Latest / The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert / OPD Chief Todd Schmaderer

Transcript

OPD Chief Todd Schmaderer · The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert

0:00
Speaker 1: Peyton. I gotta tell you got to be on the
0:01
Speaker 1: cough button today. While I was gone, I developed a
0:04
Speaker 1: bad cold. I got my cough button right in front
0:08
Speaker 1: of me. You have to help me man it today.
0:10
Speaker 2: I'll be on it. I'm on it.
0:11
Speaker 1: I hope I won't be irritating anybody by coffing in
0:14
Speaker 1: their ear like I did a couple weeks ago. Anyway,
0:18
Speaker 1: today in the studio we have Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmudter.
0:21
Speaker 1: Good to see you again.
0:23
Speaker 2: Hey, great to be in the studio. I want to
0:24
Speaker 2: say hello to all the listeners out there today, looking
0:27
Speaker 2: forward to the next twenty thirty minutes.
0:29
Speaker 1: Oh I thought you were going to say, looking forward
0:30
Speaker 1: for the next like twenty thirty years of me being
0:32
Speaker 1: police chief and Oma. My gosh, Todd, you have been
0:36
Speaker 1: a police chief for the longest time, the longest serving
0:40
Speaker 1: police chief of any of the major cities in the country.
0:43
Speaker 2: Right now, I am going on fourteen years.
0:46
Speaker 1: That's amazing because I remembered when you were appointed by
0:50
Speaker 1: Jim Suttle in twenty twelve. Good move, Jim Subtle. You
0:54
Speaker 1: started with the Omah Police Department in nineteen ninety six,
0:58
Speaker 1: moved up through the ranks became in twenty twelve. I
1:01
Speaker 1: became mayor in twenty thirteen, so we had twelve years
1:04
Speaker 1: to work together. You know, we start Todd and I
1:08
Speaker 1: started as Mayor in chief. But we started working together
1:11
Speaker 1: when you were a Captain Schmater and you were precinct
1:15
Speaker 1: captain of Southwest Precinct. We did neighborhood meetings together.
1:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's where we first met. I was Captain of
1:20
Speaker 2: Southwest Precinct. You had some oversight of that as a
1:23
Speaker 2: city council. And yes, we took care of entriaged and
1:26
Speaker 2: troubleshooted quite a few things at that time.
1:28
Speaker 1: We did, and it was fun. And you know you
1:30
Speaker 1: look about the same, except your hair is a little gray.
1:33
Speaker 2: Well, thank you. I like my gray hair anymore. You know.
1:35
Speaker 2: I don't used to fight it, but I don't anymore.
1:37
Speaker 1: It looks good on you. You know, I don't have
1:38
Speaker 1: any gray hair. I take care of that, like like
1:41
Speaker 1: every four weeks or so. I take care of that.
1:44
Speaker 1: But just a little background on Todd, because you know,
1:46
Speaker 1: everybody when they see you or hear you, it's always
1:48
Speaker 1: something serious, something going on in the city. But Todd
1:51
Speaker 1: was a graduate Aron Collie in nineteen ninety. You have
1:55
Speaker 1: a bachelor's degree in criminal justice, a master's degree in
1:58
Speaker 1: criminal justice. Also, he's an author of a book, which
2:01
Speaker 1: hopefully we will get to today, Synergy of influence. And
2:05
Speaker 1: you know what, here's one thing I'm going to tell
2:06
Speaker 1: you about Todd Schmater that most of you don't know.
2:09
Speaker 1: You're funny. You're funny to be around. He's got a
2:11
Speaker 1: great sense of humor. Like I said, when you're always
2:14
Speaker 1: on TV, it's always something serious, and you play that
2:18
Speaker 1: role tremendous. You have a great media presence, but you're
2:21
Speaker 1: a funny guy and you're fun to be around. And
2:23
Speaker 1: I don't think everybody knows that about you, So I
2:25
Speaker 1: had to throw that in.
2:27
Speaker 2: I appreciate you saying that. I also want to tell everybody.
2:29
Speaker 2: When you were talking about not having gray hair, I
2:31
Speaker 2: was over here smiling because I didn't know if it
2:34
Speaker 2: was true or.
2:34
Speaker 1: Not about me, about why I don't have any gray hair. Well,
2:39
Speaker 1: let me tell you it's true. So let's get onto it, though, Todd,
2:42
Speaker 1: since you have been chief, I mean tremendous, tremendous accomplishments
2:48
Speaker 1: with the City of Omaha as far as public safety,
2:51
Speaker 1: I have always said, public safety should be every mayor's
2:54
Speaker 1: number one priority, keeping the citizens of Omaha safe. But
2:57
Speaker 1: since you have been the chief, the homicide rate is down,
3:01
Speaker 1: the non fatal shootings are down, our clearance rate is up,
3:05
Speaker 1: meaning the homicides that are being committed are being solved.
3:08
Speaker 1: Overall crime rate is down. Just to put this in perspective.
3:12
Speaker 1: In two thousand and eight we had fifty. We had
3:15
Speaker 1: forty four homicides. In twenty fifteen, we had fifty. In
3:19
Speaker 1: twenty twenty four, we had nineteen. This year so far
3:24
Speaker 1: four only four. Talk about that a little bit. I mean,
3:28
Speaker 1: you've done so much with the department. It's so much
3:30
Speaker 1: to be proud of. And I want to say he's
3:32
Speaker 1: not only a good leader, but you have a very
3:34
Speaker 1: good financial mind. He's very good with the budget because
3:37
Speaker 1: it's up to the department directors to manage the budget.
3:41
Speaker 1: We started a restorative justice program. Talk just briefly about
3:46
Speaker 1: the safety of the city of Omaha.
3:49
Speaker 2: Yeah. Absolutely. You know when I started in twenty twelve,
3:52
Speaker 2: when I was appointed by a marriage in Subtle, so
3:54
Speaker 2: I got a lot of ton of respect.
3:56
Speaker 1: For who goes to Jim Subtle.
3:57
Speaker 2: Yeah, great man. He he had something he was looking
4:01
Speaker 2: for police community relations were not strong at the time,
4:04
Speaker 2: and we were having an epidemic number of shootings at
4:07
Speaker 2: that time in the city, over two hundred a year,
4:10
Speaker 2: and also non fail non fatal shootings, and of course
4:13
Speaker 2: when you have high non fatal shootings, your homicides are
4:15
Speaker 2: going to be higher. That just just kind of goes
4:18
Speaker 2: par for the course, and he wanted somebody that that
4:22
Speaker 2: was going to provide some stability. We had seven chiefs
4:26
Speaker 2: in five years, or maybe five chiefs in seven years,
4:28
Speaker 2: I can't remember. It was a heavy turnover period, and
4:32
Speaker 2: so he was looking for somebody that was going to
4:33
Speaker 2: stick around, provide some staying power, put some strategic plans
4:37
Speaker 2: together and try to get a handle on it. And
4:41
Speaker 2: coming out of the national search, you know, Jim, Jim
4:44
Speaker 2: appointed me shortly thereafter, I think maybe eight nine months
4:48
Speaker 2: later you took over as mayor. We had a tremendous
4:51
Speaker 2: run together with twelve years of making a lot of strides,
4:55
Speaker 2: and now I'm working for John Ewing, somebody that I
4:58
Speaker 2: think's doing it incredible job. Got a lot of respect
5:02
Speaker 2: for John. So looking forward to really taking these numbers
5:04
Speaker 2: lower and right now as we sit today, We're probably
5:07
Speaker 2: at our best year that we have ever had. Just
5:09
Speaker 2: four homicides. We've solved three of them. I'm just a
5:13
Speaker 2: little little teaser out here. We're going to solve that
5:15
Speaker 2: fourth one real soon here. I got a little insight
5:18
Speaker 2: on that.
5:18
Speaker 1: But we have a long, hot summer coming.
5:21
Speaker 2: We do have a hot summer coming. But going into
5:23
Speaker 2: the summer, this is as best we've ever been. Crimes
5:26
Speaker 2: down fourteen percent overall from last year. And you know,
5:30
Speaker 2: things have really been clicking in Omaha. If you go
5:32
Speaker 2: back to when we started working together, Jeane, every index
5:37
Speaker 2: crime is down, and that's hard to say for a
5:39
Speaker 2: major city. And kind of the last thing of my
5:42
Speaker 2: preamble here, I appreciate you saying I have a sense
5:45
Speaker 2: of humor because I do have a family, my little
5:47
Speaker 2: core group. I hope they think I'm fun and funny
5:50
Speaker 2: because when I'm home, I'm not dealing with.
5:52
Speaker 1: You're not the chief. You don't walk around your home
5:54
Speaker 1: with a gun on your hip.
5:56
Speaker 2: I am not. I have a lot of fun in
5:58
Speaker 2: my house, and it has nothing to do with being so.
6:00
Speaker 1: One time Todd and I go to the same grocery store.
6:02
Speaker 1: At one time we met each other in the grocery store.
6:05
Speaker 1: It was just, you know, a chance meeting. But we
6:07
Speaker 1: were standing there talking and I swear to God, there
6:10
Speaker 1: must have been twenty people looking at us like it. Wait,
6:12
Speaker 1: wait a minute, is that the Marintache matters standing over
6:15
Speaker 1: there laughing?
6:16
Speaker 2: And it was.
6:17
Speaker 1: And I might mention too, you have two kids?
6:19
Speaker 2: I do?
6:19
Speaker 1: I am your kids?
6:21
Speaker 2: Well, I have two kids. My daughter is twenty six.
6:23
Speaker 2: She got married last year. She just got a doctor degree,
6:27
Speaker 2: so she is she's just doing excellent.
6:29
Speaker 1: And she looks just like you.
6:31
Speaker 2: Yeah, she looks like she looks and everything in a
6:35
Speaker 2: much better female version. That she's very, very pretty.
6:40
Speaker 1: He is pretty.
6:41
Speaker 2: My son is twenty two. He's about to graduate from
6:43
Speaker 2: University Nebraska Lincoln. He's also getting married, and he'll be
6:46
Speaker 2: getting married here in a couple of months. So waking
6:48
Speaker 2: forward to that.
6:49
Speaker 1: I can't wait till you're a grandpa.
6:51
Speaker 2: I actually am looking forward to it. I'd like a
6:53
Speaker 2: few more years before I am.
6:55
Speaker 1: Yeah, you'll love it that. I love it when my
6:57
Speaker 1: grandkids call me grandma. So then I could start on you, grandpa.
7:01
Speaker 2: And then I got I got a little bit more
7:02
Speaker 2: in my life. I got a fiance and she's got
7:05
Speaker 2: a thirteen year old at home with us. She's a
7:07
Speaker 2: ton of fun. And then her son at mina. Yeah,
7:10
Speaker 2: she is great. And then her son is also twenty two,
7:14
Speaker 2: getting married in September. So this is one busy next
7:17
Speaker 2: few months we got coming up, and as soon as
7:20
Speaker 2: we get done with that, it's vacation time.
7:22
Speaker 1: Well, I hope you enjoy every minute of it. And
7:24
Speaker 1: Carla is his fiance, and congratulations on that too.
7:28
Speaker 2: Oh well, thank you.
7:29
Speaker 1: So let's let's go in to dig a little bit more.
7:32
Speaker 1: Todd when you said we have been through a lot together,
7:35
Speaker 1: we have. And I will say one of the worst
7:37
Speaker 1: days of my career, well, I will say the worst
7:40
Speaker 1: day of my career, and I think you will agree
7:43
Speaker 1: with me. Was May twenty second, twenty fifteen. I was
7:47
Speaker 1: on my way down to Florida for my son's wedding,
7:49
Speaker 1: which was on Friday. This was on a Wednesday. I
7:53
Speaker 1: got off the airplane, turned my phone back on, and
7:55
Speaker 1: I had about one thousand calls from you and twenty
7:58
Speaker 1: nine year old Carrie Roscoe.
8:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, was shot and kilt. Yeah, toughest toughest day of
8:04
Speaker 2: my career, toughest week of my career. I'll say that
8:08
Speaker 2: because I'll never forget walking in my office getting that call, because,
8:12
Speaker 2: you know, Chief, you get a lot of calls about
8:13
Speaker 2: a lot of serious matters, but this one was all business,
8:18
Speaker 2: very serious tone to it. And when I found out
8:22
Speaker 2: I had an officer shot and it was not looking good.
8:25
Speaker 2: Prognosis was bad. Right away, I rushed to the scene
8:30
Speaker 2: and it was just kind of a macob situation the
8:33
Speaker 2: entire way. And I'll never forget going to the scene.
8:36
Speaker 2: And she had just been transported at that point, so
8:38
Speaker 2: I wanted to make sure the scene was taken care of.
8:40
Speaker 2: We had a lot of things going on. Went to
8:41
Speaker 2: the hospital and when I got to the hospital, doctor
8:47
Speaker 2: Mike Wagner, who was the trauma surgeon at the time,
8:49
Speaker 2: he met me and he explained the injury, and he
8:52
Speaker 2: he took me through the process of trying to save
8:54
Speaker 2: her life and they did the best they could, absolutely
8:56
Speaker 2: at Creaton Hospital at the time.
8:58
Speaker 1: And you know, the most devastated thing about this too,
9:02
Speaker 1: is she was a twenty nine year old new mother
9:04
Speaker 1: with a baby in the neonatal intensive care unit and
9:07
Speaker 1: this was her last shift before going to maternity leave,
9:11
Speaker 1: and the bullet struck her just above her ballistic vest.
9:15
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know the little clavigal nacha that you got
9:17
Speaker 2: on your neck, that's probably that's a pretty good estimate
9:20
Speaker 2: of where she was shot. And a lot of veins
9:21
Speaker 2: are going through there. So it was it was. It
9:24
Speaker 2: was a fatal round. And you know, Carrie was a
9:27
Speaker 2: tremendous officer, tremendous person even even more so, and that
9:32
Speaker 2: devastated this agency. It devastated law enforcement of this devastated
9:36
Speaker 2: the city, and it devastated the city.
9:38
Speaker 1: It really did. It hit home with everyone. I will
9:40
Speaker 1: never forget. I did the funeral procession with you and
9:44
Speaker 1: over to the cemetery in Iowa and just people that
9:48
Speaker 1: were lined up in masses along the street in Omaha
9:51
Speaker 1: and in Iowa, not saying a word. It was just silent.
9:55
Speaker 2: It was silent, and they would wave, but it was
9:59
Speaker 2: so respectful. And I remember exiting Omaha, I thought, Wow,
10:02
Speaker 2: what a procession we just had. Going through Omaha, we
10:05
Speaker 2: crossed the bridge in Iowa and then it picked up tenfold.
10:10
Speaker 2: Council Buff Iowa and everybody because Carrie was from Iowa
10:14
Speaker 2: and we had another couple of miles worth of this procession,
10:19
Speaker 2: and that was so uplifting from my officers because they
10:21
Speaker 2: were down on the dumps and that totally uplifted them.
10:25
Speaker 2: And I'll never never forget that. And the one thing
10:29
Speaker 2: that a lot of my officers will say is, you know,
10:32
Speaker 2: that was the silver lining in a devastating situation. But
10:38
Speaker 2: the realize that community has your back in that way
10:41
Speaker 2: means the world to them at all times.
10:43
Speaker 1: Absolutely, And you know, you know me, I love the
10:46
Speaker 1: Omaha Police Department. I love that they do a great job.
10:49
Speaker 1: I think the union representatives sometimes don't think too much
10:53
Speaker 1: of me or any mayor, but you know what, when
10:57
Speaker 1: we're negotiating a labor contract, it gets at times. But
11:01
Speaker 1: that doesn't mean I don't have great respect for him.
11:03
Speaker 1: Now let's move on. That was a terrible day, just terrible.
11:07
Speaker 1: But just about five years later, May twenty ninth, twenty twenty,
11:13
Speaker 1: and this is what I really wanted to talk about
11:15
Speaker 1: today because we just passed that anniversary. It was a Friday,
11:21
Speaker 1: and there was a protest that was being organized. OPD
11:27
Speaker 1: knew about it. I knew about it. You notified me
11:29
Speaker 1: about it because they were trying to get people to
11:31
Speaker 1: come via social media. Hundreds of people gathered in the
11:35
Speaker 1: afternoon at seventy second in Dodge for a protest to
11:38
Speaker 1: the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis. And it began
11:41
Speaker 1: as peaceful. And you know, I knew before that that
11:45
Speaker 1: OPD knew about it. I know that after learning about it, it
11:49
Speaker 1: was Captain Lorie Scott at the time. She began trying
11:52
Speaker 1: to communicate with the organizers and attempt to work with them.
11:57
Speaker 1: But it grew and it grew and it grew. I
12:01
Speaker 1: want to tell people, you and I were in contact
12:03
Speaker 1: all the time during this whole situation. But later on
12:07
Speaker 1: that night, about I would say maybe about eight pm,
12:11
Speaker 1: OPD and the protesters clashed. It became unlawful. OPD was
12:16
Speaker 1: urging people to leave. A police car became surrounded by protesters,
12:22
Speaker 1: the riot gear was deployed, and then we're talking pepperballs,
12:26
Speaker 1: flash grenades. Tier take us through that, Todd, because I
12:30
Speaker 1: know a lot of people talked about did the police overact?
12:34
Speaker 1: What was really going on? How did it get out
12:37
Speaker 1: of control? Why don't you walk us through what happened?
12:40
Speaker 1: That started peaceful and then look what happened.
12:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll even take you back a few days prior
12:46
Speaker 2: to that, when the incident went George Floyd occurred. I
12:52
Speaker 2: was privy to the video very soon, I would say
12:57
Speaker 2: really soon before actually what public we can and a
13:00
Speaker 2: major city chiefs got a little glimpse of that, and
13:04
Speaker 2: we we were of the opinion this was going to
13:06
Speaker 2: be bad. And it's you know, it's tough to watch
13:11
Speaker 2: a long clip like that with somebody pleading, pleading in
13:14
Speaker 2: the way mister Floyd was doing. So we we had
13:16
Speaker 2: a suspicion that it was going to be bad, and
13:18
Speaker 2: so I tried to get out in front of it
13:20
Speaker 2: locally here and if doing a few statements, few media releases,
13:25
Speaker 2: you know, denouncing what took place. But we were also
13:30
Speaker 2: on guard. We knew that, you know, Omaha is a
13:34
Speaker 2: major city, and if there's a party, if there's a
13:37
Speaker 2: new drug, if there's a new thing going on, Omaha,
13:39
Speaker 2: we'll get to that party, oftentimes with the last to
13:41
Speaker 2: get there, but we always get there. And I started
13:44
Speaker 2: noticing some civil unrest throughout the country, and here we go.
13:50
Speaker 2: Omaha had a large scale protest.
13:52
Speaker 1: As a result of George Floyd as.
13:54
Speaker 2: A resort to George Floyd solely, and I was concerned
13:57
Speaker 2: about it, but not super We were super concerned because
14:01
Speaker 2: we've always had protests, and what was concerning to me
14:06
Speaker 2: was it was intertwined with COVID, So I thought, well,
14:08
Speaker 2: that's very possible. This is a perfect storm. But we
14:11
Speaker 2: do have good police community relations. We had good channels
14:14
Speaker 2: going with our community staying on top of this. And
14:18
Speaker 2: I remember getting a call from my commanders and I
14:21
Speaker 2: decided to go down and check for myself. And as
14:24
Speaker 2: I you know, crested the hell and could see seventy
14:27
Speaker 2: second Street, I could see thousands of protesters and I
14:31
Speaker 2: could see that it was starting to get unruly already
14:34
Speaker 2: at that early morning and of Friday. Went to the
14:37
Speaker 2: command post to start monitoring what was going on.
14:40
Speaker 1: And we set up a command post down there in
14:42
Speaker 1: the garage, in that big parking garage. Yeah, and we're
14:44
Speaker 1: talking crossroads.
14:45
Speaker 2: Right, and we had command posts going down there. We
14:49
Speaker 2: had a lot of officers, we had we were prepared. However,
14:54
Speaker 2: you're talking thousands, thousands of people, and anytime you have
14:57
Speaker 2: such a heated subject that directed at the police and
15:02
Speaker 2: holds a whole new dynamic. We do protest enforcement and
15:06
Speaker 2: freedom of speech protests all the time.
15:09
Speaker 1: We're trained to do that.
15:10
Speaker 2: Absolutely, we're trained to do it where they're doing sure
15:12
Speaker 2: their First Amendment rights, make sure things are safe. But
15:15
Speaker 2: the nexus behind this one, it was completely directed at
15:19
Speaker 2: law enforcements. So the om all police officers were catching
15:21
Speaker 2: the brunt of the crowd. Even though we didn't have
15:24
Speaker 2: anything to do with the situation in Minneapolis and also
15:27
Speaker 2: understood why everybody was upset.
15:30
Speaker 1: It did seem like that there was clearly a group
15:33
Speaker 1: of young, mostly white protesters that had the intent on
15:38
Speaker 1: instigating conflict with the police. It appeared to be that
15:41
Speaker 1: way early on, which became a huge safety concern.
15:44
Speaker 2: Well, it did, because when you have thousands of people,
15:47
Speaker 2: not all of them or are there to throw rocks
15:49
Speaker 2: eight at the police, but it only takes twenty to
15:51
Speaker 2: thirty that can hide in anonymity into that crowd and
15:55
Speaker 2: start hurling objects at the police and start inciting that problem.
15:59
Speaker 2: And then some of the organizers weren't the best at
16:01
Speaker 2: what they were doing as far as controlling the situation
16:04
Speaker 2: and getting in set in a tone, and so we
16:07
Speaker 2: had to spend a lot of time working with them
16:09
Speaker 2: after that first night. But it got to be very unruly.
16:13
Speaker 1: And were blocking traffic.
16:15
Speaker 2: They were blocking traffic, They took over the entire intersection
16:18
Speaker 2: and they and they did start throwing objects at the police.
16:20
Speaker 2: It became it became a dangerous situation and it was
16:24
Speaker 2: a very very long night for the Omawhall Police Department.
16:27
Speaker 2: But we did eventually get it under control. And so
16:32
Speaker 2: I knew the next day it was going to go
16:33
Speaker 2: either one way or the other. It was either going
16:36
Speaker 2: to be Okay, we we've kind of had our night
16:40
Speaker 2: and it'll be over, or it's going to get really bad.
16:44
Speaker 2: And then the next day occurred, and that would be Saturday,
16:47
Speaker 2: and I'll say Saturday, it was probably the longest night
16:50
Speaker 2: in Omaha in the longest time.
16:52
Speaker 1: And I remember that you and I were on the
16:54
Speaker 1: phone constantly. But when we talked back up to seventy
16:58
Speaker 1: second Dodge on Friday evening too, the protesters were feeling
17:02
Speaker 1: like they were standing the ground, but they started hurt.
17:05
Speaker 1: I mean, there were taunts to the police. There were
17:07
Speaker 1: plastic water bottles being thrown, some filled with urine, there
17:11
Speaker 1: were rocks being thrown. Let's let's let's back up just
17:15
Speaker 1: a little bit. Because the riot gear was deployed, and
17:20
Speaker 1: a lot of people questioned that because they said with that,
17:24
Speaker 1: was that an overreaction for the police are not because
17:28
Speaker 1: I think anytime riot gear is deployed, it escalates the situation.
17:34
Speaker 1: Especially those that are anti police talk about that decision
17:37
Speaker 1: to deploy the riot gear that night.
17:40
Speaker 2: Well, for one, you know, I want my officers to
17:42
Speaker 2: be safe. They're going to be subjected to rocks and
17:45
Speaker 2: hurled things out. You want them to have the appropriate
17:47
Speaker 2: equipment in order to protect themselves, the helmet and the
17:50
Speaker 2: gear and all of that. I think that that at
17:53
Speaker 2: the very fundamental level, that's it. But it also allows
17:57
Speaker 2: them the ability to move a crowd if we need
17:59
Speaker 2: to say, well, let's say somebody gets hurt or a
18:02
Speaker 2: fight breaks out in that crowd, we just can't be bystanders.
18:05
Speaker 2: We have to go into that crowd. We have to
18:07
Speaker 2: rescue somebody. At times. Sometimes we have to go into
18:09
Speaker 2: that crowd to make a rest. Yes, so that appropriate
18:11
Speaker 2: equipment is needed in order to do that. Now, understand
18:15
Speaker 2: that there were some agitators in the in that mix, clearly, clearly,
18:20
Speaker 2: and you know their whole goal was to agitate us
18:25
Speaker 2: and then to say we overreact, right, I mean, that
18:28
Speaker 2: was that was a doctrine that was going on across
18:32
Speaker 2: the country, and that was the game plan.
18:34
Speaker 1: It's kind of like when you ask why why did
18:36
Speaker 1: it become violent? It was like who lit the fuse?
18:39
Speaker 1: And as you brought up earlier, there were thousands and
18:42
Speaker 1: thousands of people in there. They were surrounding cars, They
18:45
Speaker 1: took up the whole intersection, They surrounded a cruiser, and
18:49
Speaker 1: that that became a very very dangerous situation.
18:52
Speaker 2: It did. They They they swarmed the intersection, swarmed the
18:56
Speaker 2: police cruiser. And you know, now, now we're in a
19:00
Speaker 2: situation where where it's it's no longer safe for law enforcement.
19:03
Speaker 2: If it's not safe for law enforcement, who's going to
19:05
Speaker 2: be safe in that area? So I had the secondary
19:08
Speaker 2: concern of will they go into the target because they
19:11
Speaker 2: start breaking out some windows there as well, Will they
19:14
Speaker 2: go into the neighborhood, start breaking into homes? Will they
19:16
Speaker 2: start damaging property? All these things that we weren't going
19:19
Speaker 2: to allow in the city of Omaha. And are we
19:23
Speaker 2: still talking about Friday? Are we going to move into
19:25
Speaker 2: Saturday the next time?
19:26
Speaker 3: Well?
19:26
Speaker 1: I just wanted to make sure that people understood though
19:29
Speaker 1: on Friday, we not only reviewed after this whole incident,
19:33
Speaker 1: which we'll get to, there was a lot of videos
19:37
Speaker 1: taken with cameras, but you also had able one up
19:40
Speaker 1: in the air and it was giving you live feed.
19:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, we had a live feed. I had a pretty
19:46
Speaker 2: good vantage point of the of the command and control
19:50
Speaker 2: and we could see from the helicopter what what actually
19:53
Speaker 2: was going on, and we could see we could see
19:57
Speaker 2: the chaos quite frankly, and the o Mah Police Department
20:01
Speaker 2: showed show really good restraint in my opinion, on every
20:05
Speaker 2: night that we had had the protest. But we do
20:08
Speaker 2: have to take action. We are law enforcement, we are
20:10
Speaker 2: commissioned to protect the public and property. And so at
20:14
Speaker 2: some point when all the cruisers, when a few cruisers
20:16
Speaker 2: started getting swarmed, when things started again thrown, we did
20:20
Speaker 2: have to try to shut this down. So and we did,
20:23
Speaker 2: and it took hours, hours and hours next night.
20:29
Speaker 1: And I will I must have to add though, police
20:31
Speaker 1: they have to walk this fine line ensuring that their
20:35
Speaker 1: response is proportional to the actions and mood of the
20:38
Speaker 1: crowd and while at the same time protecting the officer.
20:42
Speaker 1: They have to protect the public, and they have to
20:44
Speaker 1: protect property, and they have to protect First Amendment rights.
20:47
Speaker 1: So you have all of this stuff going on in
20:49
Speaker 1: these officers mind about their best practices for policing protests.
20:56
Speaker 2: Right, and realize this too. The command and control of
20:59
Speaker 2: that is going to involves several agencies because we we
21:03
Speaker 2: were fortunate to have a strong working relationship with our
21:06
Speaker 2: surrounding agencies, Papilion, SRP, Douglas County State Patrol, they were
21:10
Speaker 2: all there, all their assistant us. So the command of
21:12
Speaker 2: control spanned all of these agencies. And you know that's
21:17
Speaker 2: to manage the first night of a couple thousand people.
21:21
Speaker 1: Well, you know you can have thousands of protesters and
21:24
Speaker 1: two jerks in the crowd and that could start the
21:27
Speaker 1: whole thing.
21:28
Speaker 2: Well, it absolutely can, And that crowd provides anonymity and
21:32
Speaker 2: you can have a small group of agitators really get
21:36
Speaker 2: the crowd going. You know, it's hard to sit here
21:39
Speaker 2: in a studio and even as chief, even though I
21:41
Speaker 2: was at the scene, I was still at a command post.
21:44
Speaker 2: But if you're right down there on the line and
21:46
Speaker 2: you're holding the line and you're getting spit at and
21:48
Speaker 2: you're agating, urine dumped on you, and you're getting cursed
21:51
Speaker 2: out and told what's going to happen to you and
21:53
Speaker 2: your family and the most vile things that are said, Yes,
21:58
Speaker 2: it's impressive to see professtional police officers tune that out
22:01
Speaker 2: and do their job. And that's what Omaha Police and
22:03
Speaker 2: our surrounding jurisdictions did.
22:06
Speaker 1: Let's move on to the next night. This was May
22:09
Speaker 1: twenty ninth, Friday, May twenty ninth. Let's move on to Saturday,
22:12
Speaker 1: May thirtieth, because you had it in your mind. This
22:15
Speaker 1: isn't the end of it, because particularly what was going
22:17
Speaker 1: on all over the country, and you knew there was
22:20
Speaker 1: a lot of people angry about Friday night. Will you
22:23
Speaker 1: stay with us after the commercial and let's talk about
22:25
Speaker 1: Saturday night.
22:26
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's do it.
22:26
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, I have Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmater
22:30
Speaker 1: with us today. We are talking about the events at
22:33
Speaker 1: seventy second in Dodge on May twenty ninth and twenty
22:36
Speaker 1: twenty and Todd, we talked about the whole evening. Now
22:39
Speaker 1: we're going to move on to Saturday night. But at
22:41
Speaker 1: the same time, we were hit with COVID and boy
22:44
Speaker 1: did we have some challenges in Omaha. But let's move
22:47
Speaker 1: on to the next night. That would be May thirtieth,
22:49
Speaker 1: twenty twenty six, and the protest moved downtown.
22:54
Speaker 2: It did and by the way, COVID, you know, helped
22:56
Speaker 2: contribute to the perfect storm. Yes, you know, people had
23:00
Speaker 2: had nothing to do and a lot of vent up,
23:03
Speaker 2: pent up anger, and this was a medium in which
23:06
Speaker 2: they could get it out. But moving to that next night,
23:09
Speaker 2: that Saturday night, you know, that actually started at seventy
23:12
Speaker 2: second in Dodge and it swelled to triple the size
23:17
Speaker 2: of crowds that we had the Friday night, and that
23:20
Speaker 2: started getting started to get unruly. The intersection started to
23:23
Speaker 2: take over, and of course we were, you know, doubly
23:26
Speaker 2: prepared that night with personnel. At this point, we had
23:29
Speaker 2: already moved to twelve hour shifts, so every every officer.
23:32
Speaker 1: In the department had all hands were on deck.
23:34
Speaker 2: All hands were on deck, so we were there and
23:37
Speaker 2: just get a financial perspective on it, to give it
23:39
Speaker 2: some scale. We spent two million dollars overtime during these
23:43
Speaker 2: few days. And so that it got unruly again at
23:46
Speaker 2: seventy second in Dodge, And what really caused us a
23:49
Speaker 2: lot of issues is it became mobile. The protest moved
23:53
Speaker 2: to the downtown area with a lot of property damage,
23:57
Speaker 2: a lot of break into windows, or at least the
24:00
Speaker 2: attempting of it. And we were down there to try
24:02
Speaker 2: to prevent it, and we did an incredible job. Omaha
24:04
Speaker 2: came out of this a lot better than other cities
24:07
Speaker 2: because we weren't going to allow our city to be
24:09
Speaker 2: you know, torn down and the old market area torn down.
24:11
Speaker 1: And you and I talked about that. We said, this
24:13
Speaker 1: is not going to happen in Omaha.
24:15
Speaker 2: No, we we have to draw a line. You have
24:17
Speaker 2: to have boundaries, and those were That was one of
24:20
Speaker 2: the boundaries that we put down a lot of the
24:23
Speaker 2: businesses at that point had already boarded up their windows.
24:26
Speaker 2: They were anticipating problems as well.
24:29
Speaker 1: And we have to remember that there's a lot of
24:31
Speaker 1: residents downtown too that were petrified.
24:33
Speaker 2: There is well, the whole city was. The whole city
24:36
Speaker 2: was on edge on this at this point. I mean
24:38
Speaker 2: all they all they you know, everybody was indoors because
24:40
Speaker 2: of COVID and they were watching what was unfolding, or
24:43
Speaker 2: they were going down for the protests themselves to see
24:46
Speaker 2: what was going on. So as that went downtown, I
24:49
Speaker 2: remember sitting in the command post and it was you know,
24:52
Speaker 2: I'm getting reports, I'm seeing the news broadcast. At that point,
24:56
Speaker 2: I would watch the news to see what they were
24:58
Speaker 2: reporting on. I'd watch our life. I was trying to
25:01
Speaker 2: stay up on everything, and I'll never forget it. When
25:04
Speaker 2: the call came out of a shooting in the Old Market,
25:10
Speaker 2: I got briefed on it very soon after, maybe twenty
25:12
Speaker 2: minutes later, that there was there was individual dead and.
25:16
Speaker 1: That happened around eleven pm.
25:18
Speaker 2: It happened around eleven PM, and there was a bar
25:22
Speaker 2: owner involved, a white, white bar owner named Gardner, and
25:25
Speaker 2: then mister Spurlock was killed in that encounter.
25:28
Speaker 1: And James Scurlock was a twenty two year old African
25:31
Speaker 1: American protester, James Sklo Skirlock, and he was fatally shot
25:35
Speaker 1: by Jake Gardner yep.
25:37
Speaker 2: And I knew. I knew instantly this was going to
25:39
Speaker 2: be very representative of problems in the country. You have,
25:43
Speaker 2: you had a white bar owner and then you had
25:46
Speaker 2: a black male that is deceased in this encounter, and
25:49
Speaker 2: then it really encompassed everything divisive in our country at
25:55
Speaker 2: that time. And I knew it. I knew it twenty
25:57
Speaker 2: minutes after that shooting had occurred, that the that was
26:00
Speaker 2: going to be an issue in Omaha and probably nationwide
26:05
Speaker 2: and a very sad ending to all of that, and
26:08
Speaker 2: I think it still leaves a lot of scars on
26:10
Speaker 2: the city of Almost.
26:11
Speaker 1: It absolutely does. And when that shooting happened, you knew
26:14
Speaker 1: then it was going to escalate.
26:16
Speaker 2: I did. And then at that point the crowd was very,
26:20
Speaker 2: very unruly. We deployed a lot of chemical monitions at
26:23
Speaker 2: that point to try to stave the crowd off. I
26:28
Speaker 2: remember going down there with the fire chief Dan Olsen.
26:31
Speaker 2: We even got caught up in the crowd.
26:34
Speaker 1: And by the way, O F. D and Dan Olsen
26:37
Speaker 1: did a great job too.
26:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, they did great partners of ours. And so that
26:41
Speaker 2: we It was a super long night. It probably went
26:44
Speaker 2: till three in the morning.
26:46
Speaker 1: So pepper balls were used, everything, everything was used to
26:48
Speaker 1: try to calm down the crowd. I have to bring
26:51
Speaker 1: in one little story real quickly and then I'll let
26:53
Speaker 1: you continue. But one of the organizers insisted on meeting
26:57
Speaker 1: with me a few days after the event, came in
27:00
Speaker 1: to my office and was showing me on videos on
27:03
Speaker 1: her cell phone about trying to prove to me that
27:05
Speaker 1: the police were overreacting, and she was showing the police,
27:09
Speaker 1: in my opinion, my analysis of that interview, yelling commands
27:16
Speaker 1: of course, it was a very tense situation. But I
27:18
Speaker 1: heard this female voice just screaming and yelling obscenities and
27:22
Speaker 1: threats to the police over and over and over on
27:25
Speaker 1: her cell phone, and I said, good lord, who was that?
27:29
Speaker 1: That would have been terrible and she said, oh, that
27:31
Speaker 1: was me, And I thought, what in your showing me this?
27:35
Speaker 1: And this is what was going on down there? It
27:37
Speaker 1: was everybody needs to realize how tense this was. There
27:41
Speaker 1: was spitting at police, there was plastic models filled with urine,
27:45
Speaker 1: there were taunts. It was a bad, dangerous situation.
27:49
Speaker 2: It was a dangerous situation and we became People don't realize,
27:54
Speaker 2: but we came very close to losing our central police
27:56
Speaker 2: headquarters that night. There was molotov cocktail, a few other things,
28:01
Speaker 2: and then a large group of protesters attempted to storm
28:04
Speaker 2: the front of it, and some commanders had put together
28:09
Speaker 2: a group of react officers and were able to stave
28:12
Speaker 2: that off or we would have lost Central Police Headquarters,
28:15
Speaker 2: which would have which would have been a complete communications
28:19
Speaker 2: disaster at that point. So they home all police stepped
28:23
Speaker 2: up on there, and then the courthouse area was a
28:25
Speaker 2: target and we were able to prevent the courthouse from
28:28
Speaker 2: being being overtaken. This is all in the cover of
28:31
Speaker 2: darkness at night, and unlike what.
28:34
Speaker 1: Happened in Lincoln Lincoln, Lincoln suffered a little more damage.
28:37
Speaker 2: They had a lot more property damage in Lincoln, for sure.
28:40
Speaker 2: And I remember when that night was over, I placed
28:43
Speaker 2: a call. I said, look, our intel is shown us
28:46
Speaker 2: that this is going to be just as bad, if
28:49
Speaker 2: not worse. The next day, this group is going mobile.
28:56
Speaker 2: We knew that the scope of this was to the
28:59
Speaker 2: point where it became out of the control of local
29:04
Speaker 2: law enforcement, and that's when I made it. Was a
29:06
Speaker 2: very hard decision. I was dejected to have to make it,
29:09
Speaker 2: but for the betterment of the city and the betterment
29:11
Speaker 2: of my officers, I asked for the Nebraska the National
29:15
Speaker 2: Guard to come in.
29:16
Speaker 1: And just to let our listeners know that only the
29:18
Speaker 1: governor can deploy the National Guard, so you talk to me.
29:22
Speaker 1: We made that decision, contacted the governor on the third day,
29:26
Speaker 1: which was May thirty. First, we had the National Guard
29:29
Speaker 1: presence by the afternoon. And another thing that I did
29:33
Speaker 1: that was very unusual is imposed a curfew, and we
29:37
Speaker 1: had not done that in many, many years. But the
29:39
Speaker 1: mayor is able in an emergency situation to impose a
29:43
Speaker 1: curfew for four days without city council approval. So after
29:48
Speaker 1: we talked about it, that's what we did too.
29:51
Speaker 2: We did. And also, you know the curfew was needed.
29:54
Speaker 2: When you bring in the National Guard without a curfew,
29:56
Speaker 2: I mean, that's sort of counterintuitive. So we had the
29:59
Speaker 2: curfew and place, and the one thing I'll say about
30:01
Speaker 2: the curfew is we delayed the start of that first
30:04
Speaker 2: night curfew so that some members of our community, members
30:09
Speaker 2: of our African American community, could hold a rally, could
30:11
Speaker 2: hold a protest and have their voices heard, because the
30:14
Speaker 2: real voices that I wanted to hear was from our
30:18
Speaker 2: African American community, and they weren't really part of this,
30:21
Speaker 2: this protest and the civil unrest. And so we delayed
30:26
Speaker 2: the curfew so that the Malcolm Elks Foundation could hold
30:31
Speaker 2: their rally, and they probably had a rally of a
30:33
Speaker 2: thousand people, no problems at all. I remember that, and
30:36
Speaker 2: I knew it would be no problems because I know
30:39
Speaker 2: what type of a respect that they have.
30:42
Speaker 1: And so I know, though you and I have talked
30:45
Speaker 1: about it, excuse me, but we had two days of
30:47
Speaker 1: civil unrest, two days of sale of civil unrest in
30:50
Speaker 1: Omaha though, civil disobedience, criminal behavior, and we both felt
30:53
Speaker 1: like it was going to take extraordinary measures to get
30:56
Speaker 1: out of it, right.
30:58
Speaker 2: And with the National Guard coming in, you know, I
31:01
Speaker 2: think just the presence of them and then the knowledge
31:04
Speaker 2: that they were going to be there really scaled down.
31:07
Speaker 2: That third night, we didn't have a whole lot of
31:09
Speaker 2: problems that we couldn't control, So I think just the
31:12
Speaker 2: reputation of the fact that the National Guard was there
31:15
Speaker 2: really helped. And I think they were in our city
31:17
Speaker 2: for three or four days, and curfew went on for
31:22
Speaker 2: two days, and then I think the third night it was.
31:24
Speaker 1: Lifted and you know, they were walking up and down
31:27
Speaker 1: the streets or walking around the police headquarters. Their weapons
31:30
Speaker 1: were out, but you know, they didn't inflame anything. In fact,
31:34
Speaker 1: I remember stories of them handing water bottles out to
31:37
Speaker 1: people and talking to people, and I think people looked
31:40
Speaker 1: at their presence as being something pretty comforting.
31:44
Speaker 2: Yeah, And that was coordination between the National Guard commanders
31:48
Speaker 2: and the Omaha police commanders. What my direction was is, look,
31:52
Speaker 2: I want you there as a presence. I don't want
31:54
Speaker 2: the National Guard taking heavy enforcement action on our cities.
31:58
Speaker 2: I wanted if an arrest was made, I wanted to
32:00
Speaker 2: be done by o Mall Police, but I wanted them
32:03
Speaker 2: on the perimeter, on the backup, peripheral role, and I
32:08
Speaker 2: wanted that to be done because the last thing I
32:09
Speaker 2: wanted was the National Guard you know, taken aggressive action
32:16
Speaker 2: maybe because they had to against our some of our citizens.
32:20
Speaker 2: And so we had that very very coordinated. If you notice,
32:23
Speaker 2: when we we'd have syners where we had sit ins
32:26
Speaker 2: and we'd have time frames that hey, this this ends,
32:29
Speaker 2: the curfee is over a lot of times you'd have
32:31
Speaker 2: a twenty or thirty people we would have to arrest
32:34
Speaker 2: because they didn't want to go. And I made sure
32:37
Speaker 2: that the o MA All Police Department was the ones
32:39
Speaker 2: doing those arrests. We're the ones who are trained in
32:41
Speaker 2: and every single day. So the National Guard really provorted
32:43
Speaker 2: just a exterior backup role for us and a lot
32:46
Speaker 2: of you know, just the nature of them being their
32:50
Speaker 2: help things out. So I just want to make sure
32:51
Speaker 2: that's clear.
32:52
Speaker 1: And also, you know, after this whole event, we had videos,
32:56
Speaker 1: we had videos from able one. You did a complete
32:59
Speaker 1: review of the entire situation, came out with the report.
33:04
Speaker 1: But just tell us a little bit about what we
33:07
Speaker 1: learned with that. I know there was a big issue
33:10
Speaker 1: about back to seventy second Dodge on Friday night, about communication.
33:15
Speaker 1: Did the crowd hear and understand what the police commands
33:18
Speaker 1: were right?
33:20
Speaker 2: Probably the biggest. I mean, the analysis we did was
33:23
Speaker 2: one hundred pages long, and we ended up doing a
33:24
Speaker 2: press conference on the analysis as well, because we felt
33:28
Speaker 2: that the community needed to know what went right and
33:30
Speaker 2: what went wrong. And even though I thought it went well,
33:33
Speaker 2: there was things that could have been done better in
33:35
Speaker 2: the future. And the biggest thing that we had is
33:39
Speaker 2: our communication equipment. Our loud speakers and things that we
33:44
Speaker 2: used weren't good enough when they were very good for
33:48
Speaker 2: a crowd of fifty, decent for a crowd of one hundred,
33:52
Speaker 2: ineffective for a crowd of one thousand and above. And
33:55
Speaker 2: so one of the first things that we did coming
33:58
Speaker 2: out of this is purchased a high decipal, high frequency
34:04
Speaker 2: loudspeaker now and it's in place. We've got a few
34:06
Speaker 2: of them. If we ever have crowds of a thousand
34:10
Speaker 2: again like that, they're going to hear everything that we
34:11
Speaker 2: say and when the crowd starts running, whether you're part
34:15
Speaker 2: of the civil unrest or not. You got to run too,
34:19
Speaker 2: that's right. And there's so many people down there just
34:21
Speaker 2: wanted to be a part of a protest situation that
34:23
Speaker 2: they felt was bad in this country and that needed
34:25
Speaker 2: to be addressed. And really the om All Police Department's
34:28
Speaker 2: there to protect them as well, not just property, not
34:31
Speaker 2: just innocent people that aren't there, but those innocent people
34:35
Speaker 2: that are down there just doing their First Amendment right.
34:37
Speaker 2: And so we couldn't effectively do that with our communications equipment,
34:41
Speaker 2: so I would say, and I agree with you that
34:43
Speaker 2: that was our biggest fix.
34:46
Speaker 1: And you know it didn't end there though, just because
34:50
Speaker 1: of the Skurlock incident, and just to remind people that
34:54
Speaker 1: the Douglas County Attorney concluded that the shooting was in
34:57
Speaker 1: self defense. That caused a lot more anger in the community.
35:02
Speaker 1: Then they went to the grand jury. Then there was
35:05
Speaker 1: some criminal charges against Jake Gardner, and unfortunately his life
35:10
Speaker 1: ended in suicide. So it was just the whole event
35:14
Speaker 1: was pretty devastating, but we came out of it, as
35:18
Speaker 1: you said, much better than most American cities because there
35:22
Speaker 1: was protest all over the country and as Omaha as well,
35:27
Speaker 1: and as you mentioned, COVID hit at the same time
35:30
Speaker 1: in the summer at twenty twenty. And let's talk just
35:33
Speaker 1: briefly about this was the start of the staffing issues
35:38
Speaker 1: that Omaha Police had with our police department, and they
35:41
Speaker 1: had all over the country. The staffing people that wanted
35:44
Speaker 1: to go into law enforcement said hey, I don't want
35:47
Speaker 1: any more of this.
35:48
Speaker 2: Yeah. It did two things. It started staffing issues for
35:50
Speaker 2: major city police departments all across this country, and it
35:53
Speaker 2: started an increase in crime. Crime spiked up because of
35:57
Speaker 2: twenty twenty. And just the first piece is the staffing.
36:01
Speaker 2: You know, at one point o Mall Police were authorized
36:04
Speaker 2: to have a nine hunderd and six officers. At one
36:06
Speaker 2: point we got pretty close to seven fifty.
36:09
Speaker 1: Which we didn't like.
36:11
Speaker 2: We did not like that. In comparison, I'll just say
36:15
Speaker 2: in comparison, city of Minneapolis as nine hundred and eight
36:18
Speaker 2: authorized officers and at this point in time they only
36:21
Speaker 2: have about six hundred and fifty.
36:22
Speaker 1: Unbelievable.
36:23
Speaker 2: And so we still came out of that better. But boy,
36:26
Speaker 2: that caused a lot of issues. I will tell you this.
36:28
Speaker 2: We're going to start a recruit class here at the
36:30
Speaker 2: end of June. They're going to have forty officers there.
36:33
Speaker 2: We anticipate another large one of about fifty in January.
36:36
Speaker 2: That's going to put us pretty darn close to where
36:38
Speaker 2: we need to be. So we have got ourselves. Yeah,
36:41
Speaker 2: it really is good news. We've worked hard and we're
36:46
Speaker 2: we're coming out of this staffing issue. I see the
36:48
Speaker 2: light now.
36:49
Speaker 1: And we did a lot of initiatives when I was
36:51
Speaker 1: still mayor, a lot of things we agreed on, the
36:53
Speaker 1: year round applications, the raise his salary up significantly. There
36:59
Speaker 1: were all a lot of things that the police the
37:02
Speaker 1: union wanted, that we wanted that we got, We got
37:05
Speaker 1: going and hopefully this is showing that these things are
37:08
Speaker 1: working now and that our numbers will go back up.
37:11
Speaker 1: But the one thing I really want to end with,
37:13
Speaker 1: and I could keep you on for another hour, but
37:16
Speaker 1: Peyton is looking at me with a stink eye over there,
37:19
Speaker 1: so we're going to have to cut this off. But
37:22
Speaker 1: you know, the thing of it is is that even
37:25
Speaker 1: though we have been approximately down between ninety and one
37:29
Speaker 1: hundred officers since that happened in the twenty twenty Omaha,
37:34
Speaker 1: every year has gotten safer and safer, and that is
37:37
Speaker 1: something I know. Our officers are working their buns off
37:40
Speaker 1: out there, and they're working really really hard, and we
37:43
Speaker 1: need to get it back up to that authorized budgeted
37:46
Speaker 1: strength of nine oh six. But at the same time,
37:49
Speaker 1: officers down about one hundred and look at the safety
37:52
Speaker 1: of the city of Omaha. You guys have done a
37:54
Speaker 1: great job.
37:55
Speaker 2: Well thank you. You know. I remember when we got
37:57
Speaker 2: when we've got those low staff ins, you're pro already
38:00
Speaker 2: was like, Chief, get the staffing up, and of course
38:02
Speaker 2: it was easy for me to agree because that was
38:04
Speaker 2: my priority as well. And then everything's a progression. You know.
38:08
Speaker 2: Then when may Or you and took over, he really
38:09
Speaker 2: doubled down. He said we're gonna get chief and he
38:12
Speaker 2: came up with some plans too, So we're really sitting there.
38:16
Speaker 2: I like the trajectory of that at this point. The
38:19
Speaker 2: one thing I'll say, prior to twenty twenty, do you
38:21
Speaker 2: know we were on forty year lows of crime. Yes, seventeen,
38:25
Speaker 2: eighteen and nineteen, we're our lowest forty forty years of
38:28
Speaker 2: crime in Omaha. The violence had really decreased and then
38:31
Speaker 2: it spiked up again. So now we you know, had
38:34
Speaker 2: to redouble our efforts and try to bring that down.
38:36
Speaker 2: And then every year we brought it down and here
38:37
Speaker 2: we are now in twenty twenty six with our greatest
38:40
Speaker 2: year we've had on record for a long time. Crime
38:44
Speaker 2: is super low. And I'll say this as a caveat Geane.
38:48
Speaker 2: You know, Omaha's a big city. Things are gonna happen.
38:50
Speaker 1: Right under five hundred downs.
38:52
Speaker 2: Yeah, you're in a city. You're gonna have some notable crimes.
38:55
Speaker 2: But when that occurs, understand that it occurs within an
38:58
Speaker 2: ecosystem of much lower baseline crime than we've ever had.
39:02
Speaker 1: And Chief Todd Schmater is here with us. Peyton says,
39:05
Speaker 1: we have to break right now. We could have you
39:07
Speaker 1: on for a lot longer, but I just have to
39:09
Speaker 1: ask you, is it kind of weird talking to me
39:11
Speaker 1: in a radio studio with me being a radio host?
39:15
Speaker 2: It is? It's odd. Sure, I didn't see this progression occur.
39:21
Speaker 1: It's so much fun, and you know, I love coming
39:23
Speaker 1: in here every day. Except Chris Baker in the afternoon.
39:25
Speaker 1: You know, can't you arrest him or do something keep
39:28
Speaker 1: him out of this studio. Now, he's a great guy,
39:31
Speaker 1: but he makes fun of me all the time. But
39:33
Speaker 1: I have a good time.
39:34
Speaker 2: By the way, I love the facial expression communication. Peyton
39:36
Speaker 2: does give you.
39:37
Speaker 1: Yes he does, and he lets me know when it's
39:39
Speaker 1: time to break. Chief Todd Schmater, Omaha Chief. We've worked
39:43
Speaker 1: together for about sixteen years, So glad to have you
39:46
Speaker 1: on the show and continue your great work with the
39:49
Speaker 1: Omaha Police Department. Proud of every one of them, Proud
39:51
Speaker 1: of you too.
39:52
Speaker 2: All I do. I want to thank Gene. I want
39:54
Speaker 2: to thank you personally. I want to thank kfab and
39:56
Speaker 2: I want to thank all the listeners and all the
39:57
Speaker 2: city of Omaha. You's been great to me. Thank you
39:59
Speaker 2: very much.
40:00
Speaker 3: You bet Jeene Stouther. You have about one minute to
40:03
Speaker 3: wrap Afiation show. No boy, he's keeping me on the
40:05
Speaker 3: line today. But again, I wanted to thank Chief Todd Schmoter.
40:08
Speaker 3: We will work together for at least sixteen years. He
40:11
Speaker 3: has a great media presence. You know, when we used
40:13
Speaker 3: to do press conferences together all the time, the reporters
40:17
Speaker 3: would say I want to talk to the chief, and
40:19
Speaker 3: I'd say, hey, I'm the mayor, and they go, yeah,
40:20
Speaker 3: well whatever, we want to talk whatever, We're back, Jean,
40:25
Speaker 3: I want to talk to Chief Schmater.
40:26
Speaker 1: Great guy, does a great job. Omaha Police Department very
40:29
Speaker 1: proud of all of you. Jack Dezing, president of the
40:32
Speaker 1: College World Series, will be on tomorrow. We're going to
40:34
Speaker 1: switch gears and we're going to talk about the College
40:37
Speaker 1: World Series. If you have comments and questions about Todd's
40:40
Speaker 1: interview today, please call us and let us know. We'll
40:43
Speaker 1: talk about that tomorrow, and thanks for spending this hour
40:46
Speaker 1: with us, Thanks for listening. I am Geene Stothard and
40:49
Speaker 1: this is eleven ten kfab