Latest / APD Pod Squad / Episode 20; Sgt. Brandon Shope, Sgt. Lucas Lovelace, Officer Trainee Maria Bengel, Crystal Simpson, Joellen Rhyndress, and Hannah Silberman

Transcript

Episode 20; Sgt. Brandon Shope, Sgt. Lucas Lovelace, Officer Trainee Maria Bengel, Crystal Simpson, Joellen Rhyndress, and Hannah Silberman · APD Pod Squad

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_06: This is the APD Pod Squad.
• 0:04
  SPEAKER_06: On this episode, May is Mental Health Awareness Month.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_06: And in the past year, all of us here in Western North Carolina experienced something that pushed our stress levels to the breaking point.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_06: Hurricane Helene and its aftermath tested all of us at so many levels.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_06: Here at the Ashville Police Department, we were fortunate to have the support of both the community and our coworkers.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_06: Joining me today, four people who stepped up during and after the storm, and some of the things they experienced and did in support of our officers during that incredibly difficult time for all of us.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_06: From Logistics, Crystal Simpson, Sergeant Brandon Chope, Trainee Maria Bangle, and Joel and Reindress, mental health clinician with responder services.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_06: They'll share their stories.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_06: Sergeant Lucas Lovelace in the Community Engagement Division ditches the latest with VAT team, and we'll see which officers are assigned to which Asheville neighborhoods and why that matters.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_06: Also, in the History Minute with Hannah Silberman, we'll look back at the Mounted Patrol.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_06: It's all coming up on episode 20 of the APD Pod Squad.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_06: Joining me now is Business Finance Specialist Crystal Simpson, as we look back at Hurricane Helene now approaching eight months ago, with May being mental health awareness month.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_06: And boy, we were put to the test during Helene, weren't we?
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_03: It was unreal.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_06: So as we look back at those days in late September, early October, and even beyond, as we all dealt with levels of stress depending on our individual circumstances, you had several very unique things happen to you and your family during Hurricane Helene that would cause certain mental health challenges.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_06: You chose to focus on others and their mental health, making sure they were tip top so they could do the job they needed to do.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_06: Let's start with that morning of Friday, September 27th.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_03: On Friday morning, normal day, just raining.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_03: My husband left to go to work.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_03: We lost power thinking that we were just gonna hang out all day with no power.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_03: No more than 20 minutes later, he had drove back home and said, Get your things, we've got to go immediately.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_03: We had no idea what we were looking at, but when we were leaving, we were driving through wades of water, so we knew we knew we made the right decision.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_03: However, all of our neighbors were still at home because they didn't get the same thing that we got.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_03: So we were just trying to tell everybody to get out.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_03: But again, it was 5 30 in the morning, so a lot of people were sleeping.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_03: They stayed home because they didn't know, you know, how bad it was.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_06: You know, that that was one of the things.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_06: Almost nobody knew what everybody else was experiencing in different neighborhoods, in different towns.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_06: Heck, it could be a couple of hundred yards to your west.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, it was communications was down, power was down, and I guess people probably didn't even realize that was the case for everybody.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_06: Right.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_06: Right.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_06: It's like, okay, well, my power's off, but I don't know about this person, that person, that neighborhood, this neighborhood.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_06: So we were all literally in the dark about what was going on.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_03: So from there we just went to my sister's house, which was our, you know, our plan, which was on higher ground.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_03: So on our way there, you know, we were driving through rivers and logs, and and at that point we were just unbuckled because we were just unsure if we were gonna have to evacuate the the vehicle to, you know, to get out.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_03: We made it to her house.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_03: She's on a hill, so during the storm, we thought everything was okay.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_03: The road looked flooded, you know, the winds were bad, but we didn't really know the extent of what it was until after the storms.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, the obviously the people in the low-lying areas don't any body of water.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_06: Anything that even used to be like a little creek became a raging river.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_06: But if you're on higher ground, exactly, you're probably going to experience the trees that went down because of the rain, because of the wind, but you don't know about the flooding and the mudslides and things of that nature necessarily.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_03: We hunker down at her house, you know, and once everything was done, we were able to go down her road.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_03: But then there were eight trees that were down on her road.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_03: We had to cut our way out, you know, of her neighborhood.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_03: It was crazy because everybody just came together.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_03: You know, they were like, we got chainsaws, we have this, we have that, you know.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_03: And so we were all out there just cutting everything that we could down so we could try to get out.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_03: We didn't know how bad it was going to be until we left that neighborhood.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_03: And then when we started going down the road and just seeing the destruction, seeing the flood, seeing everything that was left in the middle of the road because the water had recited just enough to where we could drive through one lane of a five-lane road.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_06: Was it about then that you knew the widespread destruction right about then?
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_03: Yes and no.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_03: We've seen it flood before there, but not as bad.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_03: And then I knew my sister or other sister lived in an area where they had to evacuate because their trailer floods.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_03: So it's at that moment that we were just like, oh God, like we just need everybody to be okay.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_03: We need to get a hold of people.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_03: We need to figure out what we need to do because we left our animals at home because we had to evacuate so fast that we didn't even know if we had animals to go back home to.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_03: And every way to get to our house was completely flooded and gone.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_06: All those things you said easier said than done.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_03: We we could not get anywhere to our house.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, for driving around in the days following, I I know this, and as you know, right from there, there wasn't a single road that didn't have some sort of a tree down across it.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_06: You couldn't get anywhere, at least not anywhere outside of Asheville downtown, which does not have the large trees and things of that nature.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_03: Friday night, you know, we went back to my sister's house and we all cried, we all prayed, we all made sure that our families were okay, the ones that we could get a hold of.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_03: And Friday afternoon, we were at my sister's house and my other sister and my dad comes pulling up and he lives in Leicester, but he just had to know that we were okay.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_03: So we would just all just let out, you know, crying is what you do whenever you see people that you haven't seen, or just, you know, it's like a rejoice crying.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_03: Just comes out.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_03: So we were very happy to see my dad because we had no idea of you know how bad Leicester was.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_03: So he went home.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_03: And then later that night, my son-in-law said, I'm going to get our dogs.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_03: I don't care how long it's going to take me.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_03: I'm going to get our dogs.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_03: So him and his brother, you know, packed the truck up.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_03: And normally a 12-minute back and forth from her house to our house took right at two and a half hours, it seems like.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_03: Wow.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_03: Because they had to go and he drove through water that he shouldn't have been driving through, you know.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_03: And his brother, I think, walked through the water.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_03: And so whichever one got to the house first was going to be the one that got the dogs.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_03: Two and a half hours later, they come pulling in the driveway with all of the dogs, and we we were crying again, you know.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_03: Um, it was great, but we were like, How are the houses?
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_03: You know, and they were like, We don't, we don't know.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_03: We just thought we just got the dogs, and that was that's all we cared about.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_03: One step at a time.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_03: Saturday morning, we got up, we were able to go back home one way.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_03: We found a way to go home, but it was literally the saddest ride home.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_03: Um seeing all the destruction.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_03: Because you could see all the destruction.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_03: I'll never forget the trailer that was sitting in the middle of the road.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_03: That somebody had bulldozed to get in the middle of just so people could get on the road to get home.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_03: So you were stained to think about that.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_03: It was insanity, but it was like the new normal.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_03: It was, but it was so weird.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_03: How do you explain that to little kids?
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, we have teenagers.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_03: I don't understand, like worried about her friends, and it's it was just scary.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_03: But driving through a living room and kitchen just to get to your house was, you know, not knowing what you're gonna come home to.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, and you're thinking about the people that owned that house.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_03: You're like, the whole neighborhood's gone.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_03: You know, you know, we pulled in the driveway, our house was thankfully okay.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_03: Um, the water had made it all the way up to our fence line, but all of our neighbors, they're a little lower than us.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_03: So they, you know, their bottoms half washed away or their bottoms half got flooded.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_03: And then my daughter's neighborhood, which is right beside ours, three of the trailers got washed away.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_03: So then you're like, okay, well, what's next?
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_06: Didn't you get like a second evacuation?
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_06: We did.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_06: So Saturday wasn't real.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_03: Saturday we were like, you know, hunker down.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_03: This is what we have to do.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_03: Everybody's gonna feed everybody outside, you know, gather your supplies of what you can, walk to where we need to walk to make phone calls if we need to, which was miles away.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_03: And then this is the new norm.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_03: So Sunday we cook to dinner, you know, we're outside cleaning up you know, just a regular Sunday dinner.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_03: Just a regular Sunday dinner.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_03: Um, you know, like you're camping because we camp.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_03: So we're like, we got this, you know, as much as we can.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_03: So we were cleaning up dinner, and all of a sudden we hear sir rings go down the road and people yelling out, you know, other cars, get out, get out, the dam is gonna break, get out.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_06: Damn you're referring to is the Beetry Dam, yeah.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_03: Um that was probably the scariest moment I've ever had in my life because that is a definite get out now.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_03: What do you grab?
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_03: You know?
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_06: Kids, dogs, family photos.
• 8:21
  SPEAKER_03: You don't know what to do.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_03: And so I sent my daughter home and I said, Grab your vehicles, get out now.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_03: The meeting spot is my sister's house.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_03: Like her spot just became, you know, because it was higher ground.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_03: Sure.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_03: And then for the family who heard the evacuation over the radio, who had no idea if we heard it, they were scared and they were sending people to us to try to get to us to make sure that, you know, not knowing if they had time or not.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_03: My nephew from Fletcher was, you know, called his dad and said, I'm going out there, you know, like it's just one of those things.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_03: But we immediately grabbed the dogs, grabbed our vehicles, and bolted.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and I'll never forget my daughter was sitting in the front seat, crying her eyes out.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_03: And I said, Let's just pray, you know, that we're gonna make it out of this.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_03: And I said, But tell me if you see water in the mirror.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_03: Like, cause you just, it's like a movie thing.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_03: Like you just don't know what it looks like or feels like unless you're in that situation.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_06: Like you're watching the movie Twister and it's in the rearview mirror and it's getting closer.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, yes.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_03: And you're like, what are you gonna do if you see it?
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_03: You know, you don't know.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_03: Um, my daughter and her husband, and my son and grandson, they left before we did.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_03: So it was just us, and you just see everybody, you know, driving out.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_03: A lot of people went to the Swannanoa Bridge at Hartley Davidson because it was higher ground.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_03: A lot of people don't have anywhere to go.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, they don't have family that they can go to.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_03: You just have to find somewhere.
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_03: You know, that's a higher ground.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_06: Right.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_06: You know, not risk, but but it turns out that someone was taking advantage of the worst of our times, yeah.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_06: And to try and take advantage of folks.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_06: So somebody had called.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_03: It was a hoax.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_06: So somebody had called, and and it was the authorities that were, you know, because the communications wasn't as good as it normally was, there probably there was neither no time and no way to confirm the information.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_06: And and why would you expect somebody would lie about something?
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_06: So hey, this is just somebody being helpful, the dam is going down, and it wasn't.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_06: So somebody was hoping to loot.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_03: That's exactly what you know was going on.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_03: As soon as we got to my sister's house, you hear calls going on, looting, and and we're like, this is not happening.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_03: So we, you know, we sent my husband and my son-in-law went because we had just got groceries that day, and we're like, that's what people are looting, is supplies, you know.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_03: And so we went and loaded the they went back home and loaded the vehicle and brought it back to my sister's house, and we didn't feel safe.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_03: One of looting, two, because we didn't really know if the dam was going to break or not.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_06: I'm talking with business finance specialist Crystal Simpson as May is Mental Health Awareness Month.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_06: We're looking back at Hurricane Helene and how some of our employees went the extra mile to ensure solid mental health for our officers and fellow co-workers.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_06: So we've heard about the things that happened to you and your home and your family, your two evacuations.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_06: When was the first day that you came back to uh Asheville Police Department headquarters?
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_03: Wednesday.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_06: Wednesday.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_06: So a few days later.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_06: Those were crazy times here.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_03: I I I don't even know what I was gonna be doing, but I knew that I needed to be here to help out people who had not left yet or people who just needed a hug.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_06: I I was in the same kind of boat because you know, neither of us are sworn officers, right?
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_06: So we know that it is not our job to be out on the street doing something, but we also knew the people that were on the street would need help, and we didn't know exactly what kind of help they would need.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_06: Right.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_06: But it's time to pitch in.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_06: So where did you start your focus?
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_06: Where did you start to, you know, here's what I'm gonna do.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_03: So I came in Wednesday, um, me and my partner Kimberly, um, because we had texted each other Tuesday and said, you know, we have to be there.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_03: We we just have to.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_03: I don't know what, we don't know what it's gonna look like, but we're gonna be here.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_03: A couple days before that, on Saturday, I did come in because we had water here.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_06: Right.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and so I knew that I could get some supplies here if I needed them before anything.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, it was just because it was lingering that was left in the pipe.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_03: I saw somebody and I'd say, Do you need anything?
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_03: And I need this, this, this from the store.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_03: Can you go get it?
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_03: And I'm like, absolutely.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_03: I will find whatever store you need and I will go get it, you know.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_03: And so I was making supply runs for the officers who couldn't get supplies.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_06: Um I knew DC Armin needed some smokes.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, that's the one I'm referring to.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_06: It's okay.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_06: He'll tell you.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_03: But we made it happen.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_06: Stress level was pretty high because he needed a smoke.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, and we made it happen.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_03: Um it was an adventure, you know.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_03: So Wednesday we came in, hugged everybody we could hug, cry everybody we could cry to, and then we realized the magnitude of what was needed.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_03: And from then on, supplies were coming in left and right, food was coming in left and right.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_03: We just wanted to make sure everybody got fed.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_03: Every officer had what they needed.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_03: We ended up getting some kind of warehouse because they didn't have enough supplies or we didn't have enough room for all the supplies that were coming in.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_06: The one on East Tunnel Road.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_03: Um, Savannah came in, my daughter came in, worked with me every day.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_03: She was a security blanket for me at that time because I could not, I just needed something.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_03: And and that then they were my security blankets because this is mental health month.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_03: That was a lot that we went through.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_06: Sometimes, you know, you're you're helping others, which helps their mental health, but a lot of times you're helping because it's for your own mental health.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, yes.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_06: It's just, you know, helping people and just doing something besides just sitting around your house.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_06: Uh I mean, that's the wor that's a worst.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_03: Her and my husband were my security blanket.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_03: So I just had to have one of them with me pretty much at all times.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_03: However, it was still accomplishments to be here to help them.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_03: But bless her heart, she worked her tail off here, helping others too.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_03: She would get all the supplies.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_03: We had groceries coming in, we had toilet paper, paper towels, anything that was coming in that these officers needed at home that we knew that they didn't, they couldn't go to the store to get, or their families couldn't go to the store to get.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_03: They would fill out those little forms and we would have them ready for them within the next day, or with even within the same day, Savannah would fulfill their grocery item orders.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_06: So when I spoke with Captain Hawkins uh in a previous episode, I I mentioned that specifically, how efficient that was, how helpful that was.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_06: The first time that she put out the email that says we have you know these items.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_06: If there's something we don't have, let us know.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_06: We'll try and find it and whatever, like that.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_06: And at first I was a little hesitant.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_06: I'm like, this should go to the officers.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_06: This should go to and then she's like, no, no, no, we've got more than we need.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_06: We we've got to get this stuff out.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_06: We're getting donations, we've got to get this out of there.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_06: Go ahead.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_06: And I'm like, okay.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_06: So I put down a couple of things.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_06: I'm like, I could use some coffee, I could use some mana purse print, I could probably use some of the things.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_06: I just put it down, and then all of a sudden, you're like an alert.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_06: Ten minutes later, your box is ready.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_06: And I'm like, holy cow!
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_06: And then I go down to the first floor, and there it is.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_06: It's a manna from heaven.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_03: Once we started it, it was it was great.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_03: The officers were very thankful that we were doing that, you know.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_03: And that was the only thing that we could do to help, and that's what we were doing.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_06: Um, you and your department almost spoiled the rest of us with not only the supplies, but uh in that area, that similar area was also there's food constant.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, like meals were being donated, being prepared, being I mean, I would walk into work every day and I'd smell bacon.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, what a great way to start that.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_06: You talk about your mental health.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, you smell bacon when you're starting a day when it's it's a very stressful day, and you're like, today's gonna be okay.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_06: I I know I'm gonna have like a bagel sandwich with bacon and my coffee.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_03: If that's what we needed to do, that's what we did.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_06: And you're like, you know, the rest of it.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_03: That's what made it happen.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_03: That's what made it happen.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, and you guys were doing that.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_03: And then the days up to the warehouse, you know, my husband and son worked at their job for eight hours, chopping trees down at their neighborhood that they worked in.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and then they would come and stay with us at the warehouse from 4 30 until 10 o'clock at night, helping, you know, unloading the trucks, making sure everything was separated out.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_03: It was, it was a lot within those 10 days, or you know, how many every days that we had that warehouse?
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_03: It was a lot of sweat, blood, tears.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_06: Um I remember walking into that warehouse and it was just things were just piled up.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_03: Yes.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, I'm like, oh my gosh, there's more stuff here than I could possibly imagine.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_06: Things had been just sorted out by, okay, here's the toilet paper pile.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_06: And when I say pile, I'm talking like a 10-foot-tall pyramid of toilet paper.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_06: And then you've got the same thing over there with maybe energy drinks, and over there with water, and over there.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, it's like it's like, holy cow, and take a shopping cart and just go through.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_06: We're so grateful.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_06: So, yeah, we couldn't have done it without all those amazing donations.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_06: But without the logistics to get it together, to get it distributed, it could have gone to waste.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_06: I know for myself personally, I felt the most unsettled and useless when I was home.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_06: No, when you're home, that's usually your castle.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_06: This is your happy space.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_06: I didn't want to be home.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_03: I couldn't be home.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_06: It was dark.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_06: It was, you know, there's no water, there's no electricity, and there's almost no noise in your neighborhood that late at night.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_06: It was very unsettling.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_06: And I had my police radio with me too, uh, which I don't usually take, but Deputy Chief Artemis told you just take your radio.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_06: You need your radio.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_06: So that's how you and so hearing what was going on around town, you're hearing it.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_06: You're hearing about this looting here and this happening over there, and you're just like, it is a scary time out there.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_06: Very and and I just wanted to get back here to do what I could to help people, and I know that's what compelled you to do what you did.
• 17:12
  SPEAKER_03: And on the weekends and during the daytime, like the weekends, my husband would come in because the officers that were helping us from different districts and different locations, they needed to be fed too, but they weren't allowed to leave their post because they were working, you know, at certain posts.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_03: So we did food deliveries.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_03: Okay.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_03: Yes, we did the east all of the East Asheville area because we kind of knew that area.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_03: And there was not a day that went by that my husband, you know, sometimes they weren't at their station where they were supposed to be because they were somewhere else.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_03: And he was like, No, we are not leaving them unfed.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_03: Like, we are going to buy them and we are going to feed them.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_03: And they were very appreciative of everything that we were doing for all of them.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_03: The other logistics people, Brett, Curtis, all of them were Chad, donate like they went to other other agencies or other regions.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_03: Um, we all made sure that all of the outside agencies were fed.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_03: And then on the way home, there was one out in East Asheville who had our numbers, and we said, if you want dinner, once we get home and cook dinner, we'll, you know, we'll swing back by here and cook you dinner because it was on our way home.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_03: And that was one thing that made us feel okay, you know, knowing that we were feeding the officers that weren't getting fed, or you know, and and we are just appreciated that the fact that they were here, you know, helping and just talking to them and just, you know, it was a difficult time.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_06: You know, in a way, it's it's similar to kind of how a lot of people look at Christmas.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_06: It's like it's great to get gifts, but I don't know, me personally, I prefer to give them.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_06: You know, it and that's kind of what that felt like.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_06: It's like I I want to help someone because it it's helping them, but it's also helping me.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_06: You know, it just it feels good to help others.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_06: You can't just sit around on your thumbs when that is going on.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_06: We need to keep talking about it.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_03: I cry every time I talk about it.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_03: I cry every single time still I hear someone that I haven't heard from.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_03: But it's it's like joyful tears.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_03: It's sad tears, but joyful tears at the same time.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_03: And at that moment, it was like what is it, the fight or flight?
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_03: Um, and we are all just fighting, you know.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_03: And we just accepted that as our new normal.
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_03: And so it was upsetting sometimes because whenever here, you know, it was normal.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_03: Um, but then when we drive home, it's not normal to some people, but it was our normal.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_03: But day by day, yeah, we rejoice at the fact that there's a new road open, you know, we rejoice the fact that we can use our bridge again.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_03: So every day it's milestones where I live in Swantanoa.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_03: Um, because, you know, every day, or it's sad because you see another building torn down.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_03: But you know that it has to happen.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_06: And here we are eight months later, in a way, it seems like forever ago, but also in a way, it feels like it was just yesterday.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_06: Because the the memories are they're incredibly vivid.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_06: What I think came out of this in a good way is that as a community, as families, as co-workers, as all these things, if we can handle that, you gotta think there's nothing we can't handle.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_03: Exactly.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_03: Uh because we saw a lot of people come together.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_03: A lot of people come together.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_03: That was great.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, we saw, you know, the bad stuff, but the good stuff outweighed the bad stuff for sure in this in the hurricane.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_06: You wish that it would be like this more often.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_06: You know, you wish that people would support each other more often.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_06: And this is what it takes for us to come together, then you know, at least we came together.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_06: And maybe some people that wouldn't normally relate to each other on a different end of the political spectrum or whatever, maybe they developed an appreciation for each other that'll maybe last a little longer as well.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_06: You never know.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_06: You know, doing a small part out of tragedy sometimes comes triumph.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_06: And uh, we certainly are survivors here, even though we lost quite a few of our our neighbors, our friends.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_06: Um people obviously suffered a lot more than others, but we all suffered some, as they say.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_06: And wanted to thank you during Mental Health Awareness Month for being there for all the fellow officers and your fellow co-workers and contributing uh to their mental health and keeping them at a high energy level so they could do their jobs, which is way different than our jobs.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_03: All I could offer was hugs at that point, and that's all I did, and that's all they wanted because they you know they hadn't been able to see their family or they hadn't been able to do anything other than go, go, go, go, go.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_03: They just needed a minute to stop and cry and just think for a minute, you know.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_06: Never underestimate the power of a of an embrace, yes, of a good hug.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_06: Yes.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_06: And sometimes that's all you need.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_06: Sergeant Brandon Schope joins me right now, continuing with the theme of May being Mental Health Awareness Month and the importance of that.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_06: During a very stressful time, Hurricane Helene.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_06: So we're looking back a little less than eight months and seeing how certain employees, or in this case, an employee and their offspring, went the extra mile to ensure the mental health of the Asheville Police Department officers and others.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_06: Things they experienced, ways they helped.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_06: Sergeant Schope, thanks for joining me.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you, Rick.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_06: So you had a rather unique situation, and our conversation will involve what happened to both you and your daughter, Delia.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_06: So you were scheduled to be promoted to sergeant the day of the The storm, September 27th.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_06: Obviously, that was put on hold.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_06: So there's people you're going to need to contact to let know.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_06: We have no communications.
• 22:10
  SPEAKER_06: So there's that.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_06: And then there's what happens when you show up to work here with your daughter Delia and how she chips in to help feed the masses, both the Asheville Police Department officers and law enforcement from North Carolina and beyond.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_06: Let's start with the day of the storm, Friday, September 27th.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_06: Walk us through that.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_07: Sure.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_07: Several people and I were supposed to be promoted that day.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_07: They canceled the ceremony and were assisting with rescues and road closures.
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_07: And I went back home, I turned my department radio on just so I could have something to listen to, something to do, and r was realizing just how hard of a time they had with uh finding food to help, you know, feed people that were here working.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_07: Well, I could hear over the radio that they had been from Black Mountain to Deep Haywood County and had not f found any place open to buy food.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_07: The thought crossed my mind that the Grove Park would uh potentially maybe have some food that they had been preparing for their Friday night all you can eat buffets.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_07: And so I used the radio to make that suggestion to the watch commander, and he said, Good, you go work on that.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_07: And I'm like, Well, I'm not really at work, I'm at home.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_07: And he says, Okay, we'll plan on coming in in the morning.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_07: This was probably 6 37 at night.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_06: Okay.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_07: We're talking about Friday.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_07: Friday.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_07: Friday, gotcha.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_07: A couple hours go by and I well, maybe not even that long.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_07: I had started to work on trying to figure out how to get food because I could continue to hear them having a hard time finding something.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_07: All those people had to have something to eat while they were here, or they were going to leave.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, nobody's got power.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_06: Okay.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_06: And some places were just plain fluttered out.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_06: And even if you had power and you had all that, your employees couldn't get to where you were.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_06: So that explains why everything was closed.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_07: Communication was limited to us, to just our radio system.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_07: Right.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_07: So it was unique.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_07: I'd never been through it.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_07: I've been here since 2012, and it you know, to say the least, it was interesting.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_07: I continued to listen and started to formulate my own plan to try to help.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_07: And I reached out to a local farmer, he's actually a city employee, works for uh the division of the city that does home inspections, like new homes.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_07: I gotcha.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_07: I'm pretty sure.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_07: And he kind of informally donated a lot of beef.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_07: They raised beef cattle.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_07: And I took two coolers and two grills from my house, and we come in that night at uh you but sometime between ten and eleven, we got to the police.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_07: And when I say we, me, my family m my wife and my stepsons, my son and my daughter.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_07: Our plan was to cook and try to help feed everyone.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_07: When we crossed the Smoky Park Bridge, all of a sudden we got internet service back, and I I kept seeing well, I didn't see it until I pulled in the parking lot at the police department, but my wife was crying.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_07: We'd found out that my aunt's house burnt down.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_07: Oh wow.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_07: And the fire trucks, because of road closures and washouts, couldn't get to her.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_07: It was very sad.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_07: We uh they had found some food that night in the meantime that I didn't know about.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_07: I set my grills up, put things in freezers, put ice on stuff, and uh planned to come back early the next morning.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_07: And for the next four days, my daughter, Delia, she she came to help and you and Lupe and other people that that were down there with us, and we'd set up in the in the back of the police department in the uh forensics bay and kind of run an impromptu kitchen, which was difficult because uh we were washing dishes with large bottles of water and you know, all the food prep was done that way, just on flat top grills and griddles.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, but you guys did a bang up job.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_06: I I mean it it's quite the undertaking doing that, the logistics of it, as you mentioned.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_06: So you you can't just pour a faucet, you can't rinse something off, you can't I remember those days, and things kind of all run together a little bit in your mind.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_06: You remember certain things really vividly, really specifically.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_06: And then others, you're like, when was that?
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_06: A day after, a week after, two weeks after.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_06: But I remember that, and they opened up the forensics bay.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, and I'd never even been in that room before.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_06: I just had no reason to.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_06: So I didn't I didn't even know it was there.
• 25:59
  SPEAKER_06: And it's right out back there uh in our back parking lot, opens up to our back parking lot.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_06: And we were fortunate, and and at least at that time, the weather was nice.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_06: So we could all be we could all be outside.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_06: So we're putting tables out for people to eat on, and you were doing cook uh cooking, and Delia was doing cooking, and you guys were just doing an amazing job.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_07: She's a teen, she's thirteen.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_07: I've no that's the first time I've seen her step up so in such a dramatic fashion to try to be a help to other people and be a part of something that's uh not easy.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_07: You know?
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_06: It was a difficult thing.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_07: It's really impressive, and I'm proud of her for you.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_06: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_06: It was difficult for adults, people like ourselves.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_06: Uh imagine somebody that's, you know, her age, 13.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_06: That's right.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_06: Uh and just stepping up.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_06: That must have made you proud.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_06: Very proud, yeah.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_07: I could tell that she had just an interest in helping.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_07: She likes to meet all the people.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_07: She liked to be a part of it and be accepted.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_07: It really made a big difference for her, I think.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_06: And you know, even though she was doing so much for others, in a way I'm sure that helped her mental health.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_07: I would try to get her to stay home thinking that, you know, maybe she would just especially once power started to come back on days later.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_07: Her mother and I are are divorced, but her mother was going to go to the beach because they didn't get their power back for more than a week.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_07: And they had a place to stay at Myrtle Beach.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_07: I'm like, you need to go.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_07: And she absolutely refused.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_07: I said, do you think they're gonna have internet and showers and food?
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_07: She didn't want none of it.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_07: She wanted to stay.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_07: She ended up going, but I couldn't let her stick around and and waste that opportunity to go relax.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, people asked me that had similar connections.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_06: It's like, listen, I have a place to go for about a month, should I?
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_06: And I'm like, absolutely.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_06: And that's people of any age.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_06: So for her to attempt to turn that down.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_06: She did not want to go.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_06: I had to talk her into it.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_06: That shows what kind of a young lady you've raised.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_06: I'm proud of her.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_06: And so does she look back at those days now, too?
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_06: Is it something that she looks back up?
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_06: And I hate to say fondly because it was such a difficult time for so many people.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_06: And you'd mentioned your your aunt lost her home, and some people lost, you know, lost family members and friends, and and the flooding and the death.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_06: It was all just such part of a horrible time.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_06: But we can pull good things out of it.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_07: Does she do that?
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_07: Uh she definitely does.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_07: She's got more of a connection to the police department now, too.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_07: Like she wants to come here all the time.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_07: She developed a relationship with Debbie LaCroix and the community engagement division.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_07: She's going to participate in the uh uh what's it called for the uh like high schoolers to come do a almost like a community.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_06: Oh, the uh the citizens police academy.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, not the junior police.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_06: So if she were to if she were to come to you and okay, she's thirteen.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_06: So let's say six or seven years and say, Dad, I want to do what you do.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_07: I would want better for her than for myself, like like most parents, but I would support her, you know, if that's what her aspirations are.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_07: I hope that she makes the best of whatever she chooses.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, even if she doesn't choose this, you know, as a profession, I think she's by seeing everything and and seeing public service and what gets done by you and the fellow officers on a regular basis, it's opened up her eyes, I would think, right?
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_07: Oh, yeah, yeah.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_06: And and I understand that that feeling of importance and purpose.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_06: That's why a lot of us do this.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_06: Aaron Powell, How about you?
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_06: How do you look back at those days?
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_06: The day of, the the following days.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_06: You did finally get your promotional ceremony.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_07: We did.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_07: I think it was in early early or mid-December we finally got our promotion.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_07: But uh technically the promotion went into effect that day.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_07: Uh and by the following Wednesday after that Friday, I started my role.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_07: They're like, you're done cooking, go go to night shift and start learning to be a supervisor.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_07: So it only affected me for that short time versus others that were down here, you know, helping put food away and and and do things for people for well more than a month.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_07: For me, it was it lasted about four or five days.
• 29:36
  SPEAKER_07: Chicken, steak, anything.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_07: And people started realizing, hey, I I need to bring my food in out of the freezer or it's going to be lost.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_07: So we would cook food that people would bring from their homes that they had in the freezer.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_07: We made it last until FEMA started providing I think it was FEMA, I don't know who started to provide us meals.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah, and we got a lot of donations from local restaurants in the meantime.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_07: That's right.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_07: That that uh the CED and all those people were packing food away in the uh downstairs training rooms for us.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_06: We had food trucks pulling to the back parking lot.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_07: We had like a pizza food truck one time, we had Mexican, we had all kinds of stuff back to be honest, it was a it was a a terrible time for a lot of people, but it's probably the most camaraderie that I've seen at the police department in my tenure here.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, I was only here at the time.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_06: Uh I I joined the Asheville Police Department in March, late March.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_06: So for me, it was only I I only been here for, you know, like half a year.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_06: And it's still getting to know people.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, we've got a couple hundred employees, and a lot of employees aren't even here in the building a lot.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_06: They're, you know, if they're doing night shift or they're doing out on the street, I don't even get a chance to meet them.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_06: So I actually met a lot for the very first time.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_06: Uh so to what you you speak of a little bit, it was kind of good in a way, the camaraderie, the relationship building, and things of that nature.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_06: We're I think we're a closer department than we were before it.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_07: I agree 100%.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_07: And meeting other departments, other members of other departments from across probably the Southeast.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_07: I mean, we had people coming to help us from Mississippi, Alabama, maybe Michigan.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_06: I know we had uh we had we had troopers from Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_06: I remember them coming in.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_06: I had to help them get situated.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_06: Uh we had them from all over the state to be certain.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_06: I know we had rescuers from New Jersey, we had firefighters from California.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_06: So yeah, they were coming from all over the country to help us out, and it was good to see all that.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_07: Those first two, three, four days, though, it was just us, and it felt good to that to watch people kind of pull together and band together and be told thank you, be told you're doing a good job, all that stuff.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_07: I thrive on that like a lot of people do.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_07: And so does Delia.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_06: You said she listens to the podcast, huh?
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_07: I believe she does.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_07: Does she really tuned in to anything that's involved with the police department right now?
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_06: Well, if she does, hopefully she listens to this episode.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_06: And let me, on behalf of the Asheville Police Department, I know your Delia, your dad has already, I'm sure, expressed uh his thanks and gratitude.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_06: On behalf of the rest of the APD, thank you.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_06: I agree.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_06: And thank you for joining me.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you, Rick.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_06: While talking with Sergeant Brandon Chope, you might have heard him mention Lupe as somebody else that helped cook and feed the masses during Hurricane Helene.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_06: Also known as police trainee Maria Bengal, she joins me now.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you for having me here.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_06: Now I know you as Lupe.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_06: Do your friends call you Lupe?
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_06: Friends call you Maria.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_06: Who calls you what?
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_02: So I everybody knows me as Lupe.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_02: I think Maria is more of a formal name, but I'm okay with either one.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_02: I prefer Lupe, but if you want to call me Maria, that's fine.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_06: Well, for now I'll call you Lupe.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_02: Sounds great.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_06: Until you are officially on the streets as a solo officer, and then I'll have to call you Officer Bengal.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_06: And there's already an officer Bengal here, so that could get a little bit confusing.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_06: Yes.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_06: So you are not the only Bengal in the Asheville Police Department.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_02: No, I'm not.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_02: Mary to Mark Bengal.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_06: So as May is Mental Health Awareness Month, what we are doing is looking back at Hurricane Helene, which can you believe was eight months ago coming up?
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's that's kind of wild.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_06: It is weird, isn't it?
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, I don't think you'd been here very long when the storm arrived on September 27th.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_06: And maybe because of that, you were available to do all the things that you did, including cooking for so many and feeding so many in what essentially became the first floor commissary in what was the first floor patrol training room.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_06: Something I'll never forget is when I entered the building every morning, the first thing I would smell was bacon.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_02: I cooked a lot of bacon.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_06: You cooked a lot of bacon.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, and eggs.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_06: Have you estimated the poundage of bacon that you cooked during that stretch?
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_02: No, I don't think I have.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_02: It was a lot.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_06: So you were down, you were down in the first floor training room.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_06: Yes.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_06: And it was one of the things that uh that you and others were doing to help the officers was providing food on a daily basis, which seems like a small thing, but it's really a big thing.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_06: You know, I mean, I I'm sure you saw the smiles in everyone's faces.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I actually had one officer from out of town said, like, this is the first warm meal that I had in a week.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_02: So to me, that was like, it felt good to know that I was like, like you said, even though it was a small thing, I was making them feel better about being here and helping the community and stuff like that.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_06: Right.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_06: So it wasn't just the Asheville Police Department officers that you were helping.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_06: We were getting help from all over the state, all over the country, and they needed to be fed as well.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, they did.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm I'm glad that I was able to do that.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_06: So how did it come to be that you were down there cooking all of a sudden?
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_06: Did you just jump right in?
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_02: So I actually started September 23rd here at APD.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_06: And four days before.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_02: And that September 25th, we're supposed to go to the ranch, and obviously that didn't ever happen.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_02: Uh and then I showed up, I was trying to uh get in contact with my sergeant, Sergeant Morgan, and Lieutenant Boyce, but no cell phone, no nothing at the time.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_02: So I just showed up and Lieutenant Hogan was like, What are you good at?
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, Anything.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_02: And he's like, Okay, so go down to the first uh floor training room and uh help uh Debbie LaCroix is what he said.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't know Debbie at the time.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_02: So I was like, okay.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_02: So I waited.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_02: She finally showed up, and then uh that's how it really started.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_02: I started helping Debbie, and then she was like, Well, this is what we're gonna do.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_02: And then from there, we just started making breakfast for everybody.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_06: Man, every day I would come in here getting spoiled, and I'm like, walk downstairs, get a bagel sandwich, and start your day.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_06: So something like that, when you're super stressed, like that time was for everybody, it changes everything.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_06: It really does.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, just having a warm meal to start the day with for us, or so I I don't know how you felt about it at the time.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_06: I know we were just you were just trying to fit in, but from somebody that got to enjoy the food at the time, thank you.
• 35:44
  SPEAKER_06: Because it was amazing.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_06: And it wasn't just you, it was a family affair.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_06: Because there was a time in the back parking lot that was it your mother that was here, right?
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_02: Mama was here one time because uh she wanted to do something as well, and she's like, hey, you know, let's let's make tacos for everybody.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_02: And I was like, I think that sounds great.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_02: So it it was a good turnout.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_02: I think everybody enjoyed them.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_06: So my gosh, steak tacos for all.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_06: So that was about a month, I think, after the storm it sounds somewhere.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_02: I believe so, yeah.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_06: And is that about how long you were downstairs in the first floor cooking for everybody?
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_06: Was it a did it last that long?
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_06: Those days kind of blend together, don't they?
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_02: They they blend together, but I'm pretty sure I was here, I think, almost every day until they told me like you have to take some days.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_02: Like you had to take a day off.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, I remember seeing you every day.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_06: I'm like every day walk downstairs, there's Lupe making breakfast, doing whatever she's doing, making lunch, sticking around, helping the folks.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_06: So now, where are you in your uh progress right now?
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_06: You're an officer trainee.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_06: How much longer until you're out there in uniform?
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_02: We'll be taking her uh state exam June 9th, and then we got post-BLET, so after that, FDO, so I think maybe August or so.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_06: It's been a wild ride so far, huh?
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, it has been.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_02: It has been.
• 37:00
  SPEAKER_02: It has been a great experience, though.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_06: Not traditional.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_02: Not traditional at all.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_06: So your husband Mark, uh, how much could he prepare for you any of this?
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, obviously the storm, way different than anything anyone expected.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_06: But as far as your progress as a future police officer, did has he had a lot of advice for you?
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_02: Uh he has some advice, uh, but I'm a very kind of like I want to do it myself first and find out.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_02: And then um I I do listen to some advice and stuff like that, but I kind of want to do it myself and go from there.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_02: So he tries, but I'm more of a I want to try it first.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_02: And if it doesn't work, then yes.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_06: Has anything thus far be it the classroom or physical training or the range?
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_06: Is it anything kind of put a bug in your ear as to where you'd like to specialize at some point as an officer?
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_02: I can't really think of anything.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_02: I kind of just want to try it all first and see because I I think it's different being at school and actually being out there in the field and doing your thing.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_02: Because at school you have to do it a certain way and follow, you know, guidelines.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_02: And and you do the same work, but you don't have somebody kind of looking and you know the whole time.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_02: So it's it's kind of like I I'm not sure.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_06: Well, you got plenty of time to figure that out, I guess.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, I do.
• 38:11
  SPEAKER_02: I do.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_06: And a lot of a lot of time to make a decision on what you want to do.
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_06: But uh are you enjoying the process so far?
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, I have been.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_02: It's kind of hard, um, but it's I think it's gonna paid off at the end.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_06: So what's been the hardest part?
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_02: Test.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_02: Testing.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_06: The book working.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, that's the hardest part, I believe.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_06: Is it?
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, it's completely different.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_06: So is it different than what you expected?
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yes.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, it's completely different from uh what I expected for sure.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_02: And then uh uh like this is my second time going through the academy.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_02: So um the first time that I went, it was a different book.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_02: The way the book is written is completely different from the first one.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_02: So it's it's definitely like a pretty much a new curriculum in a way.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_06: So you're just almost starting over.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's starting over, definitely for sure.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_02: Definitely more hours and everything.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_06: So when you look back on this years from now and talk about how you got started at the police department, it's sometimes when you're just getting started anywhere, those days just kind of are not memorable because you're just so lost.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_06: But there's no way you're gonna forget how you started.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_02: Oh no, I don't think I will.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, when you're on the job less than a week and here comes the biggest catastrophe of the history of Western North Carolina, and then you are thrust into unknown territory to do a thing you didn't expect, but provided so much stress relief and so much mental well-being for all the officers.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_06: It's gotta feel good though, right?
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it does feel good.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think it does.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_06: To be able to contribute, like immediately.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, even if it's not like a major thing, it it to me it was like not a big deal doing that.
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_02: Like having something for somebody to eat and stuff like that, it's uh it's a great feeling.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_02: Like it really is.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_02: Like it might be a little, but to me, I'm sure that I made some people's days for sure.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_06: Times like that, it's the little things that mean the most.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_06: Yes.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_06: To be honest with you.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_06: You're right.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_06: They really are.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_06: Lupe, thanks for sitting down with us and telling your story.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_06: And and best of luck congratulation and starting on the road.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_02: Appreciate it.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_06: As we continue our conversations about Mental Health Awareness Month, we are joined by mental health clinician with responder services, Joel and Reindress.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_06: Let's start with just a little lay of the land for people that aren't aware.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_06: What exactly is it you do for the officers of the Asheville Police Department?
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_01: With the officers at the Asheville Police Department, me and two other clinicians provide mental health counseling, so regular mental health counseling, things that you're used to.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_01: We also provide uh what we call like brief interventions.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_01: If something difficult happened, a difficult call, we might stop by and see a group of people at their at our little outpost stations, or jump in and have a ride-along with them.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_01: So that's another one of the ways that we work here with the Asheville Police Department and the officers is we go on ride-alongs.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_01: So that could be with patrol, or it could be with forensics, or it could be with CID.
• 40:59
  SPEAKER_01: So we, you know, hang out with them for a certain length of time.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_01: We get out on calls and see what they see.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_01: We go to meetings that they go to, that type of thing.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so we try to be with them as much as possible when we're not doing one-to-one therapy with other people.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_06: Safe to say that in high stress situations, your uh your skills are in demand.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_06: So, Hurricane Helene, I would imagine that you had a lot of people to talk to and a lot of people that you helped during that time.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, it in the days that followed, the weeks, the months, the stress levels were high.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_06: Tell us what that was like and how you were able to help.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_01: Responder Support Services has several clinicians.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_01: There are, like I mentioned, there are three of us that are affiliated with the Asheville Police and Fire Department.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_01: And that would be me, Amy, and Rachel.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_01: So we decided to uh hold different roles during that time.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um I have actually deployed to a lot of hurricanes before.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_01: So my bag was packed, my house was good.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, my problem was trying to get here for Hendersonville, and actually that's the most traumatic thing for me.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_01: The part was I couldn't be with my people when they needed me right away.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_01: I got here the next day.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_01: I stayed with the firefighters in the station.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_01: I took the role of spending time with the body recovery team.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_01: And in the evenings, at night, I would go on a ride along with the police officer that we may have thought was struggling, that something happened to their house, or they had tried to save someone, they couldn't save that person, or you know, whatever other reasons.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, there was a lot of flooding between here and Hendersonville.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_06: That people couldn't get here to there, and like there was all over the place.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_06: It was just difficult to get around.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_06: So the fact that it only took you one day, actually, it's quite the accomplishment.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, well, we um I had figured it, I had called some people and figured out a route to get here.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_06: I know it must be incredibly rewarding to help others, but it's it's gotta lay heavy on you as well.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_06: Because as a just an ultimate listener of all these stories absorbing all of this, how do you do during these times?
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_06: How's your mental health actually during times like this when it's you're just all completely all in 24-7 helping others?
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_01: I think knowing a little bit about mental health is helpful.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_01: So if I know that I can tell if I'm not sleeping, probably why I'm not sleeping and what and I have ways to cope to take care of those types of things.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_01: But for Rachel and Amy and I during that time, there was things that we could actually do to be useful and to help, and that we knew we're gonna, you know, we can't take away people's trauma, but we can probably mitigate the symptoms for it, or just uh what the firefighters and other officers talked about was my presence alone was what helped them, was comforting to them.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_01: Uh they knew that people were gonna be taken care of.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_01: They knew that the public works people would be taken care of.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_01: If they had to see something, that there'd be somebody right there that would be helpful to them.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_01: Amy went from station to station to check on firefighters that were having to having to, you know, deal with the kids.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_01: Community members, and I mean that in the best way, but they didn't have any answers either.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_01: And not being able to be helpful during that time is very terribly and can be traumatizing to firefighters because they're used to being able to have something to do to fix something.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_01: So I think for Rachel, Amy and I, it gave us this opportunity to be useful in a way that, you know, is particular to our relationship with them and what we do.
• 44:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that I know that that is a resiliency building experience to be able to have.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_01: So yes, there is there is a lot of trauma trauma to see, but there's still something to be done about it.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_01: Like the bad things happened, but we're all still here.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, and you know, people need someone to talk to that not only understands and can offer maybe some advice, but also somebody that's not like it, let's say in their chain of command, or somebody that the officers they certainly don't want to seem like they're struggling, like they're weak because they're trying to put on the solid front.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_06: You know, this is what they do.
• 45:01
  SPEAKER_06: You know, they protect and serve and and save others, and and so they're of course 100% you know made of steel, but no one is.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_06: So to have somebody like you to kind of let them know what they're going through and and get them recharged again, that means everything.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_01: The the difference between Rachel, Amy, and I and the other clinicians at responder support services are are that we expect you to be culturally competent.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_01: I come from a law enforcement family.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_01: My grandfathers, my uncles, my ex-husband, my son, my sister-in-law, or all are all or we're all in law enforcement.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_01: So I have an different understanding of the culture and definitely an understanding of that need to feel like you're in charge and not show weakness, right?
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_01: Because I saw it in especially all the males in my family, right?
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um when I see that, there's ways that I know that I can talk to people and ways that Amy and Rachel know that they can talk to people that they will feel like they're being valued, validated, and no one's gonna push their buttons or expect them to hold hold hands with us and sing kumba.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 46:10
  SPEAKER_06: So you went along with a lot of our officers right alongside so you saw some things.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_06: Yep.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_06: What are some of the visual images that you'll never forget?
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_06: Some of the things that you'll never forget.
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I'll tell you about my own my own experience um with secondary trauma, which is what you were talking about, like how do we hold it together and how how are we okay?
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_01: The thing that was disturbing to me is the thing that always is, and it's the look on first responders' faces.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_01: There's a look of devastation sometimes that I catch that sticks with me over and over again.
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_01: And there and that happened um this time too.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_01: And I've I've learned to talk about that, talk about that face that I see with um people I trust, talk about what I'm what I'm experiencing because of that.
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_01: And it's the for me, try to talk it to the point where it's uh the pain I experience with that, the over because it usually just makes me feel overwhelmed and you know, sad, is supposed to be there because I have empathy and I have a lot of it for them.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_01: I have a better ability to reach the reach them than other people might because of that empathy.
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, there's gonna be pain, but there always is.
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_01: So it gives me perspective.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_06: One of the things that I've noticed when we talk with others about helping people, like we've spoken with several other people as part of this particular episode, is sometimes you'd mentioned it already about feeling helpless and just wanting to do something.
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_06: Yes.
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_06: And you know, that's not just people that do what you do or people that are police officers.
• 47:33
  SPEAKER_06: It's just it feels good to just jump in there and help others.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_06: Otherwise, just standing there doing nothing in the time of this catastrophe, boy, that's the most helpless thing of all.
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_06: That's the kind of thing that'll drive you nuts.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_01: If you think about what trauma really is, you kind of just defined it.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_01: It's something happening to you and you have no control over it, right?
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_01: So when you feel helpless, that's a time where you can be traumatized.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_01: So yes, humans want to have something to be able to do.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_01: And when every when they don't feel like they have anything to control, that's when trauma starts.
• 48:07
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 48:07
  SPEAKER_06: And we were all helpless to the effects of what this storm did.
• 48:10
  SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
• 48:10
  SPEAKER_06: So we all just tried to even do just the littlest bit of something for somebody besides yourself.
• 48:16
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, you just find yourself doing it.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_06: You don't even realize why you're doing it.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_06: Oh, let me help.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_06: You know, it's just like maybe you wouldn't have done that the day before.
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's our human instinct to write, to write our own ships to be resilient.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_01: That little bit of help reduces your stress chemicals and increases the good chemicals that help you out when you help another person.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that that's part of our, you know, our survival instinct to take care of ourselves after something bad happens.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_01: So there's that.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_01: Then there's the agency, which goes against the lack of control, right?
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I don't know, I can sweep this floor, it might get dirty again, but if I got, you know, there's one thing I can do, and I can sweep this floor, right?
• 48:55
  unknown: Yeah.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_06: The the immediate gratification.
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_01: Uh-huh.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, I find myself vacuuming my house a lot when I get stressed.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_06: Because it's like I can see the lines from the vacuum.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_06: I can see it picked up.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_06: It's very safe.
• 49:06
  SPEAKER_06: I did something.
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_06: Yes.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_06: Right?
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_06: Right.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_06: And as we uh kind of recognize May as mental health awareness month, not to put you on the spot and make a generic thing, but if you could offer some advice to people that maybe they don't even know they're struggling.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_06: Maybe they are struggling.
• 49:21
  SPEAKER_06: And it it might be something big, something small.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_06: What would be just a few things that you would offer to them, some things they can do for themselves?
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_01: Routine is really important.
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_01: So whatever routines that you have that are good for you, do those.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_01: I use a check-in partner that is allowed to call me on any of my crap.
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_01: So usually if I'm getting stressed out, I will do things like cancel, cancel like plans with people.
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_01: I just want to stay home, stay to myself.
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_01: And my some of my friends and family are allowed to call me on that if they know I'm doing that kind of behavior.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_01: And then I got to go do something else, figure out how to get rid of my stress because what I'm doing's not working, right?
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_01: Uh so we know routine.
• 49:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I talked about having somebody you trust that can check in with you, making sure you're getting good sleep.
• 50:05
  SPEAKER_01: If you don't know about sleep hygiene, find out some stuff about sleep hygiene.
• 50:09
  SPEAKER_01: It'll be really helpful for you for your rest of your life.
• 50:12
  SPEAKER_01: Eating well, uh, we don't always do that well either.
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_01: Being around people, like I talked, helping other people.
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_01: I already talked about that.
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_01: That can reduce our stress chemicals, and that's what we're talking about.
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_01: Doing uh things like you talked about, like vacuuming.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_01: So here's something that I know, the outcome.
• 50:29
  SPEAKER_01: Like if I scramble these eggs, I will have eggs for breakfast and I will eat these eggs, or practicing something you're good at.
• 50:36
  SPEAKER_01: We call that mastery, right?
• 50:38
  SPEAKER_01: So doing something you're already kind of good at.
• 50:40
  SPEAKER_01: So for me, that would be doing the easy crossword puzzles and instead of like doing really hard ones, doing something I'm easy that's easy for me gives me those wins.
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_06: So kind of do the simple things, execute the simple things, finish things, and just you know, focus on that to focus on yourself.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_01: And exercise and nature are medicine.
• 51:01
  SPEAKER_06: I couldn't agree with that more.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_06: There's two things that I do when I know I'm in a funk.
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_04: Yep.
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_06: One is going a long hike by myself, and the other is go to the gym.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_04: Yep.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_06: Those are the two things that I do.
• 51:11
  SPEAKER_06: And they're different.
• 51:12
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_06: You know, the going into nature, you know, the John Muir thing.
• 51:16
  SPEAKER_06: Yes, that's one thing.
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_06: But then going to pump iron and break a sweat, that's another thing.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_06: So I know those are two things, and vacuuming.
• 51:24
  SPEAKER_06: So something about the vacuum.
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_06: I don't know.
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_06: I think I get that from my dad.
• 51:28
  SPEAKER_06: But on behalf of the Asheville Police Department, thank you for helping all the officers and continuing to help all the officers because they need you.
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_01: It's my privilege.
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_06: Geroline, thank you for joining me.
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_06: Sergeant Lucas Lovelace joins us now from the community engagement division.
• 51:44
  SPEAKER_06: And, you know, we always talk about what you guys are doing, the fun that you're having.
• 51:48
  SPEAKER_06: Yes, sir.
• 51:48
  SPEAKER_06: So, you know, thanks for joining us to talk a little bit more about the activities that you guys do.
• 51:53
  SPEAKER_06: But I thought today we would talk a little bit more about some of the other things that you do, some of the services that you offer to fellow officers, to the community.
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_06: Because I worked for a baseball team at one point, and they had their on-field team.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_06: I think they were called like the ambassadors of fun or something.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_06: And so that kind of describes some of the stuff that you guys do, right?
• 52:17
  SPEAKER_06: Absolutely.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_06: Out and about we're playing chess with the citizens, we got coffee with a cop, we're having picnics, but you guys are much more than that.
• 52:25
  SPEAKER_06: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 52:25
  SPEAKER_08: Yes, we we're more than just, unfortunately, party planners.
• 52:29
  SPEAKER_08: That's not all we do.
• 52:30
  SPEAKER_08: We do a lot.
• 52:30
  SPEAKER_08: We do a lot.
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_08: I have a great group of officers that are embedded in their communities, in their neighborhoods, and trying to address a lot of quality of life issues.
• 52:39
  SPEAKER_08: So each one of our community resource officers is assigned to a different district.
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_08: And I don't know if we've talked about this in the past, um, but I did want to just give everybody an overview of who they are and where they're at.
• 52:51
  SPEAKER_08: And so if somebody's listening, they know exactly who they want to reach out to, whether it's Officer Kerry Lee or Isaiah Signac.
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_08: So, first of all, if you're okay with that, I'd like to go through that.
• 53:01
  SPEAKER_08: Let's do that.
• 53:01
  SPEAKER_08: Uh so Isaiah Signac, he is he's one of our community resource officers.
• 53:05
  SPEAKER_08: He covers Central and North Asheville.
• 53:07
  SPEAKER_08: So your central business district?
• 53:09
  SPEAKER_08: Gotcha.
• 53:09
  SPEAKER_08: All the way up to Merriman Avenue to the north end of the town.
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_06: Aaron Powell So we're talking downtown, we're talking going up the street toward the Harris Teeter, things like that.
• 53:16
  SPEAKER_06: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 53:17
  SPEAKER_08: Yes.
• 53:17
  SPEAKER_08: And you're going all the way up to Beaver Lake.
• 53:19
  SPEAKER_08: So he's covering a large area, encompassing multiple communities and neighborhoods where he's already impacting them every single day.
• 53:27
  SPEAKER_08: Officer Kerry Lee is East Asheville, so east of Tunnel, all the way out to Exit 55.
• 53:33
  SPEAKER_06: All right, so we're talking Hawk Creek, that all the way out to the VA.
• 53:36
  SPEAKER_08: Yes, all the way out to the VA.
• 53:38
  SPEAKER_08: She works really closely with our retail establishments along the South Tunnel, Tunnel Road area, and then all those neighborhoods.
• 53:45
  SPEAKER_08: Kennelworth, Haw Creek, all those.
• 53:47
  SPEAKER_08: She's in that area.
• 53:48
  SPEAKER_08: Gotcha.
• 53:49
  SPEAKER_08: Justin Lewis, who came on in February to our unit, he took over for Stramolo, who left, but he took over West Asheville.
• 53:56
  SPEAKER_08: West Asheville's its own beast, as everybody knows.
• 54:00
  SPEAKER_08: It's its own beast, but he is really getting his uh his feet planted out there and starting to make an impact in that area, hitting all those neighborhoods and the Haywood Road Corridor, uh, working very closely with Lieutenant Mindel and keeping busy, keeping active out there.
• 54:15
  SPEAKER_08: So it's been been really good to have him join the team and move to that area.
• 54:18
  SPEAKER_08: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 54:18
  SPEAKER_06: West Asheville at one point was its own city.
• 54:21
  SPEAKER_06: It was its own incorporated city before it was Asheville, Asheville.
• 54:25
  SPEAKER_08: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 54:25
  SPEAKER_08: And it still may sort of be.
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_08: I worked West Asheville for quite some time.
• 54:29
  SPEAKER_08: When you cross that river, it changes.
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_08: Things are different.
• 54:32
  SPEAKER_08: It is.
• 54:33
  SPEAKER_08: But a wonderful area, and Justin's doing a great job out there in starting to get in those communities and help them.
• 54:39
  SPEAKER_08: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 54:39
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 54:40
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, I lived there for a long time.
• 54:41
  SPEAKER_06: Uh, and my wife was raised in that part of town.
• 54:43
  SPEAKER_06: I saw the transformation from what it used to be called Worst Asheville.
• 54:47
  SPEAKER_08: Uh, yes, it has changed drastically in my 15 years, and and you've been here 20 plus years.
• 54:53
  SPEAKER_08: Same thing.
• 54:53
  SPEAKER_08: Haywood Road area is way, way better than it used to be.
• 54:57
  SPEAKER_08: So great place.
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_08: And he's he's making it even better.
• 55:00
  SPEAKER_08: All right, who else we got?
• 55:01
  SPEAKER_08: Uh Officer Dennis Pace is South Asheville.
• 55:04
  SPEAKER_08: So he is really basically the train tracks, built more village area, all the way to the airport.
• 55:09
  SPEAKER_08: So again, huge area.
• 55:11
  SPEAKER_08: Uh if you're looking at Asheville geographically broken into districts, Baker District is south and east.
• 55:16
  SPEAKER_08: So we've actually split it up with two resource officers just because of the massive area that they would have to cover by themselves.
• 55:22
  SPEAKER_08: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 55:23
  SPEAKER_08: Big area and growing area.
• 55:25
  SPEAKER_08: Growing rapidly, especially with department complexes.
• 55:28
  SPEAKER_08: Yes.
• 55:28
  SPEAKER_06: And traffic down there is less than enjoyable.
• 55:31
  SPEAKER_06: Trevor Burrus, Jr.
• 55:31
  SPEAKER_06: And you know, a lot of different dynamics to that area, too.
• 55:34
  SPEAKER_06: So you've got the you know, the built more forest kind of area over there, which technically part of that is not city limits, that is their own area, but you got that area across the street.
• 55:43
  SPEAKER_06: You've got areas like the Shiloh area.
• 55:45
  SPEAKER_06: Yes, sir.
• 55:45
  SPEAKER_06: And then you go further down, and then you got all those apartment complexes down by long shoals and things of that nature.
• 55:50
  SPEAKER_06: And it varies, let's just say.
• 55:54
  SPEAKER_08: And you look at how Airport Road has expanded in the last 10 or 15 years.
• 55:59
  SPEAKER_08: Again, the city's growing very quickly.
• 56:01
  SPEAKER_08: I I've got four resource officers that are hitting each of these communities.
• 56:06
  SPEAKER_08: I'd love to have 10 more, but every officer out there is a community resource officer.
• 56:10
  SPEAKER_08: Every time they go to a call, they're impacting somebody, and hopefully they're doing it to a point that they're helping that community better themselves.
• 56:15
  SPEAKER_06: Trevor Burrus, Jr.: But these, they know this individual community and they're working with the not just the leaders, but everyday citizens.
• 56:21
  SPEAKER_06: Yes.
• 56:21
  SPEAKER_06: So let's say someone's got a question somewhere.
• 56:23
  SPEAKER_06: How would they get in touch with their individual resource officer in that area?
• 56:27
  SPEAKER_08: Trevor Burrus, Jr.: A couple ways to do it.
• 56:28
  SPEAKER_08: I would say the website, Asheville Police Department website, we have a community engagement tab, and there's a picture and a description of that officer.
• 56:36
  SPEAKER_08: So each one of these officers has their picture up there.
• 56:38
  SPEAKER_08: So if you see them, you know, hey, that's my community resource officer.
• 56:42
  SPEAKER_08: And there's also an email and a phone number.
• 56:44
  SPEAKER_08: If you want to get to us directly, it's apd communityengagement at ashevillenc.gov is another way that you can get in touch with all of us.
• 56:52
  SPEAKER_08: And what happens is we'll get that email and I'll take it and I'll send it to that officer, and they're going to follow up and they're going to get in touch with you and start working on your community issue.
• 57:01
  SPEAKER_06: You know, I know that uh last year when they had the uh national night out, we actually asked for neighborhoods for citizens to say, hey, listen, we would like you to come out.
• 57:12
  SPEAKER_06: I guess this would be one of those things where they kind of would have asked us to say, hey, we'd like you to come out for that night and you know, bring your party planners.
• 57:19
  SPEAKER_08: Yes, that's exactly right.
• 57:20
  SPEAKER_08: And with our community engagement unit, they're already going to these neighborhood community events.
• 57:25
  SPEAKER_08: We're we're embedded in these communities, hopefully being able to address those issues that they're having, which could be speeding, it could be uh nuisance crimes, it could be parking.
• 57:33
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 57:34
  SPEAKER_08: Your your smallest crime up to the big ones that would encompass our detectives.
• 57:38
  SPEAKER_08: And we would work with other city departments like our development services, code enforcement, the fire department, all those to try and address these issues they're seeing in their neighborhoods.
• 57:47
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, and we hope they get comfortable with not just their individual officers, but any officers.
• 57:51
  SPEAKER_06: And so that that's how you get things fixed.
• 57:54
  SPEAKER_06: That's how you get problems solved and and you know, things addressed is by grow that level of trust.
• 58:00
  SPEAKER_06: And then you're comfortable saying, hey, listen, I got this thing going on here and stuff.
• 58:03
  SPEAKER_06: And I don't know.
• 58:04
  SPEAKER_06: I uh they're a little bit afraid or a repercussion.
• 58:07
  SPEAKER_06: You just never know.
• 58:08
  SPEAKER_06: But once you get to know these officers, which we hope they do, then you're more comfortable addressing that issue.
• 58:14
  SPEAKER_08: Trevor Burrus, Jr.: That's exactly what we're hoping with our community engagement unit, that they're that liaison that there's a personal bond, a personal connection that they've made at a community event or at a neighborhood watch meeting where they know this person on a first name basis, they can call them up and hopefully get this addressed in a in a different way than just calling 911 or calling the non-emergency number.
• 58:33
  SPEAKER_06: Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Sometimes people in a neighborhood are dealing with something that, well, it doesn't rise to the level of criminality, it's still an issue.
• 58:40
  SPEAKER_06: It's affecting quality of life.
• 58:42
  SPEAKER_06: So maybe by just, you know, starting a conversation.
• 58:45
  SPEAKER_06: Trevor Burrus, Jr.: Yeah.
• 58:46
  SPEAKER_08: It's exactly what it is, is a conversation, but it's also us being able to proactively help them through different means than just the normal call to the police.
• 58:54
  SPEAKER_08: And so we we're able to work with a lot of different inside City of Asheville partners and outside partners to address these bigger issues that you would see inside a neighborhood.
• 59:03
  SPEAKER_08: Trevor Burrus, Jr.: All right.
• 59:04
  SPEAKER_06: So if you need to get in touch with any of these, just go to the uh well, the City of Asheville website and then the police department, of course, you'll see the community engagement division.
• 59:10
  SPEAKER_06: Yes.
• 59:11
  SPEAKER_06: And the pictures, I like the idea of the pictures with them.
• 59:13
  SPEAKER_06: So you'll see who is your officer.
• 59:14
  SPEAKER_06: That's great.
• 59:15
  SPEAKER_08: Yes, absolutely.
• 59:16
  SPEAKER_08: And I and I don't want to leave Debbie Leecroy out.
• 59:18
  SPEAKER_08: She's part of our community engagement group, and she's not specific to a district, but she does a lot of our outside partner events like blood drives, coffee with a cop, and then she also has Cora, of course.
• 59:29
  SPEAKER_08: And we've really trying to integrate her into the schools where she can get out and uh and take her and touch more lives like she's been doing.
• 59:36
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, she's kind of for people that uh recognize Officer Cora, our therapy dog.
• 59:40
  SPEAKER_06: Those they're they're two peas in a pot.
• 59:42
  SPEAKER_06: That is her handler, that is her doggy mama.
• 59:44
  SPEAKER_06: Yes, right?
• 59:45
  SPEAKER_06: So Daddy and Cora are one and the same almost.
• 59:47
  SPEAKER_06: You don't see one without the other.
• 59:49
  SPEAKER_06: That's exactly right.
• 59:50
  SPEAKER_08: They're doing an excellent job.
• 59:51
  SPEAKER_08: The whole unit is, but I did want to touch on those, just so people that are listening know that we're here to help in other ways than just going to an event and seeing us.
• 59:58
  SPEAKER_06: Okay.
• 59:59
  SPEAKER_06: Well, I'm looking forward to hearing more about what you guys do in some future episodes here.
• 1:00:02
  SPEAKER_06: But let's talk about what's going on like in the next couple of weeks where people can see you out and about.
• 1:00:06
  SPEAKER_08: Absolutely.
• 1:00:07
  SPEAKER_08: So our next big event, and we spoke about it, I believe Lieutenant Hogan spoke about it last podcast.
• 1:00:12
  SPEAKER_08: But the bike safe event that we're having on May 31st from 10 to 12.
• 1:00:17
  SPEAKER_08: It's the target at River Hills Road.
• 1:00:19
  SPEAKER_08: Hopefully, we're gonna have age range from toddler to teen.
• 1:00:23
  SPEAKER_08: If you're able to bring your own bike, we'll have some bikes there.
• 1:00:25
  SPEAKER_08: But if you want to bring your own bike, we're gonna have obstacle courses, have the speed board out there where kids can see how fast they can go, maybe compete against other kids.
• 1:00:33
  SPEAKER_08: I think that's gonna be really exciting to watch them try to race the speedboard.
• 1:00:37
  SPEAKER_08: There's also gonna be a helmet giveaway and Target's sort of partnering with us, sponsoring a little bit.
• 1:00:42
  SPEAKER_08: But we've also gotten donations from other areas throughout the city uh that have given helmets that we can give away to the kids.
• 1:00:48
  SPEAKER_06: Aaron Powell So River Hills Road Angles, uh Target, Target, rather, River Hills Road Target.
• 1:00:52
  SPEAKER_06: That's which location?
• 1:00:53
  SPEAKER_08: That's it's the one off of South Tunnel in uh in the Swantanoa River area that was hit with Helene.
• 1:01:00
  SPEAKER_08: It's just the one right up on the hill there.
• 1:01:02
  SPEAKER_06: Okay, so not the one out by the airport.
• 1:01:03
  SPEAKER_08: Not not the one by the airport.
• 1:01:04
  SPEAKER_08: No, the one the one in East Asheville.
• 1:01:06
  SPEAKER_06: Gotcha.
• 1:01:07
  SPEAKER_06: So the one near, I guess you'd say the old Walmart and things in that general area near the movie theater.
• 1:01:16
  SPEAKER_06: Okay, perfect.
• 1:01:17
  SPEAKER_06: Yes.
• 1:01:17
  SPEAKER_06: That's on the 31st.
• 1:01:18
  SPEAKER_08: That's on May 31st, 10 to 12.
• 1:01:21
  SPEAKER_08: Come on out, enjoy it.
• 1:01:22
  SPEAKER_08: The only other thing that we have that's big picture stuff that we're doing is the Junior Police Academy.
• 1:01:27
  SPEAKER_08: We have closed our applications, but I really wanted to say that for folks that are listening, next year we hope to have as many or more people sign up for it.
• 1:01:36
  SPEAKER_08: Uh, and we may end up having to do two classes next year.
• 1:01:39
  SPEAKER_08: This year we had over 30 signups.
• 1:01:41
  SPEAKER_08: That's awesome.
• 1:01:42
  SPEAKER_08: And really great.
• 1:01:43
  SPEAKER_08: It we're hoping to put on a great product for these kids in in June, sort of immerse them into the police life for a week.
• 1:01:50
  SPEAKER_06: It's kind of the Citizens Police Academy for the younger folks.
• 1:01:53
  SPEAKER_08: Yes.
• 1:01:54
  SPEAKER_08: Yes, it is.
• 1:01:54
  SPEAKER_08: And we've hit uh we've had people from last year that the first year of it last year that have already wanted to come back this year, they had enough fun.
• 1:02:01
  SPEAKER_06: Okay.
• 1:02:01
  SPEAKER_06: So plus it's a great place for uh you know parents to camp their kids for a little while.
• 1:02:05
  SPEAKER_08: There there could be some ulterior motives there, but in general, it is a great time for the kids to learn about the police department.
• 1:02:12
  SPEAKER_08: And hopefully, hopefully we plant that seed early where maybe we can uh have a couple recruits later on.
• 1:02:17
  SPEAKER_06: Well, I've I've always said it's important for all citizens, especially kids, for them to interact with police officers in an environment that isn't an emergency, that isn't a situation, you know, because a lot of times the only time you're gonna see a cop is when something's going wrong.
• 1:02:32
  SPEAKER_08: Yes, you're exactly right.
• 1:02:33
  SPEAKER_08: And so this is a way for us to get out on the front end and get them a chance to know the officers.
• 1:02:37
  SPEAKER_08: We're gonna have all our community engagement officers, plus our school resource officers will be working at this uh academy for that week.
• 1:02:45
  SPEAKER_08: So they're really gonna meet a lot of people.
• 1:02:47
  SPEAKER_08: We're gonna be utilizing some other specialty units, we'll be out there.
• 1:02:49
  SPEAKER_08: So they're gonna meet folks from our drone or our bomb.
• 1:02:52
  SPEAKER_08: You know, those guys are gonna be out there too.
• 1:02:54
  SPEAKER_06: Awesome.
• 1:02:54
  SPEAKER_06: Sergeant Lucas Lovelace.
• 1:02:56
  SPEAKER_06: Anything else you want to add today?
• 1:02:57
  SPEAKER_06: No, thank you for having me.
• 1:02:59
  SPEAKER_06: We're gonna be talking more about all the stuff you guys do because I know it's more than even what you described.
• 1:03:03
  SPEAKER_06: There's all kinds of stuff.
• 1:03:04
  SPEAKER_06: Yes.
• 1:03:05
  SPEAKER_06: We could talk about it all day.
• 1:03:06
  SPEAKER_06: Yes, we could.
• 1:03:07
  SPEAKER_06: We will in the future again.
• 1:03:08
  SPEAKER_06: Awesome.
• 1:03:09
  SPEAKER_06: Thank you so much.
• 1:03:11
  SPEAKER_06: Accreditation manager Hannah Silberman joins me now.
• 1:03:14
  SPEAKER_06: And before we get to our history minutes, something you've been working on for a long time is getting closer and closer to completion.
• 1:03:23
  SPEAKER_06: The book is almost ready, right?
• 1:03:25
  SPEAKER_00: I hope so.
• 1:03:27
  SPEAKER_06: Well, a few minutes ago, I just kind of barged into your office and I saw Ray Ferguson, your office mate, looking at a printed copy uh for editing purposes, going through it with a fine-toothed comb.
• 1:03:37
  SPEAKER_06: And so that's gotta be a good sign, right?
• 1:03:39
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, for sure.
• 1:03:40
  SPEAKER_06: What is the anticipated uh completion date?
• 1:03:43
  SPEAKER_06: We're in the end of May.
• 1:03:44
  SPEAKER_06: So are we thinking a couple of months, maybe?
• 1:03:46
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:03:47
  SPEAKER_06: All right, by the end of the summer, we can expect that history book.
• 1:03:49
  SPEAKER_06: That'll be awesome.
• 1:03:50
  SPEAKER_06: Until then, we'll continue to dole it out in bits and pieces.
• 1:03:53
  SPEAKER_06: Today with the History Minute.
• 1:03:54
  SPEAKER_06: Let's talk about something near and dear to me.
• 1:03:56
  SPEAKER_06: When I first moved to Asheville, uh, February of 1999.
• 1:04:00
  SPEAKER_06: I remember the summer of 2000 being at Belle Share and seeing the Asheville Police Department Horse Patrol.
• 1:04:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 1:04:08
  SPEAKER_06: Tell us about that.
• 1:04:09
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, we had a mounted patrol that started in May of 1991.
• 1:04:12
  SPEAKER_06: Now we would have had one, you know, way back at the origins of the police department, I would imagine, as well, right?
• 1:04:17
  SPEAKER_06: Back in 1875.
• 1:04:19
  SPEAKER_00: Shockingly, no.
• 1:04:20
  SPEAKER_00: What?
• 1:04:21
  SPEAKER_00: The city was too cheap to pay for a horse.
• 1:04:23
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, come on.
• 1:04:24
  SPEAKER_00: We had one maybe very briefly in the early 1900s, but in the 1800s there were no cars.
• 1:04:32
  SPEAKER_06: So we had no horses.
• 1:04:34
  SPEAKER_00: Officers are on foot.
• 1:04:35
  SPEAKER_06: For everywhere.
• 1:04:36
  SPEAKER_00: Unless they owned a horse.
• 1:04:37
  SPEAKER_06: But what if the criminals were on a horse and figure out a luck?
• 1:04:40
  SPEAKER_06: That's not very efficient.
• 1:04:42
  SPEAKER_06: Let's talk about the one we finally had then.
• 1:04:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, um, so in 1991, Officer Leeroy Lunsford became our first mounted patrol officer, and he and his horse Zero, which was a very beautiful yellow Palomino quarter horse, uh, were our first mounted patrol.
• 1:04:58
  SPEAKER_06: You know, Lunsford is a name you hear a lot around uh the Asheville area.
• 1:05:01
  SPEAKER_06: There must be a lot of Lunsfords in the community because it's a name you see pop up quite a bit.
• 1:05:06
  SPEAKER_06: So I remember seeing the horse patrol, my very first summer in Asheville at the Bel Share Festival.
• 1:05:11
  SPEAKER_06: So that was summer of 2000, and then a few Bel Shares after, but then a couple of years later they kind of went away.
• 1:05:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's right.
• 1:05:21
  SPEAKER_00: It ended in the the 2000s.
• 1:05:23
  SPEAKER_00: So the mounted patrol was well loved by our community, but it was very expensive.
• 1:05:29
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 1:05:29
  SPEAKER_00: And it's very hard to take care of those horses.
• 1:05:32
  SPEAKER_00: It required around the clock care.
• 1:05:34
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, you don't get weekends off.
• 1:05:35
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, someone's got to go feed the horses, take care of the horses, you have to have them shooed.
• 1:05:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I think the boarding, feeding, and veterinary expenses were like$330 a week.
• 1:05:45
  SPEAKER_00: And that didn't count like shoeing costs or you know, transportation costs.
• 1:05:50
  SPEAKER_00: But at one point during the time of the program, they talked about discontinuing it, but all of these downtown businesses came through to actually raise Donations to buy a new horse and to buy a trailer and supplies and just so that we could continue doing it for a few more years, which I thought was very sweet.
• 1:06:08
  SPEAKER_06: Aaron Powell So where did they have the stables?
• 1:06:10
  SPEAKER_06: Do you know where the stables were?
• 1:06:11
  SPEAKER_06: Were they anywhere near Asheville or were they kind of on the outskirts?
• 1:06:15
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 1:06:16
  SPEAKER_00: I want to say they were in Fairview.
• 1:06:17
  SPEAKER_06: Aaron Powell Yeah.
• 1:06:18
  SPEAKER_06: I mean there's not really a whole lot of places for horse stables in downtown Asheville.
• 1:06:21
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 1:06:21
  SPEAKER_06: You wouldn't think.
• 1:06:22
  SPEAKER_00: Aaron Ross Powell And we had to take donated horses, uh which was another thing, which Chris Reese Young could tell you more, but he was telling me he had a horse that was afraid of sirens, which is kind of a problem when it's a police list.
• 1:06:33
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, that's and you know I would imagine if someone's donating a horse, it's probably a horse that's it's aged out of being something or other, and it's probably not the healthiest horse in the world.
• 1:06:43
  SPEAKER_06: It's it's got flaws, like for example, it could be afraid of sirens.
• 1:06:46
  SPEAKER_00: So it started in May of 1991, but in early 1994, they actually allowed the horses which were originally in downtown to expand to other parts of the city.
• 1:06:56
  SPEAKER_00: So like the West Asheville community group asked for them to patrol Haywood Road.
• 1:07:01
  SPEAKER_00: They also started going to different housing complexes throughout the city.
• 1:07:05
  SPEAKER_00: So it wasn't just a downtown thing, it went throughout the whole city.
• 1:07:08
  SPEAKER_00: So we had several horses.
• 1:07:10
  SPEAKER_00: We had junior police, but they called them JP.
• 1:07:14
  SPEAKER_00: We had Gus, we had Sonny and Duke.
• 1:07:16
  SPEAKER_06: Can you tell me about some of the officers that worked in the Mounted Patrol?
• 1:07:19
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 1:07:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Lee Roy Lunsford, like I mentioned, was the original mounted patrol officer.
• 1:07:24
  SPEAKER_00: I think he really spearheaded the effort to open the unit, and that was with the support of Chief Gerald Beavers at the time.
• 1:07:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then in 1993, Officer Paul Renault took over the mounted patrol unit.
• 1:07:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um he had a few officers that worked with him: Bill Poor, Chris Reese Young, and ultimately Officer Phil Murphan.
• 1:07:43
  SPEAKER_06: Obviously, having a mounted patrol is not exactly cost-effective, very expensive, but I would think the value would be measured in in more than just dollars and cents, you know?
• 1:07:52
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it I know it's impressive when those officers are on that horse.
• 1:07:55
  SPEAKER_00: They're very tall.
• 1:07:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I've been told that Leeroy Lunsford was a very tall person in life.
• 1:08:01
  SPEAKER_00: So any of us up there on that horse is the first mounted patrol, it gives a lot of authority, but it's also very friendly because if you like horses, you know, you see them.
• 1:08:09
  SPEAKER_06: I know I love horses, and like a lot of Ashevilians, miss the mounted patrol.
• 1:08:13
  SPEAKER_06: That's another History Minute with Hannah Silberman.
• 1:08:17
  SPEAKER_06: Thanks for listening to the APD Pod Squad.
• 1:08:20
  SPEAKER_06: And thank you to my guests, Crystal Simpson, Sergeant Brandon Chope, Maria Bengal, Joelyn Reindress, Sergeant Lucas Lovelace, and Hannah Silberman.
• 1:08:29
  SPEAKER_06: Make sure you subscribe, like, add to your library or playlist, make it a favorite, and spread the word about the APD Pod Squad.
• 1:08:36
  SPEAKER_06: Post a link on your socials or just tell a friend.
• 1:08:39
  SPEAKER_06: If you have a question about, well, almost anything, call 250-8800 and ask the chief.
• 1:08:45
  SPEAKER_06: That's 250-8800.
• 1:08:47
  SPEAKER_06: Or you can email APD Podcastfeedback at Ashevillenc.gov.
• 1:08:53
  SPEAKER_06: Same goes if you've got a topic suggestion or something you'd like to hear discussed.
• 1:08:57
  SPEAKER_06: You can use that same number and leave a voicemail, 250-8800, or email apd podcastfeedback at ashevillenc.gov.
• 1:09:07
  SPEAKER_06: I'm Rick Rice, and this is the APD Pod Squad.