Latest / The KFAB Comment Line with Jean Stothert / Sheriff Aaron Hanson on Shock Gloves
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: I am your host. Jeens do there, Peyton high Lock,
- 0:02Speaker 1: my producer is here. Good morning Peyton, Good morning to Eugene.
- 0:06Speaker 2: Thank you and we are guaranteed human one hundred percent
- 0:10Speaker 2: of the time. Yes, we are.
- 0:12Speaker 1: Thank you all for being with us today. We want
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- 0:22Speaker 1: the world, potholes, streetcar, you name it, we'll talk about it.
- 0:26Speaker 1: And we will have plenty of good guests and of
- 0:29Speaker 1: course you're going to hear plenty of opinions from me.
- 0:32Speaker 1: But it is your chance to speak up and sound off.
- 0:35Speaker 1: You can send your emails to comment at kfab dot com.
- 0:39Speaker 1: You can call us at four two five five eight
- 0:41Speaker 1: eleven ten, or you can leave us a recorded message
- 0:44Speaker 1: on the talkback mic. We will play it on the
- 0:47Speaker 1: air and we will answer you too. And we are
- 0:50Speaker 1: very happy that you are with us today. I am
- 0:53Speaker 1: very happy to have Sheriff Douglas County Sheriff Aaron Hanson
- 0:56Speaker 1: in the studio with us today. You're kind of around
- 0:59Speaker 1: here a lot, though, see you a lot in this studio.
- 1:01Speaker 3: Yeah, they call me I come when they call it.
- 1:06Speaker 4: I happy to come.
- 1:07Speaker 1: I saw you creeping around in here early. You must
- 1:09Speaker 1: have your own key card to get in now, and
- 1:11Speaker 1: you're like part of the family.
- 1:13Speaker 3: I do not have my own key card, but law
- 1:16Speaker 3: enforcement officers typically find a way to get into building.
- 1:19Speaker 1: I yes, we didn't want to go into that, but yes,
- 1:21Speaker 1: I'm sure you did.
- 1:22Speaker 2: Well.
- 1:23Speaker 1: Thank you for being with us today, and we have
- 1:25Speaker 1: a lot to talk about. But Sheriff Hansen, the topic
- 1:28Speaker 1: of the week is the shock gloves by Compliant Technology.
- 1:34Speaker 1: You know when the story first came out that ops
- 1:39Speaker 1: realized that these shock gloves were being used, and we
- 1:43Speaker 1: have proof now that they did know about it. They
- 1:46Speaker 1: were notified in twenty twenty three. The emails have been
- 1:50Speaker 1: made public now. They were communicating with the safety officers
- 1:54Speaker 1: and our directors in each of the school districts. So
- 1:58Speaker 1: this technology had been talked about for years now and
- 2:01Speaker 1: they were aware of it. Because a lot of the
- 2:04Speaker 1: testifiers at the Oma Public School meeting Wednesday evening.
- 2:07Speaker 2: We're saying we didn't know about it, We didn't know
- 2:09Speaker 2: about it.
- 2:10Speaker 1: And Matt Ray, the principal, our superintendent, said I didn't
- 2:12Speaker 1: know about it, but now we know they were communicated
- 2:15Speaker 1: with on it, but I want to talk to you
- 2:18Speaker 1: about it because I think a lot of people think
- 2:21Speaker 1: that the SROs, which are the school resource officers by
- 2:27Speaker 1: the way, they've been used in our public schools for
- 2:29Speaker 1: over thirty years, but that they are strictly in the
- 2:33Speaker 1: city of Omaha, and they're not. The Douglas County Sheriff's
- 2:36Speaker 1: Department has SROs in some of our West Omaha schools.
- 2:40Speaker 1: Talk about your involvement with the SRO program then, and
- 2:43Speaker 1: then we're going to talk about these gloves.
- 2:45Speaker 4: Sure.
- 2:46Speaker 3: Well, first of all, I want to thank Peyton for
- 2:47Speaker 3: trying out our new shock socks. I know you haven't
- 2:52Speaker 3: been tried yet. I know you're wearing a pair. If
- 2:56Speaker 3: Jeane says something, she gives me the high sign, I'll
- 2:58Speaker 3: push the button there.
- 2:58Speaker 2: Yeah okay, and then Peyton will jump up out of
- 3:02Speaker 2: the chair.
- 3:02Speaker 3: Yeah I'm kidding temporarily, but yeah, you know, we're we're
- 3:05Speaker 3: in a similar situation to OPD. We contract with four
- 3:11Speaker 3: different school districts ops. I'm sorry, not Bennington anymore. Bennington
- 3:16Speaker 3: pds making ops, Millard, DC West, and Elkhorn to provide
- 3:21Speaker 3: school resource officer duties to ten schools in the western
- 3:27Speaker 3: part of the county. We've got eight SROs that cover
- 3:30Speaker 3: those those ten those ten locations and very similar to
- 3:35Speaker 3: to OPD. You know, we were proud of that program.
- 3:39Speaker 3: Got some great dedicated SROs and command team and they
- 3:44Speaker 3: work really well not only to be a protector of
- 3:47Speaker 3: the staff and the students, but you know, to be
- 3:49Speaker 3: a coach and a mentor and a friend to the
- 3:52Speaker 3: students in the building.
- 3:54Speaker 1: And you know, I always thought when even back when
- 3:56Speaker 1: I was on the school board that the relationship these
- 3:59Speaker 1: sr whether they're Douglas County sheriff are omall police that
- 4:03Speaker 1: they create with the students was so positive because the
- 4:06Speaker 1: students look at them as part of the staff. I mean,
- 4:10Speaker 1: they communicate with them, they learn that police officers and
- 4:14Speaker 1: sheriff's deputies they're not scary people.
- 4:16Speaker 2: They're good people. They're normal people, and they're there to
- 4:18Speaker 2: help them.
- 4:19Speaker 4: Yeah, that's right.
- 4:20Speaker 3: I Mean we tell our soros it's like, hey, you're
- 4:23Speaker 3: kind of the police chief or your own small little town, right,
- 4:27Speaker 3: You're like the single officer at a single police chief
- 4:30Speaker 3: ats some small little Nebraska town out in the western
- 4:33Speaker 3: part of the state. Because it's true, they have to
- 4:36Speaker 3: have a relationship with the staff and the kids, and
- 4:38Speaker 3: they are the emissaries of our profession. There's a lot
- 4:42Speaker 3: of kids in these schools that someday might become law
- 4:45Speaker 3: enforcement officers because of the positive interactions they've had.
- 4:49Speaker 4: With our SRO.
- 4:50Speaker 3: They may join our Explorer program because of the positive interactions,
- 4:55Speaker 3: and even more importantly, it may help them deepen their
- 4:59Speaker 3: understanding of why we have law enforcement, how to interact
- 5:03Speaker 3: with law enforcement, and so that I think that's a
- 5:06Speaker 3: positive thing. And ultimately, they are that security. They are
- 5:09Speaker 3: that sheep dog for that flock inside that school in
- 5:13Speaker 3: the event that God forbid the unthinkable word to happen.
- 5:16Speaker 1: Well, you know, I've said this before on the air,
- 5:18Speaker 1: but when we have high schools with two thousand plus
- 5:21Speaker 1: students that to your point you just made, that's the
- 5:25Speaker 1: size of many small cities in Nebraska. A city and
- 5:29Speaker 1: they would have police, and these are like small little cities.
- 5:34Speaker 1: And when you have that many students in a school
- 5:37Speaker 1: day after day after day, you know, someday God forbid.
- 5:41Speaker 1: But somebody, someday, somebody is going to make a bad choice.
- 5:44Speaker 3: And they do, and I mean honestly, And here's here's
- 5:47Speaker 3: the thing we don't when assaults or crimes happen in schools,
- 5:52Speaker 3: and they happen more often than I think that people
- 5:55Speaker 3: would like to think, we don't publicize it, right.
- 5:59Speaker 4: We rarely talk about.
- 6:00Speaker 3: It because we value our relationship with each of the districts.
- 6:04Speaker 3: When one of our SROs is assaulted or there's a
- 6:08Speaker 3: serious crime that occurs, you know, the last thing that
- 6:11Speaker 3: we want to do is, you know, paint with a
- 6:15Speaker 3: broad brush on an entire district of what happens, you know,
- 6:20Speaker 3: the result of what happened with one kid or a
- 6:23Speaker 3: couple kids. But the challenges do happen. And now I'm
- 6:26Speaker 3: starting to question, well, maybe we do need to paint
- 6:29Speaker 3: that picture, and maybe we do need to talk to
- 6:31Speaker 3: the districts because what I saw here recently from the
- 6:36Speaker 3: Omaha Public School School Board, yes, was concerning you know,
- 6:41Speaker 3: when I go to the dentist, the dentist just drills
- 6:45Speaker 3: my teeth or puts a filling in or could they
- 6:47Speaker 3: I don't say, well, you know, drill over here, or
- 6:50Speaker 3: don't you know, put the novacaine shot here. I the
- 6:54Speaker 3: dentist is trained to know their profession, and if I
- 6:57Speaker 3: start dabbling in their profession, bad things are going to
- 7:01Speaker 3: happen to my teeth in my mouth. Absolutely, very similar
- 7:04Speaker 3: thing here in my opinion.
- 7:05Speaker 1: Absolutely, And you know, going back to your officers, and
- 7:09Speaker 1: they are all they are all active deputies of the
- 7:12Speaker 1: Sheriff's Department with OPD. Some of them are active and
- 7:16Speaker 1: some are retirees. And I'll get into that in a
- 7:18Speaker 1: minute because that makes a difference. But you know, there
- 7:21Speaker 1: is no bigger deterrent to I think any kind of
- 7:25Speaker 1: a crime or a bad incident that could happen in
- 7:28Speaker 1: a school, like a school shooting, because they do happen,
- 7:31Speaker 1: and they did happen in Miller several years ago when somebody,
- 7:34Speaker 1: a disgruntled student was suspended, came back in with the gun,
- 7:38Speaker 1: shot the principal and killed the assistant principal. But there's
- 7:41Speaker 1: no bigger deterrent in my estimation than a cruiser parked
- 7:46Speaker 1: in front of a school and the knowledge that there
- 7:48Speaker 1: is an armed officer in that school.
- 7:50Speaker 3: It happens all the time. March of March of this year,
- 7:53Speaker 3: a twelve year old girl was brutally assaulted on a
- 7:55Speaker 3: school bus up in North Omaha by a group of kids.
- 7:58Speaker 3: Her parents were outraged. That made the news that was
- 8:01Speaker 3: pretty well known. August twenty twenty five, there was a cutting,
- 8:04Speaker 3: a stabbing. Two kids were stabbed at Central High School.
- 8:07Speaker 3: September twenty twenty five, a student stabbed a teacher at
- 8:11Speaker 3: Northwest High School. September twenty twenty four, a fourteen year
- 8:14Speaker 3: old shot a fifteen year old on the campus at
- 8:16Speaker 3: Northwest High School. Look, these are real challenges, right, and
- 8:22Speaker 3: so when law enforcement comes to the table and you know,
- 8:26Speaker 3: I know we use the term less lethal tools, I'm
- 8:29Speaker 3: going to start changing that terminology to life saving tools
- 8:34Speaker 3: because in this case, and we don't have the glove
- 8:36Speaker 3: at Douglas County Sheriff's.
- 8:38Speaker 2: Okay, we're going to get to that. You do not
- 8:39Speaker 2: we are not trained, and you do not.
- 8:41Speaker 4: Have We don't have.
- 8:41Speaker 3: It doesn't mean we don't It doesn't mean we're opposed
- 8:44Speaker 3: to it. We just don't have it, right, But I
- 8:46Speaker 3: appreciate the fact the Chief, Smatter and OPD are thoughtful
- 8:51Speaker 3: enough to always look for that next life saving tool,
- 8:55Speaker 3: because again, when you're talking about an individuals, a student
- 9:00Speaker 3: or adult, or someone that's coming onto the school property
- 9:03Speaker 3: who is assaultive or actively resisting, that is not a
- 9:07Speaker 3: scenario for de escalation. De Escalation is to avoid the
- 9:12Speaker 3: violence once you are already past the threshold of violence.
- 9:17Speaker 2: That's where de.
- 9:18Speaker 3: Escalation is, unfortunately, to reoview mirror, and now you have
- 9:22Speaker 3: to utilize either force options or life saving tools to
- 9:26Speaker 3: try to stop that behavior and bring that person into control.
- 9:31Speaker 3: Here's why I always tell people.
- 9:32Speaker 2: That you are highly trained to do.
- 9:34Speaker 3: That exactly in a way that minimizes risk not only
- 9:38Speaker 3: to the people in the area, but to the suspect themselves.
- 9:42Speaker 3: And I often tell people get tired of hearing me
- 9:44Speaker 3: say this at work. When it comes to tough issues,
- 9:48Speaker 3: two things are usually true at the same time. Okay,
- 9:50Speaker 3: so let's look at the issue with the glove or
- 9:53Speaker 3: fill in the blank. On any life saving tool law
- 9:55Speaker 3: enforcement used in the school. It is completely reasonable for
- 9:58Speaker 3: a parent who doesn't know what these tools are, how
- 10:02Speaker 3: they work, or how they're going to be implemented.
- 10:03Speaker 4: To have questions.
- 10:05Speaker 3: Okay, it's completely reasonable for a parent to not want
- 10:09Speaker 3: their kid to be subjected to any use of force police.
- 10:13Speaker 3: That's completely reasonable. But on the other hand, it's also
- 10:17Speaker 3: reasonable and true that law enforcement wants to add as
- 10:20Speaker 3: many life saving tools to the mix as we can
- 10:23Speaker 3: to avoid physical force, to avoid injury. And it's also
- 10:28Speaker 3: true that parents want their good kids in the school
- 10:31Speaker 3: to be protected absolutely from the dangerous kids. Right, So
- 10:36Speaker 3: when you have a scenario, right.
- 10:38Speaker 1: It's a school district's responsibility to do that.
- 10:41Speaker 3: It's a school district's responsibility. But I think it's even
- 10:44Speaker 3: more so it's a school district's responsibility to be the
- 10:47Speaker 3: adult to slow down the conversation and say, you know what,
- 10:53Speaker 3: do think can be true? At the same time, let's
- 10:55Speaker 3: work this problem back to the middle, and let's find
- 10:57Speaker 3: a reasonable solution with all all the facts, not a
- 11:01Speaker 3: politically charged emotional react.
- 11:03Speaker 1: Absolutely, And I do think I mean some of those parents.
- 11:06Speaker 1: I watched that public hearing at OPS the other night.
- 11:10Speaker 1: I wasn't there, but I watched it. Some of these
- 11:13Speaker 1: the name calling, I mean some of these parents actually
- 11:16Speaker 1: calling the police clansmen, calling them bullies, calling them a
- 11:21Speaker 1: lot worse than that. And it seemed like this, this
- 11:25Speaker 1: group of maybe twenty five parents that were irate, really
- 11:28Speaker 1: got the school board spun up. And then I think
- 11:32Speaker 1: Matt Ray got caught in between and just says, okay,
- 11:36Speaker 1: I didn't know about this, Well, Matt Ray, you should
- 11:38Speaker 1: have you know the district was contacted in twenty twenty three.
- 11:42Speaker 2: You should have known about it.
- 11:43Speaker 1: I didn't know about these students that had the equipment
- 11:46Speaker 1: was used on last year.
- 11:47Speaker 2: You should have but.
- 11:49Speaker 1: To react immediately and say these gloves, these compliance gloves
- 11:54Speaker 1: are not going to be used in ops. I think
- 11:56Speaker 1: he reacted too soon, in my opinion. Sheriff Ants. Aaron
- 12:00Speaker 1: Hanson is with us this morning. Get your opinion on that.
- 12:03Speaker 4: Well, my opinion is this.
- 12:06Speaker 3: I'm all for people getting animated and invested in important topics.
- 12:11Speaker 3: And here's here's some of the topics I wish the
- 12:13Speaker 3: school board and parents would be animated and invested in meetings.
- 12:18Speaker 3: Twenty twenty two to twenty twenty four school year and
- 12:21Speaker 3: twenty twenty four to twenty twenty five school year, we
- 12:23Speaker 3: had a sixty percent chronic absenteeism rate in high schools
- 12:27Speaker 3: and ops true.
- 12:28Speaker 1: And see we've talked about that on this show with
- 12:31Speaker 1: one of the Millard School board members, Mike Kennedy. That
- 12:34Speaker 1: is a problem. That is something that we should all
- 12:37Speaker 1: the parents should be concerned with.
- 12:38Speaker 3: That not only impacts those kids and those families, that
- 12:41Speaker 3: impacts their ability to have marketable job skills.
- 12:44Speaker 4: And soft skills in the future.
- 12:45Speaker 3: How can we expect kids to replenish our workforce when
- 12:49Speaker 3: they graduate from high school if sixty percent of them
- 12:51Speaker 3: aren't even showing up to high school. And also twenty
- 12:55Speaker 3: twenty five data, you know, thirty eight percent of OPS
- 12:59Speaker 3: students third grade eighth grade level do not have proficiency
- 13:02Speaker 3: in reading and writing at their grade level. That's well
- 13:06Speaker 3: below the sixty percent proficiency rate across the rest of
- 13:09Speaker 3: the state. That's a problem. I want my school board
- 13:12Speaker 3: I live in OPS, Okay. Number one, I want my
- 13:17Speaker 3: school board members to show up to the meetings. That's
- 13:20Speaker 3: number one. But number two, I want them to be
- 13:23Speaker 3: animated and passionate and engaged. And I want people filling
- 13:28Speaker 3: those school board meetings talking about these issues.
- 13:32Speaker 4: Right.
- 13:32Speaker 3: I get it. It's fair to ask about police issues
- 13:35Speaker 3: and police interactions. One hundred percent. I think it's a
- 13:38Speaker 3: worthwhile conversation. But we have to have the adult, reasonable, rationable,
- 13:43Speaker 3: rational conversation. It's not just bomb throwings in emotions, right decision.
- 13:46Speaker 2: And calling names.
- 13:47Speaker 1: And you know, Sheriff Hansen, let's go back when we
- 13:50Speaker 1: were talking about if if Matt Ray, Superintendent of OPS says, now,
- 13:55Speaker 1: none of the SROs are going to have these shot gloves.
- 13:58Speaker 1: The first well, I will say Matt Ray should run
- 14:01Speaker 1: ops and Todd Schmaters should run the Ama Police Department,
- 14:04Speaker 1: and you should run the Douglas County Sheriff's Department.
- 14:07Speaker 2: And they shouldn't be telling each other what to do.
- 14:09Speaker 1: But now that they they say that they will not
- 14:12Speaker 1: carry him part of the o Almah Police Department. You
- 14:15Speaker 1: are a police officer for years. Uniform is a gun,
- 14:20Speaker 1: is a baton, is pepper spray and those that are
- 14:24Speaker 1: trained a taser? Correct, And nobody is going to say
- 14:28Speaker 1: these are I don't want those officers carrying a gun now,
- 14:31Speaker 1: or I don't want those officers carrying a baton now.
- 14:34Speaker 1: That's part of the uniform. And it's the same with
- 14:36Speaker 1: the sheriff's department.
- 14:37Speaker 4: Correct.
- 14:38Speaker 3: And Number one, I want to say, Matt Ray, I
- 14:40Speaker 3: think he's a great superta I do as good at
- 14:42Speaker 3: what he's great at as craft. I think he's in
- 14:44Speaker 3: a tough position because you know, any superintendent has to
- 14:47Speaker 3: answer to the to the school board, and that's ultimately
- 14:51Speaker 3: it's a schood my opinion.
- 14:52Speaker 1: They report to the school board, but they are very
- 14:54Speaker 1: responsive to the parents too, and By the way, Matt
- 14:57Speaker 1: Ray's wife was an Oman police sie.
- 14:59Speaker 4: Yes, I love they're both fantastic people.
- 15:01Speaker 3: Yes, as an elected official, as a police executive, I
- 15:04Speaker 3: look over to my counterparts on the OPS school board,
- 15:07Speaker 3: the elected officials, they should have been the ones to
- 15:09Speaker 3: kind of pull back on the reins on that meeting
- 15:12Speaker 3: bring and just say, hey, you know what, let's deescalate.
- 15:14Speaker 3: You know you want police to escalakes for your opinions.
- 15:17Speaker 4: Let's deescalate the emotion.
- 15:19Speaker 3: Let's step back, Let's take some time, and let's figure
- 15:21Speaker 3: out what's most important. Because again, two things are often
- 15:26Speaker 3: true at the same time. You have to work it
- 15:28Speaker 3: backwards into the middle to find that that smart balance.
- 15:31Speaker 3: And honestly, that's what most people in our community want.
- 15:35Speaker 3: They're tied. They grow so weary of the bomb throwing,
- 15:38Speaker 3: they grow so weary of the name calling. People just
- 15:42Speaker 3: want adults in leadership, and.
- 15:43Speaker 2: It's become rabid lately. It totally have.
- 15:46Speaker 1: Now you talk a little bit about I want to
- 15:49Speaker 1: know this agreement that you, Douglas County Sheriff's Department has
- 15:54Speaker 1: with the school district, and I'm sure it's the same
- 15:56Speaker 1: with Omaha Police Department. You're familiar with that one too.
- 15:59Speaker 1: Is the agreement between the school and the resource officer
- 16:03Speaker 1: and who pays.
- 16:04Speaker 3: It's a contractual agreement, just like many contractual agreements that
- 16:09Speaker 3: law enforcement or government will have with other subdivisions of government.
- 16:13Speaker 3: And so usually every two years or three years, there's
- 16:18Speaker 3: a new contract that will be drafted up between the
- 16:21Speaker 3: districts and the sheriff's office and it'll say how much
- 16:25Speaker 3: they're going to pay, and in our case, they'll pay
- 16:27Speaker 3: fifty percent of the salary and benefits of a of
- 16:31Speaker 3: a full time deputy. Okay, ultimately it still is the
- 16:33Speaker 3: Sheriff's office that is the employer. They're not the employee
- 16:37Speaker 3: of the of the school district.
- 16:39Speaker 2: You split the salary, we split? Is that the same
- 16:42Speaker 2: with OPD?
- 16:43Speaker 3: I don't know exactly how we do it, but I
- 16:45Speaker 3: know that historically we split the cost of the salary.
- 16:49Speaker 3: And there's there's also some some factors in the agreement
- 16:51Speaker 3: that you know will dictate how the relationship will continue.
- 16:55Speaker 3: But one important part of the agreement is the severability clause.
- 16:59Speaker 3: And so if either party it's it's in the contract.
- 17:02Speaker 3: If either party determines that that contractual professional relationship is
- 17:07Speaker 3: no longer in the best interest of either side.
- 17:10Speaker 4: You can give ninety days notice and you can you can.
- 17:12Speaker 3: Leave, You canvership, can sever it, you can try to,
- 17:16Speaker 3: you know, maybe renegotiate a new agreement.
- 17:19Speaker 4: You can sever the relationship.
- 17:21Speaker 3: And I think one thing about a relationship is you
- 17:22Speaker 3: can't be afraid to walk away if things aren't working,
- 17:25Speaker 3: so on all sides, on both sides, and I think
- 17:28Speaker 3: I don't see it ever coming to that, right, because
- 17:30Speaker 3: we hope, not hopefully. What we just experienced with the
- 17:36Speaker 3: OPS board is a good reminder to everybody that, hey,
- 17:40Speaker 3: look we're not des moin right that audit emotionally said
- 17:44Speaker 3: we want school resource officers out of our schools four
- 17:47Speaker 3: years ago, and one year later that a double shooting
- 17:49Speaker 3: at their high school, two kids killed.
- 17:51Speaker 2: It can happen, and it will happened one of these days, right.
- 17:55Speaker 3: And so you know, I think it's a good reminder
- 17:58Speaker 3: for everybody. Look, the bomb throwers are going to throw bombs.
- 18:02Speaker 3: Let's stay focused on the adults in the conversation, regardless
- 18:06Speaker 3: of what political party they're in. Let's stay focused on
- 18:09Speaker 3: the facts. Let's make factual choices, not emotionally based.
- 18:12Speaker 1: True and Sheriff Aaron Hanson of Douglas County is with
- 18:15Speaker 1: us today. But at the same time, I still think
- 18:18Speaker 1: the number one priority that that every school board and
- 18:22Speaker 1: superintendent and every mayor and every sheriff has is to
- 18:27Speaker 1: keep citizens safe one hundred percent.
- 18:30Speaker 3: That's that's why we have government. Ultimately, it's the safety.
- 18:34Speaker 3: It's the safety of the of the public, and it's infrastructure.
- 18:38Speaker 3: And once you get beyond that, everything else is more
- 18:41Speaker 3: of a more of a want.
- 18:44Speaker 4: Not a need.
- 18:44Speaker 3: We need to be safe and have streets that are
- 18:48Speaker 3: that are safe so we can we can drive.
- 18:50Speaker 1: And trust street lights working and all of those things
- 18:54Speaker 1: are part of public safety. But again, parents that I
- 18:59Speaker 1: was looking online the other night, and of course my
- 19:01Speaker 1: parents went all through the My kids went all through
- 19:03Speaker 1: the Millard School, so I was.
- 19:04Speaker 2: A parent too.
- 19:06Speaker 1: But a lot of people saying we need just what
- 19:08Speaker 1: we're talking about, We need the police out.
- 19:09Speaker 2: We don't want the police out. Parents, you don't want that.
- 19:13Speaker 1: Like I said earlier, the biggest something is going to happen.
- 19:17Speaker 1: There is somebody that is going to make a bad
- 19:19Speaker 1: decision one day, and the biggest deterrent of somebody busting
- 19:23Speaker 1: in a school is a cruiser out front and an
- 19:26Speaker 1: armed officer inside.
- 19:27Speaker 3: Well, think about who is going to be left holding
- 19:29Speaker 3: the bag when either there's not an officer in the building,
- 19:34Speaker 3: or an officer couldn't get there soon enough, like in
- 19:36Speaker 3: the case of des Moines, or if officers life saving
- 19:40Speaker 3: tools are limited, what's next Taser's OC spray, you know,
- 19:45Speaker 3: and something happens, either a higher level of force has
- 19:47Speaker 3: to be employed on a student or there's not an
- 19:50Speaker 3: appropriate force response and a student gets hurt. Who's going
- 19:54Speaker 3: to be left holding the bag? I'm gonna tell you
- 19:55Speaker 3: right now. Unfortunately, who's going to let be holding the bag?
- 19:58Speaker 3: Is that poor police officer, deputy on the scene, Just
- 20:02Speaker 3: some normal Joe or Jan who's got a family and
- 20:06Speaker 3: you know, pay their house payment and all they want
- 20:08Speaker 3: to do is do a good job and they're not
- 20:10Speaker 3: involved in all the politics. Unfortunately, it's going to be
- 20:12Speaker 3: that cop and the kid that's okay, that's going to
- 20:15Speaker 3: pay the price, that's right, because the politicians will run
- 20:18Speaker 3: for the hills so fast.
- 20:19Speaker 4: Yeah, not my fault and blame the cop.
- 20:21Speaker 1: Well, you know, in the beginning, when this first came out,
- 20:23Speaker 1: I first knew about it with a post that the
- 20:26Speaker 1: young Democrats put out and calling for a press conference
- 20:32Speaker 1: on Monday at one o'clock and they were furious about
- 20:36Speaker 1: these shot gloves, and of course in their original press
- 20:39Speaker 1: release it was and we all know that Mayor Jean
- 20:42Speaker 1: Stothard signed off on these again trying to point the
- 20:45Speaker 1: finger and alls. I've said on this show, and I've
- 20:48Speaker 1: said many times, is yep, I sure did, and I'd
- 20:51Speaker 1: do it again because it was it was the right
- 20:54Speaker 1: thing to do.
- 20:55Speaker 2: It was.
- 20:55Speaker 1: I signed off on it after a seven to zero
- 20:58Speaker 1: vote of the city Council, without any discussion at all.
- 21:01Speaker 1: Four Democrats, three Republicans, they all agreed a nonpartisan agreement
- 21:06Speaker 1: to buy these gloves, sixty six thousand dollars worth of gloves,
- 21:10Speaker 1: and sure I signed off on it.
- 21:12Speaker 2: It was the right thing to do. I'd do it again.
- 21:14Speaker 3: And it's not for discipline. I mean, that's the thing
- 21:16Speaker 3: we need, and that's where the adult conversation needs to
- 21:19Speaker 3: come back into the mix. This is not for discipline.
- 21:23Speaker 3: This is for situations, any of these life saving tools
- 21:26Speaker 3: to de escalate. You're again, you're past the de escalation phase.
- 21:31Speaker 3: You're to the point where someone is actually physically being
- 21:34Speaker 3: dangerous or physically being disruptive, trending towards dangerous and you
- 21:40Speaker 3: have no other option than to implement some action, whether
- 21:43Speaker 3: it's physical response or using some type of life saving tool.
- 21:48Speaker 3: And again, we're not talking about a kid being late
- 21:51Speaker 3: for class, right or you find him smoking in the bathroom.
- 21:54Speaker 2: And no, that is not going to happen to talking.
- 21:57Speaker 4: About someone's that's acting in a dangerous man putting other.
- 22:01Speaker 1: People in anymore than you would tase them if they
- 22:03Speaker 1: were smoking in the bathroom.
- 22:04Speaker 4: Exactly.
- 22:05Speaker 3: I mean, I've been taste, I've been tased on purpose,
- 22:07Speaker 3: and I've been tased on accident and no fun. Taser's
- 22:10Speaker 3: a great tool. I love it. It's perfect life saving tool.
- 22:15Speaker 3: But if we can avoid a student being you know,
- 22:20Speaker 3: exposed to a taser, even if it was a legal,
- 22:22Speaker 3: legitimate response, because we had a lesser option that gave
- 22:28Speaker 3: a pain compliance stimulus selection, I'm in support of that.
- 22:32Speaker 1: I agree, And you know, Toad Schmater was very elemant
- 22:35Speaker 1: on the radio on Tuesday morning with Scott Vorhe said, Okay,
- 22:39Speaker 1: you don't want to use these compliant gloves, okay, but
- 22:43Speaker 1: then we will use our other tools, and that could
- 22:45Speaker 1: be the taser that could be a baton, that could
- 22:47Speaker 1: be a gun.
- 22:49Speaker 3: Chiefs Motter did a great job not only in his words,
- 22:51Speaker 3: but also when he put his Resident Expert Officer Civatano
- 22:56Speaker 3: out there to explain to the media the way that
- 22:59Speaker 3: this life saving tool works. And I think that OPD
- 23:05Speaker 3: really tried hard to kind of bring this back into
- 23:07Speaker 3: a professional, rational discussion, and we needed more elected officials
- 23:13Speaker 3: helping nudget that way, not throwing more gas on the fire.
- 23:17Speaker 1: I think there's a lot of regrets in my opinion.
- 23:20Speaker 1: Aaron Hanson is with us, and I just got to
- 23:21Speaker 1: hand it to you one time before we go off
- 23:23Speaker 1: the air. What else is going on between you and
- 23:26Speaker 1: your occupying army.
- 23:30Speaker 3: A lot of positive things we're seeing, and that's a
- 23:32Speaker 3: joke for working really well with our partners and OPD.
- 23:37Speaker 3: I mean, every day we're seeing positive work being done,
- 23:40Speaker 3: whether it's of course you are slowing down dangerous drivers,
- 23:43Speaker 3: going after dangerous offenders. But the real area where we're
- 23:47Speaker 3: growing right now is the court is relying on the
- 23:50Speaker 3: Sheriff's office more and more to help supervise these high risk,
- 23:54Speaker 3: mentally ill not guilty by reason of insanity individuals that
- 23:58Speaker 3: before this really no one was functionally supervising, and so
- 24:02Speaker 3: the role of the sheriff is becoming more and more
- 24:04Speaker 3: important to keep our entire county safe from these high risk,
- 24:09Speaker 3: mentally ill individuals that unfortunately are in our community with us.
- 24:13Speaker 1: And in the last five years that has escalated more
- 24:16Speaker 1: than we've ever seen it. Brenda Beetle was talking about
- 24:19Speaker 1: that not long ago, about we're seeing more and more
- 24:21Speaker 1: and more of these and I think it's important to
- 24:23Speaker 1: point out that your department, the Douglas County Sheriff's Department,
- 24:26Speaker 1: does cover the Hall of Justice where all the courts are.
- 24:29Speaker 2: That's your responsible.
- 24:30Speaker 4: Yes, we cover and city Hall too.
- 24:33Speaker 3: Pairing it down from county wide jurisdiction, We've got the
- 24:36Speaker 3: unincorporated Douglas County. Then we've got the Hall of Justice,
- 24:38Speaker 3: City Hall, any county facility, the county Hospital, Corrections, the
- 24:44Speaker 3: youth Center is our primary jurisdiction.
- 24:47Speaker 2: And calling you an occupying army was a little jab.
- 24:50Speaker 3: You know.
- 24:50Speaker 1: I love the Dougas County Sheriff's Department and also Sheriff Hanson.
- 24:54Speaker 2: There has always been a very.
- 24:57Speaker 1: Good relationship between the Sheriff's Department the Omaha Police Department.
- 25:01Speaker 1: There's always been that. It's there's some there's a lot
- 25:04Speaker 1: of cooperation.
- 25:05Speaker 4: Here's a deal. Politics is a contact sport. I get it.
- 25:08Speaker 2: You know, it's a blood sport anymore.
- 25:11Speaker 3: But you know, the nice thing is when you look
- 25:13Speaker 3: at the two agencies, they work together well, they complement
- 25:17Speaker 3: each other well. Abs we're so fortunate in Douglas County.
- 25:20Speaker 3: We've got the best municipal police department in my opinion,
- 25:24Speaker 3: and I'm biased because that was where I came from.
- 25:26Speaker 3: So my two brothers still work hopefully my daughter will
- 25:29Speaker 3: work there here pretty soon.
- 25:30Speaker 4: And your son and well, he's a firefighter.
- 25:32Speaker 2: He's a firefighter, that's right.
- 25:34Speaker 3: But but we've got the best police department in the
- 25:36Speaker 3: nation and one of the best police chiefs in the nation,
- 25:40Speaker 3: and the best police chief I've ever worked with in
- 25:42Speaker 3: my career at OPD in touch Maner paired up with
- 25:46Speaker 3: in my opinion, the best, the best sheriff's office in
- 25:48Speaker 3: the nation, and so we've really got a great one
- 25:51Speaker 3: two punch combo. When it comes to professional, community oriented.
- 25:55Speaker 1: Launch, we absolutely do and we are very fortunate to
- 25:58Speaker 1: have that. In our crimes to statistics show it. I
- 26:01Speaker 1: always go back to that our crime alls you get
- 26:04Speaker 1: to look is at our crime statistics and Douglas County
- 26:07Speaker 1: and in Omaha, and you could see how good a
- 26:09Speaker 1: job people feel safe here. That's the one thing I
- 26:12Speaker 1: hear a lot with the College World series when people
- 26:14Speaker 1: say it's so clean here and it's so safe here,
- 26:17Speaker 1: and I feel like, man, if you could have a clean,
- 26:19Speaker 1: safe city, you have won right there.
- 26:21Speaker 2: It's a really good thing. It's good.
- 26:23Speaker 1: It's important to point out that the Douglas County Sheriff
- 26:27Speaker 1: is required by state statue. Every county in Nebraska has
- 26:31Speaker 1: an elected sheriff in this area. Omaha now occupies a
- 26:37Speaker 1: little over eighty percent of Douglas County, but still Douglas
- 26:41Speaker 1: County is all I mean, Omaha is in Douglas County.
- 26:46Speaker 3: Yeah, I'd say if you're looking at population, so we
- 26:49Speaker 3: actually I'm talking about land mass. Land mass actually unincorporated
- 26:54Speaker 3: Douglas County is about half of the county. So it's
- 26:56Speaker 3: like the upper you know, if you take it from
- 27:00Speaker 3: Dutch Hall Road and Missouri River down to Platte River
- 27:04Speaker 3: at the Equivlana Harrison, kind of that upper quadrant is
- 27:07Speaker 3: unincorporated Douglas County with some small you know, Bennington and
- 27:10Speaker 3: Valley in there, and then the lower half of the
- 27:12Speaker 3: city of Oma, so Land mass. It's kind of an
- 27:14Speaker 3: almost a fifty to fifty mix population. You know, we
- 27:18Speaker 3: have one hundred and ten thousand people in unincorporated Douglas
- 27:22Speaker 3: County that we're responsible for their primary jurisdiction, not to
- 27:25Speaker 3: mention the courthouse and other areas down there. So i'd
- 27:27Speaker 3: say it's about one fifth. We're responsible for about one
- 27:30Speaker 3: fifth of the overall county population.
- 27:33Speaker 2: Okay.
- 27:33Speaker 1: And just before we break here, Peyton's given a stink
- 27:36Speaker 1: eye over there.
- 27:37Speaker 2: He wants us to bring.
- 27:38Speaker 4: You want to hit the button?
- 27:39Speaker 2: He's yeah, oh on, okay, okay, okay, I'm good. Let's
- 27:42Speaker 2: hit on the shock on the shock socks. I like that.
- 27:46Speaker 1: Sheriff Hanson, how many deputies do you have in the
- 27:49Speaker 1: Douglas County Sheriffs Department.
- 27:50Speaker 3: We're authorized one hundred and sixty five deputies, and we've
- 27:53Speaker 3: got a little over one hundred civilians.
- 27:55Speaker 1: Okay, and how many on the street, how many on
- 27:58Speaker 1: out on the street, I mean, and how many in
- 28:01Speaker 1: the courthouse.
- 28:01Speaker 3: Well, I'd say about half of our total agency is
- 28:05Speaker 3: committed to serving the courts in various capacities, whether it
- 28:10Speaker 3: be courtouse, security, warrants service, civil process, and then civilians
- 28:15Speaker 3: that support them. And then the other half works out
- 28:19Speaker 3: on the road, whether it's a ROE patrol or criminal
- 28:23Speaker 3: investigations or special operations or SRO. So it's kind of
- 28:27Speaker 3: fifty to fifty.
- 28:30Speaker 4: Type.
- 28:30Speaker 2: Agentcy good deal.
- 28:31Speaker 1: Sheriff Hanson, Aaron Hanson, Douglas County Sheriff, and I can't
- 28:35Speaker 1: even say your name, Douglas County Sheriff Aaron Hanson. Thank
- 28:38Speaker 1: you so much for being with us today and thanks
- 28:40Speaker 1: for the great job that you and your deputies do
- 28:42Speaker 1: for keeping all of us safe.
- 28:44Speaker 4: Great. I'll take those socks back now, yeah.
- 28:46Speaker 1: Hand them over Peyton again. Once again, think Douglas County Sheriff,
- 28:51Speaker 1: Aaron Hanson. Sometimes I use the term interchangeably. I said,
- 28:55Speaker 1: Douglas County Sheriff's Office, our Douglas County Sheriff's Department own
- 29:00Speaker 1: as dcso Douglas County Sheriff's Office. But great, the Sheriff
- 29:06Speaker 1: Aaron Hanson does a great job.
- 29:08Speaker 4: You know.
- 29:08Speaker 2: He was an Omah police officer.
- 29:10Speaker 1: He was president of OPOA, the Omaha Police Officers Association
- 29:14Speaker 1: for a while. When I was first running for mayor
- 29:18Speaker 1: in twenty thirteen. He was president of the union and
- 29:22Speaker 1: we had our days together that we didn't agree on things,
- 29:25Speaker 1: but I think he does a great job, does a
- 29:28Speaker 1: great job with that Sheriff's department, and I thought it's
- 29:30Speaker 1: interesting to bring him in because it's not only the
- 29:33Speaker 1: Omaha Police Department that has school resources officers. It is
- 29:37Speaker 1: Douglas County two and those far western schools we have
- 29:40Speaker 1: and to just really really reemphasize what an important job
- 29:45Speaker 1: that armed officer is within a school. And the point
- 29:49Speaker 1: that Todd Schmater has made over and over and over
- 29:52Speaker 1: is if you forbid the Omaha Police Department from wearing
- 29:57Speaker 1: the glove and using the glove technology in our schools,
- 30:01Speaker 1: than if an incident happens, we have to go to
- 30:04Speaker 1: the next technology. Are the next thing that we have,
- 30:09Speaker 1: which would either what like I said before, on their
- 30:12Speaker 1: duty belts, it's mace, it's a baton, it's a gun
- 30:15Speaker 1: that's part of their uniform. Nobody's going to tell them
- 30:17Speaker 1: that they can't have that on part of their uniform.
- 30:20Speaker 1: Only officers that have been trained in tasing can carry
- 30:25Speaker 1: a taser, so not all do that. On our school
- 30:29Speaker 1: resource officers. All of the Douglas County Sheriff's Department or
- 30:33Speaker 1: office are active deputies of the Sheriff's Department with Omaha Police,
- 30:39Speaker 1: some are active officers and some are retirees. The retirees
- 30:44Speaker 1: cannot use a taser, only the active officers. So if
- 30:48Speaker 1: you have a retiree he's a certified police officer in
- 30:53Speaker 1: your building, he's not carrying a taser. But the other
- 30:56Speaker 1: part he could use would be, like I said, mace,
- 30:58Speaker 1: a baton, or a gun. And so that's the options
- 31:01Speaker 1: they have. They are always there to de escalate, they're
- 31:04Speaker 1: not there to use their weapons.
- 31:07Speaker 5: Geen, we had a great interview there with Sheriff Aaron Hanson,
- 31:10Speaker 5: and I got a few emails here and we talked
- 31:13Speaker 5: a little bit about this off the air, and I
- 31:15Speaker 5: think this is a good conversation that we should bring
- 31:17Speaker 5: to the show. This comes from Andrew a comment at
- 31:20Speaker 5: kfab dot com. Quote informing the public about the shot
- 31:24Speaker 5: gloves was poorly done.
- 31:27Speaker 2: It had people known.
- 31:29Speaker 5: If people had known or understood what they were or
- 31:32Speaker 5: how they are used, I doubt people would have been upset.
- 31:36Speaker 1: Well, I would hope that people would before they would
- 31:38Speaker 1: get upset. Would learn a little bit more about them
- 31:42Speaker 1: and why we chose to use them. And again, you
- 31:45Speaker 1: know when the Young Democrats came out with their press
- 31:48Speaker 1: release and calling for a press conference on Monday at
- 31:51Speaker 1: one o'clock, you know, part of their narrative was, of
- 31:54Speaker 1: course Jeene Stothard signed this into law. They had the
- 31:58Speaker 1: wrong date and what they were saying was wrong. But
- 32:01Speaker 1: yes I did, and I'd do it again today and
- 32:04Speaker 1: it was I signed it into law after the city
- 32:06Speaker 1: Council voted seven to zero, four Democrats three Republicans without
- 32:10Speaker 1: a question. In twenty twenty three is when we notified
- 32:16Speaker 1: the schools that we were looking into this technology, notified
- 32:21Speaker 1: the safety directors of all the schools, talked about it,
- 32:24Speaker 1: never question, all thought it was a good idea. So
- 32:27Speaker 1: for those saying Oma Public Schools, and I'm not just
- 32:31Speaker 1: saying criticizing that board or the superintendent Matt Ray, but
- 32:35Speaker 1: you should have known about it because it was communicated
- 32:37Speaker 1: with you. And when Matt Ray was saying, why didn't
- 32:41Speaker 1: I know that several of our kids in ops the
- 32:45Speaker 1: glove was used on them, Well I would throw that
- 32:48Speaker 1: right back at Superintendent Ray. Why didn't you know you
- 32:51Speaker 1: have safety directors safety officers. It's not up to the
- 32:56Speaker 1: city or the Oma Police Department to hand feed information. Now,
- 33:00Speaker 1: when they get new equipment, sometimes upgraded equipment, we don't
- 33:05Speaker 1: always do an announcement. There's not a big announcement that
- 33:09Speaker 1: they're buying new guns, or they're buying new bullets or
- 33:12Speaker 1: you know. I remembered when we upgraded and made all
- 33:15Speaker 1: of them all of them, bought body cameras for all
- 33:18Speaker 1: of them that had automatic triggers, and I talked a
- 33:21Speaker 1: little bit about it in public, but it wasn't a
- 33:23Speaker 1: big announcement. And automatic triggers means whenever they pull their
- 33:27Speaker 1: revolver or pull their service weapon, then that body camera
- 33:32Speaker 1: automatically turned on. There was never going to be a
- 33:34Speaker 1: question again about they forgot to turn their body camera on.
- 33:37Speaker 1: So a lot of these things that the police officers
- 33:40Speaker 1: and the police department have for their use isn't made
- 33:44Speaker 1: with a big announcement. But I do think that some
- 33:48Speaker 1: of the parents that were testifying name calling just assuming
- 33:54Speaker 1: that these gloves were going to be used Willy Nelly
- 33:56Speaker 1: on these students.
- 33:57Speaker 2: I mean, that was way an over reaction in my opinion.
- 34:01Speaker 5: Absolutely, And this was something we were wrestling with during
- 34:04Speaker 5: the break is in accordance with Andrew. I said, I
- 34:07Speaker 5: feel like the presentation of the shot gloves was done poorly,
- 34:11Speaker 5: and Gene you said, well, they didn't present it.
- 34:13Speaker 2: They don't have to present these things.
- 34:15Speaker 5: So I guess what I mean is after the Nebraska
- 34:19Speaker 5: Young Democrats came out and announced this and accused you
- 34:22Speaker 5: of doing this on the last day of your the
- 34:24Speaker 5: day you lost the election, which was wrong. But after that,
- 34:28Speaker 5: I felt like that there should have been some sort
- 34:30Speaker 5: of comment or announcement that would give the public a
- 34:34Speaker 5: better idea and informed them properly. And then Tim sent
- 34:38Speaker 5: an email that said the crowd that was in an
- 34:41Speaker 5: uproar are definitely adopt moonbats, and that was in.
- 34:46Speaker 2: His email, adopted moonbats.
- 34:47Speaker 5: And I think that sometimes these voices of people that
- 34:50Speaker 5: are upset are so loud, yes, so aggressive, so hostile,
- 34:55Speaker 5: even if there's so few of them, that somebody in
- 34:59Speaker 5: a position of power or leadership just kind of says,
- 35:03Speaker 5: I don't know if I want to deal with this.
- 35:04Speaker 1: Well, they're reacting to it, and you know, it seemed
- 35:06Speaker 1: to me like after you know, the Young Democrat press
- 35:09Speaker 1: relief didn't get a lot of attention, but the school
- 35:13Speaker 1: board meeting did and so it seems like to me,
- 35:16Speaker 1: these gloves were introduced to the community with showing a
- 35:20Speaker 1: lot of irate people at a school board meeting furious.
- 35:23Speaker 2: That's how the media covered it.
- 35:24Speaker 5: They didn't they didn't talk to the to the officer
- 35:26Speaker 5: there that was demonstrating the shock gloves.
- 35:28Speaker 1: They and that shame on them. I mean, they didn't
- 35:31Speaker 1: even talk to the officer that was there. They just
- 35:34Speaker 1: let parent after parent name calling, accusing them of things
- 35:38Speaker 1: that were absolutely false, and the school board reacted to it,
- 35:41Speaker 1: the superintendent reacted to it. But you know, there was
- 35:45Speaker 1: a meeting called by Chief Schmater this morning as we speak,
- 35:49Speaker 1: at ten o'clock and Chief Schmater's office, and he invited
- 35:53Speaker 1: all of the SROs to be there, including those out
- 35:58Speaker 1: of opsts. He invited Millard, he invited every SRO mandatory
- 36:05Speaker 1: meeting in his office, and he invited Superintendent Ray. And
- 36:09Speaker 1: now I don't know if Superintendent Ray will come, but
- 36:11Speaker 1: he invited him and he said, I'd like you to
- 36:14Speaker 1: be there because I'd like you to look face to
- 36:16Speaker 1: face to these SROs and we'll have that conversation that
- 36:20Speaker 1: you should have had before you reacted.
- 36:22Speaker 5: A lot going on with these shot gloves, and this
- 36:24Speaker 5: is going to continue to be a relevant conversation as
- 36:27Speaker 5: time goes. On news radio eleven ten KFAB, the gene'st
- 36:30Speaker 5: Author Show, the KFAB comment Line. I'm gonna get one
- 36:33Speaker 5: more phone call in here about the gloves with Mark,
- 36:36Speaker 5: but Gene, I want to bring something up to you
- 36:39Speaker 5: when we're done here, Mark, thank you so much for
- 36:41Speaker 5: calling Gene st author in the kfa B comment line.
- 36:43Speaker 4: You are live.
- 36:46Speaker 2: Good morning here. I wouldn't know where the story initiate
- 36:52Speaker 2: as far as where.
- 36:55Speaker 1: It initiated, you know, you know, I don't know what
- 37:01Speaker 1: prompted it. But the first I knew that, I mean
- 37:05Speaker 1: I knew about the gloves obviously, I've known about them
- 37:07Speaker 1: for since twenty twenty three, But the first I knew
- 37:11Speaker 1: that it became an issue was a press release that
- 37:14Speaker 1: was released by the Young Democrats I think that's what
- 37:17Speaker 1: their name they were going by, and it was like,
- 37:22Speaker 1: oh my gosh, they have these police department has these
- 37:25Speaker 1: shot gloves and we're going to have a press conference
- 37:27Speaker 1: on Monday at one pm. And then they did a
- 37:30Speaker 1: brief press release and to me, that's where it's the
- 37:35Speaker 1: conversation really started. And then the City Council, of course,
- 37:39Speaker 1: had a meeting at two o'clock that same day. I
- 37:41Speaker 1: don't think they covered anything because it wasn't on the agenda,
- 37:44Speaker 1: and they can only cover things that are on the agenda.
- 37:46Speaker 1: But then Monday night, same day was the OPS school
- 37:50Speaker 1: Board meeting, and I think you know a lot I'm
- 37:53Speaker 1: not pointing fingers here, but a lot of times it's
- 37:55Speaker 1: how the media covers it and what the media decides
- 37:58Speaker 1: to cover, and they decided to cover this. Keep in
- 38:02Speaker 1: mind at the OPS school Board meeting, there was an
- 38:04Speaker 1: officer there with the glove, and nobody would talk to
- 38:09Speaker 1: the officer. They just wanted to do a lot of
- 38:11Speaker 1: name calling against police in general and saying I didn't
- 38:15Speaker 1: know about this, and you're just going to be using
- 38:17Speaker 1: these things willy nilly. But again, they are so much
- 38:22Speaker 1: less damaging, less invasive than a taser. They are they
- 38:28Speaker 1: are not really They're a little shock. I would call
- 38:31Speaker 1: it a jolt. I would, you know what I would
- 38:34Speaker 1: I would compare it to my cat had one of
- 38:37Speaker 1: those shot collars one time because my cat kept.
- 38:40Speaker 2: On doing something on the dining room floor. I didn't
- 38:42Speaker 2: want my cat.
- 38:43Speaker 1: To do so we put we had, if you could
- 38:45Speaker 1: believe it, wires put under the carpet in the dining room,
- 38:48Speaker 1: and the cat wore this little collar and it kept
- 38:51Speaker 1: him out of it. But I grabbed the collar one
- 38:53Speaker 1: day and the little prongs were still activated, and I
- 38:56Speaker 1: had the prongs in my hand. I squeezed it and
- 38:58Speaker 1: the it shocked me a little bit. It just makes
- 39:00Speaker 1: you feel like, oh, something's happening here, but it doesn't
- 39:03Speaker 1: really hurt. Tasers will knock you off your feet, Yeah,
- 39:06Speaker 1: these will not. They're about a third to a fourth
- 39:09Speaker 1: of the number of volts that can come out of
- 39:11Speaker 1: a taser. They are about three hundred volts. A tasers
- 39:14Speaker 1: maximum I think is about twelve hundred volts. These are
- 39:17Speaker 1: about three eighty maximum. So it's a jolt. But I
- 39:21Speaker 1: think it came. I don't know what prompted the press
- 39:24Speaker 1: release with the Nebraska Democrats, but once again, you know,
- 39:28Speaker 1: they were trying to blame me. But then I had
- 39:30Speaker 1: to go back and say it was voted on by
- 39:32Speaker 1: the city council, four Democrats, three Republicans. They all voted
- 39:36Speaker 1: for it. They all wanted it.
- 39:37Speaker 5: I'm gonna jolt this conversation in a different way, Gene.
- 39:40Speaker 5: As we're wrapping up the show today. Last night there
- 39:44Speaker 5: was an event for the twenty twenty six Omaha Business
- 39:47Speaker 5: Hall of Fame.
- 39:48Speaker 2: Yes, and this was with the Greater Omaha Chamber.
- 39:52Speaker 5: And it looks like the honorable Jean Stothart was inducted
- 39:56Speaker 5: into the Omaha Business Hall of Fame last night.
- 39:58Speaker 2: I was, and you know, it was a great event.
- 40:01Speaker 1: If you don't know about the Hall of Fame, it's
- 40:04Speaker 1: put on by the Great Elmont Chamber of Commerce. It
- 40:06Speaker 1: first started in nineteen ninety three. I was inducted last
- 40:11Speaker 1: night along with David Brown, who's the former CEO of
- 40:14Speaker 1: the Chamber, Derek Leathers, President CEO of Warner Trucking, Steve Menzie,
- 40:19Speaker 1: CEO president of Applied Underwriters, Rick and Carol Russell, Millard Lumber,
- 40:24Speaker 1: and myself. The last mayor that was inducted was Hal Dobb.
- 40:27Speaker 1: So not every mayor gets inducted in it. But let
- 40:29Speaker 1: me tell you it started in nineteen ninety three, and
- 40:32Speaker 1: I'm with a great group of people because guess who
- 40:35Speaker 1: the first inductees were in nineteen ninety three.
- 40:37Speaker 2: It was the first event.
- 40:38Speaker 1: Listen to this, Rose Blumkin, Warren Buffett, John Creighton, Robert Darty.
- 40:44Speaker 2: That's with Valmont, Peter Keewitt, and VJ. Scott. Well, congratulations, Jane.
- 40:49Speaker 2: That is quite the pool. Yeah, quite the pool.
- 40:51Speaker 1: And from them, so many business leaders in town were
- 40:54Speaker 1: recognized for their contribution to the business community in the
- 40:58Speaker 1: city of Omaha. So it was a great event. Lots
- 41:01Speaker 1: of people were there last night and it was good
- 41:02Speaker 1: to see everybody.
- 41:03Speaker 2: And day. For each inductee, they played a video.
- 41:08Speaker 1: We didn't get to see the video until we were there,
- 41:10Speaker 1: but they showed me here in this studio, Peyton Hilock,
- 41:13Speaker 1: and you were part of that video.
- 41:15Speaker 2: Let's go. So there. They started out with we're in
- 41:18Speaker 2: the Business Hall of Fame. Jean, Yeah, yeah, we are.
- 41:21Speaker 2: They started out with us being on the radio. It
- 41:23Speaker 2: was really fun.
- 41:24Speaker 1: And then I had my grandkids down in the Jean
- 41:26Speaker 1: Lahiel Mall and my grandson ended it perfectly. And I
- 41:30Speaker 1: was sitting there by him and I said you like
- 41:32Speaker 1: playing down here?
- 41:32Speaker 2: Yes?
- 41:33Speaker 1: And I said you have fun, yes, And I go
- 41:35Speaker 1: why do you like this so much? And he just
- 41:37Speaker 1: immediately said because my grandma built it.
- 41:41Speaker 2: And I was like, good kid, that's my boy.
- 41:44Speaker 1: But no, it was a really great event and great
- 41:46Speaker 1: people there, and the Chamber does a great job for
- 41:48Speaker 1: the city of Omaha. But that is it for us today.
- 41:51Speaker 1: Time flies when you're having fun. But thank you for
- 41:54Speaker 1: spending this hour with us. We'd love for you to
- 41:56Speaker 1: join us again tomorrow, taking your calls whatever we got
- 42:00Speaker 1: on your mind. And I am Jean Stoddert and this
- 42:03Speaker 1: is eleven ten. Hey, fab