The People, Process, & Progress Podcast - If Not in Public Safety, We Shouldn't Judge What We Don't Understand | PPP #44

Episode Date: August 1, 2020

I share insight as a former Firefighter and EMS Captain into some of the types of situations Police Officers are put into everyday. 

Please silence your cell phones, hold our sidebar conversations to a minimum, and we will get into this episode of the People Process Progress Podcast in 3, 2, 1. You shouldn't judge what we don't understand and what we've never been a part of. These are thoughts that come to my head every time I see civilian oversight of policing or defund the police or something that doesn't make sense or isn't practical from people that don't understand what it's like to put time in on the street. I wasn't a cop, but I've been right there with them on critical incidents, on big planned events and I'm here to tell you that most people don't have any idea how hard that job is, me included, but they also don't have insight into what it's like to be on the street.

I'm going to give an example. One call I was on, just one call, and this is one example of hundreds or thousands of calls that police are the first ones to, in many cases, motel owner in a city, resident in the room hadn't come out for a while, wellness check, right? Doors closed. Nobody knows what's happening. Is this person despondent? Are they just asleep?

Are they not there? Well, the police have to knock and figure that out. And this call, this person was in a horrible place, which was evident by the time that we got there as EMS to verify whether this person was dead or not. It was a super hot day in the summer and someone that had decided to take their own life at the worst part of their day and who had been in there for a while. And as you can imagine, it was horrible, completely horrible in sight, in smell, in the feel that was in the air and in thought process. And for us in EMS and fire as well, we could go there feeling safe because the police were there.

The police get there first. And in many of these calls, a person is despondent and they don't care about their life or anyone else's. So they don't know if they're going to knock on the door and a shotgun blast is going to come through it. They don't know if a person is going to come running out of there with a butcher knife. And none of those are scenarios that haven't happened before. That happens all the time. And so, one, I'm inspired to give this feedback to let folks know, if you're a listener to this show or first time or you're seeing on the news,

all these things we should do to police from people that don't understand what it's like on the street, that haven't put time in their community, that haven't put ride-alongs, that you should question it. You should question their motives. You should think about what kind of society you want to have without protectors who sign up and don't care who puts the 911 call in. They don't care. And I'm telling you this because some of my greatest friends are cops and I love them. And that was made evident again last night when I was at the retirement ceremony of great friends who put in 26 years into a city who at times had the highest murder rate or close to it in the United States. Some of the most violent gangs and people in the country. And they did so and they answered and they had people there from all colors,

creeds and religions that thanked them. And it was clear to me, this isn't the insight that most Americans get. They get the highlight reel from the news that uses the clip that they want. They get, you know, someone's cell phone footage, like George Floyd, which was horrible, right? Or a clip of something maybe not as horrible, not as clearly evident, of an officer fighting or wrestling with someone, not seeing that that person socked the officer in the jaw before the clip started. And everyone's judging, but not everyone is signing up to put their time on the street,

their time back to society, and their time for people that they will be shoulder to shoulder with, and it won't matter whether you're a man, a woman, what color you are, what religion you are. And if, and the people that are familiar with public safety know it's not perfect, but they know the reality of when you serve with people similar to the military, you're serving with them through hard times,

you're pushing through things. And for the police in this country, they are just getting hammered because of the actions of a single person or a few people that were bad apples. Well, guess what? There are tons of bad apples in every group, every profession, in our entire society. But somehow magically the police have to be perfect. And there's a similar, and I might mess this up, kind of thought about firefighters, right? I was in that realm for a little bit and around it. And it's somebody wants a rocket scientist triathlete

to show up and solve their problems without any kind of emotion. Well, you can't expect perfect people. You certainly can't expect perfect people to not get worn down when you see people that have killed themselves, people that have gotten killed by others, when you've done CPR on a little baby. All these horrible things you could think of that some of you only see in TV shows or some other folks see in TV shows. You can't imagine the toll it takes.

A practical reality of a day in the life, there's a shooting and you stand over a shell casing so we don't mess the scene up to preserve it. That's a perspective of the life that keeps the America and our iPhones and our Starbucks and all that stuff going and keeps bad guys at bay that, as we see in some cities, is not going so well in the police forces that have been reduced or pulled back. And that's not good. And so this is Kevin Pinnell, if you didn't know that already, host of the People Process Progress podcast.

I wanted to share this message on the road, which I've done a few times in the past, because I was really inspired by the service of my great friends who retired after 20 plus years, 26 years. And the feeling in that room of pride that I had in them and all the other people that were there, black, white, Asian, Hispanic, all mixes, because that stuff doesn't get on the news. What gets on the news is whatever channel slant they want to make the argument about. They don't look at the people behind this service and the huge hearts that they have, the vast majority of them, almost all of them. So I would, like I did at the end of my previous podcast, really ask people, anyone that's listening to this,

anyone that shares this, please do. Think about the human aspect of what it takes to go in someone's worst day when they have nothing left, when they either don't want to live and don't care who else lives, when you show up and their little one, they just pulled out of the pool and now they're looking to you to save them, or they have to run into a school because some crazy person is shooting up the school. These are the people that are getting judged so harshly across the board now, but these

are the people that will do all those things for us. I want to say that I appreciate and am proud to be a friend and have many friends that are law enforcement. I am super glad that they are here for us. I hope that they continue to. I hope that they actually get more funding so we can give them more mental health breaks, help with different physical training aspects as needed, a comprehensive solution, not a clear-cutting thing that is going to negatively impact our society. I truly believe that. And welcome to August, listeners and friends out there. I appreciate every single download, every time someone's reached out on any platform.

We have made it. It's certainly hot. out there. I appreciate every single download. Every time someone's reached out on any platform, we have made it. It's certainly hot. I did some track work, some sprint work today. Felt like a swamp in central Virginia visiting some folks. But thanks to you all. We had over 2000 folks that listened last month. That's the most ever. And it's you all. So thanks so much. Please again, reach out people process progress.com. All my connections are there on social media, Instagram, PPP underscore pod, email me directly at people process progress at gmail.com or find me on LinkedIn, Kevin Pennell. I look forward to continuing this journey with you all and the healing of America and the improvement of America and stay safe for sure. Wash those hands and Godspeed.