Latest / APD Pod Squad / Episode 19; Lt. Evan Coward, Lt. Geoffrey Rollins, Lt. Brian Hogan, Wellness Coordinator Matthew Eichman, and The History Minute with Hannah Silberman

Transcript

Episode 19; Lt. Evan Coward, Lt. Geoffrey Rollins, Lt. Brian Hogan, Wellness Coordinator Matthew Eichman, and The History Minute with Hannah Silberman · APD Pod Squad

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_05: This is the APD Pod Squad.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_05: Coming up on this episode, Lieutenant Brian Hogan with the Community Engagement Division shares the latest with VAT team, what they're doing, and when and where they'll be out and about.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_05: In the History Minute with Hannah Silberman, we'll go back to 1898 and hear about a police chief who was shot in an altercation at the jail.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_05: Who shot him and how he survived is a story you do not want to miss.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_05: National Police Week, which honors the fallen, is May 11th to 17th this year.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_05: It's celebrated nationwide, but the biggest gathering is in our nation's capital.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_05: One of the many events during that week is the Police Unity Tour, a 250-mile bike ride that ends in Washington, D.C., and something that Lieutenant Jeffrey Rollins and Lieutenant Evan Coward have both participated in.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_05: They'll join me and we'll talk about that experience.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_05: May is also National Bike Safety Month, oh, by the way, which syncs up nicely.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_05: Another thing celebrated in May, Global Employee Health and Fitness Month.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_05: And the guy who helps keep us fit here is the wellness coordinator for APD, Matthew Eichmann.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_05: It's all coming up on episode 19 of the APD Pod Squad.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_05: My first guest is Lieutenant Brian Hogan.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_05: Not your first time in the chair.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_05: You were actually on one of the very first episodes.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_05: So instead of welcome, we'll say welcome back.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, thanks for having me.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_05: Do you know which episode it was perchance?
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_05: What date that landed?
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_05: This is interesting.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_02: I know it was before Hurricane Helene.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_02: How about that?
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_05: It was that day is when it was published.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_05: So I I looked back at it today, prior to you coming in here.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_05: It's September 27th, 2024.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_02: How about that?
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_05: And it was pre-scheduled to upload that day.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_05: It wasn't like I'm like nothing going on and like we were all pretty busy at that time.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_05: So, you know, since that's when it was, let's talk about that just a little bit because a question that I'm sure you asked people that you hadn't seen in a few days since the storm, I would ask them, how did you do with the storm?
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_05: Everything at your house, your family, everything?
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_02: Very blessed.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_02: Uh personally, nothing wrong with the house except for some trees that went down, but I'll use those for firewood, but uh no damage to my personal home or any of my family's homes.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_05: It was kind of uh me as well.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_05: Had some trees come down around, nothing to the house.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_05: We had several neighbors that had trees go right through the house.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_05: Uh so we consider ourselves very blessed.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_05: We're at a little higher elevation where we were in the west side of town, uh, by the Buncombe County Sports Park.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_05: So we weren't right down by a body of water.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_05: We were going to experience some of that flooding.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_05: So your division is community engagement.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_05: But in those days, weeks, months following the storm, everybody was really a part of community engagement, engaging with the public, doing everything we could to help people in any way we could.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's what we're here for.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_05: And even though the phrase back to normal doesn't really apply because there's still so much that needs to be done, as far as the community engagement division, you guys are kind of back to doing what you do, making connections with members of the community, face-to-face conversations.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_05: I know you got a few events coming up, uh, one of them really soon.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, May 9th, Coffee with a Cop.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_02: Engles, 1141 Tunnel Road.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_05: Okay, so that's East Asheville, the one by the VA.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_02: Correct.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_02: Right there at Riceville Road, the Ingalls.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_02: We're there from eight to ten.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, we haven't been out to the east side of town in a while.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_02: It's been a while.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_02: Uh we have never been to this Ingalls for coffee with a cop, so we're looking forward to it.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_05: So if you got to do some uh some shopping that day or you just want to join us, we're usually there by oh, what is it, about eight o'clock, I think.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_02: Eight o'clock.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_05: And we're there for a couple hours.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_02: Eight to ten.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_02: Come on out.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_05: Yep.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_05: And then we don't charge you for the coffee.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_05: Just come on out and just hang out with us.
• 4:01
  SPEAKER_02: Conversation coffee is free.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_05: And maybe if you got some stuff to do that day, do your shopping and knock it all off in one thing.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_02: Let us know uh what we can do to help you.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_02: Come meet us.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_02: Happy to see you.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_05: And we've got a lot of fun, cool things we're doing with the public.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_05: We've got like a couple of uh neighborhood gatherings, right?
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_05: So what else have we got coming up with community engagement?
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_02: So May 19th, uh, we're gonna be cooking hot dogs out at Maple Crest Community.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's four o'clock till six p.m.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_02: Hot dogs, some chips, some drinks, another opportunity to meet some officers.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_02: Hopefully, we can meet some community members, hear some concerns, get to know each other.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_02: And then we're also doing the same thing a couple days later on the 21st in Hillcrest community.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, same hours, four to six, same menu.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_02: Hot dogs, chips, drinks, and uh another opportunity to meet community members.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_02: Uh they can come out and meet some of the police officers, some of the command staff, just uh shake hands, talk about some things.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_05: It's a great way to meet police officers, have a conversation that's more lighthearted than stressful.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_05: Because a lot of times the reason you're speaking with a police officer is because something has happened.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_05: You have contacted them and they have arrived because there's a problem.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_05: And so that's obviously not a time for socializing.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_05: That's a time for getting down to business and finding out how we can fix whatever just happened.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_05: But so this is a nice opportunity to go one-on-one in just a nice personal way and just talk as people.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_02: That's the whole mission for what our group does uh meet in a casual environment and just have some dialogue and get to know each other.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_05: Aaron Powell Now I know back when uh Chief Zach was the chief, there was a certain hot dog that he preferred.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_05: And I know this because it's from Buffalo.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_05: It's right.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_05: It's and it's my favorite hot dog new.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_05: So I'm guessing that has switched since then.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_05: It was Salem's at the time, which is not a household name around here, but it's certainly not Salem's.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_05: You don't gotta pimp out which one it is right now.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_05: No, it's a secret right now.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_05: So it's a secret.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_05: That's right.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_05: But it won't be Salem's.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_05: It won't be Salem's.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_05: It won't be Salem's.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_05: You can get Salem's at some of the local grocery stores now.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_05: It's made its way down here.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_05: Wow.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I know I know that at the time I think he had them like flown in or something, but yeah, it was something special back then.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_05: It's like a I don't know you guys gave him a lot of crazy.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_02: Well, maybe the word got out.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_05: That's right.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_05: It all started right here at the police station.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_05: The Salins in western North Carolina.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_05: That's good.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_05: This is where it all started.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_05: So summer is not yet here, but it's getting close.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_05: Do you guys uh change up the routines a little bit when the calendar flips to May, June, and July?
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_02: Any chance we can to get outside, and we're doing it.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_02: So we will see us on foot, you'll see us on bike.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_02: Uh we like to hand out pop schools to kids at Splashville when we can.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_02: We're always playing chess Wednesdays in the park.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_02: Pritchard Park that is weather dependent.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_02: Um so anytime we get a chance to enjoy the weather, now's the time.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_05: I saw you on two wheels uh just the other day.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_05: I was uh I was meeting a buddy in front of Mountain Madre, the restaurant right there on Walnut Street.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_05: And there you go zipping by going uphill.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_05: I'm like, look at him.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_02: We're uh we're superstars on bicycles.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_02: I want to be superstars.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_02: How about that?
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_05: Well, uh you know what, and we're actually going to be talking in this episode to a couple of your fellow officers that rode their bikes all the way up to DC for police week a few years ago.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_02: I did it uh myself in 2017, I think.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_05: So you did that as well?
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_05: Correct.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_05: And that was for police week, which I believe is a May 11th, I think is when that starts this year.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_05: So what was that like, man?
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_05: Did you do the entire trip?
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's uh I think it's 375 mile, divided up into three days, if I'm not mistaken.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_02: But uh absolutely one of the most uh memorable things I've ever done in law enforcement and especially on a bike.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_02: Very cool atmosphere, very moving.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_02: I think everyone would agree if you can ever participate in an event at police week, uh it's the thing that will reset your mind and reset your career.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_02: It just puts you back in a good place.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_05: Now, what roads would you take for a trip like that?
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_05: You can't ride on the highway, obviously.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_02: No, we had all back roads, and the really cool thing about that ride is that you have a full police escort by motorcycle the entire trip.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_02: And then in the closer we got to DC, we had helicopter coverage.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_02: It it is an outstanding, really, really special event to be uh take part in.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_05: So other departments join you?
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_05: Like do you pick up riders along the way?
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_02: Uh no, we all meet in Richmond, Virginia, because the the group that we met with is the Virginia chapter.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_02: Uh there are a number of different chapters across uh the U.S.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_02: And we meet up in Richmond, Virginia.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_02: We head west into Virginia, and then we hang a right, go north, and then we take uh another right and head east, and then we end up in D.C.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_05: So not quite as hilly as here, but still some rolling hills, I would imagine.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we end up you end up getting to the rolling hills.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_02: I wouldn't say I wouldn't call them the mountains of Virginia, but I would say the rolling hills foothills.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_05: Do you ride back to or no?
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_02: You got a bus waiting on you to bring you back.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_05: So that's the good news right there.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_05: You're like, yeah, okay, thank God.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_05: We made it, and now we're not gonna hop on these things again for another week.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_05: Some long days there, that's for sure.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_05: I can imagine some sores too.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_05: That's gotta be that's a long time to spend in a bike.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_05: I'll be in the gym downstairs, and if it's more than 30 minutes, things start to fall asleep.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_05: You know, so you that's kind of a unique experience.
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_05: Lieutenant Brian Hogan, thanks for joining us again.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_05: Look forward to seeing you out, have some coffee with you, some hot dogs out.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_05: It's you said the maple crest community and the hill crest community.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_02: Correct.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_05: All right, awesome.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_05: So, you guys out there, make sure you put that those on your calendar and uh have a hot dog, a chip, drink with the Asheville Police Department.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_05: Thanks again for sitting down with us.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_05: Thank you.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_05: We are almost at the halfway mark of 2025, a year that we celebrate 150 years of the Asheville Police Department.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_05: And looking back during every episode of the APD Pod Squad with The History Minute with Hannah Silberman, thank you again for sitting down and sharing with us today.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_05: We're going way back for this one again.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_05: I like these older stories, the ones that go back in even a previous century, which this one does.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_05: So the year was 1898.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: That's right.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: On the night of April 30th, a man named B.A.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: Roberts, I do not know his first name.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_05: You know, there was a lot of people back then that just had initials.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: Well, they most often referred to people by their first two initials.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_05: So BA got it.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: Um he was drunk and making a scene at a hotel, a special deputy of some sort named Patrick Thrash.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_00: Corraled him took him home.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: He lived on North Main Street, which would be Biltmore Avenue today.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know, disorderly people do.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't stay home for long, so he wandered back outside and started another disturbance.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: So this time, an APD captain named Robert Fitzpatrick and that same deputy dragged him all the way to the city jail.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: While they were dragging him to the jail, his hat fell off.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_00: So they get to the jail.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: Our chief of police at the time, William A.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_00: James, was at the jail with the jailer.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_07: Gotcha.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: And there was a commotion that started as they were dragging this man to the jail.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: So there was a small crowd outside.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_05: Well, you're dragging somebody to the jail.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: I think I'm sure he was making a making a scene.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_05: A little bit of a scene, as they say.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_05: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: So they as they pull him into the jail, the chief ordered that the door be closed to the jail so all these people wouldn't come in.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Deputy Thrash, who had been part of it, had found this man's hat and wanted to return it.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: So he was trying to stick his arm through the door with the hat.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is where the two different stories come from from this.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_05: The plot thickens, as they say.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Ross Powell Chief James later testified that Thrash actually struck and kicked the jailer in an attempt to get inside of the room, where Thrash said he was just asking people to take this gentleman's hat so it didn't get lost.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: Well, Chief James got upset that Thrash was entering entering or attempting to enter the jail, grabbed him by the arm, and jerked him backwards and threw him on the ground.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_05: Aaron Powell Taking the proverbial bull by the horns.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell Well, the deputy did not like that, and as he landed on his back, James threw a knee onto his chest.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: Deputy Thrash pulled a gun and shot at Chief James.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_05: Aaron Ross Powell So the deputy shot at the Chief over a relatively simple disagreement.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_05: Yes.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_05: Seems a little rash.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: Chief James said he threw him on the ground to disarm him.
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: Thrash said he only pulled his gun after he got thrown on the ground and thought that the chief was going to beat him up.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: So he pulls the trigger and he shoots twice.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: The first bullet goes through Chief James's clothes and actually somehow hits Thrash's leg.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: So he gets shot.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_05: Collateral damage.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then the second one hits the Chief's badge but then deflects and goes into his chest.
• 12:28
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: It could probably be surmised that that badge taking the impact of the bullet saved his life.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: Even though he became very sick from it, it was nearly fatal.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: But Chief James did survive.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_05: Trevor Burrus That's like something you see in the Hollywood movies.
• 12:41
  SPEAKER_05: You know, you get shot and they they pull out the cigarette holder or something with the bullet hole in it, or like right there.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_05: It's like he was ta-da saved.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_05: So in this case, saved by the badge.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean Chief James walked himself to his home, which was at the corner of Spruce and College Street.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh it took him several weeks to recover.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, it seems like it would take even longer.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_05: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: Shortly after was the chief's election, which he was not able to participate in.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: So it it also did affect the outcome of the next chief of police because back then it was elected.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_00: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_05: It might have lead poisoning or something.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, maybe.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, if it's right there, you know, near his heart, it got into his it would have been lodged in him, I would imagine, right?
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_05: They made him different back then.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_05: They just they just did.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_05: Holy cow.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_05: So there was 1898 for that.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell I should also note that Rash was tried for the assault and shooting of Chief James, and he was acquitted.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_05: Aaron Ross Powell Acquitted?
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_05: Really?
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_05: But he did it.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_05: I mean witnesses and everything.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_05: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_00: But I guess they thought his story was more convincing than the Chiefs.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_05: So the deputy got off scot-free?
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Powell Well, it was self-defense, as they they said that the chief attacked him.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_00: So he actually later gets caught in prohibition by our department moving in an incredible amount of liquor through Biltmore.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_05: Now so you said the city jail.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_05: I've heard the city jail was it back in the day in this building here in the municipal building.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_05: Is that correct or no?
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Ross Powell It was, yes.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: But at this time we had a different city hall, which was built on Pack Square that was demolished when we moved into the municipal building in the 1920s.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: So in 1898, it was in the basement of Asheville City Hall.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_05: Aaron Powell You're right, because there's uh actually a sign outside of this building that has 1925, I believe, is the year.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_05: So in addition to the APD celebrating 150 years, the building is celebrating 100 years.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_05: We're doing anything for the building?
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: You should.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_05: Yes, we should.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: We got a new roof.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_05: Hey, that's we've got a new roof.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_05: All right.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_05: That's all the city has in the budget for us to celebrate the hundred years of the municipal building.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_05: So that does it for another edition of the History Minute with Hannah Silberman.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_05: This month is a big one in the world of law enforcement as National Police Week occurs every May.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_05: This year it's May 11th to 17th.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_05: National Police Week offers honor, remembrance, and peer support while allowing law enforcement survivors and citizens to gather and pay homage to those who gave their lives in the line of duty.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_05: There's a lot of events that occur coast to coast, but the focus is on Washington, D.C., the location of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_05: Joining me in the studio right now is Lieutenant Evan Coward and Lieutenant Jeffrey Rollins, both who have taken part in the police unity tour, which features law enforcement officers from across the country who bike to Washington, D.C.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_05: to honor fallen officers and support the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_05: It culminates in a ride-in and ceremony at the memorial, which is followed by an annual candlelight vigil.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_05: We're going to talk all about that right now with Lieutenant Coward and Lieutenant Rollins.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_05: Thanks for joining me.
• 15:44
  SPEAKER_05: Absolutely.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_05: So I've done a little bit of poking around on the police unity tour.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_05: Now, unless you're part of probably a police department or you've done this, you don't really know what that is, which is a bike ride, essentially.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_05: Uh with multiple chapters around the country.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_05: Something that started small in 1997.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_05: Uh with one chapter in New Jersey and now has grown to thousands of riders.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_05: So let's go back to uh the very first time both you guys did it.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_05: And I know you both ride.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_05: You both ride bicycles.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_05: Uh so you're certainly ready for it.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_05: Were you ready for 250 miles?
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_03: Honestly, we were.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_03: Uh the idea was pitched to us by former police chief Tammy Hooper, and um she really facilitated us doing this.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_03: And um and she did the ride with us, but the the chapter we rode with, it was described to us as being hilly, some pretty substantial hills, and there were, but I will tell you the crew we went, we trained so hard.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_03: And in riding around here, the mountains of western North Carolina, we were overly prepared.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think there was a little bit was we didn't want to be the ones that showed up from the mountains unable to ride in Northern Virginia, horse country at the back of the pack.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_01: I think we wanted to show up and show what we were made of and lead the way and represent.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_05: So more like rolling hills than the other.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, they and they were long, like you would see some hills that just kind of disappear into the skyline, but they were steady.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_03: Nothing like, you know, climbing up like Town Mountain Road or Elk Mountain Scenic Highway or some of that really category five steep stuff, the same degree of incline that you would see in the tour tour of France.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_05: Which we have plenty of that around here.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_05: We have our own tour actually here.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_05: What's the name of that?
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_05: The bicycle ride, the uh tour no the Grand Fondo, that's what it is.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_05: Um and I'm not even sure that race occurs anymore, but I do know that a lot of professional riders that live in like Greenville train in the Asheville area because of those hills.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_05: Lieutenant Coward, what was the first year you did the police unity tour as part of the National Police Week?
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, believe it was 2017, uh, when we did it the first time.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: We really got interested from like Lieutenant Rowland said, from uh Chief Hooper, uh our chief at the time.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: She was from Virginia and knew a lot of folks that participated in that and uh had some experience with that.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_01: She uh brought a lot of experience from the DC area.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_01: So this this ride, in case uh people don't know it, particular one was chapter four rides from Richmond, Virginia, all the way into DC and up Constitution Avenue.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_05: So about how many riders in your group?
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: Well, what do you think?
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_01: 200, 250 people in that group?
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_01: First year?
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, probably.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, a small a smaller chapter.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_03: There's some like some of the chapters out of Jersey are a little bit bigger, but yeah, it was it was uh maybe 250 riders with some support personnel as well.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_01: And you're gonna talk about support.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: We can get to that a little bit later.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: But so we showed up to the hotel in Richmond.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: We didn't really know what to expect.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: We'd we'd driven all day, uh, got out of the van, and right out front of the hotel where they put everybody were 30 plus uh police motorcycles lined up.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_01: Like, whoa, this is kind of a nice, yeah, nice looking bunch here.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_01: Walk inside and we realized that they're our escort.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_03: So all cops that volunteer their time to other cops.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_03: To leapfrog, they've got an entire system down of how they do it, but blocking and stop at a stop sign, a red light, or an interstate on ramp all the way to DC.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_05: So in some ways, it is like the Tour de France.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_05: It's amazing because the way that it's fully supported.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_01: You're not you're not you don't have to carry anything.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_01: You stop every 20, 25 miles, they give you a bathroom and some food, and you hop back on and off you go.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: And it's a full day, a hundred mile days for the first two, and I think the last one was just a little bit less as you're rolling to DC.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_01: But uh they are fully supported.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_01: You have everyone in that group from novices riding in the pack, just kind of drafting and not having to work quite as hard, and then you have people who are willing to ride up at the front who have a little bit more experience.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_01: If you're up front in the first five to ten in the group, you're pulling and you're doing a lot of work.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_01: Because those hills, when you have that many people, the group kind of accordions out.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um you hit the hill, it'll spread out, and you gotta really pick up the pace, and then on the way back down, you slow down until everybody catch you back up.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_01: And it's the least efficient way to ride if you want to stay in a group.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_03: But but it's especially challenging for the group up front because we couldn't just attack the hills and go as quickly as we could.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_03: We had to really slow down.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_03: And then going down the descent.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_03: Initially, we had to punch it and go as fast as we could so they wouldn't bunch the the folks in the back wouldn't punch up behind us, but then we had to slow down pretty drastically before we started the first ascent.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_03: Now I'm gonna brag on Lieutenant Coward here for a second.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_03: The tour was led by a guy by the name of Gary Van Horn, and I believe he retired from the National Park Service.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, just a phenomenal strong rider.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_03: So there's two lines of riders.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_03: And his right-hand man was a guy named Ski.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_03: He's a cop with uh Fairfax County, Virginia Police Department, but he wasn't there on our first year.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_03: He was uh in a wedding, um, so he was not able to attend.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_03: So after the orientation meeting, Gary's kind of talking about how we're gonna do it, and he says, Hey, and can I need some volunteers, some strong riders to kind of help me lead the pack up front.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_03: And a couple of hands went up, and you know, there were a couple folks from Dallas, you know, whatever.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_03: And I was like, Evan, you're you're a stronger rider than me.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_03: Go up there.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_03: So we go up there.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_03: And the first phase of it, like, people think they're a strong writer, but they didn't not at all meet the expectations of what Gary needed at the front.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_03: So he would get he went through like one guy.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_03: He's like, No, no, no, give me that, give me someone else.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_03: And he went through like two or three.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_03: And after the first break, he's like, Where's that Lieutenant Evan Coward guy?
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_03: Get him back up here.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_03: And from then on, Evan led the entire the entire 200 miles.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that second uh was that the year of the rain, too?
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: Or that's the second year?
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: That was the second day.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: We spent an entire second day of the ride.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, first year or second year.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_03: That was the first year.
• 21:53
  SPEAKER_03: That was the first year.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_05: Meg was with us.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_01: I remember leading.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_05: Which is hard.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_05: You're slower and it's dangerous.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_05: Oh yeah.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_05: I mean it's incredibly dangerous.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_01: Roadbiking, you think about the rubber patch from your tire on the road is about the size of a dime.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: And we're riding almost touching wheel to wheel front to bag because you want it to be as efficient as possible.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: Drafting's awesome.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, yeah.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: And it was it got a little chilly for some.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_03: And I I've got to share this story.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_03: I love Evan like a brother.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_03: First time we went mountain biking years ago, it was snowing.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_03: And he was in shorts and a short sleeve jersey.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_03: And that that's he did have gloves on.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_03: That's cabinet form.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_03: This is to set the tone.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_03: So the the first night uh we were staying in a hotel and it's pouring down rain.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_03: We're getting ready to go in the morning.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_03: And in the morning, you go eat breakfast, you get in your kit, and all your luggage you uh hand off to support crew, they they shuttle that for you, and you're ready to go.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_03: And we're getting ready, we're in the hotel room.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, Evan, dude, should I bring a rain jacket?
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_03: He's like, nah, you'll be fine.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, worst advice ever.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_03: I remember our first stop.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_03: We stopped at some point at Fire Station, uh, they fed us, and me and uh former police officer Meg Donahue were like huddled up with an emergency, like hypothermic.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_03: I'm like, I never listened to his emergency.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_05: So, Evan, you'll be fine, but not Jeffrey or anybody else.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_05: So, opening up the history books, we go back to 1997 for the origin story of the police unity tour.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_05: Florham Park, New Jersey police officer Patrick Montuore, which totally sounds New Jersey, had a simple idea organize a four-day bicycle ride from New Jersey to Washington, D.C.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_05: to raise public awareness about law enforcement officers who have died in the line of duty and to ensure that their sacrifice is never forgotten.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_05: So, with that, the police unity tour was formed.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_05: And what started with 18 riders on a four-day bicycle ride has grown into eight chapters, consisting of nearly 2,100 members nationwide who make the trip annually.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_05: But like those obnoxious TV commercials always say, but wait, there's more.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_05: It's more than just a ride.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: So it's also a fundraiser for the Law Enforcement Memorial Fund.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_01: Here's the thing you're you're gonna spend three days I don't want to say suffering, working hard next to people from all over who you may have never met before, but you all share a common bond.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_01: You work in the same profession, and I'm uh can almost guarantee all of you have buried a coworker or friend.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: And now that I'm just shy of 20 years into this, I think it's incredibly important for everybody who goes through this profession to experience the the kind of camaraderie and you know you commiserate.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: You don't sit there and talk about it while you're riding the whole time, but you know, and it's it's something you have to experience.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_01: Three days all together, kind of putting work in, knowing what you all have kind of been through.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it all the stories are different.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_01: But if if in the end the result is a sense of pride about what you do every day, yeah.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_01: And when you show up and ride into DC or into where the memorial is, and you see all the names, it's an incredibly emotional experience.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: And I was I was talking to you earlier about this offline, but I see it like you come into this occupation hopefully uh as whole as possible.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_01: And every day when you have an experience that's traumatic or you see the really hard thing, you have to do the really hard thing, it whittles down a little bit of you.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um you leave it behind.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_01: And so things like this going and being with other people who've experienced things that you've experienced and and understand and celebrating the good that comes out of your profession and the good that you're able to do really helps sharpen you back up.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_05: It's like a you know, you start the day, your cell phone has a hundred percent.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, just like that.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_05: And as the day goes on, right, you know, your cell phone is down to 94%.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you see that battery turn yellow.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_05: Exactly.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_05: And then your battery is going down, down, down, down, down.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_05: And then, of course, overnight you charge it again.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_05: And so this experience is kind of getting a recharge, isn't it?
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_05: It's kind of just because this job, it takes it from you.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_03: It it really was.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_03: And I yeah, I I I wish every police officer would have the opportunity to go to police week once in their career.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_03: It it really was such a boost, just uh a reassurance of why you got into this work.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_03: And and I could give just hundreds of examples of just the general respect for us being up there as police officers.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_03: I'll I'll share one with you real quick.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_03: We um we rode in uh the final day um and we had the morning off.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_03: Uh the police vigil was on the I guess the the second day that we were in DC, but we had that morning off in the group.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_03: We wanted to go to the Holocaust Museum.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_03: And if you've ever been to any of the museums at Missonian, they're free, but you you get tickets.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_03: Like you would get uh, you know, a month or a couple months in advance, you would get a time slot.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_03: Well, we hadn't done that, so we're like, well, let's just get down there early and and see what we can do.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_03: So I guess there were about six of us.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_03: We showed up, maybe it opened at nine.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_03: We got there around 8 30, 8 45, and and there were a line of people in the queue.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_03: And I just kind of flagged down, I said, Hey, we we don't have tickets.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_03: Is there some will call or is there somewhere we we can get tickets, or or um what do you suggest us do to get in here?
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_03: And he he asked me one question, he said, Are you all police officers?
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_03: I said, Yes, sir.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_03: He said, Come with me.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_03: They escorted us in the museum 15 minutes before it opened, and just so many examples of that.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_03: And I wanted to s to say too, as as Evan said, that we're raising money for the National Law Enforcement Memorial in the museum.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_03: And it it's the one memorial in Washington, D.C.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_03: that's constantly having names added to it every every year.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_03: That's sad to see, but it's so important.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_03: And I also wanted to mention that the fact that it's not just police officers participating in this ride, it's also open to survivors, family members of law enforcement who are killed in the line of duty.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_03: And there was this one fella I did the the ride three years in a row, and he was there every year.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_03: His dad was killed, was a cop in um Fairfax County, Virginia.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_03: And just, you know, this is some, you know, as as a young kid, he grew up without his dad who was killed in the line of duty.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_05: So and the Unity Tour is just one of many events that occurs during the week.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, yeah, the can't did you guys I know there's a candlelight vigil.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_05: We went to that, yeah.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_05: How powerful was that?
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: Uh uh the entire mall's filled.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: Just cops, survivors, families are up there.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it's very touching.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_01: Uh yeah, there's uh speaker, I think first year we were there, uh attorney general.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_01: Having never been to DC before, I'm I'm already kind of gobsmacked, and then I've I'm on the mall and it f you know, I've seen I saw pictures of the mall filled in the 60s, you know.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, Mel K Relations and things like that.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_01: And then you're there and and you get to attend an event that is that heavily uh attended and uh that moving personally.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_01: That was very powerful.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_05: It's an impressive place.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: It really absolutely is.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_05: It's designed to be that way.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_05: That's that's the city was designed and such it was supposed to impress visiting members of state from other countries.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_03: Absolutely.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_03: And in in the vigil, they are naming off say this correctly, it's it's not just everyone who was killed in the line of duty the previous year, but other people who kind of slip through the cracks that maybe were killed cops that were killed 15 years ago, 20 years ago, that that got they weren't recognized before.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_03: So so say in 2024, 150 police officers were killed in the line of duty, they may actually re recognize and honor 200 people.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_03: Um be and that's one thing that the National Law Enforcement Memorial does is it researches did did we miss anyone who was killed in the line of duty that we didn't recognize?
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_03: So that's an interesting component of it as well.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_05: The museums, the various museums in in the town are super impressive.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_05: I have not been to the police uh or the Holocaust.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_05: There's several that so last time I was there was about 25 years ago.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, okay.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_05: I I lived in Pennsylvania.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_05: Yes.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_05: And my best friend lived in Falls Church, Virginia.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_05: Yes, sir.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_05: And which is right across the river, the Potomac.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_05: So, you know, we went there frequently.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_05: So I got to, and I would go by myself.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_05: I was just a single guy.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_05: So I would go down there, he's working during the day.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_05: I would take the train into DC and I would just spend the day by myself seeing everything.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_05: And everything is so impressive.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_05: The Vietnam War Memorial, of course, was there at the time.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_05: Oh, I actually I guess the Korean was not up yet either.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_05: The Korean War Memorial, because that's relatively recent as well.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_05: So I've not seen that.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_05: So I am due for a return trip.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_05: African American History Museum.
• 30:43
  SPEAKER_05: And World War II, I believe, is in the last 20 years.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_05: So I love seeing the honor guard, the honor flights that go.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_05: All very impressive.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_05: Lieutenant Evan Coward and Lieutenant Jeffrey Rollins joined me now.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_05: We're talking about the police unity tour.
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_05: Let's talk about the ride itself and the preparation, what it takes.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_05: First of all, you have to raise money.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_05: It's it's a fundraiser.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_05: Yes.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_05: So you have to raise money yourself to do it and then support it.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_05: And then, of course, the donating.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_05: And so, and I you were actually doing that for this year.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_03: We had we uh there were six of us going.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_03: We had to raise two thousand dollars a piece.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_03: So it was and we decided to do it as a team.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_03: We were gonna work on it together.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, so we had to raise a total of twelve thousand dollars to to go on the tour.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_03: And we had a good chunk of that uh pretty well knocked out.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_03: We did.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_03: We we'd done some fundraisers.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_03: We had I I think it was around$8,000 raised.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_01: But then Helene.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_01: And then Helene.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so we we there were some needs.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_01: Uh specifically internally, we had we had some co-workers that really needed some help.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it was a no-brainer.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_01: We all conferred and we're like, let's give that money up.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, it was going to a good cause, but you know, we gotta take care of home first.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_01: And so we we didn't go this year, uh, really hoping to turn it around and and try to get back into it.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_01: We'd love to go represent again and get some new riders in who haven't been able to do it.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_05: Real talk.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_05: Let's talk about chafing.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_05: 250 miles.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: Very real.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, very real.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_01: You're talking about that long day in the rain.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you had you had that amount of moisture and the level of of things just touching constantly.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_05: For anyone that has never ridden a bike long distance before and wonders about the tight, silly pants, right?
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_05: It's so the skin doesn't rub the skin.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_05: That's why those things are skin tight.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_05: It's so the material is doing that for you.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_01: People call them the diaper, you know, and and and you know, it's it's funny until you think about it.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_01: The chamois in there, it's not a pad.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's not to make it more comfortable.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_01: It literally takes the moisture out.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_07: Right.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_01: And so, yeah, on days when it's raining like that, that thing is not working anymore.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, things get wet.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_01: And and so, yeah, there's there's a chance for discomfort.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm not I'm not the kind of person who looks for discomfort for the sake of it, but I'll tell you, for something like that, or something you really put a lot of work into or have a lot of pride in, just like anything else.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_01: If it hurts a little bit, or if it if it's really hard, it's not like you get a little bit more out of it.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the easy things don't quite pay off as well as much.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_05: So it's a three-day ride.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_05: Yes, sir.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_05: And I imagine the first two are the hardest days, of course, a hundred miles per day.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_05: That's a long way to ride.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, okay.
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_05: So in so the final day, the final ride, I'm sure everyone's just a little bit tired, a little bit sore.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_01: Quite a bit.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_05: But now you're approaching Washington, D.C.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_05: Let's talk about that.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_01: Spirits coming.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_01: So, first of all, the the interstate coming into DC is completely shut down.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_05: Which is crazy to think about.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_05: For anyone that's ever driven that road before, it being shut down is insane.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so we come in the beltway and the the motors are out.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_01: Uh there's huge huge representation.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_01: We go every bridge we go under has got a fire truck and a flag on it.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_01: There's people waving at us as we go through.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_03: It's like schools.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, schools come out.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_03: High five in us as we're coming through.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_03: Um you forget that you're tired.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_01: You forget that you're hurt you you hurt a little bit, and you're you're just just uh smiles all around.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody's having a great time.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_01: You and then you cross the Potomac, uh, come up Constitution Avenue, it's all completely shut down.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_01: You meet up with every other chapter that's come in from a different direction.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_01: We know we muster at uh was it the RFK stadium?
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_03: The old RFK stadium in a parking lot.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_03: So all the bikes are there.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_03: There's thousands of bicycles, all the motorcycle escorts are there, and they're queuing us up, they're getting us ready to go.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_01: And then we do a couple laps through through DC uh proper, and I'll ride through the uh law enforcement memorial there.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um we do some laps through that.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_03: And the memorials, it's kind of an oval, but what they they have it queued up and the motorcycles lead the way.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_03: Or do no, we lead the way.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_03: The motorcycles come in tail end.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_03: That's right.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_03: We lead, we come in and we do we do kind of a a U-shape around it.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_03: Just we we come in at the bottom, we do a lap around, secure doing we come out.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_03: And uh so we all ride through.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_03: And in the first time, we had no idea.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_03: I had no idea what was.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_03: Never been there.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_03: You know, all these honor guards are there, bagpipes.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, like it was absolutely moving.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_03: And family members uh all in in support people are all surrounding the memorial.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_03: We go through and then we we post up where our support crew is, and then I went back and watched the motorcycles all come through.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_03: It is absolutely moving.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_05: Did you go down uh Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House at all?
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_05: Or in front of the or in front of the Capitol building?
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_05: Any of that?
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we went up I remember going by the Capitol and then by you know having never been there, I guess.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_03: I don't think we think we went through the White House.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_03: No, we didn't go down Pennsylvania.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_03: Um by the Capitol.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it was kind of a blur.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of it is you're still kind of follow the leader.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_01: Like when you're a group of a you know, a couple thousand cyclists, you're still having to worry about like, you know, if I hadn't hadn't hit the ground yet, I was gonna do it there.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_01: So you're bringing that.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_05: We're looking at the tires.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_05: There's a lot going on.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_05: Then you're looking at the sites, you know, a little bit.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_01: So you're trying to look around and have a good time while not crashing and crashing the whole group.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you're tired.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_01: You're kind of a little dazed.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_05: Was there any spills on the journey in itself?
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_03: So I think there was my third year I did it, which you did, you didn't do it that third year.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_03: It was so hot.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_03: It was and we had a few people pass out.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_03: We had some um, we had some crashes.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_03: Nothing serious.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_03: And we also we had a medical team escort us.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_03: Uh so they were okay.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, but if a few folks had to get bandaged up.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_01: But I don't think we had anything big.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_01: We we did anybody laid it down.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we had multiple vans following, like if you developed some sort of overuse injury or just needed to hop out from it.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_01: They just and the mechanic trailer.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_01: I used it twice.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_01: So I had a couple mechanicals, I would I done it and it happened to me a million times.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_01: I pulled off the side of the shoulder, raised my hand, they yanked me up into this trailer that was getting pulled by a truck.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_01: They're in there working on my bike while I'm sitting on a bench watching them.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_03: It's a shop in a trailer.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_01: Pull up, back out, and I catch back up to the group and back in a second.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, 250 miles on a bicycle, things are gonna break.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_05: You're gonna pop a tire, you're gonna pop a chain, you're gonna do something.
• 37:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_05: So I mean, you're gonna need those folks.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_03: It's good, yeah.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, that yeah, I had one year, I had I I had like three flats in a row, which was unfortunate, but it was cool to be able to go take a ride in that van.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, you feel like a professional rider, like yeah, these kids are taken care of.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_03: But I wanted I wanted to uh say too that Evan had mentioned the uh the support van.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_03: There's two uh 15 passenger vans with drivers.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_03: So if if someone just needs a break or whatever, because some people do show up ill-prepared for the ride.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_03: You can hop in there.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_03: But I I shared the the example where I listened to his horrible advice that uh the first time we did it on the second day.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_03: I didn't bring my rain gear.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_03: We're all we were all um freezing.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_03: It was funny.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_03: We left that before we even finished that break to start riding again.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_03: Both vans were filled.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_03: Like people were in there, like they're not going any further.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_03: It's the only way to warm up is pedal.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it was funny.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_03: But you know, too, I wanted to say too, that first year we did it, there was a good North Carolina crew.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_03: There was a crew from uh Watauga County that rode, and they they had lost a deputy, uh good friend of all of theirs, uh recently.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, you know, a year, uh year or two maybe before that.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_03: And there was a there was a um a couple of cops from down east.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_03: But yeah, especially that Watauga crowd, I still keep in touch with uh with all of those cops.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_03: So it was kind of neat to see the North Carolina element within our uh within our chapter.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_05: As inspirational as it was for you guys and as much as a rejuvenation of your ethos as it was, I really hope that you can go next year and then in future years.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_05: It sounds like something that just yeah, yeah.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_05: You know, it's if I was a younger man and eligible and all those things, but it stays with you.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I it it sounds like something that you know, it's like how do you ride with tears in your eyes?
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_05: It's like, you know, it it's the kind of thing that just pumps you full of hope no matter who you are, especially in your profession, you know.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_05: Sure.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I think it's important also like like this, it's it's easy to take this kind of a conversation as maybe hyperbole or or as like profession specific.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_01: But as someone who didn't grow up wanting to be a police officer, developing that level of pride and in the the profession has been purely organic for me.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_01: I just decided this might be a cool job on a whim, signed up, and it's been an amazing career.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I have a ton of appreciation for the things we're able to do for the community every day.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_01: And then you put me in a situation like that, and it just drives it home.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_01: Every single bit of appreciation I have for this profession has come from my work in it.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_01: I have had no exposure before that.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_05: And something like that just kind of reinforces that you made the right decision.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, absolutely.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_01: Couldn't be more proud.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_03: So I will share that my my background's a bit different.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_03: My my dad's retired uh FBI agent 31 years, so I grew up around it.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_03: So so I knew it was a profession I wanted to go into.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_03: And, you know, I remember, you know, sometimes dad, you know, missed Thanksgiving because this happened, or you know, oftentimes dad was gone before I woke up in the morning and uh I had gone to sleep before we got got back at night.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_03: But um one thing too that that I wanted to mention that that really hits home is that you're doing the ride.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_03: You you can uh choose to ride in honor of a particular person.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_03: Uh and you know, we lost uh Officer Rob Bingham and uh several years ago.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_03: A lot of people rode for him.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_03: One year I rode for uh uh Sergeant uh Jeff Hewitt, who was uh killed back in 2004, uh uh deputy with the Buncombe County Sheriff's Department.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_03: So you're riding for someone, and then during the breaks, you have an opportunity to share the story of the person that you ride, you ride for.
• 40:53
  SPEAKER_03: And one year I rode for Robert John Williams, who was a special agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_03: And he was a Mississippi boy where where I grew up, and I knew his younger sister, Kelly Williams.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_03: She she and I lifeguarded together in high school.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_03: And unfortunately, uh Agent Williams was one of the four ATF agents that was killed at Waco, Texas, uh during the um search warrant on the branch Travis compounds.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_03: So for me, it was like just knowing knowing people who had had died, even though I I distantly knew them, but but kind of knowing that growing up in that, it was won't say I grew up around it, but but my dad being around it, uh I I kind of saw it second nature.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_05: So as if you needed additional inspiration, you know.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_05: If you're writing for an individual, it makes it even you know more powerful, I would imagine, for you.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_05: So I'm pulling for you guys.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_05: I'm hoping you can uh you can get it together for next year, and we won't have another hurricane that destroys the town.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_05: For a thousand reasons.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_05: Let's just avoid the exactly.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_05: Let's try not to have one of those this year.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_05: Uh and then you guys can write up there next year and then we can talk about it again.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_05: Hope so.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_05: All right.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_05: Thank you.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_05: Lieutenant Coward, Lieutenant Rollins, thank you so much for sitting down and talking about it.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, thank you.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_05: Had a good time.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_05: Right now, getting to know wellness coordinator Matthew Eichmann.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_05: Thanks for joining us.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_05: Thanks for having me, Rick.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_05: A lot of people call you Matt.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_05: I call you Matthew.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_05: Which one do you prefer?
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_04: Uh either or growing up as always, I always wanted my friends to call me Matt, but uh ever since I kind of got into college, I was like, uh, Matthew sounds a little bit better.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_04: It's more professional, I think.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_05: And around here, it it's all last names, too.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_05: It's like uh us non-sworn folks are the ones that use the first names.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_05: Because we're used to that.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_05: I look at you and I say, Hey Matthew, and you, hey Rick.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_05: But over here, these guys are like, hey, Smith, hey Jones, hey, it's the it's the police, it's the military speak.
• 42:36
  SPEAKER_05: And that took me a while to get used to.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_05: I'm sure it's something you noticed right off the phone.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, absolutely.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, even with my time at the Citadel when I was in the master's program there, everyone, uh most of us that is, uh, addressed to each other by their last name and whatnot.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_04: And everyone's people call me Matt, people call me Matthew.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_04: The older I've gotten, the more it hasn't really bothered me.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_04: So it's either one's fine.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_04: So do we have other Matt's and Matthews here?
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_04: Uh oh, yeah.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_04: We uh I think we have a couple of other ones.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_05: And I think that's why they do it.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_05: Because you're here where we've got 150, you know, employees or whatever it is.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_05: You've got more than one John, more than one Bill, more than one whatever.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_05: Sure.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_05: So mostly the last names are unique.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_05: Mostly.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_05: Although there we have a Liz Rice, and my last name is also Rice.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_05: Okay, but she's an officer, of course, one of our canines in Milo.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_05: So yeah, I use first names.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_05: I'm getting used to the whole last name thing.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_05: It's still I don't do it myself.
• 43:26
  SPEAKER_05: It just feels so cold.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_05: It just doesn't feel natural for me to use someone's last name.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_04: I'm pretty fortunate enough to have a last name that's not very common.
• 43:35
  SPEAKER_04: Or I mean, I don't come across anybody with a last name of Eichmann very often.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_04: Um, yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_04: I've actually, funny enough, I've had that thrown on me a couple of times, and I told him I swear to God, I am not related.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_04: I promise you I'm not gonna be like, it's a huge topic of conversation.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_05: That I can be.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_05: That ain't me.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_05: So did you know that May is global employee health?
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_05: And fitness month.
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_05: Sure did.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_05: And you are our wellness coordinator.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_05: So I thought you would be the go-to guy for this month.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, absolutely.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_04: Uh I definitely think it's a topic that not only should be discussed in this particular realm here in law enforcement, paramilitary, military, what have you, but just as a whole as a human being, I think we need to make this a priority in our lives.
• 44:21
  SPEAKER_04: You know, it not only does it create better, uh, a better relationship with yourself, better relationships with your peers, but it provides you longevity.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_04: I don't think everybody exactly looks at longevity through just a one universal lens per se, or has you know a concern about it or wants to, you know, wants it to be an integral part of their lives.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_04: But I mean, you want to enjoy life as much as possible.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, do you not?
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, it's it's the whole reason why you know we're here.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_04: You know, we have one life, we want to live it, right?
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_04: So the way you do that, the way you prolong that, the way you can better it with your time here, it's taking an interest in in a lot of these topics, and it's paramount to I think our success as a as a species, you know.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_05: And health, wellness, fitness, strength obviously directly applies to the jobs that our officers are doing each and every day.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_05: But like you mentioned, personal health, wellness, fitness, it applies to everybody out there.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_05: Man, if you wanna you wanna live a long and productive life, uh, you know, be able to, after retirement, do more than just sit on the couch because you've been doing nothing but sitting on the couch, then you gotta stay, gotta stay moving.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, absolutely.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_04: I've been involved in this uh you know a few times myself, especially growing up in Pennsylvania.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_04: I played sports, the whole deal.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but yeah, I would not make you know sound nutritional decisions.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I would always have my lazy moments that would overtake it, and I would start to feel brain fog, and I would feel really tired all the time, like, what the hell's happening?
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm like, oh yeah, this is what you know, and then I had my first personal training experience, and I went through that whole that whole ordeal, and I've learned a lot about how training actually works.
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_04: You know, it's not just stuff you write on a board and and do, it's actually something you commit yourself to, you'd be consistent with, and you start to see the results of it.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_04: And I started to see the results of it almost instantaneously.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_04: That first week was hell.
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_04: I didn't want to come back, you know.
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_04: But uh week two, week three, week four, and plus, I oddly enough started to want to actually do this.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_04: It was almost almost like like a drug, man.
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_04: I wanted to come back and I wanted to have that be an integral part of my life.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_04: At that moment, I knew what I wanted to do for a career.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I wanted I wanted to actually dive into this, learn the science behind it and how we can apply it to not uh to this population or that population, this demographic.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_04: So um, and that landed me here with APD eventually, um, you know, after a uh a brief stint in the different uh sectors and fitness and whatnot.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_04: So grateful to be here and actually have a somewhat of an influence on the officers that I'm working with here.
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_05: Aaron Powell You mentioned growing up in Pennsylvania, and one of the questions we always ask, there's two must questions that we always ask is where were you born?
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_05: So where in Pennsylvania?
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_04: Aaron Powell I was born in Winwood, Pennsylvania.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_04: Not not a lot of people know where that is.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_04: It's just outside the Philadelphia area, so go birds.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_04: All right.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, fair enough.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_04: Sorry, I know you're a Bills guy.
• 46:57
  SPEAKER_04: It's all right.
• 46:57
  SPEAKER_04: It's okay.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_04: We had a pretty good year, I'll say.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I would say, yeah, you won the Super Chair.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, that was a that was a wonderful day.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_05: I was really important.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_05: I was a Birds fan that day because you were playing the Kansas City Chiefs.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_05: I think the majority of the country was.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_05: It's uh so and I got I have some good friends in addition to you that are also other from just outside Philadelphia on the New Jersey side.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_05: And they're huge Eagles fans as well.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, absolutely.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_05: Me personally, I love a Philly cheesesteak, so you know, I'm all in.
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_04: I'm all in on that.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_04: There's always that rivalry between Pat's and Gino's, and and I've personally had both.
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_04: Um I I gotta go with Pat's man.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_05: Everything in moderation.
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_05: Cheesesteaks, obviously, not healthy, probably not something you would recommend to your clients, those that you train.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_05: It is not part of a well-balanced diet, as they say, something I'm sure you learned in school.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_05: And uh, you probably needed some very specific education for this job, wellness coordinator.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_05: Yes.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_05: So, where did you go to school?
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_04: Uh I went to Appalachian State University for my undergraduate, um, and I received my bachelor's of science and uh uh exercise science, strength and conditioning as my uh concentration.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_04: Graduated from there in 2016, so uh occasionally I have to go back to Boone every now and then just to say hi.
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_04: But uh got that, and then after a brief stint doing commercial corporate fitness, I decided I wanted to further my education, get my master's degree, and the Citadel down in Charleston had the perfect program for me.
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_04: It was almost tailor-made, specialized in tactical performance and resiliency.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_04: So it was more catered towards strength and conditioning capacity and how you can program for um military populations, how you can for the paramilitary populations, law enforcement and firefighting specifically.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_04: So it was everything that I ever wanted.
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_04: It was exactly what I needed to be able to uh achieve my dream, which is working with individuals in this kind of capacity.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_04: And since I've been uh brought on here at APD, I mean that's it's I've developed a soft spot for the for the cops, man.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_04: Uh it's working with police officers is awesome.
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_05: We're with Matthew Eichmann, our wellness coordinator here at the Asheville Police Department.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_05: You mentioned the Citadel.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_05: What years were you there?
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_04: So I started my education through the Citadel online during uh when COVID hit.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_04: Uh so I did an online portion uh that was a graduate certificate.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_04: So technically I started in 2020.
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and then I actually uh finished my master's degree in uh in total when I um did the re uh residency uh from 2021 to 2022, just the latter half of 2022.
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_04: It had a lot of hands-on work.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_04: I worked with the uh contracted cadets on campus.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_04: I worked with the local fire uh entities like I mentioned earlier with uh Mount Pleasant Fire and did a lot of uh coaching hours, contact coaching hours, which is what we needed to accrue in order to build certain credits and whatnot.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_04: So it allowed me to be more comfortable working in uh small team settings, large team settings.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_04: Coming into it, I was more of like one-on-one personal training kind of guy.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_04: So this was new territory for me.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_04: It wasn't didn't really have the confidence that I needed to be able to excel in an environment like that.
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_04: But after my time that I did spend in Charleston and at the Citadel, uh working under amazing teachers, amazing coaches, and alongside like-minded students, I got every bit of it out of it that I needed.
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_05: You know, our time didn't quite overlap.
• 49:57
  SPEAKER_05: Uh I ran Palmetto Brewing in Charleston, which is right down the street from the Citadel.
• 50:01
  SPEAKER_05: I'm very familiar.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_05: They share the same road, Hugh G Street.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_05: And so I would drive through campus basically every day on my way home because I lived in James Island.
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_05: So I would go right by the Citadel and then by the River Dog Stadium and and then out to uh over the bridge and home to James Island.
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_05: I I just I always just there was something very magical almost about the Citadel's campus and driving by it.
• 50:22
  SPEAKER_05: It's just you just feel very kind of, you want to sit up straight.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_05: Like as you're driving through it, it's almost like, oh geez, you know, I was gonna button up my shirt and drive, sit up straight.
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, correct.
• 50:31
  SPEAKER_04: Every time that you drive onto the campus, and I, you know, doesn't matter what time of day, it could be pitch black outside early in the morning, which is mostly when I, you know, arrived on campus because of those early strength conditioning hours, man.
• 50:41
  SPEAKER_04: So even during then, during daylight, I mean, you you can't help but get infatuated with it.
• 50:46
  SPEAKER_04: It's a tiny part of Charleston, but it's just the history that's behind it, some of the greatness that's come out of it.
• 50:51
  SPEAKER_04: You have to garner an appreciation for it.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_05: Absolutely.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_05: So let's fast forward to now.
• 50:55
  SPEAKER_05: When did you arrive at the Asheville Police Department?
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_04: Asheville Police uh hired me, brought me on in April of 2023.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_04: So that's the you can guess you can call that the initiation of the wellness program.
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 51:06
  SPEAKER_04: Uh came in without knowing a whole lot.
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_04: It took me uh a few weeks to kind of get my feet in the ground, and I owe that to a lot of specific individuals.
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_04: Um retired lieutenant Ann Fowler was huge for me.
• 51:17
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, she kind of helped me get cemented here and get acquainted and comfortable.
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_04: But uh that's when I brought on was brought on and I started my uh my time here.
• 51:24
  SPEAKER_05: Two years then.
• 51:25
  SPEAKER_05: You just celebrated your second year.
• 51:26
  SPEAKER_05: Just past two years, yes, sir.
• 51:28
  SPEAKER_05: Okay, and I'm just uh celebrating a little bit past uh one year, basically.
• 51:32
  SPEAKER_05: I was here, uh I arrived in March of 24.
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_05: Uh so you've been here for two years.
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_05: I've been here for one year.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_05: So we're both relatively kind of new in the building, but getting to know folks and I see it down there in the gym, of course, all the time.
• 51:43
  SPEAKER_05: You've helped me set me up with a program, and it's I know it's helped me tremendously.
• 51:46
  SPEAKER_05: So is that primarily what you do?
• 51:48
  SPEAKER_05: You work individually with officers to help them achieve fitness, wellness?
• 51:53
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 51:53
  SPEAKER_04: So since the background of my experience in education is is rooted in physical fitness, that's where I do spend the bulk of my time, uh, whether if it is in an individual capacity uh or small group training, it's the hardest thing I found working with police officers is the schedules, um, especially for the patrol officers.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_04: It's you know, you never know when something will pop off, it'll it'll at least you know change the plan, and I'm gonna have to start changing things.
• 52:16
  SPEAKER_04: And it can be frustrating sometimes, but uh I'm still comfortable enough to know how to modify whatever plan I come in with.
• 52:23
  SPEAKER_04: But that is the capacity that I uh currently am working in.
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_04: Um I do work with our pre-B L E T PT cadets as well before they are sent off to basic law enforcement training for about a month, month and a half at a time for their uh for the summer and for winter times throughout the year.
• 52:37
  SPEAKER_04: So uh it keeps me busy to be able to utilize my skill set in that fashion.
• 52:42
  SPEAKER_04: But I do more than just the physical, um, the physical side of the wellness, uh, wellness initiative that we do have here.
• 52:48
  SPEAKER_04: I do collaborate with our uh embedded mental health clinicians with responder support services, and I always try to find uh and seek partnerships with external entities that I believe could be a beneficial factor to uh accelerating wellness here for the officers and whatever facet that is.
• 53:04
  SPEAKER_04: We just recently fired up a collaboration with uh local dietitians uh to help with the nutritional side of things.
• 53:10
  SPEAKER_04: I'm currently working on avenues to help uh accelerate uh the financial side of things for officers, so financial wellness.
• 53:17
  SPEAKER_04: So that's gonna be uh that's a huge goal for me this year.
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_04: Uh it's also uh something I've wanted to kind of get in the works uh in for quite a while.
• 53:25
  SPEAKER_04: So I'm looking forward to getting that off the ground whenever that might be.
• 53:28
  SPEAKER_04: But those are just some things that I do do outside of just the physical capacity.
• 53:32
  SPEAKER_04: But I do uh like to spend the bulk of my time down the gym and getting people stronger.
• 53:36
  SPEAKER_04: Um I definitely think that's had a massive impact on a lot of individuals here.
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_04: Whether if it is in that realm specifically or just you know building better social connections with individuals, I think that's had a profound impact on it as well.
• 53:48
  SPEAKER_04: So there's a lot of things I do observe on a day-to-day basis, but and some a lot of feedback I do get from the officers, um whether if it's patrol and criminal investigation or administration, that that they see a lot more activity, a lot more flow down in in such a small space, and that's encouraging to hear because that's that's what you know can build a lot of good community relationships, and what that's you know, at least inner community relationships here at the police department.
• 54:11
  SPEAKER_05: And there you were last week holding the American flag, leading the guys when we were running the torch run for Special Olympics.
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_05: That was fun too.
• 54:17
  SPEAKER_05: Love this country, man.
• 54:18
  SPEAKER_05: I'm with APD wellness coordinator Matthew Eichmann.
• 54:20
  SPEAKER_05: We've learned a lot so far.
• 54:21
  SPEAKER_05: Let's learn a little more.
• 54:22
  SPEAKER_05: The second question we always ask our guests what's one thing that most people don't know about you?
• 54:29
  SPEAKER_04: I am a huge 80s fanatic.
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_04: I was a 1994 baby.
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_04: So I mean, I'm I'm really in tune with a lot of what came out of that decade and going into the 2000s, you know, typical millennial stuff.
• 54:39
  SPEAKER_04: But for some reason, I am just infatuated with 80s culture.
• 54:44
  SPEAKER_04: Because that occurred before you were born.
• 54:45
  SPEAKER_04: So how did that happen?
• 54:46
  SPEAKER_04: I I don't know.
• 54:47
  SPEAKER_04: I th I think I have to thank my parents for that one because you know I grew up in a household where I spent you know 50% outside doing stuff, and then we would come in and sit, you know, in front of a television.
• 54:55
  SPEAKER_04: So I probably saw a lot of movies that I saw at a young age that I probably shouldn't have seen at the time, but it something about it was just infatuating to me.
• 55:04
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, even if it was you know a B minus movie with you know C plus acting or something like that, I still take enjoyment in it.
• 55:11
  SPEAKER_04: There's just something that's uh that's uplifting to me about it.
• 55:14
  SPEAKER_05: Even all the even the crappiest movie had its moments back then, or like a memorable line or a memorable scene.
• 55:19
  SPEAKER_04: I quote so many movies.
• 55:20
  SPEAKER_04: I've I told I told Lieutenant Coward this the other day.
• 55:23
  SPEAKER_04: I have so much useless information in my brain.
• 55:26
  SPEAKER_04: I just whenever somebody says something in a conversation, it reminds me of, oh, that that line from that movie from that actor.
• 55:31
  SPEAKER_05: It's it's okay.
• 55:32
  SPEAKER_05: Not that I doubt your 80s cred, but let's have a little bit of fun with the game that I call Name That 80s.
• 55:37
  SPEAKER_05: Oh boy.
• 55:38
  SPEAKER_05: All right.
• 55:38
  SPEAKER_05: So we're talking about music, movies, TV, pop culture, a little bit of history.
• 55:42
  SPEAKER_05: All right, just ten questions.
• 55:44
  SPEAKER_05: I think you're going to do well based on how I know you, uh but you seem to be a little bit hesitant.
• 55:50
  SPEAKER_05: Uh you think you're gonna get challenged.
• 55:52
  SPEAKER_04: Now, the you gotta keep in mind here, Rick, that you were you lived during this time and I didn't.
• 55:55
  SPEAKER_04: So you might you'll be throwing me some deep cuts here.
• 55:57
  SPEAKER_05: So not deep, not deep at all.
• 55:59
  SPEAKER_05: I see because most of these just came from memory, so I didn't need to dig too deep for these.
• 56:04
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 56:04
  SPEAKER_05: So these are pretty uh common things that are known, at least by people like myself that lived through the era.
• 56:10
  SPEAKER_05: Sure.
• 56:10
  SPEAKER_05: All right, so I think you're gonna do okay.
• 56:11
  SPEAKER_05: So here we go.
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_05: Finish this TV show intro.
• 56:15
  SPEAKER_05: If you have a problem, if no one else can help and you can find them, maybe you can hire uh the TV show where Mr.
• 56:23
  SPEAKER_05: T got his start.
• 56:24
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, that's the A team.
• 56:25
  SPEAKER_05: Maybe you can hire the A Team.
• 56:28
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 56:28
  SPEAKER_04: That's how every show started.
• 56:30
  SPEAKER_04: See, like when you introduce actors and and things of that nature, I might be able to hammer it down.
• 56:35
  SPEAKER_04: But like when it comes down to some certain quotes, it might be a little bit more of a challenge.
• 56:39
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, all right.
• 56:39
  SPEAKER_04: We'll see what we got going on.
• 56:41
  SPEAKER_05: It's how every show started.
• 56:42
  SPEAKER_05: If you've seen an opening episode, I thought you might know that one.
• 56:44
  SPEAKER_06: Sure.
• 56:44
  SPEAKER_05: All right, this one here.
• 56:45
  SPEAKER_05: This charity concert was held simultaneously in two venues Wembley Stadium in London, JFK Stadium in Philadelphia.
• 56:52
  SPEAKER_05: It was watched by almost two billion people in 1985.
• 56:56
  SPEAKER_05: That was live aid, man.
• 56:57
  SPEAKER_05: Um Queen's performance and Rapid Lee was absolutely astounding.
• 57:01
  SPEAKER_05: Bohemian Rhapsody, the movie kind of brought that back.
• 57:04
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, it was great to see that.
• 57:05
  SPEAKER_05: If you look at the list of performers in that particular concert, right?
• 57:09
  SPEAKER_05: U2, Queen, Dire Straits, Bowie, Black Sabbath, Zeppelin, Petty, Cards, Clapton.
• 57:14
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, it was everybody that was everybody.
• 57:17
  SPEAKER_04: And I've watched all those performances, but I will tell you just I I felt bad for whoever whoever it was that had to go on after Queen.
• 57:23
  SPEAKER_04: They just Freddie had Freddie had that crowd in the palm of his hand.
• 57:26
  SPEAKER_05: They're all like, oh, great, I gotta follow that.
• 57:29
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, all right.
• 57:29
  SPEAKER_05: Incredible.
• 57:30
  SPEAKER_05: In 1987, Ronald Reagan said, Mr.
• 57:35
  SPEAKER_05: Gorbachev.
• 57:36
  SPEAKER_05: Tear down this wall, baby.
• 57:37
  SPEAKER_05: There you go.
• 57:39
  SPEAKER_05: Good one, man.
• 57:39
  SPEAKER_05: Nope for three.
• 57:40
  SPEAKER_05: Glad you got that one.
• 57:41
  SPEAKER_05: All right.
• 57:42
  SPEAKER_05: Name the movie.
• 57:43
  SPEAKER_05: Dongers here for five hours and he's got somebody.
• 57:46
  SPEAKER_05: I lived my whole life and I'm like a disease.
• 57:49
  SPEAKER_04: That's that's 16 candles.
• 57:50
  SPEAKER_04: 16 candles.
• 57:51
  SPEAKER_04: Good old John Hughes, right there.
• 57:52
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, Molly Ringwald as Samantha in that one.
• 57:55
  SPEAKER_05: So see, you're doing better than you thought.
• 57:56
  SPEAKER_04: Classic.
• 57:57
  SPEAKER_05: All right, now this one a little tougher.
• 57:58
  SPEAKER_05: The final episode of MASH, February 28th, 1983.
• 58:02
  SPEAKER_05: It remains the most watched single episode of any TV series in history.
• 58:07
  SPEAKER_05: What was the name of that episode?
• 58:10
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, I can't tell you that one.
• 58:11
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, my mom and dad were huge MASH fans, but I I was never into it as much as they were.
• 58:15
  SPEAKER_05: I was one of the many that watched it live at the time.
• 58:17
  SPEAKER_05: Sure.
• 58:17
  SPEAKER_05: Not gonna lie.
• 58:18
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 58:19
  SPEAKER_05: Cried a little bit.
• 58:19
  SPEAKER_05: Sure.
• 58:20
  SPEAKER_05: Sad.
• 58:20
  SPEAKER_05: I loved that show.
• 58:21
  SPEAKER_05: Goodbye, farewell, and amen was the name of that episode.
• 58:26
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 58:26
  SPEAKER_05: What was the very first video shown shown on MTV in 1981?
• 58:30
  SPEAKER_04: I think that was uh Video Kill the Radio Star.
• 58:33
  SPEAKER_04: By the Buggles.
• 58:34
  SPEAKER_04: All right.
• 58:35
  SPEAKER_05: Video Kill the Radio Star.
• 58:38
  SPEAKER_04: For the longest time, like growing up, I always thought it was Money for Nothing, Star Straits, but that was a little bit more later on.
• 58:42
  SPEAKER_04: It got played a lot.
• 58:44
  SPEAKER_04: But yeah.
• 58:44
  SPEAKER_05: But uh MTV.
• 58:48
  SPEAKER_05: Few managed to solve it, but every kid in the 80s tried, and around 500 million of these have been sold since its introduction.
• 58:56
  SPEAKER_04: Rubik's Cube.
• 58:57
  SPEAKER_05: Rubik's Cube.
• 58:58
  SPEAKER_05: Did you ever try?
• 58:59
  SPEAKER_04: Have you I've never never solved the Rubik's Cube.
• 59:02
  SPEAKER_04: I know somebody who has though.
• 59:03
  SPEAKER_04: I think they solved it in under an hour and a half.
• 59:07
  SPEAKER_04: It took them that long.
• 59:08
  SPEAKER_05: I was happy to get one side.
• 59:10
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I did.
• 59:11
  SPEAKER_04: I mean drove me too, true me too crazy, man.
• 59:13
  SPEAKER_05: So name this movie.
• 59:14
  SPEAKER_05: Life moves pretty fast.
• 59:16
  SPEAKER_05: If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
• 59:19
  SPEAKER_05: Fueller.
• 59:19
  SPEAKER_05: Fueler.
• 59:21
  SPEAKER_05: Bueller.
• 59:21
  SPEAKER_05: Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
• 59:22
  SPEAKER_05: I I knew you'd know that one.
• 59:24
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 59:24
  SPEAKER_05: So when you think 80s music, this song from a Norwegian band in 1985 is the one more people name than any other.
• 59:35
  SPEAKER_05: The epitome of 80s music.
• 59:37
  SPEAKER_05: I will even give you a hint.
• 59:39
  SPEAKER_05: The video was parodied in an episode of The Family Guy with Chris as the lead character.
• 59:44
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 59:44
  SPEAKER_04: I is it is it ABBA?
• 59:46
  SPEAKER_05: It is not ABBA.
• 59:47
  SPEAKER_05: They're from Sweden.
• 59:48
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 59:48
  SPEAKER_04: Um, let's see.
• 59:50
  SPEAKER_04: It's a good that's a good question.
• 59:52
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it's and as soon as I say it, you'll know it.
• 59:54
  SPEAKER_05: Aha.
• 59:55
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, take on me, right?
• 59:56
  SPEAKER_04: Take on me.
• 59:57
  SPEAKER_04: I see.
• 59:57
  SPEAKER_04: I I always thought that my meme, my mind immediately went to ABBA.
• 1:00:01
  SPEAKER_05: That is the well, obviously they had a nice run.
• 1:00:03
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I mean, because they were extremely popular.
• 1:00:04
  SPEAKER_05: They were closer to 70s than 80s.
• 1:00:06
  SPEAKER_05: They leaked into the 80s.
• 1:00:07
  SPEAKER_05: All right, so here we go.
• 1:00:08
  SPEAKER_05: Name this group of actors as soon as you know.
• 1:00:11
  SPEAKER_05: Emilio Estevez, Rob Lowe, Demi Moore, Judd Nelson, Molly Ringwald, Ali Sheedy, Anthony Michael Hall, Andrew McCarthy.
• 1:00:20
  SPEAKER_05: They were known as who?
• 1:00:21
  SPEAKER_04: The Brat Pack.
• 1:00:22
  SPEAKER_05: The Brat Pack.
• 1:00:23
  SPEAKER_05: Not the Rat Pack, but the Brat Pack.
• 1:00:26
  SPEAKER_04: See, you did pretty good there.
• 1:00:27
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:00:28
  SPEAKER_04: These are some good questions, man.
• 1:00:29
  SPEAKER_04: Um, you got me on a couple of them now.
• 1:00:31
  SPEAKER_05: Now this will lead back into our conversation, which has more to do with your job.
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_05: The biggest hit in the 80s, number one for 10 weeks, was what?
• 1:00:40
  SPEAKER_05: I don't think you'll get this, because it's not a typical 80s song, although it is.
• 1:00:44
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, can you give me the year?
• 1:00:46
  SPEAKER_05: I'll tell you, I'll give you the singerslash actress who starred in Greece.
• 1:00:51
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, not was it physical?
• 1:00:52
  SPEAKER_05: It was physical.
• 1:00:53
  SPEAKER_05: Was it really from Olivia Newton John?
• 1:00:55
  SPEAKER_05: Wow.
• 1:00:56
  SPEAKER_05: Because the 80s, of course, they were big, and that's where this is where aerobics came from.
• 1:00:59
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 1:00:59
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 1:01:00
  SPEAKER_05: And if you remember the video, she was, of course, you know, in the Leotard and the whole thing with the headband.
• 1:01:04
  SPEAKER_05: And of course, we had Jane Fonda doing all the uh, you know, she got people into it and stuff like that.
• 1:01:09
  SPEAKER_05: And so not saying that that's how you get our officers into shape.
• 1:01:15
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 1:01:16
  SPEAKER_05: But physical fitness, mental fitness, that is a big part of your job.
• 1:01:20
  SPEAKER_04: And yes, I I firmly believe that law enforcement, especially in this in this day and age, they have a obligation to be as physically sound and mentally sound as humanly possible.
• 1:01:31
  SPEAKER_04: I think that that those two things shouldn't be separate entities.
• 1:01:34
  SPEAKER_04: I think that that should there should be a bridge to those two.
• 1:01:36
  SPEAKER_04: And I th and I've seen in my career thus far that when you focus on one holistically, that um it can it can bridge over into the other one.
• 1:01:45
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, I want to make sure that that is emphasized here at APD is that if you take control and take accountability, physically speaking, that it can have uh positive implications on your mental health too.
• 1:01:57
  SPEAKER_04: It involves some structure, it involves routine.
• 1:01:59
  SPEAKER_04: Is it is it difficult at least to start?
• 1:02:01
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, it is.
• 1:02:02
  SPEAKER_04: But because you're changing a habit, you know.
• 1:02:04
  SPEAKER_04: Um this is this is the I can think of a better habit to to immerse yourself in.
• 1:02:09
  SPEAKER_04: Um they get in a routine in in a physical sense, you know.
• 1:02:12
  SPEAKER_05: It is a short list of jobs that require the mental and physical fitness as a police officer.
• 1:02:19
  SPEAKER_05: It is a short list of jobs that require both of those at this level.
• 1:02:22
  SPEAKER_04: 100%.
• 1:02:23
  SPEAKER_04: I will definitely tell you.
• 1:02:25
  SPEAKER_04: I ride along a lot.
• 1:02:26
  SPEAKER_04: I've ride along with a a lot of the officers here and try to get uh immerse in myself in their world, try to understand what they have to respond to, what they're expected to handle with professionalism.
• 1:02:37
  SPEAKER_04: And a lot of it is not sunshine and rabus, you know, and a lot of it uh can oftentimes come down to you know using your physical capabilities.
• 1:02:47
  SPEAKER_04: And I've heard a lot of stories from some of my officers that have been in uh altercations that could have easily ended up with them not being here anymore, at the very least, being an officer-involved shooting, you know.
• 1:02:59
  SPEAKER_04: But if they didn't have the physical prowess that they did have and they didn't actually take care of themselves in that sense, a whole different outcome.
• 1:03:06
  SPEAKER_05: And as we celebrate Global Employee Health and Fitness Month, Matthew Eichmann, wellness coordinator, thank you for what you do for the officers.
• 1:03:13
  SPEAKER_05: I appreciate you.
• 1:03:14
  SPEAKER_05: And for all of us.
• 1:03:15
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you.
• 1:03:15
  SPEAKER_04: No, I appreciate you saying that, and I enjoy being here.
• 1:03:18
  SPEAKER_04: I love working with the officers here.
• 1:03:19
  SPEAKER_05: And thanks for joining me on the podcast.
• 1:03:22
  SPEAKER_05: Thanks for listening to the APD Pod Squad.
• 1:03:24
  SPEAKER_05: And thank you to my guests, Lieutenants Brian Hogan, Evan Coward, and Jeffrey Rollins.
• 1:03:29
  SPEAKER_05: Also, accreditation manager and official APD historian Hannah Silberman and wellness coordinator Matthew Eichmann.
• 1:03:35
  SPEAKER_05: Make sure you subscribe, like, add to your library or playlist, set a reminder, put a note in the fridge, whatever it takes, so you don't miss a single minute of the APD Pod Squad with new episodes about every two weeks.
• 1:03:46
  SPEAKER_05: And can you believe that the next episode is number 20?
• 1:03:50
  SPEAKER_05: Time flies.
• 1:03:51
  SPEAKER_05: Got a question for Chief Mike Lamb?
• 1:03:53
  SPEAKER_05: Ask the Chief by calling 250-8800 and leaving a voicemail.
• 1:03:57
  SPEAKER_05: That is 250-80800.
• 1:03:59
  SPEAKER_05: You can also email that question to APD Podcast Feedback at AshevilleNC.gov or just maybe a topic suggestion at APD Podcast Feedback at AshevilleNC.gov.
• 1:04:13
  SPEAKER_05: I'm Rick Rice, and this is the APD Pod Squad.