baseball thing was starting to kind of unravels. A lot of nonsense going on with that. So I played and then I stopped playing. And then by senior year, I was going to be a fireman, the real heroes, right? You know? And I remember even I was going to go to a school called Florida State Fire College over in Ocala. I remember my parents taking me to go see the school. And so first you had to get your EMT and all that stuff.

So I graduate high school in the summer, the only one of my siblings that did so, and I was supposed to be the smart one. But I messed up, you know, I messed around in school. I always did good enough to play sports, you know, or to play baseball. And so I didn't graduate on time with my friends. I remember I'll give you the quick story on that one. I remember my counselor telling me, you're not going to have the GPA to graduate.

Literally tells me, you might as well not even go to school the next two weeks. So I'm like, bet, say less. You know what I mean? So I didn't go to school. The report cards come out. I end up having exactly a 2.0, which is what I needed to graduate.

But since I stopped going to school, I missed the final and I failed a class. And I remember even back then, so I'm 18 years old at that time, thank you to myself that ain't the counselor's fault she gave me some wrong information she didn't do the math right on the GPA kind of stuff okay but whose fault

is it that I'm in this predicament it's my fault so I remember being very self-aware of that and I'm like all right this is what it is like you deserve to go to summer school so I went to summer school graduated in August of that year was 2000 just a few years ago right and

I was going to start the community college to get my EMT in January. What happens is January 7th, three days after I turned 19, the girl I was dating passes away in a car accident. Okay. So never, ever knew anybody personally who had passed away at that time. So I go from like, no grandparents, because they were all gone before, right? So I go from like never knowing anybody who passed away to somebody who I just seen hours earlier. And it was devastating for me. It was, I mean, you met my wife and I give you a little bit of story off the air.

My wife and I were middle school, sweethearts. We went on and off throughout high school. And so at that time, when I'm 19, my wife and I were done. And it always was so impactful and meaningful to me that at a time when my current wife and I now were done, the first person that came to my house after this other girl passes away was my wife with her mother to see how I was doing. I didn't see them. I just didn't feel like seeing anybody. But I never, ever forgot that. And so that was always like, man, like this girl that, you know, we grew up together, right? And, you know, obviously, hello, we were running off and then I'm dating somebody else,

maybe not the biggest fan of this other person, right? But the respect and the love to just come and pay her respects, always meant a lot. And when we reconnected five years later, my wife and I as adults, and then, you know, ended up getting married and whatnot. But that time is crazy, and I don't know if you've gone through this, where there's things that almost like you want to forget

to subconsciously, it's just like, you know, in the back burner. But it was a very, very dark time. My friends kind of, like, some of them kind of drifted apart. And I get it. I wasn't the easiest to handle. Again, never went through anything like that before. So it was just a long time, what felt like a long time of mourning, of trying to find myself,

what am I going to do? But to go back to what you were asking, a week after that is my first day of EMT school. And I'll never forget. I'm in this big auditorium. And amongst, you know, the intro, they say, if you cannot see blood and guts, this isn't for you. he and I got up and I walked out man I was like I this is days after right so I'm like there's no way in hell little that I know what I'll end up doing later on but so I um that was January of of 01 I take my time I do odd jobs here and there I get a job I end up getting a job at a clothing factory in high

alia and I'm folding clothes okay and there was a very impactful moment where it's a Friday and I had a boss named Ken. And Ken on this Friday takes me to lunch because I was the best packer in the company. And he was trying to do, he did a nice thing, right? But it was like it hit me like, good job, asshole. You're the best packer at this clothing place. This is what you're supposed to do.

Like, great, bro, you know? And he just like hit a switch where like, no, this is not what I'm supposed to be doing, you know? So I ended up leaving that job, little by little kind of get my stuff. together and then I started community college soon thereafter, just to kind of take the basic classes. Around that time, I get a job as like an after-school counselor, they call it. A little part-time job was like 1.30 to 6 p.m. when the kids leave school, those that can't get picked up at 2 o'clock

or whatever it is, you know, they stay for like an aftercare kind of thing. And I was an aftercare counselor. So with that, I started community college. And I'm like, man, this is pretty cool playing with these little kids out in the field. You know what I mean? Maybe I'll be a P-E coach. So I decided, I decided to go to school and be a teacher. And kind of messing around my first two, three years of community college. The baseball thing resurfaces again for a little bit. I end up going to Clearwater for a very short time to play baseball. That doesn't work out.

Come back home. When I come back home, I change colleges. And I go to a small Catholic university, St. Thomas University in Miami. There's one. It's like another switch hit. And I got focused on school. I went as like the end of like my sophomore year and like a year and a half later I graduated. And because I had leading up to graduation, I had been a substitute teacher for two years.

Before that, I was a teacher's aide for one year where at one point I was moving around different schools. This one school liked me and they upon graduation hired me to be a full-time teacher. And so I- Bonjour, compadre. It's the- Price-line negotiator. How do I negotiate so many great travel deals? My greatest gadget.

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I didn't talk five years. Why'd you leave teaching? So that's another special. story. So you're going to hear this term a lot, and I'm sure you've heard it because I know you have a lot of law enforcement. Totality of circumstances is the phrase that we use. In our world, it's big. It means, you know, and sometimes, you know, you'll have friends or family like, hey, if this situation happens, like, you know, or what happens if this person does that? And I said, well, what's the rest of the story? Because totality of circumstances is important. So I teach five years.

I love it, but I didn't go into teaching to stay a teacher. My goal was to become an administrator and eventually become a principal. So, for example, like my first year teaching, my boss at the time says, hey, listen, I know you're very ambitious. I know you want to be, you know, a principal in the future. I know I've heard you want to go to grad school. I do not recommend that you start grad school your first year teaching. It's a lot.

And I'm like, no doubt. Cool story. Thanks. Appreciate it. 16 months later, I got my master's degree in ed administration. I end up continuing to go to school. I get another master's in instructional technology, which just means I'm really dope at PowerPoints.

You know what I mean? So I start kind of like as, you know, I teach five years, but early on, you know, if my like assistant principal is out, I'd fill in for them, kind of get, just get my feet wet, kind of get experience. Then I get into this very big program in Brower County, because at this point I have moved to Brower County. And I get into this program called the lead program.

And the lead program. program, you have to pass it before you become like an assistant principal. And almost immediately, I get into the program and I'm like, oh, hell no, this is not what I thought. It ain't for me. The position is a little bit more political than I thought. And I don't have a political bone in my body. So I was like, nah, this isn't it. It ain't for me. Same time, totality of circumstances. I get in one argument with my boss. I mean, this lady loved me. She put her kid in, in my, in, in, in my class, my second year, I was still new, you know. But she, she loved me.

She respected me for what I did. She was a fan. Until the fifth year, we had one argument. I told you about I grew up. I'm big on respect. I don't respond well to disrespect. And I felt that she had disrespect to me in front of others. I respectfully kind of like spoke back to her.

The rest of that fifth year, she made my life a living hell. I mean, any way that, she can just like give me a hard time through her, through her assistant principal, she did. So at that time, there was a little bakery. It's still around. The owners changed because the owner passed away. This little bakery, I still live near there.

Kind of place like a cheers kind of thing. It's the closest thing to cheers and where the old show, you know, where everybody knows each other. Closest thing that I've seen to that in South Florida. In this bakery, you'd walk in, hey, Danny, hey Ian, hey Lewis, hey, what's up? I mean, realtors, cops, you know, firefighters, landscapers, like everybody, you'd walk in no matter what time

and everybody knew each other, very family-type place. The owner who passed away, she ends up being, like, the closest thing that I ever had to a grandma. And when I go into law enforcement, she was one of my references. But every morning I'd stop by there and get my Cuban coffee, of course, you know. And I started meeting police officers in the city that I work in now, Miramar. Because that's where I taught.

I taught live in the same city that I work now as a police officer. And little by little, they get in my ear like, dude, I think you'd be really good. You know, I guess I saw it was a young dude squared away. I mean, my early 20s, I'm going to teach every day. I'm going like in a suit, you know, as a young guy because I felt like I would need to dress for the respect that I want, right? And they would kind of just, you know, and I'd be like, no, I'm good, man, you know. And then when I wasn't good, I'm like, hey, man, what did you say? about I could be a good cop, right?

And they were just, yeah, man, for sure. And so lead program, admin's not what I think it is. Principles giving me a hard time. Cops in my ear saying maybe I should be good at this. Or maybe I could be good at this. So all these things happening at one time. So I tell my wife one day, I'm like, man, I should have been a cop. And that turned into, maybe I should be a cop.

And that turned into, fuck that, I'm going to be a cop, you know? So started the process. I'm sure because I know you talked to a lot of law enforcement. The times, right, to get hired varies. There's people that, the years they're trying. There's people that, you know, quick because there's a rush for it to get people in. It took me about six months to go to the process. Obviously, I had some officers that I'm sure probably, you know, they asked about me or whatnot and, you know.

But it ended up being perfect because my hire date, I got officially hired by the police department like two days before the last day of school. and so it was a clean like break of like you know one thing to the other and i remember this actually came up the other day with my my 20 year old daughter i was you know she was going through a transition herself at work and kind of being treated unfairly and wanted our opinion and i was giving her this quick story because i told her listen you have all this built-up stuff but sometimes the best thing is to just take the high road. And I'm far from a pushover.

You'll get to know that as far as. But I think you have to be tactical sometimes of the way you approach things. And I think that, you know, yelling up and being the loudest dude in the room and saying like, F you, that ain't the way to do it sometimes. You got to move. You got to watch the way you move.

So I had all this stuff built into me. I'm like, bro, I'm going to show her. I'm going to tell her off because like now I got this job with the department, the police department. I don't need her no more. So I walked in the room and almost immediately when I walked in I was like, that ain't you, bro.

Like, what's the reason for that? And where it turned, it turned from like, I'm going to tell her off and all this nonsense. I told her respectfully, I was like, you know, just wanted to let you know face to face. I would not be coming back. I've been hired by the Myanmar Police Department, you know. And I said, I did want to tell you.

I know this year things weren't great with us I know we had a disagreement I know it kind of spiraled from there but I think that you would agree that I always gave 100% to those kids you know

and she said you know I actually think you'd be a really good police officer you know and there was no hard feelings and it was so like refreshing and I'm like oh man thank God like the little you know voice in my head was like be cool bro because what am I going to gain by being nasty, you know. And to this day, I don't talk to her. The last time that I reached out to that

principal, I heard through, you know, former colleagues and whatnot that she had breast cancer. And I shot her an email and she responded, hey, I'm praying for you. I hope you're okay. I don't have any ill feelings. As a matter of fact, I thank her. Because had she not made that year miserable for me, I wouldn't be in the position that I'm at now and loving what I'm doing now. How do you think teaching helped you with policing? Talking to everybody. talking to everybody. I mentioned how shy I was. Kids are the worst critics, man.

Like, you can't BS kids, right? So that gave me so many reps every day of just talking, talking, talking, and talking. And then, you know, like, what's, you know, okay, they're not going to get, if I approach it this way, how do I approach it? Being like a chameleon, because then you're dealing with the kids all day. But you got a parent conference in the afternoon.

You got to deal with them. And you had this meeting with the administration. You got to deal with them. So that's where I think I changed a big time of just being able to, because if you can talk to kids, you can talk to anybody. And so I always say the story of, like, when I go to the academy, I was not the best recruit at anything. Always been pretty physically fit.

I've worked out since I was 14. But at the academy, I'm 29 years old. They used to call me Poppy because I was, like, one of the oldest. 29. I think back now, I'm like, that's crazy, you know. But you had some kids in there 19 coming out of college, playing college football and whatnot. So, you know, I was not the best at anything. I end up becoming the class president of my class

only because I was the only one who wasn't afraid to speak at the graduation in front of all the chiefs in the county. You know, but that's where I got all that from was from my teaching days. Talking to everybody, learning how to deal with different characters, personalities because there's not two kids that are the same.

And when you have 20, 25 under your responsibility, you have to learn how to adapt and overcome with each of them. So that definitely helps. This episode is brought to you by Gold Drop Seltzer, and this is one I actually drink. Gold drop shelters are clean, crisp, and refreshing. No alcohol, no heavy sugar, no weird aftertaste. Just a solid seltzer you could crack open at a party, a cookout, or while watching the

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Where'd they assign you to first? And the police department? Yeah. So when you graduate, you go back to the agency for a few weeks for more training. Okay. I was able to go a few weeks before the academy because when they called me to offer me the job and I get hired, they're like, hey, like the academy starts in like three weeks. but if you want, you can go to the station and, like, you know, help out clean up and go to help out with training and whatnot.

Full payful benefits. I'm like, say less. I'll probably be there tomorrow, you know? So I remember, like, my first day before the academy, they had driving training for the, you know, once a year that we do, like our 40-hour block. And I was there helping set up cones or whatever. And then when they had shooting, I'd sweep up the range. I'm getting full payful, but I don't care. And then it was cool because they let me, well, it was cool with the time.

time, it ended up messing me up a little bit. The training sergeant at the time let me shoot before I went to the academy and taught me how my agency wanted me to shoot. The problem was, then I go to the police academy where it's Alborough County, and they were teaching me another way. So it would have been better me to go with a clean slate instead of like habits that, you know, I had already learned. It wasn't a big deal, but just I remember having an adjustment period with that. But so then after you graduate the academy, back a few weeks for in-service training, that's when we get tased. The pepper spray is in the academy. I rather get tased any day of the week and what's today's that twice on Saturdays than get pepper sprayed. Pepper sprayed, I don't carry it. I wouldn't

do that to my worst enemy. Okay, it's the worst. But you have to go through it. And so then after the two weeks in service, you go with your field training officer. I know you've heard about the FTO program and what that's about. So you go like in the movies, right? I watch the rookie. I heard that. heard that. You know, it's my least favorite of the cop shows. I do enjoy it. I don't love how sometimes like, what do you want to be a drama or a comedy? Can you decide, right? But I guess that's why it's so successful. That's the longest lasting one. Yes, yes, because they have both aspects. But you know what else was good? The one that was based in L.A. where the FTA, the field training officer's rookie dies in the first episode. I forgot the name of it. They just had one season so far.

I don't know. Was it rookie blue, was it? It was, yeah, maybe it was rookie blue. It was years ago. No, it just came out last year. It was, they've only had one season. There, there's more coming out. But it's really good.

That, the, the training officer dies? No, so the training officer graduates her rookie and then she dies. Oh, but this is not a major network. It was on Hulu. Yeah, it was on Hulu. Yeah, yeah, yeah, very good. Yeah. Very good.

That was very realistic, yes. Yeah, that was based on the LAPD. Yes. Yeah, yeah. I thought you were talking about like a major network. work show yeah no that one was very good i forgot the name of it um but so i tell people it's funny because i i teach new hires as they come you know after the academy and i just taught a new group on uh two days ago and i'll tell them about field training you're not supposed to like field training

it's supposed to be frustrating it's supposed like imagine being in the car with somebody for 10 hours looking at and critiquing everything that you do and you're going to go to the bathroom when they say you go to the bathroom you're going to eat where they say you can't and be like, no, man, I don't want, can I go with, like, I'm keto, right? Like, can I go with it? No, it's, you know. And everything, everything. And the program as a whole, I feel like police in general has changed.

I started in 2011. And it's crazy because it's only 15 years, but it's different. When I started, yes, sir, no, sir, everything. Don't you dare have your phone out in front of your FTO, like, and, and, you know, things. things like that. You had to know where you were at. It was that whole thing. Like, you don't know where you're at,

get out the car and figure it out. And then, you know, or like, and I'm still active. I don't want to get any of trouble. But, like, you know, I remember, like, they knew I wasn't a big animal person. I just didn't grow up with it.

So I don't, you know, some people in my family would tell you, I'm afraid of dogs. I'm not afraid of dogs. I just, you know, stay away from them. But one day, kind of like, kind of like initiation type stuff.

We go and like, oh, we're going to park over here so you can finish your paper. I bet no problem So I'm doing my report Canine guy pulls up And I go How you doing sir

And go ahead How you're doing sir? I go ahead Step out I'm like All right yeah no problem Here Gives me the sleeve I'm like

Oh hell no bro And like hey You're gonna get bit by the dog I'm like what And nigga you have your phone They start recording me I wish I still had I don't know

Between phones I lost it But to get bit by the dog You know They don't do that nowadays, you know, but everything was what provided unless you're not, you know, unless you're being instructed to like break a law obviously or violate a policy, but you did what you were told. And so my first field training officer was a retired homicide detective from NYPD. And I had like a, like a, like a buddy that I had met. He was like a year or two ahead of me. So when I'm in the

academy, he's like a year and a half in. We met at the station at one point. So he's kind of like, younger than I was, but kind of like scooled me on like, you know, how the agency is and whatever. And I'll never forget when I get my assignment. Hey, bro, like, who's your, your FTO? And I tell him and he goes, oh, shit. And I go, what do you mean? Oh, shit, bro? And he's like, and I go, he's like, man, he's this old school detective from NYPD.

I can tell you, Danny. He goes, if he likes you, bro, awesome. If he doesn't like you, you're screwed. I'm like, okay, thanks. And thank God. Day one, which is another thing I tell the rookies now. Respectfully, if they don't tell you, ask some training officers.

Ian, you're with me today? Hey, first day, brother, welcome. You're going to observe. Literally just watch. Unless I get into some shit, back me up. But don't ask questions. Don't investigate. Just first day.

some hey in show me what you got right this guy was like that which which I loved so I'm like okay great so first day with him I think the first report is like a stolen tag

nice and easy no problem second and third call to domestic they got how things work out my first arrest was with my first the first day with my FTO and it's a domestic battery and my suspect was a school teacher

okay, couldn't make this shit up if you wanted to. And to give you a little quick backstory, my mother's mom was murdered by her boyfriend, way before I was born. And I mentioned that because when you grow up when you're little, like they told us she had cancer, and then you grew up and you hear the true story, you know? And so I've always been very passionate about, like, domestic violence.

I'm very happy in the position that I'm in now. we don't have a domestic violence only unit. But if we ever did, that would be one of the few things where I would consider changing positions now. But so very passionate about, like, to me, the worst thing in the world is a man who puts his hands on a female. So this guy had, like, dragged his girl from the bedroom over nonsense, over drinking and just being drunk and jealous and stupid.

And I'll never forget, like, the hair. I'm like, that's not, that's a wig. No, that's her hair. Like he had dragged it so much. There was like a trail of her hair and got in the, in the bathtub and, like, beat the shit out of her. So I take him and that's day one. And so report writing for me, I did my homework before I went on. So I didn't really, you know, like, I can tell the rookies now.

Like, and they're like, oh, I never heard of that cheat code. I'm like, it's not really cheat code. It's just being smart. I'll tell them, like, if you know your field training officer, you get assigned officer Herrera. Do you think it'd be smart to look at my reports and see. the way that I write and then while you're with me just write like me and then when you then you get you know then you get officer Ian Bick right like Ian while you're with the end right and then you're gonna see you're gonna get little little things here and there as you create your own style but while you're with

that FTO do what they say and it helps if you write like them so I had pretty you know pretty good idea of how report writing was and so this is first day we were in um um um um um I smaller building back then because our old agency got messed up with one of the hurricanes now we're in a brand new headquarters for the last man maybe i think it's been like maybe like 10 11 years now we're in a brand new headquarters very nice but it was the building before that smaller building i'm saying all that because all the offices were like right by each other roll call here captain there everything where now it's like floors separate everything and i'm saying all that because this training officer that i was warned like and if you if he likes you this and that and whatever I'm in a room doing, finishing my report.

And this is the midnight shift. And he goes to see the captain at the time. And he's like, he doesn't know I can hear him. I have crazy amazing hearing. It's a gift and a curse. Like, it's weird. My family will tell you, we'll be at gatherings. And I'm talking to you.

And then I'd be like, no, it was Tuesday. It wasn't Wednesday. You know what I mean? Like, they're like, what are you doing? And I'm like, whatever. So, but I hear my training officer telling the captain, this fucking guy first day he's doing the rest i didn't have to help him with his paperwork he talks to everybody he knew what questions to ask he wasn't timid he wasn't officer state he's on point

this guy's fucking amazing and i was like in the room and i remember i'm like you know what i'm saying now he would compliment me himself not as you know you got to be cool and you know but he would he would tell me himself and so he gave me such uh confidence because i always say like you never know if you're right for something until you get there, you never know if that's for you. You had an idea once upon a time, I'm going to start a podcast. Did you know you would love it, right?

Like you would assume, right? Like, I like connecting with people, but maybe you got to the ends and outs of all the details and you're like, bro, like, yeah, I like talking to people, but I don't like this part of it. Right. So, you know, it's not what I thought. So there's certain moments,

and I'm sure we'll get into that, where it's like, solidified this is what I was meant to do but that was the beginning and what's crazy about that is about five years ago that training officer retired for the second time from our agency we had a retirement thing get together and I sat with him and I had a private moment with him where I told them I never told you this but you meant so damn much to me because when you were honest with me I And he would tell you shit up, like, I got these people, and they were the captain's son, and I failed them. I didn't care who they were.

Like, I'm not going to put anyone out on the street. That's going to be a liability. And so when he gave me that confidence, you know, and it was crazy because, you know, I wish I would have told them earlier. But to share with him how much it meant to me, because here I'm a teacher coming into a whole new world. And he kind of, like, reassured me that, hey, you're going to be great at this, man. Like, you know, you got something here. And that was very reassuring. And there are moments we can get into that, like, where again, I think everybody, I think every officer has that first big call.

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So for me, it was, it's crazy because it's going to come up now on 13 years. It was March 28th, 2013. So this is my second year. And, you know, you're very busy during field training because if you have a good one, they're going to everything. This thing now, and again, keep in mind everything I say, I'm sure with other guests, the same thing, right? Like, they're going to tell you on their experiences and their agencies. There's so many agencies across the country. I can speak for mine, my experiences.

And what I've heard. A good FTO, my opinion, you're taking your rookie everywhere, meaning, you know, you're assigned to the west side of the city, but you got a good call in the east. Take them. Let them, you know, where now sometimes, you know, you'll see, like, we're just checking off a box. And they did that already.

You already dealt with a homicide. You don't got to go to another one. No, man, take them again. It's different, you know, and you're going to learn different things. Um, so this is about, I'm about a year by myself at this point because the field training program, I start January of 2012. And back then it was like, I think it was four weeks each field training officer, four phases. The fourth phase, they call it shadow phase, where you're probably back with your first field training officer. But he's in an unmarked car in regular clothes, kind of just shadowing you around.

So you're kind of by yourself. And depending how that goes, it could be another two weeks. It could be four weeks. With me, I had the guy from New York. It was like one day. And he's like, yeah, you're quit away. I'm just going to sign off on this. You're good.

You know? And then I was by myself. So March of 2013, I'm already alone for about a year. And I love working on the east side of the city. The east side's different. It's, there's crime everywhere, you know. I just, the day, responded. I got called out as a negotiator.

for someone in distress, you know, who's barricaded with a hostage armed, that couldn't be any more west in the city, you know? So I always tell people like, you know, the whole East West thing, you know, everybody, every city has their good and bad areas. But I prefer work out east. And so I'm working out east. It was the, we called it late Bravo shift. So back then it was like now we have day shift, afternoon shift, and night shift.

Back then, it was two day shifts and two night shifts. We didn't have the afternoon. I worked the late morning shift at that time. So that was 7.45 in the morning to 7.15 at night. Now, at that time, they would get, they would just rotate people once or every day. They'd get an officer from the east and for the last like two hours of their shift help out out west. And on this day was my turn. So I get the word, hey, today it's you, you know, go out west, go to the zone and help out for the remainder of the ships, like 5 o'clock in the afternoon or whatever.

Yeah, no problem. And almost immediately, call comes out of an accident, car versus child. And so I rushed to this call. I'm the second unseen right behind the first officer unseen. totality of circumstances because I've seen more gruesome deaths. I've seen, you know, more hateful crimes and all these things. But the totality of circumstances for this call is why to date, this is my worst call. And the one that mentally has kind of been a challenge to all different parts of my life.

Kid down, face down, pull of blood. He was run over by a car. He was on a skateboard. And there's neighbors out, there's people out, pull of blood, and I remember, I told you, Cuban family, right? They were a Cuban family, to tell you circumstances. The kids, 11. My oldest at the time was 12.

My youngest was 5. pull of blood Cuban father and I'll never I can close my eyes and I can see it I'll never forget the boy's back like like he's breathing right

and the father Papi respondamme Respondamme which is like like baby respond to me and he's like yelling respond to me respond to me and the boy's back and as officers you have to be very careful

because you can kind of like you assess the injuries. But something like that, you have to be careful. You don't want it. You're not moving them around. I mean, that's not, you know, because you can cause worse injuries. So I just, I remember the back moving because he's breathing. And then it stops. And the father, Bobby, Bobby, Bobby, Bobby,

Bobby, respond to me, please. Just like screaming like, respond, respond, respond. man i i i'm immediately like okay work mode talk to to to to witnesses i remember it was a it was a woman maybe like in her 30s she had like the the scrubs like from medical office and it was an accident it i don't even think she was speeding it's just the kids riding a skateboard and it's in a community and you know hits them and runs them over She panicked, you know, instead of breaking, you accelerate more, like, you know. And I'm still new here.

It's my, I'm my year on, right? So I'm going to be the guy helping with everything, talking to witnesses, talking to the lady. The lady was extremely remorseful. The lady was distraught. I remember putting crime scene tape. And I remember I'm there about two hours after I see this gruesome thing, knowing I got two boys at home with my daughter, right? and why it was impactful for me I just went into work mode

there was no emotion in the moment there was it was what needs to be done let's get it let's do it blah blah blah here crime scene witnesses statements what you see what you didn't see knocking on doors did you see anything you have cameras all that they're about two maybe three hours later or longer right after I see that

the second I get into my my patrol car back then I had a crown bank and I get out of the development, I start bawling like a baby, like a baby. This is March 28, 2013. I had not cried

since 2001 when my ex-girlfriend passed away. Okay? And I'm bawling. Balling, bawling. And I remember, I don't remember if I went home first

and showered and all that stuff, I went straight to public's to get food, like our supermarket nearby. And I get a call from the captain at the time and said, hey, I heard you were on this call. Are you okay? What am I going to say? I'm good.

No problem, Cap. I'm good. Whatever you need. Okay. Next day I had to go to work. You know, I know Kevin spoke on that. Many officers have, right? Like, well, people don't realize

and why I take so offense and I get so angry. I have to stay away from certain, social media and stuff like that because I when I see people talk about the job that never done it, like you have no idea. And granted, it's not boohoo, who feels sorry for me. I signed up for this. But also, like, if you haven't done the job a day in your life, you don't know what it's like. This call happened to be the last call in my day.

Can I tell you if it was the beginning call on my day? I got another call. I got domestic holding. I got theft holding. You know what I mean? Like the day's not over. Where anybody else sees those kind of things, they're taking weeks off of work. They're getting counseling.

to doing all these things. So I had to go to work the next day. And can I just deal with it? Going back to that call, that's the only time in my 15-year career I've gotten a call like that. And that's not good. And so one of the things that I've been doing personally,

the last two or three years, and I'm all over the place will stop me whenever you need to. But two or three years ago, I wrestled with the idea of being a sergeant. And I was, you know, doing the whole pros and cons thing. and I said, okay, what would I do as a sergeant?

And now what sacrifices would I have to make if I'm a sergeant? Because I'm going to go back to midnight. You know, I got to deal with a lot more different people. I'm very good at controlling what I can control. Later to tell my wife, or ask my, she'll tell you, right? Like, we talked earlier about real quick about working out, right? Like, how amazing is it? You want to have a great podcast?

Here's what you got to do. And if you do the work, you can get there. And you're like, bro, say less. I don't have to depend on anybody. I don't have to have anybody like me or pick me. I'm going to do it. You want to get in better shape. Here's a roadmap to get in better shape.

You do it. You got it. I'm very good at that. Controlling other people or like expecting other people to have like the mindset that I have, I struggle with that. Because, you know, I don't, I don't deal well with, with, with, I always say I'm one of the biggest cop critics you're going to find. Like, I love what we do, man. Like, I'm so proud of what we do.

But if you are an asshole cop, you're an out of shape cop, you're an untrained cop, you're doing it for the wrong reasons, you're doing it because you have an ego, you're doing it because you were a bully when you were a kid, and I want to take it out in the world. Like, I don't want none to do with you. You know, that's not the reasons to do the job. So I'm like, man, do I want to deal with so many different personalities? So I decided not to do it. Never say never, but just not.

But then what I realized was, well, what could I do as a sergeant? Like, what I realized was that the things that I would do as a sergeant, I don't need the stripes. I don't need to be a sergeant to do them, like looking out for the next generation. So what I've done the last two years, one of the things that I do is we get what's called the major incident emails, MIs, right? Like my phone's outside. I turned it off to respect what we're doing here. And when I turn back the phone later on, I may have two emails that popped up for a robbery that occurred today for a, you know, a burglary or whatever, anything that's a major incident,

it goes to the whole agency. What I started to do about two, three years ago, anytime I see an MI email come out and it's a suicide, it's a baby that's, you know, died, anything traumatic, the MIs will tell you who handled that call. I will reach out to that person, whether I know them well, whether I haven't even met them yet. Hey, I heard you're on this call. Are you okay? What are they going to tell me 99% of the time? Hey, I hear, I appreciate you, brother, but I'm good. Okay, if and when you're not good, call me. Because what I think a lot of newer officers don't realize is a lot of these things, it doesn't affect you at the moment.

It'll affect you later on. And so for that worst call in my life, the crazy thing about that, that's 2013. And every now and again, of course, I would think about it. My, sister and my brother-in-law to this day still live in the community it wasn't literally until about two years ago so i mean this is 11 years after when i told my sister one day hey i've never told you but i'm very sorry every time i go to your house i'm in a pissy mood like i don't want to talk to people and you know i know you've been like what is up with this guy and this is and she of course was like why did you never tell me you know and i'm like i don't know but but you know i would just think about it every night again, not a huge deal.

2020 was crazy for many reasons, right? January of 2020, I get spine surgery. I had a really bad artificial, I had a really bad herniated disc in my neck. So I have an artificial disc. They go into the front. Been great since. But for the first time since I'm 14,

I'm three months without working. Months without going to the gym, Jiu-Jitsu. Spoiler. I don't handle that very well, right? And now we have COVID and that's crazy, you know, and then all these things popping off. And then all of a sudden, during that time,

because I wasn't even driving yet, this call from 2013 was all I can think about. Crazy. And I was new about PTSD. They train us on all these things. And I never, ever thought it was like bullshit, but I had never experienced it like that until this moment. And I'm like, bro, it's seven years later.

And now's when it's all I think about. I can't sleep. I close my eyes. I see the kid bleeding out. I see the dad yelling at him. Like, what is happening? And I'll never forget, because again, I wasn't driving yet for my surgery. I'm at a, it was called Metro Diner.

Amazing breakfast spot. They closed it after COVID. Piss me off. And I'm with my wife. We're just having breakfast. And I just tell, I'm like, I can't stop. And she's like, you can't stop what?

And I said, I can't stop thinking about this kid. And I start bawling again. This is seven years later. And I started bawling again. And she's like, babe, what the heck? She'll tell you, every night and again, I have like the nightmares or whatever, but nothing crazy.

And I'm bawling. And she's like, babe, I think you need to see somebody, you know? And I ended up seeing at the time, like the union, like, you know, psychologist or whatever. I don't know how much it just helped. I just felt like also like, and I mentioned all the things at that time was going on because I don't have jihitsu to kind of like

get my mind away from things. I don't like, I always say like I do all the distressers. Like jiu-jitsu, the gym, I ride a Harley, like I do all the things because you need all that stuff. I have friends outside of police work. I have a great family. You need all these things because we deal with such things that when the job is the only thing that you have,

I don't think that's the right recipe. You know what I'm saying? So that was not only of the worst call, of my life, but when I realized, like, how bad, like, PTSD really, really could be, you know. Do you think your career would end up differently if you didn't have that moment? I didn't that moment would have it came eventually, you know. But that was, of course, you, you know, you sign up for that. You sign up for that, but then, like, you know, they're hard when it comes, but then also, like,

you're kind of, it confirms it for you. Because there was that one, and then there was December 31st of 2014 when I was involved in an officer involved shooting. The only one that I've been involved in my career, the only time of my life that I've been shot at. And spoiler, it's not as fun as they make it seem in the movies, right? And I can give you the rundown real quick on that one, but that was another one where like, I almost got scared hours later when I was at home safe and I'm like, what the fuck?

What was I doing? Like, human instincts not to get shot at and run towards the guy shooting at you. Who you mean? It's like, yo, get out of dodge, you know what I mean? So that was another one. I'm like, maybe I was meant to do this job because, you know, like,

I, as another one, I can close my eyes, I can see the guy like back home they call it high-a-style, you know what I mean? But like, gangster style, right? Like, you know, shooting and me just charging. and it was another one of those moments, like I said, solidified like, this is what I was meant to do. So I think those moments, I think,

Frevy officer comes at different times. It can come your first day. It can come 10 years later. I don't know. But when I teach the new hires, I tell them, you're going to have those moments that are going to, yes, I was meant to do this job or no, this isn't for me. What happened that day of the shooting?

That day of the shooting. So at that time, I'm a detective in our street crimes unit. Streetcams unit deals with, we did honestly, we were like jack of all trades. We guns, gangs, dope, you know, and we'd help out other units as well. We would, you know, do follow-up investigations. We would monitor the juveniles on probation. We would, in doing follow-ups, we'd be like assigned cases. Well, I say assigned.

I always, and this is a little tip I tell the new hires as well. One of the things I say often is I'm big on being proactive, not reactive. Okay. I'm very, very big on, again, we can use physical fitness as an example. Don't wait to you have a health issue. Take care of your health, right? You're in a relationship. Don't wait until it's falling apart to work on it, right?

It's constant growth. Another thing I say often is there's no finish line. The second that you say, you know what, I've worked hard on this podcast, I don't got to improve on anything. I'm good. we'll see how that goes for you, right? But I'm pretty sure that you're always, how can I get better? How can I improve this and tweak this and tweak that?

Constant growth. And so I mentioned that because we would be assigned cases, but most of the time I would ask for cases. And the quick story on that is, I mentioned the major incident emails. I'm a detective in street crimes, and let's just say I get up between them morning to use the restroom.

I'd look at my phone. I always have my phone where I have to like get up to get it. But I'd kind of peek at it. Oh shit. A robbery just came out, you know, an hour ago. Two in the morning and I'd forward it, which I know my sergeant got the email as well, but I'd forward it so he's just coming from me. They're like, hey, Sarge, when you wake up, can I get this case?

You know what I'm saying? So I'd ask for a lot of because in that team, and I love that where like certain detectives on our team, it was a team of about 10, 8 to 10. of us depending on, you know, and, you know, these two guys love working stolen cars and this guy loves working fraud and they're like, I, I loved working robberies, burglaries, I don't mind. I love working robberies. I love working like physical, like violent stuff, like, you know, felony batteries, domestic batteries and all that stuff.

So I love following up on those cases. So when I would see an MI, man, I'd really quick send it to my, say, hey, can I get this one? So he wouldn't have the time. And he's actually my sergeant at the time. He's one of my best friends now. And but he loved that because he's like, this guy's not waiting to get told what to do. He's asking to do stuff, you know.

So Jack of all trades in that in that team. Great group of people. Like really go-getters. And we used to work so damn much in the, during the holidays, so much overtime. Because obviously some crimes spike up during the holidays. robberies, people coming out with bags and whatnot. And, you know, so even we would even, like, provide, like, extra patrol in the plazas.

You know, we have, like, a target in the city, Walmart, all these kind of things. So, but a lot of overtime and December 31st, 2014 was the last day of the year. But also, we were going to have an unheard of, like, five days off after that. So literally my sergeant texts in the group chat like, yo, everybody lay low today. Like, don't look for, don't look for that. I won't mean anything, right? You know, say? Like, relax.

And a bolo comes out, of being under lookout comes out from a robbery that occurred in Miami for a car. It was a white Nissan. I think it was an ultima. And the bolo comes out. and they had like a Miami Heat tag and they gave it the tag they were able to get the full tag sometimes you get like a partial

so when you get the full tag what can you do that you know they run it and they could tell you so when they gave the Bolo they gave the car description Miami Heat tag gave the full tag and that it comes back to Miramar we're like great so

one of our or two of our guys happen to be driving in the east side of this well we're all in the east side of the city, but they happen to see the car. They kind of go to pull over the car. The car takes off. I'm like, oh, here we go.

So, gets on the radio of the whole thing. And we, they did this on a chase. And I end up, we lose the original car of two detectives. At that day, I guess they were running together. We lose them early on in the chase, because the Nissan goes over like a median. There's like a super illegal U-turn on a median. We had just got chargers, bro.

We're like so cool with our low chargers. But they're super low, right? So they go over the median and the charger gets stuck. And I go around like the actual street. And we hit up from East Miramar, like we're on State Road 7, 441, get I-95, the Interstate. And I end up being the number two car. So the number two car on any chase Is the one that keeps advising dispatch

Where we're at, like constantly We're at this exit We're in this exit. We're 905 in this exit We're not, you know, I-95 and I've Derry Road Where we're at, you know, whatever Because the first car just focused on following Other other car I remember unmarked cars from other agencies

Miami-Dave like I mean If there was a guy from plantation heading home Or he made you, you know what I mean? They were all joining And it's crazy because Um, side note like I'm a stickler for my phone. I'm one of the team leaders

on our hostages and negotiation team. I cannot have my phone and do not disturb because I can get called out whenever. And I'm really like a pain in the ass with my team. Like I call you, like pick up the phone. You're negotiator. I may need you immediately. And I'm saying all that because

I'm in the middle of this chase. I'm the guy supposed to call out the radio like where we're at. And I text my wife. I love her. So tell me how in the leaders to follow, if like my wife doesn't respond to me in a few hours, I'm like, what the heck, man?

I did it when I was chasing these people. You know what I'm saying? So like, you know, but I remember that. I remember like, this is it. Like, she's gonna know I love her. I just text her. And they end up getting off on an exit in Miami and lose control.

They turn like on a block and lose control and crash against a wall. And the first guy, the passenger gets out and he books it. And so the first car, the detective in that card, gets out, books it. The driver comes out and now, like, you know, his car is, I'm kind of perpendicular to the car.

And I, again, I can close my eyes, I can see all this. He comes out. Yeah, a silver handgun. I'm like, yo, F this guy, bro. Like, you know, but it's so fast in the moment. You're just like, car and park, get out, unholsters, start running towards him. I'll never forget. And it's crazy because I went down a rabbit hole recently and we were looking at all reports.

to my cops listening, don't do this. Okay, because it's just. And then I went on the rabbit hole of like, I went to Google Maps and I went back to look at the scene. And I'm like, I'll tell my wife, I can, I can, this is where this happened. That's what I can see the whole thing. We're in a block. And there's kids out.

I remember like a lady with like three kids out in the, in the street. I'm sure you heard this before. We're responsible for every one of our rounds. Okay. Can't just shoot crazy. and everything happens so fast that I got out the car I'm unholstering I'm being shot at

I don't know how this guy didn't hit me I don't know how this guy didn't hit my car I don't know what he hit but I can see the muzzle flash I remember like yesterday and I start running I didn't know at the time another one of our guys

one of my colleagues passes me in his car while I'm running after him the other one had kind of like cut like the block before So as like if I'm driving straight to you I see you shooting at cops behind you So what if my man dude got out And it was what it was

Then it's Scene is done Try to render aid It was a crazy thing because when you're involved Anything like that whether you're the shooter or not shooter Like you are investigated People don't realize that And

It's crazy because I remember this is Miami. You ever seen First 48? Mm-mm. Okay. So First 48, I forgot what network it was on, but it's a reality show of detectives in different cities, and they had one in Miami. And because it tells you, like, as homicide detectives, the chances of cracking the case

after 48 hours goes down significantly. And I'll never forget where that's December 31st, days later, on my birthday, January 4th, I have to go to Miami PD headquarters to get interviewed by the homestead detectives. And when I get there, I'm like thinking to myself, holy shit, these are the guys from first 48. You know what I mean? And they were super nice to me. But fond of the purposes, like, I'm being questioned. I'm in a room.

I'm like on the side of this thing, right? Which I'm not used to. Being asked very specific questions about that incident. And it's, you know, and like your mind is kind of all over. But like the other thing where I, it's like a robot while I'm on scene. and then I break down on the way home after seeing the kid die. On this one, I go home.

My parents back then would host like a Christmas Eve, a New Year's Eve kind of thing. Nothing crazy, but I go home. I'm later than we're supposed to. But my wife's like, we should not go. I'm like, no, no, we're going to go. And I'm there. And I'm like, I remember being quiet.

You know what I'm saying? But I'm there with my family. I'm not a big drinker, but like the toast, you know, happen New Year and whatever. And it was like, Later on, getting home that, like, I got scared. Hours after it happened, I was like, what the hell was?

You know, it's weird to describe when I say I got scared later. Because in the moment, again, robot, just do it. But later on, it's like, this really happens, you know? This wasn't a movie. This is crazy, you know? So that was probably the second, like, most impactful one, probably. Is it hard to run towards the enemy to, you know, render aid in that moment? we see all the time in these shooting incidents on the news, the bad guy, you know,

will get shot by police and then police still have to go render aid to that person. It's just what we're trained to do. So to be honest, there's not a lot of thought behind it other than it's what we, what's what we do. I think, and that's where, again, this job's not for everybody. I've had gangbangers. I remember one particularly threatening to rape my daughter. there was a while I didn't wear my wedding ring at work.

I didn't want any, you know, the bad guy said, and I was married. I tell the rookies now, like, don't have pictures in your car, of your family and all that stuff. Be careful with social media. But, you know, so you do have those moments, but can I tell you that generally speaking, and I think that's what's helped me get on the negotiator team and be a decent negotiator is empathy is huge. And what I'm saying is that I've never, again, for those exceptions that you're threatening my family or whatnot, but I don't take things personal. I don't, I don't, I don't, I never arrest anybody unless, you know, they were fighting me or something like that. But like this whole notion of like, I hate, it goes back to me being a cop critic, right?

I hate the videos of like eight cops and one dude. And now you want to rough this guy up. I'm like, you're super tough, bro. with your little stupid taser and all that. Like, I've never shot my taser once. With my luck, I'll probably do it on Tuesday when I go back to work. You know what I'm saying?

But, you know, but, like, I'm big on being able to defend yourself if you need to, but also the way that you carry yourself will avoid a lot of those things. But, so, so, I'm that guy, I would arrest you, and I would joke with the people I arrested.

I wouldn't take it personal. And again, going back to empathy, I don't have to agree with what you do. did. Like, I probably wouldn't joke with you as much if you beat the shit out of your girl, because again, I told you why? Personally, that's the worst thing to me. But for other crimes, I didn't take it personal. And I have to, being empathetic, understand, I may not agree with what you did, but try to understand what made you on this day do this thing. That's very easy to say in theory, but in practice, it's hard. You have to work at it, you know? So, I'm that guy that I would arrest

people and I would mess with them and be like, yo, the next question is super important. The difference between the least charge you can get or I'm going to add charge your ass. Are you ready? Tupac or Biggie? You want me to pick? And they'd laugh. Right? They'd laugh and they'd be like, is that serious?

And I'm like, too, fuck. I'm like, oh, hell. Yeah. All right, bro. Leaks charge possible. You know, but they're like, oh, can this guy's not that damn bad? You know what I mean? Or like one of my things I'd be like, hey, they're in the back seat.

Hey, my man, what do you want to listen to? Oh, can you put it? No doubt. And they'll be like, bro, no one does that. I'm like, hey, it's not personal, bro. But that's why I have people that I've arrested that can call me. And they have my number. And that's why I can live in the city where I work.

And if I see you in Target, you know what I'm saying? Or the supermarket. I have no problem. Hey, it was good, man. How are you? Yo, Herrera, what's good? Because it's not personal. I've arrested people that I've written letters of recommendation for.

You know what I'm saying? Like, everybody makes mistakes. Everybody, like, you know, And so I don't think that like, the me. Zootopia 2 has come home to Disney Plus. Let's go. Get ready for a new case. We're going to crack this case and prove for the greatest partners of all time.

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slash trust for details. Versus them kind of attitude. I don't think that's the way to do law enforcement, you know. How do you transition from the detective bureau to a new position? So, loved my position as a detective.

That was my dream job. The thing with me, I gave you the backstory of my family. My family, again, my parents stood together. So being a good dad was very important to me. Being a good husband. and you hear you see with some of your colleagues like as you get years on the job bro like this dude's in his third marriage bro like fuck that sucks you know what i mean or like

got kids that resent him or whatever like you know that's why i said like i do all the things because i don't think that the job should be 100% who you are that's a recipe for disaster i know really really really good like investigators and their personal life are a mess or they're out of shape. What is the point of that? If you're not going to enjoy it, you're not going to live long to, you know what I mean? So I was already four years into that position feeling some kind of guilt. You know, I got three little ones at the time.

And I feel like I'm missing out on stuff. That sergeant of mine who now is one of my best friends, God bless him. Because any time that he would, you know, be able to help me out, he would. Like, hey, listen, I got it, you know. And sometimes he couldn't, you know, but I got this event, you know, for the kids. They had to go, we're coming early that day or whatever. But sometimes you couldn't because operational needs, right? And I'll never forget.

We're on vacation. And a department-wide email goes for the opening of a school resource officer. And I said, baby, like, what do you think? And to be honest, I was that guy that I would, like, when you asked me about a school research officer, like, F that, but that's where you go when you're old. And, like, you're going to retire and just coast through your, you know. then your career. But I'm like, man, like the schedule's great,

and I would be around more. And God bless my wife, she's like, don't do it for us. We'll be fine. But I'm like, no, like I'm missing out too much stuff. So I put in for it. I got it. They sent me to the perfect place.

I'm still there now. It's an alternative high school. So we do have a little bit of middle school. We have a lot of high school. We have adults that come in for like, GEDs. We have the ESol. They even have a daycare for like the teen moms, you know, but the school I'm at, that's where like you go if you got kicked out of your other school. And not every kid there's bad at all. Sometimes it's like a credit recovery thing where like they're struggling where they're at and they're going to come in.

This is more like kind of like self-paced, a self-paced program. But why I say it was the perfect spot for me is because it was the population that I was used to in street crimes. It's funny because I end the, up writing a children's book on school safety meant for little ones but I don't want to be an SRO with little ones all day I you know I told you earlier we've raised three kids they're adults now I like the population we're like I like that I can go to school you know we go by they're going to spring break now but when I go back and like I'm talking these kids about tattoos you know what I mean like and and I'm connecting with them on a different way like um it's different when they're when they're little, you know? And so it was a smooth transition for me because, again, I was dealing with the same

population. And at my school, still deal with my, you know, my dope sometimes. Guns I haven't had in a couple of years because they put a metal detector recently. They put metal detectors at the school a couple years ago. Before that, I'd at least get one gun off campus every year. But it's the population that I like. So it was an easy transition. But I always joke about, like, the first day I go and I go from like the tacked out like all black you know stuff back to like my road blues and I go back to the school so because part of what we do in street crimes like I told you we would monitor juveniles on probation so I would go to the school I'm at now as a detective to check up on different juveniles so when I go my first day as an SRO and I'm in like road blues

somebody's just you look at me like yo hoorah what are you doing here bro like what's up with that uniform and I'm like nah I play I'm not SRO here now they're like oh no you know what I mean like because I was just seeing them in another role. But the transition was good, man. The schedule was, the schedule is amazing. What's a common theme among these kids that commit crimes at a young age? A disaster at home.

Lack of a father. I know that people differ on this take, but I'll give you my perspective. I do not believe I grew up this way. I grew up in this area. These are my options. I think that's a cop out I think that that's

you know you're ready kind of putting yourself in that victim mentality I believe that you can do whatever you want to do within reason I don't care how hard I worked I'm five or a half six feet

in a good day I probably would never be a center in the NBA right? You know what I mean? But like within reason but to say like oh I'm in this area I grew up in this area like this is what I got to be like no And this is where, like, I connect with the kids where I'm at, because I tell them, listen, man, like, I grew up some kind of way.

Like, you know, we, I told you about the nucleus at home, fantastic. But we struggled financially and all that. Like, it's, we didn't know any better growing up until you get older and you see a whole another world. And you're like, man, like, you know, but the point is that just because you grew up a certain way, I had those friends that went to gang life. I got offered a few times growing up to join this gang and that gang. And I'm not, man, I'm not for that, you know, and I went this way.

And, you know, one of the events, I do an event in my school, it's called bawling for unity. So I'm in my ninth year in this position. So literally this past December was the ninth annual balling for unity. I started in my first year as a school research officer. And it's a basketball game between a team of Miramar police officers. and the high school team at the school that I'm at. And the reason why I did that was because early on, as the students got to know me,

they'd be like, man, here are you not like most cops, man? Like, you like the same kind of music. You like tattoos. You like, you know what you mean? Like you didn't come from no, like, rich neighborhood, you know, whatever, whatever. And I'd be like, if only you knew how many cops are like that. Like, stop going off of what you see on TV. You know what I mean?

Like there's a lot that had struggles that they were in your shoes now. and they just turned it, you know, turned their life around. And they just decided to become a police officer. And they're great. And so a way for me to get them to know these officers was I had a, I made up a basketball game.

And I'm very selective. There's some that have done it every single year. But I'm very selective on who I get over there because, number one, you have to have the right temperament, right? Like, you know, a lot of my population, they're street kids. Can't be having no brawls, you know, and basketball games between cops and high school.

school team, you know, but, but also, like, it's amazing because they get to see other, other cops like this, man, like, you know, like this guy grew up where I grew up, you know, and this guy grew up here and there and similar interest and whatnot. And, okay, maybe I don't have to just go gang or prison, you know what I mean, or die or whatever, you know, they see the different ways that you can, you know, maybe I can do military, maybe I can do that and you can, you can do in your life what you want to if you work for it, you know. How do you ensure safety in the schools, especially in today's world? It's very difficult.

Teachers are, they're tasked with such, such a difficult time this year, this time. Again, it's part of the reason why I wrote the book is because, you know, there's, there's teachers. They've been teaching 20, 25 years. I know you're younger than I am, right? But like, so Colin Bine, for me growing up, I was a junior in high school. And that was like, that was it. That was the one.

Now how many school shootings do we have a year? Too many, yeah. Too many, right? And so when you have these old veteran teachers that came into teaching, you know, one way, and now they're tasked with teaching lockdown drills and where to go for danger, they're not, they're not, it's no fault of their own. They're not trained for this. They're not police officers.

So when I wrote the book, I wrote it for them to kind of help kids navigate this, this tough part of life that they have now. But for like for my school, I, we do lockdown drills every month. We've had assemblies. I try to, I'm, I'm very strict with the teachers that I work with when it comes to safety. When it comes to the lockdown drills. Hey, listen, you make a mistake, no problem. Now, if you're making the same mistake five times, I'm going to be a little bit, you know,

I'm going to feel some kind of way about it because like I always said, like, every time we do a lockdown drill, we have a meeting. with like the principal, the administration, social worker, you know, like the leaders of the school. And I always say, listen, you know, any critic, you know, any feedback that I'm giving you, don't take it personal. Just keep in mind, God forbid somebody gets hurt on this campus. They're not going to ask, they meaning society, my bosses, your bosses, media, whoever. they're not going to ask where was the head custodial person where was the reading coach why did these kids get killed they're going to ask where was the SRO what was he doing or what was the cop and i'm not going to lose lives because you're not doing your job you know what i'm saying if you have any questions come to me if you want me to come to your class however many times come to me because their job you know what they're supposed to do in a lockdown depending on

where they're at and what they're doing, it's sometimes pretty basic. And I get it, they're not used to it. But you know what I mean? Like, but you have a resource there. And I'm going to first tell you because another reason why I wrote the book was if you're in a school where newsflash, all cops are not amazing. And if you're in a school with an SRO that's just not doing their job properly, in my opinion, shame on you, number one.

But also, you're leaving this school vulnerable to those kind of incidents, you know? So I think being proactive, not reactive. is the key. Helping these teachers to be prepared. Helping, you know, staff know what to do in different scenarios. My staff knows I run my lockdown drills differently. What I mean by that is there's a lot of SROs

and I'm not talking shit. It just is what it is. That they'll do the lock. They're like, I got to do this lockdown drill once a month because it's supposed, so okay, I'm going to do it in the middle of class all the time during this period or that period or whatever when everyone's kind of like in their room safe and sound no big deal lock your door go go hide in the corner are you really preparing for

the worst by doing it the same way all the time no so the way that i do it is i'll look for like a key thing i'm looking for that month for example i like to do it a lot when there's a lot of chaos going on in between class change hallways right like teachers going to the restroom coming back or whatever call lockdown well what are you going to do and so one of my things is and it's happened before and you know well tell teachers you let whatever kids come in in that immediate moment when there's a lockdown true i don't care if they're in your class or not now there's a certain time and then this this part's hard to to this you know to explain to to teachers because going back to the totality of circumstances

it depends at the time of the emergency. How much time do you have that door open? So, for example, if you are in the west side of the school, second floor, you hear the lockdown drill, but you don't see bodies dropping, you don't hear gunshots, you don't see any threat. You may have a few more seconds to, you know, you had the door open, let's say you're welcoming kids in

and to grab as many as you can, as opposed to, you know, because maybe the incidents on these side of the school in the cafeteria or whatever, as opposed to if you see lockdown drill the announcements come on and you see the shoot over there

a little less time to get that door closed so you can grab one grab one you can grab two grab two but you can not sit in there like yo Johnny you run faster come here like you gotta hope that whoever else is over there is going to open the door for them you know or get them in

so that's a judgment call at the moment but you have to prepare for these situations I've called the lockdown drill in the middle of lunch sorry and what's school gonna do school's gonna extend the lunch anyway You know what I mean? Like they'll figure it out with the kids. But you have to, I've done it in the,

in the last one I did this last week. I did it in the middle of like all the buses pulling up in the beginning of the day, employees coming in with their lunchboxes and stuff like that. And I called it. What are you going to do? And I'm trying to be an asshole and like ruin your breakfast. You know what I'm saying?

I'm trying to get you to be prepared for what may happen, you know? And so I think that's important. I think I wish every, every ester would do it that way. and, you know. Are there warning signs to look for in some of these kids at school that you're alert for? I think so. I think when you see, for example, like, change of behaviors caused by, like, change of circumstances. And I can tell you where I'm at such an amazing, amazing, amazing team of social workers,

a counselor that they're on top of all these things. And anything that's a concern to them, they bring it to my attention. but for example like you'll see somebody and they go through a loss or their parents get divorced or let's call it what it is their parent there's somebody in their family get supported right and you see this person used to be like you know kind of regular style of clothing and just a regular kid and now they're very dark they're very like you know and i don't want to you know but like they're the way they're dressing the way they're acting they're getting into trouble they're they're they're they're you know um they're very picky nowadays with like they call them btas

behavior threat assessments like if you have an art project and you draw somebody with a gun it's like we got to talk to you like what's going on and we have to document it okay but see stuff like that like you're drawing like a bunch of knives or like or you're or you had a in english class you had to write a poem and you're writing about like life's not worth it like it's stuff like that I think that you have to pay attention. It's crazy because I think everything in relationships, marriage, whatever, like kids, your health, it boils down to like be proactive, not reactive.

There's no finish line, meaning you're never satisfied. But also, pay attention. Pay attention to your spouse. Pay attention to your health. Pay attention to all these things. And so when you see those little changes, sometimes the kids don't come to you. I've had kids that come to me.

I had one. I used to call him a pistol Pete, not the gangster pistol Pete, the basketball player from the 70s because he had the real like shaggy, long hair with like the real long mustache, right? And it's crazy because, of course, he didn't know who Pistol Pete was.

And I'm like, man, this dude was awesome. He was like Magic Johnson before Magic Johnson. And of course, he's like, I don't know him Magic Johnson was. I'm like, shit. You know what I mean? But he looked like Pistol Pete. And the kid was like he would be bigger acted a lot.

He would have suicidal tendencies. And there were days he would come right to me. Hey, Herrera, I'm feeling like that again today. Oh, man. Are you okay? You want to talk? No, I just, you know, I know I got to be bigger acted. All right, my man, come and I'll make it the most pleasant situation for him.

And there were the times that he may be in trouble or, like, having a bad day. And I'd be like, yo, you good today? I know you had a rough day with Ms. So-and-so, you know, but anything else we got to talk about? No, no, Herrera, I don't feel like that today. And I go, okay, great, bro. We can get past that of this. That would be good, you know? But, yeah, I think for teachers, counselors, you know, admin, whoever, SROs, look for the changes in behavior.

Look for, like, you know, just personality changes. You have friends, family. You have your personality. Would somebody notice if you just went mute for, you know what I mean? Like for a week, right? Somebody would be like, oh, you're off a little bit, right? Like, I think so, but as professionals, we got to do that as well. Do you think now that parents are being held accountable in the legal system that there's going to be a change?

I think that's very tough because there's cases. I think it depends on the case. There's cases where I see like, how did the parent not know? Don't tell me you didn't know. And this is where I think parenting is failing. I used to call it in my house when the kids were little. Open search and seizure. I can't tell you if I did it 10 times their whole childhood.

because unless they gave me a reason to. But if they gave me a reason to it because there were kids, give me your phone. Unlock it. Okay. Okay. I know who they're talking to. I know.

Again, if I didn't have to do that, few and far between. But know it's available and know that I'm going to do it whenever the hell I see fit. And so is your mother. Okay. So the whole notion of like, I didn't know he had 10 guns under his bed. He keeps that room locked.

It's his room. No, it's your fucking house, man. Crazy. I hate that. I hate that so much, like, these parents nowadays where it's like, you know, we're going domestics or like I see parents at the school. What do I do? I'm like, what do you do? Your parent, your kid?

Your kid's rocking the newest Jordans with, like, badass clothes and like all fancy stuff and treating you like dog shit. Take all that away. Go to Walmart, buy the cheapest shirt you can find the most ragged looking pair of jeans and the most embarrassing shoes and have them wear that. The losses you have to feed them, clothe them. and, you know, take care of them. Feed them, clothe them, and give them a roof over the head. They don't tell them you got to give them their own room with an iPad and PS freaking 7 where we're at now, you know what I mean?

Or whatever it is, it's insane to me. And so when you go on these domestics and you're like, no wonder they're not listening to your rules. Like, and again, I don't want to make it seem like I'm this like, you know, super rough like parent. Like, I would talk to my kids. Hey, this is why we got to do these things. But can I tell you also that sometimes where it's like,

Hey, you know why, Jacob? Because I said so. That's it. I grew up like that. My dad would talk and explain things, but other times it was like, because I said so. What do you mean? Why do you, why vacuum the house? Why not vacuum the house?

Why not do the dishes? You know what I'm saying? And that's where my wife and I always, like, we would talk about as the kids were growing up, like, what a difference in the way these kids are growing up than we grew up. But let's continue to make sure they have what we did have growing up. structure, discipline, responsibilities. I can't understand for the life of me where you let this kid do whatever they want

and they get everything they want. Like, get the hell out of here. Even if they're doing amazing, like you don't get whatever you want whenever you want it. You got to work for it. Yeah. You got to wait for it. And so to answer your question,

like it's a case-by-case scenario. I do think that there's sometimes, there's great parents and the kids just, they're going to do what they're going to do. And if there wasn't any warning signs, I'll put it this way. I don't think a parent should be held responsible. If there was no way for the parents

to know what they were going to do, what do I mean by that? Check the rooms. Check the, nothing on social media, and those are few and far between. That's rare. Nothing on social media. No warning signs.

No diaries. No, you know, bazookas under the bed. The kid just flipped out. Well, then how the hell was the parents supposed to know? The kid was a good kid. He did that, whatever. But you don't see those often. You see.

they had a freaking manifesto. They had guns. What do you mean? Again, no, that's my closet. Don't open that. No, bro. Like, I'm searching whatever. I don't see a world, in other words,

where I don't know what's in my home. I don't know what's in my kid's closet. I'll give you an inch. You can't handle the inch. We're pulling it back. You can handle the inch. I'll give you a foot. We'll keep going from there.

That's how I always treated my kids. And that goes from, like, violence stuff for like attitude stuff, social media, so like when you drive, you got your license, cool. You're not going to go wherever you want. Go to Publix. Give me a sub real quick.

Let me see if you can handle that. You know what I mean? And then take it from there. We're not like got a license and the next day we're going to go take a four-hour trip overnight with our friends. Like, no, like you got a baby step to these things and earn your way up.

I think a big part of the problem is the parents splitting and then one parent have to, you know, provide for the child. For instance, I did this child mentorship program. working with juveniles that were in the system. And in every case, there was only one parent at home. Usually the mother, the dad was out of the picture, and the mom's working all day.

Yes. Has no idea what the child's doing all day, and that child tends to just get into more trouble. Yes, and that's why I say, I've taught my kids this. When I talk to young people, I think the biggest decision in your life is who you're going to spend it with.

and who you're going to have kids with. Can you come back from certain things? Absolutely. Are you putting yourself behind the eight ball? If you have a kid with the wrong person, yes, you are. Because now to your point. And I think sometimes we,

as society, like, we think we can change people, man. I know, like, we should be changing and evolving and getting better. But, like, you know, you married this dude and he was, like, an idiot before. Like, what do you think that you're going to, like, getting pregnant, that was the end.

Like, that's going to change them. Like, no, you know what I'm saying? And so I think having a male role model, and I get nowadays, I get it. And I will tell you on record here, male and females are not equal. Females are so much better. You know what I'm saying? Like, they're so much better. And, you know, we like to be very tough, but like, what's the stereotype, right?

Like, we get a cold and we're, like, the biggest babies, right? And, like, these women are giving birth, and they're, like, just, like, soldiers, man. Like, you know, like, they're so tough and they're so much better and delicate and beautiful than men are. But I think there's certain things that, especially for like a young boy,

they need a male role model. Because if not, they're going to get it from somewhere. What are they seeing? So they're either going to see dad or uncle or grandfather or they're going to see gangbanger, you know, drug dealer or whatever. And so, but I think little boys, same way again, little, little girls.

My daughter turned 13. It's another one of these things that I mentioned. We were like, bro, like, you gave it to her straight? I'm like, yes, because I don't want her to be surprised. I'm not going to, I wasn't going to raise my daughter to be like, no, like, you see Cinderella, that's how it's like. No. 13 years old, I tell my daughter, walk in her room Monday.

Hey, listen, it's time. mom gave you her version from the woman's perspective of this transitional time in your life. I'm going to give you the guy's perspective. And I looked at the dead in the eye and I said, from now, for the rest of your life moving forward, guys will look at you two ways. The girl I'll sleep with and the girl that I'll marry.

Which one do you want to be? The girl I'll fall around with and the girl that I'll marry. And how do you decide? How you carry yourself? I'm obviously biased. I think my wife is hot as fuck. Right? And I told, I said, I think your mom is gorgeous.

Tell me the time that you've seen your mom and I go out or your mom go out or whatever. And she's dressed like a slut or, you know what I mean? Like, like showing everything or whatever. Never. She teaches yourself for respect. She gets respect. But if you, you know, you're looking for attention, the wrong reasons and, you know, acting in a way that that's, you're going to to get crap you know and spoiler alert i'm sorry for ruining game for so many dudes but i told

i go you know guys are gonna lie they're gonna tell you everything they're gonna buy you things they're gonna just to try to get in your pants you can't be like that and now 20 years old how freaking proud i am of the woman she is you know what i'm saying like she she she like to fool her and like you know like trap her and and no man like she's she's she's with it and she's you know she's got a boyfriend, he's a good dude, you know, but like she very much, like, is about respect and all these things I would also say to her since she was little. When you're looking at potential guys to date, look at how they treat the women in their lives when they are upset with them.

What I mean by that? When they are upset at their mom, is he on the phone with you? Oh, fuck that bitch, man. I can't stand her stupid ass. Or is it, no, you know, my mom really, like, piss. me off, you know, like I'm just really upset with my mom. You see the difference? Because if he's calling his mom all these words and his sister, all these words, just because he's upset, what do you think he's going to call you? And that's one thing I'm super proud. I've known my wife. Holy shit,

I'm old. 31 years. I have never called my wife a bitch, ever. She has never called me like a fucking asshole. Do we argue? Spoiler order, yes. But we keep a respectful. It's what I call fighting fair. we keep a respectful. We don't curse at each other. We don't, we definitely don't touch each other. We don't, you know, so these are the kind of things that I think kids need to kind of like learn and see. And if they don't get it at home, like where are they going to get it from, right? Like, again, and we hear all the time great stories of like this coach, you know, like Tyson.

We're talking about Tyson earlier, right? Like, you know, customer model took him in and he got to see these values and all, you know what I mean? Like from a guy that his life was disaster and he's had his challenges, obviously. But you know what I mean? But at some point he saw this stability. We've heard stories about that. And I think it's important that, you know, that's why I commend you for what you're doing.

I think it's great. I've always, my whole thing also is to be of service to others. I think that's, you know, such a, it's the meaning of life. If you're only looking out for yourself, what is the point of that? You know, I've taught my kids like, you don't have to be a police officer.

Do what, follow your heart. But always, always. always be of service to other and always take care of people that are nice to you for no reason you know nothing in it for themselves all these podcasts that i've like come out on um i've always told like the host like you have a friend for life because you had no reason to like have me on and be nice to me i'm just some dude man you know what i mean like and every one of them where he became friends with with with Kevin and and if Kevin call me tomorrow yeah it said everything happens for a reason, but maybe everything happens for a rees.

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So that came about six years ago. I'm big on communication. I tell you about my dad always has been like he's a great communicator. My mom too, but my dad, I mean, he would explain, you know, like, this is why you're in trouble. but you know what I mean? Like, not just like, you're in trouble, you're punished or whatever, but let me explain to you like how we can do this better. So for me, communication is super important.

And I just started to like kind of be proud of that, you know, I was the kind of cop. I am the kind of cop that when I go to a scene, you're going to calm things down. Everybody knows those cops that when they get in a scene, you're like, yo, I'm good, bro, like you can clear. Because they're going to end things. up. That's the worst. And that's a hard thing for newer cops. Do I teach them as well?

Where I tell him like speak up respectfully, but speak up because you may have those situations where, you know, a cop gets on scene and he's in a row. You're seeing up and then you're dealt with the consequences, writing the paper for it and the whole thing. But I started to see that like, man, like it almost like a like a challenge. Like I love calming something down that could have been escalated. There are certain things and we can get into that of like skills that that we learn. Is it rocket science? No, man, it really isn't. You know? And so the position came up about five, six years ago. I put in for it. And again, one of those things were like when I get my first like, you know, opportunity to be like a lead like, you know, the lead negotiator, you know,

And then I get another one, and I get another one. And then, you know, this may seem very silly, but I mentioned this a lot where I think it's a good thing. I think it's a good perspective, you know. I've had these calls where I'm like the lead negotiator, it's work mode again. And I just do the job. And then hours later, the suspect comes out or whatever it is and it's all safe. And I get in the car, I'm driving home, and I'm like, that was freaking cool. Like, I was like Bruce Willis and fill in the blank movie.

You know what I mean? Like, I was like, that was cool, you know? And then my wife, guy, I got home, she said, how was it? I'm like, I was freaking awesome. And I'm like a little kid. But in the moment, I was just work mode. But I think that's a great perspective to have because I think, what's the alternative? Like, just another day in the office.

Like, no, bro, relax, bro. Like, you know what I mean? Like, that whole thing of, like, take what you do seriously, but don't take yourself so serious. You know what I mean? And so I love that I still feel like a little kid doing the work. But it's, it's just a great thing. We actually had to call out last week. And, you know, but again, those moments where it's like, there's always those moments in these calls where you're like, bro, how the heck am I going to get this person is being just difficult, bro.

Like they don't want to come out. They don't like, they're like, F you. They're hanging up on you. And so again, I think there's different skills. And I always say the skills that we work on as negotiators, they absolutely, another running joke is like, it was, it doesn't work in my marriage. Ha, ha, ha. I'm like, nah, bro, yes. It makes you a better person overall.

it makes you a better husband, father, friend, because going back to what I said earlier, ultimately, it's paying attention. Okay? Basic example, one-on-one, because we all have been guilty of this. If you and I are just homeboys hanging out, having breakfast,

and you're telling me about, you know, whatever, it's a problem you're going through. And I'm like, uh-huh. No, that's cool. Hey, man, sorry to hear that, brother. You know, yeah, no, hold on. Hashtick, tweet it, you know? right like you're gonna be like you have this guy i don't want to talk to this guy right where if i'm like

kind of lean forward sounds like you went through a rough time you know it seems like that was very rough on you you're gonna be like yeah you know like maybe you want to feel i always say the difference between hearing which is just the physical act you know the physical uh part of your ears receiving the noise right and listening which is paying attention everybody in christ crisis, everybody, whether you're in a crisis or not, but especially people, when people are in crisis, because people ask me like, what do you see? What's the common theme? They want to be paid attention to. They're lonely. They're having this bad day, but they feel like they have nobody to go to, you know? So again, yes, there are skills that we work on. I, I'm not even joking,

every single day I work on these skills. Mirroring is one of them. And to, put it out there i didn't make up any of these things um these were skills developed a lot of them by the fbii for many years i don't know if you've heard of chris voss former fbi negotiator he was he wrote a book never spread a difference a lot of business people read this book because it's just again it's who cannot benefit from being a better communicator chris voss's boss was gary nosner gary noisner you're familiar with the whole waco thing back in the day okay so gary nozzan Nolzner was the head of the FBI negotiation team at that time. Through the book, it's unbelievable and it's crazy, and I don't like the name drop,

but I just think it's one of those moments where it's like, cool, like, I exchange text messages like every two weeks with Gary Nolzner, you know? Because in my world, he's like the shit, you know what I mean? And he's retired, now such a nice guy. And I don't, you know, we don't text more because I don't want to bother him, you know what I'm saying? But he even wrote a review for the book, and he's just fantastic. and he developed a lot of these techniques, you know,

where, like, they're all just how to be a better listener. So, like, mirroring, which is like repeating the last two or three words. So if you say, like, you know, you know, I don't, I don't like steak, man. I like chicken. You don't like steak. Yeah, man, the texture of it, it's just, I don't, I don't really enjoy it. It's something that's gooey. If it's not cooked, right, I mean, if it's cooked, medium, well, I can do, media,

well like oh so you like meaning well yeah but it has to be you know what i'm going to get you to talk more that's one of them labeling is probably what i use most looks like sounds like feels like you're telling me about your bad day or your rough childhood something as simple as like seems like you had a rough childhood or you know it sounds like that divorce your parents went through was really tough on you what does that tell you i'm paying attention you know i hate when they say like these skills sometimes are like, you know, manipulation or like trickery. It's not. It's just being, I genuinely am interested in communicating with you and in being a better listener

to show you that I'm, one of the things I tell people in crisis, I'm right here with you. I'm right here with you. These skills not only help you, obviously, personal life and whatnot, but they help you be a better cop. Because again, and I think a lot of it also is dropping the ego. I work the road still when there's no school. Like next week is spring break, I'll work the road. And I may go on a domestic. I'm Officer Herrera.

What the heck's going on here? Bro, get out of here with that, bro. I don't do that. I don't do that. Hey, I'm Danny, and I do this thing. I'll put my hand on your shoulder. I'm Danny. What's going on?

No, I think we got to drop the ego as police officers. I think we need to, like, be humans. And again, be empathetic. I'm not saying be a pushover. because sometimes I think it's, I do think sometimes there's too much de-escalation, the escalation, drop the knife 17 times, like, no, relax.

So I always say, I always joke, like, there's a part where there's no more negotiator Danny. Don't get in my bubble, and for sure don't touch me. And you have to train for these things also, which is a whole other thing that I talk about, like, Jiu-Jitsu and physical fitness, and I think I touched on it earlier where, like, I think you avoid a lot of incidents

how you carry yourself. I've been told many times by like street dudes. Like, her, you know, you know why we fuck with you, man? And I'm like, because I'm nice. I thought to you. Yeah, cool. But the way you carry yourself, your uniform's always on point. Like, it's not wrinkled.

It's not like overly like it's not dirty. You know, your uniform is fit for you. You could tell you work out. Like, nothing about. about you says I can mess with this guy. And it's crazy because you're familiar with a guy named Blake Cook. So he's been on a certain podcast. We've connected on the ground, but I was actually in another podcast that with a born primitive

tactical, it's a company that he now works for. But he went on Sean Ryan and he spoke about the same thing. And when he said it, I was like, bro, that's me talking. But it's true for a lot of officers, whether they have the platform to talk about it or not. You don't think, like, criminals are looking at you and saying, oh, I can fuck with that Or like, no, but this guy's about his business. Yes, also, I treat people with respect. I leave the ego at home.

I'm not here to, you know, again, it's not personal. But I think the way you carry yourself is big. Then there's these communication skills as a negotiator that you can use every day because, again, I think connection is important. I think people want to be heard. You have to give people the opportunity. Again, when you have people in crisis, they just want to be heard. And so while there's techniques and skills and all these things that as a negotiator,

I think sometimes people get confused and they're like, well, you must be a smooth talker. And I go, now I'm an amazing listener, which is more important. I would say that our ears in our mouth is our biggest tools of police officers. Forget about the bat belt, you know what I mean? But the ears being number one. And you can, I'm not saying that's the answer for everything. There's some situations there are non-negotiable, you know what I mean? But start with that.

and you would eliminate a lot of unnecessary, you know, incidents that escalate for no reason. I love being known as, like, a de-escalator, you know? What do you think is the most common call you respond to as a hostage negotiator? Where one's actually... Domestic-related things. Yeah. Domestic-related things? I'm trying to think about one that wasn't domestic-related.

The one last week was the woman thought her husband was cheating. and then she barricaded herself. I had one where it was a former student at the school that I'm at. And this was a challenge because there was no way I couldn't get him on the phone. He had dished the phone. And he was hiding in a shed. He hit his pregnant girlfriend for whatever reason, ran to the neighborhood, and then barricaded himself in a shed.

on a random backyard with a gun. And I wasn't going to be the lead that day. So the way it works, when you go on these calls as a negotiator, you don't know sometimes like who's best for the role. So as a team unit, that's part of my job sometimes when we get on these scenes. And sometimes I'm the first one there and it's just, I'm going to make contact or I'm going to be the guy. But sometimes like in a perfect world where I have, you know,

three, four, five of my people, okay, based on what I know about the suspect, okay, Ian, you're up, and, you know, so-and-so, you're going to be the coach. The coach is like the number two. And then this person is going to be Intel. And this person is going to be like the scribe,

writing down the important stuff, right? But those, you have to be able to do all those positions, in other words, right? Obviously. Well, not obviously, because there's some people that, it's like in SWAT. Not everybody wants to be the sniper. Not everybody wants to be the breacher.

There's different roles. I tell my guys, like, there's nothing wrong with, like, if you love being intel, fantastic. I don't not want to be intel. I don't want to be on socials looking people up and, like, you know, I love being the lead negotiator, you know? But so on this one, I was going to be the coach. And we're doing, you know, kind of getting, and you don't want to rush to make these calls either unless it's like, really like dire circumstances. And so we're finding out about this person, any negotiator, you want to find out hooks and triggers is what we call it, right? Like, hooks are essentially what's a good thing to bring up to you, okay?

Typically, kids are going to be a good thing. What's triggers? Well, if it's domestic, the spouse is going to be a trigger. So don't keep harping on the spouse because he's going to piss them off. So we at least want to find that out. And on this one that I was supposed to be the number two, when we run the person and we see his face, I tell my sergeant at the time, I'm like, yo, I know this dude.

I don't know him well, but I remember him. He went to the school years ago. Oh, shit, your lead. All right, bad. He's hiding in the shed, no phone. So they end up putting me in the bear cat. The bear cat, think like the bat truck, like the dope ass, right? gangster, right? Like truck. And

I'm there with the SWAT guys. And I'm on like the freaking bullhorn, like on the PA. And it was challenging because I don't get any verbal feedback. But I start with, you know, hey, you know, so-and-so, this is, this is Danny Herrera. I'm the officer, you know, at the school here when you went to the school, you know.

I don't actually remember me, but I remember you. And I go, hey, do me a favor. You know, if you can hear me, you know, like, throw a brand, out the shed or something and he you know the sniper will tell me hey he threw it and I go great great great buddy I'm right here with you man you know whatever and I started to tell him like this is where another thing that I was I was raised on you never know who's gonna see you anytime that you go out of your house man and how that's going to impact some part of your life so always look decent but always be kind you never know when it'll come back and

I start telling him like, hey, I don't know what you remember about me as the SRO over there, but I'm minding my word. I remember you, you never, like, I barely spoke to you. I would have to say what's up or whatever. Like, you never had any issues there. You know, I've told the SWAT guys, like, you're not a threat, where you're just having a bad day. You're just having a bad day. It's okay. You have my word.

I'm going to keep you safe, you know, but you got to listen to me. Little by little, you know. And then again, every night again, like, hey, throw out another branch or whatever. And then finally kind of reassure, hey, I don't want SWAT involved, you don't want SWAT involved. You know, again, I told my guy, stand down. I said, I did hear you have a gun in there. You cannot come out of that gun. Okay.

But listen, when you're ready, I'm going to have you come out this way, you know, turn to your left, come out to the side gate there that there's there. with your hands up the whole time, you have my word. Again, I don't know what you remember about me as an SRO, but I'm a man in my word. I guarantee you. Not many guarantees in life. I guarantee you. You're not going to be harmed if you listen to me.

Whatever happened earlier today, we don't get past that. We don't want anybody hurt. I don't want you hurt. I told my boys, I know you. Hey, all right, he's coming out. I'm like, oh, because I couldn't even see him before I was at. He came out bawling. crying, you know, and they have to clear the shed swat does. The gun was there. You know what I'm saying?

But that was off of domestic, you know? I had another one where, where this was an interesting one. I'm going to go, again, no phone. I'm negotiating through a garage door. The funny thing with this one is because it's like, sometimes cops have like the worst look. I had a wedding the night before, one of my Jiu-Jitsu buddies. And I don't even remember what city it was. I don't know if we were around like Boca Raton. Far enough, we're like, while we're in the wedding, my wife and I were like, we should have gotten just a hotel and like stay here. This is dumb.

Like to drive back, right? I think I'm not a big drinker, so that wasn't the issue. It's just like, you know, you're having a good time. And you got to drive like an hour and a half back. It's like stupid. And I tell my wife, it was Saturday night. And my wife and I, Sunday, you know, we usually get up and we'll go straight to the gym. And I tell my wife, hey, no alarm tomorrow.

We'll wake up when we wake up. We'll go to the gym when we go to the gym when we go to the gym. you know because it's a long night but also retired from like the week or whatever by the time we get back from this wedding and shower and go to bed it's like during the morning and you know when you hit that pillow and you're like oh heck yeah bro i got called out an hour later i was like bro come on so you called out and it's this guy big guy and you know again getting information he's in a garage with his ex-girlfriend who was on some kind of drugs

because she would not stop yelling and crying and by like yelling. Like if I try to yell like she was yelling for 10 seconds, I'd like lose my voice and she just wouldn't stop. And I'm like, what? And he had a rifle. And I'm like, what is happening right now? Little by little, start getting intel.

I hear like the, he's close with the mom. The mom's a hook. It's a good thing. And can't get him on the phone. So we got to do this call face to face, even though it was like face the garage. And I remember like that the command staff did not like it because a rifle around can go through that. And I was like, and again, stupid work mode, but I'm like, I don't give a shit.

Like this is the way I got to do. I can't hear him. I can't hear him, you know? So I got my partner at the time, he's holding up a shield, the poor guy. Sometimes his arm's about to fall off because this is not like a five minute thing. So I'm through the shield, but I can barely hear. So I'm like, get the stupid shield out of my face, you know? And I'm like, and I would bang on, hey, listen to me, bud, you know?

And I'm trying to like do my thing or whatever. But early on I tell him, hey, I got to be honest with you. My higher-ups are not going to let me be here for three hours, bro. Like you have your girl there. Like, that's another thing. You don't lie. Don't ever, ever lie as a negotiator. They catch you in the lie.

Any rapport you built is, it's a rap. And the girl's screams. He's like, I'm not letting, I'm not telling her she can't go. She's like, you're blocking the door. You're blocking the door. You don't let me go. You let me go. He's like, and I'm like, and I know by seeing, you know, we looked him up and he's a big dude.

And I end up, he's a lot going on because like, my focus is talking to him. But I have my number two and he's like, hey, the mom's coming on scene. And I'm like, what? Okay, whatever. Yeah, be careful with that. We get like a third party, you know, involved. It could be great. could be bad. Why could it be bad? If you have somebody who wants to kill themselves and kill somebody else,

don't give them the chance to say goodbye to their loved ones, right? But, so you have to kind of, like, feel it how it works that day. They said it was going to be a good thing. Okay, never happened before, never happened since. I hear the mom in the bear cat and the, the, the, the bat truck, on the PA. Baby, baby, baby, it's your mom. And I'm like, what the hell? What's happening right now? Never seen that before and she says uh and i go hey tell the mom to save my name listen to danny listen to danny keep keep saying that and she goes baby listen to danny he promises you're not going to get hurt listen to him and then i hear her saying baby remember that friend of ours that we know from miami he's here and in my mind i'm like what the what is he's talking about and i'm like whatever you know

I'm like, okay, cool, you know. And it wasn't until, so she was getting the PA and she's like, listen to Danny. And I go, hey, bro, mom's here. I'm banging on the garage. And I'm like, mom's right here, bro. Like, stay with me. She's here. You're fine.

You know, you haven't hurt her yet. Like, mind you. I cannot stress you enough. This girl does not stop screaming. I don't know how physically she was able to do that. It gets still a point. We're like two hours something into this thing. Now, as negotiators, we are prepared to be there.

day, every day. Swat, they want to break down the shit and get that and go have lunch, right? And I'm not talking shit about SWAT. We worked great together. They're great dudes. And, you know what I'm saying? But just different. As a matter of fact, like, the difference between when I started to, like, now of the two teams working together has just been so much better, you know, and I never took that personal. They want to do what they're trained for. We want to do what we're trained for. But it wasn't until, like, they're like, yo, like, SWAT's going to end up, like, breaching. he sees from inside the garage you know that the you know I'm talking to the garage door that separates outside of the house too inside the garage but inside the house obviously he can see from the windows

through the door that goes into the living room or whatever wasn't until he sees SWAT approaching and this guy's like six four like 300 and he starts like crying what are they doing here what are they doing here and I'm like I'm like hey stay with me stay with me stay with me and I go listen to me Listen, I told you two hours ago, they're not going to let me be here all day talking to you. You have a rifle. You cannot like pretend reality isn't what's happening. It's another thing, you know, like, got to call it what it is. I told you they're not going to let me be here all day.

You have a rifle. You have this girl here. You see SWAT now. You don't want SWAT involved. I don't want SWAT involved. Come out to me, I guarantee your safety. And I said this thing I'm going to say now, and it's not textbook, and you have to be careful.

And later on, I remember one of the higher-ups telling me respectfully, like, you know typically you wouldn't say that. And respectfully, I rebuttal, yep, but it worked. And there's a reason why I said it. Point is, there's no textbook shit. So different circumstances, do what you got to do. But I said, we're running out of time

for this to go the way you and I wanted to go. you see SWAT moving in. I don't want them involved. You don't want them involved. Come out. We're running out of time. That could have been bad, right? Because then it's like, you know,

but five seconds later, the garage door opens up. My partner yanks me for safety. They go and they get them. Safe? No problem. Walking around, you know, I went those type of thing.

As soon as it's over, like you're ticking, I had the whole vest, the helmet thing, whatever. Give me a water. the bear cat opens up and the mother comes out shaking and like crying where's danny where's danny when she sees me she gives me the biggest hug man and this is where i got no shame i almost got emotional you know what i'm saying thank you so much thank you so much for not having let me my boy get hurt not let my boy get hurt and then out of the bear cat comes that friend that she mentioned remember from miami it was my chief of police i was like i ended up finding out later on because he used to

you know, work for Miami, there was an incident many years ago where those families connected, and he had kind of like built like an acquaintanceship with that family. But I was like, well, I guess that wasn't a bad one for the two to see. You know what I mean? Like, but it was a great team effort and I'm glad that like, that's another thing from the five, six years since I got on the team to now, like the respect that the team is getting. It's part of such an amazing group of people. And it's like, again, such pride in like taking these really bad situations and like calming them down. So that was one of my good ones. What do you think the most important lesson that being a cop has taught you, life lesson?

We're all humans, man. We're all humans. And like, you know, I'm, I'm a man of faith. I'm not, I wouldn't say, I'm religious. My tattoos may tell you otherwise, you know. There's certain Bible verses that have, there's one in particular that has saved my life. When I, when I lost, when I had that loss in 01, very dark time in this one Bible verse. Mark 1124 says therefore I say to you whatever you ask for in prayer believe you have received it and it will be yours That verse saved my life. I wouldn't be here otherwise Because as dark times as I went through I always believed

There was a light in the tunnel you know that light was a dot right like but it was in the tunnel and it wasn't overnight I had to push through But I'm saying I'm not religious but it's saying I'm not religious but it's the old thing in the Bible, he who has not sins, let him cast a first stone. Name somebody you know, that's perfect. Do you know anybody? No. Neither do I.

Because we're all flawed. And what makes like your sins worse than mine and obviously little bias, right? Like you're out there raping kids like I don't think that's the same as ceiling of candy bar. You know what I mean? But I think the number one thing for police officers is cheap people. respect unless they dictated otherwise. Again, I can go to a call Tuesday when I go back to work. And the first call in the first minute, I have somebody coming up to me trying to attack me. I'm not talking, bro. Like, you know what I'm saying? But starting out a call, starting out a traffic stop, I'll be the first to admit. I'm not big on traffic.

Okay. I grew up in Miami, bro. Like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm going to be a hypocrite. You know what I'm saying? Like, but you know, no, but, but, but, but like, the approach of, like, Like, I'm very proud. I have never 15 years pulled over a car. And the first thing I said, what do they say when you get pulled over? Like, you know why I pulled you over? I hate that. Like, what are you going to get out of that?

Yeah, but like 90% of cops do that. I'm saying what I'm saying? And I hate that because it's like, no shit, bro. Like I was, you know what I'm saying? But like, and I'm not saying kiss people's asses. I'm saying, make it safer for yourself because what am I, what am I worried about when I pull over a car? It's got me blown my brains out. I didn't me try to, right?

Like traffic stops, people don't realize are the most dangerous thing cops can do, you know? And so, for example, my approach, and yes, obviously, and I keep saying total of your circumstances, okay? Certain part of the city, certain time of day, certain cars, it's not being, you know, racist or anything like that. It's good in tow. Okay, I would always say, like, if I'm doing a gang, we did gang operations a lot in street crimes. And if we're working on a gang operation on a on a Hispanic gang, you know, who likes to wear like Sacramento Kings jerseys even though we're in Miami, right? And drive black impalas like blacked out with like 20 inch rims or 15s, but it keeps them clean, right?

You know what I'm saying? Like, you know, and then we're in that town, that city or that area in the city where they live. And like we see those like what are the chances, right? Like, yeah, that's just being a good cop. That's good intel. So, yes. And that's why I say attitude is a big thing also. But a regular, like, okay, they're going 15 miles over.

You shouldn't. Speed kills. Speed killed that girl that Al Sanball, right? Okay. Running a red light and speeding. Supposed with the accident that wish it passed away. But who did you know? 100% of the time drives the perfect speed limit.

Nobody. Right? So again, I do this money. And again, I don't do a lot of traffic stops when I do. Let's just stay at speeding. I do always go passenger side. I never, unless I try to get them to,

if they don't pull over in a way that's safe for me to go passenger, I'll have them move. I don't like going driver's side. It's just one of my things, the many ways that I was taught, the way that I like to go is passenger side. And depending on total of your circumstances, if the car is blacked out with tints,

I'm going to like kind of like bladed knock on the back window passenger side as you put the windows down I'm not going to just go to the front I don't know what it is not tinted I can see

no problem I'll still go passenger side but just a regular speeding you know the first thing I usually say where's the party I want to go and they're going to laugh just like you did and then they're going to be calm

because I already I started already with like I'm a human yeah you're disarming them I'm disarming them and then I'll tell them straight up. Hey, listen, I'm not much of a traffic guy. You know, truth be told, if I had to write a ticket,

we're going to be here forever, bro. Like, I don't got time for that. You don't got time for that. So, you know, I'm going to run all your stuff. Everything's cool. I'm going to get your warning. Just please slow down. There, and I have to worry a little less about getting my face blowing off

when I come back to the car. You know what I mean? And I run them, everything good, no warrants or whatever. I told you. Man of my word, please slow down. Okay, good. That's a positive. interaction if you ask me, right? Okay. You know, be human as a police officer.

Another weird thing, and if my chief and my people watch, I never go through with this. I just say it to be funny, but I love me. I always think it, and again, I talk about, like, negotiator skills that I use all the time. I'll go to supermarket. This is an example that I need to worry about my chief watching, but I'll get to that. But I go to supermarket and I, like, almost on purpose, pick a cashier that I see, like, looks like they're having a bad day. and I take it as a thing. I'm going to make them smile before I leave. Now with the, my wife calls me the mayor of Miramar.

I'll talk to everybody. We're staying at the hotel. We told you about the hotel we're staying at. I'm messing with all the front desk people. Those people get treated like crap a lot of times. Oh, anytime that you talk to them or like the people talk to them, it's a fair complaint. My room's dirty. This and that, what?

I'm like, no. Like, we went to grab breakfast after the gym earlier. And the girl was not the same girl from last night. and I asked her for something for the room, very nice, and she had very nice hand tattoos. And I'm like, yeah, I love those hand tattoos. She's like, oh, thank you. And I go, I'm in a rush, but later I'll show you all mine.

She's like, oh, okay, cool. I'm like, what does that cost me? I make them smile. And then, like, you know, and then God forbid, it's not because to get something in return, but then, God forbid, I have an issue in my room. They're going to remember like, oh, that was cool. Like, yeah, I got you.

You know what I mean? The one that was in a jug about before, I did a day of day, I'm in a red light. And just, I'm bored or curious, and I see somebody, and it could be like an old lady. And they look at me and they'll be like, yes? And I go, when the light turns green, do you want to race? Bro, and they always laugh.

And I'm like, I'm just kidding. And I literally be like, cops are people too. You know what? And I'm like, so what? But to them they're going to go home and be like, yo, this funny ass cop. Like, you know what I'm not going to do it, you know? But just to show them, like, we're people, you know? And I have my little quirky things.

My kids now they're older, like I said. oh, Bobby with his dad jokes. And I get it. I don't care, bro. I'm not afraid to be corny or whatever because show people you're a human. You know what I mean? Like, I think that's pretty dope. I think that's the way we should be.

I love when you said, I heard you come out on your coaches podcast, right? And you talked about how you love having law enforcement. You find it interesting that law enforcement loves talking to you because of your past. And you realize we're just people. I love that you're showcasing so much of that. because I think so many people have like a stigma of what police are based on what they see on TV and all that stuff. And I wish they would just realize more and more we're just people. Well, that's why it's important to have you here.

Yes, yes. But Danny, I appreciate you, man. Love your energy. And thanks for coming out here and doing this. Thank you for having me. You are awesome. Appreciate you, man. All right, brother.