Locked In with Ian Bick - SWAT Sniper On K9 Mastery, The Changing Drug Game & YouTubers Who Test the Law | Lou Maroto

Episode Date: August 29, 2024

Ever wondered what it takes to become a SWAT sniper? Lou Maroto brings us deep into the intense journey from rookie to elite sniper, mastering K9 handling, and navigating the ever-changing landscape of the narcotics game. But that's not all—our guest also shares firsthand experiences dealing with YouTubers who push the limits by provoking law enforcement. Get an inside look at the challenges, risks, and real stories from the front lines of SWAT. Whether you're fascinated by police work or curious about the darker side of social media stunts, this episode has something for you. Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en https://ianbick.com/ Connect with Lou Maroto: https://www.instagram.com/pbpprotection?igsh=MWNmN2Npa3k5OG5nYQ%3D%3D https://protectingpalmbeach.com/ https://m.youtube.com/@whatsnextpodcast4802?si=sP4HL8Y_YTxvRRqS Presented by Tyson 2.0 & Wooooo Energy: https://tyson20.com/ https://woooooenergy.com/ Thank you to our Sponsors this week: Magic Mind: Visit https://www.magicmind.com/lockedin And get up to 56% off your subscription for the next 10 days with my code: LOCKEDIN Powered by: Just Media House : https://www.justmediahouse.com/ Creative direction, design, assets, support by FWRD: https://www.fwrd.co Buy Merch: https://lockedinbrand.com Use code lockedin at checkout to get 20% off your order Timestamps: 00:00:00 - Growing up in Yonkers and Joining the Marines 00:04:53 - Military Life and Family Reactions 00:09:46 - Military Experience and Law Enforcement 00:14:22 - The Importance of Putting in the Work 00:19:01 - Maintaining Physical Fitness in Law Enforcement 00:23:22 - The Challenges of Working in a Busy Department 00:28:01 - Dealing with Hostile Encounters and Double Standards 00:32:23 - Ride Along Procedures and Requirements 00:36:55 - Crime Rate in West Palm Beach 00:41:56 - Training Police Dogs 00:46:34 - Sniper Training and Roles in SWAT 00:51:22 - SWAT Team Tactics and Intel Gathering 00:56:09 - Organized Crime in Florida 01:01:03 - Transition into Training and Sharing Knowledge 01:05:41 - Funny Calls and Unexpected Situations 01:10:28 - Starting a Podcast and Transitioning from Law Enforcement 01:15:09 - Farewell and Best Wishes Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Bone makes spring outfits feel simple. Shop BOM's new arrivals at BOM.com. That's B-O-H-M-E.com. Well, I started it. I put it this way. I'm going on, almost 29 years. Wow. Almost 29 years. I turned in my application way back in 94, so I'm showing my age. And before that, you were in the military. Yes, I was in the Marine Corps for four years, 1990 to 94.

So did you grow up in Florida, or did you grow up out here? No, I grew up in Yonkers. Oh, in Yonkers. You were born then. Yeah, born and raised. Wow. That must have been interesting at that time period. It was the best, you know, the 80s, you know, with hip-hop, freestyle music. Like, that was my, that was myself, man.

Yeah, what kind of demographic? Was it like a lot of mob guys or was it heavy on crime? Like, Yonkers doesn't necessarily have the best rap. Yeah, no, during those times, like the neighborhood that we lived in was predominantly Portuguese, Italian, some Puerto Rican, some Spanish. Nowadays, it's like predominantly Mexican, the Italians, Portuguese, had kind of moved out of the neighborhood. But yeah, no, it was, to me, I live right across from School Street, where D.MX grew up, where he lived.

So a lot of the friends that, his friends, were mutual friends because we all went to school together. So, you know, I didn't have it beef with really anybody, Yonkers. It was fun. To me, it was fun growing up, you know. It was the era of the filas, you know, the filas suits, the windbreakers. Yeah. Was he actually in school with you or just his friends?

No, I went to school. Yes, no. His name was, I'm sorry, not DMX. I don't remember him going to the schools that I did. But, again, a lot of his friends. So cousins were in, like, my classes. So, you know, it was always fun meeting people. and seeing people in different places.

One of the rough riders, the actual, you know, the production company. Yeah. They were located out of Gettys Square in Yonkers. Oh, wow. Yeah, so I remember I used to see a lot of guys going in, you know, to record their music. Yeah, there's a lot of histories in Yonkers. Yeah. It's got, like, why everyone, I feel like knows what Yonkers is.

It's just like such a classic. I think for the longest part, people be like, I say upstate New York. That's upstate, man. I mean, like, you know, that's, there's a hood. And every city has a hood or something, but, you know, it's, it's hood. You know, there's a lot of crime, a lot of dope dealing in the streets, you know. Again, when I grew up, when I grew up, I think, like, policing has come such a long ways now that it's not like it used to be. You know, I think it's changed for the better.

Did you have family in law enforcement? What kind of inspired you to get into it? I don't know, man. I think some of us are just kind of born with, like, protective genes. I guess, but no, I did not have any family in law enforcement. I graduated high school in 87 in that same year I took the New York State Police Suss. Right away.

Yeah, like I took it right away. I wanted to go to the Marine Corps, but my dad wouldn't sign my contract. So, and knowing what I'd note now, I was going to go on the buddy system. And when you go on the buddy system and the military, back in that era, you were made fun of real, real hard.

You know, like they made you hold hands. They made you do crazy things. So I, um, my dad, so my dad didn't sign my contract. And he wanted me to be an architect. So like, you know, architecture, police, two different spectrums, right? I went to school to New York Tech in Long Island for a little bit. And I was out there about two years in Central Islop. And I started architecture.

But I always had in the back of my mind that. hey, I want to become a Marine. I have to do it. And one day I just went to the recruiter. I took the asphab test, which I did score pretty high. And I went in. At the beginning, my dad was pissed, man. He was like, I worked all these years for you, you know, to try to pay your tuition, this, that.

And that's like that, I got to do it. So I left April 1st of 90. and, you know, a couple of months later, I'm in Desert Storm. Wow. What do you think was his reasoning for being so hesitant? Besides the danger of it, do you think he had another reason? You know, his philosophy or his thinking was that you were like a robotic person, they brainwashed you, you know, it was all about war, war, war.

He just didn't know the many things that you can do while you're in the military. whatever branch you pick. My uncle was a national guardsman back in that era. Then he ended up going, he walked. He checked it once, and then, you know, he was going through a divorce and never went back. Did he ever get caught? No, it's been... He's still out of the land?

Yeah. I don't think they're looking for him, though. Oh, yeah. Yeah, do you think it's done, like Statue of Limitations? Yeah, yo, he's done in Florida, you know. in my name, my city, but I don't think they're looking for him, man. You know, even if they got him, he's in his 70s, so I, they're not messing with him, man. Was your mom in the picture, too?

My mom and my dad were just, you know, blue-collar workers, man. My dad was a construction worker. My mom was, and worked in a factory putting the little caps on aerosol cans all day long. That's what she did. So, yeah, they were in the picture up to the point that my brother and I joined the military. And they were like, you know what? We had a little sister, a little sister that kind of came, you know, when we were 18 years old. I'm sorry, 17, in high school.

And then they didn't want her growing up in New York either. So they packed up, they retired, and they moved back to Costa Rica. Oh, wow. Which is where the family's from. Okay, so you go off to the military and how old are you? Like you're like 18 or 19? Yeah, I was like 18, 19. I was young, man.

Were you nervous at all? What were your thoughts and feelings? Bro, I just jumped in, like jumping to a swimming pool. I signed a con, you know, took the asphab test, joined. And then like any Marine would tell you the scariest part is when they drive you in the middle of the morning, like two, three in the morning. They're doing a purpose to disorientate you. You're in a bus. and then all of a sudden this drilling shot

to get, you get to Paris Island. And then you're stepping on these yellow footprints, man, and reality hits you like, oh, what did I just do? You know, so it's, I just jumped, just something I wanted to do. And I said, I'm going to learn one way or another. And what was your capacity over when you were serving during Desert Storm?

What exactly was your role? I was assigned to a supply battalion. So I was, you know, kind of like in the rear with the gear, as they say. But it was when I took the S-FRAP test, again, I didn't score high. So it was, you go grunt or supply. And I was like, you know, next day I knew, I was like, yo, supply. Everybody that I got stationed with was from New York. So it was best four years of my life.

So you had no regrets once you got there. You didn't second guess your decision at all? No, no, I have no regrets to this day of being in the Marine Corps. It's probably, like I said, the best four years of my life. I've met a lot of good people. You know, every day wasn't, you know, a beautiful day. You know, there was some uncomfortable days, rough days, whatever, like we all have in life. But for the most part, you know, I met a lot of good people.

I still keep up with a couple friends that were in my platoon. But yeah, it was just, you know, earning that. that uniform with the blood stripe. And, you know, we all know that's the best uniform in the military. So you're proud of it. Did your dad eventually come to terms with your decision what you were doing? Bro, he won 80 degrees, man. Like, when we got out, we went to, because when we came back from Desert Storm,

we went to, my brother and I decided to go and say hello to the parents in Costa Rica. And he had American flags. He had the Marine Corps flag. My brother was in the army, like all over the block. Yeah, so he was very, very patriotic, you know. He was like that before we've been joined. But now that we are a part of it, yeah, it was crazy. He was very proud.

That's awesome. Yeah, it was very proud. So your brother went into the service, too. Yeah, my brother was the 101st Airborne out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky. So his job was like an aerosolting on helicopters and, you know, the front line. So my brother was in combat. I wasn't. Did he end up going into law enforcement too afterwards?

He did. But he went the correction side. Oh, really? Yeah. You don't hear that much too often. Yeah, he didn't, I don't know why he didn't pick patrol, you know, like I did. He went corrections. And then, you know, his knees were all banked up from being in the service.

And he had to go into like the civilian side of corrections, which still works. He's still doing that today. Well, if he ever wants to come on the show, you've got to extend the offer. Yeah, I let them know, man. Was it helpful that you were in the service before transitioning to law enforcement? Do you think that prepared you? Because there are, you know, mixed things that you hear. I've heard, like, interviews and whatnot where they say, you know, sometimes the guys coming out of the military make rougher cops.

And then on the other end, I've talked to guys where they said it's a great prerequisite to get that experience, too. Yeah, 100% for me and for other people that I know that we're in the military, you know, you get that discipline, right? And then just that confidence builder, you know, like one of the things that helped me be a good cop was where I grew up in Yonkers, you know, being it, knowing the lingo, speaking the lingo, knowing how to talk to people, you know. So compared to somebody coming out of college, you know, square as a book, you know. And where I grew up to help me so much from getting my butt kicked on the street by some thug or somebody who was not doing the right thing in life, it just helped me transition right into police work. We're going to take a quick pause, you guys, to talk about Magic Mind, one of the sponsors for today's episode. Guys, you need to give Magic Mind a try. And with the promo code locked in, you can get up to 50.

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So guys, give Magic Mind to try. Whenever you get a chance, go to the description of this episode, click on that link, and order your subscription to Magic Mind. No, you said you didn't necessarily grow up in the best area. Did you have a lot of friends or people you knew? that kind of went on the other side where it wasn't law enforcement and maybe went on the criminal side?

Yeah, no, I definitely, and I think, like, again, everybody's, I have friends from both sides of life, you know. Some took the left road and some got in trouble and did time and then have other people that chose careers and are doing really well in life. You know, unfortunately, the ones that took the left road, from my side, from the friends that I know, a lot of them were dead,

some overdose on drugs and again, some had to do time. Now, what's the common factor you think? Especially from a law enforcement officer's point of view, you guys both came, these individuals, both came from the same area, the same town. Why does one go one way and the other one goes the other way? I think it's really you, us.

You know, you have to be willing to put the time into either go to school, right, or make a decision like I don't want to stay here the rest of my life. Oh, I want to do something better. You know, I want to get married. I want to have kids. Maybe I don't want to grow up here. So I think it's really up to you to decide, like, hey, I'm going to take the easy road and maybe sell dope or do bad things in life, you know, that are going to get you in trouble.

And it's just a cycle. Or are you going to say, yo, I'm going to put in the time and either go on the military or I'm going to go pick a career. and that's what I want to do for 30 years. Yeah. So I think it's up to us. Do you think you coming from those roots helps you in your career now when you're dealing with, say, individuals, maybe even young adults or young kids that, you know, are coming from that same area to kind of help put them on track, too? I think it's definitely helped me because I can give them a story.

Like, yo, I came from where you're at, right? It's a different state, but you're in the hood. I grew up in the hood. and I made it out, you know. I'm not a millionaire, nothing like that, but I'm not living the criminal life. So if I did it, you can do it. You know, so I always like to preach that to any kids

that I meet in any schools or people that I meet on the street. You can do it. You just got to put the work in. Yeah, I wonder what the stats are, like with police officers that come from the hood or bad areas, what the stats are compared to like what their run-ins are in a negative way in law enforcement versus the ones

that don't come from that area and what their negative encounters are. Yeah, I mean, it'd be interesting to know that answer. But, you know, you just have to be willing to just put the work in, man. Because we all, I've had many friends that I would see with money belts you know, and they were heading to Washington Heights, you know, and they weren't going there to pick up empanadas, you know,

and delicious food. They were picking up other things that we call Square Groupers in Florida, you know. Yeah. But, again, it was something that their families and families, different generations were already involved in the game, so it kind of got pushed onto them, you know. And like I said, my mom and my dad were just straight hardcore workers, man. Like we didn't, you know, we weren't middle class, rich, and nothing like that.

But we definitely weren't poor because my parents would always make sure we had something to eat. You know, it may have been a mayo sandwich, but we always had something to eat. The prison style. Yeah, grilled cheese, you spam, you know. I remember heating the kitchen or the bedroom with the other. You know, so a lot of people have been in that situation, but you still, you make it out. And that's what makes someone like you relatable to individuals. Yes.

And that's what creates change, like with the individuals that are going to the criminal justice system, they run into a, encounter a guy like you who's been in their shoes. I think you get a lot more results in that way. The respect that they give you right off the bat is up here instead of you having to work your way to get the respect. you know, on the street, the street craze, I guess. Just by the way I spoke, how I conducted myself, you know, I, I tell the new officers, because right now I'm assigned to the training division. So I tell the new officers, man, from how you dress, how your uniform looks,

people are judging you from the second you get out of that police car. If you look like a bag of donors, you're going to get treated like a bag of donors. So, like, I tell people, you know, look squirt. away, you know, you've got to look sharp. You know, you feel good, you look good, you're going to do good things, you know. And that guy that might be checking you out because he sees your new guy on the street, he might think twice about trying you, you know, he might size you up. But, you know, he'll rethink actually doing something to you because, oh, you look squared away.

So how do you feel about the officers that are out of shape? going into the academy because we see a lot of officers on the street that aren't well put together like that. Shame on them, man. Shame on them because, like, our department has certain days a week where, like, championship the jihitsu guys are willing to teach the officers for free. So they roll around on the mats, you know, so it can hopefully save your life one day when you're fighting with somebody.

doesn't you're not gassed out like you see a lot of people you know what's one of the first things that go is your legs right because all that blood is rushing up to your to your torso your heart so we do have those kind of programs um things have changed the way policing has has changed in society but yeah you have to be fit man if you're going to be working those rough parts of the city you got to be fit so as a training officer have you seen the bar to get into the police force because they're looking to hire more people. Like I know in corrections right now, there's a hiring issue. So you probably see from the correction side, them dropping the bar to get in because they need to recruit people.

Is it like that on the police side of law enforcement right now? I think we could definitely do better as far what the physical capabilities are. You know, the tests that you have to do probably could be a little bit better. but one thing that I have seen is maybe some new officers might come in and there might be a little bit on the chubby side, you know, or just not physically fit. But, man, we have a big gym at the police department that's open 24-7. And then now we have even people that come in, physical trainers that come in and say, hey, listen, Thursday, three to four, there's a physical trainer coming in. they tell you, hey, don't take pre-workout or anything like that, do what they tell you to do. And you'll walk into the gym, you'll see, like, 10, 15 people on bikes, you know, doing different exercises.

Why no pre-workout? I don't know. Maybe liability, they just don't want you to have a heart attack or something. On their watch. Yeah, you don't know what they put in some of these freak workouts. Yeah, I cut out energy drinks. I just do coffee now, and I do a lot of electrolytes. Like, I'll do Gatorator, the electrolyte packets.

I realized with energy drinks, I'd take one in the morning every day. And by midday, I'm like, I feel like I have a hangover. It's just like a drop. That makes me jittery. Whenever I was taking like a monster or something like that, you know, and I saw something where they said that those energy drinks are so bad for you. Yeah. Even the ones at their market, like Celsius and whatnot, I don't really know what all the specifics are.

Yeah, exactly. Why did you decide to make the switch from the military to regular? law enforcement because you could have had a full career in the military. Yeah, you know what? I think when I joined, I already had a set in my mind that, you know, I was going to do four years. And there's so many things that you can actually do. And so many different other options that you can have as a career in the military, you

know, you can go like, you know, special forces and all just all kind of different jobs available. But I knew that I wanted to get married, you know. I went out with my high school sweetheart. You know, we broke it for a couple of years. But we ended up getting bad, and it's been 37 years now. But I knew I wanted to have a family. And it's tough, man.

To be in the military and have a family, it's tough because you always deployed somewhere. You know, they send you to all kinds of schools, you know, because there's not a war every year. Well, unfortunately, for us, we've been, you know, a war with Afghanistan for, I don't know how many years now. But usually it's it's peacetime, you know. And they always send you to train, train, train. And it's tough on your spouse, your kids, you're never there. So I was like, I'm going to do my four years.

I served my country. And I got married halfway into my four-year contract. You know, and I brought my wife down from Yonkers to North Carolina. You know, we got base housing. I should have the whole Army wife thing. Yeah, yes, you know. and two and later my sister-in-law came down, my nephews and he started coming down,

and then we already had said that we were moving to Florida. Yeah. Do you remember that show, Army Wives? I watched that whole series, like before I went to prison. I had, like, binged it all. It was actually pretty good. Really? Yeah, it was.

I'm trying to think, Armywives. Yeah, it was Army. They had a lot of notable names, I think, in that series, too. It was a long time ago that was out, but it was a good series. Yeah. I think the shows that I remember, a lot of people weren't born here. Good times. Fred and Sanford, you know, they used to watch.

I'm a young man. I always get ripped for not knowing in the comments. Everyone rips me for not knowing certain TV shows and movies and whatnot. How can you not know that show? It's such a good show. So how old are you when your first day on the job as a cop? Holy shit, man. I got to bring out a calculator something.

I think I was like 20, like 24 years old maybe, something like that. And which police department was it? I work for City of West Palm in Palm Beach County. And that's the same one you work for now. Yeah, I stayed with the same department for almost 29. Is there a lot of turnover from people switching departments, or is it only when someone moves or what does that look like? There is because, you know, some people get hired, you know,

and not only just our city, maybe they don't do their research 100% and they end up getting hired with a really busy department. and maybe they don't come from that same demographics, you know, from the hood. And now you're getting confronted or you have to confront people, you know, that you're not used to being around. And, you know, I'll say that for lack of a better word. So some people do get scared and they quit. Some people do, there is a turnover.

But they're always looking for good men and women that can do the job. Yeah, now we always see, like, I've interviewed individuals wherever they say there's a ton of drop-off in the actual training. But what about once they actually get in, they're made it through training, and then they're in the force? Is there a drop-off a lot where maybe they'll work a year and then they're like, this isn't for me? There is, you know, it does happen. And kind of like I said, like they don't realize what they were getting themselves into by signing up with that specific department. You know, they thought that we're going to work, say, the less busier part of the city. And not, you know, they usually start you off on like, you know, a less busy beat or something like that just so you can get your feet wet and start understanding how to work the calls and, you know, keep it moving.

But then you get assigned to the busier part of the city where all the high crime is that, you know, the shooting, stabbing, domestics, everything that comes with it. But yeah, some people just, they get to that busy city, I mean, busy portion of the city, and they're like, ooh, the same for me, you know. And we prefer that you come up and say, yeah, the same for me before you get yourself hurt or you get your partner hurt. Yeah, what was your first day on the job like? Bro, I was, you know, I was, I was young, definitely a lot better condition than what I look around. That's how I wore his black shirt. Well, you're also, you got your podcast there too. You got to tell the people about what's on your shirt.

Oh, yeah, absolutely, man. It was exciting, you know. I'm not an adrenaline junkie, but it was exciting because all the guys that I worked with, most of them were ex-marine, ex-Army guys that were just all young, full of piss and vinegar. And we didn't have computers back then, you know. We had a handwriter reports. So you got the facts. You went to the call, you got the fax, put it in your visor, and you just kept it moving.

And then when it got slower later in early morning, later on the night, we would be proactive. Now you can go messing around with the dope boys, you know, and that was our job. Let's get some guns off the street. Let's get some dope off the street. And you wanted to show your supervisors that you were a proactive guy and you wanted to. With the RAM Declaration of Deals, we're pledging our allegiance to the American people with great deals on the RAM 1500. Back with the legendary Hemi V8 and the RAM heavy duty. With the available Cummins Turbo Diesel delivering 1,075 pound feet of torque, all backed by a 10-year-mile,

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What kind of cop do you think you were early on versus how you are now if you had to describe yourself? Well, I'm not tooting my own home by no means. But I think I was a good cop. I think I was always fair. You know, I knew how to talk to people. You didn't have to tell me twice to go, hey, let's go in this building and do surveillance and see what the dope boys are doing. I think I was humble, you know. I always took constructive criticism well.

I have my good days and bad days, you know. I really enjoyed what I did. Oh, while, what I still do? I really enjoyed it. It's changed the whole lot since I started. But I think I was a good cop. I think I was fair to people and did the right thing, you know. Everything wasn't about a lot.

arrests, going to jail, we have discretion. Yeah. How is social media impacted because you're in a position where you were in the force before social media and now you're actually working in it during? What's that like? How has that altered it? We actually have policies. So there's certain things you can't say or, you know, whether it be political or religious.

You do have to be careful. What do you say on social media? So it doesn't come back and affect the police department in a negative way. So, yeah, and that's monitored. That, you know, they might pick and choose who they're going to watch this month or look at your social media account. They definitely check it before you get hired. Once you apply, all your social media is checked

to make sure that you're not doing something, you know, saying things that are not positive. But even from the civilian side, you have individuals, like, that are automatically pulling out, their phone and going live with the cop. And I've seen some videos where just like individuals are so rude. Like, and the cop is just so nice and just like not, hasn't provoked it. And just because of what the atmosphere is around police right now, it could be hostile.

And it's got to be hard to stay cool and in positions like that. It can be. You know, luckily I was off the street when a lot of that started to happen, you know, and there's a bunch of people on YouTube that go around doing what you're talking about. instigating, you know, poking the bear. But we actually have classes or we pass emails around within the PD and say, don't let these people aggravate you. You know, if they say what's your name and ID number, give them your name and ID number,

you know, and that's it. We walk away. Yeah, because there are YouTubers and social media people that I see poke. Big time. And I think that's wrong. I think it's fine if you're going to record. someone legitimately doing something wrong. But when you're antagonizing just to try to get that response,

that's no different than a police officer trying to entrap a civilian. But the world's not looking at it that way. They're automatically blaming the police for that. And I think that's kind of screwed up. 100% because at the beginning when that started to happen, we fell into the trap. A couple of people fell into the trap. You know, they weren't fired or anything like that.

But it's, you know, more of a slap or maybe a, a letter in your jacket, that kind of punishment. But we learned quick. You know, we learned quick and say, listen, don't let them antagonize you. Don't let them poke you enough. Give them the name, whatever they're asking. You know, a lot of them sit in front of the police station and videotape you coming out, not coming out with your seatbelt on.

And now they're going to make a complaint. Hey, he's above the law. She's above the law that have to wear seatbelts. You know, so little things like that, instead of letting it overwhelm all the investigators and using up our precious time to investigate bigger cases and more important crimes, you have to entertain these YouTubers.

That's true. Trying to make some money. I do think that some police officers do need to be careful, though, of, like, hypocritical-wise, because, like, sometimes I'm driving and I see a cop that's always pulling someone over in Danbury on their phone. And I get it if it's an emergency or whatever,

but if you're just casually talking and in this world, there's Bluetooth. You can't put on speaker or Bluetooth. or something. I don't know. I just feel like that's a little bit of a double standard

that aspect. And I know the laws are different up here, New York, Connecticut compared to down south. Yeah.

Like up in south you can use your phone. Yes. Here you can. Yeah. And then it's all about perception. People just see you on the phone

they assume that you're on social media. Yeah. Or you're doing something you're not supposed to be doing. But little the civilians know that,

you know, like we're on a computer in the car because we have to read the notes as we're driving to a call. But the same thing, you may be getting a phone call from your boss,

and you have to answer it. Or maybe you have a question in reference to the call you're going to. So, you know, it's, you know, usually perception wins. Oh, he's doing the wrong, he or she's doing the wrong thing. But probably the cop is doing the right thing

is just people. That's why dialogue and transparency is so good. Yes. And, you know, taking a second to understand what that person's doing, a walk a mile in their shoes, you know, and I think it works both ways. It would solve a lot of issues in society.

100%. If people would do ride-alongs with a busy police department, like you say, walk a mile in our shoes, get a feel for what that officer's doing for four hours on a busy Friday night or Saturday night.

You'd be like, damn, this guy's almost spitting his face and it's domestic. They're both screaming. You've got to watch both of them and nony backup because, hey, control, him or her, you know, and while I talk to this party. So it gets very chaotic.

And I think the only way civilians can know, like, what we do is go do a ride-along and see what it feels like. Do they do ride-alongs? Absolutely. So how does that work doing a ride-along? If you want to do a ride-along, they do a quick criminal history on you. Right? They check your record, driver's license. And once everything's approved, they'll tell you, hey, come to this brief.

or this other briefing. So we have like two briefings in the morning, two briefings in the evening. And you show up and they'll say, hey, listen, who wants this? There might be 14 officers in the briefing office getting information from the sergeant and they'll pick somebody like,

hey, there's a ride along waiting for you in the lobby. Sometimes people be like, oh God, I gotta take a ride along, you know. But most of the officers, you know, they're like, all right, four hours I can talk to somebody to somebody that I've never met before, you know, they can watch me do my thing. They're not allowed to get out the car on any of the calls. They have to stay in the car. But again, it depends on the officer.

If it's a good officer that knows how to hang himself, he might let the person out and just stay by the car in case something happens. What would disqualify someone for not being able to go on one? I think if you have maybe a bad criminal history, you know, I don't know if, I don't know being locked up, if that'll keep you up, away from a ride-on. I don't think,

I think, you know, it's up to that shift commander. We, again, we have policies for everything. And the reason is policies is because we make our own policies.

Basically, I messed up and now there's a policy because of a little. Speaking of policies, how often as an officer, are you memorizing what the laws are

to make an arrest? Or do you have to see like go to a book or type it in on the computer to see. Like, is it like being a lawyer where you know that stuff off the top of your head or is it different as an officer? For the most part, because you're pretty much handling the same type of calls every day, the number of the statues are in your head, or you have a quick access to know that, okay,

I know it's a 700-something statue that can go right to the book. Or, like you said, all that stuff is on our laptops now. So you can punch in, you know, simple, battery and the statute will come up and the criteria for it. Auto burglary, pretty much every crime is in that book. Now, do you need to get permission from the sergeant or the commander to make an arrest if it's not an urgent thing? Like, say you're on a call, you explain the situation if it's a domestic.

Is it the officer's discretion or is that getting approved from up above? It depends on the call, like domestics. Like when I started domestics, you can be like, all right, you and stay away from her. Right? Stay away from your significant other. Don't come back until tomorrow. Let things cool off. Nowadays, you're mandated because a lot of things have happened in the past. So now you're mandated to write some kind of report and or somebody's going to jail. Yeah, that's what I've heard.

Like nowadays, whenever there's a domestic, someone's leaving in cuffs. Yeah, and again, not all the time. Now, if you have scar, I mean, I'm sorry. actual fresh wounds, scratches, black eyes. Yeah, somebody's definitely going to jail. But for the most part, if it was a verbal argument that we can separate people and somebody says, hey, I'm leaving, we'll still document it. You know, yeah, you have to notify your supervisor. Hey, I'm doing this on this specific call.

Not every call. Now, are you seeing more as time goes on that officers are riding along with a partner and the days of like the solo officer are kind of coming to an end? Because now when I'm driving, I'm always seeing two officers in a car. You very rarely are seeing one alone. Is that more becoming the truth around? I think it depends on the size of the city. Our city, you ride solo.

We don't ride two per car. Now when you get put in other specialized units, you might have a partner and you guys are ride together in an arm-marked car. if you guys are like in a jump out squat kind of deal. But for the most part, patrol officers, we ride solo. Yeah, like in New York City, whenever you're there, I always see officers riding duo. Yeah.

Which makes sense when you have such like a crime-infested city, always having someone that's like riding along with you has your back and whatnot. 100% and the craziness in the world. Is West Palm Beach a, what's a crime rate? Is it heavy? What's like the breakdown? You know, I can't really break it down, but per the size of the city, right, per capita, it's a very busy city, you know, and it can range from murder to simple battery and everything in between.

Sometimes people do crazy things because of social media. I think a lot of it stems from social media. But it has gotten better compared to, again, I can, I can, compared to like when I started. I don't know. When I started, it was on 40, 45 murders in that city. Now it's like 125,000 people in that city approximately. And because of all the different community policing programs

and the job that the men and women of the department do has definitely changed. There's a lot of money being put into West Palm Beach right now. A lot of high rises. So with that, there's a lot of people that support. support the police department. So you get new equipment. They're trying to hire more officers.

So we have a quicker response time. So people on the street that are doing bad things see that. Oh, course, the police department's growing. They're coming here quicker. You should take them three minutes to get here. Now they're 20, 30 seconds. They're here. You guys can respond to a call in 20, 30 seconds?

Where, like, our department is situated pretty much in the middle of what we call the north end, south end. Depending on how busy the city is, I'm not going to quote 20, 30 seconds, but we have a pretty good response time because, again, they have so many, a specific amount of officers work in those areas that if one guy's busy, another one can take a spot real quick. So I think we have a really good response time. Interesting. Yeah, it just depends on how many officers.

You have working that north end, that three or four people didn't call in sick at night. And then the quality of the officer, right, their work ethics. You know, they're not going to sit back and wait. I'm going to wait until the next guy shows up and then I'll show up. So you have to handle the call. Yeah, are there a lot of callouts in the police world? I know in corrections, like as an inmate seeing that, there's always callouts and someone's mandated to do some overtime.

Is it like that from the police point of view? We get a good share of callouts that are primarily handled by the SWAT team. You know, like the SWAT team, hostage negotiations team, you know, now we have like drone units. So it's a accumulation of teams that show up. But anything that's a callout where a more specialized unit is needed, SWATN is usually the first one to get the call. They respond, they secure the scene. And then other teams may show up.

If there's a hostage, hostage negotiations will show up. Now, speaking of SWAT, you were on SWAT. Yes. How long were you on SWAT for? I did, I think it was total 19 years. You did 19 years on SWAT? Yeah. Wow.

And the only reason that I had to break it up was because I was assigned to canine also. So like from 2007, I was already on the team. but I was assigned to canine. So they say it's too many training hours. So if I'm on SWAT and on K9, then that means I'm not really work in a specific area like I should be. So they wouldn't let me on two units at the same time. So if you started with K-9, how did that work with the dog?

Because doesn't he stay with you all the time? Yes. So I got assigned my, I'm sorry, I got assigned the dog in 2007. and I had him until like 2014. Did he pass away? Yeah, I had to put him down. He had a tumor that unbeknownst to me that exploded, man, and he started bleeding out.

Oh, that's terrible. But, man, I was definitely the best, one of the best six, seven years of my career. How old was he? He was two when I got him. So he was young when he passed? Yeah. I got him. He was, yeah, he was like nine.

10, 11 years old when he passed. How well trained is he when you get him? Or are you doing all the training? I'm doing all the training with canine trainers. So we didn't only use our own in-house trainers. We also used other agencies. And how do these dogs get selected to join the force? The canine instructors will actually go to the kennels that we get our dogs from.

They usually come from Czech Republic overseas Europe somewhere. And they look for specific qualities in a dog. You know, it's an associate dog, but yet does he have the drive to do what we're going to ask him to do, you know, to go find narcotics, to go find a person that's hiding from the police, you know, that just committed a violent felony? Now, the dogs that we see in airports, are they 100% accurate? like is there any way possible that someone could get something through or are these dogs so well trained that it's like near impossible? No, I've seen cases and read about cases where somebody was able to bypass a dog. But for the most part, man, their noses are, you know, a hundred times stronger than ours.

And it all depends on how much that dog is being trained. because the canine eye handler has to be just as good as a dog so you can watch and observe his mannerisms because when his body language changes that means he's picked up something and you have to be able to, if you go to say hello to somebody you just might have missed that body change. So we do a lot of training to try to make sure that doesn't happen.

And do the dogs get retrained as like new drugs get exposed in the world and new weapons, new anything? Do they get retrained throughout the process? Yeah, 100%. Really, you're training with your dog every day, but then one day out of the week, the whole canine unit will come together and they'll train. And like I said, sometimes it would be just,

it would just be our agency or another agency. And, you know, we have guys with the sleeves, you know, or the suits, and we put them in boxes, we put them in trees, and pretty much every kind of situation that would probably happen in real life. Now what about food? Do these dogs eat regular food, just dog food, or are they eating human food?

No, they strictly eat dog food. Okay. Yeah, dog food and whatever. Most of them are on some kind of medicine because of allergies, you know, or something that the dog may have come with from overseas. But yeah, strictly dog food. And they're not allowed to have any type of treat? No, no, I used to give my dog all kinds of treats, right?

I think he started like 70 pounds when I got him. and by the time he was retiring, he was like 90 pounds. So, you know, he was part of the family. He jumped on the bed with my kids. Totally switched it off at home. Oh, he was able to switch it off. Oh, my God. He totally switched it off.

In a second you jiggle your keys or he heard Velcro like from your belt. It was game on. Wow. Yeah, I've always been curious about that, how that works when the officer has a family because the dog comes home with him. Yeah. 90% of the dogs, are socialized with the family.

I have heard of some dogs that there's a little kennel in the backyard, and that's what the dog says, because he's either too hyper, or maybe you have other dogs in the house that they don't get along with. I didn't have any other dogs, so when I first got my dog, bro, I thought it was, I was scared of death of this dog. I can imagine.

Because he was in a plastic kennel in the back of a pickup truck, and we drove from West Palm to Jacksonville, Florida. And I get there we're like in the middle of the woods and there's this dog that's tearing up this kennel. And they're like, that's your dog. I'm like, that's my dog. They're like, yeah, go walk him. I'm like, he's

biting the cage. And they bring him out on a choker. I'm sorry, pinch collar. And they're like, here, take him for a walk. And I was like, please. I'm like, good boy, good boy. I was like, please don't bite me. Please don't bite me. So, you know, that was

kind of the beginning of our relationship. He's like, all right, this guy just took me out of this cage and taken me for a walk. We drove back four hours, and I had my family sit down in the living room with food in their hands. So they're sitting like this. And a dog, he was hungry, nervous, and he comes by and he'll eat a little bit, eat a little bit, eat a little bit. And then I cut him loose, and he smelled like the whole house. And that was it. And you were never worried about him at first with your kids or anything.

No, he just knew how to turn it off, man. Boom. That's incredible. Are all the dogs like that? Or was it just him? Most of the dogs are not like that. You know, they get to learn that, hey, dad's at home relaxing. And most of the time, he didn't want nothing to do with me at all.

Like on weekends, he lay in his corner or, like I said, go in my kids' room. Mm-hmm. And he didn't want to do anything with me. But the second you jiggle your keys or put on your outfit, man, he's, 360s. He's ready to go. That's awesome. Yeah, it was awesome, man. Best time of my career, I think, man.

So on SWAT, what was your role? My role was a sniper. You were a sniper on SWATW. Yeah, I was a sniper. But, you know, like everyone else, I started as an operator, an entry guy, you know, going through the door. Usually you start at the end. Actually, you start as a driver.

You know, they let you drive the truck. and then you kind of the more training you do kind of you start telling Charlie and you work your way slowly to eventually you're the first guy coming through the door you know

so everybody starts that way and they pick you like it's not like you like hey I want to be a sniper like they see the qualities that they're required to be a sniper you know patience some the knowledge the ability or the

all the need to keep training. That's what they're looking for. And then the last year, it was almost like having a sit down. They'll bring you into a little office. And they're like, you think something else is going on like, oh, I'm getting my game kicked off the team or something.

And they're like, hey, put your gun away. Put in your locker. Sit down. And they start talking. They're like, hey, what do you think about being a sniper? And when they asked me, man, I was like, yo, I'm flabbergass. I was like, thank you.

Yeah, I was just like, how cool it is to be able to shoot a bow. bolt gun, you know, or 50-cow and just be able to hit targets at 8,900 yards away. Yeah. You know, it's, there's a lot to it, but it was fun. Well, there's probably a talent behind that, too, right? 100%. Yeah, and most of the time, you're really an observer.

You know, it's not like in the military where you're getting a lot of trigger time. You're an observer for the guys or ladies that are on the entry team, and we're looking for movement to see if you see the potential. suspect or suspects inside of a structure? How many discounts does USAA auto insurance offer? Too many to say here. Multi-vehicle discount. Safe driver discount? New vehicle discount. Storage discount.

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own. If we find anything suspicious, like new loans or changes to your financial accounts, we alert you right away, all through text, phone, email, or the LifeLock app. Get the alerts that could make all the difference. Save up to 30% your first year at LifeLock.com slash podcast. Terms apply. So for the most part, you're giving out information. And how trained are you to take certain shots. Like, are there, do you guys practice for, like, really crazy shots? Like, we have to ricochet off one wall to hit this target, or is it like that? Yeah, no, you don't, we don't ricochet off walls and I, that, um, there's, there's different,

like, ammunition, you know, for soft targets, hard targets. Uh, but yes, we, we go to 40-hour schools at a time. Again, away from the police department, we, most, most of the instructors are, like, most I'm my ex-military, SF guys, a lot of civilian instructors that are really, really good at that craft. So we go and we learn from these type of people and we shoot at moving targets.

We shoot sitting down, nearly, pretty much, every uncomfortable position you would want to be in, you get put in that position because you may have to take a shot leaning over off the front of a car. You know, I don't have you heard about the last one that just happened, where the sniper had to shoot through a, like a computer.

No, I haven't heard it. It was a hostage situation. The guy was about to kill the female. And the sniper shot through a monitor or something and, you know, hit the target. Wow. And saved that lady's life. It was like 30, 30 feet or something like that. That's incredible.

Yeah. What kind of calls are SWAT getting called to? Anything with a with a barricaded subject that won't come out, you know, it could be a simple call like a domestic. And actually that's not a simple call, but it could be a call like a domestic where that person isn't going to jail. But now they barricade themselves in a bathroom or in a bedroom. We don't, some of the patrol officers don't have the specific skills, you know, to be able to, work and get into that room or rooms. So the SWAT team's called to those type of calls.

And do you guys take command? Like, is the SWAT leader? Is he in command of the scene when he gets there? Or is it still whoever got there? How does that work structurally? Yeah, no, everything's turned over to the SWAT commander. Okay. And, you know, everybody in the team knows where, you know, once you get the address,

you know, you already know your role. If your entry, you're going to meet somewhere and need a command post. Right? And that's where you guys are going to set up. Snipers, you automatically know that you're going to the four sides of the house and get a position where you're going to be covering concealment, but you're going to have good eyes on the target house. How fast does it take you guys to get the intel? When SWAT gets called to something, how fast can you guys get the plans for the building

or look at the surrounding areas? Like, say there's a bank robbery. how fast you guys have access to that. Now, again, a lot of the whole SWAT team, the big picture, it's gone so good at it that, yes, we do have plans to a lot of the main buildings and schools. But usually the patrol guys are always the first on scene. That's, you know, because they're answering the calls. So they're trained.

We do annual in-service training where we teach them how to work doors, how to go into a mock facility, you know, in case. Because it does take us a little bit. Guys may be off of work. Guys may be out of town. So usually it does take the SWAT team minutes to get there, you know, maybe 30 minutes, 45 minutes.

So we have the patrol officers secure the perimeter. to try to notify adjoining houses or whatever may be, get those people out in case, God forbid, there is some type of shooting. What are you guys doing in your downtime? Because it's not like SWATs getting called every single day, unless they are. There are some full-time teams, and by full-time, you know, that's their job. It's like go to all those SWAT calls or highlight ability calls. West Palm, we don't have a full-time team.

So when you're not doing something related to SWAT, you're doing your regular job assignment, whether it be patrol, whether it be narcotics, investigations or criminal division, right, detectives. You're doing your regular job in your car or in your lockers where all your gears at. That makes sense. I think Danbury has that too because I know there's some officers that are on the SWAT team, but it's not like an LAPD or something like that or Miami where they probably have their own SWAT team full-time.

Yeah, it depends on the size of the department. apartment and budgets. It always comes down to money. How much mullah, you know, do they have the money to keep the road, the road stacked up for calls? And then can we afford to have 25, 30 guys, you know, ladies and guys on a team just answering highlight bitterly calls? No, I know one of the biggest budget concerns out there right now is the body camera. issue. What do you think about that?

You know, at first, me personally, I was like against it. You know, not because, and people are going to automatically consume that are you doing something wrong, right? It's just, you didn't know any better. But if we think about it, a lot of people just come in off the street and just make a complaint off you for no reason. Yes, there's five, ten percent of people out there that are doing the wrong thing, right? that a bad apple fell from that tree. But for the most part, man, these guys, these ladies are out there. They're busting their chops to try to keep John Q, the citizen, safe.

But those cameras have saved a lot of people, you know. And what I mean by saying is from false allegations. So you come into the police department and you make a false statement. In Florida, it's a misdemeanor. You can be arrested for it. Or is a lot of that happening? You know, the department tries to maintain a good relationship with the community. This is my politically correct answer, right?

The department tries to keep a good relationship with the community. So they'll say, listen, you're telling me, so Ian, you're telling me that Lumeroto stole $20 from you when you dropped that in front of his police car. Let's look at a videotape. And just to let you know, here, sign this piece of paper. It's an affidavit saying that you're telling me the truth and that you can't be. be arrested for lying. But let's look at a video tape. And then by then it'd be like, I changed you on my, I don't, I don't, you know. But it also has gotten some guys and ladies in trouble for doing with the, whether something as simple as you show up on a call and you forgot

to turn your camera on. You know, that's a no-no. You have to turn it on. Does the department get requests to work on movie sets and to get shadowed at all from actors, or is that more like the bigger cities that get those types of requests? I can, I can remember one or two. One was like J-Lo and what's that guy? Stets. The guy, she's always in movies with, he's real good like Mushrodds.

Bruce Lee? No, something Stetson. He's a British dude. I think it's Stetson. But they were doing a movie. The guy with the bald heads? Yes. Oh, that was in Fast and Furious?

I think he was in that movie. I'm trying to think of Another one. He delivered packages, you know, like you never looked in the trunk. Okay. They put it in the trunk and he delivered them with whatever it was. But yeah, they did a movie. There was a movie set down like in the southern part of our city, real early morning.

And they just hired a couple of cops to kind of watch the traffic, you know. The actor, actresses, they have their own bodyguards and all that stuff. So they're not asking to shadow you guys to get like some lessons or anything if it's like a police officer-related movie or show. Not that I can recall, you know. Maybe the sheriff's office has done it, but I don't remember that kind of request. Oh, so you guys are a city that has a sheriff's office, too. Yes. Yeah.

So we're like an unincorporated West Palm. Then it's incorporated West Palm. And then the county of Palm Beach has his own sheriff's office. So there's a lot of law enforcement. Yeah, they have jurisdiction of the whole West Palm. They can go anywhere they want. And you guys are limited to where you guys can go? Yes.

Okay. Yep. What about organized crime? Is that big in Florida and in your area? You know what? Organized crimes like mob or like cartels, like drugs. I guess it's both. Yeah, I know Florida is known for drugs specifically and the cartel coming in that area.

I think as far like maybe mob, you might see it further south closer to Miami. as far as like the narcotics portion, yeah, there's organized groups. They might not be as prevalent as they were back in 2000, you know, when dope was really like bricks were coming over left and right. That whole fentanyl pills that kind of took over. But yeah, there's still plenty of bricks coming over. You know, there's a need. There's going to be a supply for it. It's got to be harder to be a drug dealer.

than ever though in today's world just with the technology i mean i was reading someone who's doing an interview about how the mob doesn't even really do murders anymore because you can't you can't get away with a murder in today's world like everything's different it's changing drastically and everyone's snitching everyone's telling someone's always like it's just it's it's very much evolved it's it i think it's tough it's tough to try to get away with with like murder you know um the whole not cottage game has changed also, you know. Social media has changed a lot of things. The wiretaps, you know, they're still there.

But, you know, people figure out ways to do it. I think a lot of it's now like, hey, you call me and you need 20 pills, I'll come deliver them to you. You know, it's not people really. I don't think you see as many people standing on corners in Florida. You know, I'm not sure about New York, you know. I think that pills is probably one of the bigger things nowadays. Meth has introduced itself into Florida in a big way.

And then, of course, fennel. Fennel is killing everybody. So a lot of people are afraid to buy stuff off the street. Those that take the chances are the ones that are OD in because they put fennel and everything. Yeah, I wonder if like the days of the, of the street dealer kind of coming to an end. Everyone's kind of moved.

The ones making the real money are the ones moving it in bulk. They're the higher-up organizations unless it's in like these hood areas where they're selling on the corner. But I don't know what those stats look like. Yeah, I think, you know, there's always going to be somebody on a street pumping,

you know, a little bit of this, a little bit of that. I don't think, again, it's as big as it was back to one. in 2000 era, you know, that time period where everybody was on the corner selling, you know, whether it be dope, weed, heroin, you know, the bigger, the heart, the more damaging drugs, right? The pill, when the pill mill started and all that stuff, you know, you were seeing all these people from, you know, Alabama, Tennessee, Ohio, coming in groups of 10, 15 people in a van, And that kind of slowed down a little bit also because the law has changed, you know. So why do you decide to transition into training?

I got to a point in my career, right? So I was, I really wanted to share what I had learned, you know, all the information that the old school guys taught me when I started in 96, but 9596. So I just wanted to share it. I like teaching. I was never like the biggest person to volunteer and say to speak in front of a crowd. So at the beginning, that was a little bit nerve-wracking. Public speaking is probably one of the scariest thing a person can do. Oh, it's intimidating.

I've done it multiple times and I still get scared when I go out there. Yeah, you get the little jitters in your stomach. Exactly. Once you start speaking, you get comfortable, maybe you get a laugh from the audience or the students. You're like, okay, I got them. I got to, I keep going. But I think that I was one of the very lucky officers that was able to be in a lot of different units. So I had experience, right?

And I had the knowledge to pass it on to other people. So like when we do like building searches, some firearms training, I don't really do the defensive tactics, although I was an instructor. We have guys that are strictly dedicated to that craftman and they do such a good job that. They handle those classes. But now I like speaking in front of people. I like to be able to give you something that may save your life. So I say, this is a good way to leave. On a good note, you know, I'm seeing all these new officers

and I'm telling them some of the stuff that I've been through, friends that I've lost, and to help you not be in that same position or make mistakes that are going to get you in trouble. What are some principles you instill into the new officers that go under your wing? Bro, I tell the new officers like those have, people are always watching you.

And I don't mean like the street. I'm talking about within the police department. People are watching you. They're watching to see if you're taking classes. You know, what kind of officer are you? Do you really, are you doing this just for a paycheck and a future pension in 30 years? Or you really want to go out there, you know,

and help people and make a change. You know, so I'm looking to see if you're that person. If you're that person and you're really hungry, I want to help you share my knowledge with you so that you can, again, be that good officer and make it to the end of the tunnel, 30 years, to have a good career. What would you say to a civilian that's kind of hesitant about trusting law enforcement because, you know, we see scandals with law enforcement in the news all the time. time and people start thinking that that's all law enforcement. So if you were one on one with

one of those, you know, trolley type people on Facebook that are going off about police, what would you say to them? I would say that, you know, don't judge that one book by its cover, right? There's going to be bad apples in any career, whether it be attorneys, doctors, there's going to be somebody that's crooked, right? And it's unfortunately because those people get through the system. And another thing I would say is, listen, to walk in their shoes, go do a ride along. Go ride with an officer on a busy night and see what that officer is going through, you know. He comes in nice, he or she can come in very happy and eager to go, and the first call can ruin the whole night for you. For you as a civilian, that officer has to keep going.

He can't, he or she can't let that ruin your night because you have 40 more calls to handle before you get off. So go do a ride along. Experience what that officer experience every day for the next 30 years. How many calls do you think one officer experiences on one shift that they respond to? I would say between, God, it depends on a day, depends on the time, the season. You know, holidays, of course, you know. There's a lot. Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Eve, you know, crime.

Calls for service, a volume. definitely goes up, right? Because people are drinking, they're indulging in other things, and they are agreeing. But I'm thinking somewhere about 20, maybe 20 calls a day, you know, to be kind of on the lower side. Yeah. I would say about 20, 25 calls a day. It could be more. Do you have a funny, like, holiday call story?

Oh, funny. Yeah, I don't know. Like what? I don't know, just like a call, maybe a funny call that you guys got a response to, that you had to respond to, something entertaining that related to the holidays. Like you see in the movie, sometimes a Christmas tree goes up in flames or anything that's kind of like out of the ordinary. Well, I think most of the calls you go to are entertaining, you know.

I can't think of one off the right off the top of my head where we laughed, you know, we laughed our asses off. I'm sure you guys see a lot of weird and strange things. Unfortunately, there's a lot of mental health issues, a lot of homeless in West Palm. So, yeah, you'll see somebody that made me through feces all over themselves. You know, now you got to try to control this person. You've got to try to handcuff this person to take them to a mental facility.

So you see things like that, you know. But you have to make it entertaining sometimes, you know, and I don't mean in a bad way. I mean, it's just you have to let, you can't let the job eat you up. You know, you got to laugh, you know, you got to laugh with your colleagues as to what just happened. Did you see that? Can you believe that happened? You know, but then there's a lot of like, yo, don't go in that room, bro, it's crazy. Like, you know, somebody just committed suicide or they just kill three of the kids.

So you see, I think you see more. more that the negative part, you know, the impactful stuff, then really like funny things sometimes. What made you decide to ultimately want to retire? Because I feel like you're someone that wants to keep go, go, go. You've been in such different departments, you know, you've got a lot of energy left in you. Was it hard to say you're going to retire? Absolutely not. Oh, you're excited to go.

No, it's the way our pension works. You go into what we have, we have a drop program, right? and the drop program is just, that's our pension. And you have, you have to go into that program at 25 years in or age 50. So I was a little short of the 25 years, but I was 50. So I went into that program like a year and a half early. So that's why I'm retiring at almost 29 years instead of 30. So, and yeah, you have, you have no choice as to, oh no, I want to say,

longer, you know, I think that it does take a toll on you in one way, shape, or form. It's all about you, really, like, how much you let it eat you up. So, like, you got to have, like, a plan B. You can't take the job home, you know, because it's going to mess up your family life. But, yeah, no, I wasn't one to be like, oh, yeah, no, take my name off the list. I want to stay. I had a great career. You know, I've met a lot of people.

Like I tell everybody, I have a lot of associates and like five good people, the best friends. You've got to keep your circle close. Yeah, I keep my circle real tight. Yamava Resort and Casino at San Manuel is California's number one entertainment destination for the biggest shows this summer. Catch vocal powerhouse Christina Aguilera July 21st. Rock out to Imagine Dragons July 23rd and enjoy the signature G-Funk sounds of Snoop Dog July 20th. 24th. Tickets are on sale now at Yamava Theater.com. Only a Yamava resort and casino celebrating its 40th anniversary.

You win? Must be 21 to enter. Man, I don't let everybody get to my crib. That's the right way to do it. Is it going to be weird once you retire, like not having that kind of like purpose every day to go in because it was such a big part of your life? You know what? I talked to my boss about that either day. And I was like, yo, I'm feeling kind of, kind of,

kind of weird because in, for me, like in two months, I don't have to check in with anybody. You know, I don't have to really work if I don't have to. So, yeah, it's a little bit weird feeling, you know. I'll miss some of the good times and the good friends that I have, but I really, it's, it's, I'm not really going to miss the job itself. You know what I mean? Like, I did it. I had a great time. It's time to close that chapter in life.

and open up another one. Will you still continue doing private security? Yeah, I definitely going to continue with my business. You know, I teach farms training. And I have a security company also, so anyone that needs any type of security needs. Yeah, put the name of it out there, yeah. Yeah, it's called Palm Beach Personal Protection Group

and Investigations Agency. So not only do it, we can do investigations. And as far as the farm portion, If you go to Protecting Palm Beach.com, you'll see my website, the classes that I teach, you know, what it costs, and how you can get a hold of me. So, yeah, and I started that in 09. So I'm excited, man. I'm ready to open up again, chapter two and hit it.

And you have a podcast that you're doing too. Yeah, I started the podcast in like 2021. It's called What's Next with Lumeroto. and I thought about it for a little bit like what I saw the you know the trending podcasting I was like I like to do it what how hard can it be man was it hard and this is coming from a decorated law enforcement you know I'm not a I'm not a techie guy you know and it took me a minute to learn how to the editing process because we can all buy fancy equipment and and and speak it's the little things that people don't see And when you're sitting at home, right, trying to edit and put out a good product.

Yeah. Right. So, again, I chose what's next because, like, what's next in life? And the whole basis of the platform is for people to come on, tell their stories, impactful stories, traumatic stories, you know, happy stories. Tell me something that someone else would want to hear and maybe it can affect someone and change their way of life, their way of thinking, you know, anything. So, and it's not strictly just law enforcement. It's not first responder related. I almost kind of like to stay away from now.

Again, because I'm changing everything, my whole lifestyle, everything, from law enforcement, you know, to now becoming a civilian again. So, and again, in a good way. I learned so much. It's definitely going to help me in my second part of life. But I'm done with that side, man. My cousin works with me. I pass the torch to him, man. And I'd have messing around, I tell him, yo, I'm passing a torch to you, man.

Keep up the name, you know, the respect that we have, that people have for us. And keep doing a thing. Keep getting better and better. Do you think it'll be weird to turn off the law enforcement side? Or do you think you'll be able to, like, be out on the street and kind of turn your head to something that's maybe not your business or anything like that? Obviously, if, like, there's, like, a dangerous situation, you need to save someone. I'm sure you would step in. but just in general, like, that's that law enforcement sense, you know, that tingling.

I wonder if you'll be able to turn that off and what that's like. Well, I was riding around the other day, you know, in my uniform heading home. And I think I saw like somebody driving recklessly. And I have blue lights and a siren in my unmarked vehicle. And I was about to do it. And I was like, no, I mean, they're driving reckless, but then I really hurt anybody. I said, if it's that bad, I said, I'll call somebody. But I've had to hold the reins back a little bit because, you know, you're doing it for 29 years.

You're institutionalized. Like, this is all I know. It's like somebody being locked up for 30 years. There's so many relations, like guys that are in the military with people that were present, law enforcement, people that were in prison, a lot of similarities. And one thing that I do tell the people, like in our union, man. you got to have a separation, I mean, a separation class. You know, like start getting people prepared to re-ent, pretty much reenter society from a cop, mind frame, to, hey, I'm Joe,

Joe Schmo, civilian now. I'm Lou Moroto. I'm not Officer Murado. I never thought of that. That's literally what we go through as inmates going in the civilians. It's the same thing for law enforcement, military, everything. Wow. Our separation class in the military was a joke.

Literally, you walked in from office to offices and were checking off boxes. That was your separation class. It has to be more in depth to go from whether you've been locked up or you've been in police work for so many years that that's what you know, right? You see us, and we go in a restaurant, we got to get the back chair, you know. I'm sure you do the same thing. You sit somewhere where you can see the front door, You can see who's around you, right?

Yeah, like, sitting in the corner. You don't want nobody sitting behind you. So, yeah, we have to do better that is having a good separation class. Absolutely. Maybe that's something you start up. You know, I told them already about it. It's too late for me to benefit off of that class. 60 days from now.

I'll be sitting in your chair. You know what I'm saying? That's awesome. So, but yeah, man, I'm excited for what's next. Great. Well, Lou, thank you so much for coming on the show today. It was a pleasure to meet you and chat with you. And best of luck in the podcasting world, we'll have the links to everything in the bio of this episode.

And happy almost retirement. Yes, sir. Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.