Latest / Our Community, Our Mission / Ep#312 - Faith and Public Safety: Meet TPD Chief Chris Vallejo

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Ep#312 - Faith and Public Safety: Meet TPD Chief Chris Vallejo · Our Community, Our Mission

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, um we are so grateful that we get to be together again today to um talk to our special guests, to um hear all of the things that are going on, Lord.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: Um we are also grateful for the rain that came.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: Um we know that it is needed in so many areas, but we also know that it brings difficulties for other people too.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um whether it was the areas that also had tornadoes that came with it and large hail and everything, Lord, we would just ask for your peace and comfort for all of those folks, for all of our neighbors who are living outside who um have to experience the weather.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um we know that often they are very prepared and then sometimes it's just a struggle.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: So Lord, we would just ask that you be with them and protect them.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um and just let them know that there are people that are caring and looking out for them too.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Lord, we would just be at uh we would just ask that you be in the middle of this conversation today.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um use it for your honor and glory.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: Help that the people that are listening um can pick up on exactly what you need them to hear.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, we are so grateful for this opportunity.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: We love you and we pray all of this in Jesus' precious name.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_02: Hello, everybody.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for joining us for our community, our mission, a podcast of the Topeka Rescue Mission.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_02: I'm your host, Barry Feeker, here today on April the 28th, 2026.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_02: This is episode number 312 for those who've been counting.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_02: That's a lot.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_02: They've been counting a long time.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, they have.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_02: So uh Maren Crable, Lamanda, Cunningham, good morning.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_02: Good morning.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so you mentioned the rain.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_02: Uh in your prayer, and also the other things that go along with it.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_02: We got blasted here uh Sunday night.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, it was Monday morning.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_02: And so uh great to have the rain.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um, unless you were north where I live and you got pelted with hail.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_02: So gonna have the adjuster come take a look and uh and uh see what we got up there.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: But did you know the hail was coming though?
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: So I shared this with somebody.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: You did hear it coming?
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_02: I heard it was coming.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: Oh no, okay.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: So one of our team members who might be in this room somewhere didn't know that, you know, when you hear the thunder and it's just kind of a constant roll, it doesn't like lightning, thunder, lightning, thunder, but you just hear this constant rolling kind of sound.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Did you ever notice that?
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_02: I have before I've heard when the fronts come in.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: That is hail.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: That means you've got hail coming.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: So you can know that beforehand.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: You can worry about your roof early before it even starts.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_02: We had a 70-degree day um and it immediately within an hour and a half turned to something sub-freezing, uh-huh.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_02: And we lived up north and uh in the country at that time, which we don't anymore.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_02: But we actually saw this cold front coming through in our front door face north.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_02: You couldn't get in the front door because the hail had frozen the door.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_02: So people say that happens in Kansas?
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_02: Uh-huh.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_02: It does.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_02: Well, you does it you're a farm girl in the way.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: I am.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_02: I know that kind of stuff.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_01: We call her Mrs.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_01: Farmer's Almanac.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: That's her nickname.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_02: So before we jump into some of the results or some of the things that were concerning about that weather, we need to also focus on our research and development department, who gave us a bit of a limited understanding of the value of April 28th every year.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: But we're going to kind of go with it because there's no definition to any of these.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_02: They're just titles.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: It gave you a lot of latitude.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_02: So it did, but it kind of fits in with our guest here today.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_02: So today is National Superhero Day.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: Superhero.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_02: And so, okay, since we don't have a definition to this because our research and development department's apparently been too busy to do that.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_02: It's called Google.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_02: Google, you guys.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: I think they're trying to gently nudge you that we might be fading these out.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_01: Because you've picked on us way too much.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_01: So long you've picked on us.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: I'm out.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: We're really trying to heal from this.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, the guests are important, but this is really important.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_02: So National Supero Who comes to your mind, Lamanda?
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_02: National Superhero Day, and you don't have to mention my name twice.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_02: Go ahead.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, good grief.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_02: It's getting deep in here.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_02: I know.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's either from the Raid or from Barry.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know exactly.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um superheroes.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: Man, I would probably say my first superhero I think of is Wonder Woman.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_02: Of course.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_02: Of course.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_02: And I probably was Superman.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_02: Is that what you have in a mirror at home when you're getting ready?
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_02: That's right.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_02: That's right.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: Do you have the outfit?
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_01: I do not have the outfit.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: I do not have the outfit.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_01: I have had a Kate before dressed up as Supermom, um, super mom one year with the girls.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, it's fun.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: Good for you.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: It would be Superman.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's the one that hits first.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because he's been around a long time and I've been around a long time.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_02: Where did he go?
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I know.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_02: When you need the guy.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_02: So it's also National Blueberry Day.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_02: How do they do that?
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_02: It's like a super Smurf Hero Day or something like that.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_02: Blueberry Day.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_02: So what comes to your mind when you say National Blueberry Day?
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: Muffins.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_02: Since we have no definition from the research and development department today, I'm really rubbing it in, guys.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: Muffins.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: Don't muffins come to your mind first?
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_00: Blueberry muffins.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_01: You don't like them?
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: I don't like blueberries.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: But my husband thinks he's every time when he's talking about blueberries or beets, he's like, they're superfoods.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody should be eating them every day.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_02: They're very, very good for you.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_02: Superfoods, you better have some toothpaste around afterwards because otherwise you look like blueberry the rest of the as well as beets.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_02: One last thing national bus driver appreciation.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, that's a good one.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_02: So, Lamanda, you know all about that, right?
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_01: I do, and I am so grateful for bus drivers professionally, just because you know I used to be a teacher and and a principal.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_01: But also I have an uncle who retired as a police captain and did not know what to do with retirement.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: Sounds like somebody else I know.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: Barry.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: And um, anyways, he decided to go be a bus driver.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: And he's done that for 15, 20 years and gets all these awards.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: And it was so funny to go from very serious police work type stuff to Mr.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_01: Ron, Mr.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: Ronnie, and getting all these awards from the kids, and it was so cute.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: And he's he's loved it.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_02: So he knows how to do crowd control as well.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: Well, he jokes and says that because he has hearing aids.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: And he says, yeah, when the kids get on, I just turn the hearing aid down, and so they think I'm the best bus driver.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_02: I was never a bus driver, but I know what it's like because I had kids.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yes.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_02: All you do is you drive kids around all the time.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_02: So before we introduce our guest today, um we did have the um river coming up, um, which uh resulted in some calls um Monday, which was yesterday.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yesterday.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um last 24 hours.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_02: What what uh what was the concern and what was done about it?
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, I think um there's just so much, Barry, um, that TRM and other amazing partners are involved in every day trying to help our community.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of times, you know, we don't make a Facebook post about it or we don't do a shout-out about it.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's just it's what we do.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: And um yesterday was just kind of a testament to that.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um got a phone call from um homeless outreach with uh Topeka Police Department, which we could not do our jobs without that, um, letting us know that um they had heard from another city department that the river had risen to the 15 feet and could potentially continue to rise up to 19 feet.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um and, you know, going out to check on the individuals that are on the south side of the river that this could impact, that's not the role of TPD, but that was a perfect example of TPD having knowledge and then executing the social services in order to be able to do that.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: And so um I became aware of it, and then I did not have a complete co-responder team to send out.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_01: And so I was able to quickly call on Astra.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and they have the hope team and the path team that do various um duties within outreach, and was able to call one of their supervisors and say, hey, I think we need to be notifying individuals just like we do when there's winter weather, just like we do when there's tornadic weather, we need to be doing the same thing for these individuals that could be impacted with the river rising.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: Anything that TRM can do to proactively, and I've said this a lot, um, help people, that's what we're about.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: But also anything that we can do to lessen sometimes the bottleneck that happens for emergency services, we need to do.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_01: And so if we can send teams down that would then later prevent fire from having to go down, water rescues, like that's what we're trying to do to help 911 and those kinds of things.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_01: So Astra went out and they made contact, they brought some supplies, but then also kind of gave people a heads up as much as they could.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_01: We also know that we feed a lot of individuals at our community meal.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_01: And so our food service team typed up a little flyer warning, just you know, attention southside neighbors, please continue to watch the um river levels, and just trying to promote this would be a great time if you could access another type of housing option.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but we also know that there's a lot of limitations for a lot of our folks.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um did you have more people come in uh last night because of the rising river?
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: Not that I'm aware of.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um food counts were higher.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: And so I do think people even temporarily just coming over here that maybe sometimes don't did.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but so far I haven't seen haven't seen that number.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_01: The other part on this was, you know, we had the flyer, Astra helped contact us, um, the couple of departments of City of Topeka giving us the information.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_01: That to me is really your community ecosystem working together to one, not be double dipping resources.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: We didn't need fire, police, Astra, TRM, everybody out there.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: So this is really, in my opinion, a beautiful example of like this handoff, everybody having their roles.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: And then this morning, um, I reached out to um our contact at um the Topeka Fire Department and appreciated that just saying, hey, I'm not trying to be in your lane, but just to give you a heads up, um, there could be a need for water rescue.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: We're trying to tell people ahead of time, but there are people within these spaces on the south side of the riverbank by the levee.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: And so explaining that to them so now they're aware as well.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, she was going to be checking on it with me and said that she would be touching base with me throughout the day.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: So again, just this communication is key.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: And um, I think we all care about every individual in our community, whether they're housed, unhoused, um, whatever the situation is, but then also knowing who should be doing what is key.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: So it's a beautiful example, I think, of community taking care of community.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_02: And if we didn't do that, there could be some real issues.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um there's uh number of people who've come in today for services at the Compassion Impact Center uh map um here at the back of the building that we're in right now.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_02: And I can tell you today, just uh spend a little time out there, they look pretty tired.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_02: They are um this is our unsheltered folks who've come in off the streets and they look a little more worn.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_02: And I heard one guy say, man, it's sure good to get a warm shower.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, I like that.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_02: So we got that.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_02: Well, Lamanda, you and I have some things in common.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_02: One is the position that you hold that I used to hold, but there's something else we have in common in regards to our fathers.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we're police kids.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we are police kids.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_02: That's right.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_02: That's right.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_02: And so we have a great uh respect for police work, and uh uh um we didn't have the same father.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_02: No, we didn't.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um just to clarify that because you are old enough to be you are older than my dad.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: Let me just put that jab in right there.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um National Blueberry Day.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um you never did answer that correctly.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: He's gonna throw blueberries at me, is what he's gonna do.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_02: So uh I like uh I like police chiefs and uh they have arresting power and they have guns.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_02: So be careful what you say today.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_02: That's right.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_02: We are very honored today um to have the top cop of Topeka, Kansas, our chief, Chief Chris Vallejo.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_02: Did I get that?
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_02: Did I get that now?
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_02: Or the layout for the other people.
• 12:26
  SPEAKER_02: So anyway, Chief, thanks for joining us for the podcast today.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_04: Oh thanks for having us here.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_04: Good morning, everyone.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_02: You um you um have been here about 16 months as chief in Topeka.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um and so prior to that time you were in Austin, Texas, um, if I understand correctly, for about 30 years.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_04: I was born and raised in Austin, Texas, but yeah, I'm 30 years at the Austin Police Department.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_02: Thirty years there.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_02: So uh were you chief there before you came here?
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um I was a senior commander, so that's before I left.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_04: That sounds like pretty hype food and chain.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, for a large organization with uh up to uh 2,500 people sworn and sworn, so you kind of kind of see the the the uh scale you're looking at.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_02: So before your police work, uh Marine Corps?
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um so you've been serving your country, your community for a very, very long time.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_04: I've been in some type of uniform since I was 19 years old.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_04: Well that's just yesterday, right?
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: Just yesterday.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_02: So So, Chief, um we had a need for um a new chief here in Topeka.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um and so what did you know about Topeka, Kansas?
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, from Austin to Topeka, that's a pretty big shift uh culturally, uh population-wise, so forth.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_02: But what did you know about it and what attracted you to possibly say, hey, I want to come lead that department?
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_02: I'll be transparent with everyone what I knew is what was in the brochure that they put out for the job.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_04: So uh, you know, uh you know, I I tell my story a lot about how I got here.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_04: It it I did thirty thirty years in a large agency, but I felt there was more.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_04: I so I retired uh in April of 24.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_04: And I I have a wonderful wife.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_04: Uh her name is Angie, and and she knew I was striving for more, wanting to give a bigger uh contribute in a more global, bigger way to policing.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_04: So um she said, why don't you put it in God's hands?
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_03: You know Imagine that.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_04: We've heard of that before.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_04: So uh, you know, I'm I'm one notoriously to try to fix it myself, but you know, that's why we're balanced out with uh wonderful, you know, with wonderful spouses and significant others.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_04: And my wife said, Why don't you pray about it?
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_04: And it did, and suddenly came to peace one day that it was time to retire.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_04: You know, God was telling me to close this door and then have faith that another one will open.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_04: So that's that's big for a guy who for cops who are usually doing it themselves.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_04: So in April of 24, I I retired and uh was just retired and said, Well, I'm gonna put it in your hands.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_04: And this uh this position came open in October.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_04: Hadn't heard of it before, but I looked at what Topeka was looking for in a chief, and a lot of what I'd done, and I put it together and said, Well, my experiences match this.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_04: So I, you know, had a prayer about it, and I felt uh fantastic throughout the process.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_04: And I the message I got from God when I prayed about it, he said, I will make you a chief, but I will select where you go and where you serve.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_04: So this is where I'm at.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_04: So I tell people my story.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_04: I was led to be here.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_04: This is where I was appointed by the Lord Himself to be here.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_04: So that's where I'm at.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_04: Um went on faith and the community's been fantastic.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_04: Everything has fallen into place.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_04: Never had to worry about a thing.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_04: Everything, you know, found a place to live.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_04: My you know, my youngest uh was just going to Washburn.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_04: Everything just fell in place where I had to worry about nothing other than the focus on the mission of why I'm supposed to be here.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, that's fabulous.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_02: It's always nice to understand we have a direction to go from God.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_02: It's really nice when things line up when you get there.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_02: They don't always line up perfectly.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_02: I'm glad to have uh hear that happen.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_02: So um what have you learned about this community?
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_02: You you had a prayer, your wife encouraged you to go that direction, you end up in Topeka Kans.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_02: What have you learned about Topeka that maybe has been the most um influential or important thing that maybe you didn't know before when you didn't see it in the brochure?
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um not just in the department, just about the community.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_02: What's what struck you the most?
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_04: How easy it is to get to know folks and how easy it is for them to get to know you.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_04: There's not a lot of barriers here like there would be in a metropolitan area of a couple million people.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_04: Uh so that was I I was welcome from the from the moment I hit the ground uh running, you know, in in my neighborhood, in my church, we found a church, we found uh friends, we found people who supported me and and uh my c senior command staff uh and my officers uh just welcoming.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_04: I never felt like I was not welcome.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_04: So I've it's it's just refreshing.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_04: I'd you know, coming in from a a strange guy from a strange land down in Texas, coming here to to be your your police chief.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_04: That's yeah, you yeah, you're the chief and everything, but you're really you're the new kid in uh in some aspects.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_04: So I've learned that people are uh here were way more welcoming.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_04: I've never been set foot in the Midwest other than traveling through.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_04: So this is an experience for me.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_04: So the culture is different, but it there's still just some there's some fine people in this community.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_02: It sounded like this really was a uh step of um trust, faith, obedience to come to a place you really weren't that familiar with.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_02: And and and to take on such a huge responsibility.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um maybe not the largest metropolitan area, but still people problems and challenges and organizational um challenges, uh funding, uh especially when you don't have a lot of fluid money coming into the community right now from um the city and and so forth uh with deficits.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_02: So really glad to hear that.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um so you came in, you examined um Long History, Peak Police Department, and um You got you're the top guy.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_02: And so you have decided that there's some different things that need to be done um here.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um one title you mentioned, a senior commander that you uh had in Austin.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_02: Uh you've got a a different structure and uh different titles for some people.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_02: Talk a little bit about that and the why of that, uh, where you shifted for some terminology and some different things that you've done in the department you think are gonna get us to where we need to be.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_04: Everything I'm uh focusing on is on moving the department forward.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_04: I realize that a chief or any CEO's time is limited to a certain amount of uh of of window.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_04: You know, God put me here, he'll tell me when to go.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_04: But I the my effectiveness, you you want to really come out in the first several years and really make a difference because uh after a while you kind of things go a little bit slower.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_04: So the remote your emphasis, your impact is greatest when you get here.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_04: So the as far as uh I think you meant mentioned the changing of structure and organizational command, I just made that more contemporary.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_04: The my uh senior command staff is top-notch.
• 19:03
  SPEAKER_04: You know, they've had it in them and you know, would you know getting them to trust me and and uh getting them to know about me and my uh you know, my vision and and what it is.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_04: We found they were quite similar.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_04: They have some fantastic ideas.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_04: So a lot of the ideas, you know, with policy reform, lexipole, uh, those are their ideas.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_04: Those are just things that I was going was uh you know that I had in mind as well, but these are things that they needed to be empowered to carry out.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_04: So um not only it took about a year of of really intense emotional labor to get not just a community, but everyone in my police department at some point to learn who I am, trust me, and get to know what I'm about.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_04: And we find I had a lot more in common than not.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_04: So I changed the rank structure.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_04: That's just a a physical thing.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_04: You know, police are into symbology, call them accrueds and things that we wear.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_04: So I wanted to as a symbol of uh unity and in contemporary policing, we changed to the system that we have now with the chief of police wears four stars, the chief of staff wears three, the assistant chiefs wear two, and the commanders wear one.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_04: So everywhere you go, we look the same.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_02: So um yeah, billion questions here.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_02: But uh in any leader's position of a company, especially in service um organizations like law enforcement, rescue mission, um there is the need to take care of internal um operations day to day and be in the community.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Lamanda's uh uh challenge with how do you how do you take care of things internally and also externally, because everybody's got their eyes on you.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_02: They have expectations of you, and duly so uh because we've said we'll take care of this piece, community safety, the homeless, hungry, so forth.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_02: How do you how have you found um or have you found the balance of that yet?
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_02: Uh because you're still the new guy.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um 15 months or so, you're still the new guy on the block.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um how's that balancing out for you and and and what what do you want the community to know about the importance of you can't be everywhere all the time?
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_04: Well, if you're gonna take the position of chief of police, you've got to understand that there is no balance.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_04: That makes a sense.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_04: You make the most of it uh where you can, you try, but you know, the first uh you know, I'm still doing that, but the first year we were uh you know, we were I was uh you know what I say observing, listening, and learning, and to be able to do that, that takes time.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_04: I'm talking fifty hours, sixty hours, seventy hours a week, sometimes uh you know, scheduling early morning to late at night uh to meet uh going where the people are.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_04: So that's you know that's a how do you balance that or or uh or with the you know internally and externally you you spend a lot of time and you develop a lot of relationships and you get people see you over and over and over and until they get to understand what it is that you're about.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_04: And in a city th this size it takes qu you know quite a bit of hours of putting in.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_02: And and I think uh the key word you said is relationships.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_02: Uh you have to be you're you're the commander, um top guy um within the department.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_02: So So you what you say goes, but it's also about relationships and covolting the cultivating those with your command staff that goes all the way down to that officer on the street, but also the community out here.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_02: That's um that's a balance, but there is no balance to it.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_02: You just got to be on it all the time, don't you?
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_04: You gotta stay on it.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_04: If I were a CEO of my own company, you'd want that thing to be successful, so you're always out there uh uh hustling.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_04: So it's basically the same thing here because uh you know when I think I have a message across, maybe it's not.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_04: So you gotta go back out there and talk to community leaders or make community meetings or just talk to people.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_04: That's not uncommon for us to walk up and down Kansas Avenue as a command team and just walk into stores and just say hello or just be present.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_04: Uh and that's huge.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_04: So that's it takes a lot of time, but that's what I promised I would do if I got the position.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_04: So that's I think that's probably where I'm at my happiest as well, is building those relationships and being more uh people-centric.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_02: What's your um I don't want to get to Lamanda and Miriam's uh bring them into this conversation because you're not gonna just talk the rest of the day.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_02: No, what's um um as you've been here now, um, is there certain goals that you have for this community?
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously crime reduction, um, safer community, those kind of things.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_02: What is your hopes and dreams about the Topeka Police Department and the community at large from your lens?
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_04: I think overall, you know, the when uh the mandate was to do something about crime and and not just the statistical number about lowering crime, which we you know, I brought my annual report and which confirms that's what we're doing, but I also want people to feel safe.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_04: So if I don't have those two together, um I'm really it kind of defeats the purpose.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_04: I can present an annual report uh every year, but if people don't feel safe in their own neighborhood, then uh that's that's the other part of the equation.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_04: So that's a lot of community engagement, a lot of putting our community police officers, our police and community together team, packed team out there in the community to listen to what's going on.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_04: I can't be everywhere at once, but I have a lot of people that I can leverage to be out there in the community.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_04: So I would say a combination of are you safe statistically and do you feel safe are the are the main drivers.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_04: But I also want to tackle the things, what we call the uh social determinants of health that uh that police kind of get on the outskirts of and sometimes uh the we get caught in the middle of it, you know, like uh with homelessness and mental health and drug addiction.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_04: Those are important to me, but the tools that, you know, the parrobial, the the ones on our belt or the ones and our cognitive tools of what we have are kind of limited.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_04: I think the police and the police department and your police chief should be conversant in those topics, in those issues, and I am.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_04: And but we should have a seat at the table with the community.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_04: I don't want to be the face of homelessness or or any of those uh social issues, but I do want to be at the table and see if we can find a common way to cure those problems as a community.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_02: Well, it's a huge um um undertaking to not only make sure people are safe, but help them to feel safe because it doesn't take but one time that you have had a situation occur that now there's a trauma there and uh or there's at least a perceived trauma there, a perceived I'm never gonna be safe again, um, to um say police you gotta fix my my feelings too.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um but I hear what you're saying, engagement being out there with people so that they can get to know who you are, not just drive by, not just be there when their crisis occurs, but actually be in the in those situations, walking into those businesses and so forth as you yeah, Lamanda, um um last week you I think it was last week you arrived at your four years as uh CEO speaker rescue mission.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um you were grown grew up in law enforcement, you knew that.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_02: You worked in public schools, you knew about the importance of security and so forth.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_02: What's been your experience and uh what are your what encourages you about the chief being here now in regards to the issues that are on your plate, which are homelessness, hunger, poverty, um, community safety as well, but for the population that you've been assigned to care for?
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I think um at the forefront of just what is needed is someone who is relational.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um you know, I haven't done this as long as you, Barry, right?
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_01: But I have just in the 40s.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_01: Blueberries.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um but even in my four years, when I look at other nonprofits, even some business owners, city leadership, Topeka, fire, and I could go on and on, there has been a lot of transition.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so relationships for TRM are crucial in everything we do.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_01: We talk about that often with people that volunteer, donors who invest in what we do.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, relationships are important to staff.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, this is a lot of our work is um being impacted in secondhand trauma every day.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_01: So relationships and healthy relationships are important for all of us.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_01: So at the CEO level, I am blessed and challenged sometimes with trying to also keep all of those professional relationships with various stakeholders.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_01: And um, so when there is transition, I think my heart, and I've said this before on this podcast, is always to try to be a bridge to appreciate and thank whoever did that role before and realize they did the best they could in their season of leadership.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm also supposed to be a bridge of whoever the new leader is and to hear his or her heart and to see what they're trying to accomplish within their business or their organization and be trying to build a relationship with that where we're not building it on what it has been, but that we're also not discounting all the hard work of people before us, but then also trying to keep relationships intact now for where we need to go as a community moving forward.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_01: And so um at times it's been a lot in my role because we've had a lot of people transition in and out, which then means all the other people that we work with, they're in transition too, because it's not just Chief coming and being accepted by our community and making sure that we're making him feel welcome.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_01: He also has a lot of people under him that need to be gaining trust and they need to be able to trust too.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: So it just really impacts a lot of my team that works within the TPD team and and vice versa.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_01: So, all that being said, there is kind of a um sigh of relief um the first several times that I met a chief just because I thought very early on he just is who he says he is.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_01: And he and I may not always be able to do the same work.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_01: We may not always have the same viewpoint on things.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_01: But now that we've gotten to know each other, we do care about people, we care about safety, and we care about doing the right thing.
• 28:51
  SPEAKER_01: And so then that matters when we're doing this work because when there's handoffs, like we mentioned with the um river rising and all of that, we do that.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_01: We do that well.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um I respect what they can and cannot do, and I feel like um TPD does as well for TRM.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_01: So the relationship piece is uh crucial for leaders, I feel like, because our organizations take the tone of us.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_01: And so I have just kind of breathed this sigh of relief because he is relational, he is honest.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we've been able to have crucial conversations about our co-responding program.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_01: What does that look like?
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_01: What changes need to happen?
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_01: What are we going to keep the same?
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and to me, that is something that I don't ever want to take for granted when I'm able to have a partnership with another leader that is honest and trustworthy.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_01: Might not mean that we're always getting everything that we want, but that's a true partnership and compromise.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_01: And we have that with Chief.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_02: She doesn't hand out compliments unless she meets them.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_02: So take that, run with it.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_02: I'll take it.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um Chief, um, prior to your time in Topeka, and this has been kind of a change nationally, uh there was no um sticking ordinances about public camping.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_02: And so um here a few years ago, the Topeka um leadership uh from a governing body said this is not good, this can't continue on, and so they made some pretty big decisions to uh ban public camping, um, which uh basically uh some people say criminalize homelessness.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_02: It's not that, but it does affect the people who have no place to go.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_02: Uh prior to your time, uh not too far from here, there was a camp that had between 100 and 130 people in that camp.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_02: It was on railroad property in 2019, and uh the railroad came and said can't do that here anymore, but it didn't eliminate people going from other public areas.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_02: I say all that to say as a background.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_02: Today we have a ban on public camping in Topeka.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_02: Uh we have um people that really don't have other places to go at this point.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_02: We're working on that uh in regards to possibly a village of some kind of what we call safe rest village.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_02: I'd like to hear your thoughts on that.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_02: But what is um how do you help officers, um, your frontline folks that are on the streets, that engage with an unsheltered homeless individual that really um has no other option at this point?
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um there's no place you can send them if the rescue mission's full for shelter.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um how do you coach them?
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_02: How do you lead them to be compassionate and at the same time say you can't be here?
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um that's a tough catch-22 for you guys.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_04: Aaron Powell That is the ball that is a balance.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_04: That's why uh using your law enforcement in the hopes and dreams of trying to cure homelessness will fail you every time.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_04: Because uh, you know, that's the ordinances uh have their place and I respect the the fact that the community wants those.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_04: There's they're not a fix to what it is.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_04: There's a reason this person is there.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_04: So I encourage my officers to be uh problem solvers.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_04: You know, the how do I do that?
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_04: Through roll calls, through talking, I'm hoping they're listening to this message.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_04: That that we right, we don't want to c necessarily criminalize homelessness because we don't know what what it is that got this person to this point.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_04: So if we can solve a problem other than a citation, we use um enforcement as a last resort.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_04: You know, so and that just comes with experience with police officers understanding and emphasizing the engagement part uh in the academy and and places that uh we, you know, the academy we come here.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_04: Um you know, one of the things I started doing was having outreach.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_04: Our recruits come here and work to the Topeka Rescue Mission, so they see firsthand on the other side what that looks like.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_04: So maybe then in the back of their mind they'll they'll think, okay, I'd uh maybe I could find another way.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_04: I understand a little bit more about the context of of people that are experiencing homelessness or unhoused.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_04: So I that's uh it's a balance for sure.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_04: You know, but there are expectations of us uh you know from the community that you know if we must enforce an ordinance, then we'll do that, but we'll problem solve first.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_02: So what what from your lens, um again, you're learning the community um in regards to some things that we're doing, you know, about the rescue mission, somewhat about the uh moving ahead partnership that we've had.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um What do you think we need to do?
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um we have um um ordinances that say, you know, somebody can't camp in public and being on private property is a problem as well, uh, but there's no option.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_02: What would you say our community needs next um if I can put you on the spot like that?
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_02: Well, that's a big spot, right there.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_04: I I think we just have to understand the you know the um dynamics of of homelessness and the unhoused.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_04: Uh we frequently get asked, and rightfully so, we'll you know, we'll we'll come to communities and we'll move folks or we'll uh we'll uh dismantle a camping uh location or maybe somebody's business.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_04: I understand that they wanna they want to be able to enjoy the fruits of their labor labor and have those businesses and and feel safe.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_04: So that's a balance.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_04: But I guess as a community, we understand that when we we kind of put a band-aid on these issues as we saw as we as we move people from place to place, as we move people from the river and the embankments, they have to have some place to go.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_04: At the end when we move people out of uh encampments and things like that, they're still homeless or unhoused.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_04: So they they have to have a place to live.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_04: So we see this this migration of uh from the uh from the river to Kansas Avenue to uh over in Oakland.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_04: I understand and I hear every bit of that, but we're just kind of moving folks around and not really solving the main problem is they need a place to be.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_04: And I understand that some are you know wholeheartedly don't want to uh participate in in being housed, and I get that, but I think the majority of if they had some type of option, a comprehensive plan to look at this.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_04: It's complex.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_04: Society is complex.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_04: I talked a little bit about the social determinants of health and stuff.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_04: There are a lot of things that go into uh a community that that uh cause these issues.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_04: So um, you know, that we talk about homelessness, it's not one thing, but if you've ever heard of the triple stigma, homelessness, justice involved, and some type of addiction.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_04: And that that's that uh intersection of those three creates issues.
• 35:21
  SPEAKER_04: So I think we should really d dial down on the uh I I talk a lot about the 80-20 rule.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_04: You know, there's a about 20 percent are are driving uh uh eighty percent of your services or your cons or your con 20 percent of your consumers are using about eighty percent.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_04: Let's start there, let's focus on them.
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_04: Uh you know, the ones that are there that are the engaging with the police, engaging with fire, engaging with uh with TMR.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_04: We're all they're all in the same radar, we have that data.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_04: So we should get be better at uh understanding who our frequent uh consumers are and targeting them.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_04: So I it's a I would say it's it's it's complicated, but we have to have those conversations more often.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_02: Anything that you saw happen in Austin, um I know they've got some pretty innovative things going on there, but anything you think that on a scale we could bring to Topeka that would be of similar support and help, I know they didn't eliminate homelessness there, but they did some things different.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_04: Well, uh the one out out is for mobile lobes and fishes is Community First Village, which is in the eastern Travis County.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_04: I've I've had the privilege to go out there and make visits.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_04: And what a fantastic concept.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_04: I think they since then they've doubled their uh footprint out there.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_04: And what's amazing is you know they've done the crime statistics uh at first it was not in my backyard uh kind of feeling, but their their community village, uh their crime statistics are lower than nearby regular residential communities because they have structure, they have rules, they have things in place.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_04: That's just not a place to be.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_04: They're actually nice homes that must be maintained.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_04: They learn job skills, they have to have a purpose there.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_04: There are social uh things for them to do, like watch movies or entertainment and things like that to keep them on the ground.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_04: So it's very well structured.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_04: I think we should uh some people call them tiny homes, um small villages, whatever it is you want to call it, but it's a place for them uh for people to be.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_04: And uh it's been very successful.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_04: I think that needs to be studied.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_04: Uh uh, I forgot the mobile lobes and fishes gentleman that uh is out there, but that's I've seen the YouTube videos of him speaking about it.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_04: So it's a plan at at uh understanding being respectful of money and and uh what it costs, but uh I just know what works.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_04: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_02: But I think that's really great to hear.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_02: Miriam uh you've and I've been working on this for a long time and and the all hands-on-deck component of this.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_02: Um to hear the chief mention what's going on in Austin, um talk about that.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell Well, you know, it's just it's really exciting just because we know it can work, you know, and I think what I'm so interested in is how do we get past that not in my backyard piece, you know, because we know it will work.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_00: We know that when we bring that kind of dignity to people, right, that they have a place that they can call their own, that it helps, right?
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_00: It changes behavior, um, not all the time, but most of the time, it'll change behavior because now they have a different kind of purpose.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so I think it's so exciting to hear when it's working somewhere.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and and what that means as far as relationship, you know, I don't know that we can stress that word enough because, you know, when you see crime decreasing because now we've built relationships with people and give them, we've given them or help them attain what they need, right?
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_00: Things change, right?
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: Things become safer because people then take pride in where they are and that kind of thing.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_00: So to me, knowing that there are those kinds of things out there that work, that we can not just conceptualize, but actually see and touch, I think that's encouraging and somehow needs to be brought to light here so that people can see this is okay.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's it doesn't have to be scary.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have to assume the worst about a population that often can be misinterpreted, right?
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, in terms of how people look at folks that are living on the margins, that whose behavior often changes because of their circumstance.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: You know, uh so I think that there are ways that we can do this, but it's obviously always encouraging to hear about things that are working.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_02: Key word that you mentioned is management.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_02: Uh the program that you saw with the Lowe's officials was managed well.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_02: And so you manage something well, you resource it well, just like Topeka Police Department.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_02: You resource it well, you manage it well, you're gonna have success.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_02: Same thing with Topeka Rescue Mission, same thing with our future efforts to help our homeless and our community.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_02: We have to not just want to kick the can down the road or put the band-aid on it, but we need to say, okay, what is it that we're seeing?
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_02: What can we learn from other communities?
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_02: What can we then on a scale put here and um and bring it together as a community conversation?
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um A lot of people are scared for something else for the homeless.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_02: To the crime statistic piece of this, the NOTO region um in this whole area is one of the lower crime areas in our community, and it has 250 plus homeless individuals staying in the shelter uh every night and has for decades um done that, but it's not the high crime area like there may be in some other areas.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_02: There's expectation, there's community, there's a sense of belonging, there's a sense of that, that not just a sense of, but there's that relationship piece.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_00: Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Well, Barry, I think you said the word too.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know, people's fears are often not based on anything actual.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you can be afraid of the police because you don't know them, right?
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's the beauty of of what I've found being here.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_00: My interaction with uh law enforcement prior to coming to TRM was minimal.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_00: And it probably happened because I might have been going too fast.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_00: It could have been that.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_00: It was very questionable.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_00: Who won that argument?
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, the people with the equipment usually win.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_00: No, but it's, you know, coming to TRM, I've had this amazing opportunity to get to know law enforcement.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't have to have any kind of apprehension because these are just people who have a job to do who are just like me, right?
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so building these kinds of relationships.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_00: When our volunteers come here and get to know the people that we serve, it eliminates unrealistic uh fears that they may have had that they sort of, I don't mean this in any kind of disrespectful way, but they kind of made up in their head because they see people that are different than they are, people that maybe are having some mental health struggles or maybe haven't had the opportunity to bathe for a while, you know, so that or they're afraid they're gonna be asked for money and don't know how to respond.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_00: When you can eliminate those fears, I think we can make so much more progress because it isn't then about an unrealistic fear.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_00: So what potentially happened even in Austin is they found, okay, this is not something to be afraid of.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_00: My my fears that I had that were not founded on anything didn't ever come to fruition, and now my perspective is different.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I think if we could eliminate unrealistic fear or perceived fear, I think that could go a long way in really helping us be able to overcome some of the barriers that we seem to find.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_02: It goes right back to what you started talking about, Chief.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_02: There's uh safety and there's perceived safety or danger or perceived danger, and I think it's the same thing.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_02: It's what you're talking about, the whole community, it's the same thing around the homeless issue.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely, yes.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_02: So um Chief, kind of switching gears here.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um got a big job.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um very important um uh agency in our community to say the least.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_02: What can the community do to support the Topeka Police Department?
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_02: Support your team.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_02: What can we do?
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_02: Because you're always there for us.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_02: What can we do to be there for you?
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_04: Stay informed.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_04: You know, read our uh read our annual reports, come on our website, uh, engage with us.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_04: We uh NIA meetings or community meetings, uh, the more the merrier that the more trains of thought it uh at at functions like that are are very helpful for us to gather a little bit of the pulse of the community.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_04: So uh I know people are busy and I and sometimes I think uh a good indicator sometimes for a chief is when things are quiet.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_04: You know, nobody has anything to to be angry about.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_04: And then things have been pretty quiet lately.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_04: But I I encourage engagement, you know, coming out to meet us uh here in the near future.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_04: We're gonna have another uh hot dogs in the park event sometime.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_04: Uh we're working on that.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_04: So uh we'll put that out.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_04: To come out and meet our police officers.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_04: That's what we're uh that's our effort to outreach.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_04: And uh, you know, just if you see one of our officers, uh you know, just reach out and say hello.
• 43:51
  SPEAKER_04: You know, officers are are kind of weird about, you know, first saying hello to people, but if you say hello back, they'll hello to they'll usually say hello.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, and some of our younger ones get focused on the mission and that's a good uh sure good practice for them.
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_04: So but uh I I hear great things from the community all the time.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_04: I get emails, I get uh you know, I get phone calls and I get get told all the time about how well our police department and our officers are are uh are are are keeping the community safe.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_04: So that's that's that's great.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_04: There's more of that.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know, when we had the recruits here last week or the week before, time goes really fast, it was wonderful to talk with them.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_00: They had such great questions and they were very, very engaged, which was just this beautiful kind of experience.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I would agree wholeheartedly that I think your officers are wonderful and that they have this opportunity to make such a difference.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_00: So it was great having the recruits here.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_00: I enjoyed that completely.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_04: The the whole purpose of that is to get them engaged when they're the most impressionable, right?
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_04: Uh when they're young, they're shining, they're everybody's happy.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_04: Uh they want to be able to get it.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_04: Idealistic, they want to be great.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_04: Get them in environments that they'll be serving ahead of time.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_04: So they'll have that programming in their head when they hit the street.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_04: So they'll come and uh to TRM looking a little differently rather than showing up for the first time with an issue.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_04: Sure, sure.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_04: So that's that's part of that engagement.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_02: Since COVID and many years before that, there's been periods of time it's been hard to get people to want to become a police officer.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_02: Um COVID just put a bit of dent in that.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_02: Are you seeing that kind of come around now?
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_02: Are we seeing um younger people looking for a career in law enforcement again?
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um is that still a challenge to try to get people to want to do that?
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_04: Well, I'd proudly say that my recruiting team, my uh, you know, my um my police academy, my officers, they're very good at um most of most of the applications we get or the interest we get is word of mouth.
• 45:45
  SPEAKER_04: So I like to think that if um if the the applications I read, I read every one of them.
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, you know, what made you want to become a Topeka police officer?
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_04: Well my my brother works here, my former uh colleague in the uh former Marine or former army um buddy works here, they said you need to come work here, this is the place to be.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_04: So I'm gonna kind of infer that if some if people are telling other people to come work here that morale is fairly good.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_04: Pretty good.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_04: Otherwise, they would might shy away from asking.
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_04: Go to Austin.
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, go to Austin.
• 46:17
  unknown: Yeah.
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_04: But as far as recruitment, uh the only thing stopping recruitment here is I'll be frank and transparent, is the budget process right now.
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_04: Uh when I got here, we were authorized 300 uh folks and uh got cut temporarily to 295, uh which is the current authorized strength, but we're currently budgeted, meaning uh they'll pay for 285.
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_04: So we're at 278 with this next class, and then the next class, I'll I'll hit the full two hundred eighty-five by the end of the year.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_04: The only thing stopping me is some um is money.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_04: I'd I have no doubt that we could hit that 300 uh if you know if if circumstances were different.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_04: But there's a I do sense a new uh passion for policing.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_04: I read every every applicant, and the number one thing that I see that people are looking for at a young age, anywhere from twenty-one to twenty-six is the average age, we get some that are older, but they're looking for purpose.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_04: You know, they we get everybody from uh school teachers, uh trades and crafts folks, we have uh chiropractors, uh just people that from from dip the different percep professions and what they're looking for is something more.
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_04: So that that generation that's looking for meaning uh and purpose, so which aligns well with the way I think because I when I first meet the recruits at the academy and throughout their process, I I talk to them, I tell them that their why their purpose is what will drive them through.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_04: You know, first it's about maybe a good job or maybe uh you know, wanting the you know, the uniform looks pretty cool.
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, or getting new cars.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_04: That's all cool, but I what's gonna last them to the end to the 20, 30 years, whatever they want to do, is to have a passion and a purpose for what they do and put their heart and soul in it.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_02: So that's we we certainly know about that and the kind of work that we have here.
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_02: It's uh if if there's no purpose in it, why are you doing it?
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_02: And so, Lamanda, before we close off today, any uh questions for the chief?
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_01: Any questions?
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_02: Or more or more recommendations of the chief.
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_01: No, I I do want to thank him.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, we we work a lot together, or at least at a minimum, our teams do in regards to just um communications when it and it outreaches when it comes to warming center needs.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um I love that they are taking volunteerism um seriously and and allowing TRM to be a part of that um community integration as new recruits.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_01: So I appreciate that.
• 48:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um we do have the MOU program as well, and so uh we have a staff member that we allocate to be um full-time or split part-time a little bit with um an officer.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_01: And um, so that same premise of crisis responding um in a duo team, same thing goes for homelessness.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_01: And so I appreciate all that.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_01: I guess my only question would just be um, you know, what can TRM do to better strengthen um partnerships with you?
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_01: And do you see any additional partnerships needed with TRM?
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_04: I think we uh well that's a I wish we had another 30 minutes.
• 49:23
  SPEAKER_04: But uh uh, you know, Lamanda, I enjoy what we have now.
• 49:25
  SPEAKER_04: I just uh want to keep that strong and keep that.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_04: Uh keep as a Christian organization put God first in everything that we that we do, we stay focused in Christ.
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm thankful I am, yeah.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_01: And you know, when I when we go to like the City Gate stuff, we've talked about that before, the association that we belong to.
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um at least once a day in either a breakout session, uh, the table talks that they have us do, it is a conversation that Miriam and I, or both of us, are having with our groups that we're with, and it usually is our great partnerships with emergency response.
• 50:04
  SPEAKER_01: And there are there are some other rescue missions that have a little bit of what we do, but I would honestly say that as far as our partnerships with emergency management, um, you know, when it comes to AMR, fire, police, that kind of thing, people just listen to Miriam and I and they're like, you have a contact at your police department.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_01: Your police department doesn't hate that you're in the community, or I get the other.
• 50:31
  SPEAKER_01: You let them in.
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_01: You let fire people serve in your kitchen.
• 50:36
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, Miriam and I both kind of have to explain this because we don't know any different.
• 50:41
  SPEAKER_01: Like we want to welcome that.
• 50:43
  SPEAKER_01: And so, anyways, I'm just thankful.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_01: I'm thankful for Chief.
• 50:46
  SPEAKER_01: I'm thankful for things that happened before him.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_01: I'm thankful for where we're at.
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_01: I'm dedicated to our partnership of things that we need to do differently or better from the TRM side.
• 50:55
  SPEAKER_01: Because sometimes, I mean, we've talked a lot about some good things here, and we should, but it's not always just easy.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, sometimes we share people within gel and TRM, and that can get tricky on treatment and what we're gonna do.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_01: And anyways, I just appreciate that when we are in high stress situations, trenches, maybe times of uncertainty when we're sharing people and we're not sure what to do, that that partnership is strong too.
• 51:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I appreciate that the partnership is strong, not just when things are shiny and beautiful, um, that we are true partners when it's rough too.
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_01: And so I'm thankful for him and his team.
• 51:32
  SPEAKER_01: Well said.
• 51:33
  SPEAKER_02: Chief, anything else you'd like for our listeners to hear?
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, it's just an honor to be here, honor to be your chief.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_04: Just uh you know, just a little bit about me.
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_04: I'll always make every decision with Christ at the forefront and for the good of the community.
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_04: Even if you uh agree or disagree, I'll always be transparent about what we're doing, but it always take into account, be assured that it's for the benefit of the community and for the benefit of the greater good through Christ.
• 51:55
  SPEAKER_02: Chief, thank you for uh for that.
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um thank you for saying yes to your assignment here in Topeka.
• 52:01
  SPEAKER_02: Uh our prayer is that it's a long one.
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I think you bring up.
• 52:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, keep saying yes until I retire.
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, sir.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_02: And uh uh thank you for saying yes and and and thank you for what you brought here already.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um again, that transparency, that openness, that uh um it's not just a job, it is a purpose.
• 52:21
  SPEAKER_02: And then casting that vision to others is is huge.
• 52:23
  SPEAKER_02: So thank you for joining us.
• 52:24
  SPEAKER_02: My pleasure.
• 52:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for listening to our community, our mission.
• 52:27
  SPEAKER_02: You've heard from Topeka Police Department's head chief today, uh Chief Chris Vallejo.
• 52:33
  SPEAKER_02: And uh we really appreciate him being with us and him being in our community and support our law enforcement officers.
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_02: Do say hi to them and smile at them and find out other ways that you can support the folks on the front lines because when you need them, you want them now.
• 52:48
  SPEAKER_02: Uh but when even you don't need them now, um, they might need you.
• 52:52
  SPEAKER_02: So thank you for being a part of that.
• 52:53
  SPEAKER_02: If you'd like more information about Topeka Rescue Mission, you can go to TRMOnline.org.
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_02: That's TRMonline.org.
• 53:01
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for listening.